Not-So-Great Scot!
by Nico on Aug 3, 2007 10:24 PM PDT
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PrintThe last two innings made the first 7 hardly worth talking about, so let’s zoom past the 3-3 tie that got us to the 8th and deconstruct from there.
Top of the 8th, tie game, two out bases empty and in the batter’s box stands the only guy on either team about whom you could possibly say “we can’t let him beat us”. As if to accentuate the point, on deck stands not Manny Ramirez, not Travis Hafner, not Magglio Ordoñez. No, this 3-4 punch ends with Robb Quinlan. As if that isn’t enough, Santiago Casilla’s first pitch is a hanging slider—one of those overthrown pitches you get when you deliver a pitch thinking “don’t hang it, don’t hang it”. It hangs, as if to send the A’s a courtesy reminder, “This is why you need to walk Vlad.” As Vlad himself is undefendable, the decision to pitch to Vlad in that situation was indefensible. And with Shields coming in, one would assume this is what we’d be focused on.
If he had to do it over again, Scioscia probably would have gone with Yarnell. Something about the Coliseum does strange things to arguably the best set-up man in baseball. Tonight, Shields was charged with 5 runs as the A’s got (stop the presses) three hits with RISP to go with one hit with RIP (cross your fingers and hope that Kurt Suzuki can cross his).
This morning we had a spirited discussion about speed, power, versatility, Hatteberg clones, and leprosy. Furmaniak’s dash home to tie the game was a good example of the ways speed can surface as an important weapon. While roasting Geren on a spit for pitching to Vlad, also give him props for pinch-running Furmaniak right away instead of waiting for Piazza to get into scoring position.
Nice win, canines without testicles!
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Tomorrow
why not just roll four pitches to the plate when Vlad is up?
Great win by the A's. Hope we keep up the momentum tomorrow.
Whoever is catching tomorrow, better be standing
in the opposite on deck circle when Vlad comes up, he might not be able to get his bat on those.
by theblackpearl on Aug 3, 2007 10:18 PM PDT up reply actions
Hear Fosse's story earlier?
He said Ken Holtzman used to have him set up behind the LH batter's box whenever Dick Allen was up.
Go to the mouth four times. At least Vlad...
...can't swing at that and get lucky.
Robb quinlan
I think quinlan is very good, i like his first name
Sure Feels Good
Beating ANAHEIM! I know the season is lost playoff wise but anytime the A's beat those guys is frosting on the cake for this fan. :)
I second that
I think I lost my voice when DJ hit that double. I was over the frickin' moon!
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 10:54 PM PDT up reply actions
my thoughts...not that anybody cares...
nico - i read your piece earlier today. the first thought that ran through my mind was that joe morgan would've loved it (can't be a good thing). the lead off hitter does...the 2nd hitter does...the clean up hitter does...blah...blah...blah
my second thought is that speed is never a bad thing right? does anybody disagree? all else being equal, you pick the faster guy, right? so what? not much nuance there except that speed is expensive. have we signed brown from this year's draft? he's fast. an extra half million? who cares?
my third thought is that slg % is expensive. all else being equal, the guy that hits bombs and doubles is expensive, right? so what? again not much nuance there.
a's mgmt is cheap. that means we won't spend the dollars on speed and power. net-net, we end up with a scrappy team of youngsters. personally, i'd rather watch suzuki, furmaniak and murphy fail than watch kotsay, kendall, crosby and chavez flail.
net-net, a's win a great game. perfect start to AN DAY 4. go dan haren. and if scioscia got hit by the team bus tonight, i wouldn't shed a tear.
No, but you'd lose your driver's license
wasn't me...
and you can't prove it was me...
look forward to shaking your hand tomorrow and thanking you for all your hard work...
That might be tough--
I've sold both hands, one to Crosby and one to Suzuki. That reminds me, Chavy owes me a butt cheek...
did they both get hit on the left hand...
while you gave your left and right hand? oh crap...which guy has your right hand substituting for their left hand? we're screwed. not that larry davis could figure it out.
I also gave Chavy the wrong butt cheek,
and apparently all the moving around with two left butt cheeks has caused him to aggravate his back, as well as causing Kennedy not to be able to get anyone out, ever.
Hey Johnson had that great game
against the BoSox. How many K's? Not that I want to see his game killing ass up on that mound lately but I'm just saying.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 10:56 PM PDT up reply actions
I keep saying Johnson
But I mean Kennedy. Sleep deprevation.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:33 PM PDT up reply actions
in all seriousness...
i hurt my back about 5 years ago kickboxing...took me two weeks to start walking normally again.
from that day forward, i had serious back spasms about 5 mornings a week.
forward about a year ago...was hanging out with a friend who's a broadway (new york) dancer. she was stretching my back out (careful, she's like my sister) one night and she asked if i slept on my stomach. turns out, i'd been sleeping on my back since i was like 4 years old and that was putting stress on my back.
simply by sleeping on my back (took me a month to sleep comfortably) and i've been cured for the past year. haven't had one stupid spasm at all. i can ski multiple days in a row, golf multiple days in a row, play my beloved soccer...no problems.
maybe it wasn't your incorrectly placed buttcheck but that chavvy doesn't know how to sleep.
all else being equal...favor the simple answer...ockham's razor (it's not occam's razor cuz it's named after william of ockahm...the frenchie).
Yay!
I had a blast sitting in the LF Bleachers (by the way, I was expecting actual bleachers to sit on, was pleasantly surprised to find seats instead) with pam5981 and friend - that's a GREAT place to watch a baseball game.
I'm looking forward to meeting everyone at AN Day 4 tomorrow!
The old Coliseum had real bleachers.....It is
awesome that you had a great time....maybe you need to go to more games...if they are going to play like this when you are there.....: )
by wacchampions on Aug 3, 2007 10:35 PM PDT up reply actions
Coliseum (bench) Bleachers
Man we had some fun out there back in the Day.
Recently I was helping clean out my parents garage and I found these OLD Oakland A's beacher Seat cushions (from the 80's..."The Chevy Man Can").
Another great feature used to be the fact that you could buy tix for the Loge seats back in those days. They were pretty cheap iirc and was a very good vantage point to watch the game. Nice and mellow too! :)
Loge seats
got me one for a double-header against Seattle in '83 or '84. They were twice the cost of the 2nd deck seats, but I figured, for two games, why not?
questions for beane tomorrow...
how do you separate the difference from a major league and AAAA player w/o watching a guy get 1000 at bats? and why can't a's mgmt tell the difference until its too late?
how do you tell the difference between a veteran player and an old player fading into the end of a glorious career? and why can' a's mgmt tell the difference until it's too late?
you may want to rephrase your questions
Umm...these are fairly loaded questions, and I seriously hope that you, let alone anyone else won't waste time asking BB these. And the general answer to the second one is that you have to take a flier if someone will be awesome (Frank Thomas, for example) or not (final year of Mark Kotsay), and that's part of the small-market risk-reward cycle of gambling on the upside of baseball players if you can't afford a line-up of 9 A-Rods and Guerrero's. And the answer to the first one is that yes, they can.
i don't think
the answer to the first question is as clear as you think. or we'd know what to do with dj. and the a's don't. at least by action, they don't.
if you know, in advance, the difference between kotsay and thomas please let the a's know the secret. because it's been clear to me for a while that kendall/kotsay are done and thomas was worth a flier b/c of his salary.
Furmaniak is savvy
If the A's were to make the playoffs somehow this season, or more realistically next season, I wouldn't mind having him on the bench just to be the "designated pinch-runner". In the playoffs, where bench players don't get used often, a team should always have a guy to pinch-run for a key steal.
As I noted earlier, while the effect of "balance" in the LINEUP is substantially overrated, the effect of balance on the bench is (subject to the caveat that bench use is a pretty marginal factor in AL games) about as important as anything else.
Ideally in the AL, you want 4 bench players including:
A speed guy
A batting average guy
A power guy
An on-base guy
And comprising:
C
IF
OF
UTIL
Not all that easy to piece together, but if you have the right personnel I could see it adding a win or so per year above and beyond their individual offensive statistics, based on proper usage in late-game situations.
Among the starters, though...
Leading off, Cust somehow only manages a single on a ball that caroms away from GMJ, A's wind up leaving 'em loaded with Cust at third.
With one out, Willits speeds from first to third on a one-hopper to Buck in RF, scores on a sac fly.
So it affected the starters too throughout the course of tonight's game.
If Cust ran like Soriano
and got on base more often while hitting with comparable power, I venture to say he'd be the one getting the 9-figure contract.
Big question for me about tonights game
Will the A's retaliate tomorrow and hit an Angel? Should they?
Still single.
Oh, you mean the hand? Amputated.
.
Still single.
I wish! Though he's a little young for me.
YES. THE HAND. Yeesh.
Hey
You could be the cougar he's looking for to learn him sumtin.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:05 PM PDT up reply actions
Well!
- He's married.
- I'm not THAT old!!!!
Is he really?
Wow! That's scary. I didn't mean to insult you by the way. I thought cougars were anyone over 30 going for younger guys.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:10 PM PDT up reply actions
I just got your Yarnell joke
But only because it was a gag on That 70's show. Shields and Yarnell, ho ho.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:04 PM PDT up reply actions
I'm sure Larry Davis is tending to him
as we speak. Poor boy. He was so promising and young.
It looked bad
He was down for awhile. Spiers got Bobby and Shield got Suzuki. Hmmm? The one two punch gave us a one two punch.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 10:59 PM PDT up reply actions
I think that Embree's first pitch
said it all. It was 'I can do it and if I have to, I will.' I think its about control. Plus we don't have Kendall to knock the living life out of anyone and I don't think Swisher is that gritty.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 10:58 PM PDT up reply actions
I missed the pitch.
But by all accounts here on AN it was a purpose pitch. Somehow, I doubt that it will meet the minimum expectations. Someone has gotta go down. I'm wondering if it was an preview of what to expect tomorrow.
Seeing as Embree is a bit older
I think he was trying to play it cool but let them know that there is possible retribution if the Angel's don't play their cards right. I was at the game and it looked like it was purposeful. I just hope that Blanton stays cool tomorrow. Crotch grabbing is only for those rubes in Seatlle.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:08 PM PDT up reply actions
If Vlad is up with 2 out and no one on
and the pitcher doesn't put one between his shoulder blades, he doesn't have any stones. I'm sorry. Normally I'm not one for retaliation, but the A's really have nothing to lose at this point.
vlad's shoulder blades?
i say we aim one for scioscia in that big f*cking noggin' of his. he's super fat. no even blanton can miss a target that big.
Sorry to get Berkeley
but that's just bad karma. Plus, I don't think the hit was on purpose. God, I'm afraid to go to AN day tomorrow, I'm probably going to be booed out of the Coliseum. I think I need to shut up now.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Not at all.
Why should you? Me personally, if I were Geren...someone wearing red is going to take a dirt bath tomorrow.
Okay, I'll believe you
But can it be Johnson? I don't mind if he gets a suspension.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:30 PM PDT up reply actions
I mean Kennedy. Not Johnson.
Sheesh.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:33 PM PDT up reply actions
Since it's the next day
And I've had time to cool off.....I'm still for knocking an Angel on his ass today. But I do love your rational thinking. The question is....Can Kennedy be trusted to actually hit what he's aiming at?
Of course it wasn't on purpose
I don't care. It doesn't matter HOW your pitchers come to be repeatedly injuring A's players. The fact that they're doing so is reason enough to retaliate.
Can't argue with your logic.
Of course, this may have the added benefit of giving our hitters some better pitches to hit. Not that there's anything wrong with that....it's not likely they will hit them anyway.
that's why you let me take the blame...
i'm not scared.
the a's have been on the wussy side of the bean (pun intended) war with almost every team for about 10 years now.
it's time to start letting teams know that we're not going to stand for it any more.
scioscia has complained about street's toe not touching the rubber. he's had the same complaint about mulder. he had a complaint about saarloos' cancer wristband not being the same color as his uniform. scioscia is an insufferable a$$hole. plus he's a dodger. if something unfortunate happened to him on the way to the ballpark tomorrow or in life, i wouldn't be shocked or sad.
karma is a beeyatch.
Ohh, Scoccia was a Dodger?
Well, that f him. And I'm totally being serious.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:31 PM PDT up reply actions
i wasn't
baseball is just a game. if scioscia willfully hurt an a's player then karma will deal with it appropriately (i.e. the huge comeback tonight). i don't wish him ill, no matter his issues. that isn't my job.
sometimes i take the GAME and it's mal-actors too seriously.
i think it's the 3 margaritas and 4 beers coursing thorugh my veins at this point.
I wish I had a magarita right now
I guess I'm having a hard time figuring out what is sarcasim and what is not. But really, I was raised with a deep dislike of Dodgers (Mom is diehard Giants fan since the dawn of time) so I kind of think of Dodgers being 'the dark side', or LA in general.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:49 PM PDT up reply actions
i apologize if i wasn't clear
i couldn't actually do harm to anything resembling a human being. this is a game that i take too seriously from time to time. but it's just a game.
that's why i'm bringing my dad to AN DAY 4 tomorrow. it's because of him that i have love for the a's and baseball. what else is baseball but for dad's and son's/daughters?
Only if it's Brown. I don't think Blanton throws
hard enough to hurt Vlad. A 98mph fastball to their star player would be nice retribution.
funny thing
I read through the entire game wrapup, not being really sure that the A's won (I'm still far away from Oakland, and had to go to sleep before the game, so I'm just checking in now).
8th inning happiness
8-4. It was a bit of a nail biter.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:27 PM PDT up reply actions
Me too.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:34 PM PDT up reply actions
see, I told you I had a feeling about this lineup
I think they about tripled their average runs per game tonight.
Word to the wise... don't look for DJ to be gone anytime soon. Dude can hit. Barton ain't proven anything except he's a mediocre AAA player.
I think DJ is having a lack of confidence issue
I know he can hit and he is good on the bag, with my obviously untrained eyes. I was so happy he finally got a timely hit.
by mlleaimee on Aug 3, 2007 11:51 PM PDT up reply actions
He's at the very least a good AAA player.....
at 21, having sat out a good portion of the previous year through injury.
Milton Bradley pulled a hammy tonight
by green star oakland on Aug 3, 2007 11:59 PM PDT reply actions
funny line in Urban's game wrap
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/new...
"A's righty Santiago Casilla (3-1), who gave up Guerrero's eighth-inning blast, picked up the win when lefty Alan Embree closed things out, and the first-place Angels saw their lead over the A's in the American League West cut to 12 games."
although it's factually correct, there's..um...a team that's only 2 1/2 games out, namely Seattle.
Canines without testicles?
Come on, Nico. Stop it with the euphemisms and just call a spayed a spayed.
lol... QOTM nominee
by FoolshGame22 on Aug 4, 2007 12:12 AM PDT up reply actions
Somewhat diminished by the fact that
spay means to remove ovaries, not testicles.
WOO HOO!!!
I knew when they brought Shields in that something magical was going to happen. What is he now... 0-9 career in Oakland or something? Ah I looked it up on Yahoo.. 0-7. Nice.
pitching to vlad
makes me have little faith in geren
by Mango on Aug 4, 2007 9:23 AM PDT reply actions
I was impressed that Furmaniak stayed aware...
...of the situation so that he could take advantage of the defensive screw up and score the run. So many players would have already trotted back to 3B thinking the play was over. Kudos to him!
As far as Shields... I love seeing him come in against the A's. I think he's the A's greatest offensive weapon. I don't know his numbers against them, but it seems that more often than not, when they win a game against the Angels late, it's when he's on the mound.
The A's had a great rally
I'm having trouble digesting the recap. Which is uncommon for a Nico recap.
I think the problem is that
I don't do a "recap" per se, I do analysis of the game (baseballgirl does more of a recap). So if you don't know what happened, my posts won't make as much sense as hers will (the flip side being that if you watched/listened to the game, bbg's posts could feel redundant). Sorry 'bout that!
Ah, I see!
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