Well, every year there is that one team. The team that seems to bring out the worst in the Athletics. We all know that the lovable muppets haven't been very good at playing baseball this year, but there have definitely been bright spots too. It just seems like none of those bright spots show up against the Seattlites. Am I exaggerating, focusing too much on a couple bad games or bad innings? Yep, definitely. But, even though we are missing Felix this time around, I not looking forward to these next four games.

For the last GOG, I put on my rose-colored glasses and cheered for the A's to break out the brooms and start a stretch run that could pull the team into third place. We all saw how that worked out. This time around, I'm just begging for the A's to win one. One out of four. They can manage that, right?

Links

• Probable pitchers
• Mariners stats
• Go check out your GOG #43 scores. They're really good, especially if your name is muffinpryde.

GOG #44 :: A Feeling of Dread (31 points possible)

Four game series vs Seattle Mariners -- September 3-6

UPDATE -- answers added below in bold

1. Series outcome [3 points] 2-2 split
2. Beltre is back from his rather unfortunate injury. Predict his AB/H/RBI against Oakland [2 points each] 15 AB, 2 H, 1 RBI
3. Brad Kilby had his major league debut last night, pitching 2 innings and allowing 1 hit while striking out 2 and walking none. Not bad. Predict Kilby's IP/K/BB for this series [2 points each] Kilby did not pitch (0 IP, 0 K, 0 BB)
4. Which is the real Doug Fister? The pitcher who gives up five runs in six innings against the Royals? Or the pitcher who shuts down the Angels to the tune of one run in 7.1 innings? How many earned runs do the A's score against this young right-hander? [3 points] 1 ER for Fister
5. August was a very good month for Mark Ellis, who hit .340/.382/.480 over 112 plate appearances. How many times will he reach base against the Mariners? [3 points] Ellis reached base 3 times in the series
6. Vin Mazzaro has been throwing his fastball 65.8% of the time, which puts him behind only Cahill and Tomko among Oakland starters. The problem is that his fastball has been really bad, with a value of -1.9 runs per 100 fastballs. The only Oakland pitchers with worse fastballs this season are Marshall, Giese, and Mortensen, but there are significant sample size issues there. Do at least half of the hits off of Mazzaro come against his fastball? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] Mazzaro did not pitch
7. The Seattle catching tandem of Kenji Johjima and Rob Johnson has been essentially replacement level this season, with OBPs of .280 and .290, respectively. Which team has a better OPS from their catching position in this series? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] Oakland catchers OPS'ed .673, Seattle catchers OPS'ed 1.103
8. Ranked by Wins Above Replacement, Andrew Bailey and Michael Wuertz show up as the first and third best relief pitchers in the AL this season (Matt Thorton of the White Sox is number 2). On top of that, Brad Ziegler comes in at number 16. How many innings pitched and earned runs for the bullpen's big three? [2 points each] 8.1 IP, 3 ER
9. We already know that Ichiro gives amazing quotes for reporters, but this one is above and beyond -- "Chicks who dig home runs aren’t the ones who appeal to me," he said. "I think there’s sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I’d rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out." (link) How many infield hits for Ichiro in the series? [3 points] 1 infield hit
10. If it seems like the Oakland offense has never shown up against Seattle this season, one of the reasons is that the A's have a Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) of only .259 against the Mariners, which is 30 points lower than the A's BABIP for the season as a whole. But this isn't just bad luck. The thing is that Seattle has a really good defense and their opponents BABIP for the whole season is just .272. So the A's have done a bit worse than that, but it's not really surprising, given their lack of good hitters. Ok, after that long introduction, the question is: Will the A's BABIP for the series be above or below .272? [+1 if right, -1 if wrong] Oakland BABIP for the series was .282

The series gets underway at 7:05 pm. Post your guesses. I'll be hiding under the bed.

Results

Well, that Mazzaro question really didn't work out. And the Kilby question was a bust as well. Nice work colin...

Overall scoring statistics

• mean = 4.00000 points
• standard deviation = 2.06559 points
• mode = 5 points

via cfcp.uchicago.edu

Your Scores

Congratulations to JLeverenz for the GOG victory! No major milestones this time around, as Angry Sean stalled right in front of the 200 points marker.