First off, I'll admit, I was a strong proponent to DFA Mr. Radio (thanks Embree!) during the course of the first half of the season. At the plate, he was overmatched often swinging and whiffing air on a regular basis. In the field, he never had good reads on hits, ran strange routes at times, and didn't seem to exhibit the communication skills necessary for good CFs. However, his recent play had me questioning my original position on him and even rooting for the guy! So I went to look at his stats breakdown:

His .285 / .357 / .411 line even trumps my man, Spartacust and is second on the team in OPS to only AK (well also Holliday, but he was he really ever here?). The OBP is a bit higher than his historical .325 clip in 631 PA due in part to a somewhat higher walk rate (did he stop using DJs old sunscreen lotion?), but mostly because his better BA. A more in depth look at his plate discipline shows that the most dramatic improvement he has had is in recognizing when a pitch is outside the zone (reduced from 36% to 29%) and swinging at it (reduced from 65% to 58% this year), otherwise all his PD stats are about the same.  He still has surprisingly high strikeout rate which is even worse than last years, but this is mostly skewed by his first half suckitude. Looking closer at BA component, we see that his BABIP is at a very high .339 rate, which means that either he is 1) getting very lucky (league avg. BABIP is around .290-.300) 2) utilizing his speed to beat out hits (since he does have a 44% GB to FB/LD split) or C) a little of both. He probably won't be able to sustain these rates, but a line of .275 / .335 / .385 rate more in line with his majors track record, which means he's still really a 4th outfielder at best, which his OPS+ of 109 shows.

Since concluding that he is really a 4th outfielder (in offensive capabilities), we’ll concentrate on his defensive capabilities. I still think he gets really bad reads on balls which would coincide with his funky routes (let’s hope he’s not another Burns in disguise!), but luckily his speed makes up for most of this shortcoming. Fortunately, he hasn’t made many errors (2) and his UZR is still pretty good at 6.7, but so is Sweeney’s! If comparing the two, Sweeney has the better arm with the same range (yes, seriously, see fangraphs)! Rajai really needs to work on his reads, so that it will cut down on his circuitous routes, lessen the effect of his lack of arm strength, increase his overall range, and make him a standout defender in the outfield instead of just above average.   

With all of this in mind, if you are a believer in WAR, it tells you that he is about 1.5 wins better than league average, good for 4th on the team in offensive/defensive value. For the casual fans, they’ll tell you that his intangibles such as speed in the outifeld, base stealing (yes really even with a 71% success rate), and clutch hitting of late (inciting echoes of Scutaro everywhere) are an essential component to future success. While many still have serious doubts on his “grits” by looking closer at his stats, we should enjoy it while we can. It may be a sign of things to come for a new era of Moneyball players, but that is for another fanpost! ;) 

Since no one wants to post one up, and i was looking to add a nice little link i found, here it goes...

Coliseum holds fond memories for Tulowitzki

Hmm Tulowitzki is from the Bay Area and rooted for the A's as a kid. He plays a position known to cause black holes in the Coliseum, has power, bats right, and is cost controlled for several years to come. 

Just fantasizing, but what would you think it would take to land him?

Dump away....

Interesting read from Forbes:

Forbes: Baseball's Most Valuable Teams 2009

including some of the economics of baseball.

From this comprehensive assessment, it's interesting to see each team's business models: 

- Yankess rely on lucrative television network deals (YES!) while subtracting the new debt and operating costs associated with its new 1.5 Billion (!!!!) stadium to curtail revenue sharing from its player's salaries for a meager loss of -$3million in an off year of sorts

- Contrastingly, the Florida Marlins have the lowest revenue stream in baseball, but yet reap the highest operating income due to the handouts from such teams as the Yankees, Red Sox, etc. No wonder they are content with the once a decade MLB King, then garage sale after...

- On the other end of the spectrum are the Detroit Tigers with a net loss of $26.3 million dollars and nothing to show for it! I predict a firesale of epic proportions to shed the high player salaries soon. Are the looking soon for bailout money like their local auto companies?

- As for our Athletics, due to major costs cutting in salaries last year and even with the declining attendance figures, the A's raked in a $26.2 million dollar profit most likely helped by the charities of richer ballclubs. The organizational valuation didn't change that much year over year (-1%), but how long will that last staying at a bastard of a stadium?

Just read this excellent report from the Mercury News:

Rickey won't be unanimous to Hall

In a nutshell, some offbeat writer, Corky Simpson,  for a small town Tucson newspaper intentionally omitted  Rickey off the HoF ballot because he  "wasn't a Rickey guy and that he would vote for him next time". So instead of including one of the best (if not the best) basestealers leadoff outfielders baseball player ever, who did he select instead? How about the likes of fringe players Matt Williams and (to a lesser degree) Tim Raines. This columnist even had the audacity to cite that  "Nobody ever played the game with more intensity, nor with more reverence for the sport" than Matt Williams! At 70 years old, I would have thought that he had the enjoyment of seeing Rickey's intensity in his prime years.

Luckily for us, Rob Neyer of ESPN calls him out on it :

No Hall of Fame vote for Rickey … why?

To Simpson's credit, he did express regret about voting that way. However, the damage has been done and the vote can't be retracted. It's retarded how these HoF ballots are casted by the most irrelevant and stupidest of folks (that same Tempe sportswriter also made a mockery out of McGwire's inclusion due to the steroid scandal, yet never once cited the that Williams was a part of the infamous Mitchell report - no Diamondback bias there alright). 

Anyhow, I encourage you to show your displeasure with these asinine voters by contacting the Baseball Hall Of Fame themselves to stop this mockery of the HoF:

Baseball Hall Of Fame 

As sort of an offshoot of the possible San Jose A's being reintroduced thread, I thought it would be interesting to see what folks think who the majority of the fan base down here root for (i will publish a similar thread at McCovey Cove).

Territorial rights BS aside and having first hand knowledge, I feel that A's fans are a vocal, yet small minority here, especially with the minor league SJ Giants right in the heart of the city. However, I am seeing more and more folks open to the prospect of the A's and their "Moneyball" philosophies since we are the heart of Silicon Valley after all. One of my close colleagues here at work (an avid Giants fan and season-ticket holder nonetheless) has recently entertained the thought of going to A's games with me due primarily to 1) The Bondless futility of the team (and the whole scandal surrounding it beforehand),  2) the Zito-fallout, and 3) the luster of Pac-Bell/SBC/ATT Park wearing off.

So what are your thoughts on San Jose?

Interesting read from the Merc:

http://www.mercurynews.com/sharks/ci_11123589

As it relates to the A's,  the most intersting tidbit was:

Could there be more down the road? Notably, Jamison referred to Wolff and John Fisher as the A's ownership group.

"From our standpoint, we're open to anything," Jamison said. "We've talked on different issues and different things."

Now whether that opens a possible window into the Southbay, if the Fremont deal folds, remains to be seen. However, I can see some future marketing impact with the Sharks splashing the Quakes / A's tidbits here and there and doing co-promotional events.

Go Shark's / A's!

Interesting that SD is already starting the bidding war on him. I've always like Peavy and think of him as a real front line #1 Ace. Considering that the Padres only want "at least two young pitchers in return, along with someone who can become the team's everyday center fielder sometime in the immediate to near future", which fits exactly the strength of the A's presently: depth of outfields and pitching. Would it make sense to deal for him and his salary (see below)? I wouldn't mind a deal of Eveland / Smith + Duke / Casillas + Mazarro / Gio + Sweeny / Cunningham for him. Play him until 2011/2012 (and when the newlook A's start maturing) then unload him when he gets really expensive for more picks or someone in trades. A front line rotation of:

- Peavy

- Gallagher

- Cahill

- Anderson

- Simmons / Mazarro

Espn: Padres start to gauge interest in Peavy

Peavy, 27, will make $8 million in 2009, $15 million in 2010, $16 million in 2011 and $17 million in 2012, and he has a 2013 option for $22 million, with a $4 million buyout.

I think that there has been a huge division in the A's fanbase on the Harden trade as many have blasted Beane for trading a seemingly healthy Harden. However, all is not golden in the land of flameouts:

Sep. 2	News: 9:37 AM Harden, whose velocity has slipped a little, will have his next start skipped, however he insists that there is no problem with his arm, the Chicago Tribune reports.

This sort of "developement" on Harden is something that we A's fans are very familiar with: slipping velocity, denial of problems, then the inevitible DL trip. I am not here to say, I told you so.....but as many have said all along: this trade was advantageous to BOTH the Cub's and the A's. The Cubs get a very short term front end elite pitcher for the playoffs, while the A's continuing restocking their farm system. I still think Harden is a very special player...when healthy, and i hope the Cubs take special care of the glass cannon so he can step up during their WS run.

edit: found the original Chicago Tribune article but seems to indicate that this was planned, albeit skipping 2 starts was somewhat unexpected.

update: Rotoworld comments from Harden

"I’ve been feeling pretty good, but I guess I’ve had a little bit of discomfort you could call it. But nothing serious," he said. It's always serious when it comes to Harden. He'll go 11 days without pitching before attempting to return to the mound next week.

15 Day DL...here we come!

Yes, it's 2am in the morning, thus necessitating a 08/19/08 DLD....well not really but oh well....so some news from around A's land:

 Yes the A's won yesterday! However, Duke got hurt but SuSlu reports that it might just be inflammation continuing from previous start (why am i not surprised he was hurt earlier?). Duke is supposed to take a trip to see an A's doctor, which means he's going on the 60-day DL soon. This in turn prompts our QOTM nominee from "the Babbler" :

The A's don't need to build a new ball park, they need to build a hospital.

With the win, Oakland is in #11 position for the 2009 MLB Draft, .5 games out from Cleveland at #10 and 13.5 games back on the Nats for #1 position (see we're not that pitiful....yet).

In other A's news, St. Paul native Jack Banaharan had Minnesota fans equal to ~500X his batting average show up at the game.

In a sign of the evolution of Moneyball, the A's have found a new market inefficiency hence on Sept. 6, they decided they would rather lose 2X in one day then one time over 2 days (Take that Theo E.).

The A's also expressed their confidence in Daric Louganis aka Staplehead. At only 23 years of age, Beane likes Daric's experience which will set him up to eventually take over Larry Davis' fanny pack.

From the A's / Twins game, caption this:

Dump away while i try to figure out how to get to sleep with a Euro con-call in 4 hours =(