I've been debating whether or not to post these game pics that I took when I was in Arizona last week.  But then I figured that these days, we almost have a Daily Spring Training Picture Dump going on, so I'll go ahead and put them up.  :)

Still more pics can be found here.

Swish finds something to do with his mouth even when first base is empty of visitors.

Happy sight -- Bobby enjoying the company of new teammate Milton Bradley.

Bobby ducks safely into first base as a high throw sails over Rangers' first baseman's head.

Milton Bradley has a nice looking swing.

Chavvy enroute to his second error of the day.

Bobby looking displeased after grounding out.

Cliff Pennington makes a valiant effort to snag a batted ball.

Rich warming up in the pen

Bobby rounds third as Adam Melhuse reaches first base on an RBI hit.

Antonio Perez can't prevent a stolen base, but manages to reel in an errant throw from speeding into the outfield.

The Arizona Fall League Championship is taking place right now, at noon PST.  You can follow it via serveral links given on the milb.com homepage -- a free video feed (it cuts in and out, but at least it's baseball that we can watch in November!), a more stable audio-only broadcast, or the real-time (almost) Gameday browser.

The A's Phoenix Desert Dogs team is represented, and they're hoping to defend last year's title.  Andre Ethier is the only A in the starting lineup.

It's 85 degrees, it's October, and I'm watching baseball.  <Sigh>  This is bliss...I'm in the midst of driving from North Carolina to California, and I've stopped in the Phoenix area for a few days to catch a couple Arizona Fall League games.  Here are a few of the pictures I've taken of A's prospects on duty in the AFL this year.

Andre Ethier gears up to swing at an incoming pitch.

Papago buttes behind Phoenix Municipal Stadium (one of my favorite places in the world!) frame Matt Lynch delivering a pitch.

Shane Komine, he of the sub-1.00 ERA, en route to another scoreless outing.

The all-Hawaiian A's battery of Shane Komine and Kurt Suzuki.

Daric Barton bends away from an inside pitch.

Marcus McBeth, converted from outfielder to pitcher this season, on the mound.  This is the highest level at which he's pitched (he was just added to the Desert Dogs' roster when a Brewers pitcher went down last week), but he looked impressive -- though a little wild, none of the four batters he faced even made contact with any of his pitches, resulting in 1 BB followed by striking out the side.

Ethier takes a mighty cut.  He was 3 for 6 in the game I went to today, and had some nice defensive plays in right field in Saturday's game.

Daric Barton looks comfortable manning first base as a pitch wizzes in front of him.

Shawn Kohn's side-arm delivery

Rather than complain about getting the quick hook, Kirk Saarloos lauds the bullpen for giving the A's a chance to win:

"If you are going to win a game like that, you have to have what we did, which was an absolutely phenomenal bullpen.""

Yet another classy, team-centric comment from a member of the A's.  

A couple interesting things from the world of men-aspiring-to-be-A's today:  

• According to Susan Slusser, the A's are close to signig their 4th pick of the draft -- Carney Lansford's son Jared, who is a RHP out of St. Francis HS.  Per Baseball America, Carney had wanted his son to be drafted as a second baseman rather than as a pitcher, otherwise he was going to nudge Jared towards college this year rather than let him start his pro career now.  The A's generally distance themselves from signability-issue picks, so by taking Jared as a RHP in the 2nd round, they must have been pretty confident in Carney's trust in his old team.  Seems they have made a good gamble, but I'll keep my fingers crossed until the deal is done.
• Also from Slusser's column is the first response I've seen from the A's on Gammons' assertion that Daric Barton would be moved to the outfield:  "According to assistant general manager David Forst, first baseman Daric Barton has played one inning in the outfield at Stockton, but the team believes the converted catcher has the ability to play there. For now, though, Barton primarily will play first."
• This one is no biggy, but just a nice little thing:  Cliff Pennington had his first good day at the plate in pro ball yesterday.  DH'ing for Kane County, he was 2 for 3 with an RBI, a BB, and 2 SB.
• Here's the link to the Slusser article:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/29/SPGKVDFOMM1.DTL

After reading earlier this week that Dan Meyer had recently begun a throwing program, I was startled to see his name pop up in the River Cats boxscore this morning.  They brought him in during the 8th inning, when Sac was up 9-3.  Here's his line:

2/3 IP, 1 H, 2 R (both earned), 1 BB, 1 K, 1 WP

Not great, granted, but hopefully that's partially due to being rusty and coming back into game-time pitching shape so quickly (so it would seem, based on the dearth of info about his condition for the last month).  One note in his favor is that the second run was inherited and allowed to score by the subsequent reliever.  

Did anyone go to the game last night?  I'm curious how he looked, and what his velocity was.  

Regardless, it's great to see him making some progress.

Much as I cringe at stuffing the diary list with yet another Kotsay-centric entry, I thought that this happy bit from Susan Slusser's latest article was worthy of posting:

"General manager Billy Beane said Wednesday that he won't comment on negotiations to extend Kotsay's contract, as per his usual policy. Kotsay said a day earlier that he expects the two sides to exchange proposals by the end of this week. If there is no agreement in the next month, Kotsay could be traded before the July 31 deadline, but it appears more likely that terms will be reached on an extension that would keep Kotsay in Oakland through 2008."

Woohoo!  Let's hope she has the most accurate info of all that's floating out there.  

Here's the link:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/23/SPG47DDGVF1.DTL

As a follow up to last weekend's article discussing the emphasis on power in the MLB, the New York Times has published a Q&A with Michael Lewis on "the present and future state of baseball."

Lewis is as informative and interesting as always, but I have to say that this is my favorite part:

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Q. What, if anything, will ever drive baseball toward realistic income parity between the dominant teams and other markets?

A. The death of George Steinbrenner.
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OK, that's not the full answer...it's actually quite well reasoned and interesting.  Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/readersopinions/questions-lewis.html?th&emc=th

You do need to be a registered user to read it, but registration is quick and free.