When I think about the baseball diamond that is the Oakland A's 2008 season to date, I reflect upon many facets. They are not all bright, and they are flawed, but among them some still shine. There is, for example, AN's own Brad Ziegler and his record-making start in the majors, along with the confidence I feel whenever he now takes the mound. There was, once, a three-game sweep of the loathsome Red Sox. On a sultry night in September I listened as the boys scored four runs without ever once putting the ball in play, as if demonstrating there and then, at last, that this was the plan all along. There was Gallagher's bizarre no-hit effort the other night, and even the meaningless fact that we just won a series against a vastly more talented, and vastly more expensive, team. And there was even last night's starting line-up, which not even Nostradamus at his best could have forseen last spring.

This 2008 season has been like every other season, unique, and precious, and I'll miss it sorely when it has gone.

Oh, and fuck the Angels.

Dump away.

For me, anyway. Maybe for the team a rare day off will be just what the doctor ordered, but for me, it sucks. What am I supposed to do, rent a movie?

Baseball Prospectus is free this week. If you're as cheap as I am, you might want to take advantage. Otherwise, you'd have to pay to read what Christina Kahrl has to say about our latest moppet, Brooks Conrad:

It's hard to say that makes him a backup shortstop, but having just sent down Gregorio Petit and electing to cut Murphy loose for not being the next Mark Ellis-style minor bit of pilferage from the Royals, they're definitely in Weaver territory as far as having their backup shortstop at a Triple-A affiliate TBNL.

Of course, one of my BP favorites, The Week in Quotes, is always free:

With Huston, he's got a lot of major league experience and he's only 24 years old, so a guy like Huston would definitely fit into what we're trying to re-create here down the road."
--A's general manager Billy Beane

At least when baseball returns, Ellie will too.

That's about as much baseball as I can muster links for. Here is a random link about a great ape escape:

In the end Ichiro was tempted down with a banana, and zoo staff were able to tranquilize him safely.

I just know there's a joke there, somewhere.

Off Days are long and slow. Please help by contributing links.

Gosh darn it to heck, I hate it when this happens. Still, I suppose it could have been worse:

Tuesday, Harden said he had a dead-arm kind of feeling, which he has had in the past and which is normal for pitchers around midseason

So, go Dana! Saunders ain't gonna make it easy for you.

In other news, our lovable moppets were apparently on hand for the inspiration of WALL-E's look:

The idea actually came while the director was at an Oakland A's playoff game, almost five years ago, when the home team was competing against the Boston Red Sox.

(h/t Catfish Stew)

And because the grouch will mention it, but is, I suppose, too humble to link to it, our own salb's piece over at THT: Good team, bad team, glad team, sad team: 

That must frustrate Oakland fans looking up at the Halos in the standings. The A's are the inverse of the Angels: a slightly above-average team playing extremely well but with only a slightly above-average number of wins to show for it.

Dump away!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HOOOOOO!

As you may or may not already know, recently AN's most beloved member, Jennifer, posted her 20,000 comment. In honor of her monumental achievement, I'd like to share with you a few of my favorite Jennifer things.

[Note by monkeyball, 03/07/08 9:25 AM PST ]
I think we need to move this party onto the front page. Jennifer has been a really important contributor to shaping AN from its inception.
ArakSOT, not so much. But sometimes history touches down at unlikely locations. ;)

 [Note by Nico: Who's Jennifer?]

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Plenty More

They may walk hand in hand
Like lovers through the market square
Selecting leather goods,
Pretending that they just don't care
They say all the boys are monsters
All the girls are whores
So when you lose the one you love
There's always plenty more

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This article by Matthew is interesting. Very sobering. You should read it.

Uh oh: Runaway rats.

"You go to Rat Island and there are hardly any chocolate lilies," said Jeff Williams, another refuge biologist.

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I have here in my hand...
It's all over the blogosphere, so you've probably already seen it, but the Mitchell report allegedly contains the names of 11 free agents. Or not.

Warming up the hot stove
John Heyman at SI.com speculates on what the top FAs should expect to command.

There are several ways to assess the lack of depth and talent of the free-agent class, but perhaps Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said it best: "My reaction to the free-agent market is, I'm glad we're not in it.''

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From Baseball Prospectus

According to Will Carroll, Torre, Mattingly and hitting coach Kevin Long to the Dodgers is a done deal. Oddly, he says this happened Monday, although no one else is reporting it.

Grady Little was fired mostly for not being Joe Torre.

Yeah, but did Grady get more than a three-minute phone call?

Nate Silver checks in with "A-Rod Survivor". Oakland is #26 down the list in the "Gravel/Tancredo Memorial No-Shot-In-Bloody-Hell Division."

I'm sure that Billy Beane has entertained the thought, but Eric Chavez blocks him, ownership won't pay for him, and there's no long-term gameplan associated with him.

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