i like that phrase (at least when it is applied to our pitchers' performances).

...he had TWO beautiful swings--one on the single, and one on the HR, just like the one he missed on Sat. night.

But he still double-clutched two plays (maybe it's cold), and K'd with one out and a runner on 3rd.

But overall, he looks MUCH more relaxed at the plate than in the past. Nice change.

And Gaudin was stooooooopid good.

is about as easy as it comes.  At the same time, I don't want to take away from Gaudin.  He's been outstanding this year and more than that, he hasn't been walking people.

    Croz hitting the ball where it's pitched instead of trying to pull everything to the moon is one of this year's most promising developments; hopefully, today's are just the first of many dividends it pays.  But maybe the rest of the team is learning a similar trick:
    Can't seem to score in more than one inning a game?  Don't fight it!  Just score a zillion runs in the same inning!  (Worked against the Giants today too.)

Gaudin hasn't done many interviews.
"One-pitch outs are great. Two-pitch outs are even better."
All smiles.

The coup de grace came tonight when KICU lost its audio connection to Glen and Ray for several minutes in the early innings.  Mark Wolfson (I assume) connected to Ken and Vince's radio broadcast for a few moments, but it quickly became obvious that radio was a few seconds behind the television picture.  Rather than continue with the discrepancy, KICU went back into silence until Glen and Ray's voices were restored following a commercial.

The radio delay was somewhere between 12 and 17 seconds during spring training and the first week of the regular season, and that was just ridiculous.  I believe CBS Radio and its local affiliates heard the complaints and cut that delay to about 2.5-3 seconds at the start of the current homestand.  I would prefer a live broadcast, but for the time being I don't think the CBS lawyers are going to permit that.

In addition to discretionary ("bleep") delays there are delays caused by technology.  Tonight it appeared that Nico, using Comcast standard cable in Berkeley, was getting his TV picture several seconds earlier than me using Comcast digital in Oakland.  No doubt my neighbor watching the game on DirecTV was seeing his picture at a different time than either of us.

I grew up listening to radio broadcasters call baseball games when few games were on TV, I want to listen to Ken and Vince while watching the TV picture, it's not a criticism of Glen Kuiper, it's just a personal preference.  It has become abundantly clear that if I want to do that, I need to have hardware in my living room to synch the radio broadcast with TV, because with all the different feeds and delays it's by mere coincidence that radio and TV would arrive at anything approaching the same time.  

I have invested in hardware which, if it works as promised, will resolve this issue to my satisfaction.  I don't want to bore the 99.5% of AN that doesn't care about this with any further discussion, so I've put my e-mail address in my public profile...especially to be used by Nico for discussions about DelayPlay in the next few days, but anyone is welcome to join in.

--Soaker (Eric)

long underwear, winter jacket, wool hat and gloves, and the A's giveaway fleece blanket -- and I was still freezing out in the stands. But what I saw made me feel warm inside (ok, maybe it was also the afterglow from Marco's Sunday magic. I loved seeing his reaction to the fans cheering him as they showed his HR and vistory dance around the bases on the diamond vision!)

Gaudin looked very confident and in control on the mound. Crosby had two good at bats, that ended up of course with the 3-run shot that was the game. More importantly, he looked good on defense. Let's hope he keeps it up. (Swish just said Crosby cut his hair and beard; the fiancee might not like it, but it certainly didn't hurt Crosby's play.)

It's always good to win, but especially good to beat the Angels. Anderson looked bad in left field, and not great at the plate either.

It was so cold in the Coliseum tonight, when Mike Scioscia visited the mound, Jeff Weaver asked him to blow on his [blank].

Gaudin looked great, threw his pitch regardless of the count.  There musta been 4-5 weakly hit bouncers for 3-1 putouts.  In command nearly the whole way...I like this year's Chad.

and I enjoyed it a lot, which is a change of pace. Good work, people. Our pitching is shaping up quite nicely.

Despite the fact that it was the coldest game of the four I have been to this year... I loved it. Winning is just the best feeling.

And I didn't see all that many Halo fans at the game...that was a nice surprise. :-)

...I mean I just came back from the game, by way of the post office where I dropped off my tithe to Uncle Sam.

Man, being in a higher income tax bracket sucks.  When I was broke, I always received refunds.  Now it seems that my W-2 jobs don't withhold enough so I have to pay.

Anyways, this game was very anti-climactic.  After the Yankee series, this victory over the Halos seem very ho-hum.  Granted, they didn't have Vlad, but it just didn't feel like an Angels game.

Also, Bobby Crosby is not off the hook.  Just because he hit a three-run dinger that doesn't mean he's off my shit list.  Out side of the single and homer he had two ugly K's.  This guy has not two strike approach, it's always swing for the fences.  A good day without a positive trend doesn't mean anything, it's just an aberration.  I won't eat crow until I see positive trends from Crosby.

On a final note, the game was hella cold.  I really couldn't believe that I sat through nine innings.  When I got on BART, my hands tingled from the blood returning to my extremities for most of my ride towards my truck (still haven't bought the hybrid yet) in South Hayward.  That's how cold I was in the Coliseum tonight.

Crosby's resurrection act will have to exceed 2 ABs for me to get excited, but at least he resembled a major league hitter tonight.  In the 8th his strikeout with 2 RISP seemed a reversion to form, or the lack of form anyway.  But kudos to him for tagging a tough pitcher like that earlier.  Keep it up Croz!!!!

Gaudin, I thought CG might get the CG tonight, he was that economical and had great control, which had been the Achilles Heel for him in years gone by.  All in all, a marvelous outing and one, along with his overall general start so far, to build on.   Have we pulled another legit 2 or 3 starter out of our ass yet again?  Too early to tell, but I'm loving what I'm seeing from him thusfar.

All right, see you out there tomorrow, I'm in 202, a section in which I have never sat before, woo-hoo new frontiers!!!!!

which is saying a lot for someone who lived in Minnesota for 32 years.  And I got there too late for the fleece blanket. Fortunately, the coffee man came through the left field bleachers.  It was really lousy coffee, but it was hot.  It was $4, which seems like a good deal only by comparison with the $6 iced coffee I purchased in the stands on Sunday.  For $6 I think you could find room for a bottle of milk on the vendor's tray, because powdered creamer crap really does not work in iced coffee.  
This was my fourth game of the season, the one with the smallest crowd vs. opening night and two Yanks games, but the one with the worst crowd-ing.  The lines for food and beverages seemed to be moving much more slowly, possibly because many of the side stands were closed, possibly because no one wanted to go back out in the cold so they were dragging their feet.  
In addition to Fleece Blanket Night, it was Plastic Bag on the Field Night -- it seemed like all the garbage that normally collects under the BART tracks and freeway underpasses of East Oakland had become airborne and floated into the Coliseum.   Most of it blew slowly across the field from right and ended up around the A's bullpen, where the ball boy periodically ran out to gather it up.  At one point the umps had huddled between innings and seemed to be trying to figure out whether there was something they should be doing about it.  There wasn't.

Yay Bobby!! Yay Bobby!! Yay Bobby!!

Ok, so yeah, I wore my Bobby shirt for the first time this season to the game tonight. Then I saw him come out and I saw his hair was gone and my beautifully bald Bobby was back. I knew tonight would be different for him!

It made me so happy to see that my boy got his strutt back a bit tonight. I hope it continues.

Oh Chad, Good God!! Outstanding!! I knew he was good, but DAMN!

Speaking of Damn! 51 Degrees at first pitch, holy cow! My friend was actually in 6 layers of clothes and was still cold. It was insane out there tonight!! So tomorrow night, I am just going to spend time in an ice rink watching Hockey! That will be warmer... right?

Go SHARKS! Go A'S!!

Congrats to Chad!

Since I've always liked Gaudin (since he rocked for video game baseball in 2004), I am going to continue taking credit for his acquisition.  

When he inevitable has a bad outing (we all do), you may post that link with ridicule and derision.

Here's a nice Buster Olney on how Gaudin developed his slider from way back in April 2004:

Devilishly effective pitch

I just got my tix and wanted to let anyone going to the games know where I'll be if you want to say hi.

Friday nite - Sec 3 Row 7 seats 6-8
Sun afternoon - Sec 50 Row 2 seats 17-18

No homers for Ian Kinsler this weekend.

Note:  A's have 3 of the top 11 ERA spots in AL.  All 2.00 or lower.  Awesome!

GO A's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully, they let Gaudin's talent outweigh Kennedy's lefthandedness when Estedrunk Loaiza comes back and someone gets bounced from the rotation. He's filthy.

Now, for Crosby...I'm thankful for that shot, and I hope he's turning it around, but come on. That pitch was hung so bad, I called out "Yard" from my couch about 3 seconds before he made contact. Also, there is a connection b/w he and Weaver going back to LBS. He knows the guy well, and probably felt more comfort up there. Let him put together a month of unselfish swings before we start tickering the tape.

All that said, it's important to win these games while the Angels look so bad. I don't think they will all year, so getting some separation now could be huge.