We now take you to our previously scheduled game in progress.  Coco’s already whiffed, if not actually whirled.
261 thoughts on “Game 26: Whirling vs Darvish”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
We now take you to our previously scheduled game in progress.  Coco’s already whiffed, if not actually whirled.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
At the last game I attended, the Easter Sunday one, Banjo Man was doing a residency in 217, and I noticed that he has actually learned a couple of tunes besides “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”. He played the Beverly Hillbillies theme for Lowrie, to the accompaniment of much eye-rolling from my section.
Kazmir and Gray
Then hope and pray
the attitude dictates that you don’t care whether they kaz, gray, play, or pray.
that pic didn’t happen, but my toes are still tappin’!!
Opposition leading off the game against Sonny: 1-2, 4 BB
Fosse on the radio. And he just prefaced a comment with “how great would it be…”
ESPN’s crew tonight is non-awful.
I was just thinking that, Boone is not bad at all. And that discussion about the “moment of reckoning” was bizarre but also entertaining.
Yeah. And they really sound like they did their homework on both times instead of just giving a little glance at what the A’s have done.
Ive liked them alot. I wish they didnt go to the “with a payroll of only…” comment, but it is true.
So, it must be not-Sutcliffe then.
Correct.
Huh, for some reason this game caught me completely unawares.
MLB should definitely have a few more Monday off days in April.
Gameday scout on Darvish: “[pitcher] has hit out pitch working today.” Just erased it…
Wow, Donaldson got that hit before I could write “this is going to be really frustrating.”
He got it before I got a chance to come back here and bitch that his approach in this AB would be awful. Maybe all we have to do is criticize our players in our heads now to get them to succeed.
wooo! (gameday delay may apply.)
Can’t decide if Lowrie or Callaspo are worse at baserunning
Is Callaspo bad, or just extremely slow? Lowrie is reasonably speedy, he just has terrible instincts.
Lowrie is bad and slow. Callaspo is so slow that it’s impossible for him not to be bad.
It kind of looked like Fielder’s leg helped push the foot off after getting back to the bag.
Why are you allowed to close off access to the bag with your leg? It seems unfair.
Well Lowrie wouldn’t have scored on that fly from Callaspo, even if there had only been one out.
Do we believe in Choice’s arm?
He was in shallow left field and coming in. I don’t think Lowrie can tag up on that even if it was Johnny Damon in LF.
Well, something else would have happened…
A two-run single through the right side, perhaps.
hmm… what I said is totally unrelated to your comment about blocking first base, of course.
Right. It was more a continuous of what we really “lost” as a result of that out.
Why is our team so bad at base running? It seems unfair.
A catcher with braces. Bold.
Tim Kurkjian in the house. We’ve made it, y’all.
2 ground ball double plays in the same game should set a pretty safe mark for this year’s team.
“Reddick is a spunky, sweet guy who likes to sit in the sun”. (He’s named Reddick because he was found roaming around Hegenberger.)
Awwwwww!
I’m rooting for the Nats to never make the playoffs again with Strasburg on the team.
What’s the matter with Strasburg (he’s a bum)?
I’m assuming it’s the hubris of shutting Stras down in 2012 on the assumption that they would be back every year.
Yeah.
It was the right move.
Thanks, and go As.
I’m no longer so sure it was. At the time, it sure seemed like it based on what we know. But now what we really know kind of sucks ass. But that’s all hindsight.
I would rather see Strasburg pitch until he’s 38 and retire with a potential HOF career than keep blowing his arm out and Washington win it all.
Same reason I HATE the college world series. Teams don’t give 2 shits about their players since they only have them for 4 years, so #1 college pitchers get 150 pitch outings 2, 3, 4 times in a week. It’s bullshit.
Thanks, and go As.
Yeah, but there’s a middle ground. Asking Strasburg to keep taking the ball every fifth day and throw 100 pitches when he’s seemingly healthy is nothing like what those college sadists do.
Admittedly, the risk of him getting hurt that year would have been elevated had he kept pitching, but that’s always true of pitching.
Yeah, a hard 100 pitch count, and maybe skip every fourth turn in the rotation, that’d be taking it pretty easy on a starter.
Especially when they could have controlled it early in the year.
There’s zero guarantee he’ll hold up until 38 regardless how they baby him. What colleges do is atrocious. But if I’m Strasburg, I’d rather win a WS and pitch 10 years than pitch 15+ years and always wonder what if.
It all goes back to managing his innings better earlier in the season if you’re going to have a limit and still expect to be in the postseason.
Feeling faint pangs of optimism for Reddick…
A trip for the schlong. Goodness gracious.
I’ll tell you who’s NOT a terrible baserunner: Josh Reddick.
this comment is on challenge review.
and the comment is upheld!
upon further review the comment is overturned
lol
upon further further review, the comment is inconclusive.
Angel Hernandez says no home runz.
Eh, he made the right read to make sure he scores if it gets down. And he damn near made it back. Acceptable risk.
It took a fucking brilliant play so yeah, I’m upset for taking that chance.
how was he supposed to know a barton flyball wouldn’t leave the park??
(even if it sorta did for a second.)
And again.
And sort of overturned.
I think I’m in trouble this time.
Hard hit ball #3 or so on the year for Barton there, nice job.
So nice to see us have Darvish’s number after all those times being dominated by Felix and Weaver.
♫ Yu don’t own me… ♫
Janis Joplin, now there’s a rocker identified with San Francisco who I wouldn’t mind hearing at the Coliseum (fireworks, walk up, etc). Fuck Journey though.
ha!
Whoa! Quick hook.
We’re done with Yu.
It never gets old.
They’re not saying Yu
Oh my
You said it.
In my best George Takei voice.
Yes!
Swoon.
[Butt slap] Atta girl.
Again!
JD for shortstop.
Beltre’s back? What happened to that bald-headed fellow they had last week? He seemed like a superstar in the making…
I want Yu back.
I am now starting to go into these Sharks playoff games in which they can eliminate an opponent, with the same feeling of despair/hopelessness that I do a game five featuring the A’s. No bueno.
In a surprise move, the LA Kings are starting Justin Verlander at goalie this evening.
Not that bad yet for me. On the other hand, I felt good before Game 5 last year.
I think the Sharks win it tonight. Gonna be the team from games 1-2 again, scoring early and often.
They seem to be more in sync tonight than the last two games. But they’re still not quite melding just right yet. In the first 3 they weren’t losing the puck in the zone often, in the last 2 they weren’t even getting the puck to each other. Now they’re getting it to each other initially, but just before setting up the shot they’re losing it and recovering it.
Crap.
Stalock in goal. Sharks making the change before it gets (more) desperate. That’s not a very A’s-like move.
He’s from South St. Paul (not to be confused with south St. Paul, or the city to the south of St. Paul, which is of course West St. Paul).
The A’s have a huge advantage in time of possession but have repeatedly bogged down in the red zone.
Good forecheck but no biscuits in baskets yet.
How is that not an error?
Damn, even though Sharks continue to get the better of the possession, when LA gets loose they have been just blistering some of these shots. Stalock’s done well. Still 1-0 Kings with a few minutes left in the first.
The Sharks are having trouble even completing the simplest tape to tape passes. Between that and fighting the puck / getting no puck luck, they are just not generating the quality chances.
The last ten minutes were a lot better than the 1st ten, so there is that.
Kings have been really strong at their own blue line, stopping the puck flow, breaking up what the Sharks are trying to do seemingly every time they try to carry into the zone.
This. I have no idea why they can’t pass into the zone any more.
I’ve just never seen a hockey series this binary before. All but one game so far has been completely dominated by one of the two teams. Thank god we won the close one.
Too soon for me to start gloating about never having given up on Reddick? Yeah, probably…
So obviously I need to post the listing of the cat named Reddick every time he’s in the lineup. (Or I need to adopt the cat named Reddick. I’ve thought about it, but since Brandon Freiman-Blevins is declawed, I don’t think a streetwise cat from East Oakland would be the best companion for him.)
Cats can be resilient. As long as you carefully introduce them, they have a chance to meld. But admittedly it’s a tough call.
Looked like Reddick just got in to the bag, did well to dive towards the outfield side of the bag.
Looked inconclusively out to me.
Replay is soooooooooooooo boring. Enough of this shit.
i’d rather be bored all the time than furious half the time.
Really? I wouldn’t.
me neither. they should scrap it.
a call that turns out obviously wrong, say angel h-dez HR? or maybe something in the postseason?
Sure, but with Angel we had replay and he still blew it. I’m all for replay on HRs. I don’t think we need it on ambiguous plays around the bases. There aren’t that many clearly missed calls.
Two in this game alone.
Both were close enough that IDRGAF if they’re called incorrectly. I want accuracy, but I also want to be entertained.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!
joaquinphoenixthumbsdown.gif
Thank you for being as lazy as I was with the meming.
that was replay. this is CHALLENGE. rawr.
I like the concept, I don’t like the execution.
I dont like the concept because it uncludes challenges. I think we are seeing the point we talked about to start the season; managers have em, so theyll use em. Just make the umps review and we will see more of the obvious ones only.
The whole running out to stare at the bench thing is stupid. Concept definitely needs work but I’m 100% in the get-calls-right camp
cotroneo has the conversation on his headset. It goes like this:
“the call on the field is ‘out,’ the challenge is ‘safe'”
My question is always, why the fuck is that information needed? by the time the challenging teams video guy has given a thumbs up, it should have been reviewed by the team in NY. Its OBVIOUS what the team wants. It should be obvious what the issue is.
I don’t know how many games the NY umpire is responsible, I am guessing a lid of 5 (although 3 would make more sense), but s/he should be able to pinpoint the issue quickly. Or at least the tech who is controlling the board should be.
the stroll and look is dumb. when the manager walks out, look at the damn play, make a decision.
Exactly. By the time the manager has waddled out there and spun the ump around, there should already be someone in the ump’s ear telling him to tell the manager to GTF back in the dugout, the majority of times.
I’d say in about 50% of current cases that would be true. And in the others, they can send them back in while they get together and wait for the reviewer to make the call. Either way, there’s way too much wasted time as of now that needs correcting.
Largely agreed. I could see at least one scenario where you would have to specify what you’re challenging though: a close play at home (whether or not runner beat the tag, or whether or not the catcher was blocking the plate)
OK, sure, that makes sense to a degree. Why both can’t be done simultaneously, I don’t know.
I expected the conversation would be more like, “his foot was definitely on the base, I just want to know if the batter/runner beat it.”
The manager should target what they want looked at and only if they just so happen to see something else in checking that thing should they bother. So if you’re wondering if the tag was made before the runner got there, but it didn’t, but they did happen to see the foot go up afterward. But there’s no guarantee they look at the last part if they’re not asked to and don’t initially see it.
Yeah. As someone looking at a replay, especially when it’s a close call, you tend to focus in on only the aspect you’re looking for (e.g. did the runner touch the base before the tag came down), and it’s very easy to ignore the rest of the action.
As a reviewer, if you don’t know what’s being challenged, you could miss it or focus on the wrong thing altogether. And asking them to check every scenario would just eat up more time than necessary.
Which is why I was okay with what happened earlier where they missed that his foot popped up in that red sux/yankme game. They were asked to see if he beat that tag. Well, he did.
I think that the reviewer should answer the question “safe or out.”
That would include any coming off the base after initial contact. I don’t know the Boston nyy thing. I don’t think the reviewer is going to need all that much info from the field.
That’ll take longer.
not really. there is a limited amount of plausible scenarios before the play is “dead.”
And yet there are still a number of both plausible scenarios and viewing angles to look at. And to give the whole play/scenario your attention will take time. It’s better to be tasked to look at something specific that the challenging team objects to and if you happen to catch something else in the process, great.
The question raised then is how exactly replay works if you don’t have challenges. Best would be an in-stadium 5th ump, with an array of gear to very quickly queue up and watch all available angles. Even with that, though, you need some mechanism for him (or her) to make the on-field umps stop the game from continuing until he can look and decide. Even with perfectly integrated communication (which it’s clear so far MLB does not have), I just don’t see how it can work logistically if any play might be under review.
I just think they need to give all the umps a headset to communicate both with that 5th ump and each other. I’ve wondered why they would just so that they can more easily communicate with each other. Even something as simple as “Did any of you see that?” as the manager is coming out to argue.
Not a headset. An earpiece like a secret service agent. That’s what they do in soccer.
Fine by me.
Even then…even with the best communication available (and bear in mind we’re talking about MLB umps, the rotary telephones of officiants)…I don’t see how real time replay works without a challenge mechanism, unless the plan is for the umps to just wordlessly mill about for between 45 and 300 seconds, 5-10 times per game.
Well, I’d imagine the replay ump would let them know they think there may be something to look at. At which point they pause for that person to take a closer look. Or they could wait for the manager to come out and ask if there’s something worth looking at like they used to pre-replay.
The only system I would find acceptable is one that quickly reverses obvious missed calls, and leaves the rest (maybe other than home runs) alone in the interest of not gumming up the works.
S…L…O…W……….
Meh. That’s assuming there are lot of calls like that. As it is now, there aren’t that many challenges going on. There’d probably be as many as there are now, they’d just move on them faster. They could then add a rule that they have a one minute window to overturn it.
or when the manager comes out to argue, the replay ump looks at it
incunabula soccer, there were two judges, one per team. i suppose they were semi-impartial advocates of the team. when they couldn’t agree between them, they’d refer to a third party judge, presumably purely impartial. this referee would decide. this could be enacted in b-ball with the line umps, it might decrease the BS accountability issues that come up when a manager gets confrontational with an ump, because this would be ump-on-ump discussion, and the ultimate call would be impartial, since video-based, and nobody has hurt macho feelings, not the umps, not the mgrs, not the teams.
The execution is horribad. Just have a fifth ump sitting in the pressbox watching everything on tv, and let her send an electric shock to the crew chief if a call is clearly missed. No more of this “I’m coming out now, I’m standing here now stalling, I’m looking over your shoulder, I’m challenging!, OK, now let’s get the ol’ headset on” nonsense. Someone could determine whether the play was unambiguously wrong in less than the time it takes for that little dance to play out.
Also, I’ll admit that I miss the managerial shit fits we used to get in lieu of the challenge system.
I think those complaints are universally agreed to be part of the problem with it so far. But those don’t speak to scraping the system, just improving it.
The execution needs some working with for sure. But they seem willing to do so in the off season. I definitely think they need an NFL-like time limit and to remove the challenge system. It’d be great if they’d wire up the umps on the field and the ump in the replay room to get a sense right away whether it may be worth the look when a manager questions it. Plus it wouldn’t hurt to have that level of communication on the field between umps anyway.
Overall it’s gone a wee bit better than I expected…but my expectations were very low based on Pac-12 football experience.
Me too. The fury lasts longer.
My idea to fix replay: as soon as the challenge is issued, the PA in the stadium must begin playing “Yakety Sax” and continue until play resumes.
I not only support this idea, I move that EM be named head of the MLB rules committee at once.
Yackety what?
il yacketti sacches
The association with Benny Hill made me think her strapless top was going to fall off.
Can the ump and the manager circle around each other in fast motion?
Yes, even better, all the umps have to line up and do the fast stop-motion thing together!
The one fucking time barton hits one hard
Yup. And sadly should be a double play.
WTFK was Reddick doing (apart from running the bases like an A)
Scoring, if Martin doesn’t make a fantastic play.
The catch wasn’t *that* implausible.
eh martin throws him out at home where he was too
I wouldnt be as upset by the play itself (as said above..took a great play and he still almost got back), but what an awful sequence. Almost picked off twice and then that? At some point play it safe with a 4 run lead.
I say no time to take a risk like when you’re already up four.
There seems to be a positive correlation between TOOTBLANs and A’s winexp so I’m ok with that.
tootblans?
For these we have to change it to FARTOOTBLANS (Final: After Review, Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop).
smelled bad enough already with just TOOT…
The ‘s’ doesn’t get capitalized — it isn’t part of the acronym, just pluralization to indicate that the A’s TOOTBLAN a lot.
something out on the bases like a [something negative] something negative]
As a member of the lets start talking about Barton coalition, let me echo this. Guy simply cannot catch a break.
He needs to fake it until he makes it.
I don’t want to talk about him but he really barreled that an its a double play. Lame.
how is gameday on my phone ahead of the radio
Internet travels faster than their signal to their station to you.
Probably an added delay, not the signal speed itself.
(Geekiness: Radio waves through air travel pretty close to c. Even if there is a satellite uplink that’s not adding much distance. IIRC, signals through fiber travel at around 2/3 c, and copper is even slower.)
But we’re not getting a direct radio signal. They’re sending the signal to the bay area (probably via fiber) and then sending it through their system to broadcast via air waves. So in theory, the internet version is picking up the same direct link that the radio station’s equipment is prior to sending it out.
Maybe, but in any case, we’re talking about a few milliseconds to take any such path, while the difference that Ed is talking about is probably on the order of seconds.
Well sure, but that’s because they’re equipment sucks. (Kidding, you are, after all, correct)
it is about a second or two
about 5 in my car
You need to upgrade.
Thanks, and go As.
the radio was the lagging. (and yes June 15. Not that I am counting)
I meant your car.
Thanks, and go As.
that too
also, um, are you on iProducts or Android or something else?
You can get a quite nice phone without bothering to wait for the upgrade 2 year contract crap.
Thanks, and go As.
android.
nexus 5 or moto x for 349, no contract required.
moto g for 199, no contract, but also doesn’t support 4G LTE so you get slow internet.
Thanks, and go As.
I believe radio stations usually leave their “HD transmission” on for road games. That puts in the added delay. For home games, they have to turn it off because people listening on radios in the stands would experience the delay.
radio’s delayed. i’m watching a texas–>japan–>oakland stream that’s ahead of the radio.
maybe were watching the same stream. also i like the japanese streams
probly, since you hooked me up to vip in the first place.
Today I discovered Hola Unblocker.
Ok I give…what is the Hola Unblocker?
A Firefox/Chrome add-on.
So basically takes the place of having to do IP bullshit for MLB?
oh… nooooow i get it.
Is it a new planet?
Lots of bad reviews (and I make no claim as to anything dealing with possible user error):
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hola/reviews/
Yeah – they added adverts for a while which garnered a lot of negative reactions; they’ve removed them now. So far so good for me.
Hola doesn’t work very well for me about half the time. Dunno why.
Thanks, and go As.
really guys? get the starter out after 3.2 and still only have 2 pitchers
In fairness, they may only have two pitchers. Yu and some other guy.
Yu and who.
Yu mean Wu
We win. Yoo and hoo!
Ace
Sweet slow cooked victory!
This organist is crazy!
SHOUTOUT!
Yay Sonny!
That was an impressive outing.
A Sonny Delight.
CGSOs are nicer this way around.
AV, plz check your fb msgs. thank you. <3
So despite over a full minute of 5 on 3, the Sharks barely threaten. I’m thinking they may be in some serious trouble.
Yeah this is fucking awful.
Thanks, and go As.
If you lose your stick, can you mot get it back? Where does it go?
try rubbing it
Thanks, and go As.
Does that work for you?
wanna find out
Thanks, and go As.
Ha!
You can get another one from a teammate. Or pick up the one you dropped. Can’t try to play with a broken stick though, that’s a no-no.
Cause that would be dangerous.
someone might could lose an eye
Thanks, and go As.
And it gets more interesting when a goalie breaks theirs. A teammate will give them theirs but it’s not quite the same and leaves the teammate without one.
No sticks for everyone!
yay sharkies!
This hockey game is exciting.
Very good game. Sharks are slowly looking better, but still being outplayed. Losing that defense men will go even more into the Sharks favor if this goes to OT.
i thought that was a strategic decision
One of the King’s defensivemen is hurt.
someone just said they can’t get it out of their end.
hockey, huh?
it’s like soccer but glidey. and you can’t see the ball.
and someone drew nipples on the field.
Probably MikeV.
so?
Thanks, and go As.
Predictable.
I wish soccer would be played on a shorter ice rink sized field with walls. There’d be more shots on goal.
MISL!
Indoor soccer like that with the smaller field and goals is the only kind that I’d ever consider getting into.
chicks dig the shots on goal.
Still exciting!
well crap
OH COME THE FUCK ON STALOCK
Thanks, and go As.
Now less exciting.
more controversial though
Thanks, and go As.
i was about to say less so… but fisticuffs!
And the choke seems to be on.
Way to keep your composure, Sharks.
one goal was gonna decide that game, the other ones after that don’t matter. a shit call with 10 minutes to go costs them the game, that’s rough
Thanks, and go As.
I was referring to the fight after the faceoff. But yeah, that bogus non-frozen puck call is pretty hard to take.
FUCK YOU QUICK YOU PIECE OF SHIT
Thanks, and go As.
It’d be fun if he got suspended before game 7 but that won’t happen.
He didn’t even get a penalty, and they didn’t call him for wrapping up players and hanging on for dear life.
You wear 3x as much pads as everybody else and don’t move. STFU and stay in the goal
Thanks, and go As.
Wow. How the fuck do they justify not calling anything.
they called a penalty.
on thornton.
Thanks, and go As.
Yeah, but that was called pre-incident. And it should have been because technically he interfered there.
and technically they should have whistled the puck dead when Stalock was on it, but 2 wrongs etc..
That was a really good game until the referees got involved.
Thanks, and go As.
I’m the last person to say something good about a Yankee, but HOLY SHIT.
Thanks, and go As.
Why does it have to be something good about the Yankees? Can’t it be something bad about the Angels?
a Yankee, not the Yankees.
That pitch was ridiculous
Thanks, and go As.
From a college buddy of mine:
Also, a few A’s here, including a couple at or near the top of both lists.
Cespedes at DH tonight.
Hoy carp, we didn’t choke!
Also, bullshit zone there Blue…