Four cards, please
by monkeyball on Sep 1, 2007 4:32 PM PDT
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PrintTigers 6, A's 1. Verlander gets the W, Haren takes the L.
In today's hand, the A's showed their ace, and didn't pick anything up except for a one-eyed Jack.
Haren hasn't exactly "struggled" since the ASB, but he's certainly performed a patented oaktoon-style regression beyond the mean. As in most of Haren's starts, he got hit hard early -- and today, as in recent starts, he got hit hard near the end as well.
And the A's offense, aside from Piazza, didn't do much hitting early, late, or in between. Verlander wasn't exactly masterful, throwing a ton of pitches and allowing a decent handful of baserunners, but he was good enough to stymie the A's.
Thankfully, Nick Swisher, by grounding out to end the game, kept Jack Cust from having an opportunity to tie on the Titanium Sombrero. Cust struck out 4 times in the game, the last coming in the 7th with the bases loaded and 2 outs and the A's trailing 5-1.
Beane's going to have to pick up a few more face cards for 2008; otherwise, we'll all know that he's just bluffing.
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Can't quite agree about Verlander
Cust's "bat on the shoulder" strike out in the 7th was so not surprising that it is of concern. It's September and the A's still can't figure out the difference between a time not to expand the strike zone and a time to protect the plate.
I thought you could tell from the first pitch of
that AB that he was not at all comfortable with that pitcher's delivery.
Cust has been doing this all season
he still doesn't foul off close pitches with two strikes. It's especially a problem in key situations.
Cust is not going to change
If you don't like his approach, then you dump him like other orgs. If he can see that he has value even with his "bat on the shoulder" strike outs, you accept that he will always have "bat on the shoulder" strike outs.
not being the GM I am not dumping him
or anyone else. This is a flaw in his batting that quite a few people have noticed -- and cannot be blamed solely on bad umpire calls.
Unless he is uncoachable there is no reason why he can't work on this part of his game.
That Cust called third strike
was an egregiously bad call by the home plate umpire. The pitch didn't even nick the plate. Not to grouse excessively about the umpires, but the Tigers got the benefit of the doubt on a whole bunch of incredibly questionable calls in this game from both sides. I'm not paranoid enough to think that that ump actually was trying to favor the Tigers-- he just sucks, period.
It is true but
at some point in time the A's hitters are going to have to figure out this is not Little League and just stand at the plate waiting for a walk. You cannot depend on the umpire walking you all the time. Cust will be back in AAA soon if he doesn't begin to figure out you have to swing and HIT the ball once in awhile. He has had a nice little season, hit a lot of HR's mostly in the first two weeks, and has struck out an excessive amount of times, mostly watching the 3rd strike.
by china bob on Sep 1, 2007 5:26 PM PDT up reply actions
and people wonder how cust was stuck in AAA
for so long. here's your answer.
Can't have it both ways
complaining about guys swinging at obvious balls, and complaining when they don't swing and the ump screws them.
If the ump is calling it a strike, unless the ump
is extremely incompetent, it isn't an obvious ball, and the A's need to expand the strike zone sometimes.
by theblackpearl on Sep 1, 2007 8:53 PM PDT up reply actions
This ump was incompetent
and the pitch was an obvious ball.
Go look it up on Gameday. The pitch was not close to the zone. You cannot afford to be hacking at fastballs down and away out of the strike zone with 2 strikes, 2 outs and the bases loaded. You have to trust that the guy behind the plate knows what he's doing. In this case, Cust got hosed for it.
I have agree with you.
It would be foolish for Cust or any player to change their approach based on the umps interpretation of the strike zone on a given day. Cust knows what a strike is and what he can do with a given pitch. I don't think we would have been any happier if he rolled over and grounded out to the 2nd baseman.
I will say this...it seems to me that the A's are all to often on the receiving end of poor calls by the umpires. People may disagree with me....and have. But our manager and our coaches are going to have to do more to protect our hitters. Umpires are human, and if you establish the fact that you will not contest marginal calls, then they are going to take the path of least resistance and make those calls in your opponents favor. Even if you argue a call where you are wrong, at a minimum you have established that you will bark and bring attention to their error.
The Angels understand this. Scioscia argues all the time. It pisses me off, but I understand why he's doing it....and it works.
Cust has Kd
a lot, he has also walked an "excessive" amount.
Let's look at his splits: 8 HRs in May, 5 in June, 4 in July, 6 in August. So, he did not hit a lot of HRs "mostly in the first two weeks".
His month by month OPS from May: 1.022, .970, .757, 1.063.
Cust often takes pitches
right down the middle for strike three. He doesn't have to "completely change his game" in order to make occasional two-strike adjustments--like stop guessing about what's coming and just react to what comes.
Goddamn ABC delay
I'm watching the Cal game, Tennessee has the ball between downs, and I hear a cannon outside. WTF, I thought, Cal scored? Sure enough 20 second later they score on a turnover. It sort of ruined a very exciting play.
Well in Sacramento, we couldn't hear the cannon
so, I didn't know any different.
by theblackpearl on Sep 1, 2007 5:37 PM PDT up reply actions
everyone's talking about desean jackson
as one of the best in the country, and i'm sure he is, but so far i'm most impressed by the RB (forsett?).
Forsett is terrific
He got quite a bit of playing time when Lynch had some minor injuries; obviously not the size of Lynch but nice speed.
desean jackson is pretty good, too
holy sh*t
I don't know much about football
but I know what I like....and that was it.
so it has come to this
a game thread of under 100 comments. haven't seen that like....ever, probably not even spring training in 2 years
check again
Way to take one for the team
but your content/comment ratio is now at the point where...well, how to put this..you've been DFA'd. Or, really, D'dFA.
F
Go post on a Rangers' blog for a while
and once they get sick of you, we'll take you back out of pity.
The good news is that everyone but you will reminisce about how awesome you are.
I watched the game today...
and could have commented but I figured that people would get tired of reading me write..."oh Shit." Over and over and over again.
Nice timing
While the Tennessee-Cal game goes to halftime, we turn our attention to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox lead the Orioles 8-0 in the bottom of the 8th.
I'm not a Red Sox fan...
...but this was not Curt Schilling in a 1-0 game against my team in my home ballpark. This was Clay Buchholz in his second major league game with a 10-0 lead. Markakis was frozen on that last pitch. Nice to see.
Pull the plug.
Ooh look--you can
see the 2002 season!
It's the support for the coach at Michigan
FIRE LLOYD CARR NOW!!
MZone is hilarious...I don't want to link to it because it can be NSFW, but the site is michiganzone.blogspot.com and I imagine there will be some wonderful content there in the next couple of days.
Lookin' good for the Golden Bears to move into the Top 10.
I was sooo looking forward
to an Oakland Cy Young...
...Ozzy says "Goodbye to Romance"...
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