This passage from Peter Gammons' latest column on espn.com perfectly epitomizes the the A's "pathetic" offense.

. . . It's about not scoring runners from third base with less than two outs. . .

"I wish every player would study tapes of David Eckstein in that situation," says A's GM Billy Beane. "He will foul off a dozen pitches until he finally gets something he can get to the outfield to get the run home. It drives me crazy. Our players have heard me on this subject."

Why? Because when the A's left for their six-game swing through New York and Boston, they had come up with 42 runners on third base with less than two outs ... and 12 had scored. Pathetic.

Speaking of pathetic:

Kevin Brown has been one of the most pathetic pitchers in MLB since about the all-star break last season.

Brown lost seven straight starts, the first Yankees pitcher to do so since World War II.

His ERA at the start of today's game against the A's was 8.25.

And he flippin' shut out the A's today.

Pathetic.

Either it's time for major changes, or it's time to start moving guys like Dotel and planning for 2006.

Peter Gammons' latest piece on espn.com once again sings the praises of Miguel Tejada and identifies Big Mig as the force behind the Orioles' great start to 2005:

But the players point to one man as the main reason for the club's turnaround. "There's no doubt in my mind that Miggy [Tejada] is the best player in the game," Roberts says. "Start with his position. He's by far the best at a [the] middle-infield skill position. Then, if you watched us every day, you'd see [Tejada's] RBI are not a fluke. He has an uncanny ability to knock in runs. Then, most of all, there's his energy. He is always up, pushing everyone and making the entire team better."

"I've never been around anyone like him," B.J. Surhoff says of Tejada.

"I played with Pete Rose and coached Kirby Puckett," Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley says, "and Miggy is just like them. He is the best player in the game, hands-down. Like Rose and Puckett, he puts it out there every day, and they are those rare players off whom teammates feed. You can crunch every number you want, you can't put a premium on the energy one player can bring to an entire team. This franchise changed the day he arrived."

More, and the poll, after the jump.

Poll

Letting Tejada leave: Was it the biggest blunder?

48%

Yes, A's should have built around Miggy

108 votes

25%

Who knows, there's so much luck involved

58 votes

17%

No, Chavez was the right guy to keep long term

40 votes

8%

No, letting Huddy go was the biggest blunder

19 votes

225 votes | Poll has closed

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The Padres just announced they have hired Sandy Alderson as their "chief executive officer", according to this San Diego U-T article:

Alderson is to become San Diego's chief executive officer, giving him all authority beneath that of club chairman John Moores. President and CEO Dick Freeman and General Manager Kevin Towers are to remain in the organization, with Freeman's title changing to president and chief operating officer.

Official announcement will be made on Tuesday...

Alderson has turned down other clubs that sought him, but is to arrive in San Diego Tuesday for a news conference introducing him as a Padres executive.

"This is a unique opportunity for Sandy to be running the show," said a person close to Alderson. "This gives him another set of challenges."

Surprise to me.  Sandy has been out of it for a while and I thought he went to the MLB offices because he was tired of running a team.

Poll

Biggest change in Padres under Alderson?

33%

No significant changes

31 votes

9%

Dump blue and "sand" colors for green and gold

9 votes

29%

Fill the front office with ex-Athletics guys

27 votes

14%

Replace Bruce Bochy with Tony LaRussa

13 votes

13%

Bring Jose Canseco out of retirement

12 votes

92 votes | Poll has closed

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Former GM Steve Phillips jumped on the Zito pile-on today with these comments on an espn.com chat:

Barry started showing signs of weakness in 2004. Left handed hitters dominated him during the season. His velocity has dropped off some and he has difficulty throwing the curve for a strike. Hitters have realized they should take the curve and sit on a mediocre fastball. Zito has become very hittable and very ordinary.

Ouch. A bit too harsh, maybe.

Z needs to buckle down and get guys out. He needs to be better mentally, he's not done physically. I will admit that I'm not comfortable with where he's at right now, and agree that his fastball needs to improve to the point that it can fool hitters.

Poll

Barry Zito is....

30%

Very hittable and very ordinary

43 votes

32%

Just going through a very brief rough spot

46 votes

7%

About to reel off ten great starts in a row

11 votes

8%

Going to win 18-plus games this season

12 votes

20%

Making me wish the A's had kept Mulder instead

28 votes

140 votes | Poll has closed

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The sportsline.com preview of the LAAOA is all about the difference between the Angels' hitting philosophy and that of the A's.

There are many phrases you might hear if you hang around manager Mike Scioscia's Angels long enough during the course of a season. "A walk is as good as a hit" probably won't be one of them.

In an American League West containing the calculating and picky Oakland Athletics in one corner, the Angels are the undisciplined cousin who lives life by impulse.

In an AL West in which the Athletics have enjoyed great success by choosing pitches with more care and selection than your grandmother uses in picking out eggs at the supermarket, the Angels last year ranked 14th -- last -- in the league in walks.

You can improve your OBP by getting hits, not just walks, say the Angels:

The Angels share a belief with the Athletics in the importance of on-base percentage. But they do not share a belief with Oakland that walks are an integral part of boosting it.

While the Angels ranked 14th in the AL and 28th in baseball last year with 450 walks, Oakland was third in the AL and fifth in the majors with 608.

Yet, in on-base percentage, while Oakland ranked fifth in the AL and ninth in the majors at .343, the Angels were right with them -- sixth in the AL and 13th in the majors at .341. And on the final weekend of the season, the Swingin' Angels won the first two games of a series in Oakland to steal the division title.

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Keith Olbermann has this great take on Thursday's congressional steroid circus, focusing mostly on McGwire of course.

If it hadn't been so tragic, so much like watching as cops fail to talk the guy out of jumping, McGwire's testimony would've been reminiscent of the old "Saturday Night Live" sketch about the Three Mile Island Nuclear accident. After President Jimmy Carter is exposed to a massive radiation dose, plant `spokesman' Richard Benjamin is asked "is it true that the president is 100 feet tall?" and replies with a mixture of mirth and disdain: "No! Absolutely not!" A second reporter then asks: "Is the president 90 feet tall?" and Benjamin replies "No comment."

More after the jump.

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Peter Gammons' February 28th piece on espn.com ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=2002123

... starts out with McGwire and his androstenedione,  moves on to Brian Downing and Ken Caminiti, then throws in this tidbit:

One mid-'90s Oakland A's farmhand said privately they called their minor league culture "the laboratory."

Poll

Do you believe steroids were rampant in the A's farm system in the mid-1990s?

35%

Duh! Can you say "Jason and Jeremy"?

69 votes

33%

Probably, yeah

65 votes

29%

Maybe, who really knows without proof

57 votes

1%

No, it's just hype -- almost no one uses steroids in baseball

3 votes

194 votes | Poll has closed

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Just got back from my neighborhood Costco (in Carlsbad, in San Diego County).

Big sign at the front entrance to the store -- says that Jose Canseco will be at the Carlsbad Costco store (Thursday, March 10th at 6 PM if you must know) to meet Costco customers and personally autograph copies of "Juiced".

For those of us who have been A's fans since way way back, this episode feels more and more surreal every day.

Dickie V, in his espn.com column, opines that both Mac and Josey should take lie-detector tests live on ESPN to settle Canseco's claims about steroid use:

http://espn.go.com/dickvitale/vcolumn050214-Canseco.html

To end this soap opera, let's invite Canseco, McGwire and the players implicated to take a lie-detector test. Administer the test on "SportsCenter" and have a professional give the test and then air the results.

Poll

If Canseco and McGwire took lie-detector tests...

20%

"Chemical imbalance" of both players would make test results un-usable

8 votes

30%

Test would show Canseco is telling the truth about 'roid use of MLB players he named

12 votes

28%

McGwire would deny steroid use; test would show he's truthful

11 votes

10%

McGwire would deny steroid use; test would show he's lying

4 votes

10%

McGwire would admit steroid use

4 votes

39 votes | Poll has closed

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Jose Canseco has apparently decided to name as many juicy names in his new book as he possibly can.

This New York Daily News article says that Canseco, in his new tell-all book, will say that he injected Mark McGwire with steroids "in the rear end numerous times in clubhouse bathroom stalls."

According to the Daily News article, Canseco also says he watched Giambi and McGwire inject each other with 'roids, and that after being traded to the Texas Rangers, he taught Pudge Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Juan Gonzalez how to use 'roids.

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