Was it all a dream? Is the A's soap opera of the season already hitting the team, only 18 games in? I know this is covered in the DLD, but Brad Halsey went all psycho on the A's front office in the Chronicle today.
My intention this morning was to let baseballgirl's post about AN Day IV: A New Hope sit on the front page until the A's open the series in Baltimore later today. We need to get the payments rolling in on that and if you want to get in, you should get in early this year. We're considering having the local chapter of SABR also attend AN Day this year and we max out at 225 tickets.
But the A's decided to have their early season drama this year. Last year it was Susan Slusser's story on Nick Swisher's partying and Mychael Urban's tired act piece on Milton Bradley. This year, Halsey calls the A's a "mom and pop shop" and claims that they only care about money. Well, for a team that only cares about money, this "mom and pop shop" sports the second best record in baseball since 2000 and the third best record since 1998. I'm not saying that Halsey doesn't have a valid point about the A's medical care. As a matter of fact, I think he very much does. But his mistake is even bringing up the financial side of things. Every team makes a myriad of decisions based on finances, even the mighty Yankees.
And yeah, Halsey may feel like he is owed the chance, but the truth is that he did nothing in spring training to earn the A's trust. He and his nearly seven ERA was horrible most of the time. And if he was continuing to have an issue down at Sacramento, why did he continue to let himself pitch? I don't know, it seems like Halsey is just whining because he's not getting paid not because he isn't going to get his shot.
As for the A's medical staff, I still think that it continues to be an unacceptable situation when players come out to publicly complain. Crosby and Halsey are two that have made big public stinks about their medical care. I'm guessing that if this is coming out publicly that there have to be lots of complaints privately. In my experience being around ballplayers, the last thing they EVER want to do is to come out publicly on something controversial, so it tells me that they are being ignored when they complain about it internally. I know that's a big assumption, but having been around guys who regurgiate every Bull Durham cliche sound bite, I don't think it's that huge a leap of faith.
Any way, there is also a report circulating that the A's are also calling up former Stanford player Danny Putnam which I take to mean that the A's are putting Bradley on the DL, which is likely what they should've done in the first place given Milton's fragile nature in the past. I understand that the team wants to get as much from their key players as possible and the 15-day DL would've prevented them from having Milton back asap, but you might as well be cautious with these guys early rather than paying for them later. We might not see Milton for a while now and the A's can't exactly afford to be missing their star players.
I am excited about seeing Braden pitch and Putnam play as that's one of the most refreshing things about rooting for the A's. We get to see exciting youngsters quite often. The players like Huston Street, Nick Swisher and Joe Blanton quickly become a part of our passion. Travis Buck is already quickly joining that list and it would be great to get another young pitcher to add. Of course, the A's rotation doesn't seem to need much help right now, Harden or no Harden. The starters have the lowest ERA in baseball right now and have the second lowest BAA of any pitching staff and that's after facing the vaunted Yankees and pitching a series in Arlington.
Any way, sign up for AN Day 4. We're into the good part of the trilogy now. And check out FSU's DLD...it's a real interesting look at baseball's financials.
