Random Thoughts (To Avoid Talking About The Game)

I can see them acquiring more pitching. We all know Sheets would likely be interested if they’re still doing well when he’s healthy. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trade for a rental or two, especially since they have a strong minor league system.

Lets let the young guys place and even if they lose it will be fun watching them grow.

BTW Loved this and your last post. Very right on.

I also think C is the answer to your question above. I think they need to grow a bit. Let them have fun like the A’s of the late 90s did.

Can we have the Jays and Rangers? That would be awesome!

Before games, it’s mainly to put on a show for the fans and get warmed up for the game. I’m sure teams take cuts against faster pitches in the indoor cages.

Nothing I enjoy more than getting mocked by FUCKING RAYS FANS for nine innings.

I thought it’d be horrible not being able to watch the A’s for the first couple months of the season. But not I’m dreading having the option of watching when I get home in a couple days. It’s funny because usually you expect a team to stop getting pounded after a meeting. I guess it’s time for the starters to hold a meeting but who’s going to lead it? It can’t be fun to be the laughing stock of the league so I’m guessing the players are pretty upset by now.

I hear Jordin Sparks is doing a post-game concert next month.

its so hard to watch the team right now.

bob geren makes me want to puke honestly.
I’ve never seen a professional coach who lacks that fire inside. He is like a high school coach who is best friends with the president of the school and puts out no effort because he knows his job is safe.

Cabrera, Holliday, Giambi, and Nomar have all underachieved (or been injured)
Sweeney’s numbers are down from last year
Chavez is hurt (really, did anyone honestly think he’d be healthy)

The biggest problem is this:
the team 2-3 years from now looks like this:

SP:Cahill
SP:Anderson
SP:Mazzaro
SP:Gonzalez
SP:Gallagher
(Descent to above average)
with the position players looking like this:
Suzuki
Carter
Cardenas

Those are the only players I would consider to be “high ceiling” or potential all-stars at this time (things can change, but as an A’s fan right now who can be optomistic?)

I think it is time for a firesale.
Fire Geren
Trade Holliday,
Trade Giambi
Trade Nomar
Trade Cabrera
I dont care if we dont get much. If we get cardenas for Blanton we can get SOMETHING for these 4 guys.

We need a STUD player this year.
I vote we suck the rest of this year and go for a top 5 draft pick.

UGH
FUCKIN A’S

3 innings
4 hits
2 runs
4 walks
3 strikeouts
58% strikes (43/74)

this is the athletics speaking i am the murderer of the game you call baseball out by hegenberger and 66th avenue to prove this i shall state a few facts that only i and the other 42 people who go to the games know first never swing at the first pitch if the second one is close take that one too because everyone knows that hitting with a count other than 0-2 might make me lose control and do my thing second my conditioning staff it’s essential that they must either be mordantly obese or at least severely rotund so that the rich young men at risk for injury whom they serve can truly look up to and respect those providing their excellent health care third it is important that when i hire a field manager he must have been best friends with his boss for his whole adult life and i must never ever do anything to criticize him or question his job performance so any trace of accountability can be erased even if i look in the dugout and he is physically asleep now don’t try to bury this note on your back pages or i will lose so many 10 run games in a row it will make your heads spin and the giants look good bases loaded nobody out situations make nice targets perhaps some morning i shall load them up in all nine innings and still fail to score i’ve got a little list i’ve got a little list the third baseman who got 11 mil but played nil the rookie of the year from 2004 that swings like a golfer and fields like a boar the bald guy there with the empty stare that only hits in thinner air the pitchers unready the defense unsteady titwillo titwillo titwillo i like killing baseball because it is so much fun when i die i will be reborn in san jose and all that i have killed will become my season ticket holders if you are thinking this is a crass analogy i am making well maybe so but it fits they terrorize northern california with their cowardly threats to make a move they look a lot more intimidating on paper than in real life and no one has heard from them since 1974 unless you count copycats

We should have continued to rebuild for another year to let a few more holes get filled before trying to compete.

Gallagher, Gonzalez, Outman, and Eveland could still turn out to be good, it’s just that they need time to develop. Young pitching takes time to develop, and Beane gambled that the A’s pitching would develop quicker then average. It took Dan Haren three years before he threw well enough to be an ace, Braden was up and down for two years, Harden took two years before he turned into the nasty but injured pitcher we know today.

So of course Cahill and Anderson were going to be inconsistent this year, of course Gallagher, Gonzalez, Outman, and Eveland would take a year or two before a couple of them would decide to throw enough strikes to secure a rotation spot, and of course Mazzaro and Simmons would have up and down years in AAA sine they are so young/inexperienced for their levels. All you had to do was look at history to see this, Beane bet against history, and history came out on top. No one should be surprised to see Cahill, Anderson, and Braden give up 6 to 8 runs every once in a while as they become more consistent, or Gallagher, Gonzalez, Outman, and Eveland not be able to find the strike-zone until they learn how to pitch. THEY NEED TIME TO DEVELOP.

Now that being said, things aren’t as bad as they appear. Yes, loosing Carlos Gonzalez sets this team back a little developmentally, but we have Brown looking like an even better defender and hitter in AA. Also, those players that people are complaining are not part of the A’s future are keeping the A’s from rushing people like Cardenas to the majors like last year when we didn’t have any veterans after mid-year. Finally, the picks or prospects we get from Holliday, Cabrera, and maybe Giambi and Ellis will serve to make sure, even if the A’s don’t win this year, the A’s farm system will continue to be among the best in baseball and give the A’s that chance when they are ready.

according to Slusser

She also runs down the options since there are no other catchers on the 40 man roster besides Suzuki and Powell.

She also says that there was no crossup in the pitch that hit Suzuki — Gallagher said he just lost control.

I think 5 out of Braden, Outman, Anderson, Cahill, Gio, Simmons, Mazzaro, Henry Rodriguez, and maybe even Inoa would make up a very good rotation.

Night my babies. That was hard, they all seem to be that way, lately.

Gammons just said that the past ball/cross-up fiasco “kind of sums up Oakland’s season so far”

for the motivation

I hope Outman turns out to be who I think he is. I look forward to watching the game tomorrow. I hope they don’t bring up the make-believe low pitch-count again. It’s so minor league when they do that shit.

He said, “Honestly, tonight, I don’t know really what it was. I felt fine in the bullpen before the game. All of a sudden I got out there and lost control. I just wasn’t locating the ball at all to any hitters. I can’t think of one pitch tonight that I probably executed very well. Absolutely terrible. I’m actually a disgrace to myself right now.”

Ouch.

Hat’s off to you, man. You must be pulling your hair out having to write about the A’s right now. Things will get better. There must be a few good free agent pitchers out there that can save us. I don’t think Billy Beane or the people with the checkbooks like to suck this much.

in extra innings through incredibly sloppy defensive play. they also blew a lead by the runner not touching third on the way home.

So while we’re suffering with the awesome awfulness of our team, there is suckitude elsewhere, including with first place teams.

Don’t know if that makes me feel better, but somehow it balances things out tonight.

Time to say good night…

Sports coming up on the news now. I’ve been shutting it off at this point for the last few days, but for some reason am tempted to watch the lowlights from today. What is wrong with me?

better start worrying about his job says the 11 o’clock news in Stockton

would be to trade Duke, assuming he puts up decent numbers when he comes back

Why is Cunningham playing in Oakland? It seems as though playing time is limited since Sweeney and Holliday are fixtures in CF and LF, respectively. That leaves RF open for Buck and Cunningham. And let’s no longer defend Rajai Davis’ ability to collect a major league check simply because he is our speedy backup centerfielding guy. Who cares? He’s superfluous at this point in a nose-dive season.

Cunningham just came back from the DL and only logged a handful of at bats in AAA. The A’s promptly call him up and he’s only had 5 at bats. This guy is likely to waste away on the bench with an occasional spot start in RF, which isn’t the type of program you want a developing outfielder to be on. I recall Cunningham played some centerfield in the minors. Why not shuffle him in CF and RF along with Sweeney and Buck?

Ultimately, a trade needs to occur but shipping Holliday out at this point is probably too premature. Packaging Buck or Sweeney to land a third baseman remains a possibility. With each accumulating double-digit defeat, we are closer to a pitiful realization – this is another lost season.

A fire sale is likely to ensue, which makes sense for Geren to keep running out the expendable young players (Sweeney, Buck) and veterans (Cabrera, Giambi, Holliday) in an effot to showcase them (“Take a peek in our cupboards! We have some lima beans, a dusty box of lime Jello, and unlabeled tin can of something. You wann trade your can of Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce?”). But until then, it is vital that young players like Gio, Gallagher, and Cunningham get regular playing time. Otherwise, this is all development time wasted.

Speaking of, where the HELL is Weeks? Minor league baseball is our last respite and seeing last year’s number 1 pick still out is frustrating. Get healthy and play some fricken baseball already!

BP is about the swing, not the timing.

There is NOTHING you can do to simulate in-game major league pitching. Trying to do so can be counterproductive because it would give hitters the impression they’re working on pitch recognition and timing, when in fact they are not.

Professional hitters work on their swing mechanics and how they use the swing. Then they analyze opposing pitchers and put a game plan in place. They learn pitch recognition and timing through experience. That’s one of the reasons they spend so much time in development. It’s also a reason why so many apparently great prospects fail.

Most professional batting work is done off of a tee. Most of the rest is soft toss from about 10 feet away (off to the side, of course) and other special drills to improve swing mechanics and strength. Live BP is used to work on the swing and on driving the ball to different parts of the field, not to simulate live pitching.

I’m familiar with this because my son is a potential hitting prospect (long shot, to be clear – fields like Cust, doesn’t quite hit like him but the potential is there) whose trainers are former major league players and coaches. He basically works on a similar program to what Red Sox minor leaguers use, as we live near Boston. His trainers basically work with him on the tee, on soft toss, and, of course, on live BP – but not to simulate varsity pitching.

Interestingly, one of the things his coaches teach him is that, as a power hitter in the middle of the order, he should still be driving the ball with 2 strikes. They’d rather see him have 2 strikeouts, a foul out and a double than a single, a walk, and two groundouts, because you get more RBI’s the first way.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2009/05/18/could-the-as-fire-bob-geren-is-hershiser-a-possible-answer/