I am huddling on my couch and still thawing out from my journey to San Jose to see Henry Rodriguez battle the San Jose Giants.

I was fortunate enough to get an entire front row of seats for my friends and family that was located within easy speaking distance to the players and coaches.

When I first got to my seat, Henry Rodriguez was getting ready to take the field for his warm-up and he signed a couple of autographs first, one of which was on my game program. When he was done, Jared Lansford signed it as well. I was stoked.

When I finally got a chance to sit down I saw this HUGE young man in the dugout

and after referencing my game notes I saw that he was Chris Carter...A's fans, THIS KID IS HUGE!!! He is also a gentle Giant type who looks happy to be playing the game.

I walked up to him and asked if he was 6-5 and he said that he was. I told him that I'd heard he was big but that I was astounded by just how big he was. He posed for a picture for me and I was in baseball nerd mode for the rest of the night. (Complete with pitch for pitch scorecard)

When H-Rod took the mound it was apparent that he was in an entirely different League than the kids he was pitching too. Well all except for one, the Giants 21 year old catcher, Sandoval, turned around a 98 MPH fastball in a split second and hit it over the CF fence. Every other Giants was just hoping to hit a fastball.

Rodriguez was consistently between 94-98 MPH and didn't walk a batter.

He has some things to work on, like being better with runners on base and gaining command of a true off-speed pitch, but this kid has major league heat.

If he can work on a slide step and add one more pitch he will be Major League ready.

On a funny side note, when I pointed out to the Stockton Manager that H-Rod needed a better slide step, he said that they were working on it and then in a moderately polite tone thanked me. For some reason I took that to mean, "WTF do you know, leave the coaching to us pros".

I'll be interested in seeing IF he can take the next step in his progression. His control was there all night...Well...Except for the time that he nailed a batter with a 98 MPH heater square in the middle of his neck.

If you haven't taken the time to get out and see the Ports yet this year...WHAT's stopping you. Anderson goes tomorrow and Cahill goes on Wednesday. In San Jose, you can sit in the 8th row between the plate and dugout for 8 bucks (General Admission) and the parking is only $7.

Cheers,

Saint

1) Emil Brown took the blame for the base running gaff on Tues/Wed. (I am still under the belief that DeFrancesco should have never sent Barton, BUT, Barton would have been safe had the cut went home, so DeFran is out of my Dog House...As is Brown who has given us a RH power bat in our first two games)

2) The Yankees have inquired about the availability of Rich Harden and it would take one heckuva package to land him. (I guess if they trade us Cabrera and Hughes, I'm in :) )

You GO Su Slu!!! I was astounded to see you on ESPN this morning and I am glad that they are choosing you as the A's voice over Ray Ratto, whom they chose for the Raiders!!!

Hope woke me up at 3AM Today...

Hope led me to believe that the Red Sox  "might" not score...

Hope made me believe that losing Chavez's glove "may" not matter...

Hope made me believe that between the mix of young center fielders one "could" stand out and be able to track a ball as well as Kotsay...

Hope led me to believe Street's control of the strike zone "may" return...

Hope had me wishing for "Zooks" to be the hero in Japan...

Hope led me to believe that "Lach" would not be missed...

In the end, "Hope" is all I had as the A's showed us all what I can expect this year...An exciting team who is favored to lose more games than they win and I'd be smart to not EVER expect a win...I "Hope" I can temper my expectations... :)

Game Notes:

Three things that are still killing me this morning are the IBB to Ortiz , the 3rd base  coach (Tony DeFrancesco) sending Barton and the VERY minor League attempt to haul in Manny's shot.

I could be upset about the team letting Dice-K off the hook in the first two innings, but I expect the offense to struggle with RISP all year so I was happy with the patience that they showed and the fact that they didn't GIDP and managed to get two runs across.

Ordering your CLOSER to walk Ortiz, who was 0-4, in order to pitch to Manny, who absolutely OWNS the A's, made my ire rise and Manny didn't disappoint my ire when he nailed a shot off the wall in CF.

Manny's shot was the type of hit that teams with good defensive CFs catch to win games, just look at the ball that Ellsbury hauled in to rob Brown in the bottom of the 8th. If Jacoby misses that ball, then Brown would have been at third with no outs and would have been a VERY valuable insurance run.

DeFrancesco sending Barton when his run wasn't the tying run was also inexcusable. If Brown didn't draw the throw, the Sox understood the importance of Brown's run, Barton would have probably been nailed at the plate.

By eliminating Brown the Sox accomplished exactly what they had to. the got the tying run off the basepaths and eliminated Crosby from being the winning run. Basic baseball 101 says that you hold Barton and give your team a shot to let a single tie the game without taking the chance on a lead footed ex-catcher scoring from 1st on a double.

Two of these three things can be fixed immediately, and we can only "Hope" that one of the three CFers can play above average defense.

I wonder if we can pull off a Rincon-like trade and have Crisp switch dugouts before this morning's game?

On a good note, I loved the heart and grit that the offense showed in the tenth inning and I do believe that this will be a fun team as long as I don't have HOPE that they will be a winning team.

I think I'll set the alarm for 5AM this time and catch the end of the game...

Cheers,

Saint

How are you?

It's been a while since I've been here on AN and I have to let you know that things are beautiful on the Hor-A's-In.

There have been seasons when we were the upstarts that COULD beat the HEAVYWEIGHTS, and others when our LITTLE TEAM THAT COULD were actually favorites...Isn't THAT a hoot!!!

What I loved most were the days of the wooden bleachers and the crowds of the 80's...those teams were built from within...Quite like my second favorite time...And PERHAPS my third favorite!!!

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