Fizzle, Sputter, Dud On The Fourth Of July

by Nico on Jul 4, 2009 6:46 PM PDT Comment 37 comments

This is probably a bad time to tell Travis Buck that he's the DH.

Today my TV decided that its reception would consist of hundreds of small overlapping rectangles of parts of the picture, kind of like an impressionist painting. I spent the bottom of the 3rd inning on the phone, complaining to Comcast that I couldn't get a clear picture, but by the end of the inning I was thanking them and then called again to complain when the picture came back.

It was in the 3rd that a 1-0 A's lead turned into a 3-1 deficit, all the damage coming at the bottom of the order as Ryan Garko singled, Luis Valbuena doubled him home, and then Ben Francisco (where I believe I left my heart) walloped a 2-run HR right through one of the rectangles.

A quick side note: I learned today that what I was seeing (or not seeing) is called a "degraded picture," which really explains why my TV continues to put up with a verbally abusive toaster.

Back to the game, Oakland had most of its chances in the first two innings. In the 1st, the A's scored thanks to a Kennedy single, a Cabrera hit-and-run single, and a Holliday sacrifice fly, then loaded the bases with two out. However, Ryan Sweeney, so I hear anyway, ripped a liner to 3B as the A's settled for one run.

Then in the 2nd, two more hits gave Oakland another early opportunity, but Holliday's long drive died at the wall and the A's wound up leaving two more -- five LOB in the first two innings -- before Carl Pavano solved the problem by spontaneously becoming unhittable, including a stretch of 11 in a row retired.

Down 4-1 following Sizemore's 6th inning HR, the A's came briefly to life in the 7th when Ellis walked, stole second, and scored with two out on Cabrera's third single of the night. Holliday then singled to chase Pavano and the A's had the tying runs on base, the go ahead run at the plate. Unfortunately, said go-ahead run was Jason Giambi who -- surprise, surprise -- hit right into the shift. Say, how's that working for you, Jase?

For the 7th time this year, the A’s have followed up a Friday loss with a Saturday FAIL, and will "try to avoid the sweep" on Sunday. How nice.

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alaska A residing in northern Idaho.

by ak_A on Jul 4, 2009 7:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

no reply

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

by Nico on Jul 4, 2009 7:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, and Giambi also K'd in the first

With RISP …

This is getting old

by OaklandSi on Jul 4, 2009 7:07 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

This = Giambi?

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 4, 2009 7:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think O-Si is referring the whole Gestalt of the season

alaska A residing in northern Idaho.

by ak_A on Jul 4, 2009 7:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

actually, both

by OaklandSi on Jul 4, 2009 7:19 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The A's' gestalt needs some therapy

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 4, 2009 7:21 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

i may stoop to cognitive therapy by watching more giants games

alaska A residing in northern Idaho.

by ak_A on Jul 4, 2009 7:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

quackery.

pft.

This is just unacceptable. People are paying good money to go to the ball park. -Ken Korach

by Leopold Bloom on Jul 4, 2009 9:31 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The therapeutic use of A's baseball...

I was well and truly cured, oh my brothers.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 5, 2009 9:25 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like Matt Morrison better than Mindi Bach and that Paul guy better than that F.P. guy. They need to rotate more often.

The Ultimate Opportunist

by Rated-R Superstar on Jul 4, 2009 7:09 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Can we please see...

1B Barton
2B Ellis
SS Pennington
3B Kennedy/Everidge
LF Cunningham
CF Sweeney
RF Buck
DH Cust
C Suzuki

And 2nd half of next year…

1B Barton/Doolittle
2B Weeks
SS Pennington
3B Cardenas
LF Cunningham/Doolittle
CF Brown/Doolittle
RF Buck/Doolittle
C Suzuki/Donaldson
DH Carter

"Their Triple-A rotation, led by Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson, could be better than some big-league rotations; Michael Ynoa is the best Latin American prospect of the decade; 2008 draftees Jemile Weeks and Rashun Dixon bring much-needed tools to an advanced group of hitters." - BaseballProspectus.com

by Syphon on Jul 4, 2009 7:17 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

God damn this yes. Like...now.

And, I really, really think Cahill needs some time in AAA. His peripherals are absolutely awful, although his ERA still sparkles quite a bit. I understand that he’ll need some growing time in MLB, but one also has to take service time into mind. AAA for a few months should help. And, Anderson is showing more poise and notable improvements.

"You end up with a name like ‘Outman,’" he said last week. "What else are you going to do? You’re going to get people out, man." ~ Dallas Braden

by Blicks on Jul 4, 2009 9:18 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd like to see Anderson down for a bit too

gotta preserve his arm/service time, and a little AAA time wouldn’t kill him.

"True fact: In a global thermonuclear war, the only human who would survive would be David Eckstein" -PT

by travdog6 on Jul 5, 2009 2:40 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wait, we have FOUR Doolittles??!!

Our system is STACKED

The glare was not practiced. I would get into the game situations, and when that happens, there comes a level of concentration that most can only imagine but can never achieve. You become what you are doing, and that is what you see on my face. -Dave Stewart

by Hegenberger Road on Jul 5, 2009 8:12 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I blame the stupid red caps

I think the A’s have been wearing those for a longer time than it took Thomas Jefferson to draft the goddamn Declaration of Independence. Enough already.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 4, 2009 7:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Coming from Philly...

I second that amendment!

"I've been accused of using too many words...I suppose that's like accusing Mozart of using too many notes." Bill King

by Gerard on Jul 4, 2009 8:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think this team has turned into the "slump buster" for the rest of the struggling teams in the league...

“Hey guys, I know we’ve lost a few games in a row, and our bullpen has totally melted down, but look at the calendar…in just two weeks we play the A’s! So if we can just tread water until then, we’ll be sure to take at least two out of three from them and we’ll all be able to relax, get some easy W’s and get back on track…”

I'm never gonna do it without the fez on!

by Taj Adib on Jul 4, 2009 7:24 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I feel for ya'll.

I know exactly how that goes.

by ThundaPC on Jul 4, 2009 7:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, howz about

a little cross-pollination, from my second favorite team in the AL West….

This is just unacceptable. People are paying good money to go to the ball park. -Ken Korach

by Leopold Bloom on Jul 4, 2009 9:34 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Vomitted in my mouth

This team is putrid to the nth degree. I’m not sure I can follow the crap day in and day out anymore. Worst part is, more of the same until we get a new stadium in a new town. We have become the Orioles of the west.

by batterbatter on Jul 4, 2009 7:44 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

lack of perspective

The Orioles are the Orioles because they are the division’s loser team year after year. How many consecutive losing seasons do they have now? twelve? A’s are only working on their third.

"Go ahead and overachieve, you scrappy Brett-Favre-colored walk-takers." —Rev Halofan

by iglew on Jul 4, 2009 9:11 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's no excuse for our team being shitty.

by cyke17 on Jul 4, 2009 11:34 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

so, only nine more to go?

by OaklandSi on Jul 5, 2009 5:53 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sure would like to hear from Beane ...

he’s responsible for the product on the field, and it’s pure horses***. Lousy talent, and lousy effort .

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.

by Vacafan on Jul 4, 2009 9:08 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

We've already heard

He says there have been too many injuries to be competitive. I guess that means that if Duchscherer, Devine and Chavez were around, Holliday would be batting .300, Giambi and Cust would be hitting .240 and all of them would have about 16 HRs. Basically, Beane has too much of an ego to admit that he’s screwed up and: 1) has neither drafted or traded for decent offensive talent; 2) has a team that is just mailing it in.

by rovingralph on Jul 4, 2009 10:43 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Injury Excuse is out the window now...

We’re pretty healthy now and we’re worse now than we’ve been this entire year.

by cyke17 on Jul 4, 2009 11:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Good" GMs regularly say, "Aw schucks, I screwed up!"

Right?

Also: At the beginning of the year, did you think Holliday and Giambi would be this bad? Beane didn’t think they would either. No one really did.

This, yet again, isn’t about Beane. It’s about a bottom 1/3 payroll team, a rapidly evolving market, a twilight zone injury vortex and a dash of bad luck.

by sleepingcobra on Jul 5, 2009 12:29 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Bunch of excuses

Holliday, after a slow April, is doing about as expected. Giambi is 38 years old; he was a crapshoot. So yeah, I thought they might do what they’re doing. It’s not rocket science.

The whole bottom 1/3 payroll doesn’t pan out when you consider that it’s been close to a decade since the A’s brought up a position player from within their organization who hit for power and average. The “rapidly evolving market” allowed the A’s to re-sign Ellis, and to sign both Orlando Cabrera and Nomar Garciaparra, as well as Michael Weurtz and Russ Springer. The twilight zone injury vortex hit three important players: Chavez, Devine and Outman. No one except perhaps Billy Beane expected anything out of Chavez; Devine was replaced by Bailey; and Outman wasn’t even expected to make the club when the season began.

As for bad luck - All teams have good luck and bad luck. The difference is that the better teams capitalize on the good luck and don’t allow the bad luck to cause further damage.

by richwol1 on Jul 5, 2009 12:38 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Manny watcher

Sorry, folks, I wanted to enjoy Independence day, so was AWOL from the A’s, watching Dodgers at Padres. I have happy memories of my visits to Petco so it’s nice to see it on tv.

by LibrariAN on Jul 4, 2009 9:27 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I didn't see the game.

I was having a great old time at Phone co park watching Lincecum and the Giants put on a damn good game for the fans. It made me realize how much I miss watching good baseball.

by IM4Oakgal on Jul 5, 2009 2:07 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

watching the O's and angels last night on the baltimore

broadcast. Jim, what’s this the name, Palmer? the former underwear model had some pretty good statements about bad teams, such as the O’s, from his perspective when he was on a very good team.

alaska A residing in northern Idaho.

by ak_A on Jul 5, 2009 8:17 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Mark Reynolds is ballsy.

“We get behind a run and, oh, here we go again. We lose focus. We don’t play hard. It’s like everyone is up there for themselves … It’s very frustrating. The effort’s there when we’re winning or when we’re blowing somebody out, people are having fun. If it’s 7-1, 7-0, guys are out there playing hard, having fun. It’s easy to do that when you’re winning or when you’re on a winning streak or 20 games over .500. When you’re in the cellar like we are, it’s embarrassing. I know we have a better team than that, but we’re not showing it. It’s frustrating and it’s embarrassing.”

He went off on his team after a loss to the Rox.

source

I would love it if one of the young A’s did this.

"You end up with a name like ‘Outman,’" he said last week. "What else are you going to do? You’re going to get people out, man." ~ Dallas Braden

by Blicks on Jul 5, 2009 9:10 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Wait - he's saying the mental part of the game can affect actual physical performance and outcomes?

Who knew?

I’m telling you, this A’s team, with this talent, could be playing much better baseball. The lack of spirit, energy, and focus you observe is both contagious and very much relevant to performance and stats.

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

by Nico on Jul 5, 2009 9:33 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs