You have officially replaced Chad Bradford as my favorite side armed delivery pitcher.

Best of luck the rest of the way and please stay in Green and Gold!!

It’s just awesome to see you have so much success and keep so amazingly grounded. You. Are. The. Man.

we are all very proud of your performance with the big club.

I’m glad you’re able to keep a positive attitude about the teams’ struggles. Actually, for the most part the pitching has been good…the offense has been very, very poor, as you well know.

If you can share a bit (no names, of course!) about how the team keeps itself positive and supporting each other it would be greatly appreciated.

Makes me feel guilty for mine below it. ;-)

You have a great attitude, and you are a hell of a pitcher. Keep doing what you’re doing!

It’s incredibly cool to me that you are still posting here. You’re awesome and have an incredible attitude as well – thanks so much for your contribution to the team and for being a part of AN. At this point I’d say you’re my favorite thing about this season!

Thanks.

I’m really impressed with your positive attitude and your humility. Congratulations on all your success. I’m sure your teammates feel a little less discouraged to see you – and Jerry Blevins – do so well.

Keep it up!

Try to get some of the other guys to drop in to AN sometime…

dude, between blogging here on AN and being a scoreless streak-setting double play-generating machine, you may be the most popular player on the a’s, or maybe top 3 with duke and ellis.

are you collecting all the news stories about you?
if so, don’t forget this one by AN’s salb918.

When are we gonna get a ziggy jersey’s?

you rule Ziggy.

Congrats on the success, Brad. You’re one of the most fun players to watch on the team this year, and I always drop what I’m doing to follow the game when you come in. And it’s awesome that you’re finding time to post on AN!

You seem very positive toward this year and the team—is that generally the tone within the clubhouse? I ask ‘cause there’s been some speculation about the team feeling demoralized etc.

You’ve certainly made a lot of fans here by posting your inside stories of what it’s been like as you’ve risen through the ranks, and I know when you first got called up it was cool to tell my gf “Hey, that’s our guy, the ANer on the team.” Now that you’re not just our little secret anymore it’s great to have you continue to tell us your story. Awesome work, and I hope you can keep it up for a long time to come.

Now a question: I’ve noticed when you warm up you always start with some overhand or 3/4 throws before going into your sidearm motion. It looks like you do that just to get loose, but do you ever think you would be someone who could mix up a variety of arm slots to keep the hitter off balance? Or is your sidearm motion so different that once you’ve committed to it you can’t really go back to throwing overhand? Not that I want you to mess with a good thing, mind you.

Thanks again for contributing, and for being a bright spot during this rough stretch of baseball.

Great Post. I wish you could have met Bill King, who could probably told you who the Architect of the CN Tower was. He was another well-spoken guy who had varied interests beyond Sports.

Has anyone ever mentioned that your sidearm delivery is reminiscent of Kent Tekulve’s? He was a very effective long reliever/closer (back when they were the same thing) for the Pirates in the ‘70s, and one of my favorite players “back in the day”.

Your participation here as you’ve moved into the majors (and now even the HOF!!!) at AN has been a thrill for all of us. Thanks for taking the time to keep in touch.

albeit a really skinny god

Your rock Ziggy, thanks for making us watchable most nights!

Thanks for the update! Even with the painful losing streak, you continue to give us all a reason to follow the A’s, whether you keep shutting down the world’s best hitters or not.

BTW, I like ‘Ziggy’ but I think you need a more epic/creative nickname. Besides, the Ziggy from the comics is short, soft and pointless—you are none of these things.

Some bad suggestions:

Brad ‘Thorpedo’ Ziegler (since you’re a menace from down under)
Brad ‘Das Boot’ Ziegler (same story)
Brad ‘Giddyup’ Ziegler (you’re GIDP-inducing machine)
Brad ‘Headcase’ Ziegler (batters would rather chew their arms off than face you)
Brad ‘Zero Sum’ Ziegler (self-explanatory)

I bet your teammates can do better than this…

You ROCK!

:)

Rookie of the month all the way!

Although the team’s recent struggles have been hard to watch, you really are a bright spot worth paying attention to. It’s just awesome to see you stretch this record out farther and farther, night after night. Truly, we are so proud of you.

I’m sure you’re probably happy not to have the national attention be too suffocating, but it’s a bit frustrating as an A’s fan to realize that if you played in NY or Boston, you’d be the top story every day. Maybe if your name was Joba…

You’ve made things exciting during bleak times. Always get excited to see you in the pen warming up. Keep doing what your doing, so glad your and Oakland Athletic and best of luck during the remainder of the season and beyond.

However, at Elias, I think they keep track of the amount of sunflower seeds spit in a dugout each night.

looks like a couple of A’s club records for consecutive scoreless innings are on the horizon.

In baseball, it is important to “compartmentalize”, that is, never allow yesterday’s failure or success to affect the current moment on the mound, and never allow a possible future event to do that either. The record is great, but it’s only a record, so it cannot help you at all, any moment you step on that mound. Great to be in MLB ball, as you have noted, and the record is great “icing”. Yet, I am extremely pleased that you put it in the proper perspective (i.e. sunflower seed spitting, as noted by Elias). That outlook should keep you in the “Show” for a good long while.

Pitching-wise, exemplary work so far! Keep ‘er goin’! We at AN cannot thank you enough for writing your marvelous reports! And tell Ken Korach, now that he’s worked the word “microcosm” into his broadcast, that the next challenge is “concomitant”. 8^))

You’re the best. Thnx for answering my questions. I hope to see you closing for the A’s soon. We’ll soon have to get a Orel Hershiser record countdown pretty soon.

I hope to see you live (I’m on the east coast) sometime, and I hope I can get a Ziggy shirt soon too. I look forward to Ziggy bobblehead day

You’ve given me renewed hope. It has indeed been tough, but its always a pleasure to watch you. Congratulations!

We all appreciate your posts here at AN and wish you continued success and more scoreless innings!
You are much fun to watch and I am looking forward to my Ziggy bobblehead.
I think you are one of baseball’s special gifts to A’s fans this season.
Congratulations!

It’s so awesome that we have one of our own actually on the team,and kickin’ ass while you’re at it! Again, thank you so much for taking the time to continue posting, it really is one of the few highlights of this season to have you on the team.

As for a nickname, how about Ziggy Von Blitzkrieg and his Amazing Torpedo Pitch of Doom!

Meh, I guess Ziggy is just fine, all by itself. :)

..but you, And Frank Thomas, and my fellow countryman, Carlos G, are the only reason I even watch the A’s right now.

Blez loved what we sent him, first of all.

It’s so fun seeing how much longer this run of success can go on for, and I think with the way things have fallen off for the team fans need something to keep their interest, to keep them invested in what’s going on. When a team is playing poorly it’s easy for people to go off and do other things. What you’re doing is definitely exciting and everyone is paying attention the moment you enter the game.

Aside from a few inherited runners crossing the plate (though you’ve only allowed 4 of 18 to score by my last count), nobody’s really seen you NOT pitch well yet! There have been a few hard-hit balls but the defense has always been there for you.

I’ve got some more shots from the Texas/KC series I’ll be happy to send along to you at some point, too.

Couple quick questions:

• I saw a photo of you from the Cape Cod league (with eye black!) here:

I also noticed you didn’t go with the high socks in Sacramento but did return to them in Oakland. Any reason?

• Wearing #31: is that representative of the round the A’s originally drafted you in? Is it meant as a constant reminder for you?

Thank you for continuing to post here. I remember you saying at the end of last season that you didn’t know if the team would bring you back and you wouldn’t feel right posting on what would then be a different team’s site, so this is working out pretty well. ;-)

Hopefully there will be pictures from the rookie hazing to come later in the season, heh heh.

Congrads on the record and a great season. If i had a vote in the ROTM and ROTY voting it would go to you.

Thanks again

I realize this is totally wonkish, but I really am curious (and the subject did come up in a few trade-speculation diaries):

Do you get paid as a wage employee or as an independent contractor? (ie, reported on W-2 or 1099?)

Does your employer determine for you what portions of your income are allocated to what state, or do you (ie, your accountant) have to do that yourself?

(Hmm, AN doesn’t let me make a clickable link out of the picture.)

You’re an inspiration in what is turning into a tough year.

broadcast that if the A’s need a closer tonight it’ll be Ziggy. Woot!

I hope after you win a World Series in Oakland, I can root for you as a Cub someday!