under the collective a$$es of our hitters. jeez. baker look really hittable today, particularly in early innings and we treat him like cy young.

too few good ABs. too little patience at the plate. poor pitch selection. we need to sustain rallies to score runs, something that the twins do really well with lineup limitations of their own.

has certainly dropped off since his return from the DL. he's a step too slow and just doesnt get to balls he would have a year ago. today he played a double into a triple, should have picked up an error. still gets a good jump but he no longer plays the same reliable D in CF.

Chavez, Johnson, Crosby, Kotsay, and Kendall equal over half of ourlineup.  That means that over HALF of our lineup sucks.  The other half is Swisher, Stewart, Ellis, and Cust... let's keep those guys.

Beane is losing his luster.  Granted no one is perfect but this will go down as a bad year for Oakland... no stars and no one coming up through the ranks.

i think the way the injuries and the whole bradley and piazza situations have played out we've shot ourselves in the foot this year. a second half run isnt going to happen with kotsay and kendall on this team. lets cut these offensive blackholes, bring up some young players and rebuild for next year.

all good things must come to an end.  Fortunately for us, bad things end also.  Except if your the Cubs or KC Royals.  We had a string of really great years with strong second half finishes, but today dispels any illusions about the A's second half prospects.  We. Are. Toast.  

Eh, it had to be sooner or later.  I'll gladly roll the dice with Billy again, because I don't think there is much room in his ego for sustained failure at this point in his baseball career. The crap we run out on the field has to grate on him too. It was a great ride while it lasted.  I think we are stuck with Crosby.  Maybe if Billy massacre's the team he will get the message.  Welcome to Melhuse's lot in life Kendall.  A fate you so greedily handed out my soon bite you in the ass.  As for Chavy, take a good look at the bottom of the order....it's your new domicile for the forseeable future.  

Didn't see or hear the game, just saw the 9 innings 5 hits and figured oh well, Santana, what are you going to do?  Then I saw it was that awful Baker.  Man that guy sucks.

This team is dead, dead, dead.  Agree about Kotsay's defense, too.  

I've thought all year and written, too that this is a .500 club.  But you have to say, the way things are going, maybe it isn't.   Sure would be nice to have somebody in the 3, 4 or 5 spot you knew was going to give you 2 or 3 quality ABs every game.

. . . until about twenty games ago, when the players who had kept the season alive through all the DL diaspora suddenly had to deal with the Bradley situation.  Bradley acted spoiled and entitled, Beane reacted WAY too hastily.  Bingo, the last of our three most powerful hitters from last year (with Payton and Thomas) was gone.  The hope for the return of passion and solid power was gone.  So the A's are 5-13 since the Bradley DFA.  When was the last time the A's went 5-13 after June 15?

but these free agent calls have just not worked out at all. Chavez injured and a shadow of himself, Kendall now beyond repair, Kotsay in decline. Even ELo has been crap, although most of that's due to injury so in his case I actually have hope for value next year. And of course, Piazza's done less than nothing.

It sucks. Kotsay was just a bad move, and perhaps the ELo deal should be seen as more like a 3 year deal than a 4 year given his history of injuries (and at today's prices, 3 effective years at 28 million isn't that bad). Kendall is unfathomable-- I've never seen a player go from significant (if limited) effectiveness to total cipherhood in one year without some kind of injury. And Piazza and Chavez are just more examples of the bad luck which has infested this team since game 2 of the 2003 ALDS.

You could cut over 50% of the A's payroll this season and barely scratch the team in terms of actual contributors. (By WARP, the A's would be all of 2.3 games worse without the 5 of them.) I mean, just think if we could trade the 34 million spent on the non-Chavez guys (at least he's still doing his best and contributing somewhat) for A-Rod.

I mean, I haven't seen Chris Denorfia play an inning, and I'm already convinced he should start in CF next season.

Unfortunately, my Crosby diary got eaten by the software somehow. Suffice it to say he should be in AAA right now.

What's our all-time record against Santana? I know we beat him earlier this year, but we had a better pitching matchup. I sincerely hope Lenny gets a good night's sleep. What's our all-time record on astroturf / field turf / super turf 8 ?
Another point. I know this has been mentioned before, but whoever the butthead was that made our schedule, certainly screwed us over. 17 games in a row, & then to start out against the Twins after the ASB. This is asinine. I blame it all on that pompous, flaming car wreck of a commissioner named Selig. This has nothing to do with our hitting, or poor personnel moves or...    

"They took a x-ray of my head & didn't find nuttin" Bobby " Dean" Crosby