SB Nation User Blog: MJB

"It Drives Me Crazy" (The Shame of A Brown-Out)

MJB — Mon, 09 May 2005 02:48:34 -0000

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.

More love for Tejada, from Gammons (with poll)

MJB — Mon, 02 May 2005 16:58:01 -0000

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.

Letting Tejada leave: Was it the biggest blunder?

Who knows, there's so much luck involved

58 votes

No, Chavez was the right guy to keep long term

40 votes

No, letting Huddy go was the biggest blunder

19 votes

Yes, A's should have built around Miggy

108 votes

225 votes | Poll has closed

Padres' new top exec is Sandy Alderson (with poll)

MJB — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 03:49:49 -0000

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.

Take the poll.

Update [2005-4-19 0:29:7 by MJB]: Another article on Alderson's new gig is now up on mlb.com:

Alderson will immediately leave his post as Major League Baseball's executive vice president in charge of baseball operations to take over the day-to-day operations of the Padres.

Alderson had previously been with the Oakland A's from 1981 until he left for MLB in 1998, holding the positions of general counsel, general manager and president. His Oakland tenure included the A's most recent era as a powerhouse when they won three consecutive American League pennants from 1988-90 and the World Series in 1989.

"For me this is the last piece of a complicated puzzle that involved building a ballpark and redeveloping San Diego," Moores said on Monday before the Giants played the Padres at PETCO Park. "It's time to build a competitive team and it allows us to significantly strengthen our management team.

"I think this is our most significant signing in the 11 years I've owned the team."

Poll

Biggest change in Padres under Alderson?

Fill the front office with ex-Athletics guys

27 votes

Replace Bruce Bochy with Tony LaRussa

13 votes

Bring Jose Canseco out of retirement

12 votes

No significant changes

31 votes

Dump blue and "sand" colors for green and gold

9 votes

92 votes | Poll has closed

Phillips Bashes Zito: "Very Ordinary" (with poll)

MJB — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 01:09:53 -0000

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.

Phillips also offered the unsurprising opinion that Dotel is here to stay at least until Street has proven he is ready to be big-time in the majors:

Dotel, I don't expect to be traded until they establish Huston Street can thrive at the major league level. The A's have great depth in the bullpen and if they are in the race, Dotel could be a significant chip. I just don't think any trade would happen until much later.

Poll

Barry Zito is....

About to reel off ten great starts in a row

11 votes

Going to win 18-plus games this season

12 votes

Making me wish the A's had kept Mulder instead

28 votes

Very hittable and very ordinary

43 votes

Just going through a very brief rough spot

46 votes

140 votes | Poll has closed

Sportsline: Contrasting A's and Angels on hitting

MJB — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 13:11:32 -0000

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.

Garret Anderson, perhaps unintentionally, agrees with something I've always said: "A walk is as good as a hit" only when the bases are empty. A walk, obviously, won't score the tying run from scoring position with two outs in the eighth.

"Pitchers throw strikes, and you've got to swing the bat," left fielder Garret Anderson says. "In theory, (walking) sounds good, but you've still got to swing the bat and get those guys to score."

Ah, but then we get to one big reason for the difference in philosophy:

Certainly, the Athletics have had terrific success with their style of play -- especially when you consider that the Angels payroll the past few seasons has dwarfed Oakland's, allowing them in theory to sign a few more talented players (last year and again this season, the Angels payroll will be around $100 million and Oakland's will be little more than half of that, roughly $60 million). While Oakland, partly due to financial limitations, is very specific in searching for players who fit into its philosophy -- the Scott Hattebergs and Erubiel Durazos -- the Angels concentrate on finding players who will play well in Scioscia's move-runners-over, keep-the-pressure-on-the-defense style.

Absolutely, if I can afford Vladimir Guerrero, I won't tell him to stand there with the bat on his shoulder. If all I can afford is Hatty and Ruby, then maybe I tell them to just get on base any way they can. Duh.

Still, though, beyond the money, it is a difference in philosophy between Beaneball and Scioscia's 1970s-era approach to generating runs:

"When you hit and run, certain percentages in your game are going to go down," Erstad says. "There are not going to be many walks because you're swinging early in the count. That's just the way it is.

"You know what? It's aggressive, but it's not crazy. You still understand there are parts of the game where you need to take advantage of certain situations. Compared to other teams, we sure don't walk much."

But compared to other teams, well ... the Angels won the World Series in '02 and gave themselves a chance to win again in '04. Whatever gets you through the night.

"There are different philosophies, but who's to say which one is right?" Erstad says. "You can analyze it until you're blue in the face, but this is the way Sosh wants to play ball. This is the way they set this team up.

"This is the way we're going to do it."

Vive la difference. Let's start the season.

Olbermann: "Say it ain't so, Big Mac"

MJB — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 07:50:03 -0000

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.

Olbermann perceptively points out that McGwire's testimony is not only the obvious slam on his Bash Brother, but that McGwire was calling Sosa, Palmeiro, Schilling, and Thomas liars as well:

"If a player answers, `No,' he simply will not be believed," McGwire said, doubtless to the surprise of Sosa and Palmeiro, who had just said no, and Curt Schilling and Frank Thomas, who immediately thereafter would. "If he answers, `Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations," which must've made the absent Jason Giambi feel like pretty much of a sap, and, oddly, which must also have made Jose Canseco feel surprisingly validated.

And Olbermann closes out by subtly hinting there might be a very, very good reason why McGwire alone wouldn't answer the did-you-or-didn't-you question:

There would be a lot of public scorn if you confessed. And the sea of history would close up over you and the year you had, and they might not vote you into the Hall of Fame, and your name would become synonymous with deception.

So, of the two remaining options, obviously the preferred one would be to refuse to say anything. That way, the sea of doubt would close up over you and the year you had, and they might not vote you into the Hall of Fame, and your name would become synonymous with evasion.

Apparently that stonewall choice was much better than saying "hell no, I didn't use them." Obviously, that's because...

Well, you know what? Sorry, I thought I had something to write here to explain why McGwire denying steroid use was somehow different and more dangerous than Sosa or Palmeiro or Thomas or Schilling doing so.

But that something seems suddenly to have escaped me.

Great stuff.

Gammons: 'Roids rampant in '90s A's farm system (POLL)

MJB — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 05:27:26 -0000

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."

Regardless of the value of any one of the many pieces of unattributed hearsay in this article, Gammons gives Selig too much benefit of the doubt in this article.

The truth is probably that Selig knew as much as Kevin Towers now admits he knew, and that like Towers, Selig turned a blind eye toward juiced-up sluggers who were passing Maris and Ruth and juicing attendance and TV ratings.

Take the poll.

Poll

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

Probably, yeah

65 votes

Maybe, who really knows without proof

57 votes

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

3 votes

Duh! Can you say "Jason and Jeremy"?

69 votes

194 votes | Poll has closed

Canseco will sign his book at Costco

MJB — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 03:36:29 -0000

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.

Vitale sez: McGwire and Canseco should take lie-detector tests (WITH POLL)

MJB — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 23:35:01 -0000

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.

Here is more of Vitale's take on this. By the way, Dickie V really is a big baseball fan, he's a Devil Rays season ticket holder.

This story breaks my heart. I think back to the great moments of 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were battling for the home-run title and vying for Roger Maris' record. America's love affair with baseball and the crowds in St. Louis were so special.

To think that could all be tainted now makes me sick. I hope and pray there is no validity to what Canseco is saying.

The locker room is a place of sanctity, and whatever happens between ballplayers is the business of those individuals. It's disappointing that a guy has an agenda to make money off his former teammates with a book.

I believe some things that have been said are accurate, but I wonder about other statements. We don't know exactly what happened and how much of it is true and how much is made up to sell copies of the book. I feel that some of the details give Canseco some validity. Some statements, though, are dramatically drawn out to sell books.

Pretty dam funny. Heck, if they ever do get the Bash Brothers hooked up to a lie detector machine, forget SportsCenter and show it live on pay-per-view.

Take the poll.

Poll

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

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

12 votes

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

11 votes

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

4 votes

McGwire would admit steroid use

4 votes

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

8 votes

39 votes | Poll has closed

Canseco says he injected McGwire with steroids

MJB — Sun, 06 Feb 2005 17:42:29 -0000

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.

From the Daily News article:

The longtime Oakland star, who made a brief appearance with the Yankees in 2000, claims he introduced steroids to the game and injected fellow Bash Brother Mark McGwire in the rear end numerous times in clubhouse bathroom stalls.

He also describes watching disgraced Yankee slugger Jason Giambi and McGwire injecting each other when they both played with the Oakland A's, and says he personally taught All-Star and potential Hall of Famers Ivan (Pudge) Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez to use 'roids after he was traded to the Texas Rangers in 1992.

Canseco claims the team's general managing partner at the time - an aspiring politician named George W. Bush - had to have been aware that his players were using performance-enhancing drugs but did nothing about it.

The NYDN article says that Jose thinks that 'roids are great for baseball, and everyone should use 'em:

The book is an homage to steroids, and Canseco says that he not only used them, but that all players should. He concedes that kids shouldn't use them and no one should abuse the muscle-building drugs, but Canseco practically offers a how-to guide to steroids and human growth hormone.

He also says he never would have made it to the major leagues - much less become the 1988 American League MVP - without their help.

I'll say this for ol' Jose -- he's always been entertaining. I still chuckle when I remember him leaving a loaded handgun on the seat of his unlocked Ferrari when he went to a doctor's appointment. Or the time when he was pulled over for speeding in the middle of the night and the cop wrote him up for going 95, and Jose signed the ticket, crossed off "95" and wrote in "135" and told the cop, "That's how fast I was really going."