DLD 4/14: "It's too freaking cold."
by SportySpice on Apr 14, 2008 9:36 AM PDT
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PrintI like to think of myself as someone who is open to new experiences. And sitting in wind-whipped snow during a baseball game was interesting in a wow-isn’t-this-weird sort of way. But I'd prefer not to do it again.
Batgirl and I and our friend Bob were at all three Cleveland games this weekend, and stayed for the final out of each game. We enjoyed a rain delay Friday, light cold drizzle Saturday, and Sunday's festive flurries.
Ryan Sweeney summed up the conditions:
"It was miserable."
I learned a few things. Donnie Murphy is careful about protecting his skin. Bobby Crosby looks good at the plate. Progressive Field is lovely. And those chemical hand warmers work really well.
I had bought bleacher tickets in advance for Sunday, envisioning a day spent busily applying sunscreen. Instead, we were wrapped in down coats and blankets and ponchos, and still lasted just 4 innings out there.
We spent the rest of the game roaming the protected concession area, lingering in the heated team gift shop, and drinking hot chocolate, as the A's played like they wanted to be somewhere else (and I don't blame them).
By the end of the game, the sun came out, the wind died, and it felt relatively balmy and warm. It was 40 degrees.
On the bright side, the Indians are offering buy-one-get-one-free tickets to future games for everyone who came to Sunday’s snow fest. Now aren't you kicking yourself for not being there?
It was very satisfying to see the A’s beat the Indians’ two aces, especially since the local sports media here trashes the A’s at every turn. One radio guy yesterday was droning on about how the A’s are one of the two worst teams in baseball.
Batgirl and I were wondering about this: Which team has the most rain delays at its home stadium? Anyone know? My guess (without googling it) is Kansas City.
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Wow, 2 worst teams in baseball? Even with the most
pessimistic observations, the A's wouldn't be in the bottom 10. They must be the ones who put the wet in Blez's blanket. Well Dayn Perry, thinks the A's have an outside shot at the West, albeit a Curly Neal half court hook.
A's could compete in weak AL West
A glance at the standings shows that the A's are in first place in the AL West. Sure, it's far too early to take the numbers seriously, but that's still not how things were supposed to be in 2008.
It raises the matter of whether the young, untested, strip-mined A's have a shot at pulling off a minor miracle and winning the AL West. Let's explore:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8032824/A's-could-compete-in-weak-AL-West
Yea, Perry seems to get that a lot
I have to admit, I tend to like most of Dayn Perry's articles so I don't completely understand all the ether. People really seem to get their panties in a bunch everytime he writes an article, usually from fans of some crummy team that was called crummy in a recent article.
Although to be fair most of the collumnists their get bashed consistently, I don't know why poeple read the same writers everyday just so they can leave a comment about how much they suck.
He seems to inspire a particularly feverish hatred
which I really don't understand at all.
If you discount the racists who slag every black columnist (and thus aren't attacking anything specific about a particular one), he might be the most disliked guy in sports journalism...
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
i don't read fox sports so i wasn't 100% familiar with him
But for god's sakes, the comments bash the guy for saying the guy for being biased towards a guy who has a long track record of producing competitive teams, while saying the team that has a long record of quick starts out of the gate followed by 90 losses is likely to start losing.
the comments
one guy rips into him and said he was biased towards Billy Beane. Anybody with a brain should be biased towards Billy Beane and biased against Peter Angelos when evaluating the chances of a franchise.
Well you should look at the Power Rankings.
Red Sox 2 (+1) 1/2 Well, that didn't take long. The defending champs have reached the top spot, which is something they may not vacate for a while if David Ortiz ever gets going. Despite Ortiz's struggles and Mike Lowell's injury, the Sox still appear to be the most balanced team out there. Josh Beckett's sharp return is certainly bad news for the rest of the league.
So, what did the Sox do to get back to the top. Didn't they split with the Yanks? I still think the D'backs should be 1st.
But the A's 20th?
Athletics 25 (+5) 20/25 What a week! The A's swept the Blue Jays and took a weekend series from the Indians while making C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona look embarrassingly bad. Can it continue? Did Billy Beane pull another trick out of his bag? The guess here is that this is just a momentary hot streak, not indicative of a breakout season. The pitching injuries make that a pretty obvious guess on our part.
They also have the Tigers at 13
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/powerRankings
by theblackpearl on Apr 14, 2008 12:20 PM PDT up reply actions
Perry's a good analyst
He had an essay or two in BBTN a few years back.
The problem is that he's writing for foxsports.com, which is populated by howling idiots.
Rob Neyer's comments would be the same if he wasn't behind the Insider wall, which, to be fair, at least screens out some of the less committed jackasses.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Greg Smith is forgettable?
This is a team that presently has forgettable performers like Greg Smith in the rotation, Emil Brown in left field, and Donnie Murphy at third, but they've still got a puncher's chance.
He's 24 and just made his big league debut - not exactly a guy that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Emil Brown, huh?
CAN YOU SMELLLLLLLLLLLL.....
ah, nevermind
"Evidently, a large number of people said, 'We really need more vermin at the ballpark, Artie.'" - Nick (AN), 10/7/07
Great diary and pictures
It reminds me of a few games I went to at Candlestick -- in July of course.
Mychael Urban has an interesting article about Harden for MLB.com on the A's website. Interesting because it's very downbeat, wondering if he will ever be able to pitch a full season -- a viewpoint I would not particularly want to put on my homepage if I owned the commodity in question.
The candy and the baseball all night long: )
Push comes to shove, Urban works for MLB
not the A's.
That's not to say that he has unlimited license to trash the team, since that would inevitably lead to him getting frozen out, but the team can't make him say whatever they want to.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Urban is also quickly delving into "Giants Homer" territory
He hosts a show on Saturdays on KNBR.
As far as the article, I'm not convinced that Harden should move to the bullpen one bit. He can't be depended on to pitch once every 5 days - what on earth makes all these "baseball minds" think that he'd somehow be able to pitch three times in that same amount of tine?
stamina
His biggest problem is pitching through, he changes his delivery and stresses his shoulder too much.
The theory is if he's throwing only 15-30 pitches at a time, he doesn't have to change his delivery too much to compensate. It sort of a classic scout's idea (The guy doesn't LOOK like a starter, he should be in the PEN).
i personally think that this year and next are make or break years for Harden's future as a starter. He's so much more valuable as a starter, and still hasn't had any major structural injuries that I just wanna keep getting him ready to start and hoping he's just the unluckiest guy in history. But If he can't put together a 180 inning season, it probably is time to try him in the pen.
Urban is covered by the statement at the bottom of all his articles
Mychael Urban is a national writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
by theblackpearl on Apr 14, 2008 2:46 PM PDT up reply actions
But man is it true
I think that really captured the points that have been made over the past week about Rich. We hate to see him on the DL and really want to see him try to fight through it if possible. While I don't think anyone wants to see him hurt himself more, we all know that, if he could make those 30 starts, we would probably see something special.
I was also happy to see his comments about the bullpen. I remember hearing him talk about it last year, but in this article it seemed like he was more receptive to it (or perhaps I just drank better coffee this morning).
"Camelot sure fell apart, didn't it?"-Steve McCatty
"fighting through" the pain will...
...only lead to a structural injury. We should thank our lucky stars that no injury he has had has required anything more than rest and rehab, and that he's still dealing when healthy. The same can't be said about Prior and Wood.
You know it's summertime at Candlestick when the fog rolls in, the wind kicks up, and you see the center fielder slicing open a caribou to survive the ninth inning.
"It's too bad there are no Hallmark cards saying, 'Sorry your loved one was killed by a foul ball.'" -- The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, W.P. Kinsella
or a tauntaun
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
ahahaahha
love a Star Wars reference
"It's too bad there are no Hallmark cards saying, 'Sorry your loved one was killed by a foul ball.'" -- The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, W.P. Kinsella
And I thought these things smelled bad on the outside!
"Evidently, a large number of people said, 'We really need more vermin at the ballpark, Artie.'" - Nick (AN), 10/7/07
free future tickets?
Will you be using those for the May 13-15 series? ;)
It looked very very cold at the game. It was very very uncold here....
There's no crying in baseball!
Temps in the 80s here this weekend
I took the kids up to Tilden to play in Lake Anza to cool down.
Brutal gut-punch of a loss for the Sharks last night. Knocked Kiprusoff out of the net in the first four minutes and still couldn't bring home the W. Going to be tough to bounce back from that one.
There is an A in Whimsy.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Apr 14, 2008 10:17 AM PDT reply actions
I don't think I've ever seen a team with a two-goal lead
that looked as done as the Sharks did last night.
It's been the same story for three years now-- the team's humming along, and then some small thing happens to energize the opponent, and bang-- it's over. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if Calgary wins it in 5 games.
I think it's at least partly the result of questionable coaching. I almost dread the team getting a big lead, because without fail it'll be followed by a total retreat into a passive defensive shell. Which makes absolutely no sense to me, because the only team passive play prevents from scoring is the team that's doing it.
I guess the silver lining is that this philosophy will almost certainly be changing after this season. There's no chance that Ron Wilson would survive a first-round exit.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Last night echoed their games in the series they won as dogs, but then they lost.
It really reminded me of their being clearly the worse team in series vs President Cup's winners Detroit and St Louis. They'd luck into an early lead, spend the rest of the game being attacked, and somehow scrap for the win. Last night they couldn't scrap for the win. :(
They have a lot more talent than Calgary, so I'm not writing them off just yet, but I don't have a good feeling.
If it was any other team than Calgary, I would be looking ahead for the Sharks next series.
Iginla and those flames scare the hell outta me though.
Green Hulk Fists
by oaklandSMASH on Apr 14, 2008 1:16 PM PDT up reply actions
Yes, yes they did ...
Arturs Irbes' Sharks upset Theoren Fleury's Flames in 7 ... I was in Middle School ...
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
As a Calgary fan,
I thought there was no sense in signing CuJo this season. But... man. Kipper was horrible last night, and CuJo absolutely saved us, with, probably an assist for Corey Sarich.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
oh!
We were going to go up there (to Lake Anza) but I thought they had it locked up until Memorial Day. It was open?
There was a nest of that spider to that, but it is that.
Open and crowded
Water still quite cold.
There is an A in Whimsy.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Apr 14, 2008 2:00 PM PDT up reply actions
Jacobs Progressive Field is awesome. I lucked into much nicer weather when I visited a few years ago. (huge game for M Sweeney!)
Here's a blog entirely devoted to rainouts. The Internet is a wondrous thing. I guess.
If a computer can write a physician's dictionary in 13 minutes, can automatic fanpost generation be far away? And will the computer advocate signing Bonds?
Is it an evil computer?
< / dr. evil >
"God doesn't pay attention to your cute little hypotheticals." -- Jeff from LL
I heard Rob Neyer on ESPN last night
saying his two favorite "suprise" teams so far are the Cardinals and the A's.
Those photos made me feel cold!!!
Plug
Shameless? Perhaps. Harmful? Not at all.
April 12, Right off the Bat. Segment 2.
I'm here to talk about the past.
thanks for this!
I was listening this weekend, but had to leave as you were being introduced before the commercial break.
Listening now!
Bob Geren, on 8/2/07, on the success of Alan Embree as new interim closer: "What can I say,... he's been our Steady Tremendous Bullpen Man"
by popcornjames on Apr 14, 2008 12:43 PM PDT up reply actions
Of course, when speaking of natural unpleasantness
I was just a youngster then,
so I only know the game via anecdote, but shouldn't they (the Browns) have just kicked the field goal? Were the conditions that treacherous?
Their kicker had missed
an extra point and a field goal, so there were no guarantees. But Brian Sipe (Cleveland's QB) was instructed to throw the ball out of the end zone if there wasn't a receiver open, thus leaving the Browns a chance to win on fourth down with a field goal. What made the play even more incredible was Mike Davis' reputation as having the worst hands on the Raiders.
I'm here to talk about the past.
Ah, the good ole' days
when the Raiders were actually good.
"Evidently, a large number of people said, 'We really need more vermin at the ballpark, Artie.'" - Nick (AN), 10/7/07
It is sad, that you can find video this, easier than you
can find an A's highlight.
Yankees will donate once-buried Red Sox jersey to Boston-area charity
I miss the GOG. I was really bad at it, but it was fun.
And no.
"Huston, you're hot!'' said first baseman Dan Johnson, dressed as a bottle of mustard.
Where is AsGirl anyhow?
And I really really don't have time to score those anymore.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
GOG...
stands for what? For us n00bs, you know.
Can we keep small-sample-size Bobby Crosby? Please? -Joey C.
Conversation over the weekend:
"So, where are you going for your honeymoon?"
"Don't know, ----- is planning the whole thing. He's just going to give me a list of things to pack."
"Maybe you can tell based on the list."
"No, I think he's going to add irrelevant stuff to throw me off."
"Maybe he's taking you to Alaska. Did he ask you to pack your moose-hunting gun?"
stat-addled alien overlord
MooseHunting Gun? Is that a euphemism for some sort of marital aid?
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 1:49 PM PDT up reply actions
"Girl-On-Girl"
... and I'm guessing Poppy's just being modest.
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 12:49 PM PDT up reply actions
Law school just wrings all the creativity out of you -- takes many years to get it back.
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 12:50 PM PDT up reply actions
You're not that n00, are you?
"Huston, you're hot!'' said first baseman Dan Johnson, dressed as a bottle of mustard.
lol i popped my AN cherry like 3 days ago.
I just don't seem knew because I have no life and haven't stopped posting.
Geez, MYOB.
;)
"Huston, you're hot!'' said first baseman Dan Johnson, dressed as a bottle of mustard.
Try to keep up, n000bie. ;-)
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 12:54 PM PDT up reply actions
Almost (but not really) Athletic Smoak sets USC home run record
Georgia's heightened legitimacy only helps South Carolina, who rebounded from last week's sweep against the Bulldogs to break out the brooms of their own against Auburn. The Gamecocks only won the series by 4 runs, winning Friday and Sunday 7-6, with an 8-6 victory on Saturday, proving six runs is not enough against these South Carolina bats. Reese Havens and Justin Smoak were their usual brilliant selves as Smoak set the school's home run record on Friday, but the real difference was senior Phil Disher, who had two doubles Friday, two home runs on Saturday and another run-scoring double on Sunday.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7366
http://www.thestate.com/181/story/373616.html
See the latest dumbass thing I've done -- camUra
Wouldn't it be cool if MLB had NHL-like draft rights...
and instead of redrafting, you just had that player in your system but playing in college?
That'd be amazing. Although "signability" would be a whole new problem.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
meh... who would we have lost out on over the years if it had been like that?
Seems like it all evens out in the wash, to some extent.
See the latest dumbass thing I've done -- camUra
regardless of what would have happened for A's
I think it would streamline things if you just drafted the pro rights to players. It would certainly go a long way towards a.) making the draft more interesting to casual fans and b.) making college baseball more interesting to pro baseball fans.
They do for BP (or at least the real USC does)...
I find it strange that they don't bother for the real game. Supposedly it's legal, but since it puts you at a disadvantage in a real game, no one bothers with it.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
Compared to what?
My brother is a Junior in high school and has a 300 dollar bat
Louisville Slugger is now selling MLB quality wood bats for 90 bucks - they're literally the same as Ken Griffy Jr's bat, using MLB quality maple.
Granted, it would be expensive if bats were breaking left and right, and metal bats are pretty much good for a season - maybe two.
Metal bats break in cold weather as well.
Or so I've heard. I'm not positive, but I've heard anecdotes about it.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
So do composite bats, and aluminum bats get dented.
A lot of metal bats are disallowed in games because they're out of round.
Bats break, that's part of baseball.
I love college baseball
Especially Golden Bears games... $8 for a ticket, the Bears are ranked, and you can also see top collegiate teams like Oregon State and ASU. I first saw Jacoby Ellsbury, Travis Buck, and Dustin Pedroia at college games.
(Just a reminder, college players usually play summer ball with wood bats. Go Brewster Whitecaps!)
"It's too bad there are no Hallmark cards saying, 'Sorry your loved one was killed by a foul ball.'" -- The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, W.P. Kinsella
You guys have a pretty impressive team...
Although I think all 15 or so scouts in attendance are trying to figure out what happened to Tyson Ross on Friday... but man, they can hit.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
Frankly, no team's prospects would be the same...
And I'm guessing a lot more kids would go play college ball instead of jumping into rookie ball (which they're eliminating anyways?) or short-season ball immediately. Additionally, it would cut costs for small-market franchises, while allowing top college programs to not lose a quarter of their recruits in any given year. It'd also stop the holdouts, because you don't win redraft rights, you're still stuck with the same team. I think that's more effective than cutting down the time alloted to sign with a club.
I mean, yes, Harden and Zito would have both been Mariners, Mulder a Tiger, and Hudson still would have been an Athletic, but I'm sure there are guys that we drafted first and then opted to go to university instead as well.
So we would have been rooting for a completely different team, but it could potentially solve a plethora of issues for MLB.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
You can't do counterfactuals with specific players
Because the draft order would be completely different, e.g. Smoak would have gone well before the 15th round or whatever it was.
The A's colors are green and gold.
True.
That and the fact that the draft has also been shortened to 50 rounds... but there also would be very few college players drafted, so it's a completely different draft pool.
Smoak could well have gone in the first two or three rounds anyway if signability wasn't an issue. IIRC, he had an OBP near 700 in high school.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
You can in some cases
For example, were the NHL-style rights retention system in place, A's fans would never have gone through the tragedy of unrealized expectations that was Todd Van Poppel.
There is an A in Whimsy.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Apr 14, 2008 2:04 PM PDT up reply actions
my favorite school mascot...
Go Cocks!
"It's too bad there are no Hallmark cards saying, 'Sorry your loved one was killed by a foul ball.'" -- The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, W.P. Kinsella
Wilson Betemit sent home from day care
Has to wait until the discharge stops
stat-addled alien overlord
Wash your hands, dude.
Wash. Your. Hands.
MLBlackout.wordpress.com - Help put an end to MLB.tv blackouts
Is anyone else getting the...
"be equipped to root for the red sox" ad above the diary (err.. fanpost) listings?
Seems like a waste of money to put that on AN.
"The hard... is what makes it great."
I think it's great.
Just what I need to put the finishing touches on my "giant douchebag" halloween costume.
stat-addled alien overlord
so *that's* what all those seized periods were for!
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
If all I know about the English Premier League
were distilled into pure 150 proof wisdom it wouldn't even fill the plastic screw cap on the flask from which David Hirshey regularly imbibes. For reasons which are flimsy and difficult to explain I root for Arsenal, as does Hirshey, and his writeup of yesterday's effective elimination at the hands of ManU is worth a read just for the laughs. To wit:
United administered last rites yesterday to Arsenal's trophy-less season in a game that will be enshrined in the ManU-Arsenal pantheon right up there with the 1999 classic that saw Ryan Giggs slalom through the entire Gunner defense in the 109th minute and then display more chest hair than Robin and Venus Williams combined.
There is an A in Whimsy.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Apr 14, 2008 2:20 PM PDT reply actions
Rotoworld in the tank for Beane?
Rotoworld renders an item from Slusser's A's Notes thusly (emphasis added):
The San Francisco Chronicle speculates that Rich Harden (back) "might be able to rejoin the rotation by the end of the month."
Slusser puts it like this (emphasis added):
Rich Harden, on the disabled list with a muscle strain under his arm [...]
Leaving aside the silly agitprop about Harden starting again in April, I'm really confused as to why Rotoworld would classify Harden's injury as being in his back.
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
Rainouts/Freezeout
"It's too bad there are no Hallmark cards saying, 'Sorry your loved one was killed by a foul ball.'" -- The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, W.P. Kinsella
You'll earn gratitude of the Locals around here if you resize your photos.
In the imaging code, after the second " and before the closing arrow > enter [space] height=150
or some other number just big enough to get your point across. The width dimension takes care of itself. So the above becomes:
...and still gets the job done.
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 4:56 PM PDT up reply actions
BTW, puppy pics are exempt from the above.
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 5:06 PM PDT up reply actions
My problem
with this posting is NOT the size of the picture. Here’s a friendly reminder to new members to read our Community Guidelines.
alright i apologize
point taken. if i knew how to spraypaint out the caption i would have, but you have to link to pics :-/. everybody who’s seen the pic knows the caption anyways.
That's what Joe Crede did last night in the 9th .
(weak comebacker)
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 15, 2008 11:59 AM PDT up reply actions
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
Bruce does not approve.
From the Monongahela valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story's always the same
Seven hundred feet of blimps a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name...
The meaning of life is not so much 'found,' as it is 'made.' --Opus
by The Dogfather on Apr 14, 2008 5:05 PM PDT up reply actions
escalator to nowhere!
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
that could help (then hurt) with the shrinkage
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
"We're one of the first cities of significant size in the United States to embrace shrinkage"
approves
A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05
"Too freaking cold"??
Preposterous! Unheard of!
You’ve been talking to my brother, haven’t you?
I’m going to tell Mother!
I'm here to talk about the past.
yanks and/or reds after piazza?
could this mean something for the a’s in terms of draft picks?
A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05
With Posada and Molina in the way,
I can’t see him getting a major league deal.
Well, maybe the Reds, if an NL team wants to put him behind the plate. Though fellow former Athletic Damian Miller would make sense for Cincy.
"Looks like you brought two too many."
Posada and Molina are both hurt
And what did we do once we discovered a rift in the fourth dimension? We launched a monkey into it. @('.')@
Neither enough to lose their spot on the 40-man.
I still can’t imagine him getting a major league deal.
"Looks like you brought two too many."
According
to this, the A’s would get a supplemental pick. C’mon Reds, sign him!
Juan Pierre: 44 Million Dollars, Juan Pierre's 3.2 WARP3: Priceless
by Travis Buck Nuckin on Apr 15, 2008 8:47 PM PDT up reply actions
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