Open Thread: Spring Training Game 5

The A's head into the game with the Angels today sitting at a record of 2-1-1.  Course the tie doesn't really show up in the standings, so it's as though it never really happened.  If a tie falls in the woods...

I'm wondering why Joe Blanton hasn't seen the hill yet.  The A's official site has Brad Halsey listed as the A's official starter today.  I'm sure that the A's are just trying to get their rotation positioned as healthy in only the fifth game of the spring, so there isn't really anything to read into it (unless I've missed injury news on Cupcakes somewhere).

The spring hasn't been here long, but what have we learned so far?

•  Bobby Crosby finally realized he doesn't need to swing for the stars everytime he takes a rip.  Good for him.  It only took a broken back for him to get the message.  Impressive.
•  Mark Kotsay has a tempermental back and Justin Duchscherer has elbow problems.  Wait, we already knew that?  Well, we did learn that clowns that bulk up too much during the offseason wind up very sad clowns in the long run.  Stay away from the heavy weights or you just might wind up on the surgeon's table.
•  Rich Harden is really, really good if he can stay on the mound.  Wait, we already knew that too?  Damn, I've got to pay more attention.
•  My theories about Antonio Perez being a good hitter who just never had a chance to get in a groove with the A's because of playing time (aka Ginterized) are proving to be as accurate as my belief that Adam Piatt would one day be an impact player with the A's.
•  Erubiel Durazo may be ready to show that he is healthy and can hit again.  He's been one of the very early bright spots in the camp.  If he doesn't bumble around too much at first base, he very well could surprise and steal a spot.  And that would be just perfectly fine with me as Ruby has always been a favorite of mine.  Just watching those legs churn and T-Rex arms pump when he's running the bases hard is worth the price of admission at an A's game.
•   Early spring as well as early season ERAs can be cold.  Very cold.  Even if they're completely irrelevant, it's a brutal reality for some of the pitchers when they wind up posting a 33.75 ERA as Windsor does right now.  But people have to remember that the pitchers are often ordered to only throw a certain kind of pitch.  Pitchers are usually relegated to merely the fastball or a fastball and change combination early on in the spring just to gain arm strength before busting out the true breaking stuff.  I've seen some ANers getting upset about a pitcher getting shelled, but it's important to remember that they don't often break out their full repetoire until later in the spring.

Any way, enjoy the game today.  It's the first one against the hated Angels of 2007.  Yes, I know it's meaningless, but I still like to beat that team and those fans whenever possible and they have A's nemesis Santana on the mound.  Stay tuned after the game as Brad Ziegler will be posting his column after the game ends.

Oh and don't forget to send in donations for the AN ticket drive for Sport4Kids.  We basically have about $650 so far, so we need about $2,900 more.  Thanks so much to everyone who sent in payment already.  Remember that you can paypal it to blez - at - athleticsnation dot com.  Thanks again!