SB Nation User Blog: limecat

A's in Hi-Def?

limecat — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 04:50:19 -0000

So I just got a new Hi-Def TV and I'm wondering how many, if any, A's games will be able to be seen in Hi-Def.

I'm kinda new to this. In fact, the TV is still in its box right now! But with the season starting tomorrow, I'm wondering if I'll be able to see many of my A's in Hi-Def!

A look ahead to 2007

limecat — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 06:32:17 -0000

As the door begins to close on the 2006 season, it becomes time to look ahead to next year, and how the A's will perform.

I was discussing this with a friend, and he said that this would be the best A's team for the next few years. After all, Zito is leaving us and we don't really have anyone in the pipeline who is his equal. At first I agreed with him. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the A's could be even better in 2007!

Its true that barring a huge change of heart, Zito will be leaving us. But none of our the rest of our core pitching staff is going to change. Add to this a healthy Rich Harden. Harden, in my opinion, is a better pitcher than Zito. With Harden taking over for Zito, and our bullpen continuing to be great, I'm putting it out there: our team ERA will be slightly better next year than it is this year. Maybe by as much as a third of a run!

2007 will also have Crosby return to us. Now, I love Scutaro as much as anyone but Crosby is a better player. It would be almost impossible for him not to improve upon his .229 average. Chavez is in a similar situation, and should rebound next year. If Dan Johnson finds his stroke, the A's should have a much more potent line-up, offensivey - Kendall, Kotsay, Crosby, Chavez, Thomas, Swisher, Bradley, Johnson and Ellis make for a nice order. No easy outs.

Otherwise, our team will in 2007 will resemble this year's team in most other respects. No one really played about their level, so we don't have to worry about someone regressing to the norm. Honestly, it seems like 2007 will be an even better year for the A's.

Poll

Will the A's of 2007 make the playoffs?

Yes

14 votes

No

5 votes

FIRE MACHA!

6 votes

25 votes | Poll has closed

Player to be Named Later?!

limecat — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:15:53 -0000

With the non-waivers trading deadline a few days ago, I noticed a few players were traded for "a player to be named later."

I'm wondering what exactly this PTBNL is. Who exactly picks this player? Does the team sending the PTBNL grab some hopeless AA player and ship him over? Or does the other team have some say in it? How exactly does this work?

Barry Zito Enigma, Solved!

limecat — Tue, 02 May 2006 19:36:11 -0000

One of the repeating issues with A's fans has been, since 2003, "What's wrong with Barry Zito?" We've patiently waited for him to get his ERA below 3, and be the kind of pitcher who can put up 20 wins in a season. Well fellow A's fans, I think I've solved the problem of Barry Zito.

The answer is that he's not that great of a pitcher.

Yes I know in 2002 he had a brilliant season. But that season was an anomoly. He pitched above his level, and now he's regressed to the mean.

Consider Mark Ellis: here's a man who batted .319 with 15 home runs last year. Had he done this in his first or second season, and then returned to the Mark Ellis of old everyone would be asking what's wrong with Ellis. Swisher hit 10 homers in April, yet if he only hits four or five a month for the rest of the season, no one is going to ask what's wrong with Swisher.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I say that there is nothing wrong with Zito. He's a solid pitcher, but not a great pitcher. He had one season where everything came together just right. We can't expect him to repeat this, so I say we stop worrying about it.

A's resign Kennedy

limecat — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:57:30 -0000

The A's have resigned left-handed pitcher Joe Kennedy to a one-year deal.

Details here. Seems like a good reliever for the A's to have. Someone who can eat up a lot of innings and make spot starts.

Dying Boy Brought In To Cheer Up Kansas City Royals

limecat — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:51:08 -0000

Shamelessly stolen from The Onion.

KANSAS CITY--Desperate to give their last-place, 100-loss team something to smile about, the Royals arranged to have a terminally ill little boy pay a visit to their clubhouse Tuesday. Danny Gladstone, 8, a leukemia sufferer who is expected to live just long enough to see the Royals make a run at setting a franchise record for losses, arrived at Kauffman Stadium at 11 a.m., and was immediately swarmed by players excited to see someone else who wouldn't be around in October. "I can't even explain how uplifting it is to see somebody who soon won't have to put up with the pain and misery anymore," Royals first baseman and team captain Mike Sweeney said. "Even though we have to endure the same terrible fate again come April, Danny, unlike the Royals organization, will be in a far better place." Sweeney concluded the meeting by promising the boy he would ground into a double play for him during that night's game.

What other baseball sites do you read?

limecat — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:15:51 -0000

So what baseball related websites do you like to read besides AN? Obviously there's places like ESPN, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. What other ones do you enjoy?

The only two I read on a daily basis are A's Y'all (just to see how high Daric Barton's average has climbed) and Fire Joe Morgan which always gives me a chuckle.

Dan Johnson: Rookie of the Year?

limecat — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 17:57:49 -0000

A lot of people have observed how the A's big turn around came when Bobby Crosby rejoined the team. While Crosby definitely helped invigorate our lineup, I think there's another piece that's often overlooked: the phenomenal bat of Dan Johnson.

Called up when Durazo went down, Johnson has batted .319 in 55 games, with 8 home runs and 28 RBIs. At this rate he'll have 12 homers and 42 RBIs by the end of the season, in only 83 games. Had he been playing since the start of the season, Dan Johnson would've had over 20 home runs and 80 RBIs.

These numbers are almost identical to what Nick Swisher has, except DJ bats 60 points higher.

I think that we as A's fans need to start making noise for DJ to win Rookie of the Year. If we yell loud enough, we can make the East Coast writers take notice of our players. We did it with Tejada in 2002.

So spread the word, DJ deserves Rookie of the Year

Blez: AN and SportsBlogs suggestions

limecat — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 01:30:09 -0000

Blez, I hope you don't mind me putting together a small list of quirks about AN. :)

Here's my list:

Could we make a single logon for all the SportsBlog sites? I'd love to post on the other sites but I don't feel like making 32 seperate accounts.
I'd like to see a menu running across the top of the page. Maybe something that lists the other SportsBlogs up there so I don't have to scroll down so far to click on them, and other information as well (maybe player or team info, or news snippets or whatever.)
Could a listing of Diaries appear on the right when I'm viewing a diary? I just dislike having to return to the main page to find another diary to click on.

BP tidbit on Mulder/Haren/Calero/Barton deal

limecat — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:10:19 -0000

I just saw this tidbit over on BP:

A quick update on the principals involved in the off-season Cardinals/A's blockbuster ...

Mark Mulder: 114.0 IP, 4.58 R/G, 5.3 K/9, 2.43 K/BB, 1.11 HR/9

Dan Haren: 121.1 IP, 4.82 R/G, 6.7 K/9, 2.57 K/BB, 0.96 HR/9
Kiko Calero: 25.0 IP, 4.32 R/G, 7.6 K/9, 3.50 K/BB, 1.44 HR/9
Daric Barton: (High-A) 79 games, .318/.438/.469

(Double-A) 6 games, .474/.545/.842

Mulder's perhaps arguably been better than Haren this season (although certainly not on the dollar), but at a cost of a top-ten prospect and a reasonably useful reliever? I take no joy in pointing this out, but so far this one's a loss for the Cards.