Jay Marshall!!!

To give him some credit he seemed to get better
as the game went on and put together a decent
AB against Rivera going the other way.

BUT STILL HUGE PROBLEMS
I dont know why he kept trying to pull Pettite --
he just appeared to have no clue on the slider.
And when is he going to make an adjustment on that
outside strike? His fielding continues to be
erratic with a potential DP not turned midway
through the game.

Hope Ellis and Bradley come back on Tuesday and
Scoot gets the start at SS.

Nobody seems to have commented that this is exactly what happened last year in the first A's series against the Yankees. Scutaro won the game (in the rain), and clinched the series, by driving the ball to the wall in right field, over Hideki Matsui's head.

Scutaro is a clutch player, whatever the stats say!

mariano, of course, is the only player with that # due to the grandfather clause.  between the rainouts and that final image of the ball shooting over that # on mariano's back, it has been an awesome tribute even without the hollywood show starting now in chavez ravine.  did jackie want us to remember who that # belongs to when he blew that ball a little to the right?  did jackie want to remind us all of what quality baseball is by raining out his least favorite teams?

But do you really want to say that about Crosby after such a terrific win, and while you're celebrating a guy that was 1-20 going into the heroic at bat. I mean, it doesn't take much to not be terrible all of a sudden. If Crosby went 3-4 on Tuesday he suddenly wouldn't be terrible.

Look, I think it's likely that Crosby will be a journeyman who plays on several teams, an average or below-average player. But we don't know yet. We're hoping he's a little better than average (no more illusions about MVPs, obviously).

And just remember what was being said about Thomas all through April and May last year. And what's been said about so many others, Marco included.

Go A's, Crosby included.

Coming up on BBTN.

I guess I am glad I stuck with this game until the end.

-- Harden.  Made of glass.  Shoulder tightness, in A's parlance, could mean anything from: "His next start is pushed back a few days" to "His career is over."  The reality is what we already knew: Harden can't be counted on as a critical part of the A's rotation.  If he's around for some big games, that's just gravy.

-- Crosby.  Horrible.  I have been willing to patient with him because he's in extended spring training.  But my patience is wearing thin.  It's not that he can't hit.  It's that he can't field or throw, either.  My own recommendation is that he go to Sacramento for a while.  He can have extended spring training somewhere that isn't costing the A's valuable wins.  (That is management's fault, by the way.)  Scutaro isn't hitting either, except in the ninth inning against a Hall of Fame closer to win the game.  But we know he can be a capable fill-in.

-- Overall hitting.  Dreadful.  What's our team OBP after the first inning, anyway?  I am not sure I want to know.

-- Unsung heroes.  Scutaro can and should get the cudos.  But let's not forget Walker getting on base when it didn't seem to matter or Kendall's walk that set everything up.  And while we're at it, I have to give Nick Swisher a lot of credit for catching the ball at the wall.  If he doesn't catch it, Scutaro's heroics don't matter.

-- Marshall.  Those lefty submariners are a nuisance, aren't they?  He's been doing great.  It's nice to get him a much-deserved win.

-- Where it ranks.  This is Scutaro's most amazing game-winner ever, considering the guy on the mound and the depressing preamble.  He never wanted that jog around the bases to end.  

They're actually interviewing an A?!??!

He came in with very high expectations, a la adios Miggy, and even though he won ROY honors, the competition, if I recall, wasn't much. He has yet to play to most fan's expectations whether it is due to injury or not. The A's brass is high on him for a reason (In Billy we trust). We can only hope. Unfortunately, he's playing like the last kid picked for a sandlot game. Go A's!

Does anybody else see Crosby's career being very similar to Mr. Ben Grieve.....

Wow that was crazy!  I leave for 10 minutes, turn the radio back on and hear something that just isn't possible.  That didn't just happen, did it?  But then I remember, oh yeah Scutaro!  Like Yogi Berra said....

As for Crosby I'm still not giving up just yet.  But I'm about at 95%

If Harden goes on the DL the world is not over. But If he misses more than a month then the world is over.

Harden appeared to strain his shoulder when he barehanded a chopper by Cabrera in the third after retiring the first seven Yankees hitters. The pitcher was quickly checked by manager Bob Geren and trainer Larry Davis, but stayed in the game.

DID HE NOT LEARN FROM LAST YEAR???

If Beane and his team of blue light Beanites are the masters of running around in the middle of the night and finding value the MLB bargain bins, how does one explain the Crosby factor?  Better to dump a  guy a year too early than a year too late?  Sell while tangible value still exists? We aren't drafting guys to model blue jeans and underwear? Crosby has looked pathetic for nearly two years now, and many, many have called this, yet no action taken by his Supreme Geniusness.  The club obviously need to make a change, fast.  But how has the astute Beane allowed Crosby's stock to go all the way to zero before making said change?

Since 1999, the A's management has been the best in baseball and each year, it's so much fun to find what creative things they are going to do to compete and win games (you know, someone should really write a book about this).  But the Crosby factor confounds.  Across the concourse, Mully clearly knew what to do with Michelle Dunleavy, which was the same thing Billy did with Betty Grieve several years ago.  There aren't that many Sabeans still out there, but the hope is that Beane can sucker the GM community and still obtain something in return for paper Bobby.  Actually we may not need value in return- addition by subtraction is value adding enough right now.        

Marco's game winning hit is practically a straight vertical line from the bottom of the graph to the top!
All I have to say is HOLY TOLEDO!! for MARCO SCUTARO!!

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/commen...

meet Magic Marco

Thanks to this win and the Rangers' loss, we're now a half game ahead of them in the standings. A couple of wins against the Ghosts of Anaheim and we're respectable.

chavez,thomas,bradley had back to back to back HRs to win against the rangers 5-4

wonder how they'll win 5-4 on april 15th 2008

is nothing serious and he's not concerned.

We won the game and the series, and frankly Crosby outplayed the other team's shortstop. His timing is off and it probably would make sense to send him down to Little League for some confidence-building, but let's not inject Crasby-bashing into every damn FP thread on this blog.