The Understudy

If you were excited to see him get a chance, I hope you enjoyed the week.  He just took time off his rehab assignment for the second time with continued soreness in the knee.  It's time to stop trumpeting Snelling or calling for his inclusion in the lineup.  He's just another continually injured player under the A's control.
As for the pitching, I couldn't agree more.  Last night didn't really depress me much because, with Alan Embree as the closer, it should be an expected occurrence.  The fact that last night was only his second blown save amazes me.  I still think the A's have gotten more out of Embree as closer than could have been expected.  

Our bullpen depth is really hurting now and it would be nice to be able to put Lenny back in the BP.

It's the bully that really has me concerned.  Besides Garcia, Embree, and maybe Flores I have zero faith in any of the other guys out there.  We certainly don't have the arms in there that we need.

I have been watching A's games with my fingers crossed hoping the bullpen could somehow keep it together. Embree (despite last night) has given us more than we could have expected.

No team, and I mean NO TEAM, could survive the amount of injuries to their pitching staff that the A's have this season. It would be nice if everyone was healthy but that isn't the reality.

I do like seeing guys like Cust and Casilla get a chance. I think both have been nice additions to the team and I hope they stay the rest of the season.

I can well remember those horrible seasons in the late 1970's when the A's were the laughingstock of baseball. It helps me deal with this rough stretch they are going through.

I've been trying to post this in a diary for 30 minutes now, and I can't find the publish button anywhere. My heads going to explode. So here's a link from espn.com on a story written by Jeff Pearlman on Barry Zito. Basiclaly bashing him for changing who he used to be.

The interesting quote is

"Talk to former teammates and front office officials in Oakland, and several will quietly moan that, with time, Zito began to place too much emphasis on his own press clippings and Q rating."

Also, if someone wants to tell me what I'm doing wrong with the diaries, I'm all ears.

Thank You,

if it turns out that cust becomes our dh for the next 6 years and can put up several 270 35hr seasons with a 1.000 ops then whatever happens this year will be worth making that discovery imo.  if we can teach him to play first or left while hitting like that then its even more of a bonus.

If you look at those A's teams from the '70's, only one hitter, Reggie Jackson, is in the Hall of Fame. Though there were several SOLID hitters, only Reggie had the dazzle (though he was never much better than Frank Thomas or Nick Swisher were last season) and guys like Bando, Campeneris, Rudi and Tenace really didn't have much better overall stats than Chavez, Crosby, Johnson and Shannon Stewart. What they did have was a relatively injury-free pitching staff of Catfish Hunter (Hall of Famer), Vida Blue (some would argue for his induction), Ken Holtzman (like Dave Stewart after him, a very solid four years) and Rollie Fingers (Hall of Famer). Sure the late 80's, early 90's guys had some of the best offense of the Oakland years, but it was really the pitching of Dave Stewart, Bob Welch, Mike Moore and Dennis Eckersley (honorable mentions to Storm Davis and Rick Honeycutt) that enabled that team to win pennants. Then of course there was the Big Three. Billy Beane, however, is in a bit of a bind because of the injuries. He knows that he has a pitching staff every bit as good as 70's, late 80's and earlier this decade. The problem is that half of them are on the DL. The problem is so widespread that a simple trade for either a top tier starter or top tier reliever wouldn't address the problem. I don't envy him right now, because I don't know what the hell to do, other than wait for them all to get healthy and pray for the best with the "understudies."

 take a little time out and think about it.  The A's bullpen as of the beginning of 2007 is gone.  On DL is street, duch, and colero.  The bullpen also most likely would have been gaudin, kennedy and dinardo. Now the bullpen has only embree left and a bunch of AAA players.  It is a miracle they are over .500.  I rather them suck now then in august because we can trade to get young players.
 Craziest trade of all.  Eric Chavez to the yanks for ARod.  Why it works.  The yanks get a 3b with Arod becoming a free agent.  The A's get rid of a bad contract with chavez 10 million off the books and Arod becomes a free agent at the end of the year.  Why it will not happen.  The yanks never give up even if they have no chance to make playoffs and Beane is in love with chavez.
 Thats my 2 cents.

Work It Mother ------!!!!

I love how Chavy was NOT up and Jack CRUSHED one as the  
Clean-up hitter!!!

Way too much is made of Oakland's shortcomings considering the hole that's been the DL. If this team is healthy, they are not back 9 of the Angels. It's remarkable that the pitching has put up the numbers they have, with the near constant pressure of holding the opposition down. If this team could (could have) field/ed Bradley, and the other half of the pitching staff - IMHO - this team is very respectable. The pitching is working over their heads - however a healthy team gives players like Kennedy, Gaudin and DiNardo the security of at least an average offense. They are for real.