Land of Opportunity

I love Ken Korach...so I'm going to steal his phrase for my headline today. Oakland has really become the Land of Opportunity thanks to the fact that most of their players are made of paper mache.

I will say that I'm really loving day games when the games are on MLB.TV because I get the video feed and have the sweet, soothing sounds of Korach over the video. It's nirvana. Well, at least until the A's take the field and start GIDPing. The A's most certainly had their chances today and Stewart killed two chances and Chavez one.

It was another day of the A's bullpen pitching being a mess. Witasick had the best inning of any of the relievers, ERA-wise, and he only wound up getting one batter on a foul pop that was barely caught by Buck. Robertson looked decent in his first outing and he has a very nice slider, but he is likely not the answer. It appears like the A's are hoping that a cortisone shot to Duchscherer's hip will do the trick and that he can come back and be the closer by next week. In the meantime, the A's are going to be in trouble unless the starters go very deep.

On the bright side (if there is one), at least they didn't have to use Calero and/or Embree today so they should be rested for the big series with the Giants coming up this weekend. The other thing is that Cust continues to be an on-base machine. The A's just need someone to drive him in. And that's where the A's need to start basically doing the lineup based on the hot hand. Crosby is obviously hot right now, so move him up in the order and put Dan Johnson and Cust in the number three and four hole. Put Crosby fifth and Chavez sixth. Not that it will have that big of an impact right now, but you've got to try something while the A's are missing Milton "I Shatter Like Glass" Bradley.

Any way, losing three of four to the Royals is sad, but I'm already turning my attention to how Barry Zito will be received by the Oakland faithful tomorrow night. He comes to pitch in Oakland and you have to think that the crowd will likely be split 50/50 between boos and cheers. Korach and Fosse were thinking more 70/30 or 80/20 in favor of cheering, but I seriously think that they don't understand the Oakland mindset if they think that. Oakland has always had blue collar roots which I believe means that loyalty over dollars is a core value. That's why I still think Giambi is roundly booed when he comes here. At the same time, Zito is kind of in that Tejada place where people know that the A's weren't going to match whatever other richer teams offered, so that's why I think you'll see a 50/50 split. What do you think? Should he be booed? Vote below.

Also, I was interviewed for NBC.com for their fantasy baseball show about my view on some of the A's players. Take a listen if you have a chance.