SB Nation User Blog: Emmett89

Oakland A's that you felt should have had more playing time:

Emmett89 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:06:25 -0000

I'd feel insensitive for not saying something about Adenhart here, since he's obviously a guy that should have had more playing time in the grand scheme of things. Watching him pitch Wednesday night, looking back, is one of the more surreal things I remember.

I figured, however, to write something I'd planned on writing for a while this afternoon since my Psychology class got canceled.

All righty.

I'd put a picture here, if I could find one!

I'd put a picture here, if I could find one!

I'll only name one as to not make this fanpost cumbersome, and then allow some other fans to jump in and add their own to the list.

Keep in mind, due to me being 19 years old, my first hand Oakland A's knowledge only stretches back to about the 1996 season.

Okay, George Williams

.243/.362/.367 were the catcher's career slash stats, and these look worse due to his horrid 1996 season.

I'm not sure of the exact day Beane took over for Alderson, but coming on in the height of the Rich Becker/John Jaha/Tony Phillips "walkin' A's", it seems Beane would have gone just ape shit over Williams.

.291/.383/.494 in 1995 (79 at bats), and .289/.397/.388 in 1997 (201 at bats)

In the minor's Williams routinely put up OBP's above .400 and his career line ended up being .392. which was dragged down some by some end-of-the-career-going-through-the-motions seasons in AAA that all hopeful AAAA players seem to have.

It seems Williams was just the reciepent of bad luck. In 1995 and 1996 he was stuck behind Terry Steinbach, who he just flat out wasn't going to replace (I'm not saying he should have!) In 1997, on the worst A's team of my short fandom, he got shafted by Brent Mayne actually learning how to hit after hitting in the .240's his entire career up to that point.

In 98, Mayne made his way across the bay, seemingly opening the job for him. However, the A's had hot shot A.J. Hinch waiting in the wings after he had OPS'ed nearly 1.000 in 550 or so at bats between High A and AAA. (He's another guy I felt should have had more playing time, but not as much as these two guys.)

Williams, it seems was hurt for almost of all of 1998, was granted free agency after the season, and bounced around the Padres, Red Sox, Twins and Houston orginazations before hanging up the spikes.

Now, I have no recollection of his defensive capabilities, and I didn't even bother to look at any sorts of defensive metrics, because well, I wouldn't even know how to read them. So, maybe he was a catcher only in name, I don't know. If that's so, his bat certainly wouldn't have played at 1B (except for the 2008 Oakland A's.)

2nd day of the draft, player info

Emmett89 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:38:28 -0000

I've got nothing to do all day, except work (ha!), and watch the draft tracker. So, let's take a gander at who the A's got on the 2nd day of the draft:

Round 7

P Brett Hunter, Pepperdine U. R/R 6'4, 215, 6.27.87

Injured this year, made 4 starts. 3.38 ERA in 18.2 innings, 19/8 K/BB ratio.

Last year 6-5 3.94 ERA in 82.1. 76/46 K/BB ratio.

Was a potential 1st round pick after his Sophomore year, before hurting himself. Could be a candidate to go back to school for his Senior year to raise his draft stock? Watched his scout video, and I know nothing about scouting. But his fastball was consistently 92-95, topping out at 97. Threw one really nice curveball in the video, and the rest was just okay from my untrained eye. Has a weird delivery where he drives real low kind of like Hudson does. Out of the stretch it just looked odd.

Round 8

OF Jeremy Barfield, San Jacinto (TX) JUCO, R/L, 6'5, 240 7.12.88

Couldn't find any stats on the guy, but he is the son of former MLB outfielder Jesse Barfield. And brother of current infielder Josh Barfield. Jeremy was drafted in the 9th round in '06 by the Mets. And also Jeremy received a misdemeanor in August of 2006 for PUSHING HIS DAD DOWN THE STAIRS!

Well, he's a big guy anyway, and bloodlines and all that.

Round 9

C Mitchell LeVier, Fullerton College (CA), L/L, 5'11, 185, 1.12.1988

Hit .406/.459/.711 with 11 homeruns and 50 RBI's. Had a 17/22 BB/K ratio. Made just one error all year. I don't know if it is just a myth or what, but being left handed does that not prevent him from being a catcher in the pros? In his video he made some throws from the outfield, but it was impossible to tell arm strength from those.

Has a weird habit when he takes a pitch. The second the ball crosses the plate and he's not swinging he takes his bottom hand off of the bat.

Interesting player if he sticks at catcher. If not, who knows?

An 18 year old A's fan 1st memories of...the A's.

Emmett89 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:57:01 -0000

I live, and have lived, in Oklahoma City my entire life. I estimate I'm one of 10 or so A's fans in Oklahoma. With my Dad being one of the other ones.

Flashback: early 1960's, my dad living in Wichita, Kansas would listen to Kansas City A's games broad casted out of Coffeyville, Kansas on 520 AM. In 1965 or so he moved to Oklahoma City, and still got frequencies during night games. After the A's moved he kept following them. When the Royals came in '69 he was already too far away from KC and the A's were just finally getting good. Thus, an A's fan for life. And then I was born in 1989, and became an A's fan.

The first A's team I closely followed was the 1996 version. It's weird, I remember NOTHING from the 1995 season. But I could probably name just about every player on that 1996 squad. I was 5 during this season, and I gauge a player's worth on two things: Home runs for batters, and strikeouts for pitchers. So, I thought Ernie Young with his 19 home runs was a very good player.

I remember being somewhat obsessed with Allen Battle (130 AB's in '96), and when I'd go outside and hit tennis balls I'd pretend I was Allen Battle. I don't know why, I think it was just because I liked the guy's name.

The pitching was horrid (although not as horrid as '97). My favorite pitchers were Dave Telgheder, Bobby Chouinard, and Mark Acre, likely because of their names. I remember Steve Wojciechowski starting the season off 5-0, and thinking he was an ace. I seemed to think that you pronounced his name: Wor-Skintz-Ki. Whic makes no sense.

1997 came, and I defined that season has having an entire pitching staff without an individual with 100 strikeouts. They also managed to have zero pitchers with double-digit win totals. Aaron Small led the team with 9 wins. I wanted Tilson Brito, Jason McDonald, Parick Lennon, and George WIlliams to start every game. I just thought they sounded like good baseball players.

This was also a phase where I thought every young (or even 29 year old rookies) was destined to be a star. I thought Tim Kubinski, Gary Haught, Eric Ludwick (UGH), Izzy Molina, and Scott Sheldon were all going to be very good. My thought process was: If they're A's, and they are playing in the majors, they're good. Simple as that.

This just turned into a bunch of rambling, but it is interesting to just think about the earliest baseball memories I have. And, it would be neat to see about other fans.

The Future of the Middle Infield

Emmett89 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:44:53 -0000

With Gonzalez, Denorfia, Sweeney, Buck, Cunningham, Cust, and whoever else I'm forgetting to mention manning the outfield positions for the future, it has made me wonder about the future of the middle infield.

Now, I'm pretty dumb, but I'm not dumb enough to not realize that good young middle infielders are harder to come by than outfielders. But the A's seemingly have nothing in the way of middle infielders, or hell even third basemen.

Ellis is 31 years old, and likely has 3 or 4 more seasons with his excellent defense, and competent bat. And even now he's never shown the ability to have two good years consecutively, if this streak continues we're likely in for a .250/.310/.380 season. Although my thesis for Ellis is hardly scientific. But as I said earlier three or four, I think is a solid estimate to how much time he has left, before we need a replacement.

Crosby will be 28 next season, and to this point has a half a season (2005) of being a productive baseball player. I'm not an expert on baseball scouting, or anything of the sort, but is Crosby having all of the tools, and them not translating to results? The only thing I've noticed is that he has absolutely zero two strike approach. Is there a future for him? Or is he a case of a promising 2003 AAA season, and nothing else?

On the farm:

Kevin Melillo-.262/.355/.442 in Sac last year

He was 25 last season, and seems to be cursed with "doubles" power, with a homerun swing, which translates into a lot of fly outs. He has a good eye, and I know next to nothing about his defense. But the best I think we can hope for is Mark Ellis-lite. But I bet he sees 100+ at bats this year, if we trade Ellis (which I don't think we will.)

Gregorio Petit-.277/.327/.353 in 235 at bats at Sac last year

By everything I've read is a wizard with the glove, but looks to pretty light with the bat. 22 is fairly young for AAA, so perhaps there is room to grow there, one can only hope. But he's looking like a future Scutaro with a better glove. Which isn't to say that's a bad thing at all.

Donnie Murphy-.220/.290/.441 in 118 at bats in Oakland last year

He'll be 25 next season, and showed pretty impressive power in his stint with them last year. I'v seen some posts on here that talk highly of the guy, but I don't see it. At best I think he turns into a Jose Valentin type player (low OBP, high SLUG), and at worst AAAA fodder. But given Crosby's struggle and injury history, he'll see a lot of at bats and I'll have a better opinion of the man.

Cliff Pennington-.251/.343/.336 in AA

It's hard to call a 23 year old a bust, but the more he doesn't hit, the more it seems likely that's what he is. It's likely that he'll repeat in Midland this year, but if he doesn't manage to top .270/.370/.400, it might be time to forget about him.

Even further down there is Joshua Horton who showed a great eye at Kane County last year (.417 OBP), but in under 125 at bats. So, it's too soon to really gauge him yet.

As an aside did Jermaine Mitchell ever play second base? Or JD Pruitt who had a .460 OBP with an average under .230 last year at Vancouver, while being hit by 34 pitches. How is that even possible?

Corey Brown=Nick Swisher

Emmett89 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:55:14 -0000

Now, before I get into all this, I must tell everyone: I might be a little biased, being that I'm a staunch Oklahoma State fan, and a staunch Corey Brown fan. And I live in Oklahoma City, which is less than one hundred miles from the Oklahoma State campus. And by being an A's fan, I'm estatic the A's drafted Brown.

Nick Swisher's junior year at Ohio State:

.348/.470/.620 10 HR 5 SB

Corey Brown's junior year at Oklahoma State:

.339/.495/.743 21 HR 23 SB

Now. Allie P. Reynolds stadium, the home field of the Cowboys, and Bill Davis Stadium, home to the Buckeyes, are very similar stadiums, with the alley's at Reynolds being a tad longer. So, it's not as if Brown was fiesting on a short porch in right field, and Swisher was toiling in the college version of PetCo park.

I think it's safe to say that Big XII baseball is at a slightly higher level than Big 10 baseball is. Just for the fact, that cold weather baseball schools normally don't pull in the top baseball recruits.

Brown also uses his speed well in the outfield and is a plus defender at the corners, and I'd say slightly above average at center. While Swisher, who is average at the corners, and is probably below at center.

Of course, on the down side, last year at the Cape Cod league, Brown struggled adapting to wooden bats, and it's impossible to gauge all those "hidden" intangibles that players might have, or not have.

But, in my opinion, the A's got a good one in Corey Brown.

Also, I don't know if it's regional or not, but Oklahoma State is on ESPN2 right now, if you want to see Brown play (where he made a GREAT catch.)

My completely unredundant A's thoughts that nobody has ever had before

Emmett89 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:23:19 -0000

I haven't posted here since last summer, and I thought I'd bring up some points that I need to get out!

God, I love to beat the Angels. I love even more to see K-Rod give up the hit that beats him. It's just soooo...wonderful. Especially with how excited he gets when he does get a save. It also seems that his overexuberance has trickled down through the bullpen into the starting rotation.

I saw Scott Shields and Justin Spier get a little TOO excited after getting a strikeout, as well as baboon face John Lackey. I'm glad the A's pitchers don't do that stuff. Seeing Alan Embree stroll off the mound after two big strikeouts today, and Huston Street just simply shake Jason Kendall hand after getting a save is a very refreshing contrast.

Steve Psyhchicoc (whatever) and Rex Hudler are just soooo horrible. I don't see how any kind of TV station could interview these guys and think, "Ya know, these are just the kind of guys I was looking for, You can just go ahead and tell Stevie Wonder and Ronnie Milsap that we are no longer considering them for their broadcasting talents."

I also like when the A's bunt, or send the runner and it's considered "Angels-style baseball", as if before Mike Sciosca started managing, baseball players were just neanderthal's shitting on the bases.

I don't know about Bobby Crosby, he swung through some fastballs today that made him look just horrible. His defense has been shoddy as well, but I hope that's just an abberation. That said, I'd rather have him out there than Scutaro every day.

Eric Chavez has had some pretty decent at bats so far that have to make you think he's back to form.

Travis Buck seems like he's standing as far away from the plate as possible, and it seems like pitchers consistently pitch him away, and are getting him out. But, I'm sure A's hitting instructors know more than I do.

Ellis is nails on defense.

The end.

Let's talk some playoff rosters!!

Emmett89 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:52:29 -0000

All right here goes, now that the playoffs are firmly in hand, let's see who I, you, we would choose to send to the ALDS.

Okay.

Catcher:
1.Jason Kendall
2.Adam Melhuse

Obvious. Melhuse and Perez have about the same chance as playing.

1st Basemen/DH
3.Nick Swisher
4.Frank Thomas

Pretty simple.

2nd Basemen
5.Mark Ellis

Hoping for some of that 2002 playoff magic.

3rd Basemen
6.Eric Chavez

Hoping for some of that...2001 July Magic?

Shortstops
7.Marco Scutaro
8.Antonio Perez

I'd like Crosby to be healthy, but I've given up hope on that one.

Outfielders
9.Milton Bradley
10.Mark Kotsay
11.Jay Payton
12.Bobby Kielty

In game 7 of the world series, the A's face Tom Glavine. Would Macha start Kiely over Kotsay? As much as I love Ronnie Mac, I sure hope not.

Pitchers
13.Barry Zito
14.Danny Haren
15.Rich Harden
16.Esteban Loaiza
17.Joe Blanton
18.Kiko Calero
19.Chad Gaudin
20.Justin Duchscherer
21.Huston Street
22.Kirk Saarloos
23.Joe Kennedy

I like our bullpen a lot. Especially if Street was a set up guy, and the Duke was the closer.

Wildcards:
Dan Johnson
D'Angelo Jimenez
Brad Halsey
Jay Witasick
Ron Flores

Tough to pick these last 2. I'll take 24. Johnson just because I like him at 1st more than Kotsay in an emergency that Swisher has to leave 1st, due to being injured or have to move to the outfield.

25. Ron Flores, yeah, I hope they take him over Halsey. But some of that has to do with me not trusting Halsey at all, and him letting up that homer to Bonds. With Gaudin and Saarloos, the A's don't really need another long man. And it allows him to be the situational lefty, and make Kennedy a set up man.

Open Thread- The Angels versus the Rangers

Emmett89 — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 23:16:29 -0000

The search for a 6 game lead is on.

Eaton vs Lackey

Izturis
Cabrera
Vlad
Anderson
Rivera
Kennedy
Kendrick
Napoli
Figgins

is what Sciosciopaths send out

Matthews
M. Young
Teixiera
Lee
Blalock
DeRosa
E. Young (old)
La(i)rd
Cruz

is what the Rangers take the field with. You know, veteran presence blah-de-blah. Why is Eric Young, who is a releasee this year. Over Kinsler, who at home is smoking the ball?

Oh well.

Go Rangahs!

BRADLEY'S NOT IN THE LINEUP!

Emmett89 — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:43:47 -0000

Ah! This is no good! I'm hoping Macha's just getting a case of the dumbass, and is resting him for whatever reason, and Mr. Monopoly's not hurt. If you're going to give a guy a day off, Macha, make it Big Hurt. Not that I want him out of the lineup, just he's played a lot of games in a row.

Oh please don't be hurt Milty! Please don't!

Rouse or Perez: Who's going down?

Emmett89 — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 05:45:05 -0000

With Mark Ellis' pending return to the Big league club, one of three infielders will be demoted, Marco Scutaro, Mike Rouse or Antonio Perez. We can just scratch out Scutaro, since there is no way he'll be demoted.

So it's left to Mr. .070, and Mr. Swings like he's underwater.

Pros for Perez:

Has more major league expierience.
Hit .290 last year
Has to get somewhat better as the year goes on.
Has played all infield positions this season

Cons for Perez:

He's hitting .070
He continues to go up to the plate with that stupid bat with the holes in it.
From what I've heard is a subpar defender
He looks stupid when he bats

Pros for Rouse:

He went 3-3 in his major league debut.
I've seen him make great plays in the field.
He's stolen a base.
From what it looks like, he's a good defender

Cons for Rouse:

His minor league stats aren't mindblowing.
Has almost no power, while Perez at least, has a smidgen.
Might not have a quick enough bat for the majors.

Perez really needs regular at-bats, which he got with the Dodgers, since he probably either played or pinch hit 100 times over the season, he might be the best bet in the long term to stick him in AAA and let him play 5 times a week, and if he improves send him up in September, and put him on the playoff roster??? knocks on wood

Rouse doesn't project to be anything but a Marco Scutaro kind of guy, while I think Perez could be a 10-15 homerun guy someday, for the moment I think Perez should go down until he can prove he can hit higher than the temperature.

Poll

Who goes down, Perez, Scutaro, or Rouse

Marco Scutaro

3 votes

Antonio Perez

29 votes

Mike Rouse

24 votes

Jeremy Brown, since I'm sure they'd send him down again if they could.

17 votes

73 votes | Poll has closed