Rats!
by monkeyball on Aug 5, 2007 4:37 PM PDT
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PrintWell, obviously, on the basis of willing the opposing team to fumble a high-leverage double-play ball, Nick Swisher is now far more clutch than Marco Scutaro.
Yesterday the A's scored a key run early when Kelvim Escobar muffed the back end of a sure Swisher GIDP; today, the A's still managed to score 1 run on a bases-loaded/0-out Scutaro grounder, but the DP today choked off the A's rally against Lackey.
Dan Johnson drove a long HR the other way off Lackey to put the A's up by 1 briefly in the 6th, but Kiko Calero (coming on after an uncharacteristically high-pitch-count start by Dan Haren) surrendered 2 runs in the next inning.
Once again, a tight and well-pitched A's-Angels contest, decided by a couple of lucky bounces and flares. Yesterday, the A's benefited from the Angels' poor fielding and a flukey pinch-hit by Travis Buck; today, the Angels turn the DP and Orlando Cabrera gets an even luckier double.
And we also see once again the tragic shortening of the A's pen: with Street having pitched in consecutive days for first time since coming off the DL, and Embree having appeared in 5 of the last 6 games, and Haren pitching himself out of the game relatively early, the last third of the game came down to a full-strength Angels 'pen vs. a seriously depleted A's pen.
Calero, to be fair, didn't pitch that badly; he just didn't pitch very well. (One could even argue that the A's were fortunate to only have given up 2 runs that inning.)
Thanks to Frankie Rodriguez' entirely sensible unwillingness to throw strikes to the 2 A's hitters who could really have hurt him (and Swisher and Cust's patience), the A's at least made it interesting in the 9th.
Here's hoping foir safe trips all around: the A's to Texas, baseballgirl and Blez back to SoCal, and all the NRAFs in town for AN Day back to their various homes.
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Besides all of the runners left on base
I really put the responsibilty on Geren for not allwing Haren to at least "start the seventh inning". Enough said..........shitballs!
Eleven runners stranded today alone!
A few thoughts...
- As usual, RISP hitting was key of all keys. Garret Anderson and Casey Kotchman got hits, the best the A's managed was a rally-killing DP.
- Given that Embree was apparently available, I'm really disappointed that Brown didn't get the ball to start the 7th. Brown and Casilla are the future, Calero less so, and Brown is throwing better than anyone in our pen right now.
- Especially considering K-Rod's dominance vs. right-handed hitters (career WHIP 0.90) and that he had just walked two lefties, had someone like Buck been on the bench I would have been tempted to pinch hit him for Ellis, even if it meant throwing Buck to 2B if the game went to the 10th. Better Buck at 2B in the 10th than to lose in the 9th! But the best lefty we had available anyway was Kotsay and that's not worth hitting for your last available middle-infielder.
- That was an incredible piece of hitting by Cabrera. Bastard.
It is painful watching Ellis
come up with men on base. I know he will swing early and often, if he hits it, ground ball to third, or lazy fly ball to right center. He does get out in front of a lot of balls and hits it a long way foul though at which time Fosse tells us he got out in front of the ball, thanks Foss. If I was a GM I would not have any pull hitters on my team. The A's are made up of pull hitters, Crosby, Ellis, Scutaro (usually) Chavez, and DJ although sometimes he swings late and accidentally hits the ball to left center.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 5:43 PM PDT up reply actions
When we're both GMs,
I'll be happy to take that big bad pull hitter Ryan Howard off your hands and give you scrappy slap hitter Jason Kendall in return.
The only problem is he
hits HR's to left and center also. I am not a Kendall fan. I wasn't talking about slap hitters, Vlad is not a pull hitter, Jeter is not a pull hitter and K
Rod is not a pull hitter either, nor Ichiro, or Ortiz.
Yes, Ted Williams was a dead pull hitter I grant you and hope that I would be smart enough to not try and change his swing. Barry Bonds in his post steroid years is mostly a pull hitter but steroids stiffen the body a bit. He did however hit his latest to left field.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 6:04 PM PDT up reply actions
All the guys you mentioned are plausible HOFers
some, 1st ballot.
It's not the pull hitting that's the problem.
Just to make the point,
it doesn't matter where in the park you hit home runs to. Whether or not you're a pull hitter, for practical purposes, is based strictly on the balls that you put into the field of play.
Pinche Calero is a scrub !
2 ER in one inning "didn't pitch that badly" really ?? welp he didn't pitch that goodly either.
by panamanianexpress on Aug 5, 2007 4:49 PM PDT reply actions
Calero
has utterly lost his stuff-- nowadays it's hanging sliders and 84MPH fastballs. I can't figure out why he was permitted to keep pitching after he gave up the lead. If you're going to throw an 84MPH fastball at Kotchman, couldn't it at least be Jay Marshall's?
I don't have any idea what's wrong with him, but he's not the same pitcher this year. He can't be trusted with any high-leverage situation. I'd rather see Ruddy Lugo-- at least he might get lucky and throw a pitch in a good spot.
I thought they might go with Marshall
to face Matthews (who isn't hitting well righty this season) and Kotchman. Not sure why they didn't, but even more not sure why they didn't go with Brown to start the 7th.
It is one of the irritating things about
the A's. They always have a deep bullpen but in reality only use about 4 guys consistently. Marshall is essentially the forgotten man now, and we just brought up Lugo but won't see him for two or three weeks. Some may scoff but Lugo was really good in Sacramento and had some success in the major leagues before. Pitchers with good arms go through slumps, but then rediscover themselves when they have some confidence. Brown is a case in point as is Casilla.
I doubt Marshall will be on the team next year, I expect him to be in Sacramento working on his mechanics. Because he is a type 5 player we have to keep him on the roster all year so now all he does is take up space.
I think the A's should trade Calero next winter, clearly he is not the lights out pitcher he was in the NL, he has fallen in love with the slider that he never gets over for a strike. I will take Brown's 96 MPH fastball anytime. If they hit it, fine but usually they won't.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 5:39 PM PDT up reply actions
Brr.
That is all I have to say about today's game.
brr?
you cold?
just kidding. good to see you again yesterday. told my sister that you're a hard core a's fan. she loved it.
Still thawing out
It's not supposed to rain in August!
Good to see you too! Makes me wonder how many other ANers I know from real life first :)
flashback
back when i was a wee kid, i use to cut newspaper clippings of the A's! surprisingly, i still have some of them and i was looking at them today and look who i see in one of the clippings!
it's lach doing the same job he's doing now! :)
(click on pic above for the whole pic)
how about stewart doing a similar job?
think he can still bring it? or at least intimidate the other team? the agent stuff can't be a full time job. a couple of innings a weak is all i'm asking for.
argh...
calero = kennedy = death
i agree with nico. give me brown or lugo. anybody but calero.
i'm not a huge ellis fan. he's slightly below average on offense but he's a premier defensive player. batting him 5th is absurd. he should flip spots with stewart.
one other thought, johnson is starting to get hot again. his confidence probably isn't totally back, but its time to move him up in the line up.
I think geren's just alternating L/R
As well as Stewart's been hitting, with no sign of slowing down, he belongs in the top 4 spots in the lineup.
Really, after him, Buck, Swisher, and Cust (and Piazza when he's starting), the rest of the A's lineup drops off so abysmally that it doesn't matter what the 5/6-9 order is. (Although if DJ continues to swing the bat well, that's mitigated somewhat.)
not a fan of ellis batting 5th
because our 3/4 hitters have an ugly habit of getting walked to get to the 5 hitter. stewart handles the bat well and could drive the guys ahead of him in from the 5th position. ellis will drive in runs due to opportunity, but i don't trust him 5th. i'm actually complimenting stewart by hitting him 5th. he doesn't have the power for 3rd or 4th and we have guys better suited for 1st and 2nd.
the problem (and you're right) is that 6/7/8/9 is practically death.
LOL
I like how you think "getting walked" is an "ugly habit" as if that's somehow a bad thing.
by Dusty Baker on Aug 5, 2007 6:41 PM PDT up reply actions
it was a joke that our mashers
get walked in key situations (it's why our obp with risp is almost double our ba with risp) leaving it to the punch and judy types to drive in runs. hence it's why our 4/5/6 hitters need to be stronger and i'd move ellis from 5th to 2nd and stewart to 5th.
Cust
I forgot to < ahem > single out Cust, who, after a 2/2 3BB game, is now sitting at .265/.399/.530.
He hasn't been hitting for power the last couple weeks (to be fair, only Ellis on the A's has), but he's still drawing walks, and is adjusting to what the pitchers are throwing him and smashing low strikes for hard singles.
For me, he and Embree and Haren are the real bright spots in this season.
It's not Mark's fault that they are batting him
5th. He has performed hitting wise near the top of our team...and that's a sad statement isn't it?
i'm not blaming ellis,
i just think his offensive strengths are being misused. he had a great start to the season and a couple of career games and suddenly the a's brass thinks he's a risp/rbi guy.
he's a decent bat control guy that hits a home every now and again. he's at his best when he's pulling a ball, but that makes him streaky and unreliable as a 5th hitter.
OK
I guess I misunderstood because you said that you weren't a huge fan. So Nevermind.
Signed,
Emily Letilla
No need for an apology.
But his hitting isn't flat out terrible. I wouldn't be surprised if he hit 20 HRS this year.
he probably will...
but his ops is in the bottom half of AL second basemen (especially if grudzielanek and kinsler were healthy). that's my problem with his offense.
The problem is that
Ellis has hit a few HR's lately and have you noticed that now he is pulling the ball more than ever? Today he did hit a few grounders, one for a double that any good 3rd baseman would have fielded for a DP. However I have noticed lately he is hitting an extraordinarily number of medium fly balls, a certain clue that he is getting HR happy a la Crosby. Isn't it nice seeing Crosby on the bench where he belongs.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 5:47 PM PDT up reply actions
I know you guys don't like Crosby, but after
seeing Scoot, and Murphy, I will gladly take Bobby. Don't even get me started about how lost Furmaniak looked.
by theblackpearl on Aug 5, 2007 5:52 PM PDT up reply actions
I think Murphy looks
like he has some promise. He has hit some balls really well, made good contact which is all you can ask. He has a great arm defensively and made an exceptional DP yesterday. I agree with you about Scutaro and indeed Furmaniak looked lost out there.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 6:08 PM PDT up reply actions
Agree on Croz with the balls up the middle
If only for this 6'3" frame (and his good range) he might get to one or both of those hits.
Also agree that Murphy shows some promise. He's only now getting in a groove of consistent ABs and I'd say his process has been better than his numbers--which have been ok lately. Defensively, he's been pretty solid--certainly no dropoff at SS from Scutaro.
I'd say that as a platooning 2Bman, Murphy would be great, as a platooning SS he'd be good, as a "super sub" (a la Scutaro) he'd be very good, and that as an everyday SS he'd be about Scutaro.
He has less range, and his arm looks average to
me, Crosby is a way better defensive player, and if Beane builds this team properly, you have a #8 hitter with 20 HR's.
by theblackpearl on Aug 5, 2007 6:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Really? Murphy's arm
looks above average to me. And I like his approach a lot better than I like Crosby's approach, which isn't so an approach as it is a deep commitment to upset me.
He's had a couple of 6 hole plays that I feel
Crosby would have made, and if Crosby was hitting 8th in a balanced lineup, I could live with his approach.
by theblackpearl on Aug 5, 2007 6:23 PM PDT up reply actions
crosby has
hit 20 hrs once in his career. the past 3 yrs he's annualized at less than 20 hrs in the less than the 100 games he's played.
he's not a 20 hr guy.
I know you guys like cute little stats, so here
is one
Seasonal Averages (per 162 games played)
YEARS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2.69 162 595 82 143 32 2 18 64 57 126 9 2 .240 .310 .391 .701
He has a 18 hr average for 162 games, and he has less than 3 years of time.
by theblackpearl on Aug 5, 2007 6:28 PM PDT up reply actions
you said that we'd have an 8 hitter with 20 hrs.
if you back out the year he hit 22, then his pace of the last 3 years is more like 16-18.
yes, i'm being cute. 18 hrs is close to 20 hrs. but it's still less than 20.
but each of the last 3 years were half a year, s
so if you give hi more at bats, he is around 18-20
by theblackpearl on Aug 5, 2007 7:05 PM PDT up reply actions
Why should he be "given" more at bats?
He didn't get those at bats, because he couldn't. Why not "give" Rich Harden more starts too? Or maybe Beane should get Prior and Wood and "give" them starts too?
he hit less than 10 hrs in more than 81 games...
i don't care how you do the math, it's less than 20 hrs.
this year he hit 8 hrs this year in 93 games. that's about 15 hrs for a full season.
in 2006, he hit 9 hrs in 96 games. that's about 116-17 for a full season.
in 2005, he hit 9 hrs in 84 games. that's about 18 hrs.
all less than 20 hrs except for his rookie year when he hit 20 hrs.
so his 3 year trend is 18 then 17 then 15. that's all less than 20 hrs and the trend is going the wrong way.
And exactly 100 years
after Montgomery Burns.
A trip down memory lane
thanks for the memories.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 6:10 PM PDT up reply actions
Piazza cleared waivers
Piazza, hitting .292 with three homers for the Athletics, passed through waivers without being claimed, which means that Oakland can now trade the designated hitter/catcher to any team interested. Minnesota and the Angels briefly considered making deals for Piazza in the weeks and days leading up to the July 31 trade deadline.
I wonder if Minnesota might
give more now for Piazza than they would on July 31st. The Twins appeared to give up on becoming "buyers" when they slumped to just a game over .500 and were trailing two teams.
Then they won 4 in a row, then the Indians and Tigers hit the skids, and suddenly the Twins are only 4 games out of first place, the Wild Card is in reach, and the teams in front of them in the Central look vulnerable. Plus, Johan publicly expressed ire at the Twins' "lack of commitment" and suggested he wouldn't re-sign (which is not an issue until after 2008).
Maybe the Twins see a chance to snatch the Central or Wild Card, and appease their star pitcher, by acquiring another hitter. I wonder what we could get from MIN for Piazza right now...
Santana's obviously a clubhouse cancer
The Twins would be better off without him. They'll likely dump him for Piazza.
OK, that's silly.
The Twins would likely insist on Beane including the valuable clubhouse presence Kotsay in the deal. Which would make it too rich for my blood.
With Kotsay gone,...
from whom will the likes of Shea, Slusser, Urban get the next anonymous quotes about clubhouse strife?
by Sashulia on Aug 5, 2007 10:54 PM PDT up reply actions
I thought I read
where Piazza said he doesn't want to go to a Midwest city. He said he wants to play either on the East or West coast and since he has no trade provisions he can refuse any trade to Minnesota.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 8:23 PM PDT up reply actions
I'm surprised he cleared
you'd think Angels or Twins would have claimed him
Not really
If they claimed Piazza and the A's didn't withdraw the waiver then they are stuck with his contract. I would guess the A's owe $2 million for the last two months. Perhaps they don't want to spend $2 million for Piazza. Now if the A's try to trade Piazza a team will ask the A's to pick up part of the contract.
by china bob on Aug 5, 2007 8:21 PM PDT up reply actions
Good News on Piazza Clearing Waivers
At this point all Piazza is doing is taking at bats from someone the A's need to a) get more experience or b) need to evaluate for next year. With Piazza's salary and experience, Geren's unlikely to bench him so obviously trading him would be a help.
by SA on Aug 5, 2007 7:37 PM PDT up reply actions
GOD, I HATE LACKEY AND THE ANGELS.
"They think we hit a rookie catcher and they throw at one of the best players on the planet?" Lackey said. "They think that’s going to go unnoticed? That’s just dumb. ... I don’t see how a 1-and-2 pitch to a rookie catcher correlates to throwing at an MVP on a team in the (pennant) race.
"It doesn’t surprise me from them. That’s all I’ll say."
"If you’re going to give him a warning, then throw him out," Lackey said. "If you think the guy was throwing at him, throw him out. That’s the rule. Don’t give a warning before I can get my shot. ... They got off free."
Personally, I refuse to respond to Lackey
through the media. He's very talented and I wish him well.
<adds six pins to Lackey troll doll>
Fuck him!
What a complete jerk-off! Like Danny Haren was wanting to put Vlad on with two outs and if Haren really wanted to hit Vlad, then he would have hit his ass!
That guy is nothing but a wannabe tough guy and of all people t be talking shit.....what a loser!
Actually, I have a feeling it WAS
intentional, meaning the A's not only waited an awful long time to retaliate but they also have poor aim. More amazing is that Vlad actually took the pitch instead of somehow whacking it into the right-field corner for a double.
This is why I have a love for preemptory
retaliation. It doesn't matter who or why we hit one of the Angels. The problem is that they hit our guys entirely to much. We should spend the rest of the season drilling Angels....especially one Vlad. The point being that they are in contention....but not for long without him. We have nothing to loose, and perhaps they will begin to understand that it is a bad idea to hit our guys. That's the nature of karma.
And speaking of karma,
where would that leave ours?
Anyway, your way takes waaaaay too much time and trouble. Why not just kidnap one of Vlad's kids and leave a note on his locker that reads, "Still want to get hits against the A's?"
Apparently Karma already
It really comes down to the fact that I can't stand John Lackey. Every time he gets a win....a child somewhere on Earth suffers. At any rate, at this point in the season we really have nothing to lose. If they want to play dirty or even just carelessly, I say we oblige them.
I'm just glad the karma ...
... didn't run over our dogma
by SalParadise on Aug 5, 2007 10:14 PM PDT up reply actions
I believe in the old ways.
You hit our guy and sooner rather than later) we will hit your guy...in the butt.
The way to respond to this is very simple.
Next time, don't miss.
Lackey's a jackass.
"It doesn’t surprise me from them. That’s all I’ll say."
"That's all I'll say, except <blahblahblahblah>. Oh, and <blahblahblahblah>. And <blahblahblahblah>. But that's it. And <blahblahblahblah>."
clap clap
my darkhorse for 300 winner: Joe Blanton
Another one: Danny Haren
From the yahoo news desk..I smell a RAT..Read on.
Rats a problem at Angel Stadium Sun Aug 5, 11:03 AM ET
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Angels in the outfield, rodents in the concession stand.
County health officials say they're stepping up enforcement at Angel Stadium, where they've found 118 vermin violations at stadium kiosks and restaurants over the last 2 1/2 years. That's a far worse record than Southern California's other two major-league ballparks.
Here is the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070805/...
This couldn't happen to a better team...LOL!! We may be behind them in the standings but at least our Health inspection score is higher and we can actually eat the food at the ball park...LOL!!
how about Kotsay to the Cubs
anyone think the Cubs would want Kotsay to fill in for Soriano for a while? Probably not but hey
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