In the early 1980's the Baltimore Orioles managed to field competitive teams and even win a World Series with what one sportscaster at the time referred to as a "two-to-tango" offense. The "two" that he was referring to was the formidable offensive pairing of Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken, Jr. that, when matched with the magnificent pitching of those teams was enough to keep them in the hunt and even push them over the top. That is why the addition of an offensive companion to Matt Holliday is so vital to the A's.

Though I have loudly booed Jason Giambi in the years since he signed his bloated Yankees contract, I have to admit to being a bit of a sentimental guy and, despite my better instincts, find myself secretly hoping to see news of his return to the A's. However, my logical mind tells me that Adam Dunn would be a much, much superior choice. I am also aware that the last thing that these latter-year Athletics have been about is sentimentality and I am trying to correct my thinking and am really praying that Billy Beane is really, secretly close to signing Dunn instead of Giambi. In any case, a second piece of the offensive puzzle, along with many potential suprrises sprinkled through the A's lineup could really give us hope for next year.

However, unlike those Orioles teams, the A's don't have a proven and tested pitching staff, which makes me nervous. Once again, there is a ton of potential there, but at this time that is all it is. To use a tired metaphor, baseball is an arms race and while a second piece of the offensive puzzle will probably solve things, it won't matter if the A's pitching staff doesn't mature in a hurry. If it doesn't then all of this winter hand-wringing over the merits of the Holliday deal or Giambi vs. Dunn will be for naught.

For good reason, much of the discussion on this board has centered around hitting given the A's anemic 2008 offense. However, during glory years, the A's have always had solid, not spectacular offense and really great pitching. From Catfish, Vida, Holtzman and Rollie to The Five Aces of the Billyball years to Stew, Welch, Moore and the Eck A's teams to the Big Three and revolving good closer years of this decade. Though I've seen a few posts that have discussed pitching, let's tackle the issue head on. Gone in the Holliday trade is Greg Smith, who despite a few flashes of brilliance last year that may presage a solid future, will not be sorely missed. However, his slot in the rotation is now open. Who else do we have? Though the scouts are high on Gallagher, he hasn't shown much at the major league level yet. Gio, like his surname-mate Carlos, was brilliant at Sacramento, and not so much at Oakland. Of course there is Duke, who is as good as they come when healthy, but we all know the story there. I would put Eveland in the same category as Smith. Overall it sounds like a pretty thin rotation. What do you guys think is a best case scenario here? I know someone blogged that Derek Lowe would be a good free agent catch, and though that does seem to make sense, it still doesn't sound very confidence inspiring. Am I wrong?

Alright, in my view I think that everyone except Ziggy and Mark Ellis should be on the table, either now, though waivers, or after the season. Billy Beane should consider a lot of offers and make a lot of deals. Is there anyone else that any of you would consider untouchable?

Also, why are the River Cats so good and are reigning AAA champions and that A's are so bad this year? I don't understand that.

Alright, it's unfortunately that time of year again. I'm watching our beloved A's getting spanked by the Red Sox and given their less than lofty record post-All Star break, I'm getting the idea that it is time to root for someone else for 2008. Let's be honest, all of us baseball fans have secret crushes on other teams. It's like having a biological impulse that evolved over the course of our fandom to stay interested in baseball in any given year, because we love the sport. I've seen some similar blogs last year when the A's were, if not mathematically, at least psychologically, out of the race. I'd say that they are currently there and it's that time again to admit your secret baseball team crush.

So, I'll start.

Though they are going nowhere and thus there is no reason to get on their bandwagon this year,I have to admit to having a secret crush on the Seattle Mariners. It even started before my Sonoma County-based family started vacationing in the Pacific Northwest or beer-fueled college trips to Seattle, both of which led to several M's home games at the Kingdome. I liked that they were on the West Coast,, and not in So. Cal. and their heartbreakingly bad record and lack of success, thus threat to the A's made me kind of like them. Plus, Iused to be able to get their games later in the evening on my radio. But, I was a Northern California boy who wanted to follow a Northern California team, and became an A's fan based on their general success and spent several years battling the majority Giants fans in the Sonoma County area. But, because the M's were in the same general region of the country, I liked them too. Plus those tridents as their symbol was cool. I like Tampa Bay this year, despite the lame name change, because like the Mariners then (and now unfortunately), they have been historically bad.

In the National League, of course I couldn't stoop to the Giants. I liked the Cubs partially, at least, since my Dad does. When I finally made it to Wrigley last year, I was actually the fourth generation in a straight line of males (meaning we all had the same last name) to visit Wrigley Field. My family lived in northern Missouri and my grandparents lived for a brief while in Chicago (my Dad was on a business trip and saw them play the Giants).

So, who's your secret baseball team crush? It's high time to come out of the closet. Hey, at least we don't have to reveal them as often as, say, Pittsburgh Pirates fans. Disclaimer-- I am not responsible for other members who mock secret Giants fans.

......I plan on booing Gallagher and Murton if they get off to rocky starts in Oakland. I'm not going to cut Billy Beane much slack on this one and I hope other fans follow suit. We'd better see these guys look good from the start. I live in Sacramento so I'll see Murton here first and he better look like a good player or I'll boo him at Raley Field. I've never booed an A's player before (well maybe Billy Koch when he gave up that home run to the Twins during the 2002 playoffs, but hey, everyone did).

I'm really beginning to feel really bad for Joe Blanton. Talk about tough luck. Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but it needs to be said. His is perhaps one of the most undeserved 2 and 6 records in recent baseball history. His ERA is quite excellent, but his record is horrible. His karma should allow him to be the "winning" pitcher in a string of 12 to 10 slugfests. If this keeps up, Blanton is on pace to match Brian Kingman who in 1980 had an 8 and 20 record for the A's, but had a very decent 3.83 ERA. Kingman let being a 20 game loser get to his head and never really pitched to his potential. I hope Blanton realizes that the fault is not his.

I think that the Haren trade shows that Billy Beane is back on track. Maybe when the team moves to Fremont, Beane can become more like his spiritual pupil Theo Epstein and play shrewdly with more cash on hand, but for now he's got to make one more big Moneyball push and he's off to a good start. I hope that he not only trades Blanton and Street for even more prospects, but just goes full boar and just flips the table over. Since prospects are not a guarantee, it's best to cast as wide a net possible now, so that the ones that do come through will peak and gel together at the same time like the bevy of Kansas City Athletics prospects in the 60's who became the powerhouse teams of Oakland in the '70's. I say trade Swisher and, if anyone will take him, Chavez as well. I'd even see what prospects Ellis could land. Chavvy is getting further and further from his power hitting heyday and it might be best to cash in now, or we'll end up with another Kotsay on our hands. Swisher has yet to show whether he's the 35 home run stud of 2006, or the guy who bumbled his way to 22 last year. Even if we have to bumble along with Donnie Murphy and Jack Hanahan next year, the core of the coming wave will already be in place with Barton and Suzuki on for their first full seasons. I say out with the old and in with the new.

In a good way. The writer seems really enthusiastic about this trade and seems to think that the A's received more than an adequate return. However, I think as Baseballgirl pointed out, this crop may peak later than the Barton/ Suzuki generation. Maybe Beane is hoping that the A's won't have to be cheapskates anymore by that point and can actually retain a few of these guys. Next year, however, will be as ugly as the post-Raiders Coliseum. However, I'm old enough to recall the 1986-7 seasons, which was pretty ugly, but featured Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and mid-season pick up and Phillies cast-off Dave Stewart and Cubs cast-off Dennis Eckersley. So maybe there is hope on the horizon.

Also, sorry about adding the millionth Danny Haren centered blog, but what else are we supposed to talk about today? Steroids? Puh-leez!!

I just saw a report that the team is going to buy a large share of Fox Sports Bay Area. FSBA has been my lifeline to A's games over here in Sacramento. Does anyone have any idea how this is going to affect northern California A's broadcasts? We already got shafted on the radio over here last year when they dumped A's radio broadcasts onto the lousy local ESPN outlet that broadcasts maybe a game a month if we are lucky. The year before we had it good as a local station would broadcast all night and weekend games. Now they want to take the games from my TV and replace it with the horrid "Kuip and Kruk" combo? Please say it ain't so?

Though he is not and has never been a member of the A's, this reported trade by Fox Sports has significance to the A's since it has long been rumored that Mr. Milledge is the apple of Billy Beane's eye and has at least been twice rumored to be Oakland bound in exchange for Joe Blanton. Unless Billy Beane has some secret deal with the Nats, it looks like his quest for Mr. Milledge will become legendary myth on par with Kevin Youkilis......

It's seems really silly to me that people are angry that the A's have the honor of being part of an international showcase for baseball. For starters, baseball is the second most widely played sport in the world after soccer. Japan has a tradition of baseball that goes back to the 19th century. Hell, the Yankees, highlighted by Ruth and Gehrig, played exhibitions games in Japan in the 1920's and you didn't see anyone getting up in arms about that. Baseball is also currently making serious inroads into Australia and southeast Asia and also has equally deep roots in Latin America (remember, Castro was a failed pitching prospect). Whether some yahoos here in the United States like it or not, the 21st century future of the game lies internationally, and I for one think that the openinging of the season in the land of Sadaharu Oh (the true world home run champion, not Barry Bonds) is a great gesture and a look forward. This shouldn't even be controversial people.

OK, OK, I know that it has almost become passe around here to bash on Jason Giambi, but given that on one of his first returns to Oakland in a Yankees uniform in 2002, Mr. Giambi said something like "how many World Series have they won around here lately" or something to that effect. Well, last night's Yankee loss now makes the Giambi-era Yankees 0 for 6 in their quest for a World Series title. (Even more beautiful is that they are 0 for 3 for World Series appearances with A-Rod.) Given that it doesn't look like, barring some major surprise, the Yankees will be going to the World Series any time soon, I just have to crow a bit that for all the money that he took to go to New York and all of the arrogance that he displayed to Oakland upon leaving that he will not likely to ever be able to have the memory of a World Series title. Given that the A's had such a bad year, I'm taking comfort out of spite for our former MVP.

I don't understand why so many people on this board are salivating at the thought of trading Joe Blanton. Imagine how much bigger a disaster this season would have been without him. I equally don't get the Lastings Milledge thing. His stats (both traditional and sabermetrics) are so-so while Blanton is a proven big league pitcher. Especially in this age of overpriced pitchers and looking down the line at the motley crew that have been ptiching behind Haren and Blanton (Chad Gaudin's fast start not withstanding) and I don't see with whom you could replace Blanton. Please don't say Braden and Windsor as I want to have a serious conversation. With all of their luck with the River Cats, they don't seem to have what it takes to be major league pitchers. I think that the trading Blanton argument should just be done unless we get some equal pitching value in return.

Since it has long been clear that the A's wouldn't be playing post season baseball, I have to admit that I've been solely motivated by hoping that the Yankees would self destruct. Given their terrible start and the fact that they were dismantled by the A's this year, I had hope that this would be the year, FINALLY, of the Yankees big collapse. It seemed perfect, Riviera's age was catching up with him and Giambi is a shell of his former self along with an aging pitching staff, it seemed just too good to be true and not even A-Rod's heroics would save them. What happened instead was that the Yankees played in the second half like the A's normally do. And now, their luck being, well Yankee luck it looks like we're stuck with them in the postseason.

Continue reading this post »

Harden is almost becoming myth. The greatest pitcher in the world, who, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, is only only rarely sighted. It's a shame, because one has to wonder if it's the end of the line for Harden, at least with the A's. How many seasons will this go on? If he's still with the A's next year, will he come out of spring training looking good and strong and mowing down opponents in his first couple of starts, and then, just as mysteriously, sometime in late April or early May, he'll have "a little shoulder stiffness" and then, just as mysteriously not be heard from again until spring training 2009? Or will he be the second coming of Catfish, Vida, Dave Stewart and Tim Hudson, all rolled into one? Why does it just simply break my heart?

What if the A's started to go on a tear and their usual second half tear was just delayed by a month. Not that I think that there is much chance that they'll catch the Angels, or Mariners or wild card for that matter, but what if the team still finished strong and made it interesting. There have been some small glimmers of hope as of late, though they are still very small glimmers. But what if they at least rallied enough for a winning record. Is that the best we can hope for at this point? Maybe I'm just dreaming, but at this point, why not?

After 17 years of at least being in contention for the American League pennant, the 1965 New York Yankees suddenly found their formerly durable and solid ship sinking fast. Age and injuries had caught up with great players suchas Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford and promising young pitchers like Jim Bouton fizzled in the face of injuries. Bouton, who in 1970 authored the baseball classic "Ball Four," was asked one day in midsummer by some the sports writers why the Yankees, after all those years of success, were not doing well. Bouton then gave one of the most candid and honest answers a player has ever dared to give a sports writer and said, "I guess we just stink." This earned him the wrath of his teammates who expected players to give the standard jocko answers like we've had somne injuries and some bad luck, blah blah blah.
So, before we have to listen to some lengthy explanations about injuries and bad luck from the players, maybe we should just consider that the 2007 Oakland Athletics just stink, plain and simple.

Also, to all those players who give props to God when they get a hit or make a catch, does that mean that the devil is then responsible for this losing streak?

When Rich Harden went on the disabled list earlier this year, I made a prediction that he would only have one, maybe two more starts the rest of the year. While some of you agreed with me, I took a lot of heat from several other people including one who called it "a completely ridiculous statement." Well folks, I was wondering if anyone wants to dispute me now? Trust me, I don't feel good in any way about being right on this one. I wish Rich Harden was back in the rotation, blowing opposing hitters away and I could be writing, "Gee, I guess I made a dumb prediction." However unfortunate, it looks like I'm right. Anyone else sick of having to deal with Rich Harden's annual two six week stays on the disabled list.

I actually wrote this as a response to a post, and decided to publish it separately as a diary entry:

If you look at those A's teams from the '70's, only one hitter, Reggie Jackson, is in the Hall of Fame. Though there were several SOLID hitters, only Reggie had the dazzle (though he was never much better than Frank Thomas or Nick Swisher were last season) and guys like Bando, Campeneris, Rudi and Tenace really didn't have much better overall stats than Chavez, Crosby, Johnson and Shannon Stewart. What they did have was a relatively injury-free pitching staff of Catfish Hunter (Hall of Famer), Vida Blue (some would argue for his induction), Ken Holtzman (like Dave Stewart after him, a very solid four years) and Rollie Fingers (Hall of Famer). Sure the late 80's, early 90's guys had some of the best offense of the Oakland years, but it was really the pitching of Dave Stewart, Bob Welch, Mike Moore and Dennis Eckersley (honorable mentions to Storm Davis and Rick Honeycutt) that enabled that team to win pennants. Then of course there was the Big Three.

Continue reading this post »

I'm generally writing this in response to a post about acquiring Barry Bonds for the stretch drive. While I think the idea has some merit, I don't think that it'll come to fruition for several reasons (the white shoes comment, wanting to retire as a Giant, etc.). However, there is another perfectly good star in the National League that is also on a team going nowhere, and one that has several years of American League experience to boot. Ken Griffey, Jr. This last weekend, he expressed desire to return to Seattle at some undetermined point in the future. Since he has never played in a World Series, and at age 38, sticking with the Reds ain't the way to get there, he might agree to a trade to the A's for half a season. His Reds contract expires at the end of next year, so if the A's get him for the right price, they could have him for the stretch drive and trade him to Seattle this offseason for a couple of Billy Beane-approved prospects and everyone is happy. I know it might be a little far-fetched, but if we are seriously looking at Bonds, why not a guy who is far less controversial and frankly still has more gas left in his tank than Bonds?

With the A's pitching staff giving up almost unheard of, at least for this season, numbers of runs over the past couple of games, it makes me wonder if the days of "Bazooka" Joe Kennedy and DiNardo being good pitchers are finally over. True they've just had one bad outing, but isn't this what we all have feared? We need Harden, Loiaza, Duke and Street (though Embree might be the real deal) back ASAP. Colby Lewis and Lugo looked just awful this weekend. It hasn't been the Harens, Blanton (remember you nay-sayers were happy to send him to the Mets for Milledge?)Embree of even the new phenom Casilla that have been the problem, they are right where they should be. Maybe this was an abberation and at least some of these guys will continue to pitch over their heads, but when the A's have taken rare wallopings over the past few games, one has to wonder if this was all a house of cards that has stacked just one too many of these replacements on the deck.

OK, OK, so you guys were right for a good part of the season. Kendall has been terrible! And I do appreciate the person who posted the photos of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and Mr. Kendall knocking one out of the park. However, Kendall has been on a tear! Maybe it has something to do with playing the National League in a National League park. Remember, while no one would ever mistake him for Barry Bonds, Kendall was a very good hitter while with the Pirates and even managed 14 home runs one year. Something about either the American League, or the Oakland Coliseum (I'll never call it anything else), or whatever has turned Kendall's once impressive skills at the plate into mush. However, this series at least proved that he is rightfully the starting catcher the rest of the year and Kurt Suzuki is his understudy until he is ready to assume the starting duties next year after he matures under Kendall's tutelage.

I've been going to A's games since 1981 and since the Bay Area has such a huge transplant population it is understandable that there will often be a contingent of fans for the other team. However, last year, I was shocked to turn on the radio for an A's/ Red Sox game in OAKLAND, mind you, where the roar of the pro-Red Sox fans led my wife to ask me if the game was in Boston. There are simply not that many New England transplants in California and it really quite cheesy. I mean, most of these people rooting for the Red Sox have probably never been east of Lake Tahoe. They just bought into all the trendy BS a few years ago about the Curse of the Bambino and Fever Pitch and garbage like that. It was like all of those pillbox hats everywhere when the Pittsburgh Pirates won in 1979 or the sudden contingent of Kansas City Cheifs fans in the Bay Area when Joe Montana went over there to end his career. It's just cheesy and though it will eventually fade, it's obnoxious while it lasts. The bottom line is if you are NOT from New England, you are not a real Red Sox fan and you are a lame poseur.

Why, oh, why does it seem that we go through this EVERY YEAR. First, Harden gets pulled from a game with a seemingly innocuous injury. The A's organization tells us fans that he'll likely "miss a start or two." Then after he misses a few starts, they say "oh, he should be back by the end of the month. Then, when that deadline happens, then we suddenly hear almost nothing at all, maybe some vague rumor about going to visit some medical specialist, then nothing until late September when it's suddenly announced that he's the next night's starting pitcher.

Continue reading this post »

Wow, I'm trying to think of any other player in Oakland history, who plays and had an at bat for the A's that never had the chance to wear the home uniform. He represented our fair city yet never had a chance to step foot in Northern California and won't now until the Nationals visit San Francisco (they're not on the A's interleague schedule this year, are they?). If they are not, that means we will have had an Oakland Athletic who wore the green and gold proudly for a day or two and then doesn't play in Oakland the enire season. Is this unprecedented? The closest thing that I can think that has happened is that Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi suited up in Red Sox road uniforms in 1976 after Charles Finley sold them to Boston, a deal that was voided by then Commissioner Bowie Kuhn a day later (Vida Blue was also sold to the Yankees in a simultaneous deal but never had time to make an appearance in the Yankee clubhouse). However, Fingers and Rudi did not play for the Red Sox in the game they suited up for as the Boston manager wanted to give them a day off to get used to the shock of being traded, something the A's could learn to do as they have the unfortunate habit of throwing guys out there less than a few hours after they arrived at the airport, like Ryan Langerhans.

OK, it's time to go into panic mode. If there is one player that we can not afford to go on the DL it's Rich Harden, and here he is. The A's are built around good pitching and to have Harden heading to the DL again, I would say not to count on him to make any more than one or two starts the rest of the year.

Look, as Susan Slusser pointed out in today's Chroncile, Rich Harden experiencing physical problems this early in the season  is a very ominous sign, especially for a power picher. If he is indeed put on the DL again, its time to cut and run and try to pull off one of Beane's "Fu%^ing A Trades" and get a starter who can make more than four or five appearances in a year. I mean, I really like Rich Harden and have the world of respect for his talent, but his chances with the A's are about up. Hopefully he can get the surgery or whatever rehab he needs and can resurface with the A's or some other club in a few years. But he should be written entirely out of the A's immediate and short-term future plans.

Look, whether Jason Kendall and Shannon Stewart start to hit won't matter one bit if Harden makes the first of his two annual six week trips to the disabled list! Does anyone have an update on him? The A's starting pitching is already stretched to the max. I'm already nervous enough with the likes of "Bazooka Joe" Kennedy and Gaudin hanging around that rotation, though Gaudin has been OK thus far. Still I'd much rather have Harden and Loiaza in there.

That the Dodgers just lit up Barry Zito like a Christmas Tree? Wow, he was horrible and brought back nightmares of some of his early season starts for the A's. Giants fans must be going "uh oh" and rightly so. Look, I like Zito and I'm a Zito fan, and I honestly wish the guy the best. He had no choice but to leave when the A's couldn't offer him a contract, but I think all of us A's fans knew that he was way overrated on the marketplace. And if he was in Oakland going through his annual early season struggle, I'd be waiting for him to pull out of it. But, all the same, I still had to gloat just a little bit.....

As many of us older die hard A's fans remember, midway through the 1976 season Charlie O. Finley sold Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Boston Red Sox and Vida Blue to the New York Yankees for a total of $3.5 million in cash. The deal was voided by the recently decesased Bowie Kuhn as "not in the best interests of baseball." However, there was a day of two lag time before the trades were voided. Though Fingers and Rudi never appeared in a Red Sox game and Blue never even appeared in the Yankee clubhouse, the two former did wear the Red Sox uniforms for at least a day since the Red Sox were visiting the A's at the time of the trade. I beleive that a photo even exists of Rollie Fingers in a Red Sox uniform but I haven't been able to find it anywhere online. Does someone have this photo that they can display? It's really hard to find, but I'm hoping one of my fellow ANers can help me out on this one........