Ryan Sweeney went 4-for-4. Great "I belong here" confidence-booster.

Barton had several great at-bats, and missed a homer by two feet.

I think Crosby's improvement is for real. I was pumped after seeing the new stance in our first 3 a.m. Japan game, and I still think he's turned the corner. Today he took a pitch on the outside corner and knocked a solid base hit up the middle. Last year he would've rolled his hands over and hit a meek grounder to the left side.

Cust hit a ball to the warning track in center that would've been a homer if it was 80 degrees today (June) and not 49.

As Nico and several others said, Buck looks lost. Not keeping his weight back, rolling his hands over on outside pitches.

Too radical to send him back to AAA this fast...but I think the compromise is to move him down to ninth in the order until this ends. It's that he's just not hitting...he also looks terrible.

But I also noted, when he came up with the bases loaded and nobody out, that the previous AB he had looked terrific - relaxed, short to the ball - and that this AB was in a "pressure" situation...and Crosby lunged, got impatient, and hit a weak ground ball (similar to his bases loaded AB against Matsusaka on Opening Night).

Still...baby steps.

and it was amazing to watch (and listen to on the radio, Korach was obviously loving it). He was working quickly, and was unhittable. About the fourth inning, he started taking his time between pitches, walking around the mound, rubbing the all, etc., ahich is when I knew something was up. At first I just thought that he was getting tired having not pitched 3+ innings recently over the past few seasons.

But what really concerned me was when the trainers rushed out of the dugout in the fifth without any clearly noticeable indication that he was hurt. It seems to me that the only reason that this happened was that he talked to them about it in the bottom of the fourth in the dugout. As has been previously noted, why would you let your pitcher go out again after you know he's not 100%?

I'm not trying to lay any blame for his injury on anyone, and he was pitching wonderfully until the fifth, but I feel it was preventable.

Someone requested a Mike Sweeney circa-prime years photo in the earlier thread.

This is his batting stance in Spring Training of the 2000 season. He knocked in 144 runs and put up a .930 OPS that year.

He's "loading" in that photo, so I figure the pitch is either leaving the pitcher's hand or is a milli-second away from that.

Now, compare that photo to what you saw tonight. His crouch is pretty significant, isn't?

I think it will be hard for him to generate his pre-back injury power, but he's had to adopt this approach to swing pain-free.

the new alternates look terrible, and they don't have the 40th Anniversary patch on them. At least get a new set of batting helmets to match the black hats.

Doesn't sound good:

His mood after the game was as dark as the black "alternate" jerseys that Oakland donned for the first time since 2000.

"I was thinking, 'Please don't be hurt,'" Duchscherer said. "That's the last thing I wanted to happen. ... It's extremely frustrating."

The A's announced the injury as "slight biceps tendinitis," but Geren and Duchscherer both said it was a strain. And while Geren said Duchscherer is "officially listed as day to day," Duchscherer certainly didn't sound encouraged about the prospect of making his next turn on Wednesday in Toronto.

"It could take a little bit of time, I don't know," he said.

Greg Smith may be a worthy replacement if Duke needs to sit for a while. We may have lost Dan Haren in the offseason, but with Smith and Gonzalez (not to mention DiNardo), we have some serious rotation depth.

Hopefully, the offense isn't as bad as it looks so far this year. Other than Suzuki and Crosby, nobody looks like they have much of an idea at the plate, Sweeney's nice night notwithstanding.

Everybody seems to think that either DiNardo or Smith will get the start that Duchscherer will (presumably) miss...but why not throw Saarloos out there, especially if it is going to be a two-three start thing?

Since Smith looks like he's a part of the organization's future, he should be kept on turn in Sacramento and not jolted up and down to the majors and minors, whereas DiNardo is needed as a long-reliever at this point, especially since Geren seems to be leaning heavily on Foulke-Embree-Street in every game and leaving the bullpen kind of thing on guys that chew innings.

Saarloos can be brought up, given two starts and then when Duke comes back, they can send him back down - if he accepts the assignment that is, which I would if i were him, knowing that there's a good chance that he'd be back up again before long with full knowledge of the A's extensive injury history.

that preview is no longer mandatory. I suppose we have the noisy complainers at Lookout Landing to thank for that as well?

Wide screen option, suppress avatars option, and now preview-less posts. Is there nothing they can't do?