First half standouts – Harden, Duke, Eveland, Smith, Swooney.
First half disappointments – Blanton, Barton, Buck.
Starting Pitching: A
Relief Pitching: B+
Offense: D
Defense: B
Geren: B-
Beane: B+
Overall: B+

Second half thoughts/predictions:

Harden will be traded to Phillies for a Haren-like haul. It may need to be a 3 way.
The schedule is going to make it very difficult for the A’s to stay within striking distance of Anaheim. 48 road games, just 33 home games and only 4 scheduled off days (not counting ASB). So far, Smith and Eveland have had 5 days rest in about half their starts. That will not be the case for the rest of the year, which does not bode well as Eveland has never thrown more than 117 innings on any level and Smith has never thrown more than 104 innings on any level.
I say they finish 82-79, with 1 game rained out and not made up.

as I don’t think Billy is going to get what he wants during the season. Let’s see Harden pitch the rest of the year with no major health issues (knock on wood!!!) and then he’s a Haren-like trade in December.

Looking back, its a shame that the A’s didn’t try to trade Blanton for a player like Victorino when Blanton had trade value…Victorino would have been a nice addition and moving Gaudin to the rotation would be nice.

For a solid – not spectacular – bat plus a prospect or two to a contending team (maybe the Yankees, where he could win 8 games in July / August / September just by pitching like he’s done on average this season).

By replacing Blanton with Gaudin and adding a little offense the A’s will win 5 more games than they would have otherwise. Harden and Duke will miss a combined 10 starts over the rest of the season. The A’s will still fade a little as guys like Smith and Eveland come back to earth. They’ll lose the division by 8 games and miss the wild card by 5. And the season will have been a spectacular success at that level.

I agree with the high grade for the front office if you’re counting the offseason trades of Haren, Swisher, Kotsay and Scutaro taken as a whole. I don’t know if it’s Beane’s best job ever and it certainly isn’t one of the great performances in the history of western civilization like Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 in D-minor, but Beane’s been very good as he usually has during the past 11 years. Most impressive has been its flexbility to start to emphasize speed (Davis, Weeks) and high-upside amateurs (Inoa, Hunter, Elgie, Berroa, David Thomas, Fitts, Contreras, Rosario, Duran).

Whether Blanton, Harden, Duchscherer or Street gets traded depends entirely on what’s offered, and I don’t see anyone moving until Sabathia’s situation is settled. Harden seems the most likely to move (Yankees, Braves, Cubs, Rays).

I don’t see a second half fade. The team’s Pythag is 47-34. The young starters are likely to run out of gas and Harden/Duke are liable to get hurt, but Blanton, Chavez, Street, Thomas, Buck, Barton, Gaudin and Gonzalez are likely to contribute a lot more than they have so far.

I can see Gio coming up. The following stats make him look a lot better than his ERA:

1 K/IP
2:1 K/BB
1.5 GB/FB
.21 IF/Fly

Of course he may hit an innings wall as well.

one thing to keep in mind is that the Angels are on pace to win 98 games so you would expect that the first half will wind up having been their better half. Starting pitcher stamina is a concern for the A’s but perhaps their diligence about pitch counts and their high number of off-days in April-June will pay dividends.

The only grade with which I would quibble is Geren’s “B”. What are the components of a manager? You could categorize the parts as:

1. Team ethos (maintaining morale, chemistry, focus)
2. Overachieving (getting the most out of your talent)
3. In-game tactitian (lineups, pitching decisions, pinch-hit/pinch-run)

It seems to me as if Geren earns a solid “A” for the first two, and given how many good choices have been unavailable to him with injuries to Harden/Duke, Casilla/Brown/Devine, Thomas/M. Sweeney, Chavez/R. Sweeney, it seems to me as if his tactician grade should actually be no lower than a B+ if not higher.

I give Geren a solid A- for his role in this team’s surprising first-half success.

If the A’s are out of contention by Sept. 1, is there any chance A’s brass will rest Harden & Duke, and call-up Cahill & Anderson? It might be too soon to add them to the 40-Man Roster, but if they’re ready, they’re ready… you know?

and if the extra 3 days doesn’t help, you have to pull him from the rotation.

Suzuki B+: very good on pitch-blacking, and that diving grab in Seattle, oh my. But slow to throw on steals and has heard a few footsteps. Great hustle on back-ups.

Bowen Inc.: seems competent; hope he plays more in second half.

Barton: B: terrific reactions and good glove on errant throws, but those pop-ups—yeesh

Ellis A: as in automatic. Great glove, good range, some routine spectacular plays. I relax when the ball’s hit to him.

Crosby B: decent glove, suspect arm accuracy. Tries to do a lot, which is a mixed blessing sometimes—wish he’d actually stop a few more when he leaves his feet.

Hannahan B: seems more comfortable at third with better range than last year.

Chavvie Inc.: seems 3/4-step slower than quicker-than-anyone. Not surprising—hope he shakes the recovery rust.

JCOA D: a vast improvement from where he was at the start of the season.

EBrown C: decent range but too casual, seems to lack concentration, careless and suspect arm

Swooney B: began playing too deep, gets slow jump, plus arm.

R Davis A-: terrific range and good glove. Good arm, uncertain jumps.

Long Gonzalez A: great jumps, plus glove, good range and terrific arm. AZ catch a memorable highlight, and even his few misses were excellent tries.

TBuck Inc.: Good range, good arm, weird reads. I’d be real happy with a Buck/Long-Gon/Swooney OF for the next decade.

but the A’s are set to sign Inoa for a bonus of $4.25 million. I give the front office credit for jumping in front of everybody else to sign him.

except the Huston Street analysis. I can’t see how he is a disappointment in any way, except for the fact that his spectacularly crappy offense either fails to give him the save op at all, or scores exactly one run in the eighth to go ahead 4 runs and take the op away from him.

Sure, he only has 15 saves, but he had only had 18 opportunities, and minus game one in Japan, the only saves he has blown were very recently, while he was obvioiusly fighting through a groin injury. His high ERA (4.00) is because of the two blown saves recently and the junk innings he’s pitched.

I don’t get the Street hate, at all. We could do a lot worse, and I’m not sure what else Huston could have done to earned praise? Maybe saved all 18 or 18 chances? He’s saved 15 of them. After the first game of the year to the beginning of last week, he was awesome, and has been fighting a recent injury, which explains some of it. We could have a worse closer.

After he called out players for striking out, without actually calling them out.

Either man up and name names, or STFU.

When they’re 9th (not 10th) in the AL in runs scored? Wouldn’t that make all those other teams below a D? That’s pretty tough grading. I feel like you would give the Rangers and Red Sox a B-, even though they lead the league in runs scored. Or is this one of those ridiculous college classes where one person gets an A, one gets a B, two get a C, and everybody else a D and F?

The A’s offense doesn’t usually rank terribly high in OBP because their batting average is lower. It’s been that way for years now. They’re still third in the AL in walks, which shows they are a patient team. If you expected the A’s to be medicore and they have been, how do they get a D+?

And how does Geren get a B? He plays around with the lineup far too much and he still hasn’t grasped the concept of using a bullpen. I’d give him a C if I was nice and giving people a full grade higher than what they’ve earned.

a 10th percentile score gets you a C these days, but, in my opinion, an F is merited here. F means failure to deliver acceptable results.

I really don’t care that much whether we label the offense a C, D or F. I think we all agree that offense is the problem.

Enjoyment level = A+

I didn’t think I would be having half as much fun watching this team when the season started as I am having right now.

In the months following the end of the season, when trade rumors are the only “news” item to keep baseball fans reasonably entertained, Joe Blanton’s name will be thrown around in a variety of wild and baseless scenarios. And we’ll get into it, looking for any reason to justify out ridiculous assertions that, yes, Blanton for Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and some other tosser—let’s call him Pedro Feliz—makes sense for the Phillies.

So, we’ll look at Joe’s stats. We’ll see a sub-par 2008, but nothing that make you stand up and throw your laptop in disgust. We’ll vaguely remember cursing his name, swearing oaths, making insensitive if sometimes humorous remarks about his physique, and generally filling our long, day-to-day in-season lives with ferocious hate.

And in those winter months, we’ll struggle to remember why.

Yes, Billy has made an art form out of trading his best players for prospects. But he’s not going to do it during the middle of a season during which the A’s are in contention. Are we not acknowledging the A’s status as a contender the same way one doesn’t mention a no-hitter while it’s happening? Billy has said repeatedly that if the A’s are legitimate contenders, he’ll be looking to add via trade, not rebuild.

I understand that these top-players-for-lots-of-minor-leaguers trades have been pretty good for the A’s, but trading Harden or Duke for prospects in the middle of this surprisingly good season would be jumping the shark.

Joe Blanton, despite his record has pitched some good outings and deserves a better record. We have Rich Harden pitching like an ace so Geren should swap Blanton’s starts with Harden.

That way Blanton could possibly get some wins to help his morale. Harden pitches well so a win is more likely against the tougher pitching matchups Blanton has to face.

and “average” meant just as many others above as below.

I guess this makes me an old curmudgeon.

... when all the children are above average.