DLD 9/11/13

The Tigers will soon have Jhonny Peralta back in the fold.

Baseball will honor those who were lost in the attacks 12 years ago.  We will never forget.

Twins prospect Byron Buxton is Baseball America's top prospect for 2013.  The Baseball America article has a few ties to the A's, including mentions of Chris Young and Grant Desme.

The Blue Jays plan to replace their turf with natural grass.  Having observed games in both Tampa and Toronto, I would say Toronto's surface is clearly the worst of all, partially due to the lack of a dirt infield.  Tampa's turf isn't anywhere near as bad.

The Mariners will not be able to use A's killer Brendan Ryan during the final series of the season because he has been acquired by the Yankees.

The travel schedule for 2014 is extremely unfriendly to the Mariners.

Grant Brisbee analyzes Brendan Ryan's skillset.

Wondering how ex-major leaguers are doing in Japan?  Brisbee has you covered.

Ned Yost has been heavily criticized for some very questionable managing decisions.

The A's final affiliate to finish their season, the Beloit Snappers, did so on Tuesday when they bowed out of the Midwest League playoffs.

On this day a year ago, the A's made grown men wet themselves.

Specifically, they beat the slegnA 6-5.  After an entertaining back-and-forth battle, they led 4-3 in the 9th when Cliff Pennington hit a two-out single off Kevin Jepsen.  Coco Crisp sent a shot down the right field line and into the corner, and it caromed away from Torii Hunter, scoring both runs.  It ended up being a triple and an error, but I thought it was an inside-the-park home run.  Wouldn't have been the first time Hunter's defense helped the A's.  Nonetheless, they led 6-3 into the bottom of the ninth.  Grant Balfour walked the first two batters he faced, with some questionable calls in the process.  (Go back to the Condensed Game and watch ball four to Chris Iannetta, who led off the inning.)  Anyway, he then allowed singles to Hunter and Albert Pujols, cutting the score to 6-5 and putting men on the corners with Hunter representing the tying run at third and Peter Bourjos, the pinch-runner, as the winning run at first.  Jerry Blevins got the call from the bullpen and the rest was history.  The full game thread is archived, and it is separated into four parts.  The second thread covers the middle innings, and the third holds most of the conclusion to the ballgame, although Zonis created an offshoot thread that ended the game.

I would consider this one of the best wins of 2012, and one of the best road wins in franchise history.  Take a look at the win probability graph.  Wow.

Today's starting lineup is out, with lots of left-handed bats against 6-foot-7 right-handed starter Mike Pelfrey.