Community Prospect List:

#1: Jarrod Parker, RHP

#2: Michael Choice, CF

#3: AJ Cole, SP

There are about 11 or so weeks until Opening Day, so we will be doing one voting thread per week until the season starts. So get ready, set and VOTE!

The Poll Option won the vote last week, so we will be going with that from now on. Please no ballot stuffing, though ;)

Please add suggestions below for players to be added to next week's poll. If you agree with a suggestion, please comment and rec it to make it more visible.

Happy voting!

Community Prospect List:

#1: Jarrod Parker, RHP

#2: Michael Choice, CF

There are about 11 or so weeks until Opening Day, so we will be doing one voting thread per week until the season starts. So get ready, set and VOTE!

The Poll Option won the vote last week, so we will be going with that from now on. Please no ballot stuffing, though ;)

Please add suggestions below for players to be added to next week's poll. If you agree with a suggestion, please comment and rec it to make it more visible.

Happy voting!

Community Prospect List:

#1: Jarrod Parker, RHP

Instead, in order to vote for a prospect for the current round of voting, find the first comment in the thread that says "VOTE FOR [PLAYER NAME]", for example, "VOTE FOR GRANT GREEN", and add a +1 Comment that comment. If the player that you want to vote for does not have a comment, create it yourself by typing "VOTE FOR [PLAYER NAME]" for your comment, and post. Only the first comment will count for that player’s voting, so watch for the green.

There are about 11 or so weeks until Opening Day, so we will be doing one voting thread per week until the season starts. So get ready, set and VOTE!

And now we go to the 2015 team, or as I would like to call it, the Community Prospect List!

With all the trades we have experienced this off season; the list should look vastly different compared to last years. This year, I am also going to try a new voting style. Expanding from last year’s recommendation for drop system, this year I will not be attaching a poll at all!

Instead, in order to vote for a prospect for the current round of voting, find the first comment in the thread that says “VOTE FOR [PLAYER NAME]”, for example, “VOTE FOR GRANT GREEN”, and add a +1 Comment that comment. If the player that you want to vote for does not have a comment, create it yourself by typing “VOTE FOR [PLAYER NAME]” for your comment, and post. Only the first comment will count for that player’s voting, so watch for the green.

There are about 11 or so weeks until Opening Day, so we will be doing one voting thread per week until the season starts. So get ready, set and VOTE!

I told AN’ers I would be delaying this year’s Community Prospect List for a few reason [See the bottom of the post for the Community Prospect List!]. Some were for myself (lots of work, which is why you have not seen me on the front page for a while), but primarily because of the increasingly apparent strategy the A’s were taking early in the off season, as they laid hints that the move to San Jose would be approved, presumably at the January Winter Meetings, and that the groundwork for a competitive team circa 2015 would be their main priority. What did that mean for the A’s, AN, and a much depleted farm system? It meant a few years of sucking in order to garner high draft picks, and a trade of everything of value on the team, even if that piece was going to be around for a few more years.

And it did not take long to see that this was necessary. The Angels won the bidding war, out of nowhere, for Albert Pujols, out from under the grasps of Miami’s higher bid and the Cardinals home town advantage, and the Rangers won the Yu Darvish bidding war from Japan. These two signings in particular shows that the A’s were now relegated to the far, far back. The Angels and Rangers had announced massive television deals that would seemingly pay for their entire payroll (making everything else gravy), and the Mariners still made much more than the A’s. Cisco Field and San Jose became the only thing that the A’s could dream about to save themselves from destruction. Because it was one thing when you were in a division with 3 other middling payrolls, it’s another when you are in a 5 team division with two Yankee-Red Sox wannabe’s and a new team, with a new owner, with something to prove.

Accompanying this, there came the news every day of the newly christened Miami Marlins, with a new stadium in hand, bidding massively on every top free agent under the sun (albe losing out on them as well). The point is that they believed that they could pay for them, and that gives the A’s hope for the future.

So it began. After firestorms of rumors, and a bidding war around Gio Gonzalez, the A’s decided to trade… Trevor Cahill? The A’s sent Cahill and Breslow to the Diamondbacks for a package of Pitchers Jarrod Parker and Ryan Cook, and Outfielder Collin Cowgill. Gio Gonzalez was dealt to Washington for Pitchers Brad Peacock, AJ Cole, Tommy Milone and Catcher Derek “Soon to be called Chuck” Norris. Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney were dealt to the Red Sox for outfielder Josh Reddick, infielder Miles Head and pitcher Raul Alcantara. They expressed interest in Jorge Soler, a 19 year old, five-tool outfielder from Cuba.

Continue reading this post »

Hi Everybody!

The World Series has yet to be played, but the off season is already upon us. And when you think of the off season, what is it that you think about? Trades? Rosterbation? Free Agents?

Yeah, that too, but I was thinking about the Community Prospect List!

This year, the Community Prospect List aims to kick off in full swing in November, but before then, we need to figure out our list of contenders. Who was the most deserving prospect in the system, and who performed the best (least worst?), and so on and so forth.

So please, post the names of any and all prospects you feel qualify for the Community Prospect List's voting this year, and after the tally, we'll start it up.

Rules for Qualification are as per usual: The prospective player must qualify as a Rookie in 2012, as defined by MLB's ROY voting qualifications, minus the MLB service time requirement, as that is too difficult to track at a glance. The current qualification cut off is under 130 at bats or 50 innings.

Other Measures that need to be taken are to decide what format we will go with this year.

So please, in between listing the prospects you feel most worthy to be included, add the following commentary:

• How long should each round of voting be? Ex. 1 Day? 2 Days? 3 Days?
• How many players should be on each ballot? Ex. 3? 5? 10?
• Should there be a position prospect to pitching prospect ratio per vote?
• Should we hold three different votes, such as is done on minorleagueball.com, and hold a Position Player List, Pitching Prospect List, and Combined List vote? (see Sickle's website for examples).

It might not have come to surprise anyone that the A's were shut down by a former Angels pitcher, after all, that is what they were trained to do. But now that Joe Saunders is out of the organization, you would think he would learn to drop their habits. Apparently not, as Saunders held the A's scoreless till the 8th, until Brazoban allowed his runners to score. Outman, on the flip side, struggled, allowing 4 runs in 6 innings, on 7 hits, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. At least Chris Young would not get his Cycle.

The action started right off the bat when the aforementioned Chris Young, with 1 out, singled in Willy Ballgame Bloomquist (yes, he actually still has a job! I know! I wouldn't have guessed it either!). Forward to the third, and Young, again, would double down the left field line, just over the 3rd base bag, and into the corner to knock in a run.

For the next two innings, the A's would make an attempt, getting two runners on in the bottom of the third with 2 outs on singles by Sizemore and Weeks, and in the bottom of the 4th on a 2 out double by Conor Jackson which was misplayed by Dbacks left fielder Gerardo Parra (who had just made a diving catch to rob Chris Carter of a base hit), only to be stranded both times on a pop out and a ground out, respectively. 

Chris Young would strike again in the 5th, however, collecting his 4th RBI of the night on a two run homerun to make the game 4-0 Snakes. 

Forward to the bottom of the 8th and the A's finally started to do some damage against Saunders. After a Rosales walk and a Weeks single, the Dbacks relieved Saunders and brought in Yhency Brazoban, who proceeded to fall off the mound, advancing the Rosales and Weeks to 2nd and 3rd on the balk. Scott Sizemore would then ground out to short to knock in Rosales, followed by a Hideki Matsui single to knock in Weeks. That's where the tease start winding down, however, as after a Chris Carter single, the two runners would be stranded, as Jackson, representing the winning run, would strike out looking to end the inning. 

The A's had a few chances to get to Saunders, leaving men in scoring position in three innings, and only managing to score once Saunders had left the game. Melvin's A's are now 1-1 in this series against his former team, and go for the series victory tomorrow. At least they aren't in Arizona.

Chris Young is single handedly destroying Josh Outman, and is on his way to the Cycle. Off to the bottom of the 5th, we're at the half way point and we need runs. 4-0 Snakes.

Last week, we took a look at our options on offense, and since then, we've seen Chris Carter get actual at bats and Mark Ellis dealt to Colorado. Lets take a look at the other side of the ball, which is especially comforting since, gasp, we got guys coming OFF the disabled list this time! For this time around, we'll go Player by Player for the starting Rotation, and sum up the bullpen.

Starting Pitching:
Brett Anderson (Disabled List) - 4.00 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 1.0 WAR
Anderson is great when he is on, but he is usually off the field. In this sentiment, he is almost as frustrating as Rich Harden. Whenever he is great, he gets injured. I think it is time we started looking to shop our Ace for a new, improved, and healthier one.

Trevor Cahill - 3.28 ERA, 3.84 FIP, 1.4 WAR
Cahill is an enigma in a way. He was awesome last year despite his peripherals saying otherwise, and while he turned those peripherals around this year, he has been much more spotty, mixing in dominance with a string of bad games blamed on poor mechanics. I like Cahill, and its probably a good bet that we keep him around.

Gio Gonzalez - 2.38 ERA, 3.29 FIP, 2.0 WAR
Gio is easily our best pitcher at this point, and not just because of the numbers. He is the healthiest of the new big three, and he has been dominant to boot. It almost makes me not miss Nick Swisher.  With his emotions under control, Gio will have a big career ahead of him, though it is interesting that he is the one the A's have yet to sign to a long term deal.

Dallas Braden (Disabled List) - 3.00 ERA, 3.55 FIP, 0.3 WAR
Braden is an interesting guy. He has gone from fringe draft pick to top prospect to emergency starter to lost cause to rotation veteran to Perfecto Braden to the glue that holds the rotation together. unfortunately for Braden, he has the A's medical staff to keep him together, which hasn't gone too well. With the whole episode with the foot, to his recent injuries, Braden will have to come back, hope to perform (and lay off the screwball) and.... then what? Do you deal him when he is finally healthy and good, or will he be a free agent by then? Or will he be buried in the depth chart?

Continue reading this post »

An excellent game is how I can describe it. Back in their Home town, the A's came to life tonight. Yes, there were many squandered opportunities, but the offense did indeed try to do their best, and eventually broke through to win the game 4-1. Things almost went awry in the 8th, however, as Cahill went an inning too far. More on that later. What is good is that the A's won a game against a strong opponent, a strong pitcher, strong defense and with the help of some strong prospects. Good Game.

The Phillies struck first, and this was shockingly one of the few games I watched where I did not feel that going down 1-0 was a death nail to the team. Hamels' control was shaky, and the lineup somehow showed signs of life. The Phillies got men on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs, and a single knocked in the game's first run, and left the Phils in a 1st and 3rd situation, which was almost a disaster for the A's until Hideki Matsui made a great running catch in left field, and we went to the top of the 3rd, and Rosales, not wanting to leave us trailing, hit a running Solo HR shot to tie it up 1-1.

The Phil's were doomed after that, especially after a great tumbling catch to rob Chase Utley of extra bases by Conor Jackson and end the inning "On the Artificial Warning Track" (according to Fosse).

In the top of the 4th, the A's got on the board again. After Mark Ellis reached on a HBP, and was subsequently caught "Stealing" on a failed hit and run attempt, in which Coco Crisp swung very pointedly at Ball 4, Crisp walked to bring up Matsui. Matsui singled, with Crisp running on the play, but not heads up, as Crisp slid into 2nd instead of taking advantage of the play and running to third. Never matter, the next batter, Conor Jackson, hit a fly ball to Center and Crisp, faking going to 3rd then stopping, caught Victorino off guard, who stopped flat footed and threw the ball into the infield, whereupon Crisp hightailed it to 3rd base, scoring on Scott Sizemore's single in the next at bat.

The A's would not score again, despite constantly getting men on base, until the top of the 9th. With 1 out, Pennington walked, and Jemile Weeks came up. Weeks hit a long double to Center, which Pennington held up a little on, preventing him from scoring. Mark Ellis, 2-4 on the night, came up next and Squibbed a bloop single to center with the infield in to score Pennington, and Coco Crisp hit a long sac fly to the wall to score Weeks, and put the game out of reach of the Phillies.. or so it seemed.

Flashing back to the bottom of the 8th inning, Trevor Cahill entered the inning laboring. After giving up a long, hard fly ball to left center, Ross Gload, pinch hitting, hit a hard double to the same area but deeper. Right there, it was obvious that Cahill, at 96 pitches, was done. After a very scary at bat, with two close wild pitches, Cahill somehow managed to strike out Jimmy Rollins. In the next at bat, the result was not so lucky. Cahill finally threw one that Suzuki could not block, and the runner advanced to 3rd, with Polanco eventually walking. With the winning run on 1st and the tying run on 3rd, Andrew Bailey came in and shut the door on the 8th with a groundball to Ellis.

In the bottom of the 9th, Ryan Howard led the inning off with a deep fly ball to the warning track for the first out. Then, from the A's perspective, came the trouble, or from the Phillies perspective, came the tease. Shane Victorino doubled off the wall with 1 out, and after walking the next batter, the tying run was up to bat. Luckily, Brown, who had earlier caused great ire with Phillies fans after hitting a sharp groundball to Jemile Weeks, which deflected off Weeks' glove, and thrown out at first because he had not hustled on the play, grounded to 2nd base for a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

Notes:

• There were many fine defensive plays today, from Weeks to Rosales to Jackson to Matsui. It almost reminded me of the A's of yesteryear. 
• Crappy lineup it may be, but Melvin somehow succeeded with this one.
• That said, Mark Ellis, despite his 2-4 day, has no business as the team's starting first baseman. Chris Carter should be out there.
• Cahill looked awesome tonight, throwing 7.2 IP and allowing 1 ER, with 3 hits, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. 
• I would personally like to thank Andrew Bailey for not being Brian Fuentes.

Tonight should be an interesting game. After yesterday's near no-no's by each team, each by relatively unknowns, today's match up features two of the more well known variety. Cahill takes on Hamels and I, for one, am hoping for more offense this time around... on our side at least.

The A's are back to home in their original roots. One can only imagine what would have happened if the A's had stayed in Philly, and it is interesting that since their departure, they have never really found a true home. With the A's future uncertain, and a poised move to San Jose (or Oblivion and Beyond), this weekend's series will hold a lot of value to each of the "hometown" fans.

As an aside, for those visiting Philly, do not forget to visit the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society, which should be quite a treat!

Play Ball

We are mid way though the season, past the draft and close to the all star break, and unfortunately stick in a disappointing situation. Our pitching is injured (but perhaps returning), and our offense has a bad case of the shanks. With trade season upon us, it’s time we evaluated our chips, and cast off some of our deadweight. Thankfully, some of that has already happened with the promotion of Jemile Weeks and the acquisition of Scott Sizemore.

The first step, as always, is to figure out what exactly we have before we make any decisions.

Catcher:
Kurt Suzuki (.290 wOBA/1.1 WAR)
Landon Powell (.262/0.3 WAR)
Josh Donaldson [AAA] (.341 wOBA)
Anthony Recker [AAA] (.415 wOBA)

To sum up our catching situation thus far: disappointing. Suzuki has been declining for the last couple years. After his twin 3 WAR seasons, and 3 years in a row with a wOBA of .321, he has put out two straight seasons of sun .300 wOBA and sub 2 WAR. As a catcher, of course, Suzuki’s offensive tidings are to be seen only as a bonus, but the A’s still seem to view him as an offensive catcher, and he should not be viewed as such. If other teams view him in a very good light, and we believe that our pitchers skills, and not our catcher’s game calling, is what is driving our good pitching in recent years, then we should trade Suzuki if someone will overvalue him. Then again, he is the team’s leader in WAR, so he has that going for him. Which is nice. Waiting in the wings are the duo of offensively minded catching prospects Josh Donaldson and Anthony Recker, who might have climbed out of non-entity with this year’s amazing wOBA in Sacramento, but might be too old for it to matter. Then again, catchers mature later. Donaldson’s OPS has dropped back down to .775, but his wOBA is still holding his own. But can he become a good offensive catcher in the Majors while producing good results behind the plate? And do not think of putting Landon Powell as the starter. Powell has performed worse offensively than Suzuki, but more importantly, cannot handle a full season as a starter due to known health concerns.

Continue reading this post »

Rain Delay Thread continued...

Also: WTF? No Chris Carter? Ellis at 1B?

So we are almost halfway through the season, we have had the draft, we've had a long losing streak and a shorter winning streak that, unfortunately, came to an end. But hey, we have the moving to look forward to, so we have that. Which is good.

Today's game features Graham Godfrey and Chris Capuano, so there is an equal chance of awesomeness (Mets Offense continuing to implode) or horribleness (Godfrey relapses to his first start). 

Oh, and we might see a Chris Carter sighting!

Notes:

• With Daric Barton sent down to AAA for some "Work", the A's first base situation was a little iffy, with Jackson filling in. With Willingham going to the DL (about time), Chris Carter has arrived in Oakland, where he presumably will take over 1B duties.
• Michael Taylor is OPSing in the .800's in Sacramento, but is not batting very well.
• Kevin Kouzmanoff is not proving himself in AAA either.
• Mark Ellis's days on the A's are numbered. He will be used in a utility role for now, but he is not a 1B, its very questionable if he can play 3B, and Adam Rosales is a better play than he is right now. The only option is a trade, but I do not think we can get much besides salary relief. Then again, we did get Joey Devine for the shattered remnants of Mark Kotsay.
• With McCarthy and Ross due back soon, Godfrey is going to be bound for the minors. The question then becomes should we send down Outman or Moscoso, or should we send down both and try Rich Harden in the rotation again.

Tomorrow the A's go for the sweep, for they won today against the Tampa Bay Giants, 4-2!

The game started out with some high stress batters, as Moscoso struggled, but retired, the first two batters on ground balls to first base after some very long at bats. He then proceeded to play keep away in the top of the 2nd, as with two outs and a man on first, Cliff Pennington bobbled a grounder to short, and threw poorly to Weeks at 2nd. Moscoso walked the next batter, but got out of it when Stewart flew out to center to end the bases loaded threat. The A's decided to try to one up the Giants, but came up short, stranding two runners in the bottom of the inning.

Moscoso got out of a 4th inning, 2 on jam, but the 5th inning did him in. On a routine ground ball to third, Sizemore caught his cleat in the dirt (thank you U2) and botched the throw to first, allowing the lead off runner to get aboard. Torres walked, to make it first and second, and the defense demon hit the A's again. On a sacrifice bunt, Moscoso tried to rush the throw, and get the runner at third. He did beat the runner with the throw, but the throw was wide of third, allowing the runner to score. Another run would come around on a fly ball to Rosales in Left by Huff, which allowed Torres to score when the ball was cut off by Barton.

Staples would make up for it, however. In the bottom of the inning, the A's would have their revenge. Sizemore led off with a single up the middle. After a fly out, Barton hit a double to knock Sizemore in. A batter later, Pennington would hit a double to score Barton, and after a wild pitch moving Pennington to 3rd, a walk to Crisp and a stolen base, Hideki Matsui came through with his second hit, a single past the diving second baseman to knock in Pennington and Crisp. Matsui was stranded on second, but it was all the runs the A's would need.

The rest of the game went rather smoothly after an interesting 6th inning, involving Nate Schierholtz hitting a lead off double, only to get caught in between 2nd on a grounder to short. After Crawford singled to center, advancing Rowand to third, Joey Devine delivered two clutch strikeouts to end the threat.

And that really was that. Fuentes, after a leadoff walk, struck out the side in the 7th. Balfour, after allowing a single, cleared through the 8th, and Bailey faced the minimum, although with a GIDP to end the game.

So we head to tomorrow's game against the Gnats looking for the sweep. Oh, sweet revenge.

Home stretch! A's head into the bottom of the 7th, leading 4-2! Yes, you read that right, 4-2! Leading! Yes! Awesomeness! And Fuentes (despite the leadoff walk) Struck out the side! Off to the A's Offense!

A's defense has fallen apart yet again. A couple errors, both involving 3B, and the A's have found themselves in trouble.

A's 0, A's defense -2.

We need Mojo!!!

(and Barton in AAA)

A's left a pair in the bottom of the 2nd in their attempt to match the Giants, who left the bases loaded in top of the inning. Off to the 3rd!

Holy Cow, we actually won a game. With two more games left in the series, perhaps we can hold out hope to even the season series and present the Giants with a sweep of their own? Maybe? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

The A's send out Guillermo Moscoso against Jonathan Sanchez, and I myself cannot wait until Brandon Ross and Tyson McCarthy are back in the game. Dare I say, I am even anticipating the return of the zombie of Rich Harden! The Giants, on the other hand, are still dealing with the undead career of Barry Zito, so they have that going for them, which is nice. 

Tonight, we dine in Hell, I mean, Hegenberger as the A's and Giants square Diamond off.

It appears that with the A’s vs. Giants series underway, the stadium situation involving the teams are getting attention from an unlikely source: ESPN. Writer Howard Bryant wrote a great article summarizing the events that have led us to our current stadium situation, and it is a must read for all A’s (and Giants) fans out there. This, coming off the heels of Cohn’s "Interview" with Billy Beane, and the trailer for the new Moneyball Movie, and the A’s seem to be making a lot of press as of late. Couple that with the recent firing of Bob Geren and his replacement with Bobby v2, the demotion and dismissal of Kouzmanoff, the call ups of Weeks and Sizemore (and their subsequent awesomeness that has led to a three game winning streak), and there is a lot to talk about.

Off the Field

The stadium issue has become increasingly stale and tiring. We still have no word from Bud Selig on his decision about the A’s future situation, at a time when redevelopment agencies are hanging on by a hair. If redevelopment does go the way of the dinosaurs, it is likely that Oakland’s stadium hopes will be crushed. As it is, with the Oakland Redevelopment Agency’s recent purchase of the Henry J Kaiser Convention Center for $29 Million Dollars in order to provide budget relief for the city of Oakland, it is extremely realistic to ask if the city can even attempt to purchase the land at Victory Court, which was in question even before the ORA’s coffers had been plundered.

Remember that unlike San Jose’s situation, where a new city organization was founded in order to protect the land assets and funding necessary to complete the development of the Diridon site (Cisco Field or No), Oakland does not seem to have any backup plans for the purchase of the land at Victory Court or the relocation of the existing businesses. San Jose, on the other hand, has much of this already locked up, with most of the parcels already purchased, and the final lots ready to be acquired from AT&T. If the city or San Jose RDA cannot make the land purchase, the A’s are willing to buy or lease the land from them, something that will not happen in Oakland.

And we still have little news about the Victory Court EIR draft that’s still in the works.

Despite how much the Giants whine about how the A’s may kill them if they move south, I think the most telling graphic on how horrible the A’s situation in the Bay Area is right now is featured within the ESPN article.

Take a look at that. The Giants control almost the entire Bay Area; in the only split two team market in the country. And the county in question was once a shared county that did not destroy the Giants livelihood when both teams controlled it before.

I think its time to re-arrange the blocks.

I think everyone really needs to get on board and ask Bud to stop the TeA’se.

Want more info? Visit Marine Layer/Vertigo’s blog over! Best A’s Stadium Site (or stadium site period, I would say), on the net.

Continue reading this post »

Its that time of the year again. Time for the A's to attempt to renew their stores of talent in the Minor Leagues. The A's have the 18th overall pick today, but do not draft again until the 105th slot. If you want to follow the draft online, you can do so here. The draft order can be found here as well.

Lets Get to Speculating!

UPDATE: A's pick Sonny Gray with the 18th overall pick.

The A's find themselves fighting a 4 game losing streak against the Yankees (of the New York and Boston variety). Today's morning game features Cahill vs Beckett in a match for the ERA title (at least before Cahill's recent struggles).

The A's really need to get a grip, as the team's recent strength (pitching) has faltered recently, and the bullpen is struggling and tired from yesterday's game. All I can say is, if the offense remembers what they did yesterday and gives Cahill 6 runs, and Cahill remembers what life was like Pre-Yanks, we should be fine.

On a side note: Are we sure that Josh Beckett isn't an Athletic already? Good pitching numbers with a thousand injuries? Sounds all too familiar.

baseballgirl: Here are your lineups (thanks, BaseballPress). Ellis is batting fifth. No sign of Suzuki or Crisp. Good morning; Happy Weekend!

LET'S GO OAK-LAND!

A winning streak? A chance at a sweep? All is possible after today’s victory, highlighted by Mark Ellis’s first HR of the year.

The game almost started out on a bad note, with Andinos leading the game off with a bunt single over Outman’s head, which was followed by a muffed double play ball by Kevin Kouzmanoff, resulting in no outs, and a man on 1^st and 2^nd. Outman would work his way out of it, though, picking off Andino and retiring the side.

The A’s got on the board in the 2^nd inning, as Mark Ellis reached first and advanced to 2^nd on a muffed play at first (a regular feature in this game), and was knocked in, by of all people, Kevin Kouzmanoff!

Unfortunately, the Orioles would respond in their next half, as Outman walked two and allowed a single by Adam Jones to tie the game.

The A’s would respond in the bottom of the inning, retaking the lead after Coco Crisp reached on yet another muffed ball at 1^st base, stealing 2^nd base, and scoring on a line drive single by Josh Willingham.

Yet again, however, the Orioles came back in the next half inning and tied the game on a single by Craig Tatum. Outman then proceeded to walk the bases loaded before striking out Jones.

But while the muff did not stop here, the scoring streak did in the 5^th. Despite a leadoff single by Barton, and another muffed ball by the Orioles at first base, the A’s could not produce as Kurt Suzuki struck out looking on a 3-2 count to end the inning.

In the 6th inning, the A's rallied back, with Cliff Pennington hitting a ball down the left field line for a double. Crisp knocked him in on a sharp line drive single to center field, with Pennington sliding head first into home right before the tag to give the A's a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the 8^th, when Mark Ellis hit is aforementioned solo shot to left field to give the A’s an insurance run. That run almost proved useful, as Brian Fuentes closed out the 9^th with a HBP of Adam Jones, and a defensive indifference before forcing Nick Markakis to pop out to Josh Willingham to end the game.

Observations:

• Although Geren said that Balfour would be the closer, Balfour was came in the game in the 8^th in his usual set up role, with Fuentes closing it out. This feels like almost another CYA situation with Geren, saying one thing while not meaning it. Who is the closer, anyways?
• Hideki Matsui’s swing is really, really slow, almost as slow as his baserunning. Is Godzilla done, and if so, what should be done? Move Willingham to DH and Sweeney in the OF? Call up Cardenas to play LF?
• Barton’s back in the lineup, still at the #2 slot, which I do not actually begrudge. I actually like Barton batting 2^nd, and it is not like we have anyone better to put there. Barton went 1-2 today with 2 walks.
• Speaking of muffing and struggling, Kevin Kouzmanoff surprisingly went 2-4 with an RBI.
• Josh Outman’s performance tonight was actually rather worrisome. Although he went 6 innings with 2 Earned Runs, he only struck out two while allowing 6 hits and 5 walks. He needs to quickly get his control back unless he wants to be exploited next time out.
• All in all, good night for AN, with a tailgate, a win and fireworks, despite the rain. There are few things more depressing than losing on Fireworks night. It’s like celebrating the other team’s win.

The Game Thus far: A's take the lead! O's tie it! A's take the lead! O's tie it!

To the bottom of the 4th! Game is tied at 2.

The A's take on the O's again today, with Josh Outman's second MLB start since 2009. Coming off of two wins, and more importantly, coming off a few games where they actually scored more than 4 runs, could this mean that the A's offense has turned itself around? Probably not, but it makes a good story.

What else makes a good story? The A's offensive 'blow up', if you can call it that, last night after Geren was ejected with out anyone noticing his absence. Hat tip to Josh Willingham for (not) noticing that.

For those NRAF's that don't have MLBTV, today's game is the Free MLBTV Game of the day, so we have that going for us. Which is nice.

Baltimore Orioles

3B Andino
CF Jones
RF Markakis
DH Guerrero
LF Reimold
SS Hardy
1B Reynolds
2B Adams
C Tatum

Oakland Athletics

CF Crisp
1B Staples
RF DeJesus
LF Willingham
DH Matsui
C1 Suzuki
2B Unicorn
3B "That Russian Guy Playing 3rd Base"
SS Pennington

Anyways, lets get this game started.

At AN, we all seem to have something in common, and if it is anything, it’s a loathing of Bob Geren. It has been well documented on the blog the incompetencies of Geren, and that is past due to move on. Further, it is not just us, former A’s, players and coaches, have come out recently about how much distaste they had for Geren. So we’ve had everyone from the fans, to the players, to those who are no longer in the organization calling Geren out. Yet, Geren is protected on high by Beane and Wolff.

This led me to ponder; has our management tree of knowledge grown old and defunct? Are they coasting on their past reputation, no longer the top of the line front office that they were portrayed in Moneyball, and now living off their image?

Should Billy Beane be replaced?

We all can admit that the front office record since the ‘golden years’ has been pretty dismal. Despite a flash of brilliance in ’06, the team has not played very well on the field. The pitching has fluctuated between good and great, but the offense has been bad to worse, with a distinctly downward trend. Every patch the FO has made to fix it seems to make it spiral deeper into the abyss. For an organization that was touted for its offensive philosophy, it seemingly has become something akin to the Giants when it comes to developing hitters from within (i.e. we can’t, therefore, we get them from elsewhere). On the team right now, we have two hitters in our starting lineup that are ‘home grown’: Kurt Suzuk and Cliff Pennington, and neither is a good offensive player.

The roots of the A’s offensive woes have to come from somewhere, with the most likely culprits being the A’s poor drafting record, (again, from a team that was touted as being draft geniuses), the organizational hitting philosophy, which has not translated into actual hitting, and the front office’s approach to player acquisitions, which has long centered around unhealthy players with limited power capacity but decent (at least minor league) on base skills. Unfortunately, that has resulted in a lot of trips to the DL, and a lineup full of guys who watch strike 1 and 2 down the middle, and swing at strike three out of desperation.

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Lets be honest, this game went about the way that everyone expected it to go from the start. Indeed, there isn't even a need to recap it in full, since it followed the storyline so well.

Lincecum kicked our ass, shutting us out, and pitching a complete game shutout. Brett Anderson, though iffy to start the game, allowing a run and a series of hits in the first, managed to make his way through 5 innings before being pushed out due to a 90 pitch count and, of course, lame NL rules.

Luckily for the A's, Ryan Sweeney singled during the first inning, saving us from the stress of being no hit, as the A's ended up with only three hits off Lincecum.

The game went smoothly, 1-0 Giants, through till the 8th when everything went against the A's. Kouzmanoff injured himself trying to run a ball out at first, ending up with a right groin strain, and is day to day (translation: he will be on the bench, unavailable for the next three weeks, though will somehow play the day before he is put on the DL).

In the bottom of the 8th, Brad Ziegler, on his third night in a row, allowed a single by Posey, a squib ground out which moved Posey to 2nd, and a bobbled single to Jackson which scored him. That was followed by Ross, ending up at third, scoring on a sac fly.

Lincecum's complete game shutout was the 8th consecutive loss the A's have faced in Tampa Bay San Francisco.

I hate the Giants.

A's trailing 1-0 to the Gnats. Things do not look good for Homestar Runner.Maybe the Bitey Parrot can help us? Please? Bitey?

Today’s series is one that I relish. It is against a hated rival, for sure, but it also gives fans back home the feeling of how we feel. Who are we, you ask? We are the NRAF’s, the Non-Resident A’s Fans.

The series against the Giants is a painful one in a sense for A’s fans in the Bay, as they are surrounded by bandwagon Giants fans who converted after the World Series… or after Barry Bonds… or after Phonebooth Park. A’s fans most definently find themselves in the minority all of a sudden, even (especially) in the East Bay, which should be their home. This was stated by gojohn10 best on his ride home last night.

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In a sense, this was a very prototypical A’s game. At home, against the White Sox, the A’s should have been able to win this game in theory, with Cahill on the mound. Instead, they ended up losing the game 4-3, with plenty of chances to score left on the bases (including a 9^th inning tease featuring a 1^st and 3^rd situation with 2 outs).

There were some highlights, though. Conor "One N" Jackson made a stupendous catch in Right Field, with the ball popping out of his glove and back into it, confusing the runners and leading to a double play at 1^st base.

Mark Ellis and Cliff Pennington both turned several more double plays that tried to prove their worth to the team even if they could not carry it with the bat, as the team completed 4 double plays in all. Incidentally, Ellis and Pennington did come through today, going 3-4 and 1-3 with a walk respectively.

The highlights of the game on the offensive side came from Coco Crisp, who hit a solo homerun in the 5^th to tie the game up, and Daric Barton, who came out from under his slump on a 2-5 day to knock in two runs to the tie game in the 7^th after the White Sox had gone up two in the top half of the inning.

The A’s ended up with 10 hits, outhit by 1, and 5 walks with 8 strikeouts.

So Cahill lost his first game of the year, allowed 2 Earned Runs (mainly due to his own error), and raised his Cy Young competing ERA to 1.82. But what I am concerned about is that before he was taken out of the game, commenter’s in the game thread mentioned that Cahill was grimacing and holding his elbow. Please tell me this isn’t true. Please?