SB Nation User Blog: Gaijin_Suketto

Foam Peanut Filler Post...

Gaijin_Suketto — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:30:46 -0000

It frustrates us all when the A's lose. I personally know that it frustrates me so much that I have to take a step back and be more of a fair weather fan, otherwise my life would be total garbage... I'd beat my wife and drunkenly wreck my motorcycle if I took all these losses to heart.

Even in the glorious years of the Big Three and Tejada and Dye and all those cats, the 60-65 losses a season still took a huge toll on me... About the only time I was truly satisfied was during the 20 game winning streak. Finally, things were going decently, for once, as they should be...

I used to pick on Yankees' fans for expecting their team to win EVERY DAY and being rude and angry when they didn't. Now, I'll still pick on Yankees' fans for being rude and underinformed, but just like an addict has to come to terms with his/her problem someday, I right here and now am coming to terms that maybe I'm a lot more like the Yankee fans than I thought I was...

I know it's unreasonable to expect these 2009 A's to win every day. It might be unreasonable to expect them to be too terribly much over .500 when the season's over. Maybe I don't actually EXPECT a victory every day, but I want one and I get pissed off when one doesn't come...

You should have seen me screaming at the TV when Springer kept giving up foul after foul to Lopez last night. (I wonder if Bill James ever researched 10+ pitch AB's to find out what the hitters' OPS is in those AB's compared to career stats...) If that scenario had been going down in my videogame, I would have pulled Springer mid-AB after the 3rd or 4th foul, because, by then, I knew in my heart that Lopez would gut it out for a hit. But I guess you can't do that in real life, 'cause you'd hurt the guy's feelings or something...

It's times like those that I wish A's clubhouse culture were more cancerous... a group of selfish ravenous dogs fighting against their asshole manager by taking their aggressions out on the rest of the American League... Kinda like the 70's teams were, except they were united against Finley, not Dark or Williams... Lots of fights... lots of purpose pitches...

I miss the mores and ideals of 70's sports... Back then, they paid more heed to the idea that sports serve as a surrogate for aggression and warfare, and the players seemed to play a lot more aggressively and recklessly. Now that players can become wealthy members of the business class, they protect their bodies more and don't play as recklessly, because their bodies are now high-return assets, instead of mere tools to do a job...

These days, though, especially in the Midwest, there are a lot of fans that stay positive and say "Oh well... go get 'em next time" when their club loses, and they don't wake up the next morning to negative headlines and 800 blog comments about how bad their team stunk the night before... This modern era might be a true golden age for this sort of fan. The players are as PC and sanitized as they've ever been... There's very little cheating, and most of the umpires are pretty decent (Angel Hernandez would have sucked biscuits in any era!). Plus, the players have more longevity because they don't play through serious injuries anymore, and have the strongest union in the world. I don't know, though. Cardinal baseball reminds me of hospitals for some reason... all clean and sanitized and spotless, but, dude, yer ass is hanging out!

Oh well... this post is just filler anyway. I only wrote it because I wrote about 10 comments the other day bitching that there's not enough content on AN these days, and since I can write at least a little better than a fourth grader, I figured I'd do my part.

MLD 4/23/09: Mulder Link Dump (with rantings!)

Gaijin_Suketto — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:29:23 -0000

It looks like Mark Mulder is almost ready to pitch again and is ready to sign.

Of course, the obvious team to sign him is the Angels, with all of their pitching woes, but their hardheaded insistence on replacing the wounded in-house keeps them from pulling the trigger. Bill Shaikin of the LA Times hammers Scioscia and company for this policy in an article from yesterday.

The Dodgers are down.

This recent news blurb suggests the Nationals are interested. You would think that their fans might be a little bit excited. Nothing shaking on Federal Baseball though.

What do you folks think? Should we gamble on a guy who used to be a big stud for us, or should we pay greater heed to letting the young talent develop?

I personally think that this team should be in go-for-it mode until Seattle proves they're for real (I don't think they are) or the Angels recover from all of their injuries, tragedies, and managerial stupidity (2 out of 3 if they're lucky). This division looks wide open and winnable with 85-90 wins.

Therefore, I think we should sign Mark Mulder to a low-guarantee, heavy-incentive deal, put Outman in the pen, and try to get something for Eveland from somebody (Washington, maybe?)

If Mulder gets hurt again, bring up Gonzalez or Mazzaro. No great loss. If Mulder regains his form... huge gain.

Anyway... long story short...

Go A's! Go away Eveland! (nothing personal... just business)

Just thought I'd sneak this in...

Gaijin_Suketto — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:29:06 -0000

Just thought I'd sneak this in...

I don't want to start no fuss, but I got a really strong feeling that Bobby Crosby, the target of your hate, is gonna have a pretty good year this year. I don't want to lay out too many stats, 'cuz I don't swing that way, but I feel it in my bones that he's gonna hit 20 bombs and stop embarrassing himself on low and outside pitches. That is all.

since he's the most prolific songwriter this planet has ever seen, he can take the words right out...

Gaijin_Suketto — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:12:36 -0000

since he's the most prolific songwriter this planet has ever seen, he can take the words right out of your mouth and call them his own and none the wiser

The Pilots Dared Me To Die!

I remember once typing out something to Mr. Beane after a head full of acid... something about...

Gaijin_Suketto — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:51:38 -0000

I remember once typing out something to Mr. Beane after a head full of acid... something about being able to watch your team struggle because you built it yourself, as opposed to driving around the parking lot swearing at the inferior parts you had to cobble the machine together... even though in those days, the exterior was nice and clean, there was sawdust in the gastank, and you damn well knew it.

Anyway, long story short, the guy from AN Day '07 who tried to turn you on to GBV realizes that he fucked up and what he meant to do is to bet DiNardo five bucks that you won't haul off and call up ol' Robert Pollard himself and challenge him to start a band with you. I bet it'd brighten ol' Uncle Bob's day to get a call from an actual PEER!

the guy who could'a asked you some inane question about Braden ya couldn't've answered anyway!

We All (Want To) Live In A (Green & Gold) Submarine

Gaijin_Suketto — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:38:18 -0000

Hasn't it been a joy watching Brad Ziegler pitch this year? His results have been amazing, of course, but besides the baby, the labor pains have been quite intriguing. The distinctive jackknife-style motion of submariners is not as common as one might think. The A's have had quite a few examples over the last decade or so, in Chad Bradford, Mike Venafro, and Mr. Ziegler himself. Yet, there are many teams who haven't had even one knuckle-scraper in that same time frame.

Two out of those three Oakland examples have had a significant degree of success at getting major league hitters to beat the ball into the ground. Ziegler, God willing, might just stick around the big leagues for a decade or so. Many submariners have. In fact, it is more the rule than the exception for big-league quality submariners to have longer, healthier careers than their overhand brethren.

Admittedly, my source for the above statement is Bill James' entry on Mark Eichhorn, a submarining Blue Jay reliever, from his 1988 Abstract. In this extended musing, he pointed out the careers of some highly successful underhanders, from Carl Mays to Eldon Auker to Ted Abernathy to Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry and Eichhorn himself in the 80's. He also conjectured that an underarm motion is not a gimmick, but a viable alternative pitching mechanic that supports a variety of motions and pitches, with less stress on the arm than overhand mechanics, and with the added benefit of much better control than overhanders.

James' most important point was that for the most part, successful submarine pitchers started as marginal overhand talents that either converted themselves, or were converted, for the sake of merely staying afloat in the competitive seas of professional baseball. These are men whose careers would have been over if not for submarine salvation.

Of course, only players with exceptional makeup are going to be willing to put in the hard work and accept the ego blows that starting over from scratch tends to entail, but since psych profiles are an accepted part of scouting for the professional game, clubs tend to draft a lot of players with good makeup anyway.

My humble proposal at the end of all this evidence is that the Athletics organization make it a point to pull aside pitchers with good makeup that aren't good enough or staying healthy enough to advance in the organization, and send them to Ron Romanick Knuckle-Scraper Boot Camp. Send them on to the Fall League or the Dominican afterwards and see if they sink or swim. It might not be possible to develop a Ziggy every year, but if for the cost of a minor league instructor or two to work under Romanick, a couple of washouts a decade turn into serviceable major league relievers, the program will more than pay for itself.

Rich Harden looked pretty decent in his rehab start...

Gaijin_Suketto — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:06:13 -0000

Thursday night at Raley Field in Sacramento was a lovely time and place for a ballgame. The skies were an aerosol blue and there was excitement in the park, which I at first thought was because of Mr. Harden's presence, but turned out merely to be the cheap buzz of $2 beer night...

Mr. Harden threw his allotted 50 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, giving up one run (I'm pretty sure it was unearned. Petit booted an easy one.) He mostly threw fastballs and changeups, as has been his gameplan of late. Of course, the Omaha hitters were late in their attempts to hit said fastball, although a lot of contact was made. There were at least six pop fouls over the screen, mostly over the home on-deck circle.

He gave up a few hits, two of which were hit reasonably well down the first-base line. Casey Rogowski couldn't get to them. Barton would have got one of them. A glovesman like Swisher might have gotten to them both if he got a good jump and was positioned correctly. I don't know if Mr. Rogowski is a prospect or a suspect, but he's slow afoot and his reaction time is subpar.

Anyway, Harden looked sharp and healthy. He sure wasn't laboring out there. He induced weak contact and got strikeouts when he needed them. He'd have even struck out one more if his pitch limit were 51. (By the way, it was super lame to pull him out with a 2-2 count on a batter. I wish that rehab assignment pitch limits had a leeway of +/- 2 pitches, because pulling a guy right before the K just sucks biscuits.)

After Harden left, the rest of the game went by in a blur. Dan Meyer relieved and apart from one bad inning, he looked alright. Joe Gaetti hit the ball hard every time he was up, and the super-knowledgeable season ticket holder/self-appointed team grandma in front of me was highly confident that he's a legit prospect , which makes me happy because I loved watching his dad, and I like seeing my childhood heroes' kids make it, too.

Powell hit a 2-run dinger in the bottom of the 8th to break a 3-3 tie, and Ziegler looked super sharp with a strikeout, walk, and double play grounder to end it. I'm not a trained scout, but I think Ziegler's almost ready for the Show. His stuff seemed to have a lot of sink. I think you'd need a 3-wood to hit one out off of him. He sure reminds me of Bradford, although with a bit less knuckle-dragging.

Hopefully, Mr. Harden will have another good outing on Tuesday, and be ready to go in Texas when it's his turn. (I also hope that Mr. Smith doesn't get sent down in the process, because I've taking a hell of a liking to that guy. He pitches like he's got 15 years of experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being in the bigs for a long time... A Maddux or Moyer type...)

Peace, we outta here!