Brown Single-Handedly Ruins A Perfectly Nice Night
by Nico on May 20, 2008 10:08 PM PDT
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PrintEmil Brown's inability to catch a fly ball Dr. Earl Holloway could have handled allowed the Rays to score three unearned runs in the 8th and render useless brilliant pitching by Greg Smith and Joey Devine. Final Score: Rays 3, A's 2.
Everything else went swimmingly. The A's offense, even if not mistaken for robust, got the one run Greg Smith needed to beat one of the best lefties in the game, Scott Kazmir. Smith was sensational for 7 shutout innings, Joey Devine even better under dire circumstances. Frank Thomas even homered late.
All of which was offset when Emil Brown, with the bases loaded and two outs in the 8th, and the A's leading 1-0, lost a fly ball in the "I've never actually been very good at any part of the game, which is why no other team wants me, but I had a month where I drove in a lot of runs so they'll let me hurt the team for a while longer."
The ball will find you. Cust was out of the game at this point, which was supposed to be the reason we didn't have to hold our breath when the ball was hit, and when Ryan Sweeney came in, Geren could just as easily have put him in LF or RF. We only had one liability out there at this point in the game and it was Brown, now in LF - and the ball found him. Too bad he didn't find the ball.
No, we shouldn't have called Buck up by now. To lose a full year of his service time to get him back a week sooner would be dumb. No, we shouldn't have called Carlos Gonzalez up by now. He is still raw, inconsistent, learning - a guy you call up later rather than sooner because his skills are ahead of his "readiness for prime time". And no, Brown is not the answer to anything - not the present, not the future. Just a nice April, 2008, that's it. Eventually, soonish, our OF will get better. Right now, it's like the rest of the team: not quite good enough, frustrating, just bad enough to lose.
I hate May.
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I'm still extremely frustrated
... why the hell did we not attempt to steal a bag with Sweeney on and one out?? All of a sudden we’re going to string a couple hits together?? We’re lucky to get one hit an inning, for cryin’ out loud. So Sweeney just sits there and doesn’t budge until there’s two strikes on Bowen. When the team is slumping, you have to try anything to manufacture runs.
I needed a team so I wouldn’t turn into one of the eighty million pink hat-wearing Bud Light-drinking mulleted idiots at Fenway.
haha
before the end of the season youll see cust come in as a defensive replacement for brown in a game. it is that bad. and isnt it time for barton to start shopping apts in sacramento???
ANY QUESTIONS???
by KennySeagle on May 20, 2008 10:49 PM PDT up reply actions
Ryan Sweeney's career season high in steals is 8
His career stolen base percentage is 56.5%.
To break even with a runner at 1st, 1 out, bottom 9, down by one, you need to steal successfully ~69% of the time.
With 2 outs, you need to steal successfully 65% of the time.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Plus, Daric Barton was supposed to triple
He must have missed a sign.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
What are the percentages
we get two more hits in the inning?? Way worse than Sweeney’s stolen base percentage, guaranteed.
I needed a team so I wouldn’t turn into one of the eighty million pink hat-wearing Bud Light-drinking mulleted idiots at Fenway.
This is another one of those situations
where:
a. People have already done the math, and it is not necessary for me to redo it,
b. They’re better at it than I am, since I would be cutting corners and using approximations anyway, and
c. debating you is pointless in any case.
Yes, it is probably true that a stolen base followed by a base hit is more likely than two base hits. It should be (but apparently isn’t) blindingly obvious that that does not automatically make the stolen base a better play. The most obvious reason why is that two singles puts the winning run in scoring position. There are many, many other possible scenarios. People who study win probability have accounted for those scenarios. You have not. That makes it quite easy to figure out whose opinion to take seriously.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
You know PT
Is there some reason why you need to be such a prick when you respond to people? I mean it … explain that to me. I can only imagine the kind of childhood you must have had … and frankly, I don’t care if I get in trouble for this at all … you’re a little jerk. And you’ll make a lousy lawyer unless you learn to respect people. What’s going to happen one day is someone is gonna knock your head off (which probably happened a lot in school—that’s why you’re so friggin’ bitter) ... it’s a shame, because you seem like a highly intelligent person … but you lack class and humility. You need a good ass-kickin’, it would seriously do you good.
I needed a team so I wouldn’t turn into one of the eighty million pink hat-wearing Bud Light-drinking mulleted idiots at Fenway.
Oh my God. F*** Emil.
Just….
Fuck him. He sucks. He has a .280 something OBP. He’s dogsh*t.
Get well soon, Denorfia/Buck.
Or just have Davis and Sweeney play at the same time. Would that be so bad? Jesus.
"Looks like you brought two too many."
Davis is worse...
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Not on defense
"Evidently, a large number of people said, 'We really need more vermin at the ballpark, Artie.'" - Nick (AN), 10/7/07
Not defensively...
If he can get his OBP up to, like, .300 (which is still awful, but Davis did have a .360 OBP last year in 211 ML PAs) he’d be better than Emil, when you factor in the D.
Emil falls to his knees on every line drive hit to him.
"Looks like you brought two too many."
He's signifigantly better on defense.
And, quite frankly, I’m not sure he can do much worse than Brown has been doing so far.
At this point, I’d rather see Davis play every day, hit 9th, and try to bunt every single time he comes to the plate than have Brown in there.
Funny thing is, when I was saying that a while ago
the response was less than enthusiastic – it’s amazing what a few absurd clunkers by Cust and Brown can do to make vivid what is too abstract on paper (or in this case, on screen). Though a few more lame-o K’s by Rajai and we’ll all be pining for a worse defender who can at least…
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
There are other players in the A's system
who are also better on defense and can actually hit a ball more than 10 feet at a time.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Then get rid of Brown and bring Linden up.
Just stop running him out there expecting him to be good. He’s not. He’s old, doesn’t have any upside, and makes a SHITLOAD of outs.
But they're productive outs!
< /Joe Morgan >
"God doesn't pay attention to your cute little hypotheticals." -- Jeff from LL
Released
"Dude, you have to teach me the 'Tack and Stilt'" Shannon, after 5 hours at the local watering hole.
I'm still trying to find confirmation on that.
As of today, Linden isn’t listed on the roster at rivercats.com
If he was really let go, that’s a terrible move. I have no doubt that he would be better than Brown.
Here it is in black and white
05/20/2008 OF Todd Linden DELETE (Released)
by theblackpearl on May 21, 2008 10:01 AM PDT up reply actions
I have a feeling
this is going to be a move that the A’s management is going to regret in a year or two. I don’t see Linden becoming a superstar, but i think he will be a serviceable major leaguer. I’m sure this is a very unpopular opinion to most people on this site, and I have no stats to back up this assesment, it’s just more of a feeling i have.
"Put some ice on it. After that, there's nothing a few beers won't take care of. " -Pink
by OrlandoAsFan on May 21, 2008 12:17 PM PDT up reply actions
It was
in yesterday’s River Cats game notes.
My guess is that Linden would be roughly as crappy as Brown. He’s never hit in in the majors, and he doesn’t have a plus glove. Either one would be ok as a 5th outfielder, but neither is someone who should be playing every day. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have an even halfway decent third starting outfielder right now to go with Cust and Ryan Sweeney, and even those two have some pretty obvious flaws as well.
"Tomorrow it may rain." - Leo Durocher
His career OBP is .303
Not exactly a major improvement.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
He seemed to be putting up solid numbers this year
Both in ST and in Sacramento.
To be outright released instead of being given a shot in Oakland when Emil Brown is making outs like crazy is the wrong decision IMO.
He had an out clause in his contract
Either he exercised it, or he made it clear to the team that he was going to do so and they released him in advance of the formality.
This can’t come as a tremendous shock to anyone, given his sullen attitude throughout the entire process.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
There could also be a roster crucnch happening. They
may have found a way to keep Denorfia down with Sacramento, and I read somewhere Robnett was getting close to returning.
by theblackpearl on May 21, 2008 11:12 AM PDT up reply actions
His batting this year notwithstanding...
...he really hasn’t shown all that much over the course of his career to get excited about. Maybe he has “turned the corner” and “figured it out”, but odds are not.
Some read stats. Others actually watch the game.
altihy
lets just be hapoy with good pithing.
just got back frolm the xos game. hammerded.
i knew the offense would be questionable. patience. ,
by oakinboston on May 20, 2008 10:16 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
awesome
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006
Exhibit #093459075
on why intentional walks are frigging retarded.
Seriously. If I ran a baseball team, I would tell the manager that if he ever intentionally walks someone who is not an irrelevant runner in the bottom of the ninth inning, I will fire him on the spot.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Also
we needed a K there, and ibb’d the AL K leader to load the bases with a guy on the mound with BB problems.
The A's colors are green and gold.
I really didn't like that move -
in fairness to Geren, it basically “paid off”. But I still thought it was the wrong move.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
It didn't pay off though,
given that Pena scored and we lost by 1. Errors are something that sometimes happen.
The A's colors are green and gold.
It paid off in that Longoria struck out and Navarro flied to LF
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
I can't complaint about the int walk in the 8th. Why?
Because Devine did what he had to do with the next batter and Brown is probably the only outfielder in the major leagues who fucks up that play.
What if the batter was not intentionally walked and then hits a home run. Many of us would be complaining about why he was not walked.
by oaktownmario on May 20, 2008 10:28 PM PDT up reply actions
I said before the IBB that I thought they should pitch to Pena
What happened didn’t really have to do with why or why not.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
It should be fairly obvious
that I would not be one of those “many.”
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
So you honestly would be satisfied with the move to pitch
if Peña hit a three run bomb given his HR total last year?
Because at that time we don’t know Thomas is going to hit a solo HR off TP.
by oaktownmario on May 20, 2008 10:34 PM PDT up reply actions
I would - I prefer to decide what a manager should do
when it’s in “real time” (when if I were managing, I could still make the decision. Then I don’t second-guess if it doesn’t work out. You can make the right decisions for the right reasons – you can’t guarantee the outcomes.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Exactly
If the other team gets lucky, so be it.
Not to mention the fact that it’s much harder to pitch for a K with the bases loaded (although Devine got one anyway).
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Also, folks should remember that he fell behind 2-0
with the bases loaded – a bases loaded walk was a real possibility, as was getting a legitimate hit from being in a hitter’s count with “nowhere to put him”. With Pena, you can pitch on your terms; with Longoria/Navarro, you couldn’t.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Pena's the better hitter of the three. Plus there's the leftie/rightie
matchup. I had no problems with walking Pena.
If we don't walk Pena
And Devine gets a ground ball that squeaks through scoring 2 runs on a drawn in infield, then everyone would be talking about how we should have walked Pena and been out of the inning with a double play.
by GusanoQuemador on May 21, 2008 9:43 AM PDT up reply actions
Yes Brown's play was unfortunate
But the loss clearly rests on the offense’s shoulders. As I said during the game thread, the approach at the plate is atrocious. Over the past few games we’re getting into good hitter’s counts (3-1 and 2-0) and then swinging at bad pitches and grounding out feebly or popping up. Granted a lot of these hitters are young, but you should have an idea by the age of 24 or 25 that when you’ve got a pitcher on the ropes you do not bail him out repeatedly. Scott Kazmir did not have good stuff tonight. His fastball was topping out at 92 and he was leaving a lot of those meatballs right over the heart of the plate. We either laid off those pitches or just swung right through them. Van Burkleo better be working with these guys to improve the mental side of hitting or the season could go down the drain in a hurry and he could find himself in the enemployment line very soon.
Smith looked good though but he shouldn’t have gone out to start the 8th. Not that it really matters, you can’t score 1 run through 8 innings and expect to win very often.
"Their batters are patient to the point that it's annoying." -Ryan Franklin
I really disagree about Smith not starting the 8th
You’re talking about a guy who’s pitching a shutout, with a bullpen that is down Casilla and A. Brown (both on DL), Street and Embree (probably both unavailable). Put in context, I think it made sense to let Smith pitch until he wasn’t effective. And probably the only reason he pitched to Crawford was the lefty-lefty matchup (and Crawford was 0 for 3 against him) – and Crawford just served a soft liner to CF on a good pitch.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Um
Did you actually watch this game?
By actual count:
2-0 or 3-1 counts: 4
0-2 counts: 9
Kazmir was hitting corners at will and getting ahead of every hitter. You literally could not have picked a worse game to complain about this.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
I still don't really get what makes Kazmir so good
He really doesn’t throw that hard. He was hitting corners here and there, but we still swung through quite a few pitches that were hittable. Frank did it a few times and Brown did it a few times on pitches right down the middle or even mistakes a little up in the zone. He didn’t even throw his off-speed stuff that much. The pitch that really doninated us was the 91-92 mph fastball. I guess his delivery must be deceptive or he has some late movement on his fastball though I couldn’t see it from where I was sitting..
by GusanoQuemador on May 21, 2008 9:55 AM PDT up reply actions
Read my comment again jackass
I did not say we were getting into a lot of those counts just tonight, I said over the past few games. And no, we swung through a lot of pitches that were fat, but as there’s no way to actually prove this short of you and I sitting down and reading a replay of the game then you’re going to think you’re right and I’m going to think I’m right.
"Their batters are patient to the point that it's annoying." -Ryan Franklin
by Helloooo 1st on May 29, 2008 8:48 PM PDT up reply actions
"Evidently, a large number of people said, 'We really need more vermin at the ballpark, Artie.'" - Nick (AN), 10/7/07
If I had the skills
I’d make an ani-gif of the ball going right through him, like the one of Podsednik playing one off his head last season.
"Evidently, a large number of people said, 'We really need more vermin at the ballpark, Artie.'" - Nick (AN), 10/7/07
Friggin' A
3 errors in the game… this is not A’s baseball. I’d rather see them lose 1-0 and play solid D. I really like the idea of having Davis play OF for the rest of the season and dumping Email before his numbers start to get crappier.
The only bit of good news
Oakland RHP Santiago Casilla, on the DL with inflammation in his throwing elbow, will begin playing light catch in a few days. “That’s really good news,” said manager Bob Geren, who initially thought the injury could be worse.
Yeah, that's good news
I mean news after the game
Clarification
Smith gets the loss, not Devine because Smith was “responsible” for 2 of the 3 runners that scored. Of course we all know who was really “responsible” . . . or should it be “irresponsible.”
Oh crap, you're right - for some reason
I forgot it was 1-0 at the time. My bad. I’ll fix it.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
I agree with Valejo A's fan.
Time to cut and run on Emil. Put in Davis and Sweeney and let them play daily. Very frustrating game. Nice homer by Frank, though.
by A'sfansince1970 on May 20, 2008 10:26 PM PDT reply actions
agree on Brown
but not on Davis. The guy is terrible. Both Brown and Davis will likely be cut by late June, should Buck/Gonzalez come up.
I have to say this, though
Given the chance of catching a little lightning in a bottle, it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world to go with Linden – who is a decent defensive OFer – instead of Brown. Linden can outhit Davis and out-defend Brown.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Linden would at least ...
make his at bats interesting. When Davis is at the plate I never even hope for a big hit.
FWIW
Before Brown’s screwup, Davis had the game-winning hit.
I saw it.
and good for him, but his hits are too little and too infrequent to make me feel any sense of excitement for his at bats.
That's true of most of the team
Davis is a spare part who probably won’t end the season with the team. But at least he can play defense and run. He’s a late-inning defensive replacement/pinch runner/platoon guy.
I’ll agree that Linden is almost certainly a better, and more dangerous, hitter.
and I agree with your
assessment of Davis. The kid can fly…and I like seeing him come in to run for Thomas and the big guys,.
I don't
As things stand I expect the A’s to lose like 60% of their extra inning games, because they keep replacing their few good hitters with dreck in the late innings.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
I'm guessing the plan is...
...that it won’t have to go extra innings because the move worked as planned.
Kind of brings up a (rhetorical) question, though. We’ve talked here about roster crunches, more worthy players than roster spots, and so forth. Is it because everybody is so good, or everybody is so mediocre? And if they’re all so good, what’s the problem?
Some read stats. Others actually watch the game.
The roster crunch
is because the A’s are attempting to evaluate a whole bunch of different players at once. Yes, most of them are mediocre—but we don’t know which are the gold flakes, and which are the river mud, until we see how they pan out.
(Get it? Pan out? Heh.)
That being said, I personally don’t think there is much of a crunch. We know that some of the guys on the roster right now can’t play. When the need arises, they can be waived without compunction.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
They just ruled that a base hit (double to Navarro)
According to Robert Buan
Pathetic
don't remember
didn’t see a lot of replays, but if it landed before it hit him, it a hit. if he touched it after then the third run would be unearned. Again, scoring rules are dumb.
but who cares, it was a crappy play that should have been made. The A’s would have won if it was made. Or if the runners never got on in the first place. Its one of those things, sucks that it happened, but things will even out.
Gravity
This teaml, while better than expected because of the pitching, is simply falling to its more natural level.
It’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising and – if it continues – will prevent the team from making too many decisions for the short term that wouldn’t help next year or the year after.
boooo.
i p[refer short erm tdecionsions.z
ok. enough from me godnight.
sadness.
by oakinboston on May 20, 2008 10:32 PM PDT up reply actions
sober up
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006
I think Beane is smart enough - which includes
seeing slides like this coming – that he wouldn’t allow the team to veer from a future-oriented approach just because we were doing well. There’s a reason CGon and Buck are in AAA and it has to do with how ready they are to help significantly now compared to 5-6 years from now.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
I watched CarGon on sat.
He seemed plenty ready and quite a bit above Rajai Davis . We are only 3 games back…would like to see the best players play.
Now v. the future
Beane was never going to do a bunch of stupid stuff while chasing a division title this season.
But if the A’s were to be a serious contender, which is still possible, that would dictate some decisions that might not otherwise be made. You might, for example, send Barton down to AAA because – for this season – Sweeney is a better option.
But on a team that is only on the fringes of the playoff race, Barton stays with the big club and gets the experience.
Ah yes... thoughts on the game
I was distracted with work stuff, so I don’t have many thoughts on this game, although I saw almost all of the run-scoring plays (except for Thomas’ home run).
I’ll come up with some thoughtful-sounding, albeit random, musings at some point.
Hey, do that on a Tuesday and we can be twinsies!
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Agreed.
I think this team fooled us for 5 weeks thinking they could win 90 games. They hit with RISP, made key defensive plays and held leads. Now they look like they could lose 90. Bad Ab’s, possibly the ML’s worst defense, and a beat up bullpen. It would be nice to compete this year, but i dont think it can happen. We need to adjust our sights as fans. Wait for TBuck and Barton to adjust to year two. Save CarGon for a september call-up. Bring up a 4A guy like Linden to see what you have. DFA old money like Brown and Hurt. Trade guys like Ellis and Harden and get ready for 2009.
Was April the abomination, or is May the abomination?
Maybe June will tell.
Some read stats. Others actually watch the game.
I hit the hay without listening to Buan
then restless, I got up to get me a little Nico game-wrap read. very good. night.
alaska A
Yeah, listening to Buan puts me to sleep, too...
Sometimes while I’m driving home.
AN 3.0's Search Function is *hawt*!
Huston Street said Brown should have made the catch
and he does not know why they changed it to a double when he thinks it was an error
Wow - honestly, that makes Brown sound like a guy
whose teammates don’t care for him. Which for some reason, I suspect. I wonder how diligently he works in the OF to handle the field conditions – or whether he lost it in the lights because he hasn’t bothered to prepare for those kinds of situations. I just don’t see those kinds of things happening to Ellis…
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Yes, until this past week. Why?
Because Cust and Brown were, I believe, among the players cited as “not taking pride in their defense”. However, just in the last week Cust has been mentioned as taking extra fly balls before games. All I can ask is for a strong work ethic and commitment – and I do. Suzuki works hard – he’ll still make mistakes and I can accept them because everyone reports he is early to the park, working hard on his weak areas. That’s all we can reasonably ask for.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
I don't really know...
enough about how much Emil works on his defense. All I know is that his defense leaves much to be desired. However, his offense has been a saving grace many a time this season. It seems to me that people on AN just don’t like old Email.
It's the USPS
They have been trying to keep Email down for years.
"Dude, you have to teach me the 'Tack and Stilt'" Shannon, after 5 hours at Daisy Mae's
Cust makes up for it by hitting the ball and getting on base.
Brown makes up for it by leading the team in outs made.
Buan talked about the "error"
and Street replied that he should have had it.
He did say “we all make errors” so I don’t think he was scathing about it, just that he should have had it and was surprised they changed it to a double
i didn't take Street's comment as implying
that Brown’s teammates don’t care for him, nor that they think he doesn’t work on his defense.
It doesn't change the result but it sure pisses me off to see
Smith and Devine’s ERA go up because of Brown
Smith is now at 3.18 and Devine at 1.40
Of course I can’t let this go without an honorable mention to Geren for allowing Smith to start the 8th and for leaving him in there after the 4 pitch walk. We will never know but Devine starting the inning, we end with a 1-0 lead starting the bottom of 8.
Geren did the right thing -
To remove your starter when he’s pitching a shutout and your 4 best relievers are unavailable is what would be stupid. And by the way, in your scenario Foulke pitches the 9th with Brown in LF – you can’t see anything possibly going wrong?
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
I undertsand him bring him back out but the 4 pitch walk
was the alarm there.
I know the hit was a soft single but he had Devine ready and Devine did strike the first two out so I disagree with him being left in there after the walk.
HUSTON STREET SAID HE WAS GOING TO PITCH THE 9TH
My guess is that if a lefty hadn't been up,
Geren would have gone to Devine after the walk. To think that Devine-Crawford was some magical great matchup is a bit of a stretch, IMO.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Crawford is hitting .309 vs LHP
and .266 against RHP.
Good for Carl Crawford.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
LHB were hitting .179 off Devine
How is that a stretch to have Devine pitch to Crawford?
You really have no understanding of small sample sizes, do you
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Yes it's a small sample size
so we should just say
“I don’t think Devine should come in to face Crawford because he might get a hit”
Give me a reason why he couldn’t have come in
For his career,
Carl Crawford has an OPS+ of 106 against RHP and 85 against LHP. His career sample size is large enough to make this split reasonably reliable once it is regressed to the mean.
Greg Smith has such a short career sample size that it’s best to assume that he has a platoon split that is typical for LHP. The same is true for Joey Devine. An added factor is that each of them throws from a 3/4 arm slot and throws a slider instead of a curveball, both factors that suggest larger than average platoon splits.
Greg Smith is also far less likely to give up a steal.
I’m not MGL, so I can’t tell you exactly what this tells us in terms of how much better of a pitcher Devine has to be in that situation than Smith to make going to him the percentage play… but I suspect that the answer is “an awful lot.” And I also suspect that Devine is not, in fact, that much better.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Smith was letting runners on
here and there throughout the game. I see no reason for removing him in the 8th after the 4 pitch walk. He got out of similar type jams all night long.
You can blame our offense, our defense,
but to act as if the manager made some blunder with the pitching is just typical fan-BS at its worst, IMO. Every fan of every team thinks their manager mishandles the pitching staff and leaves pitchers in too long and also takes them out too soon and doesn’t play the matchups enough and relies on them too much. And you know what? The managers with the best pitchers look good the most often, and Dusty Baker really did suck.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
It seems like a patterns though
And I do admit ‘seeming’ is a very squishy notion, I might be completely wrong.
But a pattern of bringing in relievers a few batters too late seems to be at hand. Yes, a reliever could well have given up 3 runs and we’d bitch about taking Smith out too soon.
by MobiusKlein on May 20, 2008 11:08 PM PDT up reply actions
Smith pitched great and earned the right to go back out there
but a 4 pitch walk and having thrown 102 pitches is a signal that he has more than done his job
I don’t see how you can say that is typical fan-BS wanting a pitching change because IMO Geren does this often. See Joe Blanton at least 3 times this year so far.
Yeah managers aren’t perfect. No one expects them to be. Had Emil Brown done his job we would not even be having this discussion. I think it turned out to be BS leaving him in there and having Brown butcher the game when Devine may have left him nothing to butcher.
Yet, if Brown had caught that ball.
You would be here posting about how it was great that Geren pulled Smith as soon as he got into trouble instead of leaving him in to give up runs, right?
Nah, would be Praising Devine for putting out the fire.
by MobiusKlein on May 20, 2008 11:21 PM PDT up reply actions
Did Ryan start the fire?
"Whether they find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet." - Jack Handey
by bluthbanana20 on May 21, 2008 12:03 PM PDT up reply actions
We didn't start the fire
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
cold as
the Rockies.
"Put some ice on it. After that, there's nothing a few beers won't take care of. " -Pink
by OrlandoAsFan on May 21, 2008 12:54 PM PDT up reply actions
Emil Brown spoke to scorer who changed it to a hit
Brown said he tried to get low to the ground to have a better view of the ball, but that didn’t work. After speaking to the official scorer after the game to tell his side, the play was changed from an error to a hit.
“There’s nothing I can do about losing the ball in the lights,” Brown said. “The fact those guys had pitched out of the situation is why I’m more frustrated and angry. I was trying my best to get that. I wish I could have.”
It's more likely Emil 'Ticket' gave the scorer a fiftsky....
shading his eyes from the “glare of the stadium lights’’ is like Ray Charles saying he’s “scared of the dark”.
That was no double
From the stands behind home plate, you can clearly see that Emil committed an error. Weird.
My own thought is that Emil Brown and Rajai Davis’s time with the team is probably limited. When Denorfia comes back, a reliever gets sent down, and you won’t see Emil Brown in the outfield in the late innings. I think that when Travis Buck is ready, Rajai Davis gets released. And when Billy makes his June changes, Brown is either traded or DFA’d, and Carlos Gonzalez comes to the majors.
I’d consider bringing up Todd Linden immediately and giving him a shot. He’s a better fielder than Brown and can play in the late innings. More importantly, he’s been hitting the tar out of the ball all year and really should get a chance, particularly since the A’s line-up as constituted now, really sucks.
Linden opted out of his contract yesterday
or, at least, one assumes so because the A’s released him.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
im sick of people saying CarGon and Buck arent ready
At this point we have no choice but to bring these guys up and let them get there feet wet in the majors, well buck as already, this is a rebuilding year, so cut soem ties with these older players and bring up the young kids.
Buck's swing is cocked up
Hard to see why the team would be better off fixing it in the majors—and losing games in the process—instead of in AAA.
Gonzalez is also not likely to hit well this season and has plenty of things to work on (eg pitch recognition) in AAA.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Suggestion for Geren
Take Cust and Brown into the outfield at night and hit them each 100 fly balls.
Why is it the opposition can see and catch the ball at night and we are blinded? Some home field advantage.
Also trying coaching Suzuki , Sweeny and Crosby on base running…..
Morada Mudshark
by Morada Mudshark on May 21, 2008 10:14 AM PDT reply actions
No, no, no
Cust is supposed to spend all that time practicing his bunting.
We're going to knock balls out of the country's park, for the home team, which is America. @('.')@
Let's not act like
“losing the ball in the lights” isn’t an error. That’s like saying, “I can’t help it if the ball just clanks off my glove.” Or, “I can’t help it that I took the wrong angle to the ball.”
I have no idea how that “explanation” warrants changing the play from an error to a hit.
The way you position yourself, the way in which you charge the ball, the way in which you hold your glove, these all determine whether or not you lose the ball in the lights. It was a horrible error on a very playable ball. I would rather Brown just admit that and move on.
When Suzuki got thrown out rounding second the other day, he said, “There is no excuse for it, so I won’t offer one. It was a horrible mistake, and it won’t happen again.” Then he shut the hell up. That’s what I want a player to do when he butchers a routine play. Tell us you sucked, and then shut up.
I needed a team so I wouldn’t turn into one of the eighty million pink hat-wearing Bud Light-drinking mulleted idiots at Fenway.
I agree that he should have caught it, and that he should own up
But I also think it’s a quasi-”acceptable” excuse/error to lose it in the lights. It happens.
We're going to knock balls out of the country's park, for the home team, which is America. @('.')@
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