After a relaxing day off, that probably involved lounging at the pool, taking in a movie, reading a good book, and... um... flying cross-country, the A's find themselves back home for a series against the White Sox. The monochrome Chicago team is still in a tight AL Central pennant race, which I'm sure I'd be hearing a lot about if I had been home on the south side of Chicago at any point in the last month. Despite having an overall record of 58-57 and just treading water for the last month or more, they are just 2.5 back from the equally lackluster Tigers.

The Oakland A's of late are definitely not the type of sub-.500 team you want to see on your schedule while trying to hang in for the playoff hunt. This White Sox team, like many before it, is built on pitching and home runs. Will Thome, Dye, Konerko, and Quentin turn make the Coliseum look like a band box? Will Oakland hitters keep up their production against a staff that isn't Baltimore? Welcome to the GOG, where all your questions will be answered!

Links

• Probable pitchers
• White Sox stats
• GOG #37 has been graded. Click the link to see your score.

GOG #38 :: Go Go Go Go Oak-land! (33 points possible)

Three game series vs Chicago White Sox -- August 14-16

UPDATE -- answers added below in bold

1. Series outcome [3 points] 2-1 White Sox
2. Rookie Gordon Beckham has been spectacular with the bat, putting up an OPS of .835. Predict H/XBH/BB for the up and coming (or should I say already here?) third baseman [2 points each] 6 H, 3 XBH, 2 BB
3. I have been enjoying the recent Cust-love on AN. Predict Jack's Three True Outcomes: walks, STRICKOUTS!1!, and home runs for the series [2 points each] 1 BB, 3 K, 0 HR
4. Mark Ellis' batting line for August is a pretty sweet .400/.419/.525 (yeah, he's not walking much, but that's ok when you're hitting .400!). How many base hits for the all-time HR leader of South Dakota? [3 points] 6 base hits
5. The White Sox just took Alex Rios off the Blue Jay's hands for nothing. Sure his contract is a bit pricey, but they will actually save $1M on right field next year even after paying Jermaine Dye's buyout. Predict Rios' AB/H/RBI in his second series with Chicago [2 points each] 9 AB, 2 H, 1 RBI
6. Jim Thome is a left-handed hitter. He is a left-handed hitter with 562 career home runs. Trevor Cahill is a right-handed pitcher. He is a right-handed pitcher who has given up 19 home runs in 310 plate appearances against left-handed hitters. That means that 6.12% of plate appearances from a left-handed hitter end up with ball going over the fence. For his career, Thome has homered in 5.98% of his plate appearances. Basically what I am trying to say is that the average left-handed hitter becomes a bigger power threat than Jim Thome when they match up against Cahill. The question is will Jim Thome hit a home run off of Trevor Cahill? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] (Special Ozzie rule: If Thome doesn't play against Cahill, then everyone gets +5 points because Ozzie is a moron!) Thome did not hit a HR off of Cahill
7. Jose Contreras, "age 37", is matched up against Brett Anderson, age 21. Which starter lasts more innings in that game? [3 points] Anderson
8. Do the A's score any runs off of heart-attack inducing Octavio Dotel? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] no
9. Of the six starting pitchers in the series, who posts the best game score? [3 points] Gavin Floyd, with a game score of 63
10. Oakland pitchers have hit fewer opposing batters than any staff in baseball, with only 18 total HBP. The staffs with the next fewest HBP are San Francisco and Detroit, with 25 each. Do A's pitchers manage to plunk any White Sox? (Cross your fingers and hope for Pierzynski) [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] yes, Jeff Gray hit Nix with a pitch

First pitch will happen at 7:05 pm. Go A's and go GOG!

Results

Some pretty respectable scores on this GOG (except for mine). I think that Beckham kid is going to be pretty good.

Overall scoring statistics

• mean = 5.08333 points
• standard deviation = 3.20393 points
• mode = 4 points

via cfcp.uchicago.edu

Your Scores

Nice win by FormerHuntsvilleStar, who hasn't been around the GOG much lately, but showed up this time to show that he still has it. Also, where did you go mikeA? After missing the last several GOGs, you have dropped out of the top 3 for the first time since I don't know when.