Waiting For "Gonzo Time!"
by Nico on Feb 1, 2008 8:17 AM PST
in News
Email
PrintMarch is all about games that start at 3:00am where I live. Sorry, I just can’t get too excited about having to sleep through Opening Day, and then browsing “Open Thread: Game 2” to find 12 comments made by a group of 7 insomniacs.
April is all about confronting the harsh reality that the Eric Chavez had three surgeries, Chris Denorfia didn’t hit live pitching for 18 months, Crosby still can’t lay off the slider low and away, and Dana Eveland is on our team (until he gets his career ERA under 7.50 I intend to make him my poster-boy for the “Hey, Remember Tim Birtsas?” Club).
May is all about the A’s usual May swoon, only this time it’s not a swoon, it’s just that the cream rises and…well, you can’t have cream and rebuilding at the same time. June is like May, only a bit warmer.
And then comes July. Come July, service time will no longer be a concern and if he hasn’t come up by now Carlos Gonzalez may well have played his way out of Sacramento and into Oakland. Gio Gonzalez could do the same – no rush, but what Street showed at age 21 and Travis Buck showed when he was only supposed to be ready for AAA, Gio has three months to prove in Sacramento. Meanwhile, Suzuki, Barton, and Denorfia will each have hit full stride in his first full major league season – and the same could be said of Buck, who only got 82 games in last year. If Gaudin and Duchscherer aren’t at peak performance by April, they should be by July – and one can hope the same of Chavez.
It’s too bad they don’t have the “split season” in the major leagues like they do in the minors, because I can’t see the Angels losing the first half of 2008. But the final 81 games – who knows?
53 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Haha!!!
And 12 comments? I bet there are a lot more than THAT who will be in the game thread. I'm thinking we'll need at least two open threads.
6am in Ontario
I am going to watch it live also.
by Athletics fan and runner on Feb 1, 2008 9:01 AM PST up reply actions
i can't wait for the 3am games!
need to get my tv and computer in the same room though...or maybe it's time to get a laptop?
I'll be watching!
And maybe even game-threading!
I'm trying to find out
Oh my God, 5 AM baseball
I have ridiculously awful sleeping habits anyway. I'll probably set an alarm to wake up for it.
Maybe I should, like, get a job or something instead.
by thejd44 on Feb 1, 2008 3:43 PM PST up reply actions
during the 20 game winning streak
I was setting the alarm for 5 and catching the last inning or two..
good times.
There's nothing wrong with predawn baseball.
LETS DO SOMETHING TO GET US EXCITED!!!!!!!!
Predict your favorite A's players 08 stats!
Dont quote me unless I end up being right.
Barton 2008
Avg. 312
Hr. 24
RBI. 68
OBP. 390
If only
I like Barton a lot, but I think you have to keep in mind that the guy is a 22-year-old rookie. He doesn't have to fulfill all of his potential all at once.
You know,
a lot of times when you try to shoot the moon, you end up with 25 heart points.
Not that that's relevant in any way to this situation... I'm just fulfilling my snarkiness quota for the day.
fair
and also true
I think it will be an interesting season
What I like about the baseball season is seeing what guy will step up and surprise you. Cust and Suzuki both did that last year and it was fun watching it unfold.
It is also the first time in about 6 years that the expectation is so low. Purdy of the Mercury predicted the A's will struggle to win more than 60 games. I think that was the same number that Ratto predicted after the Hudson, Mulder trades.
Even Spring training this year is good theater with so many young players vying for spots. We know that Chavez, Crosby, Ellis, Barton and Suzuki are assured spots. The outfield is less obvious and for sure the starting pitching is wide open, I think it is great.
by china bob on Feb 1, 2008 9:24 AM PST reply actions
Those columnists are imbecilic
People have no idea just how bad you have to be to win 60 games. That's essentially an entire team of replacement-level players. The A's aren't nearly that hard-up yet.
LOL!
The A's WILL win 60 games. If the Giants last year even with Bonds didnt lose 100 games there is no way we will. LOL. (small sigh of thanks hat Santana is out of our league.)
You seem to be implying
that Bonds was causing the Giants to lose.
If they had not had Bonds, it's possible they would have lost 100 games. He was literally the only offense on the team.
figuratively
No, literally
I'm fairly certain that the rest of the players did not actually bring bats with them to the plate. They instead attempted to slap at the baseball with open palms.
Tim Birtsas
Anybody else remember him hitting Kirk Gibson in the jaw with a curve ball - Gibson didn't fall down or even flinch; he just cursed Birtsas out as he walked to 1B.
Re: Kirk Gibson
You might not want to mention him. I think his name is mud around these parts...
i remember that
i guess gimpy got is revenge, eh?
I had a dream last night....
That on Opening Day Carlos Gonzalez went 5-6 with a homerun while Aaron Cunningham and a few other young guys went O-6 in an absolute drubbing by the Red Sox. I don't know exactly how our guys could manage to get 6 AB's each considering we were getting so badly beaten, but that's dream logic for you. All the same, it made me excited about Carlos Gonzalez. Also crazy is that in my dream Aaron Cunningham looked like this and I was shocked that all the pictures I'd seen were so wrong.
Not too interesting, I know, but where else would I share a dream like that?
i thought cunningham
looked like that too. he's like my twin though.
Every time is Gonzo time!
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Feb 1, 2008 10:10 AM PST reply actions
Imagine a young HST
going to Tokyo to cover MLB's Opening Day.
Bad craziness.
Hey, you should
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Feb 1, 2008 5:33 PM PST up reply actions
Hey, I think I'm a curmudgeon!!
And I'm not (quite) 40 yet! Yay me!
OK, maybe I'm showing my cultural illiteracy,
but to me HST is either Harry S Truman or the Hubble Space Telescope. I'm pretty sure you don't mean either of those, but damned if I know what you do mean.
Hunter S Thompson n/t
I've been planning a bicycle tour across country
for a little while now. It will take about 8 weeks so if I leave in May, as I've been planning, I should make it back home just about in time for the A's to be hitting full stride. So aside from the month of April, which should be fun just for the freshness of live baseball, I should bypass Emil Brown and most of the growing pains of the new team. I just hope I recognize the team when I get back.
That sounds awesome
I hope to do something similar in a few years. I want to really experience this country for all its worth, so I hope this happens for you.
Dana Eveland
Eveland is going to be just 24 years old, has a minor league K/BB of almost 4, and has just 64 innings in the majors. He may turn out to be AAAA after all, but he's the least of my concerns about the team this season.
And actually, Tim Birtsas' career
major league stats aren't all that bad - viva David Wells and C.C.!
Huh.
Went from "3.86 ERA for a World Series winner" to "out of baseball" in three months.
That must have sucked. Was he injured?
Re: Eveland, I think it's worth noting that while his MLB numbers do, unquestionably, suck so far, Haren's numbers weren't all that terrific when the A's got him either.
yes, but...
True, but weren't most of Haren's innings (when the A's got him) in the postseason, against the better hitters in the league?
by rollierollieOxenfree on Feb 2, 2008 10:15 AM PST up reply actions
Eveland could surprise
I agree that Eveland will be the least of our worries. The bulk of his 64 major league innings came as a 21 year old. His strikeout per nine innings ratio looks good, but it appears that he may have been effectively wild up to this point as his walk totals in the majors are quite high. If he can improve his command some he could be a very effective member of the bullpen however over the next few years.
by plahuge on Feb 2, 2008 3:48 PM PST up reply actions
I'm just glad that Beane decided this offseason
... was Crazy Harry time.
I thought it was Dirty Harry time
" ... you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
by green star oakland on Feb 1, 2008 2:33 PM PST up reply actions
*That* explains the A's rash of injuries
Scorpio did it!
my other preference, of course, would be ...
... crazy Harry Lime, with his anti-dot-racing tirade:
Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare?
[cues zither music]
Zither fair monkeyball?
< / FSU >
<whine>
Why is there no DLD on the first day after my very first real-time Lost watching?
I actually caught up from the series premiere to the season 3 finale during the offseason.
Pay attention!
brenarlo's Sweeney diary is a DLD (by sal's command)! LOL
By Sal's command!
< / Ron Burgundy >
Question for AN
Do we need to revise ANcillary Terms, given the roster turnover? And if so, any volunteers to do it?
"revise ANcillary terms"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I've been asking that ever since that link was first created, without a lot of things that were added via comments on the original Co-op Glossary diary, to no avail.
Rookie Card
by abou on Feb 4, 2008 4:50 PM PST reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
