Disturbing Trend
by hokecole on Apr 17, 2008 9:26 PM PDT
Email
PrintThe A's showing against the Mariners in two games exposes a disturbing trend that does not bode well unless changes are made. The obvious one is the offense. There is no punch, but even worse, a lack of plate discipline. Exhibit A was the Buck strike out in the 8th inning. He just kept swinging as each pitch went higher out of the strike zone.
Defense. Terrible. How many games in a row with an error is it....10! Even the reliable Mark Ellis made minor league plays on the double plays in both the third and eighth innings. It is stating the obivious that you can not give up outs. No team has enough talent to be successful throwing away as many outs as the A's have been doing.
Pitching. Lenny DiNardo is regressing to his average, which is terrible. He could not find the plate at all, and even walked one of the worst hitters on the Mariners, Willie Bloomquist. You don't have to be clever with a hitter like Bloomquist, just get the ball over the plate. That is all Silva did, and the A's got themselves out over and over again. DiNardo should not be on this team with a performance like tonight.
The optomism of the recently concluded road trip has faded away....someone pull off the bridge.
36 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
20 starts
Yea, I’ve never understood where all this love for DiNardo came from.
One of the big reasons we did so poorly last year was we had to put up with 20 starts fro DiNardo, and if Harden and Duke can’t keep themselves healthy, we might have to see another 10 until Gio is ready. The A’s can not compete if they have that many DiNardo starts.
Sometimes life will strike you out on a curve ball and the only choice you have is to flip off the umpire and walk to first base anyway.
Pitching is fine.
The Starting Rotation, even when injured, is doing fine. And when Duke comes back, and assuming that Harden is going to go Phase 5 on us in about a week (IE: Out for the year, rehabbing), then the rotation will be;
RHP Joe Blanton
RHP Justin Duchscherer
LHP Dana Eveland
RHP Chad Gaudin
LHP Greg Smith
Of those, Gaudin is struggling, but the others are doing fine. And we still have Gio Gonzalez in the minors awaiting a callup.
The Bullpen is doing fine as well. Street is going iffy, Embree is Embree (alternating between dependable and unbearable), Casilla has turned a new corner, Foulke is somehow getting people out while throwing 80 MPH, and Andrew Brown is doing great. Even Saars is somehow succeding, but for how long I don’t know.
But the offense is a black hole.
Despite Bobby Crosby’s newfound ability to hit, he still has an OPS at about .700. And Kurt Suzuki, at least entering this game, was the only A with an OPS close to .800.
Mike Sweeney and Jack Cust, are “Big Bats” are not hitting. Travis Buck and Daric Barton, our future, are not hitting, and striking out more than ever.
What ever Ty is trying with our hitters, it is not working.
Promoting Carlos Gonzalez might be a great boone for the offense, but its probably best to wait a couple weeks to keep another year of CarGon.
But who else can we bring in to boost the offense? Linden? I can’t really think of anyone else. We have little offense in our minors, and none in the infield.
Perhaps we really do need to bank of Chavez getting healthy and coming back, because Hanahan hasn’t been able to do what he did last year.
This is basically a .500 team ... maybe a couple of games worse ...
it’ll have it’s winning streaks … it’ll have it’s losing streaks …
Enjoy …
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
That Buck at bat...
ugh, it was just brutal. One of the worst at bats I’d seen in awhile…
Juan Pierre: 44 Million Dollars, Juan Pierre's 3.2 WARP3: Priceless
by Travis Buck Nuckin on Apr 18, 2008 12:54 AM PDT reply actions
Buck
It’s time to move him out of the lead off spot.
by sf drift king on Apr 18, 2008 9:59 AM PDT up reply actions
because
we thought he snapped out of his funk, but it’s apparent he still has issues to work out.
by sf drift king on Apr 18, 2008 10:50 AM PDT up reply actions
we
can’t have someone batting a buck sixty five (no pun intended) in the lead off spot, we just can’t.
by sf drift king on Apr 18, 2008 10:51 AM PDT up reply actions
Food for Thought
The offense may be bad, but we have see if we can get Buck and Barton hitting we can at least compete.
Also, there are lots of paths through which the offense can improve over the season:
1)Barton, Buck, and Cust hitting again.
2)Chavez coming back. (Hanahan is another one of those players that gets too much love for doing a back-up quality job.)
3)Carlos Gonzalez being called up.
4)Blanton/Harden/Gaudin being traded.
This team is going to get better, it’s just going to happen slowly.
Sometimes life will strike you out on a curve ball and the only choice you have is to flip off the umpire and walk to first base anyway.
This is a rebuilding year so
Get rid of the garbage and bring up half the farm and get them acclamated to the majors
Hannahan belongs in minors
Carlos Gonzalez belongs here NOW
Jack Cust lovefest has ended with a thud
Lenny DiNardo should never start another game. We have Eveland and Smith Who are doing great. There has to be someone else who is ready or nearly ready who actually has ability like these two and can gets outs unlike DiNardo who is a loss waiting to happen.
Let’s enjoy this team rebuilding without watching auto-garbage
How is Emil Brown not in your list?
and Mike Sweeney? Since we’re all about rebuilding and getting rid of garbage?
ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524
The reason they are not on the list is
Mike Sweeney has 1 strikeout in what 58 PA, The Two Jacks have 2,000 strikeouts in 10 at bats
Emil Brown also makes contact and drives in more runs that Cust and Hannahan have or will in two years at the rate they make contact
Are you actually interested in having explained to you why strikeouts are not a bad thing?
Just trying to figure out in advance if it’s going to be a waste of time.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
PT, I know you know
But it’s worth pointing out that strike outs ARE bad. They’re outs. And they’re, on average, a teeny bit worse than other kinds of outs.
They’re just not enough worse to really matter as some sort of significant negative quality.
http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/
by thejd44 on Apr 19, 2008 11:35 AM PDT up reply actions
You do not like strikeouts.
Fine.
You do not decide who wins baseball games. It is not you who decides the value of strikeouts and HRs and walks.
Emil Brown? His career high in RBIs in MLB is 86. That was 3 years ago when he was 30. Cust’s career high is 82. that was last year.
Yeah, Emil Brown is definitely better than Cust at driving in runs.
ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524
OK
You realize that the reason why this “garbage” is starting is that they’re better than the alternatives, right?
DiNardo outpitched Saarloos in a major way last season. Eveland and Smith are irrelevant since they are both already in the rotation, and were considered higher on the depth chart than Lenny on opening day. The only other uninjured starters on the 40-man are Dan Meyer, who’s still recovering from appendicitis, and Dallas Braden, who I guess you could make a case for. But he was also outpitched by Lenny last year.
The next 3B down the depth chart from Hannahan, assuming you’re not counting Donnie Murphy, is Jeff Baisley, who had an OBP of .310 in AA last season.
Bringing up top prospects is not rebuilding. Any team can do that. Rebuilding is a process of throwing a whole bunch of guys out there and seeing who does better than expected. There’s no excuse for the A’s cutting any player loose prior to, at EARLIEST, the end of May.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Sure, but this is a team close to competing
And could be retooled on the fly by signing quality vet like ahem, ahem BONDS (instead retreads like Brown), a return of Chavez, a dose of Carlos Gonzalez and crossing the fingers that the other guys come around.
Other than your proposal of signing Bonds
none of your other suggestions are really concrete moves.
Sure, Chavez could certainly bounce back. Or he could continue to struggle the rest of the year once he’s back. Sure, Marabino patrol craft could come up to MLB, and play like a ROY, and sure, a couple other guys could come around.
And sure, Ervin Santana could finally fulfil his talent and become the pitcher he could be. Sure, John Lackey could come back quickly from his injury, and pitch like he did last year.
ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524
You are tiring and annoying PT
with your constant common sense and reason. It can really wear on a guy!
;)
2008 Oakland Athletics...more than meets the eye!
by OptimistPrime on Apr 19, 2008 12:43 PM PDT up reply actions
"Wait until 2009" and "Wait until 2011"
may only differ by two characters, but they’re completely different concepts.
The 2009 rotation is likely to be bolstered by one to two of James Simmons, Andrew Bailey and Gio Gonzalez. The 2009 outfield will contain Carlos Gonzalez as well as the survivors of the steel cage death match from this season, and possibly Aaron Cunningham. The 2009 infield will have Barton in his second full season, plus Crosby in a contract year and a (hopefully) healthy Eric Chavez. Landon Powell will very possibly be the backup C/DH.
That’s a huge uptick in competitiveness from Harden/DiNardo, Emil Brown, Mike Sweeney, Hannahan and Rob Bowen. If the team resigns Ellis, there shouldn’t be a single position at which the 2009 team is weaker than the 2008 version.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
It'll be weaker in the rotation on games 2 and 7 ...
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
Heh
Even there, they can bring Harden back if they want to—and if he misses half the season again, he’ll probably get a pay cut instead of having his option exercised.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
i was trying to thread to respond to rfloh in the above convo
and was being a tad sarcastic.
my point is of course i didn’t say anything concrete, it’s hard to justify concrete hopes of competitiveness for the A’s in 2008. But from a practical standpoint this is a team that could stand to surprise if they put themselves in the best position to “get lucky” this season.
man
i just can’t handle threading when im responding to a post on the bottom of the page. :-/ One day I’ll get it!
Well, I have no problem with signing Bonds and hoping
If your proposal is to sign Bonds, sure, go ahead.
ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524
That sums it up perfectly.
"God doesn't pay attention to your cute little hypotheticals." -- Jeff from LL
Whats disturbing is this.........
Brown: .683 OPS
R Sweeney: .657
Cust: .608
Denorfia: .558
Buck: .507
Thats your Oakland A’s 2008 outfield. I know its only a little over 10% of the season but that is just piss poor no matter how you slice it.
by asfaninpismobeach on Apr 18, 2008 2:49 PM PDT reply actions
CALL LINDEN UP ALREADY!!!!!!!!
Not really, just know what you are getting at.
by theblackpearl on Apr 18, 2008 3:27 PM PDT up reply actions
If "Lenny DiNardo is regressing to his average"
Wouldn’t that make him average, and not terrible?
http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/
by thejd44 on Apr 19, 2008 11:35 AM PDT reply actions
Not if is average is terrible.
What he means is not that he’s regressing to league average, but that his performance is regressing to his true skill level, which he believes is terrible.
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
Optomism
Wasnt he the guy from X Men?
Come on…..so DiNardo sucked but then LosKirk came in and did really well. And of course, today, I guess your theory about the lack of offense, in the face of last nights outburst, holds less water than my grandfather’s bladder.
2008 Oakland Athletics...more than meets the eye!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
Baseball Nation Recent Stories
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Get a grip: Reds’ Todd Frazier loses bat, still connects for home run (Video)
- Eric Hosmer redefines the Baltimore chop with infield double (Video)
- College player makes impossible over the fence catch to save tournament game (Video)
- Security!: Camden Yards guard collides with Royals’ Mike Moustakas
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
