Thoughts from Tampa...

by EastCoastA on Apr 9, 2005 1:54 PM PDT

Having attended last night's game in Tampa, I have a few thoughts:

I was impressed with Blanton, despite the early struggles. After last night, I feel he'll be a steady precense in the rotation despite his inexpereince. He responded well to the adversity and came back strong.
Though it's early in the season, the inabilty to get a runner home from 3rd with 1 out is frustrating. When you don't capitalize on those chances in the 9th and 10th innings, you're asking a lot from your 'pen.
I know that one of the reasons we liked picking up Cruz was his ability to go more than one inning. But last night we sent him out for his 3rd inning without anyone else even getting loose. He certainly wasn't as sharp as he had been earlier.
Tropicana is without question the worst stadium in the bigs. I don't know the official attendence, but it had to be under 10,000. And those that did show up didn't make a peep until the 10th inning, and I could shout advice to the A's players from far away. The Coliseum isn't perfect, but after seeing this dump, it's never looked better.

A frsutrating loss, to be sure, but it's a long season...

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Bullpen

I would think that Macha would relish the opportunity to pitch a number of different guys, given the size of the pen, and its potential strength. So, as to why he pitched Cruz a 3rd inning....

Well, of course, we haven't been hitting situationally very well in the 2 games we've dropped, so going into the late innings with a slim to no lead maybe doesn't give him enough of a comfort zone to experiment.

I think it might not be such a bad idea to get the "bullpen seasoning/sorting out process" well underway early in the season, as opposed to later.

The bullpen will be one of our strengths. It will, or it will be a VERY long season for the faithful, given the youth of most of our starters. Let's get it up to speed soon.

by eck767 on Apr 9, 2005 2:30 PM PDT reply actions

Cruz

Thanks for your observations. I couldn't believe how empty the place was - especially near the field. Not sure I would say he wasn't as sharp. He gave up the triple (and an intentional walk) but had Green down 0-2 and broke his bat on what would have been a soft pop out to 2nd had the infield not been playing in.

After the triple the announcers were saying how the A's were going to walk the based loaded. That is the conventional thing to do but I was pretty sure Macha wouldn't do that because it would have meant that Huff would have been hitting with no one out. (Do these guys think before they give us the expert analysis?). Better to try and get Green out, walk Huff, and the pitch to Singleton who was in the cleanup spot.

by Larry E on Apr 9, 2005 3:08 PM PDT reply actions