The A's residency at Las Vegas Ballpark begins this week with series against the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies. The green and gold will be kicking out their own Triple-A affiliate for this week of home games away from home, and in the Pacific Coast League, the ball tends to fly. 

On Saturday night, the Aviators won their game 21-10 over the Reno Aces, with just four home runs leading to those 31 combined runs. 

Dodgers prospect Noah Miller, 23, is considered a league average bat in the PCL and he is batting .265 with a .344 OBP, eight home runs and 41 RBI in 60 games — again, that's what passes for an average performance in the PCL. 

There are different levels of offense happening in the Pacific Coast League. To hammer that point home, the Aviators lead the league in home runs at home with 45 in 33 games played. 

With dingers on the brain, there will be two struggling A's bats to keep an eye on this week, with the hope that both Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker can get going. As we have noted in a previous Green and Gold Standard, the offense finding a groove will help establish some sort of consistency for the club. Butler and Rooker are two huge pieces of the A's offense when it's fully operational. 

It's no secret that Lawrence Butler has been struggling this season. Heck, it's something we wrote in detail about just a few days ago. Fans have been clamoring for him to be sent to Las Vegas on social media for weeks. This week, they (sort of) get their wish, and it may be coming at the exact right time for Butler. 

On Sunday in Houston, Butler put together a 2-for-4 afternoon, giving him his first hit since May 31, and his first multi-hit game since April 20. He's 3-for-his-last-26. 

But that multi-hit game could be what gets him going. Butler has been making good contact for much of the season, and at some point those hits are going to start falling. One great place for offensive numbers to soar is Las Vegas Ballpark. It doesn't matter what the league average hitter does in the PCL — what matters is that Butler's bat gets going. 

Even with Butler batting .167 with a .501 OPS on the season, his expected batting average is a much more manageable .237, his chase rate has gone down (24.6%, 79th percentile) and his walk rate has gone up (11.1%, 71st percentile). These are all positive signs.

Based on the quality of contact that he's made this season, his xBA is 70 points higher than his actual average. Detractors will say that it's only what happens that counts, and while that is very much the case, when a player is signed to an extension that keeps him with the club through 2031, he's not going anywhere anytime soon. He'll have to figure this out. 

If Butler continues to make consistent contact and his luck turns just a little bit, he could be due for an absolute surge at the plate. If he went 14-for-14, he'd be right where his expected numbers already have him, and there may be no better opportunity than playing in front of the team's future fans in Las Vegas, where the park is always working in your favor. 

The one downside, at least initially, is that the Brewers are expected to send out left-handers the first two games, which likely means that Butler gets his opportunity off the bench. 

One facet of the A's offense that has been largely missing from the club this season has been the long ball. Last season the club ranked 7th in baseball with 219. This year they're down at 14th with 72. That's a 179 home run pace, which is a 40 homer drop-off. 

Rooker has started to pick up his own pace, smashing two dingers in Houston to bring him to ten on the season. For a hitter that relies on crushing balls pull side, Las Vegas Ballpark has to be a tantalizing desert oasis. 

Going back to May 31, Rooker has gone 8-for-25 (.320), which is a big step in the right direction. He's been flirting with hitting around the .200 mark since May, and crossed over to hitting .206 after Sunday's 2-for-3 performance (with a homer). 

His barrel rate this season still ranks in the 91st percentile, but the biggest difference is that his typically high whiff rate (12th percentile in 2025, 1st percentile in 2026) has caught up to him, and his strikeout rate has gone from 50th percentile to 4th. That, coupled with his launch angle sweet spot rate dropping from 93rd percentile to 50th has meant a downturn in production. 

Brent Rooker was the first player the A's signed to an extension for a reason: he's the anchor of the offense. This week presents a big opportunity for the A's to make a statement in Vegas, and for Rooker to get his season back on track.

Unaffected by platoon splits, Rooker will get six games in beneficial conditions to really find his stroke. 

Back in 1996, Mount Davis was still being built at the beginning of the A's regular season, and that forced the green and gold to find a temporary home at Cashman Field in Las Vegas. The stadium is now occupied by Vegas' USL team, Lights FC. 

On Monday, April 1, Ken Korach made his A's radio debut, sitting in the same spot he'd been the previous seven seasons, replacing Lon Simmons and working alongside the great Bill King. Korach has now been with the A's for 30 years and is unequivocally the voice of the A's.  

The A's ended up scoring 40 runs across the six games (6.67 per game) during that six-game stretch in 1996, while giving up 43 runs (7.16/game), so expect plenty of offense over the next week. 

Turns out John Fisher wasn't the first owner to make the A's play in a minor-league ballpark, or even in Las Vegas — but he'll be the first to do both.