SB Nation Blog: monkeyball

Gentlemen of Leisure and Local Clowns: WLD 07.04/05/06.08

monkeyball — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:03:12 -0000

Consider this your Fourth of July Weekend Link Dump.

and

If you're feeling tired of the usual patriotic paeans, and want a little more variety in your honoring of the good ol' US of A today, how about singing some brand-new baseball songs? What could be more American than that? (And the blog is available here.)

Guys, while you're chowing down at the cookout today, make sure you eat plenty of watermelon.

Speaking of blood pressure, newest A's signee Mich(a)el Inoa just might be ... a Frankenstein's Monster or zombie?

And the photo from that article of Beane ...

... makes me think we may finally have the ideal candidate to play Beane in Moneyball: The Movie:

And speaking of boosters of the civic image of Oakland ...

Finally, mikeA is in seclusion in the west wing.

Celebrate your freedom to link!

It is, indeed, a game of inches: Giants 1, A's 0

monkeyball — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:43:54 -0000

The Lincecum-Duchscherer matchup came exactly as advertised: both offenses looked entirely overmatched all game long. The Giants scratched out a run against Duchscherer in the 4th on Barton's E on Winn's grounder (though the run would have scored even if Barton had fielded it cleanly) -- and Duke shgould be extremely thankful to Hannahan that the Giants didn't scratch out another couple runs.

The 4th was the only inning that Duke didn't look masterful -- and there still was only one ball hit hard off of Duke: Durham's double off the wall in RF over Patrol Craft's head.

Lincecum pitched nearly as well as Duchscherer. Even though he gave up 5 hits and 3 walks, the A's weren't really hitting much better against Lincecum than the Giants were against Duke. The A's really only hit three balls hard all night: Zook's double leading off the 8th, Crosby's GIDP smash to end the 1st, and Patrol Craft's liner to right that Winn was just able to get back on in time to catch.

Sure, you can talk all you want about the various little turns of fortune and misfortune and 50/50 decisions that went the wrong way. But to me, the game turned on the half-inch (or less) in placement of the ball on the bat on Durham's double vs Patrol Craft's double-that-wasn't. This wasn't a game that could have been won with a little more willpower or grit or savvier decision-making of the kind that can only be done while sitting on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. This was a game with two matched top MLB pitching talents slicing through two equally matched collections of indifferently skilled batters. The A's didn't lose this game because they didn't execute with runners in scoring position; they lost this game because neither team hit well, period (mostly due to the quality of the starting pitchers), and a few flips of the proverbial coin went against the A's.

Open Game Thread - Game 80: A's vs. Giants

monkeyball — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:43:28 -0000

Lineup

San Francisco Giants @ Oakland Athletics

06/28/08 6:05 PM PDT

San Francisco Giants	Oakland Athletics
Fred Lewis - LF	Mark Ellis - 2B
Ray Durham - 2B	Kurt Suzuki - C
Randy Winn - RF	Jack Cust - DH
Bengie Molina - C	Bobby Crosby - SS
Aaron Rowand - CF	Carlos Gonzalez - RF
John Bowker - DH	Emil Brown - LF
Rich Aurilia - 1B	Jack Hannahan - 3B
Jose Castillo - 3B	Rajai Davis - CF
Omar Vizquel - SS	Daric Barton - 1B

All signs point to tonight's penultimate interleague game being a low-scoring affair: we've got two excellent pitchers (the A's AL ERA leader Justin Duchscherer and the Giants' impressive Tim Lincecum), two poor-to-average offenses (with the A's missing two of their best hitters in Chavez and Sweeney, both of whom are expected to sit out the series), extremely limited exposure of each offense to each respective opposing pitcher, and cool and humid conditions prevailing for an evening game at the Coliseum. Heck, even if the sun were to peek out, that might make conditions worse for hitters, since it would exacerbate the twilight shadows thanks to the 6:05 start time.

That said, I'm actually quasi-confident about the prospects for the A's offense this evening. Yes, Lincecum is a bona fide ace, but he was very hittable his last time out (against the Royals), and he's not the prototypical never-faced-him-before slop-tossing AAAA journeyman against whom the A's usually just lay down and die. I think the key for the A's hitters will be to look to swing relatively early in the count against Lincecum -- to jump on the first, best hittable pitch he offers.

The key for Duchscherer, on the other hand ... will be to make sure that no one in the Commissioner's Office changes the schedule at the last minute to force the A's to face an actual Major League offense. (Yeah, Bochy, post that on your corkboard.)

Request: questions for an interview with Scott McCaughey of the Baseball Project

monkeyball — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:43:03 -0000

I'm working on setting up an interview with Scott McCaughey (frontman for the Young Fresh Fellows, longtime sideman for and unofficial member of R.E.M.) about his newest musical endeavor, the Baseball Project.

PFP: Marlins 6, A's 4

monkeyball — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:12:38 -0000

Yeah, that could be either "pretty freakin' pathetic," or "pitchers' fielding practice."

Top 9, game tied, 2 outs, Marlins on 1st and 2nd (and Dan TyBabeTedBarryManny Uggla on deck): A's right-side infielder makes a very nice play to snag a grounder -- and the closer isn't at first in time to cover.

Bottom 9, A's down 2, bases juiced, 2 outs: Marlins right-side infielder makes a very nice play to snag a grounder -- and the closer is at first in time to cover.

As Nico said in the game thread, it's a game of freakin' centimeters. Cantu snagged Swooney's would-be-game-tying-or-even-winning sharp grounder down the line, flipped the ball to Gregg covering -- game over.

Once again, both teams made a good ballgame even more exciting in the late going. While the ninth inning featured some really poor control by both closers (and some even worse strike zone control by home-plate umpire Dana Demuth), both bullpens actually pitched pretty well -- all the late scoring was executed by some pretty good swings by both teams on balls that didn't miss their targets by a whole lot.

The starting pitching was a different matter, though, with Eveland and Nolasco both pitching into, around, through, over, under, edging around the corner of, and finally out of, trouble repeatedly.

Eveland finally settled down, and pitched into the seventh -- a Notnalb start (starting ineffective, and finishing ... well, "strong" is a little ... strong; let's leave it at "effective").

It's hard to fault any of Geren's decisions in the game -- up until the ninth inning. Bringing in Street seemed peculiar, given Street's ineffectiveness last night and the (apparent) availability of Brown, Gaudin, and what seemed like half the starting rotation in the 'pen. And letting Rajai Davis bat in the bottom of the ninth was simply inexcusable (unless Barton was/is deathly ill).

I liked Englishmajor's invocation of Woohoozuki's quote from last night's postgame interview: "We are never gonna give up. We may not win every game but I guarantee we will be fighting until the last out."

It'd just be nice if the offense didn't have to fight until the last out once in a while.

Open Game Thread - Game 74: A's vs. Marlins (cont.)

monkeyball — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:49:55 -0000

A's up 3-2 going to the bottom of the 7th. Eveland struggled, but got more effective as the game went on. Ziggy finished off the Marlins in the top of the inning.

Open Game Thread - Game 74: A's vs. Marlins

monkeyball — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:05:57 -0000

Yeah, OK, so that gives the extra meaning to the phrase "high in the eighties."

True story: I get a call from my building manager this morning -- he's out of town for the weekend ... but he forgot to turn off the boiler in the basement before he left. Yes, the temperature is pushing 90, and our steam heat is radiating up from the basement. I am requested/instructed to go to the hardware store, buy a bolt cutter, clip the padlock on the basement door to the boiler room, turn off the boiler, and slap a new lock on the hasp.

Man, bolt cutters are cool.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the DLD the other day (it could have been yesterday, it could have been last week; I'm delirious from the heat) ... the only thing that makes summer tolerable is baseball.

More specifically, A's baseball. Winning A's baseball. Let's have some more of that. (And thank Ba'al, we're facing a righty!)

And Huston, no more homeruns, mmmmmmkay?

Lineup

Florida Marlins @ Oakland Athletics

06/21/08 6:05 PM PDT

Florida Marlins	Oakland Athletics
Hanley Ramirez - SS	Mark Ellis - 2B
Jeremy Hermida - RF	Ryan Sweeney - LF
Jorge Cantu - 1B	Jack Cust - DH
Wes Helms - 3B	Eric Chavez - 3B
Dan Uggla - 2B	Bobby Crosby - SS
Luis Gonzalez - DH	Jack Hannahan - 1B
Cody Ross - LF	Kurt Suzuki - C
Matt Treanor - C	Carlos Gonzalez - RF
Alfredo Amezaga - CF	Rajai Davis - CF

2008 Poetic Interlude #7: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Jack Cust Striking Out Looking

monkeyball — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:35:40 -0000

[Original lyrics here.]

(What's So Funny 'Bout) Jack Cust Striking Out Looking

As he walks to
The base that's first
Waitin' for strikes off the blackness of unhittability.

I ask myself
Is this game lost?
Is there only bases on balls, and LOB?

And each time a pitcher strikes out our side,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout Jack Cust striking out looking? Ohhhh-two!
What's so funny 'bout Jack Cust striking out looking?

And as he walked on
Through inning nine
My gamethread gets so foul-mouth-ed sometimes
So where are the runs?
And who's not disgusted?
And where is the RBI?
Sweet RBIs.

'Cause each game I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout Jack Cust striking out looking? Ohhhh-two!
What's so funny 'bout Jack Cust striking out looking?

So where are the runs?
And who's not disgusted?
And where is the RBI?
Sweet RBIs.

'Cause each AB he's not swingin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout stats I'm not understanding? D'ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout stats I'm not understanding? D'ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout stats I'm not understanding?

Open Game Thread: Game 68 - A's @ Giants (cont.)

monkeyball — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:26:00 -0000

Harden continues to whittle the Giants' already-feeble bats into maple pulp.

Open Game Thread: Game 68 - A's @ Giants (cont.)

monkeyball — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:23:37 -0000

Wow! That was another MASSIVE blast by Cust!