of the front end of the rotation.

Cross-over into print sports journalism. But sometimes his words go Sailing over my head. C'mon! Ride like the Wind and Think of Laura (Bush). She's an advocate for illiterate first ladies.
Smokin' Joe is a throwback to the olde days, when men piutched back-to back double headers on a bad hangover.
Blanton's is a fine bourbon, after all, and Cupcakes IS from Kentucky.

I thought he would be a Steve Traschel, Carlos Silva, Livan Hernandez type: a guy who would give you a 13-12 season with a 4.00+ ERA and 200 IP. But Blanton is looking better than that, thanks, I believe to developing his changeup as a pitch he can throw anytime and sharpening the break a bit on his curve. He's a very complete pitcher now.

4:30 am doesn't count as "day".  The day doesn't really begin until the double-digit hours.

4:30 is more like bedtime.

on par with the ML equivalent of Barton in AAA.

that the A's would put six outfielders on the DL before the All-Star Break, would you have believed that Shannon Stewart wouldn't be one of them?

Kennedy makes Nico nervous. Gulp.

Harden will be on a very short pitch count.

If Harden does start, I expect it will be with the understanding the DiNardo takes over fairly early in the game and pitches several innings in the middle.

...or are you still gazing rapturously into the dugout?

A few random notes from the game -- I was sitting not in my usual left field bleacher home, but in Tony's field level reserved nice seats, bitches, because I knew I'd be lucky to leave work before 6 PM.   I'd sort of forgotten what it's like to sit in the higher-priced seats -- the view of the field is nice, but there's no camaraderie.  The people behind me seemed like nice folks but they talked about non-baseball things through every moment of the entire fricking game.

-- Despite the reduced capacity with the third deck closed, and this game having been virtually sold out for days as fireworks games always are, we had to wait in an absurdly long line to go through security.  It's annoying when the line wraps around past perfectly good field level entrances that are closed.  It's especially annoying when a guard comes out to yell at bored little kids for messing around in the iceplant while their parents are standing in line.  

-- When Kendall went out to the mound to consult with Blanton before he struck Thomas out, he said something that cracked Joe up.  Other than that, Joe looked uncomfortable from the sixth to the eighth inning, sweating a lot, fiddling with his cap.  His pitching is so solid now, he just needs to work on his stage presence a bit more to intimidate batters.

-- Speaking of on-field demeanor:  Confidential to Bobby Crosby.  If you were expending a lot of energy on your hitting, circling the bases, or throwing yourself into sparkling defensive plays, maybe we would understand why, after striking out, you drop your bat and helmet indifferently onto the ground for the batboy to retrieve, and walk slowly out to your position.   Since you're not doing much of anything else, you could at least show A LITTLE HUSTLE, DAMN IT.

-- The fireworks were excellent, and the music better and more diverse than the usual Fourth of July selection, until the end when Proud to Be an Amurican reared its ugly head.  

are two that should have stayed.

1. 2nd inning error leads to A's second run

2. Runs his team right out of the 7th inning

Must be that gritty, hard-nosed baseball he learned from Mike Scioscia.

The question shouldn't be, are Zito's pitches in the strike zone. Instead, the question should be whether he intends to return there when he goes to other locations.

No chance of him getting there though, not a big enough name.