SB Nation User Blog: gmhyman

A's injuries

gmhyman — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:54:07 -0000

For several years now, the A's have had more then their share of injuries - bad luck or bad practices?

We keep hearing (and believing) that the A's massive amount of injuries this year, and to a lesser degree the injuries in the previous years, are just "bad luck".

Well, it sure looks to me like something else is wrong. Rich Harden has never been right. It turns out Eric Chavez has had a bad shoulder for 10 years! Bobby Crosby never seems to get better. Clearly some things work - Shannon Stewart and Frank Thomas had reps as "brittle" players, but, in fact, were clearly healthier here than in their previous stops.

But it's time to think about A's medical practices - just who are the team doctors, who does their conditioning planing, how the training staff works with the team, etc. For me, the revelation that the home grown "big hope" - Chavez - hasn't really been right in 10 years was the last straw. Note that his surgery was done by the Angels' team doctor, not the A's.

Billy Beane may be a genius at the "value proposition" - finding the undervalued player/skills, but he doesn't seem to value medical side. Maybe the best place to spend more money would not be a right handed power hitter, which the A's obviously need, but better conditioning, injury diagnosis and treatment.

A modest proposal

gmhyman — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:56:16 -0000

What if the Raiders get kicked out of Oakland (OK, move to a great new stadium in say, Vacaville), and the A's get a new place?

Today's trend is that baseball teams, i.e. those that play essentially every day, 81 home games, play in urban areas, preferably downtown, and football teams who play 8 (actually 10 including exhibitions) home games play in the 'burbs. See: Washington Redskins in Landover MD, NY Giants/Jets in Joisey, New England (nee Boston) Patriots in some goshawful suburb who's name I forget, etc. etc. The only downtown football team is the Steelers.

But - Baseball is a city game - St. Louis, SF Giants,
Red Sox, both Chicago teams, etc., etc.

So - why not move the Raiders to some 'burb - say Pleasonton (on the CC fairgrounds site) or Vacaville, or Fremont or just about anyplace else, build a nice football only 60k seat stadium, and tear down the colliseum and build a 35k or so baseball only park there - Good parking, good BART, etc.

If need be, work out a deal so the A's share AT&T park for a year or 2 - the Yankees played in Shea while the Stadium got it's 70's rebuild (which, IMHO, ruined the place).

This makes much more sense than either trying to share the colliseum - I think it's the last place that even tries to be both a football and baseball park, and much more sense than Fremont where they'll be 5+ miles from transit, with no parking.

Kielty to Sac

gmhyman — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 23:14:34 -0000

Bobby Kielty optioned to Sacramento.

A's optioned Bobby Kielty to the RiverCats so they could have a 12th pitcher in case of doubleheaders this week due to rainouts. How can he still have options???

Bobby Kielty to the RiverCats??? There's something wierd here. As I understand it, once you're on the 40 man roster anywhere for 3 years, you're "out of options", well at least as long as the 3 years start with your 4th year in pro ball, or something like that. Best I can figure, Bobby K's been on a 40 man roster at least 5 years, possibly 6, and was in the minors for 3 year - either way, he's long since "out of options" so how can he be sent down.

Not that I disagree with the choice - with the number of outfielders the A's have, he wasn't going to play much in the first few weeks anyway, and it's almost a certainty that opening night will be rained out - weather.com says the thunderstorms start at just about first pitch!