"What do you expect, they're Canadian?"
In the interest of fairness, Toronto has agreed to replace the middle of their lineup tonight with Alex hitting 3rd, Neil 4th and Geddy Lee 5th.
Hello wOBAmaniacs and OBPriestesses, and welcome to yet another homestand. The Athletics come off a pitiful 1-5 road trip (well, pitiful offensively... the pitching was incredible) to herald in the homer-happy Toronto Blue Jays, who have the utter misfortune of playing in the AL East. In any other division they might be in the race, but oh Wells.
The Jays are closing in on an impressive home run total for 2010, but will nonetheless be observers in October.
The Sacramento shuttle was busy for the A's today, with Chris Carter and Jeff Larish being sent down and Travis Buck once again recalled from AAA. The other roster spot is filled by Conor Jackson, coming off the 15-day DL. I dunno if I like the idea of CC being shipped back to the 916 with an 0-19 hanging over him, but I'd imagine he'll be back in September in search of his first MLB hit... when it at last materializes, may it be the first of many. Apparently this was done to accomodate Buck's options and to ensure he will be able to be sent down again next season, but my relative ignorance on these matters is indeed reason #4,287 why I am not a General Manager in a major sport.
Chris and Jeff leave the stage, Travis and Conor return.
Brett Anderson takes the ball for the Green and Gold tonight, fresh off 2 solid outings in which he received run support so miniscule he must be wondering what he did to piss off our hitters. He is opposed by Shaun Marcum, who is 10-6 but was crushed by the Red Sox in his last outing for 8 ER in 4 IP. The A's sit at 57-59 and if they want to progress from the last 3 years and finish above the .500 mark, they must win games like this one and they must take series, especially at home where they tend to feature the added attraction of actually performing like a legitimate Major League Baseball team.
If the A's are smart, they will lock up these young pitchers like Gio and Trevor, as they did with Brett.
All right then, here's hoping we can show some Vital Signs on offense tonight and BA can Twitter the Blue Jays into submission with some of his patented nasty stuff... I think we'd all agree that after the last road trip our boys must send some Signals that they are still interested in more than just playing out the string. The lineup widget is not updated (big surprise there) but here's the A's order for now... when the full thing is posted I will add it in:
Crisp DH, Barton 1B, Jackson LF, Suzuki C, Kouzmanoff 3B, Ellis 2B, Buck RF, Davis CF, Pennington SS, Anderson P
OK? Have fun and let's win this game.
