The question is are 2 of them? We clearly need to shake things up. BoMel is putting BMo in the #2 hole. Writers think it is so he can see different pitches. I just think he has seen him hbitting like #2 for the last month.
Kaz tries to stop his funk of pitching and we all hope that we have officially gone through the looking glass into a non Eeyore world.
This will not stand, ya know! Go score some runs and start ghitting!!!
Camelot sure fell apart, didn't it? -Steve McCatty
hey look, the A’s official twitter is impressed with how terrible the bottom of teh A’s order is:
Since we typically go hitless the first 3 innings half of Coco’s ABs lead off innings. This is the worst “stat” ive seen yet.
376!
Would love to see Lew start giving the team some crap today for lazy fly balls to shallow L/C/RF.
Don’t worry guys, they know how to handle Carter now.
Astros going for the one run.
Kaz gets through the second!
what was fosse so annoyed at just now?
Chef Rodney told him to screw off and buy his own Dibs?
see, i don’t even know who that is because i actively and forcibly tune his voice out. but he was talking baseball by accident and i thought it might have, also by accident, been interesting.
Official scoring, of course.
He was pissed that a guy was awarded a sac when he bunted (presumably trying for a hit) with one out.
thanks. i was walking away with the impression he was against bunting for hits in general.
Fosse doesn’t actually care about baseball. He cares that baseball plays are recorded in a morally accurate way.
And catchers. He cares about catchers.
Detroit loses again, because the Giants got to him in the first inning. Choosing between Price, Scherzer and King Felix is not very appetizing, but I guess it’s better than not making it at all.
Felix is in a class above everyone, IMO.
Only hope is that he might be worn out come October because of the huge number of innings they are pitching him.
Heretical Thought and/or Soothing Balm:
If they don’t make it at all, there’s none of the gut-wrenching stress of the games, and none of the pain of the almost-inevitable loss, and you don’t have to spend any of your valuable disposable income on tickets to a baseball game that are inflated in price because of artificial meaning created by having those games be part of a convoluted crapshoot tournament.
Regular season baseball can be an undervalued entertainment option and worth every penny if you don’t sit in too nice a section. Postseason baseball is overvalued and non-pastoral and generates far more anxiety and pain than it generates happiness and community spirit.
Read the above in Eeyore’s voice and it sounds one way. Read it in Bill Murray’s and it sounds another way altogether.
You rock, Kay.
I spent the last two hours chatting with an ignorant Republican (I was logical like Spock and zen like Pat Morita) and we came to many consensus and compromise points. Simultaneously rebutting AND confirming my own arguments with quantum physics metaphors sealed the deal.
This is, like, some kind of breakthrough in American public discourse, right?
Assumes we don’t win the WS.
Would be far less painful if we didn’t lose it the worst possible way EVERY FUCKING TIME.
that’s why I used the term “almost inevitable”
I think Iglew had first mentioned this (that Regular Season is of higher value than Post) in the old days in the old country and I vehemently disagreed (you play to get to the postseason). But whether it’s 2012 or the suckage before or the combination of both, I have found and am finding by experience a lot of truth to your point. It’s everyday. You get what you get. There are times when I almost believe it fully: salvation is in playing the game; winning is a happy byproduct. Then there are days like Samardjiza’s start in Anaheim.
At any rate, losing meaningful games this time of year is still better than not playing them.
The high strike to Dunn doesn’t bother me, but when that fucking curveball almost hit the ground and was ALSO called a strike, that’s some bullshit.
Thanks, and go As.
Zone seems awfully fucking friendly.
Thanks, and go As.
Is anyone getting the impression that umpires, as a group, are suddenly being really shitty to the A’s after they called out Gerry Davis?
No. They’ve been remarkably shitty for a while now.
I think Shitty just said we are struggling a LITTLE on offense.
That was embarrassing for Villar.
Human lawn dart
Collapso looked on and took notes.
That was a pretty FKing good bunt, Coco.
Thanks, and go As.
Sogard is hitting pretty well, and Coco’s bunt was very good. Now the A’s have to take advantage of this.
Would enjoy a grand slam here.
Time for one of those patented Moss fly balls to medium Center!
close
Left, but the same difference.
Excellent. Astros Astroing.
A’s A’sing.
That was beautiful camera work by CSN on Fuld’s tag up.
Josh. No. Bad.
bases loaded 0 out
1 run
Thanks, and go As.
BETTER THAN LAST NIGHT
Bases loaded nobody out and the “heart” of the order coming up.
And the sad thing is that I’m relieved they at least got one run.
We certainly won’t regret this later.
OK Kaz. There’s your run. Bring it home.
It is totally unfair but one of these “horses” needs to step up and throw a shutout.
I think I am going to stick with tennis.
So Barry Bonds is Dexter Fowler’s personal hitting coach? Weird.
with the zone as wide as it is, that allows Kazmir to work down in the zone
THANKS SHOOTY
Thanks, and go As.
The thing about him being a scout for a major league ballclub has to be an elaborate inside joke.
Fosse’s Dibs probably went to the Comcast exec.
Lew seems to be watching more intently than usual today.
What a fucking joke of an at bat. I want to see more Soto against righties.
I want more in general. If we arent gonna hit lets get someone who isnt turning a staff of Aces into AJ HR Griffin.
Norris is struggling so much. He, like Moss, just seems lost up there. And yes, at this point Soto deserves more playing time.
It’s a fine line between needing performance in desperate times and prompting guys to press even more. The A’s will need Norris. But I think Melvin can handle this.
Moss is struggling. Norris is just regressing to his .203/.304/.314 career line against righties.
Maybe. He’s younger. I’m not ready to declare that Norris is just a platoon catcher who can only hit lefties.
It feels like 100 years since someone other than Dunn homered.
Hmmmm…interesting.
I’ll just leave this right here and duck back out. Have yourselves a great day, and remember: Billionaires don’t actually pay us to repeat their fantastic lies. We’re doing that all on our own.
Nope. You clicked.
As someone who is sympathetic to your criticism of the Cespedes trade, and annoyed about the “we had to trade him now” line, I also think there was and is a legitimate argument for the Lester trade.
It was a gamble, Billy Beane’s gamble. It doesn’t look like it’s going to pay off, but portraying defenders of the trade as stooges of the mega-wealthy doesn’t advance your argument. It just insults other people.
The A’s have lacked a true #1 starter in the postseason. Lester gives them one. But this was primarily a baseball trade, able to be defended or attacked solely on those terms.
You forget that the trade came with a propaganda initiative. Small market, have to trade him “for nothing” in the winter, I got the best deal I could even though he only plays every 5 days and we’ll never score again, “All in” and on and on. They even made SHIRTS.
I don’t hate the trade for the trade’s sake. Trades happen and like you say they work or not. I hate the way the trade is holographically representative of the last 12 years of propagandistic lies coming from welfare queen sociopathic dogs.
I’m not a big fan of Billy Beane at the moment, but he didn’t try to sabotage the team. It was a calculated risk, accompanied with the crap about having to trade him in the offseason, so why not trade him now for Lester?
You’re turning the trade into a symbol of your hatred of the Fisher-Wolfe regime. And you’re expanding it into an indictment of the dumb bunnies here who are doing the bidding of the One Percent by defending it. Why not just call people Tea Party stooges and take your argument to its logical conclusion?
I’m at the point where any behavioral endorsement of the wealthy’s initiative to destroy every single institution for their pleasure and enrichment is complicity, yes.
Just so I’m clear, anyone here who does anything but indict the Lester-Cespedes trade (not even because of the trade itself, but because of what Billy Beane said about it) is a Tea Party stooge of the uber-rich?
Not looking for trade indictments, the numbers speak for themselves. The trade is not the disease, it’s just one among billions upon billions of symptoms. Like the stats that came out today that show the vaunted economic “recovery” in the US has only benefited the wealthiest 10%, with the bottom 20% actually worse off. And you see the headlines and you can practically hear the soaring trumpets sounding for the awesome “recovery”.
We are dealing with a society which has become the vehicle for outright enslavement to propaganda manufactured by the wealthy as a commercial for our continued compliance with our own extermination at every meaningful level.
I’m not looking for trade condemnations. I’m not even LISTENING to this “baseball” game because I’m online researching open immigration to Uruguay. July 31st was the last day I gave a shit about Lewis N. (I won’t say what the N REALLY stands for… maybe he should change it to “WN”?) Wolff or any of his other billionaire mass murderer pals.
The only answer now is to convince the 1%ers that living in a vibrant civil society that reveres them (in exchange for redistribution of hoarded wealth to the poor through universal employment, universal housing, universal education, and universal healthcare) is better than living behind walls in a shattered civil society that hates them and wants them to die.
Empathy breeds more empathy, and objects in motion tend to remain in motion.
As controversial of a position as it may be, I think that we need to reschedule the Schedule 1 drugs (except Heroin), and do the necessary research to create low-but-effective dosage, non-impairing daily maintenance psychedelic drugs. We’ve invented the drugs that can make people feel empathy and call themselves on their own bullshit, and it’s time for us as a society to learn how to properly use them.
A proactive (albeit kinda nanny state-ish) society that gets sociopaths and narcissists on psychedelic meds before they can commit meaningful antisocial behaviors is likely to be an efficient society, due to its’ relative lack of useless ego-driven conflict. Combine that with efficient resource usage and a steel-strong safety net, and we have a society in which everybody feels safe and loved and useful. This state of optimal mental health and investment in social welfare will facilitate the intelligence expansion necessary for humanity to evolve into a fully hive-capable AND fully individual-capable species.
And you’ll get no argument from me, Kay. It’d make a nice replacement for the Paxil or whatever it is they must have in the water right now to make people check out of being able to see basic reality in front of their faces.
So, carve surfboards then. You’ve got the biggest displacement fists and the most consistent punch, but the ocean is still winning.
People listen to you when you’re vibrant with the ring of truth, and they turn away when you’re sour with the stale farts of bitterness, no matter how authentic those farts may be.
Yeah, the A’s front office fucked up the propaganda. It would have been refreshing for them to say, “Cespedes is at his peak and a long-term contract in his decline phase is folly, and holding on to a valuable asset for too long is also folly, so we traded Cespedes while the iron was hot, even though we love him and wish him the best.”
If you’re upset with their bumbling lie, then I’m with you. If you’re upset about them being unwilling to sign Cespedes to an overvalued contract for 2016 and beyond and trading him at what they perceived as the height of his value, I’m not with you there. That battle was lost long ago. Overpaying for post-peak players is dumb, no matter how much we love them.
To quote my own song, to be a baseball fan is to “live with the sorrow of eating your babies”. You gotta get rid of the ones you love before they become albatrosses around your neck.
Basically, capitalism and baseball ideally should not mix, because the emotional connections of baseball fans and the best practices of general managers in a capitalist player acquisition system do not mix well or have the same means to the desired end (championships and full stadiums).
how much for a lid of noblesse oblige, man?
The thing about Mescalito, man, is that once he teaches you his lessons, if you go back to ask him again, he’s all like “What the fuck are YOU doing here?” and then he goes back to his business and you end up feeling stupid for having bothered in the first place. And then you’re throwing up.
Noblesse oblige is more economically efficient than and morally superior to most if not all of the alternatives.
I like the idea of Noblesse Universalis.
Or Oblige Universalis for that matter.
kinky.
So to clarify: Billy Beane and Lew Wolff deliberately sabotaged the team, and then lied to the public about it (also known as PR spin, which literally every business engages in, as do many individuals), so anyone who agrees with (or “endorses”) the trade is complicit in the Tea Party’s mission to destroy of the United States of America.
Now here I was thinking that Billy Beane made the trade he believed he needed to make, engaged in some PR spin because he knew plenty of fans would have knee-jerk reactions, the team had a terrible August that was about as unrelated to losing Cespedes as it could possibly be, and I’m currently working for a gubernatorial campaign to unseat a Tea Party governor.
One of us has to be wrong.
No, not at all. Lew LIVES in a PERMANENT state of entitled billionaire self-sabotage, and has an entire vocabulary list of excuses and mythologies the majority of his slaves will automatically agree with and parrot as truth no matter how ludicrous the assertions. He also has a powerful propaganda apparatus to disseminate these fictions.
My issue is with 12 years of it. Not one day, 7/31/14/. And I worked for social justice every day for 14 years in the non-profit field (as if anything the human species could do could be “not for profit”), and as my reward got to watch the entire social construct be eviscerated so Wealthy White N*ggers like Lew Wolff could have another luxury tax check, another election to steal, another end-the-minimum-wage initiative to run, and another victim to blame and destroy for fun and self-aggrandizement. I wish you the best as I sit here and wish for death to liberate me from this exercise in subjugation called the Commodity Shitstem. Best wishes unseating that person… I’m sure the Koch Brothers won’t have 200 more in 200 different races to take his place next cycle.
Lew Wolff isn’t a billionaire. He may not even qualify for the 1% (though if he doesn’t he’s certainly close). Your entire premise is based on some wild manifestation created in your mind. The fact that it’s based on a warped version of actual facts that, in this case, aren’t the least bit applicable just adds to whatever thing you’ve got going on in your head that makes you think you’re spouting truth. I totally appreciate that there’s a fiscal injustice going on in this country. That’s fact. But your wrath, your energy, is better served fighting and getting riled up on the real and not something foolishly misapplied.
you wouldn’t no what real is, you phony little cunt
Sure. Misogyny is really hammering in your point.
“Phony little cunt”? You’re acting like he’s Nico or something.
nowBodhi, When you do return, I want to know how referring to someone who disagrees with you with an obscene reference to a female body part fits in with your progressive views. Why is that the harshest insult you choose to employ?
The asterisk doesn’t make it OK. Knock it the fuck off.
I quit, goodbye.
This is why people take issue with you at times. You go way overboard with the hyperbole along with painting people who don’t see things the same as you as no more than blind, unthinking shills.
He’s on one of his bipolar swings. There’s no talking to him when he reaches this point. It’s just better to let him go to whatever world he needs to in order to deal.
Yeah, I know. It still needed to be said. I’m sure he’ll snap back at me sooner or later if he reads this, too.
Come on dude. How small sample size can you get? And how well would he be hitting “with RISP” were he still on the A’s, since we spent August barely getting runners to first base?
100 over with, 25 under (now more with 2014 added) without. 2 1/2 years. Not a SSS.
And he has those 24 RBIs with RISP on a team even more pathetic than ours.
But it doesn’t matter. There IS no MLB, there IS no A’s, there is only Ned Beatty talking to Peter Finch in NETWORK, the only time in species history we told the truth.
I’m out. Sorry if my words have offended anyone, or decreased your enjoyment of the entertainment to which you feel yourselves entitled in this most exceptional civilization.
lighten up francis
hey BFN:
I could hardly disagree. I loved living here the first time and I suppose I will love it again the second time, but I’ve certainly never recommended that anyone visit.
You just had to mention it, Glen.
click
Oh, great. Now the A’s are behind again.
Phere we go again. Bout ready to break the TV.
Walking Trogdor! Hey, there’s an idea.
1 run against Scott fucking Feldman with the bases loaded.
1 run all game against Scott fucking Feldman.
Jesus titty fucking Christ.
this would be a nice time to go, oakland, so please, let’s.
fools be all not going and shit.
Moss needs to get fucking benched
Thanks, and go As.
Indeed.
Moss should probably just bunt here.
steal with a K’s just as good, right?
Moss could not look worse up there.
I have the same look on my face that Kazmir does.
Wait, Melvin yelling and the closed door meeting did not fix this?
KK’s getting existential. this is serious.
Strike 3 to Fuld was pretty much bullshit, right?
Thanks, and go As.
But his mustache is horrible.
It’s very creepy.
Let’s get some hits!
Astros are going to run Feldman back out there for the ninth so he can get the complete game and just rub our faces in it.
If they do so, it will be at their peril.
You called this one.
I think the universe is recursive and the heat death of the universe facilitates the Big Bang.
Can I call that one too?
(nope- apparently William Poundstone beat me to it)
You should talk to Paul Steinhardt.
Interesting stuff. I hadn’t heard of him, although I remember Turok from past articles I’ve read.
I’m surprised that nobody uses a fractal model for universe recursivity. Then again, maybe they’re all just a bunch of p-branes.
Loop Quantum Cosmology is getting there, but I think they are flawed in thinking there’s a Big Bounce.
I think Einstein had it right with his oscillation theory in 1930. If he had only had a Commodore 64 and an afternoon with Mr. Mandelbrot, he likely would have had the revelation that the oscillation does not come from a Big Bang and a Big Crunch, but from Big Bangs in a recursive universe.
Having a timeless/massless/infinite time/infinite mass point in the recursive loop means that entropy is also a recursive loop.
Should I actually email Mr. Steinhardt? If I can give him a good laugh on the way to the trash can it would be worth the effort.
I don’t really know him, aside from a job interview like 5 years ago.
I figure guys like you probably get 5-10 emails a month from weirdos like me.
There are no weirdos like you. That may be the highest compliment I can pay.
You and FSU are both right.
Gotta love the knock-off Star Wars music in the promo for a fireworks show “set to the music of Star Wars.”
While the radio side actually plays SW music.
come on dunn
Come on Eeyore, make something happen.
I’m certainly glad I didn’t waste my money and buy a ticket to Oakland in October.
Reverse psychology?
the teA’se/game rate hasn’t abated, at least.
Reddick in a clutch situation…please shatter my expectations.
While he’s been hitting pretty well, I don’t like Reddick in these situations at all. He’s going to try to hit a home run.
He did, came just short. Tie game. Good for him.
I tuned into the radio just in time for this. Perfect timing.
YES!!!
I’m just happy that the Astros didn’t go with a LHP, because Melvin would have countered by pinch-hitting Gomes for Reddick and I am certain that Gomes would have made an out.
Qualls is definitely a great matchup for Reddick. A 90 mph sinker + Reddick’s extreme upper cut/flyball tendencies usually means the ball is hit hard. That’s the second time this season Reddick got to Qualls.
I agree.
Shattered. (Does it matter?)
Shadoobie
Burns has to steal.
rad.
Yeah baby! Schlong power!
inches.
QuaLOLs
Thanks, and go As.
WUHT?!
thank goodness. and lowrie.
woah.
Thanks, and go As.
Oh fuck yes.
YES!!!! x2
Chad Qualls is my hero.
Reddick proved me wrong. Lowrie gets the game-winner.
They needed this. So did we.
It’s good to see them having fun again.
Best tasting pie in years.
Why didn’t the Astros bring in a lefty to face Reddick? Sipp couldn’t go back to back?
He threw a lot of pitches yesterday.
Unsung hero: Norris’ at-bat. He’s been horrible. But he hung in there and got a base hit that got Qualls in the game.
Yup. Great AB.
Unsung hero: Lawless. He left his starter in way too long and as Ms. Kay predicted, it turned out well.
He’s an asshat, but when he’s right, he’s right. And funny.
You know, I don’t think he is an asshat. He’s smart, works his ass off reporting, and goes after the people who need going after. He’s just intolerable on twitter because he cannot resist fighting with his haters in public.
I agree with this.
I do not even mind his fighting so much as his preaching / thinking he is on some moral high ground lately.
He’s a self absorbed idiot who mostly doesn’t have a clue what the fk he’s talking about. But look out if you try to call him on it.
I don’t think he’s an idiot. But he is very much self-absorbed.
Sounds like he should get a FK invite.
Heh
That had to be cathartic for the lads. Especially Reddick, who tried to throw his helmet into the Earth’s core after failing to come through in the ninth the other night against the Mariners.
Twins up on LAA 5-3 in the 7th.
Also Danny Duffy of KC left his start with shoulder soreness after only one pitch.
It was a bullpen game for them too.
5-5 in the 8th.
lead off double, K, ground to short
come on kurzuki.
Now IBB to get to
KURT SUZUKI!
Fucking useless Twins. For that matter, fucking useless every team that’s played Anaheim in the last six weeks.
(including the A’s)
GIDP
or sorry force of habit. Just a ground into a force.
it was a double play, just one out too late.
It clearly would have been a GIDP, had there been fewer than two outs, so he still gets credit for one in my book.
The Twins nnob jerseys make it hard to know who I should be mad at unless it’s Kurt.
the pitcher.
I’ll just be mad at all of them.
i loved how bert was confused as to why anyone would intentionally walk a batter to get to Kurt
FKing Stanford. Of all the teams to choke-fail to, it had to be USC?!?
That was…disappointing. How do you miss a 23 yard field goal?
And man Sarkisian and that AD are real pieces of work.
I mean, Stanford dominated the game start to finish. With the notable exception of the “points” category.
NM please delete my ID from this blog immediately. Thank you and goodbye.
wait. they won today. we are supposed to be happy
Nope.
Not banning anyone. You’re free not to come back. You’re free to come back.
This is the right way to handle it. Pitching a fit and bailing when you don’t get the response you want (after ripping others along the way) is, well, simply childish.
Good.
Can’t. Stop. Watching.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln signing the Yosemite Grant, laying the foundation for our system of National Parks. Catching up on reading on the subject, I came across this resonant little tidbit from Ansel Adams:
Both of his names begin with an A. Coincidence?
I boarded a muni train yesterday and saw a guy sitting with his back to me wearing a green cap with a gold bill and button, mlb logo on the back and everything. As I walked toward the front of the train I was going to give him a hearty “Go A’s” but then he turned his head and the front of his cap had a white interlocking “SF”. WTF, dude.
They envy us for our
freedomcolors.My buddy is here so it wasnt him (he hasnt let anyone borrow his, I checked.)
It’s the same with people who wear those black and orange A’s hats. Something about them is not to be trusted
Ew, I’ve never seen that. Ew.
This is the reaction: “Ugh, get out of here you damn dirty…giants…fan?” followed by a sharp and sudden self-preservation instinct to not make eye contact
No Collapso vs lefty today, halle-fuckin-lujah.