I guess I'll open this.  Let's win the series, hey?

Insert win here.

Apathetic?

A pathetic?

Just plain pathetic?

Whatever. It all works.

Just because I can. Go wild, kiddies.

Following part 1 from yesterday, the Bobby Cramer interview finishes with a few more questions that deal with what he's been working on heading into Spring Training, the battle for the 5th spot in the rotation, a few thoughts on pitching and more..

Also, here's a link to the audio of the interview.  It clocks in at 40 minutes and is uploaded as an MP3.  I tested it in both Firefox and Internet Explorer and the simplest way to go may be to just right-click and save.  In my Firefox browser it loaded a black bar that didn't make it very easy to figure out where to pause playback, and it looks like IE asks you to save it regardless.  At least, you can listen along if you want.

Bobby Cramer Interview

Here's the rest.  Thanks again to Bobby for doing the interview and taking the time to give a lot of thoughtful, in-depth answers.  I do believe he can and will help the A's at some point this season.

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Considering I saw Bobby Cramer make and win his Major League debut then get his second win in Minneapolis (hey, he's undefeated when I'm in attendance!), maybe it was destined that I'd eventually interview him.  However, it wasn't until I sent off some prints to his father that I thought to ask Bobby about doing this.  He graciously agreed and we spoke for close to an hour Monday morning by phone.

The result was this 40-minute interview and it covers pretty much all the main details about his path to the Majors.  Some know it, though many probably don't.  I enjoy stories like this that show what can come of hard work and perseverance, but at the same time I know for every Bobby Cramer out there you can probably find half a dozen more people, if not many more, that never get a second, third or even fourth chance.  We can read about it but he's the one who's had to deal with it and I know what that means as far as what he's going to continue doing.  He's also still in an underdog role and I root a little extra for those guys.  Of course there are harder things out there that people go through on a daily basis compared to sticking in baseball or not, but that isn't what we're here to talk about.

The interview is long enough that I'm breaking it up into two posts.  The first talks about the years spent in and out of organized baseball, who and what kept him going, other options he started to look into as recently as last summer and what happened when he actually got the call and made four starts in September.

Part two, which will run tomorrow, covers his off-season, what he's been working on for 2011, the pitching competition heading into Spring Training and where he sees himself fitting in, plus a little pitching philosophy and an eye toward the future.  It will also have the full audio of the interview.

Without further ado, here's Bobby Cramer.

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Discuss.

Sadface.

Have fun, boys and girls.

Hateful Southern college-style blogging inside. Maybe.

When it's going bad there's no margin for error, no room for mistakes, and the breaks often don't go your way. Such was the case again tonight.

A quick start by the Cardinals, thanks to a 2-run homer by Matt Holliday, put Vin Mazzaro and the A's in an early hole. It wouldn't last long as they got to Chris Carpenter for a 4-spot in the second, punctuated by a double by Conor Jackson that brought in a pair.

That was all the scoring the A's would do in this one.  They got Carpenter over 50 pitches in those first two innings, yet he'd last seven and throw 103. Meanwhile, Mazzaro allowed a pair in the fifth to tie it up. Brad Ziegler had a quick 1-2-3 sixth but as good as he was there, he was the opposite of it when he went back out for the seventh.

Brendan Ryan, leading off in the 9th spot in the order, opened the inning with a double he reached out and dropped down the line in left with Jackson positioned toward left-center. Skip Schumaker promptly doubled him home and by the time Bob Geren came out with the hook Ryan Ludwick had brought another run home for the final tally of 6-4.

Rajai Davis had a 4-hit night but when the A's had a chance at a rally later in the game with Daric Barton at the plate, they gambled and lost as Davis was easily gunned down on a pitch out. Schumaker and Holliday both collected 3 hits each at the top of the order for the Cardinals. After the second, St. Louis pitchers faced just two batters over the minimum the rest of the way to help send the A's to their sixth loss in seven games on their current road trip. It gets no easier tomorrow against Adam Wainwright.

Baseballgirl was at the game and will probably have a summary of her own sometime soon.

All good things must come to an end, which includes an A's lead.

Quick innings are becoming the norm, which includes a 4-pitch 1-2-3 effort by Ziggy.

4-4, on to the 7th.

Bad first for Mazzaro, as Holliday struck for a 2-run homer.

Bad second for Carpenter, as the A's fought back for a big inning highlighted by a 2-run double by Jackson.

It was almost enough to forget about the latest Barton Bunt in the first, though this time he fouled it off twice before grounding out to the right side anyway to advance Davis, where he was predictably stranded.

At the rate we're going this will be a bullpen-heavy game. 4-2 A's going to the 3rd.

I didn't see one set to run so here you go.

It's officially a laugher now after Cliff Pennington's 3-run shot in the top of the seventh.

Gio was solid in 6+ innings and the A's could afford to give him the rest of the night off with a big lead, a rarity in this rivalry.

10-2, on to the eighth! MOAR RUNZ PLEEZE.

Daric Barton's last 8 PAs: walk, single, single, single, double, double, walk, single.

That's good.  It brings his OBP as of right now to .591 if my math is right.

Gio breezes through another inning and it's 7-2 after six.

Geo Gio was very economical through four, though he ran into a bit of trouble getting out of the fifth before fanning Abreu to leave two on. Now he's at 72 pitches, 50 strikes.

Barton caught his cleat on the grass during a pivot after cutting off a throw home, wrenching his right leg/knee. So far he's staying in the game.

5-2 A's going to the sixth.

It's the Davis & Barton Show and we're all just along for the ride right now.

After two in enemy territory it's A's 4, Angels 1. Gio gave up a homer to Matsui but limited the damage.

During the interview I had with Brad Ziegler (here, in case you missed it), we took a little time to discuss the new charity he's in the process of getting up and running.  It's called "Pastime for Patriots" and Ziegler is the founder.  Since there was a lot he had to say about it I decided to run it as a separate story all on its own.

While things are still being finalized with it as far as plans and what people can do to help, I did get a lot of information from him about its goals and more.  I can also tell you that the big roll-out date is scheduled for May 8.  Just listening to Ziegler talk about it I could tell how eager he is to make this work and work well, and I plan to donate when the time is right.  I'll let his own words cover the rest of it.

Remember, you can follow him here on Twitter and once the website goes live I'll provide a link to it.

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As most people here know, Brad Ziegler's road to the Majors was a slow and winding one filled with potholes along the way.  He's dealt with people giving up on him, injuries, revamping his way of pitching and more, yet when he made it to "The Show" in 2008 all he did was go out and break a century-old record, obscure though it may be.

Many of the regulars here will also recall that while he was in the Minors he kept a blog on AN that helped give fans a look into the mind and experiences of a ballplayer as we followed his progression through the organization.

Since breaking into the bigs the way he did, Ziegler has pitched for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and had a fairly successful first full season in the green and gold last year.  Heading into 2010 he's expected to be one of the late-inning anchors of the bullpen.

A few days ago I caught up with him by phone for about half an hour to conduct an extensive interview after he arrived back in the Bay Area.  In it we talk about the new season and additions to the club, some of the similarities and differences between his old pitching style and current one, get into a bit of the strategy of coming at hitters with different looks, and more.  He's also deeply involved with a new charity that's going to be up and running soon.  I'll be sharing some information from him about that following Blez's interview with Billy Beane.

In addition, Ziegler joined Twitter not too long ago and he encourages fans to follow him there for information on the season, charity and more.  You can do so here.

I can honestly say that while I don't know many professional athletes, Ziegler really is one of the nicest people you could meet.  I got to see that even before he was called up in 2008 and it doesn't feel like he's changed one bit.  Even while covering things in the Minors I've seen some people act like they were bigger than everyone else when they hadn't done anything to justify it, but I don't see Ziegler ever being that way.

Now, the interview.

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While skimming through posts on the Hot Stove Blog for more winter meeting rumblings I came across an interesting post by an A's fan from back in August, talking about the Disabled List. Around that time was when Crosby and Giambi went on the DL (and Crosby's father whined about it), but while I think we generally know how the DL works in most cases there were still a few tidbits in the post that provided a little extra info the average fan might not know about. There's also a copy of the "Standard Form of Diagnosis" (SFD) that has to be filed with the Commissioner's Office.

Read about it here.

Among the stories swirling today that involve one-time A's (in the Majors or the farm system):

* The Milwaukee Brewers may be interested in Mark Mulder

* Mark Teahen signs a 3-year contract with the Chicago White Sox

* Rumors indicate the Pittsburgh Pirates are still very serious about Bobby Crosby.  If so, good luck!

The big story is the New York Yankees getting Curtis Granderson in a three-team deal (pending medical clearance).  The way it breaks down:

- DET gets OF Austin Jackson & RP Phil Coke from NYY, plus SP Max Scherzer & RP Daniel Schlereth from ARI
- ARI gets SP Ian Kennedy from NYY & SP Edwin Jackson from DET
- NYY gets OF Curtis Granderson from DET

Clearly, the Yankees get stronger again right away as Granderson is easily the best player of the seven involved and all they gave up was a reliever, a young starter and a minor leaguer who may or may not ever reach Granderson's level.

The Tigers also come out pretty well in this one, especially if Austin Jackson even comes close to Granderson eventually.  Scherzer likely projects better than Edwin Jackson and they get some relief help as well. Of course, they don't have to pay Granderson's contract either and Scherzer is cost-controlled for a while, I believe.

The Diamondbacks have to hope Kennedy and Edwin Jackson benefit from playing in the NL West (and that Kennedy has no further arm problems).  Of the three teams they come out the worst in the deal as far as I can tell.

This is something I think a lot of us would love the chance to do. Most of us probably can't for one reason or another (money, jobs, etc.) but for those who get to see all of the MLB ballparks in a single season, it's like the holy grail for a baseball fan. Well, barring getting to see your team win it all, I guess. From what I actually saw in the trailer it looks like the majority of this trip was managed with various donations, including tickets. I could be wrong.

Anyway, since I don't have much to say and haven't lately I'll let AN user "princemilo" do the talking for me below, as he and his father did that baseball trip a few years ago and they have a DVD coming out documenting it.  Read on if you're interested in getting one, and I think I may just do so myself because I like a good baseball story and the whole father/son side of it. With all the crap I've wasted some of my money on over the years, this seems like a decent way to spend a few bucks and the proceeds do go to a very good cause.

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Chris Jaffe over at The Hardball Times has a book coming out soon titled "Evaluating Baseball's Managers" that stretches back into baseball's history for what looks like a comprehensive look at managing over about a 130-year period.

(Harry Pavlidis also has a piece up today on Andrew Bailey, but this post is going to be about Billy Martin.)

In the excerpt Jaffe shares today he summarizes all of what made Martin the manager he was, detailing the ways he got each of his teams to play along with the short life span he had with each of them.  If there was ever a manager who ran things his own way, Martin was that guy.

Highlights of the excerpt include making an immediate impact with the Minnesota Twins in aggressively stealing home to not only instill a specific mentality in his team, but also to make his opponents play wondering what they'd do next. In one game, both Cesar Tovar and Rod Carew stole home in the same inning and Martin had a penchant for trying the triple steal.  At one point they basically made the A's look silly in an early July series that moved the Twins into first place to stay, his style helping cause the A's to also beat themselves with mistakes. Jaffe compares Martin to Hernan Cortes.

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I hear yesterday's game between the Yankees and Angels was pretty exciting. So was the one between the Dodgers and Phillies.

Too bad I missed both of them while in the midst of sleeping the better part of 18 hours following some dental work. Since I'm still pretty loopy from it (a combination of conscious sedation and removing three wisdom teeth will do that) there's a good chance I'll be sleeping during most of this one as well.

The National League is off today so we've just got one game on the schedule, starting at 4:57 down in Anaheim. As a sidenote, I've never understood why the start times for these playoff games are like that. Does it really make a difference?

CC Sabathia gets the start against Scott Kazmir. Sabathia is working on three days' rest after dominating in Game 1 while Kazmir's last outing was a struggle in the ALDS clincher in Boston on the 11th. A New York win puts them in control of the series while the Angels try to even it up.

For most of the night this game had that playing-out-the-string feeling to it. Trevor Cahill was having another one of those Houdini-like outings until Ken Griffey Jr. touched him up for a three-run homer in the fifth that gave the Mariners a comfortable 6-1 cushion behind another solid outing by Felix Hernandez, though Oakland would make it interesting late by having chances to tie the game in each of the last two innings before falling by a count of 6-4.

In doing so the A's dropped to 75-82, thus ending their unlikely but entertaining quest to somehow reach .500 by the end of the season, and it assured a last-place finish for the first time since 1998. If the current standings of LAA-TEX-SEA-OAK stays the same (TEX and SEA could still switch places), it will be the first time that has happened since going to the three-division format.

If it's any consolation, the A's DO have the best record of any last-place team and trail their division leader by the least games in comparison to the rest. Put it this way: it took them until game 157 to be assured of last place after how bad things looked earlier in the year. Hey, it's SOMEthing. In spite of that it doesn't seem as bad as that looks as they've played solid baseball in the latter half of the season. The important thing will be seeing how much of it carries over into 2010.

Cahill was unable to get through the fifth tonight, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and two walks with just one strikeout. In comparison, Hernandez threw a season-high 120 pitches and nearly got through eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits with four walks, plus he hit two batters. He wasn't his usual overpowering self, evidenced by only four strikeouts. Sometimes he gets that in two innings. He needed Mark Lowe to bail him out of trouble in the eighth and David Aardsma gave up a couple runs in the ninth on a Kurt Suzuki double before retiring Daric Barton on a fly ball to Ichiro Suzuki that, for the briefest of moments, looked like it might just have a chance to tie things up. Somehow Eric Patterson went 3-for-3 with a walk against Hernandez. I won't try to figure that one out and I suggest you don't either.

A few more things:

* Travis Buck got into the game, had two ABs, AND singled and scored a run.

* we expect full details soon from Chez Nico. It's not Vegas, so what happens there shall be known by all.

* the game threads are not safe for anyone except those of strong composition and/or questionable mental states. Wade in at your own peril. Now, those ARE Vegas as far as we're concerned.

* we've learned what a few of the A's rookies wound up in during this year's hazing ritual. Photos must exist somewhere. They will be found by someone.

* this is my last game thread of the season. It was fun. In the words of Denis Leary, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, and..." Wait. Not the game thread. My bad. Go A's in 2010!

Griffey just got all of one. Kennedy has no future as a third baseman. Patterson has no future involving throwing the ball in any way.

6-1 Sea...ttle. On to the sixth.

1-0 M's after three and I think most of us are focused on other more interesting conversations.

As I sit here enjoying my first homemade smoothie (okay, at least I was when I wrote this around 4:30) after buying a blender in an effort to eat a little healthier, the A’s begin their final road series of the season in Seattle with a chance to finish at .500. With a record of 75-81 they’ll have to win their last six and it starts off with a tough one: Trevor Cahill vs. Felix Hernandez.

Unless the A’s use him on Sunday this will be Cahill’s final outing of the season and to his credit he’s had a strong finish. As rough a season as he did have while gaining valuable MLB experience, his last few starts are a positive to build from and take into 2010. Against Seattle Cahill is 0-2 in three starts but he’s only allowed four earned runs in 19 innings.

King Felix is arguably in the Cy Young hunt in the most dominant season of his young career so far. The only time he faced the A’s back in his second start of the season, he allowed five runs in five innings. He stands a good chance of finishing with 18 or 19 wins but his numbers have been great across the board and he passed 200 strikeouts for the first time in a season in his last start. In the month of September he’s 4-0 with a 1.15 ERA, as well.

That’s ending on a strong note, but my favorite for the Cy remains Zack Greinke. He’s been amazing all season but is having an even better September than Hernandez. Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia will get some votes and even though Sabathia’s the least deserving of those four, you never know how it’ll go when he plays for the Yankees.

Tonight is also the night when dead animals are being grilled up over at Chez Nico. If you’re not already there it’s probably too late.

It was one of those outings where you figure Trevor Cahill should have given up more than just one run, the sort where he's in trouble often and just waiting for that hit or two that leads to a big inning for the other side. The thing to remember is when you're a ground ball pitcher and someone's on base you're usually only one double play away from heading back to the dugout unscathed with the odds a little more in your favor than usual. Such was the case tonight and Daric Barton provided the offense early (with a little help from the Rangers "defense") before the A's opened it up big time in the 7th, winning 9-1.

In Cahill's 5 2/3 innings tonight (he was on a pitch count) he was able to get three of them. Two were of the conventional on-the-ground variety while one was a nice catch and throw from center by Rajai Davis. His first two innings were three up, three down affairs but he got the double plays in each of the middle innings. He was also pretty efficient in throwing 51 of his 79 pitches for strikes (65%) along with inducing 11 ground ball outs compared to 4 by air.

Once again he also avoided giving up the longball, though David Murphy came very close on a run-scoring double that hit the top of the jagged edge in right-center. There was some luck on his side tonight as most of the 6 hits and 2 walks he gave up came in four innings with just 1 strikeout overall but I see it as him making some of his own by keeping the ball down, pitching to his strengths.

Things got a little interesting in the bottom of the 1st when Adam Kennedy decided he was going to have a very short night as he argued a bad called strike three enough for Eric Cooper to give him the thumb. Of note was Bob Geren taking about half an hour to get out of the dugout but while Kennedy was right to be upset he didn't look like he'd be done with it until he got sent to the showers. Mission accomplished, but we were forced to endure eight innings of Bobby Crosby.

In the bottom of the 2nd Barton stepped to the plate with two away and Jack Cust on first after a walk. In one of those plays you really just have to see to believe, he hit a sinking liner to right that Nelson Cruz charged and dove for. Instead of letting it fall and keeping it to a two-out, two-on situation the ball got under his glove. Cust motored around to score as Barton reached third on a triple, but Ian Kinsler's relay throw got past Ivan Rodriguez to the backstop and Barton raced home as well, beating Brandon McCarthy's errant toss from near the on-deck circle. Out of all that, just one error was charged to Kinsler, which was about right.

Barton would come through again with two down in the 4th, singling to plate Ryan Sweeney. Cahill gave a run back in the 6th on the Murphy double before Marlon Byrd hit a fly ball to center. Davis made the catch and Murphy raced to third only to be tagged out by Bobby Crosby. Craig Breslow finished the inning and worked an uneventful 7th, then the A's really put it out of reach.

Leading off, Eric Patterson turned on a fastball away (yes, you read it right) for a double to right. Geren played it safe by having Crosby sacrifice Patterson to third but it quickly got out of hand for Willie Eyre. Davis singled, plating Patterson. Sweeney singled as Davis went to third. Kurt Suzuki and Cust both pulled doubles down the line, Suzuki's scoring two while Cust's brought Suzuki around. Mark Ellis singled in Cust and Eyre's night was done. Barton hit another ball solidly but this time it was a sharp liner right to Hank Blalock at first for an inning-ending double play.

The A's got one more in the 8th on a Davis strikeout, though he reached first on a wild pitch as Patterson trotted home after singling and advancing to third on a couple passed balls. Jerry Blevins and Brad Ziegler wrapped up the win that put Cahill into double figures days after Brett Anderson got there. After Kurt Suzuki dropped a foul pop by Kinsler, Ziegler's next and final pitch was a soft liner right back to him that led to an easy throw to Barton at first. Game over. A's win again, their eighth in the last nine. Yay!

Oh yeah. The Rajai Watch is now at .318 after a couple more hits. He did strike out three times.

Cahill, presumably on a pitch count, is done and the A's take a 3-1 lead to the seventh. Barton likes September.