April 2009

  • A’s fluenza strikes A’s as five go down in one game

    By legerdemain on 4/30/09 9:41pm
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    Tuesday: Oakland A’s 4 – 5 Texas Rangers

    Wednesday: Rain!

    Thursday: A’s  4 – 2 Rangers

    The A’s had an attack of injury-itis as five – five! Players went down in one game on Tuesday. Nomar Garciaparra and  Mark Ellis are now on the DL, both with thigh strains, Eric Chavez is now day to day with an unidentified arm injury (though, when is he not?), Brett Anderson has a blister, Santiago Casilla has… gawd, it’s too painful to write. In fact, just typing this has given me ankle-knack.

    As for the actual baseball, the A’s lost a close one on Tuesday after a decent start from Anderson, who went five before having to leave, taking his lead with him. The bullpen gave it up, but, as they’ve been so nails this season, I guess they have to have a bad one now and then.

    Wednesday, it rained, meaning the A’s could skip a Josh Outman loss; there’ll be a double header in Arlington at the end of May. I don’t think anyone is sad about this.

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  • A's bring back Buck, have better luck. Even homers!

    By legerdemain on 4/27/09 2:23pm
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    Friday: Tampa Bay Rays 8–2 Oakland A’s
    Saturday: Rays 2-5 A’s
    Sunday: Rays 1-7 A’s

    I’ll come clean here. I didn’t see every pitch of every inning of each of the three games this weekend. But hey, the sun was shining in the bay area this weekend, and sometimes there’s not a lot better than following the game on the radio, in the garden with a gin and tonic. I reckon, anyway. Besides, the Saturday game wasn’t on TV THANKS TO FOX and their ridiculous rules.
    Anyway. Travis Buck got into two games in a row, and, surprise surprise, he was pretty great. How’s about some more of that? And Jack Hannahan hit a home run in a losing effort on Friday night; I love me some Jack Hannahan, I must admit. I’ve always felt that he gets undue stick from certain quarters; he’s not the greatest ballplayer who’s ever played, but it’s hardly his fault that Eric Chavez is made out of balsawood stuck together with chewing gum, or that he was asked to play too many games for his talent level last year. In any case, he always seems to try hard, and plays pretty solid defense.
    I’ll get off that hobby horse now.

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  • A’s Find Sean Gallagher Down Back of Sofa, Send Him To AAA

    By legerdemain on 4/24/09 12:12am
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    It seems like Billy Beane woke up this morning and remembered that Sean Gallagher was on the twenty five man major league roster, and then immediately optioned him down to triple A Sacramento. Gallagher has appeared in relief in three games this season, and has mostly been bad at pitching, racking up an ERA of 8.10. Going into spring training, Gallagher was considered to be one of the few certainties to make the A’s starting rotation, but a few fairly dismal starts, and the emergence of young prodigies Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson condemned him to the bullpen.

    Manager Bob Geren promptly sat him on the naughty step, and now Gallagher has been sent to his room to think about what he’s done. Metaphorically speaking, of course. No-one, it seems, knows exactly what’s wrong with him. There’s been speculation that it’s a mechanical problem, or possibly mental, or attitude difficulties. With Oakland’s recent record of this sort of thing, it could just as easily be an injury of some sort – the curse still seems to linger, this year, despite off season efforts to get healthier.

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  • A's play nearly five hours to secure defeat

    By legerdemain on 4/22/09 6:22pm
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    Final Score: Oakland A's 7 - 9 New York Yankees

    This is getting a little silly, frankly. One of the great things about A's baseball is that the games are over pretty quickly, for the most part. But this is their third, long, extra innings game this year (I was at the one against the Red Sox, and boy, that went late). It just makes losing all the worse.

    Just having a quick look at the box score, after there were runs in each of the first seven innings, but then nothing – at all! – until the bottom of the 14th, when Melky Cabrera hit his second homer of the game, to finish the game. Sigh.

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  • Postgame April 10 - A's Pitching

    By jemanji on 4/11/09 2:32am
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    === Brett Anderson ===

    He's super young, so cut him some slack.  Billy Beane, along with a lot of other people, has reasons for believing that the kid has more than his A's competition, and that's saying something.

    In this one game -- we're talking how he looked in one game -- he was the definition of a Quad-A pitcher.  Does everything okay, does nothing well, with the end result being a mushy bowl of 5 earnies a game.

    Best thing about him:  a crisp 91-93 fastball lefthanded ...

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  • Postgame April 10 - Visitors' Hitting

    By jemanji on 4/11/09 1:34am
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    === Endy Chavez ===

    Continued his 5-game splash as The Poor Man's Ichiro, with sharp grounders finding holes and sharp cleats tearing up the baselines.  For five games, he hasn't looked all that different from an Ichiro Minus 10-20%.  Will cheerfully admit that if Chavez were to hit like this the entire season, then he'd be a quality player, no argument.

    The prediction here remains that he'll finish at around his career 75 OPS+, which is nowhere near good enough to start in left field for a major-league club.   But IF enough of Chavez' sharp grounders were to go through for him to hit .300/.340/.430, as in his career 2006 year at age 28, then with his outstanding defense, he would make a Paul Blair-type contribution.

    Would really like to know how much air Mark Ellis cleared in robbing Chavez of a clean hit late in the game.  It looked like a 30-36 inch vertical.

    ................

    After four very crisp defensive games, the Mariners looked sloppy in this one.   Beltre threw the ball into a runner; Chavez jumped for a ball

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  • Postgame April 10 - Bottom Half

    By jemanji on 4/10/09 11:56pm
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    The A's left --- wait for it --- 26 men on base.  And lost by one run.  This was one of the unluckiest A's losses you will see all season.

    26 men left on by A's batters as individuals; 14 stranded as a lineup collectively.  They had 3 missed RBI per INNING.

    Think about it.  Three men on base, each and every inning, but only 5 total runs (one every other inning).  One more of those 26 guys score and the A's win.*  They didn't.  The M's will take it.

    .

    === Sweeney, CF ===

    Is it possible that the super-sabermetric Oakland A's never heard about optimizing your lineup?  No, it's not possible.   The A's, like the M's, are aware that MATHEMATICALLY you'd rather have Jack Cust or Matt Holliday lead off, than have your worst hitter lead off.

    Intelligent baseball men put players l

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