SB Nation - Keith Foulke

Pitch F/X: Michael Bowden, 9/28/09

bs.uf15bosox9bears23 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:03:32 -0000

More photos » by Charles Krupa - AP

I'd hide my face too.

Statline: 3.0 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 2 HR, 37 strikes in 67 pitches, 4 groundouts, 2 flyouts

Okay, there's not a lot there to like. I mean, he did get some good results - strikeouts, only 1 walk, good groundball/flyball ratio. Of course, we need to look past the results, and into the process - and that's what Pitch F/X is here for. So let's dive right in.

Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Nibbleness	Time to Plate
FF (Four Seam Fastball)	91.71	93.3	-1.99	10.66	50	28 / 56.00%	1 / 2.00%	8.37	0.415
CH (Change up)	84.48	85.2	-6.19	8.93	5	3 / 60.00%	0 / 0.00%	11.82	0.447
SL (Slider)	83.92	87.2	2.05	2.95	10	4 / 40.00%	1 / 10.00%	8.74	0.452
CU (Curveball)	80.00	80.4	1.44	-2.85	2	2 / 100.00%	0 / 0.00%	6.25	0.473

Not great velocity or differential, but that isn't exactly Bowden's game. He did throw a LOT of fastballs - and not for a lot of strikes either. Very few swinging strikes is an indication that his stuff wasn't fooling many batters.

Now let's look at the pretty graphs - after the jump, of course.

First, the tracks:

via www.brooksbaseball.net

Good tailing action on his changeup (which got rocketed by Hill in the first inning). Pretty straight curveball and lots of break on the slider. Now for the side view:

The changeup drops about a foot and a half, as does the curve and slider. The latter takes longer to seperate from the fastball, while the curveball starts above the fastball and falls sharply before crossing the plate.

Even though Bowden didn't throw a lot of pitches, we still got to see how he did after throwing a lot of pitches with little time to recover inbetween. His velocity didn't seem to drop too much, looking at this graph:

Of course, that's not exactly the clearest picture of his stamina, since it doesn't show what each pitch was. This one does though:

His fastball kept it's velocity up consistently; none of his other pitches dropped much either. So he's a healthy young buck.

Wow... So, umm.... That's a lot of fastballs up and gloveside. There's also a grouping in the middle of the zone , which isn't exactly a safe spot. Perhaps there's some trends in the batter's handedness.

Stayed away from lefties, mostly. He did have a couple sliders that came into batter's knees, and the only changeup was up and away.

Stayed away a LOT more from the righties - odd, considering the common logic of matching hands with the batter for a better matchup. The curveballs were mostly away, but there were a couple in the middle of the zone. Oh, and I'd wager that single yellow dot in the middle of the zone was the one Hill crushed. Lots of high fastballs isn't a good sign either, although the grouping down and away probably helped the groundball numbers.

Quick mechanics check, for Keith Foulke, Jr:

The sliders came out a bit further than the rest of the pitches - might be the product of the grip and his delivery.

And now the stuff graph. The changeups move a lot more horizontally than the fastball, which we saw was straight as an arrow. The curves don't move a lot horizontally either, making it the text book example of a 12-6 change. It definitely seems like he needs to add some more horizontal stuff - perhaps a mechanics change could facilitate that?

Breakthrough!

chuckb — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:49:36 -0000

More photos » by Frank Franklin II - AP

Ryan's tremendous defense has helped make him a legitimate major league SS.(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

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Brendan Ryan was never considered much of a prospect when coming up through the Cardinals system. He didn’t do anything offensively that spectacularly but it appeared as though he could play SS. Of course, the Cardinals became accustomed to fairly productive offensive shortstops, what w/ several years of Edgar Renteria and then 3 more of David Eckstein, so it appeared as though Ryan would – if he made it at all – end up as nothing more than a utility infielder. More likely a Bo Hart/Joe McEwing type.

Ryan was drafted in the 7th round of 2003 draft out of Lewis & Clark in Idaho – a school whose most famous major leaguer was Keith Foulke. Ryan signed and proceeded to have what would become his most productive offensive season in the minors during the last half of the 2003 season while playing for New Jersey in the New York-Penn League. He was promoted the next season to Low-A ball w/ Peoria and was again, fairly productive offensively, and spent the 2005 season playing in High-A ball w/ Palm Beach and AA Springfield. 2006 must have been an injury-riddled season as he only had 128 PAs – total – while playing for 4 different teams. He did finish 2006 w/ Memphis, however, and that’s where he began the 2007 season.

He really wasn’t very good w/ Memphis in 2007 (.668 OPS) but we all know of Tony’s hankering for more middle infielders than is truly necessary (of course, when your backup SS option is Aaron Miles, maybe a 4th really was necessary!) and Ryan was recalled in early June. Though he quickly became a fixture in Tony’s doghouse for his base running snafus, swinging at 3-0 counts, and general goofiness he played better for the Cards than he did at Memphis.

Year	Age	Team	Level	BA	OBP	SLG	XBH%
2003	21	New Jersey	A -- ss	.311	.363	.425	30
2004	22	Peoria	Low-A	.322	.356	.404	19.7
2005	23	2 teams	High A; AA	.289	.349	.395	29.3
2006	24	4 teams		.265	.302	.308	9.7
2007	25	Memphis	AAA	.272	.328	.341	17.0
2008	26	3 teams	Hi A; AA; AAA	.261	.308	.450	44.8

David Eckstein was allowed to leave as a free agent at the end of the ’07 season and I thought it would be a good time to see if Ryan could handle the SS position full-time. In fairness, I was skeptical. He had really never established himself as anything more than a utility guy in the minors but I saw ’08 as a transition season – one in which we needed to see if we could find a young SS within the organization – but the team decided to sign the veteran Cesar Izturis instead. Ryan spent most of ’08 either injured or just generally ineffective and I found Ryan’s likelihood of becoming an everyday shortstop in the majors to be even more dubious. Let’s face it – a .669 OPS in the PCL doesn’t exactly foster a lot of optimism about one’s ability to be a productive major league hitter.

The Cards, of course, embarked on their great Khalil Greene experiment this offseason. We all know how well that’s worked and so the Cards pretty much turned to Ryan out of necessity, having no one else to turn to once Brian Barden quit hitting. Ryan has, for the most part, become the Cards’ every day shortstop b/c he has, quite honestly, been terrific. He’s been fantastic defensively – which is probably enough to allow him to maintain his regular position in the Cards’ lineup – but has also been much more than expected offensively. Don’t get me wrong – no one’s going to confuse him w/ Cal Ripken, Jr. – but he’s been better probably than any of us, or anyone in the organization, expected him to be.

Ryan has always had 2 problems offensively that created skeptics of his ability to become an everyday player in the big leagues. The first was that he simply has never been a patient hitter. Ryan absolutely loves to swing the bat and, as a consequence, his walk rate in the minors was always very low – 6.4%. The second is that Ryan simply doesn’t have a lot of power. He’s always been, basically, a singles hitter who didn’t walk much and if you’re not going to hit for extra bases in the Texas League or PCL, it’s going to be really tough to do against major league pitchers. His career minor league extra base hit % is 23.6% and he has 11 minor league homers in 1680 PAs. His career minor league isolated power is .092.

Entering the 2009 season, Ryan – in the majors – had a career OBP of .328, and an XBH% of 22%. Those are adequate numbers, I guess, but nothing that inspired a lot of hope. Defensively, his UZR/150 numbers really didn’t impress at either 2B or 3B. At SS, however, they were pretty stout – 13.7 in 2007 and 14.4 in 2008. Still, we’re talking about pretty small sample sizes as he spent less than half of each season in the big leagues and most of those 2 seasons bouncing from position to position.

This season, however, Ryan has been tremendous. He sits right now at .308/.346/.411. He’s still not walking – just a 5.2 BB% -- but he has been a very good hitter. Looking at his numbers one of the first things you notice is a .355 BABIP which leads you to believe that he’s not going to be able to keep up this level of production. However, at closer glance you see that his LD% this season is 22.6% -- one of the highest in the majors among shortstops – and his GB% is 52.4%. The bottom line is that Ryan hits very few fly balls and popups and is, therefore, able to take advantage of his speed. His infield hit % is 10.8% and, w/ a LD% of 22.6%, his high BABIP may not be a result of extraordinary luck. As long as he continues to hit line drives at this rate, he may be able to keep up this level of production.

Defensively, among shortstops w/ 240+ innings, Ryan has the 2nd highest UZR in the majors – saving the team 7.6 runs so far this season – and the highest UZR/150 in the majors. He’s been worth nearly a win defensively and -- w/ a wOBA of .333 – about a league average offensive player. Put those two things together w/ the fact that he plays a premium position and Ryan has been worth nearly 2 wins to the Cards already – and we’re not even halfway through the season. He’s on a 4-4.5 WAR pace, which would have put him in the top 5 shortstops in the game last season – above notables such as Jhonny Peralta, Derek Jeter, Yunel Escobar, Miguel Tejada, and Michael Young. In fact, this year, his 1.8 WAR puts him behind only Hanley Ramirez, Marco Scutaro (WOW!), Jason Bartlett, Derek Jeter, and Ryan Theriot among major league shortstops.

While Ryan should still work on his plate discipline – an everyday position in the big leagues is going to be difficult to maintain given a 5.2% BB rate – his ability to hit line drives and his ability to play the position well are his keys to holding onto the Cards’ SS position in the coming years. If he can keep his LD% in the 21-22% area – he’ll get on base at a fairly regular clip and, as long as he’s one of the best defensive shortstops in the majors, his defense will support average or slightly below average offense.

Noon game today. Game thread goes up soon! Sheesh! I better get with it!

Thursday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:07:51 -0000

More photos » by Pat Sullivan - AP

Bill Hall, pictured here after his first of four strikeouts last night, is getting another chance to hit righties.

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Some things to read when enough is enough.

We're only a few hours removed from Bill Hall's three pitch strikeout, his fourth of the night, that ended the Brewers' ninth inning rally in Houston last night. With the K, Hall's batting average against righties in 2009 fell below .200, but Ken Macha says he let Hall stay in last night and will start him against a righty today because he promised Hall an opportunity in Houston. With Mat Gamel waiting in the wings, this could be Hall's last chance to prove he belongs in the lineup everyday, and it comes against Roy Oswalt.

Meanwhile, after Hall was allowed to bat in the ninth last night, Brewed Sports is ready to throw Ken Macha under the bus.

Earlier in last night's game, Astros manager Cecil Cooper made a mistake on his lineup card that cost him the first out of the game. Jose de Jesus Ortiz, not Cooper's biggest fan in the first place, took another opportunity to blast Cooper's managerial style and communication with his team.

Rickie Weeks had successful surgery to anchor the tendons in his wrist yesterday, and will be in a splint or long cast for the next two months. The recovery time from surgery would suggest Weeks could be healthy enough to play in September, but the Brewers have more or less ruled it out.

Meanwhile, we continue to discuss options at second base. The Indians are looking to deal Mark DeRosa, but want big-league ready pitching in return, and the Brewers don't have a lot of that hanging around, unless the Indians would accept someone like Tim Dillard or Seth McClung. As of this writing, 62% of voters in this poll would prefer the Brewers stick with internal options. Casey McGehee started at second and went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk last night.

Alcides Escobar is learning to play second as well. Right Field Bleachers has a look at what it would take for Alcides to be a league average second baseman.

Frank Catalanotto is one step closer to the big leagues today, as he's reporting to Huntsville to get some work in the outfield. He's expected to be evaluated and could join the Brewers in a week to ten days.

On rankings and whatnot:

The Sporting News ranked Ryan Braun 32nd in their list of baseball's top 50 players. Braun was the only Brewer on the list.
MLB FanHouse moved the Brewers up from 8th to 4th in their power rankings.

Is having a stranger stick their fingers in a rather sensitive place your idea of a fun pregame activity? If so, the Brewers would like to invite you to get a prostate exam at Miller Park.

Around the league:

A's: Claimed pitcher Craig Breslow off waivers from the Twins.
Braves: Infielder Omar Infante broke a bone in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch, and could miss up to 2 months.
Phillies: Claimed pitcher Steven Register off waivers from the Rockies.

There's a new Jake Peavy rumor out there this morning, and for once it has nothing to do with the Cubs: Buster Olney is reporting a "strong possibility" that Peavy could be traded to the White Sox for a package including middle infielder Gordon Beckham.

Of course, now that I'm leaving Iowa they'll fix it: MLB owners are meeting this week and are scheduled to discuss the blackout policy.

That's all I have for today, unless you wanted to read about John Smoltz's wedding, Keith Foulke in Newark or a Met fan getting stuck in a toilet.

Drink up.

Bullpen Options on the Free Agent Market

Jesse — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:00:15 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

7 months ago: Minnesota Twins' pitcher Joe Nathan points to catcher Joe Mauer as he celebrates the final out as the Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 in a baseball game Friday, May 1, 2009 in Minneapolis. Nathan picked up the save. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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A short list, examining a few pitchers who are without homes.

While starting pitching hasn't exactly been stellar, the difference in talent available between the rotation and the bullpen is something more than marginal. With the exception of Joe Nathan, there are no irreplaceable parts; and only Matt Guerrier owns the only other acceptable bullpen performance. Jose Mirjares may join those ranks, but after just 4.2 innings with the Twins so far I'm not counting any chickens.

Going into Tuesday night's game with the Tigers, the Twins bullpen had thrown 72.1 innings...or just over 31% of the staff's innings. This means that for every nine-inning game, the bullpen is picking up about 2.2 innings with the starters responsible for 6.1. For how much flack this rotation has had in regards to not going long enough, to this point on the whole they haven't been horribly short either. Could they go longer? Absolutely. But they aren't forcing Ron Gardenhire to stretch his bullpen too much. Only two bullpens in the American League, Kansas City (a much better bullpen than ours) and Los Angeles (a much worse bullpen than ours), have thrown fewer innings.

In spite of what I'd call a manageable workload, the Twins 2009 bullpen has posted a 5.72 ERA in those 72.1 innings. They're fairly middle of the road in terms of strikeout rates, walk rates, base runners and opponent OPS (giving a reason why the traditional ERA is so much higher than FIP, at 4.88), but they're clearly struggling in terms of run prevention. Only four bullpens in all of baseball strand fewer base runners than the Twins.

There are internal options to consider. But who is still on the market, and is there anyone that could lend a bit of credibility, reliability and an air of confidence to our relief corps?

The Intriguing Bullpen Free Agents

Ambiorix Burgos

We'll start with the positives. Burgos is 25, throws heat in the mid-90's, has a penchant for strikeouts and has stranded three quarters of his base runners in his MLB experience. That's the good news.

The bad news is that, like everyone else on this list, there are reasons these guys are still free agents. Burgos has had issues with control in the past, and I'm not just talking about being inconsistent around the strike zone. He was arrested and later convicted of assaulting his girlfriend late in 2008, just one month into a rehab stint following some time off for Tommy John surgery. There's a reason this guy hasn't been tendered a contract, and I'm not comfortable with the Twins being the team who gives him a second chance.

Keith Foulke

Didn't he retire? He's not listed as retired. Foulke had an alright year in Oakland in 2008, but he was king of the gopherball. Besides, a marginal 36-year old whose fastball may or may not win a race to the plate in competition with a fastball from Livan Hernandez isn't the answer.

Aquilino Lopez

Lopez is a 34-year old right-hander with a 3.78 ERA in 270.1 innings. He'll strike a few guys out while walking a few. Good history of stranding base runners, does a fairly good job of keeping the ball in the park and for the most part doesn't profile as a horrible pitcher. The Korean Baseball Organization realized this and the Kia Tigers signed him back in January.

Converting A Starter?

Those were aren't all of the free agent bullpen arms, but there really aren't any truly good options. If the Twins want to improve their bullpen via free agents, perhaps their best option is to convert a starter?

Pedro Martinez

Sure, Pedro wants $5 million. But it's not like teams are lining up to sweep him off his expensive feet. He's an injury risk, possibly a character risk if he feels he isn't being used appropriately and obviously a financial risk, but what if he's not opposed to a few months audition as a set-up man? Being able to let it all go for an inning may give him a bit more pop, and a strikeout threat in the bullpen is always a good thing. Unfortunately, even if he would be willing to step into a bullpen role as a way to get back onto a roster, he'd want to play for a contender. Right now, that label excludes the Twins.

Conclusions

With Jesse Crain back back and Mijares showing good signs of life, coupling them with Guerrier and Nathan make for the beginnings of a decent bullpen. Getting Craig Breslow's confidence back would be another boost. But it doesn't matter how we look at it, right now this is a bullpen in a state of 9-1-1.

Free agent options are available, but right now the more feasible and realistic options are all in Rochester. Even once those options are considered and exhausted, a trade would be more likely than the signing of a Martinez or a Burgos.

Of course in a happy world, the guys we have just get it together. It's hard to be as bad as the Twins have been, and to continue to be as bad as they've been, even with the collection of arms they've assembled.

Time to Get Your A's...or Not

Tyler Bleszinski — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:13:32 -0000

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again. Time for me to hand out my half year grades for our Oakland Athletics. I'm going to do it a little differently this year. In past seasons, I'd give it out to individuals, but I'm going to give it to the different portions of the team. I'm going to break it out into starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, managing and front office. I'll give my grade and my thinking as to why that grade applies and then standouts and disappointments.

As always, this is not scientific by any means. Much of it has to do with the expectations that I had for that aspect of the A's I mentioned.

Starting pitching - A: The A's started the season with a lot of question marks in their rotation. I honestly thought that the rotation would include Lenny DiNardo and Kirk Saarloos right about now. I figured Harden and Duchscherer would not have lasted and the emergency plan of DiNardo and Saarloos would be in full motion while we were waiting for Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill to make it to the pros. Granted, both have missed time with injuries in the first half, but they've also pitched a lot more than I thought they were. As a matter of fact, the A's starting pitching team ERA is 3.48, the best in the entire majors. The starting pitching has been absolutely, positively stellar and probably the biggest reason the A's are still within shouting distance of the division-leading Angels. They've also been able to do it with two rookies in Greg Smith and Dana Eveland. It'll be interesting to see how those two guys hold up over the second half. The irony of all this is that the pitcher who the A's tagged with the "ace" tag before the season started happens to be their worst starter statistically right now.

Starting pitching standouts: Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland, Greg Smith

Starting pitching disappointments: Joe Blanton

Relief pitching - A- : If the major reason the A's have been winning is their starters, the relief pitching is the minor reason. The A's have the sixth best ERA out of their relievers in all of baseball. They've also done it with a cast of largely no names and folks that people didn't expect to be as good as they have been. Santiago Casilla had a Dennis Eckersley-like start to his year. Andrew Brown was fantastic. Joey Devine was spectacular. Brad Ziegler came from Sacramento to become integral. The known quantities like Embree, Foulke and Street suddenly seemed to be the ones that made me more nervous than the less proven guys. Still, the pen has been relatively solid. Huston Street hasn't been as good as I'd like but I do suspect that he's been pitching through various injuries this year.

Relief pitching standouts: Joey Devine, Brad Ziegler, Andrew Brown, Santiago Casilla, Chad Gaudin (he also could've made the starting pitcher portion too), Keith Foulke (yes, he's been good even though he scares me to death at times),

Relief pitching disappointments: Huston Street

Offense - D+ : The A's have the 25th best batting average in all of baseball. A team that prides itself on having patience at the plate is 16th in all of baseball in on-base percentage. And let's not talk about power. The team is 26th in all of baseball in slugging percentage. Not surprisingly, the team is 10th in the AL in runs scored. If this team had just average hitting and the starting pitching continues to prove its might, the A's could truly be a contending team this year. Now I suspected we'd have this issue, especially with a lot of very young guys getting their first true extended major league experience. Carlos Gonzalez, Daric Barton, Kurt Suzuki and Travis Buck were all likely going to be a foundation of the A's offense. I expected them to have ups and downs, but for Barton and Buck, it's mostly been downs. Jack Hannahan was getting his first extended experience. Jack Cust really only had last season in the pros. So a lot of the offense was built on wild cards. One major known entity was Frank Thomas who the A's picked up for a piece of Hubba Bubba and a used Hyundai when the Blue Jays dumped him. Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays are one of the teams who has scored fewer runs than the A's in the AL. Still, I suspected the A's hitting was going to be mediocre, but it's been downright bad at points. There are a few guys who've been right about where I expected them to be, such as Mark Ellis and even Bobby Crosby (although he has been a bit better than I expected).

Offensive standouts: Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust (he does have an .823 OPS even if his BA isn't impressive), Frank Thomas

Offensive disappointments: Travis Buck (possibly my personal biggest disappointment), Daric Barton (yeah he's really young, but he raised hopes of something special at the end of the year last year), Emil Brown (I expected him to at least hit left-handed pitching), Chris Denorfia (I thought he was going to be the regular guy in center field)

Managing - B : I still hadn't made up my mind about Geren before this season started. He hasn't done anything patently stupid and he's more flexible with his lineup card than Macha could've ever dreamed of being. The problem is that when he's filling out that lineup card, he's often dealing with many of his best hitters not being there. Ryan Sweeney has been arguably the A's best hitter this year and yet, he's been in and out of the lineup due to injury issues. Mike Sweeney was hitting well and now he has injured knees. Frank Thomas was getting in a groove and then he went down. Eric Chavez has just recently become a regular in the A's lineup and he doesn't look 100 percent yet. Still the starting pitching has made Geren look good. He's made smart decisions for the most part with the bullpen. Although I would really like to see him start to trust some of the younger guys a little more. Foulke always looks like he's about to give up a bomb. And Embree is always all about the heat, it's just a matter of whether someone gets geared up enough for it. One thing that I'm sure is a popular topic of discussion these days among the A's front office and Geren is what to do about Joe Blanton. After yesterday's performance, I really think the A's have to think about replacing him as a starter, at least temporarily, with Chad Gaudin. Still, given what the A's have had to deal with this year in terms of the injection of youth, unexpectedly bad struggles of guys like Buck and Barton, the myriad of injuries in the bullpen and to key offensive pieces, Geren has done a nice job of keeping a team that wasn't expected to compete in the running. Much of that has to do with the starting pitching, mind you, but Geren has also done a pretty damn good job of handling the bullpen.

Front office - A- : I know a lot of folks are going to automatically charge me with just giving Beane some undeserved praise here, but I honestly think that this could be the best job Beane has done in his time with the A's. Yes, the team is still offensively deficient. But it also has the best starting pitching in baseball right now and that's WITH the "ace" being the worst statistically on staff. Danny Haren was awesome. No one can dispute that. But the A's have three significant chips already contributing at the major league level. They also have a ton of talent in their minor league system now. I'm not sure there are too many other front office groups in baseball who could simultaneously rebuild a farm system while keeping the major league team competitive for a division crown. The biggest thing Beane has done is to build a team with depth. So when an Eric Chavez can't play for months at a time, Jack Hannahan is waiting to take over. Earlier in the season when Barton was struggling at first, Mike Sweeney saw some time there. Greg Smith stepped into the rotation when Harden and Duchscherer went down. Gaudin would probably be a top three starter for most rotations. Yet he's sixth on the A's depth chart. Brad Ziegler is there when the A's have bullpen issues. Beane is nothing if not adaptive. Yes, Emil Brown is seeming like a mistake right now, but he also had a ton of key RBIs at the beginning of the season when seemingly no one was batting in runs. And Beane deserves a ton of credit for getting Frank Thomas for nothing. Is the offense still a gong show? Yes. But Beane has done enough to cover up for the shortcomings by building the best rotation in baseball and a very steady bullpen to back it up.

Overall - A- : Honestly I wrestled with this one for a while. I wavered between a B, B+, A- and an A. But ultimately for me it came down to expectations. I did not expect this team to be here halfway through the season. I expected them to be in a distant third or even last place in the division. But the starting pitching has kept this team afloat and right in the thick of the AL West despite low to no expectations from most folks. And my expectations were pretty low heading into 2008. I thought I'd just enjoy watching some young kids come into their own. Instead the team has fought and scrapped its way into second place in the division.

So there you have it. My first half grades for our Oakland Athletics in 2008. What grades would you give and why? Who has been a disppointment so far and who has been a standout?

Better yet, give me some predictions for the second half of 2008. Will the A's hang with the Angels or will they fade? Will Harden and/or Duchscherer be sent to a contender for a truckload of quality prospects? And maybe you even want to throw in the win total for 2008. If I had to guess, I think the A's wind up around 86 wins and I do think either Harden or Duke will be dealt.