A's Beat Yomiuri, Other Thought

The A's beat the Yomiuri Giants, the Yankees of NPB today 5-0 on a combined two-hitter by Tom Milone (who needs to go pitch in Japan, my god!), Ryan Cook, Brian Fuentes, Jordan Norberto (no walks!) and Grant Balfour. The Mariners of course lost to the Hanshin Tigers yesterday in Tokyo and with the Giants better than the Tigers, who are better than the Mariners, my quick calculation tells me Seattle is at best a mid-talent AA team or a low-talent AAA team.

The box score to this game isn't easy to find, but I have it! In ENGLISH!

OAKLAND (5) AT YOMIURI (0)

 OAKLAND          AB  R  H BI  YOMIURI          AB  R  H BI
 J Weeks 2b        5  0  2  2  H Sakamoto ss     4  0  0  0 
 C Pennington ss   5  0  1  0  J Bowker lf       4  0  0  0 
 C Crisp lf        4  0  1  1  H Chono cf        3  0  0  0 
 S Smith dh        3  0  0  0  S Abe c           3  0  0  0 
 J Gomes ph-dh     1  0  0  0  S Murata 3b       3  0  1  0 
 Y Cespedes cf     4  0  0  0  K Takahashi 1b    3  0  0  0 
 C Cowgill cf      0  0  0  0  K Yano rf         3  0  0  0 
 J Reddick rf      4  2  2  0  Y Tani dh         2  0  0  0 
 K Suzuki c        2  1  1  2  T Ota ph-dh       1  0  0  0 
 B Allen 1b        3  1  0  0  T Terauchi 2b     2  0  1  0 
 J Donaldson 3b    4  1  1  0  M Ogasawara ph    1  0  0  0 
 TOTALS           35  5  8  5  TOTALS           29  0  2  0

 OAKLAND                   010 000 400 --  5
 YOMIURI                   000 000 000 --  0

 LOB--OAKLAND 8, YOMIURI 2. 2B--C Crisp. HR--K 
 Suzuki 1 (2) (off L Romero). SB--T Terauchi 1 (1).
                                   IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR
  OAKLAND
 T Milone (W,2-1)                   5   2   0   0   0   7   0
 R Cook                             1   0   0   0   0   0   0
 B Fuentes                          1   0   0   0   0   1   0
 J Norberto                         1   0   0   0   0   2   0
 G Balfour                          1   0   0   0   0   0   0
  YOMIURI
 R Miyaguni (L,0-1)                 5   3   1   1   2   9   0
 K Takagi                           1   0   0   0   0   0   0
 L Romero                           0   4   4   4   1   0   1
 J Ono                              1   1   0   0   1   2   0
 D Ochi                             1   0   0   0   1   1   0
 T Yamaguchi                        1   0   0   0   0   1   0

 SO--OAK: C Pennington 3, J Weeks 2, B Allen 2, S 
 Smith 2, Y Cespedes 2, J Donaldson, K Suzuki. YOM:
 J Bowker 2, H Chono 2, K Takahashi 2, H Sakamoto, 
 T Ota, S Murata, S Abe. BB--OAK: K Suzuki 2, B 
 Allen, S Smith, C Crisp.  T--2:48. A--26,252.

Another random thought after the jump...

What wasn't: The A's people may remember had Phil Humber last offseason. He was rid of when the A's signed Guillermo Moscoso. The A's, as do many teams, frequently claim a guy through waivers then expose him to waivers again as they must be calculating that they were the only team interested in these unwanted players. Sometimes, as the A's did with Cedric Hunter and Evan Scribner it works out, other times it does not. Phi Humber was an "it did not". Who would you have rather ended up with?

Moscoso had a superficially great year with a standout 3.38 ERA. That belied the fact that he got luckier than lucky can be, with a .221 BABIP, and a meek 5.2 K/9 and pedestrian 2.7 BB/9. Only 6.2% of his fly balls crossed the outfield fence, despite the fact that only 26.8% of his hits ended up on the ground. Lucky indeed.

The A's took this luck and either fooled the Rockies by getting a potentially good to above-average outfielder in Seth Smith, or if you come from a different mindset than I do the Rockies knew they were getting an OK but not great pitcher, and accordingly they sent us an OK but not great outfielder in Smith. Regardless of that, what if the A's had held onto Humber?

The A's got Humber in December of 2010, claiming him on waivers from the Royals. The former third overall pick in the draft (food for thought, how often do we say failed Mets prospect? This is like a long line from our own Billy Beane through Paul Wilson, Bill Pulsipher to Lastings Milledge, Fernando Martinez.... Even those who do do well seem to destruct at some point and fall far short of their potential, Dwight Gooden, Rey Ordonez, Scott Kazmir) had a 5.26 ERA and weak 6.1 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 in very limited time with the Mets, Twins and Royals. The A's let him escape to Chicago where on the South Side last year he puts up a 3.5 WAR season (Moscoso's was a mere 1.3) with a 3.75 ERA that was higher than his 3.58 FIP. He doesn't become arbitration eligible until after this season. Nice little pick up by Kenny Williams.

Humber for Moscoso straight up - a choice we had - hindsight is 20/20 but any regrets a year later?