I feel like I've said several times in recaps already, but it was a night of frustration for the A's. The A's left 12 men on as team, received 9 walks on the evening, hit into 2 DPs in the 1st 2 innings, and still only managed 2 runs. Indeed, as Ken Korach remarked on the radio feed, it's like getting the leadoff guy on was the WORST thing that could happen. Finally, however, in the 7th and 8th inning, the A's came through with 2-out singles from the Killer C-squareds: Collin Cowgill and Coco Crisp. Ironically, it was Crisp, relegated to the 8th spot in the order, who came up with 2 hits and a walk today for a +.210 WPA. Boo yourself more often, alright Coco?

Jarrod Parker did his part to keep the Twins off the board, but was a little less sharp than in his previous outing. He walked 4, struck out 4, and allowed 4 hits over 6 innings and 105 pitches. Again, however, it was the bullpen that would meltdown nuclear reactor-style. Jerry Blevins and Grant Balfour did their jobs, but Brian Fuentes was the designated goat of the game. Fuentes made it interesting first by allowing the first two baserunners to get on. Then, however, Denard Span managed to botch a bunt and Mauer grounded into a fielders' choice to get 2 quick outs. With Willingham up, however, he did what Josh Willingham does best. He launched an "ultimate" 3-run homerun, sending the Twins faithful into a tizzy and the A's faithful questioning their choice of pasttime.

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Winning thread! Blevins in as the A's complete their nightly scoring, with Cowgill plating Kurt Suzuki with an RBI single. 1-0 A's going into the 8th.

Or, a Jucy Lucy vs. an Al Pastor taco. Call it what you will, but the A's faceoff against the Twins tonight for the middle game of a 3-game series. I previously said that the Twins were unspeakably bad, which is true. Unfortunately, the A's lost to them yesterday afternoon, so I don't know what that makes our hometown heroes. Speakably bad?

Jarrod Parker had a great start on Wednesday against the Angels, walking one, striking out 8, and allowing only 5 hits over 7 pretty dominant innings. He will oppose Cole "Cy" DeVries, who allowed 6 runs and 3 HRs over 5 mediocre innings on Thursday against the White Sox. So, I'm expecting 8 innings of shutout baseball on about 80 pitches, 57 strikes tonight. Womp womp.

The lineups, courtesy of baseballpress.com:

I watched all of yesterday's game, witnessing the A's bullpen implode after 5 unexpectedly strong spot-start innings from Travis Blackley. I saw Jordan Norberto and Ryan Cook, previously reliable relievers and under-the-radar pickups in last year's trades, forget how to throw strikes. I also saw Josh Willingham in a Twins uniform, and the obligatory reaction of A's Twitterati, something to the effect of:

HAMMER! :(
WE MISS YOU JOSH!
I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOUR LOVE, TONIIIIIGHT

While there was some remote chance of the A's re-signing him at the conclusion of the 2011 season, on 12/15/11, the news came down that the Twins had signed him for 3 years/$21M. It was relative steal at the time, and it looked downright cheap for the offensive production he provided last year, defense notwithstanding. Nevertheless, I told myself, this was good, as the new CBA provided that the A's would pick 34th and 62nd as compensation for losing a 2 WAR player. Given that the A's gave up nothing of any real value to get Willingham himself (sorry WaddellCanseco, but Henry Rodriguez and Corey Brown don't count as real value), turning those two guys into those 2 picks seems like a steal.

Then, the A's made a flurry of moves to bolster the outfield, making them one of the busiest teams of the hot stove season. To review the players acquired:

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As the lineups were posted today, and the A's finally announced Graham Godfrey as today's starter, this outcome was already in the minds of many A's fans. Indeed, the Angels took notice, too, as they decided to go without batting practice. Turns out, while they pounded out 10 hits tonight, they probably didn't even need to swing the bat. Godfrey was more than happy to issue free passes at will, and when he wasn't doing that, they got their BP in during the game. Albert Pujols connected for his 13th hit against the A's this year, this time of the 4-base variety. They scored 4 runs off of Godfrey, who had a horrible outing: out of 54 pitches, he managed only 23 strikes. Travis Blackley came in to relieve him, pitching 3.2 innings of solid relief. Jim Miller and Jerry Blevins completed the garbage time assignments, closing out the game to save Ryan Cook et al for tomorrow.

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After another satisfying victory against the currently hapless Halos last night, the A's now stand at 22-21. This is starting to garner some national attention. Steve Berthiaume has been calling the A's "plucky", Buster Olney mused about the A's .500 record last week, and the MLB Network anchors repeatedly mention how much of a surprise it is that the A's have hung onto 2nd place for so long. Indeed, I believe most A's fans are pleasantly surprised at how this season has gone so far record-wise. And this is despite playing with Josh Donaldson a scarecrow at 3rd base most of the year, Yoenis Cespedes missing significant time with a hand injury, and Kurt Suzuki being among the worst offensive catchers in MLB. So, with Brandon Inge on track to returning next week, Brandon McCarthy being on track for an early June return, Cespedes potentially returning around then, and Brett Anderson returning around August, this team has nowhere to go but up, right?

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It was fine day at the ballpark today, if you are an A's fan. All this week, the Bay Area baseball talk has been focused on the A's losing streak at AT&T Park. It was 9 straight victories by the Giants at AT&T going into Friday, and the A's play Friday and Saturday didn't do much to dispel the thought that the A's can't hold their own there. Friday was an 8-6 debacle, with Parker and a cavalcade of relievers combining for 9 walks, with the extra indignity of walking Barry Zito twice. Trust me, the final score belies how lopsided of a game it was. Saturday was no better, as the A's were shutout by Ryan Vogelsong and the Giants bullpen, managing only one pathetic hit.

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With the C lineup out there, and Darvish pitching, this outcome was probably less bad than some of us had expected. Indeed, this game had an auspicious start, with Weeks sparking both sides of the 1st inning. After doubling to leadoff to the game and scoring on Reddick's sac fly, Weeks initiated a 4-3 lineout DP, doubling off Elvis Andrus from 1st. Tom Milone then struckout Hamilton to end the inning. Maybe the A's would finally catch some breaks today. Milone had a relative uneventful 2nd and 3rd, allowing a pair of singles to Gentry and Synder, one of which of the bunted variety. The 4th is when Milone ran into a little trouble. A swinging bunt by Hamilton towards a shifted Sogard put him at 1st for Beltre, who lined an outside pitch over Reddick's head and over the wall in RF to give the Rangers the lead. After that, another infield single by Cruz, one of the Rangers' 5 on the day, would put him on and he would move to 2nd on a later walk to Yorvit Torrealba. A passed ball by Recker would put runners on 2nd and 3rd, and Donaldson's triple clutch on a slow roller by Gentry allowed another run to score before Andrus capped the night's scoring with a line-drive single to LF. The A's would threaten in the 8th, getting the tying run to the plate in Jonny Gomes, but Mike Adams came in throw sand on the crackling embers of the A's offense. Naturally, Joe Nathan struck out the side in the 9th for the "save."

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The A's open yet another quickie two-game series today, this time against the defending AL Champion Texas Rangers the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington House of Horrors. It's a tough assignment, as our green-clad heroes will attempt to hit some of the shuutos tossed up there by the Japanese sensation, Yu Darvish. So far, so great for him: in 44.1 IP, he's got a 10.35 K/9, 4.87 BB/9, and 0.81 HR/9. He's pretty good. Behind him, Josh Hamilton leads an offense that also features MIke Napoli, Adrian Beltre, and Ian Kinsler.

These guys are basically the 2000-2 A's reincarnate, except without Terrence Long. If only Bill King were still here... then again, he wouldn't have gone to Texas anyway. Ironically, with Ken Korach still recovering from knee surgery, he didn't make this trip and it'll be Johnny Doskow behind the mic with Vince. Coincidence? I think not.

The A's will throw Tom Milone out there today. He's struggled on the road, allowing an .875 OPS against in 4 starts so far. While the active roster is basically back to full strength, who knows if it'll be enough. Tomorrow, the A's throw Brandon McCarthy against Matt Harrison. Just sayin'

Lineups, from baseballpress.com:

If you don't already listen, ESPN's Baseball Today podcast is one of the few good things that come out of ESPN these days. It's worth a listen if you have 30-40 minutes in your day where you're performing a mindless task that leaves your ears open.

On Friday's episode, one of the cavalcade of co-hosts, Mark Simon, mentioned that Brett Lawrie has skewed defensive stats. Depending on your choice of defensive metric, Lawrie already has saved somewhere between 5-7 runs in less than two months worth of defensive chances. For the uninitiated, UZR is one flavor of defensive metrics that exist that attempts to rate fielders at each position against each other. So, all the first basemen are rated against each other based on the likelihood that the average guy at that position that year would have made the play. Positive numbers mean that a fielder has saved runs, whereas negative numbers mean that a fielder has given up runs. Plus or minus 10 in any direction means that fielder is pretty good; anything above that puts someone in rarefied air. Think Andruw Jones in his prime in CF for someone really good, and Jack Cust in LF for someone really bad.

At any rate, Simon delved into data with help from ESPN's research department and found that one reason for Lawrie's early success was a number of plays he had made near second base due to an aggressive shifting program that the Jays and many other teams have begun to employ against dead-pull hitters. In other words, because of where a normal 3B would have stood relative to where Lawrie was actually standing before the play, he is credited by UZR with having great range, when in actuality he was simply best positioned to make that play because of the shift. This is where UZR begins to break down - at one point is someone simply a good defender, versus someone whose team got lucky a few times and guessed right on positioning.

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Today's game got off to an inauspicious start. First, the team announced that Jarrod Parker would start today instead of Wednesday, reversing an earlier decision that would have allowed him to pitch on more rest. Then, the news came down that Brandon McCarthy would be the one who needed the rest, as he was pushed back to Saturday's start. Of course, with McCarthy, it's the shoulder again and he will throw a side session on Thursday to see if he can go Saturday. Later, Cespedes was a late scratch due to a wrist issue he felt during batting practice. As of writing, it has not been announced what Cespedes' status will be going forward. Here's hoping the demigod has a quick and miraculous recovery.

As far as this game is concerned, the Blue Jays made 3 errors, which should really disqualify them from winning. Kelly Johnson hit a 3rd inning 2-run HR off of Jarrod Parker to score Arencibia, and that would be all they managed off of him. Despite walking 5 Jays, Parker battled through 7 innings, allowing 4 hits, stranding 6 baserunners, and striking out 3. Ricky Romero pretty much matched him: he also walked 5, but struck out 7 and allowed 5 hits in 6 innings, and also served up a 2-run homerun, this time to Josh Reddick in the 5th.

The teams matched zeros until the 9th, when Eric Thames led off the inning with a triple. After a groundout to Weeks for one out, and a bonehead popped-up bunt by Omar Vizquel for the 2nd, it looked like the A's might get out of it. Then, Grant Balfour hung a curveball to Kelly Johnson that he promptly lined over Weeks' head for an RBI single. Jays lead 3-2.

BUT WAIT. IT WASN'T OVER!

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3 errors, really? You shouldn't be allowed to win with 3 errors.

Also, our matchstick team seems to be going up in smoke. McCarthy, Cespedes, Ynoa. Maybe Suzuki? At least it feel familiar...

via crissiecudd.files.wordpress.com

Oh, Canada! Before today's game, the recording of "Oh, Canada" that's been played probably since 1980 at the Coliseum will mark the beginning of this two-game series between the A's and Jays. The A's are fresh off of a surprisingly successful 5-4 road trip; the Blue Jays come up from Southern California after splitting a 4-game trip from the Angels.

After some rotation musical chairs, the A's will send out Jarrod Parker tonight for his 3rd A's start. He's had good starts against the Red Sox and White Sox, and now he takes on a free-swinging Jays team whose superstar, Jose Bautista, is doing his best Albert Pujols impression. He's batting .183/.313/.356 with 5 HR but a low .171 BABIP. Eventually he'll break out, but hopefully that regression is put on hold until Thursday. The Jays counter with Ricky Romero, an excellent pitcher in his own right. He leads their starters with a 4.03 FIP (3.64 ERA). The A's managed to hit Matt Moore hard on Sunday and broke out for 9 runs, so let's hope the hot bats made the trip home

Lineups, courtesy of baseballpress.com

For the majority of the baseball media, both MSM and more saber-friendly, the A's were predicted to be a horrible team. If they didn't have the worst record in baseball, they were going to challenge the Orioles, Astros, Mariners, and Cubs for that dubious title. I, for one, thought that this team would be 70-win team as did several other knowledgeable A's fans. Then, on February 13th, this news came across Twitter from both Tim Brown of Yahoo, then from our own Susan Slusser, that shocked the baseball world:

Tim Brown

‏ @TBrownYahoo

Source: Yoenis Cespedes has agreed to terms with the Oakland A's.

Susan Slusser

@susanslusser

#Athletics about to sign Cespedes for for four years, $36 million.

"WHAT?!?" followed by "OMG YESSSSSS" was the reaction of most A's fans. Just when Beane had succeeded in depressing some portion of the fanbase by trading away Trevor Cahill, Andrew Bailey, and Gio Gonzalez, fans were sent in a tizzy for an entirely different reason. Articles were written. ZiPS projections, using Cespedes' Cuban stats, were updated. A certain promotional video was watched again. A former everyday centerfielder was pushed to left field to accommodate our new demigod.

But, what never really happened was any revision of the A's expected performance over the course of the year. The A's were still going to be a 70-win team, competing with the Mariners for the booby prize of 3rd place in the AL West, behind the powerhouse Rangers and Angels.

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The A's are fresh off of a surprising 5-4 roadie, where they took home two rather improbable victories in Tampa Bay and
managed to steal defeat from the jaws of victory last Sunday in Baltimore. Will home be as good to them as this roadie was? We will find out!

The goods:

A's Fangraphs page

Jays Fangraphs page

Probable Pitchers

Score your last GOG

Questions (43 points possible)

1. Series Outcome (2 games!) 2 pts

2. Jose Bautista sits on the "Tango line", one might say, with a wOBA of .299. (Okay, I just made that up.) Does he finish this series above, below, or exactly at a .300 wOBA? (2 pts). While you're at it, why don't you predict his PA/H/K for the series? (2 pts each) (8 total)

3. Brandon McCarthy finally chalked up his 2nd victory of the year in Boston last week. Does he get a victory this week against the Canadians? (1 pt). Brandon is leading MLB in hits allowed with 50; that said, he's given up only 5 hits each in his last 2 starts. Does McCarthy allow greater than, less than, or equal to 5 hits against the Jays? (2 pts) What are his K/BB for the game? (2 pts each) Does he allow an HR? (2 pts) (9 total)

4. Yoenis Cespedes hasn't homered since his game-typing shot against the Pale Hose last homestand. Does he HR this series? (2 pts) Does he steal a base? (1 pt) Does he have a CS (1 pt) How many RBI? (2 pts) (6 total)

5. Does any team have a player get TOOTBLANed this series? "TOOTBLAN" is "thrown out on the basepaths like a nincompoop", meaning that someone is either picked off a base, thrown out trying to stretch a hit, doubled off by not getting back to the base after a lineout/flyout, or thrown out advancing on such a lineout/flyball. (2 pts)

6. Everything about Ryan Cook is scary. How much Melvin uses him, how many guys he walks, and trying to think of how to hit that devastating slider. Give me his app/IP/BB/K (2 pts each, 8 total)

7. Obligatory WPA question, nincompoop edition. GIve me two position players on each team that end up with a NEGATIVE WPA for any one game (2 pts each, 8 total)

Answer due by gametime Tuesday. Join me for the gamethread as well!

After three miserable losses, the A's managed to pull out a victory out in Boston today by the score of 5-3. Tonight, Jarrod Parker kept the demons of Fenway Park away for the A's. His final line: 6.2IP, 1ER, 4H, 2BB, 4K, 98 pitches, 59 strikes While, ideally, Parker would have had a greater than 2-to-1 strike/ball ratio, the A's have to be encouraged by his mound poise and good results for his 3rd MLB start. He's certainly more deserving of a rotation spot right now than its former occupant, Graham Godfrey.

The A's opened the scoring early, with Jemile Weeks leading off with a single and scoring on a Yoenis Cespedes single up the middle off of Felix Dubront. The score would remain 1-0 until the top of the 4th. With 1 out, after a Kurt Suzuki single and Kila Ka'aihue walk, Recker struck out and now with 2 outs, the A's made their moves. Pennington doubled to left-center, scoring Suzuki and sending Kila to 3rd. With runners in scoring position, Jemile Weeks then singled home both and advanced to 2nd on the throw home by Marlon Byrd. After stealing 3rd, Weeks streaked home on a wild pitch by Dubront.

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Bringing it home! A's have added on to their lead, going to the bottom of the 7th up 5-1. Jarrod Parker has been basically untouched in a fine 2nd start.

9 more outs to get...

Robo-cup (not to be confused with Robocop) did a good job of posting Thread 1. Thread 2 is here, as the A's cling to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 4th. If 2 runs in Baltimore didn't hold up, the A's will need many more runs to pull this game out for Parker.

Oh, what the hell...

via collider.com

The A's will attempt to snap their 3-game losing streak tonight, as Jarrod Parker continues his trek through the laundry portion of the American League for the green and gold. He has a tough assignment, as the Ryan Sweeney'-led (you read that right) Red Sox have won 7 of 8 since their embarrassing start to the season. Then again, he was very impressive against a powerful White Sox lineup last Wednesday, striking out 5, walking only one, and lasting 6.1 innings. So, here's hoping for another good outing.

Bob Melvin and the A's come in with yet another new lineup. In a quick lineup ascent than even Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Inge has moved up to the 2nd spot on the strength of making hard contact last night. Not surprisingly, given Slusser's comments from last night, Daric Barton finds himself out of the lineup after missing another scoop last night and watching a called 3rd strike with the bases loaded. Is his ticket to Sacramento already punched in the near future? Who knows. Kila Ka'aihue will start today, in an attempt to not suck his way into the lineup. In other surprising moves, Seth Smith sits, Jonny Gomes plays LF, and Anthony Recker DH's. Yes, I'm thinking the same thing.

The game promises to be interesting at least, if not also wet. Here are the lineups, courtesy of baseballpress.com

A popular subject these days seems to be "what’s going on with Jemile?" A’s fans have, unfortunately, been subjected to some lazy-looking flyballs on his part. But, how does this compare to his performance last year?

Despite only having played 33 games so far, there are some still SSS data that might clue us in to how he’s been hitting the ball in 2012. Let’s refer to Fangraphs Batted Ball data:

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Another day, another lineup. Another day, another mediocre offensive effort. Today, however, it is just enough to give the A’s a 2-0 victory against the pale hose. Mediocre doesn’t really begin to describe it, actually, as the A’s managed only 5 baserunners in 7+ innings against Gavin Floyd.

(As I write this, Glen Kuiper has just said "We’ve got ourselves a pitching duel, folks." I laugh aloud, somewhat maniacally.)

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Apparently, after acquiring 3 players from "down under", the A's offense has decided to bury itself halfway to the Earth's core. If this is true, eventually they will get hot. Then they will melt into an unintelligible ball of Iron.

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

Let's go Oakland!

While previously a lucky number for the A's, 3 managed to be the paltry number of hits they eked out against Jake Peavy last night. Tonight, they take their chances against Gavin Floyd, who has made 7 career starts against the A's, holding them to .637 OPS against for his career (hint: not good for us). The A's counter with Tom Milone, making his 4th start of the season for the green and gold.

Lineups, courtesy of baseballpress.com:

Another day, another lineup for Bob Melvin it seems. Psst, Bob - Seth Smith can actually play the field, you know?

In an apparent embrace of Australian players being the new market inefficiency, the A's have managed to acquire 2 Australians in the span of 3 days. First, Rich Thompson was claimed off waivers on Friday after having a poor start on the Angels. Then, on Sunday, the A's announced that they had claimed Luke Hughes from the Twins in the hopes of finding a capable 3^rd baseman (read: warm body). What follows is a short look at each of these players' histories. Let's start after the jump:

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Edit: The moves came today. Carignan and Cowgill down to Triple A, Ross and Wagner up to the A's! Looks like K-K gets to live another day. - Zonis

Intro:

One thing I’ve heard around Twitter and the A’s universe in general is that the A’s play worse when they play against large crowds. Most commonly, the complaint is that the A’s play worse at the Coliseum on big draw days, but this also applies on the road, as the team invariably plays against larger crowds on the road than at home. I wanted to see if there was anything to this – is there any difference in record in large crowd games (30K+) vs. lower-attended games (<30K)?

I also wanted to see if there was any difference in something that might be affected by large crowds on a performance level. I think we all remember last year’s debacle of an Opening Day, where Trevor Cahill barely made it through 4 innings and the A’s booted around the ball to the tune of 5 errors. So – are errors something that might vary with attendance? In other words, might A’s players be nervous playing in front of a big crowd, especially considering this isn’t something they are used to regularly.

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You know what was cool about today's game? This is the last time the A's will face the Mariners until June 25th.

Yeah, that's about it.

Today, the A's fell behind early on the mishap of Brendan Ryan clubbing a 2-run HR off of Graham Godfrey in the 2nd. One inning later, Justin Smoak launched an HR to right, giving the M's a 3-run advantage. While 3 runs seemed insurmountable at the time, Eric Sogard tied the game with a glasses-powered HR to right in the top of the 5th, briefly tying the score at 3.

Hope!

Then, the A's had to play defense in the bottom of the inning. Bad move, A's. Jemile Weeks made an ill-advised attempt to get the lead out at 2nd when he should have gone for the sure out at 1st. Following an RBI double by Ichiro, Godfrey dug himself a bigger hole by bobbling a bouncing comebacker, allowing Ackley to score instead of keeping him at 3rd.

That was pretty much all she wrote for this game. The A's managed three baserunners for the rest of the game. Hope extinguished.

Now, onto the rest of the season...

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It’s only been 3 starts, but the A’s have yet to figure out Danny Duffy in his short MLB career. After going 2-0 against the A’s last year, Duffy pitched 6 shutout innings, striking out 8, allowing only 1 hit, and walking 4.

Graham Godfrey was "okay" in his 2012 debut, but honestly, it could have been a lot worse. He made it through 6 innings, but lived up in the zone. Compare his K zone plot:

to Duffy's:

Duffy doesn’t have great control at this point in his career, but he stays in the strikezone with his fastball and buries his curve at the shoes of right-handed batters. He’s going to be great soon, if not very soon.

Each team traded walks in the 1st, thus extending Yoenis Cespedes’ streak of reaching base in each game. In the 2nd, Collin Cowgill made a great leaping catch going towards the fence in RF to rob Chris Getz of extra bases.

The A’s best chance to score came in the 3rd, when a Cliff Pennington double put a runner at 2nd with one out. He was promptly TOOTBLAN’ed, however, extinguishing the closest thing the A’s had to a teA’se all evening. The Royals scored the go-ahead run in the 4th, as a rocket over Cespedes’ head and off his glove scored one and left runners at 2nd and 3rd. Humberto Quintero hit a sacrifice fly to make 2-0. Add in a late HR from Mitch Maier off of Jerry Blevins, and the nail was well in the coffin for the A’s.

Despite the curious lineup today, and the good performance from Duffy, this A’s team looks spookily like last year’s team: not a lot of offense, spotty pitching outside of 2 starters, and defense that should be better than it performs on a regular basis. Of course, it’s early, and those early off days and shorter spring training probably haven’t done them any favors. But, did anyone really expect anything different?

Tune in tomorrow as the A’s attempt to take the series behind Brandon McCarthy. Or, just tune in for Cespedes.

Royals are up 3-0 after a Mitch Maier HR in the 7th off of Jerry "Capital Corridor" Blevins. Danny Duffy has made the A's look silly on the strength of a great curve and A's hitters pressing. A's have 3 more chances to make something happen against him and the Royals' bullpen.

You know what would make this game better? A BLT

via image.shutterstock.com