You made me read through that awful GT just to get a couple of opinions on this move. Ed is right, new thread. Last day of this shitty month, let’s put it behind us.
I want to hear from someone who thought these trades were good, and things have not gone exactly as they thought. Because so far tha last week I have seen the most amazing group of prognosticators ever. Everyone knew Norris and Moss were going to fall off of a cliff.
So far it looks like the opinion is fairly meh for the donkey (can he be a mule? its a better fit for us). But surprise me, someone pls tell me this is the WS move…
Camelot sure fell apart, didn't it? -Steve McCatty
I thought these trades were good. Pretty sure my commenting history will show that. Things have not gone anything CLOSE to what I thought.
Me too.
I was kinda pissed at Cespedes for not OPSing over .800 and was glad to see him go; whereas most everybody else seems to think he had irreplaceable magickal powers.
Russell wasn’t going to be useful during the contention window, so I liked the Cubs trade too.
I like the Dunn trade. He’s been a fun guy to watch over the years, and it’s cool to see a guy retire before he drops off a cliff, so he may as well retire with us and have one last great month.
The only thing I don’t like is the Angels. I have little use for that team or for the county it plays in.
It is cool to see a guy retire before he drops off a cliff, but I’m not sure I agree that Dunn is doing so. He hasn’t really been Adam Dunn since 2010. This is a guy who could once be relied upon for 20-30 runs above average on offense, and now he’s worth basically none.
He dropped off a cliff onto another cliff.
I think he sort of dropped off a cliff, climbed halfway up, jumped off again, climbed a little ways up, and then waived his no-trade clause to go to Oakland.
I thought Samardzija and Lester would help, was generally “meh, need to wait and see” on Hammel.
I didn’t expect the offense to keep scoring 5 runs a game without Cespedes, but I also didn’t expect almost the entire offense to wind up hurt or slumping at the same time.
Dunn also makes me go “meh” but at least he’s more of a threat than some other guys they’ve been rolling out there at DH are.
i thought hammel would help in A) I had no recollection of him being the AL east pitcher that was kinda bad, I just saw the shiny k/bb numbers and era and thought cool and B) he would be the only affordable pitcher for the angels so yay we prevented that
I’m too emotional about the big trades to be rational. Having Cespedes just meant a lot to me, you know? His arrival coincided with the new greatness, and his departure was just so sudden. The Russell trade troubles me because of the pressure it put on this season. I generally prefer to take a slightly lower chance of winning it all this year in exchange for feeling like the future is still bright. Bet hedging is in my nature, I guess.
Still, though, I get both of the moves and think both may yet pay off. The thing that kills me is ending up having to play Callaspo so much at second. What fucked Billy there was Lowrie (predictably) and Punto (less predictably) getting injured at the same time.
Oh, but yeah. I like the Dunn move. We need someone who can hit the damn ball out of the ballpark if Moss is not going to do that anymore.
the second paragraph is why this has been an awful month and not merely a bad month
Heck, I’ve had a great month…of course I haven’t watched any baseball.
This is all your fault.
Oh, and uh, welcome back.
I’ll take the blame…I’ve never been much of a hitter.
Me too, and neither have I, although I’ve listened to about 20 hours worth.
Slusser’s trolling right now with a picture of Addison Russell in her twitter avatar.
So Billy has lost SuSlu.
Hammel has been a bust. The other 2 have been as expected.
The problem is Billy didn’t do anything about the middle infield.
Thanks, and go As.
More that everyone else on the team got hurt or started to suck.
None of those things are anything Billy could have foreseen or done anything about. But shoring up the middle infield HAD to be done and he failed to do it. I mean, Christ, call up Ladendorf, SOMETHING.
Well, it didn’t really. Before Lowrie and Punto got hurt it, we had a shitty position at 2B, but that’s not the end of the world. A lot of other contending teams had/have shitty 2Bs.
right. so the most obvious position to improve wasn’t, and now it’s exacerbated by a few injuries.
Thanks, and go As.
We also had a suboptimal shortstop, because Lowrie has limited range. He’s a 2B, not a SS. We needed an improvement in the middle infield.
we knew sogard, callaspo, and punto sucked before the deadline.
Thanks, and go As.
monkeyball bait.
My reactions (most of which have already been covered)
– Can he play 2B?
– Probably as well as Callaspo.
– Billy is on tilt.
– I might be also.
– As long as all it costs is John Fisher’s money and a C- (at best) prospect, why not?
– Jaso is not coming back this year, even as a DH.
– Kyle Orton was no longer available.
– Hey guys, did you hear we just acquired Jack Cust?
I’d rather have Cust than Callaspo.
Are you willing to give up on cust and move him off shortstop so early in his career?
I want to see Jack Cust as our hitting coach someday.
If Jaso is really not coming back, a left handed hitter was a pretty huge need.
Yes, and I was kind of thinking the converse: if we’re going out of our way to fill that role, it’s probably a sign that they don’t expect Jaso back any time soon.
Yeah, I thought the same thing in the other thread. Dunn is a, uh, different man’s Jaso.
In that sense, everybody is a different man’s Jaso.
With this issue arising two years in a row, there’s a fair chance that Jaso has played his final game.
I expect him to be back as a DH next year. Whether it works out or not, I’m not so sure.
I sincerely hope that he has played his last game as a catcher though. After what happened last year, I was pretty surprised that they put him back there again this year. As the year went on, he seemed to be OK, and I kind of forgot about it.
I’m optimistic that Jaso may come back. The latest report was that he felt much better and may start baseball activity soon. I think it’s more about there being so few games left and any additional game with Callaspo at DH (like today) is not something they’d care for.
Our transformation into the 2010 A’s is complete!
when coco comes back, its just like getting a leadoff hitter at the september call up line
Ed: Keepin’ the faith.
Here are my thoughts on the trades.
Yes, well…okay, why not? Tears For Fears had some catchy songs.
It appears I have 59 minutes to edit this comment before it explodes.
its the new snap chat feature. FSU was posting too many penis pictures and Jennifer was posting too many mid surgery photos. Nevermoor had to take action.
Makes sense…it’s also saying all my comments are duplicates before it posts…I think we know that only 75% of my comments are something I’ve already said before.
There’s a bug where FK also sees into the future.
Hmm…that explains that email I just got from nevermoor telling me how I was going to die.
Was I right?
Y’all HAD to do SOMETHING to cause controversy after I changed my meds and stopped ranting like a crazy person.
Can we just bask in the fact that someone had us on his no trade list and waived it to come here? “Looks like we made it….”
I guess it’s fitting the A’s finally have this generations Dave Kingman.
and in Slusser, we also have this generation’s Sue Fornoff.
All we’re missing is this generation’s rat. (groans)
adam rosales kinda looks like a rat
This place is depressing right now. I think we all need trigger point injections.
I think I’ll wait to start being depressed until next Sunday.
I think it was Moliere who said, “When you fall behind the Angels by 4 games on August 31st the only thing to do is trade for Adam Dunn.”
I thought that was Bertrand Russell?
Oh yeah; we traded Russell for Samardzija, so the quote must be from Camus, who still has options left.
I was going to read through a couple of game threads to catch up but I’ll just assume they are pits of despair and move on.
I did a pretty good DA impersonation but other than that the last 2 months have been quiet.
Oh, well…I must find the DA impression. I’m on the hunt!
Well done, 5Aces…you win this thread due to a past performance.
Bah, part of the moneyblog philosophy is that we don’t pay guys for past performance.
Excellent
My only knock on today’s trade is Billy should have traded for a hitter or two a month ago. He got too focused on starting pitching. You do have to score a run or two to win.
Wasn’t there a massive, knockdown dragout fight at the OC about whether we should sign Dunn back when he went to the White Sox? or the Nationals? or both?
I know I wanted him for his glove.
I wanted him for his chiseled good looks and utter lack of beer belly.
I don’t recall a fight. I do recall the usual suspects being against it
Who is Adam Dunn? He is supposed to be a Texan. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Ricciardi tell it, anybody could have worked for Dunn. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.
Well, it would appear my ability to post pictures lasted about a week.
It may have just been a side skirmish to the Cust Wars.
I kind of remember that. It was when he was still with the Nats.
Do I want an explanation of the “clown porn” tag? Probably not.
How many clowns can you fit in a (insert something inappropriate here)?
Thats a clown question, bro.
If I had thought Bed was coming back today I would not have bothered posting this. I would have let him post a lounge and we all would have been more relaxed by his presence. In other words:
You ain’t got no problem, Ed. I’m on the motherfucker. Go back in there, chill them FKers out and wait for the Bed who should be coming directly.
Ving Rhames stole my ear ring.
Do things line up so Jon Lester will start the one game playoff if we don’t overtake the Angels?
He’s on turn to pitch in Game 162 if that were necessary. If 162 is meaningless, he would pitch in the playoff.
And the same goes for one Felix Hernandez, unfortunately.
lefties have been tough on the mariners
Name PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP missG
Felix Hernandez 16 12 3 0 0 2 2 4 4 .250 .438 .750 1.188 0 0 0 0 0
Mr. Dunn says HELLO!
Well, HELLO! back, Mr. Dunn.
Actually I think I miscounted. Gray is on turn to pitch 162 and Lester would pitch the playoff.
Depends on what they do with their days off.
Same for Corey Kluber too! (May as well start including the Clevelands in this stress projecting.)
I’ll bet the Indians pass the Royals in the AL Central. I think the Tigers will win the division.
Agree with the latter part, and would not be surprised by the former.
I might be biased by somewhat following the Royals the last 20 years. I just always expect them to screw up in the end.
I predicted 3-4 years ago that the Royals would make the playoffs in 2014 and I’m sticking by it.
That’s looking downright plausible. Cleveland, in recent years, has a penchant for hot streaks – and they’re on one now.
I would love to face Kluber over Felix or Scherzer. I know all the numbers say he’s amazing, but the A’s always seem to shellack him. He just doesn’t look all that impressive to me, probably because I’ve only seen him during said shellackings.
You can all rip this comment after Kluber shuts us down in the play in game.
Yep.
i think so
The one thing that is still making me enjoy baseball is scoreboard-watching the Tigers.
they are losing for us
I do think the Tigers are the worst possible play-in matchup for the A’s, even worse than King Felix, although that’s picking your poison.
there are no match ups that are worse than others.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
What is pretty funny is that Jim Bowden apparently suggested Dunn to the A’s a couple weeks ago.
Might as well do something. Dunn still hits the occasional home run. I do worry about what this means for Jaso.
The Tigers are losing 5-0. This is now important because the A’s are fighting as much for the play-in spot as for the division.
We’re through the looking glass here, people.
Oakland Athletics: They have all the monies.
They’re going to cut payroll to $50 million for 2015, aren’t they?
It kind of cuts itself. The expensive guys are all leaving or have left and the arby guys won’t be expensive yet. They could still deal Samardz and/or Kazmir, but they shouldn’t need to for money reasons.
And here I thought we were going to re-sign Lester to a long term deal. I also thought we’d give him that pig that flies.
How cheap are teams getting? They’re paying him for a month, or whatever percentage of his salary they’ve agreed to pay.
Meanwhile the Brewers just took on an $11 million + commitment to Jonathon Broxton. Crazy times.
The end is nigh…everyone stock up on beef jerky and Depends.
Has Dunn ever been on a good team? He should be nice and hungry to get a ring before he retires. Although that’s how I would describe his normal look. Nice and hungry.
Most PA without a playoff appearance among active players.
An honor once held by Jason Kendall.
Gritty…winning ballplayers the both of em’
That reminds me that I need to pick up his book. According to a BP podcast last week, Kendall declares in it that he could hit a foul ball at will. I want to know what other amazing feats of bullshittery lie within.
I assume he explains, then, why he ever struck out, ever, at all.
never cheated on his wife?
never had ugly Chuck Norris-ian facial hair?
only reason he didn’t steal 60 is chuck tanner put on the stop sign?
It takes that kind of an epic streak, combined with imminent retirement plans, for someone to waive a no-trade-to-Oakland clause.
Jemile Weeks is a Red Sox now?
As of yesterday. And Kelly Johnson has now played for all 5 AL East teams in the last 3 years.
It’s a beautiful thing. Hopefully he finishes his tour of the NL East clubs too (he’s already been with the Braves)
I wanna be clear about something: My issue with the dealing of Cespedes hasn’t a thing to do with the exchange of talent. Lester is obviously a stellar arm and a possible HoFer if he keeps it up for another few years at the level at which he’s been operating at in Boston and now here.
My issue is also NOT with the effect on chemistry that it has had… I feel the dazzling spate of injuries has had more to do with this August Armageddon than #52’s departure. I mean, I can read… Yo was OBP’ing .303 and had hit under .200 in July.
My issue goes back to ownership, and the Big Lie this deal was meant to reiterate. What they told us with this trade was that even in this season — itself potentially the greatest of the Beane era with the team the favorite (until recently) to take the ring — WE HAVE TO LET OUR BEST PLAYERS LEAVE. Even in this most blissful of seasons, the propagandistic lie they have told since Wolff bought it — that we’re just too “small market” (COUGH metro area with 9 million people COUGH) to keep our marquee players — MUST be asserted. That they just HAD to let Cespy go in December, so here’s BB to tell us he did all he could within the very strict budget concerns of our pathetic little franchise and you get Lester for about 8 starts, thanks a lot.
Oh yes indeed. Here have another $40 million dollars in luxury tax handout, Lew. Maybe you can donate it to Satan’s reelection campaign in Hell when you finally make it there.
I don’t think Beane was interested in keeping Cespedes even if he could afford him.
No, he wasn’t. But the whole thing fits wonderfully within the pattern and gives him an easier out than Moss is right now. “I was gonna deal him so I got the best pitcher in MLB for him.”
Which is great for those 8 starts, I guess we lose them all 4-0 then. And we next return to relevance after they hand over this land to this cocksucker, and he develops the new Coliseum complex on the existing site and makes another 50 billion dollars a decade from now.
See you then.
yeah fuck that guy for trying to get a new stadium
Thanks, and go As.
He ain’t trying to get SHIT but more $ and property to fuck all of the world over with for HIMSELF and HIMSELF alone. That’s what earns sociopaths the title. Honestly? MFers that talk about “Oh boss, I po’, I ain’t got yo’ money!” and act all destitute “small market” victim status, and then collect 40 mil a year in welfare? They have names for such individuals, you know… here listen to this song:
John Fisher’s Army are on their way
John Fisher’s Army are here to stay
(i think he’s talking about the part that rhymes with trigger…)
But that doesn’t even make sense. Surely Wolff is the narrator.
was the song meant as an extended metaphor? i understood we’re just looking for the name of such an individual as described above, within the lyrics of the song, so that nobody has to type it out in polite, searchable society. (not that i agree with the characterization.)
Honestly, I have no idea. If it was meant the way you’re suggesting, just as an insult unmoored from the meaning of the song, then it’s even more offensive than I assumed.
i walked into the conversation late and am using the only clues i found. no idea what is really going on.
(ie, i don’t want to put insults of that magnitude in noBh’s mouth.)
lolwtf…great song though
sure
Thanks, and go As.
Yeah, he’s spent the last 5+ years trying to get public funds… oh wait… he hasn’t.
I always thought that the “we have to trade him now because we would have to trade him later” argument was bullshit. If they hadn’t traded Cespedes for Lester, it’s not like he would have walked for free in the offseason. They kept trying to float the idea that “it’s better to get Lester for 2+ months than to get nothing” but you really need to be comparing against what they would get in a trade during the offseason.
I don’t think it was a terrible move — there are arguments for and against it — but like nobodhi, it irritates me when they make obviously bullshit arguments about it.
I don’t like having my intelligence insulted.
Luckily, I have little to insult in this area.
Yep. *THAT* part is complete and utter bullshit they’re trying to perpetuate in the media.
You can’t use the size of the bay area as the true market size of the bay area. The bay area has a 9M entertainment market size, of which a proportion of that is the baseball fan size of which an even smaller proportion of that is the A’s market size. And the A’s current market size is small and fickle. Spending money one year, the same year that the mega-national deal kicked in doesn’t make what’s happen hypocritical as you suggest. Hate to break it to you, but without the revenue sharing, the A’s would either be a bunch of scrubs every year or be deep in the red.
Congrats to Bo Porter. Here’s hoping he can spend the next couple of months chilling on a beach and trying to let go of the murderous rage that must have been building within him.
Congrats to Bo Porter on getting to experience that most wonderful and uncommon feeling, getting fired from a job you really were hoping to get fired from but couldn’t really quit on your own.
I have experienced something much like this. It was wonderful.
I kind of think it must be similar to how a President feels at the end of his second term.
Sure sign that Barton is not coming up: Dunn took his number.
Interestingly enough, Dunn says one of the reasons he chose the number was because it was Hatteberg’s.
<3
I think that’s pretty cool, and I also am very surprised that he was like “Hey, let me find a second-tier former A that has a special place in that team’s fans’ hearts to pay tribute to with my number choice.”
Well, they played with each other on the Reds. But yeah, hopefully some fan sentiment was there too.
I see. That does make more sense.
teammates, no?
rtt, e
Things that are making me not abandon all hope right now:
1. Home games! 3/5 of our remaining tilts are in the possum-infested wonderland.
2. Lowrie! He, Dunn, and Parrino should combine to keep Callaspo mired on the bench except for situations where all we need is a non-strickout.
3. Billy Burns! His legs are going to win us a game at some point. Pinch running for Dunn, I’ll wager.
4. Samardzija! He’s pitching like the top o’the rotation horse we all hoped he would be.
5. Punto! It will be like getting a gritty, gutty, gamer who loves to get his uniform dirty after the trade deadline (assuming he’s not dead. Is he dead?)
I would feel a lot better if 2/5 of your reasons weren’t Burns and Punto.
Just go with it.
Lowrie and Dunn today, Pomeranz and Freiman tomorrow (with a bunch of LHP coming up), Coco, Jaso, and Doolittle all at least possibly soon. Lots of small improvements, but they add up.
Also, for a team built on platoons and substitutions, the expanded roster in general adds a lot of flexibility.
I don’t know if you realize this, but you put Nick Punto on that list.
Nick Punto put himself on that list by being a gutty, gritty gamer with a nose for victory.
Seriously, I leave you people alone for a week and look at them standings
nobody was here to tell Sonny to bury the curveball to Bechham and stop bob from pinch hitting Gomes for Reddick in the 4th.
been camping. this is news to me still. all i can say is adam dunn has always seemed the kind of guy to me who doesn’t know or notice if he’s got skidmarks in his underwear. when he’s putting them on.
but we’re saying he can hit? no skidmarks like OUR skidmarks.
Where’d you go? I was in Kings Canyon over the holiday weekend. The swimming in the Kings River and its tributaries was most excellent.
No internet where I was so I too did not learn of the Dunn acquisition until Monday. I was able to get bits of the Saturday and Sunday ballgames on the van’s satellite radio, but plentiful beer and cold clear mountain water were most excellent coping mechanisms.
pinecrest lake. best we could find this post-fire, mid-drought year, given our late and lackadaisical planning style. but hey, at least we remembered to make reservations. decent camping, nice relaxing time, kinda crowded though. not even a phone signal.
only contact with civilization was when we went to strawberry for ice, saw a garage sale sign, and scored the josh donaldson bobblehead for my birthday plus a toaster for $2 (actually it was $1 each but with a little creative accounting the universe ends up looking b-day generous).
i promptly rubbed josh’s head and made a wish, and sliced some bread and made some toast. so if one works as good as the other, we’re in good shape for the WS after all.
It’s nice up there, I’ve stayed in Strawberry a couple of times although not recently. Was the return drive traffic hellish on Monday? I got stuck at the 120/108 intersection coming back from Yosemite on a holiday Monday once and it was so miserable I vowed never again.
we like our byways and take them all the time, even without traffic on the main roads… yesterday, started on 108, found ourselves in a line of stop-n-go around jamestown, and immediately bailed. between the 49 and the 580 which we caught in livermore, most of the roads we took had nice proper names in addition to callnumbers: red hill road, la grange road, cooperstown, tesla… it looks like it was longer. can’t say if it was slower. i know it was lovely.
IIRC, Dunn is supposed to be a very funny interview (though he was kind of boring answering Ray’s “how great is it” questions after yesterday’s game) and generally pretty sharp guy.
He comes off sharp in today’s Slusserless Drumbeat.
I had my first camping experience in years this weekend. Went up to Mendocino and camped. Crowded but still fun. Apparently this weekend was the weekend to go camping on FK.
They are officially trolling.
Instead of “First Pitch” they’re going to have the “First Ass Kissing” in which Jeter bends over for some lucky fan or celebrity guest to toss his salad.
fucking disgusting.
Thanks, and go As.
Zum kotzen
People are strange when you’re a stranger
If a chicken falls from a tree, does it happen to be vegan?
Sausages… chicken… ice cream… Um…
In my very very limited experience with vegan meat-substitutes, I’ve found them at best to taste like cardboard. In cases where they attempt to mask the lack of taste by adding a crap-ton of spices, the result is extremely hot and painful cardboard.
Edit:
Also, here is further evidence that you can sell anything in the US provided you put an umlaut in the name.
hey. at least that gets you drunk. WTF does this do?
but yeah, that shït’s everywhere.