The problem is all your offensive philosophy
The answer is easy if you take a called strike three
I'd like to help you in your quest for LOB
There must be fifty ways to leave your runners

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Vanity Fair has a long article by Billy Beane Michael Lewis about baseball in Cuba, and the agent who was convicted of smuggling four players into the U.S. Definitely worth the time to read this one.

Apart from that, as the game starts, much is familiar. The managers do dopey things to remind everyone they exist - like bat their best hitter seventh or bunt the D.H. in the top of the first with runners on first and second and nobody out. There are players who clearly like to get dirty and players who don't. The catchers have the same subtle ability to distance themselves from pitchers in trouble - refusing to make eye contact as they hand him a new ball after a home run. Even the body language is the same - right down to the same startling amount of unself-conscious public crotch grabbing when things go wrong.

According to ESPN, the A's may be prepared to outbid "at least seven other teams", including the Yankees, for 16-year old Dominican RHP Michael Inoa. We'll see.

Milton Bradley flipped out:

Milton Bradley stormed out of the Texas Rangers clubhouse after an 11-5 victory Wednesday night over Kansas City and bounded up four flights of stairs looking for Royals television announcer Ryan Lefebvre.
Bradley, who led the AL with a .333 batting average heading into Thursday's games, heard what he considered derogatory remarks made by Lefebvre on a TV in the Rangers clubhouse. General manager Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington were close behind and intercepted Bradley, who was the designated hitter Wednesday, before he reached Lefebvre.
"I don't want to get necessarily into the details," Daniels said. "He was upset. Someone who doesn’t know him was passing judgment on TV. It was obvious he was hurt by the comments." Bradley never reached Lefebvre, although he was within about 20 feet of him in the TV booth before being led back down to the clubhouse.
"There was no incident," Daniels said.

And Ryan Sweeney went 3/4 with a HR last night on his rehab assignment with Sacramento. Overall, he's hitting .414 there, and is eligible to come off the DL tomorrow. (DFA Brown). Roster moves coming perhaps? (DFA Brown)

It can be dangerous to try to break down the numbers too much - most of us have a tendency to dismiss some numbers as anomalous, or think others represent a trend, when all we are seeing is statistical noise. Nonetheless, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at how the A's did on offense, both as individuals and as a group, on a month-by-month basis.

I used OPS here because it's readily available, and highly correlated with run scoring, and only included months where the individuals had a significant number of at-bats. Here are the numbers, followed by a few observations (no real analysis):

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Have you noticed that Jason Kendall isn't hitting very well this year? And that Jack Cust is? Yeah, me too. Let's suppose for the nonce that Cust doesn't turn back into a pumpkin, or some other variety of large squash, and keeps hitting enough that his spot in the lineup is a given. Whither Mike Piazza? Could he be the A's every day (or every other day) catcher, or is his defense really so bad that Jason Kendall (ugh) is still the better option.

Here's what the numbers say:

Poll

Who do you think will be the regular catcher for the A's at the end of the season?

16%

Kendall/Piazza splitting time evenly

32 votes

6%

Adam Melhuse

12 votes

20%

Kurt Suzuki

40 votes

0%

J.D. Closser

1 votes

2%

Jeremy Brown

4 votes

44%

Jason Kendall

87 votes

9%

Mike Piazza

18 votes

194 votes | Poll has closed

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In honor of Barry's return. Original lyrics here.
I'm no monkeyball, but then again Waters and Gilmour ain't exactly Dylan. And I wouldn't want to be too fine.

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[ring]
Hello, the worlds smartest and handsomest GM speaking...
The worlds toughest, most kick-ass catcher?...
Oh, Jason, hey, good to hear from you, how'd you get this number?...

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The A's offense gets off to a good start for once, scoring three runs in the first inning off of Mark Buehrle, but then returns to hibernation, and the bullpen will blow it late in the game, as the A's will lose 6-3.

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The signing of Esteban Loaiza last November was one of Billy Beane's most surprising and controversial moves. Most thought that $7 Million per year was way too much for a team with a small budget to be paying for a pitcher with such a mixed track record, while a minority suggested that, with equally mediocre pitchers signing for even more, it could actually prove to be a bargain.

With Loaiza having apparently made his last start of the regular season, I thought it would be a good time to look at how the year's crop of free agent pitchers performed.

Poll

What do you expect from Esteban Loaiza in 2007-8?

61%

200 Innings/year of consistent league-average performance. Good value signing.

170 votes

31%

Two more years of Jekyll and Hyde inconsistency. Pass the antacid.

86 votes

2%

Several more traffic arrests. Pass the radar detector.

6 votes

1%

The batting practice pitcher we saw in April. That contract still sucks.

4 votes

3%

The Cy Young candidate we saw in August. Beane is a super-genius!

11 votes

277 votes | Poll has closed

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Where is everyone? Did the cool kids all go to hang out at another blog and not tell me?

Anyway, a few links for the off-day:

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Thanks in part to AN, Bill King is one of the ten finalists for the Ford Frick Award. The full list is:
Tom Cheek  
Ken Coleman
Dizzy Dean
Jacques Doucet
Gene Elston
Bill King
Tony Kubek
Denny Mathews
Graham McNamee
Dave Niehaus

"Throughout the month of November, more than 105,000 fan votes were cast exclusively at the Hall of Fame's Web site - the highest vote total in the three-year history of the online fan voting component to determine Frick ballot selections -with King (25,380), Niehaus (17,091) and Doucet (15,002) selected by fans for the ballot through the online vote."

More details at
http://baseballhalloffame.org/news/2005/051206.htm