doesn't like Kotsay apparently, saying Bradley will get more RBIs with him out of the way. Ouch.

But I don't find anything too harmful with a defense of Kotsay. He was an elite defender, and he was a rather good hitter here, for at least his first year. He's simply been slowed, and isn't nearly the player he was when we first acquired him. That doesn't seem to be any fault of his own, and I'll always appreciate him for what he did provide, especially that hustle during the inside the parker, which I'll never forget. But it seems his time as a useful, productive, everyday member of a lineup has passed, as it must with all ballplayers.

He's 31 and he's been playing with this problem for 3 years.  Who's to say he won't come back strong?  As for  why he waited on the surgery, here's the latest:  

Kotsay tried to find a way to stay in the lineup without having to submit to surgery. He stuck to a regimented offseason program designed to strength the back. When he aggravated it the first week of Spring Training, drastic methods were in order. He traveled to Los Angeles to get opinions before resigning himself to the surgery.

"We hoped it was a manageable situation," A's general manager Billy Beane said. "Then it cropped up the first week of Spring Training and we thought we needed to take the next step. Surgery was always the last resort."

link

then can I be Secretary?  No, wait!  Treasurer? Treasurer!

It bugs me when people make medical assumptions based on the limited information we read in the press.  What if his doctor told him not to have surgury last year?  I'd sure as hell rather try a few months of rest than hop on the gurney.  Sure, the timing is inconvenient for us, the team, and of course, Mark Kotsay, but injuries are rarely convenient.

I'm guessing Mark's defense in CF will be missed.  Here's hoping that he recovers quickly and that the surgury works...

I haven't had the energy to respond to every hateful word posted here about Kotsay because I would have just been saying the same thing over and over again, fighting with people who obviously can't remember what life was like before Kotsay.

But I TOTALLY agree with you Blez. People need to cut the guy a little slack. Surgery is not an easy choice. Kotsay has always been the guy who would go out there in 85 pieces all tied together with silly puddy if he knew it would help the team. So why do we think he is intentionally trying to hurt the team now?

On that same note, his absence IS going to hurt the team. Maybe not due to his missing bat, or his missing glove, but his pressence. He is a force out there, not just on the field, but in the clubhouse as well. Remember the 17 inning game? I was there, I know it was Kotsay who got everyone motivated and enthusiastic at the end of that doubleheader! He gives the team life. I don't know how many times I have heard the guys say he was the CAPTAIN! Sure it may not be his offical title, but if that is the way they see him, that is all that matters. Having that force missing is going to hurt, BIG TIME!

As for his return, there has been a lot of pesimistic additudes around here that just drive me insane. As I mentioned in another thread, I work with spine surgery devices, so I am sorry if I think some people are a little nuts when they think he is "going to retire" because of this. The point of having the surgery in the first place is so he can get his life back and feel strong and healthy again. Why would he do this if it was going to end his career, or if that was even a possiblity?

The reality is, he is going to be better than fine once he returns. He won't be on the DL any more, or Day-to-Dead. He will pick up that lost step and he will be that stellar Kotsay at the plate that we have all seen from time to time when he is not in pain!

I think this is the best possible decision. We suck in April and May anyway, why not take care of it now and let him spark our June surge!

Hurry back to us Kotsay!

It's just that he's overpaid and maybe he bring some intangibles that aren't shown in his underpreforming stats but he's still over paid.  I would like him even more if he produced.

Kotsay is going to play professional baseball for maybe 5 or 6 more years.  He's going to have to live with his back every day for the rest of his life.

No surgery is a joke, and back surgery is incredibly serious.  I completely support a person making a decision in conjunction with his doctor that makes the most sense for his long-term health -- whether that decision fits perfectly with the major league baseball season should be nearly irrelevant to the choice he and his doctor make.

Kotsay has sacrificed the normal function of his back for baseball.  The least that baseball (and we, as fans) can do is to support him as he tries to return to full mobility and function, even if it costs him a few weeks or even months of this season.

From what I've read, surgery was not the preferred option ACCORDING TO HIS DOCTORS when the offseason began. Therefore I will not blame him for "delaying" his surgery until now.

That said, the A's misjudged the extent of Kotsay's back issue when they signed him to an extension through 2008. Again, in their defense, when they made the offer they knew that his back was an issue but it did not affect his play in 2004. 2004 was probably his "career" year but his 2005 wasn't exactly horrid. If Kotsay had been able to maintain his 2005 form through the length of his current contract there probably wouldn't be the uproar.

But that didn't happen.

The A's made a mistake, but it wasn't in signing Kotsay to the extension. It was inaccuratey gauging how bad Kotsay's back would get.

or maybe that's a Kentucky Fried Chicken coupon in my pocket, but either way, I love what Kotsay has brought to this team. I haven't even read the other diaries yet because I don't want to get pissed off at seeing him bashed. I have a bad back also, and I know it isn't always clear cut what the best thing is to do.

Good luck with your surgery Mark, I'm pulling for you!

I don't agree with and don't understand the criticism about the timing of the surgery.  As much as we'd like them to be, injuries--even recurring ones--aren't predictable.

I also agree with the sentiments about Kotsay's defense, especially what Blez wrote about the lines he takes on fly balls.  The Tigers fans I know were totally blown away by those two balls he tracked down in the ALCS.  None of them had any idea he could play defense like that.

However, Kotsay's offense has been below average for the last two years, and the fact that Macha insisted on batting him second all that time really hurt our offense.  Offensively, I have little doubt that the A's are going to improve by both inserting a replacement that will post a significantly better OPS, and by not giving away the #2 spot in the lineup out of an old-boy, "He's our team leader" kind of mentality.

I'll be back with popcorn in a few for the Blez/Foolsh Kotsay v. Byrnes deathmatch.

It was a series late August-early September series against Boston a few years back (maybe 2003?) when the A's needed every game just to stay in the hunt for the AL West (which they wouldn't get that year). Boston had been handing the A's their collective arses all year long. Somewhere along the line, Manny Ramirez traps a fly ball out in left and the ump calls the out. If I'm not mistaken, that was Kots at the plate. It wasn't a catch. It was a crucial call. And Kots was bent and showed that fire we don't see from our beloved muppets very often. Later in the game, Kots made a similar play in center, stretching out and catch/trapping a ball (my A's fan-dom says he caught it). At any rate the ump called it a trap. Kots went ballistic. I loved that he fought for that moment in a crucial game. I had amired him to that point. I have loved him since. I proudly wear my faux-jersey t-shirt with Kots' name and number on the back (a gift from my mom who thought it was a jersey, God love her).

Viva Kots!

I don't think it is fair to criticize him for the timing of his back surgery. Kotsay is the type of guy who wants to play and I am sure it has to be really necessary for him to decide on this course of action. It must have gotten worse for him to decide to do the surgery now rather than later.

But here's the truth of it....yes, he was a great player for us one year but that doesn't negate the fact that he has let us down as of late. He missed many, many games. Therefore he was not worth his salary. It isn't his fault that Beane offered him a contract extension when he was already showing that he had a cranky back.

As for the Macha thing..it isn't unfair to note that he was a ringleader in asking for Macha's head. Some people think that was wonderful. I am not sad at macha going but I don't like What Kotsay did. So I don't think it was wonderful or admirable.

I do remember the beauty of his glove and his ability to throw guys out. It was a glorious thing to see and I hope he recovers beautifully. But I don't expect to see him play well this season...that's for sure. and we need him, we do not have depth and certainly not anyone as talented as he was at playing center. It doesn't take away from the fact that he was NOT a good acquisition for this team knowing what we know now.

KDF in  full effect, brother.
He's one of my favorites too, for all the reasons you've listed Blez, and it bums me out when everyone is so quick to jump all over him.

It's obvious that he's the gritty kind of ballplayer - I'd choose Kots as my foxhole partner any day. Doing anything when you're hurt is tough, but playing baseball at a fairly high level? Are you kidding me? Amazing.

The 12 pitch at bat you mentioned is probably one of my favorite A's moments, and very easily one of my favorite moments for a particular player, ever. It's actually the 2 moments - Kotsay's battle and Bradley's bomb all tied into one, and if for no other reason, he's my guy.

Never been under the knife, but I can tell that I'd do just about anything to avoid it. You figure you're an athlete, and by doing extra things, targeting the problem areas, you might skip the knife. Bummer. He tried, and I'd bet you all the money I've got that if there were any other way, he'd have done it to play.

I hope he recovers to give us that nice little kick, and in the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing someone play who probably wasn't going to get the chance if Kotsay were around. Goleski - haven't seen any games, but the linescores don't look so good. I'd rather try and work some deal post-return with Cleveland, and give one of the other guys a shot - 2Buck Chuck's doing well, TBuck is en fuego (but maybe premature). Bring it on, and best of luck to Kotsay as he recovers.

You've put into words very well many of the things I've been thinking the past few months about Kotsay (even more so today.)  I fully agree with you that we as fans will oftentimes give our favorites players a "pass," whether it is for personal actions or poor play.  That's the nature of being a fan, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Isn't that what makes being a fan fun?  Otherwise, wouldn't you just look at the rosters at the start of every season and pick the team that has assembled the most talent and say, "OK, this year I'm an (insert team name) fan." Thank you for putting all of this into words better than I could and as for Mark Kotsay, I wish him a speedy recovery and a return to good health.  I will be delighted to see him roaming centerfield this season.

... but I think we can all agree it was a mistake not to trade him in the 2005 season when Billy had the chance. If I remember correctly, the Yankees and Cubs were both willing to overpay.

I agree that Kotsay is (still) a great defensive center fielder -- he was probably playing below his ability last year because of his back troubles. But there is no way he justifies his salary.

for sure.  It would be an interesting exercise to determine just how significant his contribution has been with his (ahem) brilliant defensive play in CF.  He makes it look deceptively easy and we are about to find out just how big of an impact he had at his position.  Do I wish he was more productive offensively . . . um yeah!  I'm also thinking that the back issues did not help the situation, not a lick.  I hope his surgery and rehab goes well and that he gets a chance to prove his worth at the plate as well as in the field.

but there is a certain amount of frustration (that's not just limited to his case, btw) when anyone in the world could have predicted this exact injury. He missed a ton of games at the end of last year. His back was not getting better, and although surgery was, of course, the last resort, this injury has hounded him for years.

The fact that he needed surgery was probably inevitable. He's been trying to get better all off-season, and sure, 20/20 hindsight, but when he went down, no one was surprised.

In my opinion, and I recognize it may be just me, the only time surgery should happen in the middle of Spring Training is for an immediate injury. Nagging problems should ideally be fixed over the off-season; what a waste of recovery time to miss months of the season, when as long as he was going to have surgery (and his back was not going to heal itself), better November with more than four months to rest, than March, where he will feel constant pressure to rehab quickly and get back to playing.

Not that this makes him a bad person, or a bad player, or anything else. I just happen to think that it was a clear case that he should have done something proactive over the offseason about his injury, rather than hope it would resolve itself.

Just my two cents...

Blez - I agree 100% with what you are saying in this post.

Kotsay is one of the few A's players in recent memory where I generally always got good "feelings" from. Not the fruity kind of feelings, but these kind of feelings:

When he came up to bat, I always got the "feeling" that Kotsay would give a quality at-bat. He might strike out or hit a single when you needed a homerun, but he'd usually always strike out after seeing 5-6 pitches and making the pitcher work...then always went back to the dugout sharing all his veteran observations about those pitches to anyone who would listen.

When a flyball was hit anywhere between left-center and right center field, I always got the "feeling" that Kotsay would either catch it or play it perfectly, rob the batter of extra bases and/or throw runners out at the plate or at third.

These "feelings" are independent from actual performance, and while they might console us when our team is in trouble, they don't console those looking at the bottom line, and are impossible to track statistically...thus something that will get overlooked when people start ripping Kotsay.

While I don't certainly don't expect to change Blez's (or anyone else's) mind, I'll cop to having found Kotsay becoming a "tired act" over the last year or so.

It's not the timing of the back surgery - I don't know nearly enough to have a really informed opinion about that. It's not his salary, though I certainly think he's overpaid at this point. And it's not his declining production in and of itself, which is largely out of his hands due to injuries and aging.

No, my problem with Kotsay was that as his value declined his clubhouse leadership that we heard so much about seemed to turn increasingly into counterproductive clubhouse lawyering. The final straw for me was this, after a game where Kotsay tried to play first base and made two bad errors on one play:

Maybe I'm misinterpreting or blowing this out of proportion, but it sounds to me like he was unconcerned about his own poor play, but resented Macha's (entirely correct) decision to move him back to CF. What happened to "Wear[ing] It"?

The post-season comments about Macha were just more of the same. The two guys who bullied the manager into more playing time than they deserved turned about and complained that he "didn't have their back." Maybe that's the kind of attitude that comes from having played on losing teams for your whole career: talk about the team, but make sure everyone knows that the losing is someone else's fault. I would prefer to see the kind of leaders who are more concerned about what's good for the team, and less concerned about their own image.

Kotsay, why aren't you same people up in arms about our so called best reliever, who has also missed many games do to a balky back.  Every comment and diary I've seen says no way you trade Duke, but how does that make him any different than Kots.  So if next week, god forbid that happens, Duke announces he needs surgery, will the same villification happen.

Mark Kotsay is a very good player, but quite frankly the attitude he seemed to show through Macha's eventual exit left a sour taste for me.  But it was never at a point where I'd prefer to see him gone...and if the other teammates aren't too bothered by him, then fine.

My first reaction when I read that surgery was an option to him in November was, admittedly, "Why didn't you have it then?"  But since I don't know the details of Kotsay's condition (or any back procedure...or front procedure for that matter), I'm not going to worry about it.  What's done is done.

So I just hope he comes back in June, hits the ball well, catches the ball and makes all of us chuckle about the whole thing.

Weighing in late due to AN avoidance based on fear of overload of anti-Kotsay rhetoric.  Guess I got that one right.

Kotsay with bad back = not a very good situation.
Kotsay with bad back getting back surgery = good idea.
Kotsay coming back healthy = potential.

Sometimes it seems like everything is the end of the world on this site.

Some of us are just A's fans and want the guys who are on the A's to be at their best so our team can win.  I'm glad Kots decided to get the surgery done immediately -- almost one of the three months is still spring training, and he has a chance to be a major contributor when he returns.  At the same time, the team will have to figure out how to make it work without him, so if he's unable to be a major contributor, hopefully we'll have an option.

And about him being overpaid -- ALL baseball players are overpaid.  And they all whine too much.

This business of gauging the fan body politic based on 24 hours of emotionally inflamed internet reactions is just silly.  I no more believe Kotsay is persona non grata to fans based on yesterday's tide of posts than I believe Kotsay's the heart and soul of the club based on the posts here.  I suppose this mob dynamic is no different on AN than it is, say, in the lobby of George Bailey's Building and Loan.  Or the halls of Congress on Patriot Act day.

Kotsay was declining and thus not a good value for a team who specializes in value.  The timing of his surgery choice is unfortunate at best, and an indictment of the medical staff and/or Kotsay's team sensibilities at worst.  Let's all just agree that Kotsay made one of the two best Stomper-themed A's commercials ever, and move forward from there.  You know, once we've given that bilge rat Larry Davis the black spot, arghhhh.

Why everyone is saying Kotsay is a "well below average" hitter the last couple years.  I'm not sure how to find league averages in batting, so i'm using the sortable team stats.  
Kotsay in 2005:    .280BA/.421SLG/.325OBP
AL Median in 2005: .268BA/.451SLG/.328OBP

Kotsay in 2006:    .275BA/.386SLG/.332OBP
AL Median in 2006  .275BA/.436SLG/.334OBP

Granted they're slightly Below average, but i wouldn't go as far as to say he's well below average.  And it's a hard thing to judge when you intermittently miss time.  Try staying consistent when you have to sit out just when you start feeling comfortable again.  And who knows, he probably played in pain at times.  I think if he was healthy an entire season he will produce above average.

I'm a big time Kotsay fan. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to watch him play for the A's, even with his back problems the last 2 years. To me, the loss of Kotsay is equivalent to the loss of Ellis last year. Defensively, they're both so legit, I just don't see how you replace them. I'm baffled by the criticism of Kotsay on this site. He will recover and come back for the second half and I, for one, will be thrilled to see him in center field when he returns.

He became one of my favorite players because, even when I wasn't able to watch A's games and see what he was really like, he was a complete badass on MVP Baseball 2004.

I'm sad to see him out for so long.  And I know we'll miss the defense and depth; but I think we're better off in the batter's box.  Mixed bag, I guess.