SB Nation User Blog: Kyli

What will you do?

Kyli — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:13:16 -0000

Okay, so maybe our boys are down. Things are damn ugly, there's one last thread of hope remaining.

So it's time to lay it all out before the baseball gods. It's time to make the pledge. If the A's come back from this 3-0 deficit to make the World Series, what will you do?

Baseball gods, if you let the team come back from this, I'll give up Diet Coke until Opening Day '07. I drink 3-5 per day, I don't function without my morning Diet Coke. They're all yours, baseball gods, if you do this.

I'll fly out of my convention early, leave Las Vegas to come home in time for game 2 of the World Series.

I'll wear my A's shirts every damn day until the A's are out, I don't care how funky they start to smell.

I'll buy a real friggin' A's jersey this offseason for the ALCS MVP -- who the hell needs to spend money on groceries, anyway?

I'll burn incense in front of my A's stuff every night until Opening Day, to honor the baseball gods.

Sacrifices of boxes of Crackerjack and peanuts in a bonfire in your name, baseball gods.

I'll become a season ticket holder. Lew, baseball gods, take my damn money, please. Just win.

If the boys make a miracle, what will you sacrifice? Or do to celebrate?

Duke DL'd, Gaudin Recalled

Kyli — Sat, 13 May 2006 15:48:03 -0000

Well, looks like the A's are making a quick move for once on an injured player -- unfortunately, it's our darling 'Day To Day Til The End Of Time' All-Star. :-(

Here's the link.

Hopefully, Gaudin is well rested -- good to see him back, now we can worry that Duchscherer's injury was worse than they let on. I mean, they actually put a guy on the DL?! Now we've got some inning insurance for today.

Day Two DLD -- 4/4/2006. Can we call a mulligan?

Kyli — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 13:58:27 -0000

New season, time for new things. I'm gonna try my hand at my first link dump! Let's hope this change doesn't bring bad luck to the A's. :-/ Here's to more success in Game 2! We can call it Game 1.5 and pretend yesterday neeeeveeer happened.

Sfgate's recap, where we learn that Billy Beane knows his calculus and Johnny Damon is a tool that deserves to be booed.

Before the game, Damon, who just went through his own high-profile free agency, said of Zito, "We're hoping Barry pitches well -- this season, not tonight -- because he'll be a free agent. He could be here (with the Yankees) or with the Mets. I know he's ready for the New York scene."

Yes, Johnny. And I know you're ready to have the collective foot of the Nation kicking you in the head.

The Oakland Tribune's recap fears for Bobby Crosby. As do we all.

Crosby's left index finger was bloodied, but he initially stayed in thegame. He was removed in the fifth and will be examined today by Dr. Jerrald Goldman.

"It was cut pretty bad," manager Ken Macha said. "He probably will not be able to play (today). Let's hope it's only one day."

Invoking Goldman is a little frightening.

With Beane's comments about calculus and running to class, it sounds like he's a man haunted by that in-class-without-pants nightmare.

The Contra Costa Times is a big ol' pile of depressing.

Frank Thomas is back, and Korach makes me tear up again

"If I start crying, so be it," said Korach on the night that King was honored before the game.

To no one's surprise, baseball ticket prices are up again. Interestingly, the A's are the biggest leap in prices:

Oakland had the highest percentage increase, a 25.2 percent rise to $22.10, followed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, whose average went up 24.7 percent to $17.09.

Thanks, Lew.

Clemens still unable to decide. No one surprised.

Duck! Fan throws syringe at Bonds. It is important to remember two things: A) it is always, always inappropriate and atrocious to throw something at a player.
B) ...Don't miss, dumbass.

Two more years of seeing Slingblade, Lackey gets an extension. He's pitched well against Oakland the past few years, hopefully he'll forget how to do that. Quickly.

Littlefield + Losing, BFF til 2008

Even if our game sucked, at least someone got to watch a good game yesterday.

A's commercials now on website.

Kyli — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 23:18:52 -0000

Okay, I'm hoping that I'm ducking the diary police and not posting something that's already been reported. For those of you who haven't seen 'em yet, the first round of A's commercials are now up on the website. Just three of 'em so far.

The commercials definitely would have been better with Roy Steele providing the voiceovers, hopefully if they want to continue using that tactic in the midseason commercials, he'll be healthy enough to provide them.
The 'Holy Toledo' is just heartwarming. :-)

Billy Beane on KNBR now! / Open Thread

Kyli — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:00:36 -0000

It's 4pm, and Billy Beane will apparently be up next on 680. Billy Beane! Billy Beane! YAY! Let us worship! ...Okay, I need to take up some more characters.

So. Open thread. Of sorts. Since I'm assuming that the main threads on the main page are already being open threads, since they are....

Oh. My. God. Three hundred characters is a lot. Come on, I just want everyone to listen to Billy Beane.

So... what baseball books are on everyone's offseason reading list? I'm finally, FINALLY reading "Ball Four".

Nice article on Ellis and his recovery

Kyli — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 18:51:06 -0000

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/27/SPGQ5BVGC01.DTL

Ellis beats the odds on his recovery
A's second baseman back after severe shoulder nerve damage
- Susan Slusser, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005

Tempe , Ariz. -- Last year on this date, Mark Ellis was lying on his couch, his shoulder covered with ice, two days removed from an injury that doctors compared to something they'd see in a catastrophic car accident.

The A's second baseman did not know the severity at the time, which was probably a blessing. No professional athlete has ever returned from this injury, at least not as far as longtime physical therapist Paul Hospenthal knows. "I've never see anyone come back from this,'' Hospenthal said. "Not with the extensive nerve damage Mark had. ... He was messed up as bad as it gets.''

The nerve damage prohibited surgery, something Ellis had been told he must have in order to resume playing. Ellis had collided full speed with shortstop Bobby Crosby while pursing a roller up the middle, dislocating his right shoulder and tearing the labrum muscle, damage that usually would be repaired surgically.

"That was a pretty big deal,'' Ellis said. "That was a really tough time, because they'd been telling me, 'You have to get surgery if you want to prolong your career,' and now they're telling me two days before the surgery that I can't have it. It didn't sound good. I was really nervous.''

No surgery means there is no guarantee that Ellis' shoulder will remain in place. Richie Sexson, then with Arizona, and Troy Glaus, then with Anaheim, tried to play after rehabbing dislocated shoulders, and both reinjured their shoulders and required surgery.

Ellis and his wife, Sarah, are aware of the risks.

"We know the reality is that it could happen again,'' Sarah Ellis said. "But Mark's fine now, and Doogie (Hospenthal) told him that he could build the area around the shoulder up enough to keep it in place, and Dr. (Doug) Freedberg said he's in such good shape, it would take a really bad dive for it to pop out again.''

Still, the possibility is there, a reason the A's traded for Keith Ginter and a reason they'd be unlikely to trade Marco Scutaro if, as expected, they decide to keep just two second basemen on the big-league roster.

With Ginter, a lesser defensive player, around, Ellis is, oddly, less likely to get an Opening Day start. With flyball pitcher Barry Zito going that day, it's a good spot to get Ginter in the lineup. Ellis will get the call when groundball pitchers are scheduled.

"I would love to be in there Opening Day,'' Ellis said. "If I am or not, it's not up to me. I've done as much as I can. The ultimate goal is to be in there as much as possible and hope that at the end of the season I'm starting at second base in the playoffs.''

The mere fact that he will be on the roster at all makes Ellis one of the nicer stories in baseball. He's universally liked -- everyone says they're rooting for him, from opponents to umpires to scouts.

"I'm elated that Mark is in the position he's in,'' said Bob Johnson, a longtime A's advance scout who now works for Texas. "I'm so happy for him. It's a tremendous credit to him to be able to work himself back from that, but I know his work ethic is tremendous and his character is terrific.''

Hospenthal got to see that up close. The two did three hours of therapy a day, and it was not fun stuff. It was minute, tiny movements at first.

"The biggest challenge was not to screw up the healing,'' Hospenthal said. "So we did very simple things to train the muscles while keeping the shoulder in perfect position. It was boring for both of us, just push here, push there, and the progress was very slow.

"I don't know how he put up with it, but Mark never had a bad day, never had any sort of meltdown. There are very few people I know who could do that, but he had the right mind-set. It's like he willed himself back.''

Sarah Ellis said that he never was down in the dumps at home, either.

"I was the one trying to be positive, but it ended up being easy,'' she said. "I'm not trying to sound cheesy, but living with him every day through that, I realized even more what a great person Mark is.''

They'd been married only a few months when Ellis was injured, and she wanted to make sure that things weren't weighing on him too much. So Sarah brought home a pug puppy, Brutus, early in the summer.

"I thought it would be a good brightener for Mark, take his mind off things,'' she said. "It turned out the dog had a disease and if he didn't have surgery, he'd die. I felt so ridiculous -- the wife is supposed to be supportive and here I am crying because the dog might die. Everything turned out fine, though, for Mark and the dog.''

There were some other disconcerting times. By June 1, Ellis hadn't regained full feeling in his arm and was sent to see a neurologist at LSU, who told him he had 50 percent of the nerve function back and he'd get back to 90- 100 percent in six months. All the function has returned, and the shoulder doesn't bother Ellis, even when warming up.

Odds were, however, that he wouldn't play at his previous level again. This, Ellis didn't really understand.

"When he came back, people were saying, 'It's a miracle,' '' Sarah Ellis said. "That's when he said, 'Wow, maybe that could have ended my career.' He didn't realize until then, because I don't think anyone ever wanted to look him in the eye and tell him.''

Crosby, the teammate most happy about Ellis' return, said, "I heard people say, 'He might not come back,' and I said, 'That's crazy.' There was no doubt in my mind.

"He's looked just as good, if not better, like nothing ever happened. That's awesome to see.''

Scouts say that some of Ellis' throws aren't quite as strong as before, but otherwise, one said, "He looks like Mark Ellis.'' And after a winter of straightening out bad habits that crept into his swing late in 2003, Ellis was the team's hottest hitter the first two weeks of spring training.

"I think he's a better player now,'' hitting coach Dave Hudgens said. "He's better offensively, and defensively, obviously, he's one of the best.''

This is sweet news to those close to Ellis.

"When Mark got hurt, he'd just gotten married, he was a year from arbitration, and was just budding in his career,'' Hospenthal said. "Everything was going right for him, and it was taken away. There's no justice in any of this. So it's nice to see someone who should play baseball playing baseball again.''

Regrets

Kyli — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 17:19:00 -0000

If we win tonight and tomorrow, this team will have definitely earned to divisional title. To win the division even with the absolutely atrocious weeks we've had? I think that's earning it.

But if we don't... the pile of regrets is going to be huge, and I know a lot of our boys will be feeling them all.

Even with the bullpen and the offensive problems, I think the biggest thing to regret is the season of Mark Mulder.

The other members of the Big 3 have really had their moments in the sun. Zito had a Cy Young season in the past. Hudson's had several seasons where he's wowed us, even if his win total doesn't always reflect it. The blown saves in the past few years, and his injuries during seasons' last games, have been regrettable, but he's put together some great seasons. Mulder... he's definitely put together some fabulous years as well, but it seems like the ghost of injury is always hanging over him. It seems like he gets himself well on the road to Cy Young, then SOMETHING happens.

His absolute tumble, his absolute fall from grace seems bigger to me than Zito's failure in so many ways. Zito's come through in many Septembers, and even when he was pitching poorly, there was an ounce of hope when he went out there. He'd find ways to surprise me and occasionally pull out a great win. But Mulder... he went from Cy Young and the ASG to pitching in a way that I had NO hope. Almost everyone knew when he went out there during these last few weeks that he'd lose. Last night was his moment for redemption. Heck, even REDMAN pulled off a vital win. I hoped for a minute, that he'd be able to be what he used to be.

Mark Mulder is the biggest disappointment of the season. While all our guys blew a good number of games, Mulder seemed to lose any chance of things going his way. He seems to be the catalyst in the 'what could have been'. Our pitching has always mobilized in the second half, before this season. Gotta wonder if Mulder had done better, if the pitching staff would have been dragged further down into the abyss like we saw.

Of course, there's plenty of regret to spread around:

Rhodes: 9/14 in save opportunities
Mecir: 2/7 in SVO
Rincon: 0/3 in SVO
Duchscherer: 0/2 in SVO
Bradford: 1/4 in SVO
Hammond: 1/3 in SVO
Lehr: 0/1 in SVO
Jermaine Dye: 127 SO
Bobby Crosby: 137 SO
Getting shut out three times
Zito: getting 5 NDs in games where he pitched 6+ innings and gave up 2 or fewer runs
Hudson: getting 4 NDs in games where he pitched 6+ innings and gave up 2 or fewer runs
Mulder: ERA over 8 for September
Miller: batting .235 after the All-Star Break, with only 2 HRs
The whole team: injuries, injuries, injuries

The thing about this season that will get to me, if we lose, is that this team is so damn talented. Last season, the team had the kind of weak spots that getting to the postseason seemed like something to be grateful for -- I mean, with that outfield? Eesh! This year, this team seemed strong from the get-go, with talent at every position. If we'd just had Kotsay instead of T-Long and this year's Hatteberg on the 2003 team, we would have destroyed a lot of teams -- and probably had a different playoff story.

Had with last year's pitching staff with this year's offense, there's no question to me that we'd be buying our WS tickets soon.

But now the team's starting to look worn down, a lot like a combination of last year's offense and one of those late 90s pitching staffs.

Billy Beane put together a heck of a team. Had he not gotten Rhodes, it's clear we'd be in a much better spot. This year, one of our most talented teams in the past decade will put out one of the worst records under Beane's tenure.

I would hate to be within 10 miles of Billy's office for the next few months if we DON'T succeed these next few games.