Five of the last six posts are tv show recaps, so I figured it was time to add a new thread for spring training, march madness, etc.
Fangraphs has an optimistic take on Billy Butler here. I’m still bracing myself for an infuriating number of double play balls though. Comment thread fights about whether Fangraphs writers are A’s-obsessed is an entertaining and very prolific genre.
For Kay, I’ve got a couple tracks from the new Wire album, scheduled for April.
I got hit by a car Tuesday night, but escaped with just some minor scrapes. No nasty compound fracture photos for Jennifer, unfortunately. Shaving is going to be a bitch though.
Ouch!
Ditto that! Glad you’re okay. I recommend NOT bothering to shave until it heals. Just keep that shit clean. Yikes.
Man, it looks like I have a lot of gray hairs in that photo. Based on my parents, I think it’ll be less than 10 years before I enjoy silver fox status.
The ladies love the silver foxes. Don’t let those Just For Men hair color ads fool you.
Preach brother, preach.
So do a surprisingly large number of young gay men.
Yay, new Wire!
I’m kinda at the point now where I treat Wire and Colin Newman’s side projects like the continuous arc of a single artist, like Robert Pollard with GBV and his solo and side projects.
Good stuff.
Githead is kind of a guilty pleasure for me, because some of the songs really seem like old people music. To be fair, they are getting kind of old now.
Colin Newman’s A-Z is one of my all time favorites though. I think it stacks up pretty well even against the holy trinity of Wire albums.
A to Z is the obvious follow-up to 154 and I treat it as such.
You’re a Modest Mouse fan too, right? My wife just got their latest and it’s on the stereo right now.
Yup. Will pick that one up as well if it’s not too depressing.
My general impression is that it continues in the line of more crowd-friendly releases like their last(?) one.
There’s three types of Modest Mouse songs… Depressing, Shamanic, and Radio-Friendly.
I look for the middle kind, but I’m afraid those all might be 15 years in their past.
Well if you keep getting hit by cars, you can say that some gray paint just scraped off on your head. (Don’t keep getting hit by cars please)
The clear takeaway from Tuesday night is that I’m invincible and should immediately get started crimefighting and/or jumping off buildings.
what happened anyway? crosswalk incident?
Yeah. It was late at night and I was crossing a complicated intersection with multiple crossing signals for different parts of the street. So I saw a walk signal that I thought applied to me but really didn’t. Fortunately the driver saw me (despite my black jacket) and came screeching to a halt, just barely clipping me.
wow. so glad it wasn’t full impact.
That’s *barely* clipping you? Fuck.
The scrapes are from hitting the ground. There are a couple bruises on my thigh that might be from where the car hit me, but I’m not even sure.
Are they in the shape of a grill?
I was hoping this would be remunerative but it does not sound like any ambulance chaser would take this one. Good to hear it’s not worse than the few dings.
Glad you avoided any serious impact
time to drop that health insurance!
Thanks Obama!
so, colin…Helmet?
You know about this, right?
december 18, sepp?
Sepp only recognizes migrants pulling down 8 figures in the EPL.
RIP Michael Brown (of The Left Banke). Man did he write some beautiful songs.
He sure did.
Speaking of getting scraped across a grill…Andy Parrino just hit a ball that glanced off Kershaw’s jaw. Might have rattled a few teeth in there. Probably the most damage an Andy Parrino hit ball has or will ever do.
Huh. Gameday has started including Bill James game score for starting pitchers — Kershaw at 61 for 5 IP / 1 ER / 4 K / 0 BB and Sonny at 53 for 5.1 IP / 2 ER / 3 K / 2 BB.
Ouch. That was a pretty direct hit.
First, I thought the title was “Goat scraped across my grill”. Second, ouch.
Ouch!
Zito looks pretty good…
The A’s play each of their divisional opponents in home-and-home series within the first five weeks of the season. I’m hopeful that one of them picks him up so the A’s could face him twice before he’s released.
blade runner (final cut) is playing at the paramount tonight. doors 7, show 8, ticket $5.
i’ve never seen it big. anybody?
Wish I could make it, but kids etc. I actually saw Blade Runner at the theater when it was first released. 30ish years later and I still haven’t seen a better film on the big screen.
sit your kids across from you and ask them, describe in single words only the good things that come to your mind about your mother.
let me tell you about my mother
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday.
I can’t decide whether to root for the orange highlighters or the yellow highlighters in this UO-OKST game.
I hope you’re wearing your welders goggles.
Bill Raftery is my favorite thing about the NCAA Tournament.
Sam Fuld feels colin’s pain.
I went in to the ER but they decided that I didn’t need the CT scan.
Two wins today for that baseball team all of us (except maybe Bed) root for.
Um, except that because of your rules the switch hitters are actually his worst nightmare.
I went to your mounds, I went to your stadiums, I went to your international training facilities and you say I elect?
i’m not ambidextrous. you’re the one that’s ambidextrous.
THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS AMBIDEXTROUS!
It would be so Cubs to have broken Lester before he even starts a real game for them.
WTMWJ????
Why don’t I recall us using that last year?
because no one on the flagship cared.
My latest YouTube obsession is watching street food vendors in foreign countries cook.
What’s the best way to cook a street food vendor from a foreign country? Kinda nasty for YouTube.
Secret YouTube.
um…go south africa?
New Zealand – or rather Guptill – adding 153 runs in the last 10 overs was pretty amazing.
this thing’s out of the pools stage?
Semis are India/Australia and South Africa/New Zealand*
*likely winners of the last quarterfinal, currently in progress
The windies made it exciting for about 12 overs.
how did that end? WI all out?
yes. they were swinging for the boundries
yeah i think thats where Im ending up.
No way this cricket thing is still going on. Are you taking the piss?
not quite, just a rain delay.
just when deVilliers was getting hot
What a game.
SA could have won it at the end there by bowling the last two deliveries underarm (though they would rightly have been pilloried for it, as Australia were).
that was thrilling for most of it, but ultimately proved an unrewarding 3am.
it stinks. NZ knew it was 43 overs, played accordingly.
Still. thrilling. My SA friend is pissed.
what i still don’t get. if SA had 281 runs, how come NZ had to score 298 to win?
also, what happened to the announcers’ prediction that NZ would strategically concede a 1 in that penultimate ball?
That’s due to the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) correction, that tries to account for Ed’s observation that NZ knew all along that they only had 43 overs (and therefore could be less conservative with their wickets), whereas SA played the first 38 overs expecting to have 50. It’s actually a really interesting piece of statistics, balancing the availability of two finite resources (wickets and overs).
And had it rained again and curtailed the NZ innings then that total would have been re-revised accordingly.
i haven’t investigated it much, but my lay opinion is the D/L method is cool so long as its an even playing field. having the shortened over makes me wary.
The top of the SA order had lower strike rates than NZ. Guptil was run out for christ church sake. Clearly NZ was more aggressive knowing they only had the 43 overs. ALthough, I suppose DeVilliers should have taken the weather into account when captaining.
But the whole point of D/L is to deal with shortened innings!
Because NZ could be more aggressive (knowing they only had to keep their wickets through 43 overs) their target was raised to 298 rather than the natural 282.
aha! i was totally lost on that. and explains why wickets are made out of 3 long pieces of wood. so you can fashion a slide rule in the middle of play and figure this stuff out.
So there are actually two versions of D/L … standard, which works well up to about 350 runs, and Professional, that significantly improves the accuracy at high scores. Unfortunately Professional does indeed require a computer to calculate the correction!
If the second inning gets interrupted too (or if there is the threat that it might) then things get really funky, since the target then changes – and has to be recalculated – ball-by-ball.
it was decided in mum’s basement and you know it
Nerds!
Ed, I’m gung ho for the Bruins this morning, they’re my pick in my seed-based suicide pool.
I love seed based pools. That’s the only way I finished in the money the only time I did. in 1999
UCLA’s shorts make it look like they’re all wearing cumberbunds. Also, they should feel free to start playing some defense any time now.
if they weren’t so baggy, those might be kanvas by katin’s.
I love seeds. Sunflower. Pumpkin. That order.
Hmmm, Gonzaga was one of the “most likely to flop” teams on EC’s chart.
Yeah, they were great as the plucky underdog that no one believed in. As a high seed they’ve been a consistent disappointment. The demise of Iowa State would appear to open things up for Gonzaga to redeem themselves this year.
dammit
not sure if EPL or surfing contest: stoke city v crystal palace.
It’s pretty old and I hate overblown sports celebrations, but this one is pretty cool
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i love these.
Anyone been to Tenerife?
I think the one of our (former) grad students went for a workshop. But she’s not at Harvard any more to ask questions.
I landed there on an end of a long sail
You were my prime suspect.
Any recommendations? We’ll be in La Laguna for 3 days.
Don’t fly KLM.
Ouch!
Sorry, not much. I spent a day in Santa Cruz, and the old city centre was nice. I remember eating in a bar/restaurant that bore a name of a geographical item in Basque Country and buying a gordo lottery there and winning for the only time I ever did. Don’t think that would help you much…
no GM this morning? I hope he didn’t go on a killing spree after trying to sign up for summer camp
DUDE
That was hectic. It took a solid 90 minutes to accomplish anything. Plus, since one kid turns 9 during the summer, the system wouldn’t let him sign up for any 9 or up programs or any 8 or under programs. I need to start drinking now.
one kid wait listed, the other in? kicked out twice with two sessions in my cart. two computers going, refresh refresh refresh.
Freeze freeze.
freeze.
I think I am worked out, but i had two baseball games immediately after and the kids were all up in our business while we were doing it. Especially annoying when they would shout random numbers while we were reading each other our id numbers or bar numbers or what not.
So summer camp DFA?
Just did my CA taxes in 3 minutes using the FTB online service!
In pretty much everything the state does things as poorly and backwards as possible. But I have always been a huge fan of the FTB online services. Have used them for years for my taxes and for anyone in the family I was doing taxes for. They have been free forever and simple to use. I would typically use whatever on-line service I was using that year to get a state estimate, then tell them to delete all the info and then take the 3 minutes you mentioned, make sure the total matched, and poof! Saved $30-40 from what H&R or Intuit would want to gouge me.
Good suggestion, took me more like 15 minutes, but saved me from the extra $25 Turbotax would have charged for the state efile*.
* Or alternatively, from the hassle of printing and mailing.
** Conversely, having the Turbotax version already precomputed for comparison also saved me from a stupid error that would have reduced my refund.
Your last bullet has always been the key for me. I figure if I end up at the same ending point I must not have screwed up that bad.
When I was doing my bracket I sure wish I’d known Xavier had a guy named Miles Davis.
There were so many fouls called in that Carolina-Arkansas game that I seriously wonder if the fix was in for the Over. Got pretty ugly. I’ll take it, though.
The A’s have the best spring training record in the American League just FYI.
The Giants have the worst in either league.
didn’t the A’s win the catus league in 2012?
(you can pretend not to like soccer all you want, but,) spanish clásico at 1pm…
thoughts? predictions?
there will be handsome men getting sweaty
sign of the times? Comcast (or some cable provider) has a billboard about the game on 101
3-2 to Barca
Steven Gerrard’s lunacy is resonating so strongly that he’ll be the goat of this game too.
lol.
This is going to come down to who does the fewest reckless, stupid things to the other guy between Suarez and Pepe.
Oh, wow, Benzema. That was quality.
Neymar…
Good half
been listening. sounds like RM > B.
I’d say so. Benzema has been the best player on the field.
out of nowhere.
Got damn that was a sweet first touch from bitey.
Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh Neymarrrrrrrrrr
he’s killing me these last few minutes.
Ran out of gas I think.
tot el camp
es un clam!
which of course is catalan for celebrate good camp, clam on!
The tables. They have turned.
Sorry. I was enjoying a beverage at the Largest Outdoor Bar In North America
GO QUAKES
Thanks, and go As.
God, I hate Michigan State. And Tom Izzo clearly sold his soul to Satan at some point. Only explanation that makes sense.
Happy Sunday and Happy Spring to you all, and welcome to another birthday tribute to another superstar of the music of our lifetimes. Today’s honoree dates to a time when you could pluck a master guitarist with a nice voice out of the Jazz world and install him as a crossover megastar with massive popular appeal. This was before Jazz — along with baseball the two things the US can claim it invented — became the least popular genre of all music like it is now here in the United States of Amygdala. Blog with us now as we are Breezin’ towards a daily Affirmation with a PAL DVD of an utterly electrifying set recorded for German TV in 1978, and featuring today’s birthday boy Mr. George Benson.
The Earthquakes stadium looks and sounds great on TV. Thanks Lew.
It. Is. Spectacular.
Thanks, and go As.
So the Opening Night 25-man roster seems pretty well set barring further injury or a trade. Any dispute on this?
SP: Gray, Kazmir, Hahn, Graveman
#5 SP/long relief: Pomeranz, Chavez
RH bullpen: Clippard, Cook, Otero, Scribner
LH bullpen: Abad, O’Flaherty (Doolittle on 15-day DL)
——-
C: Vogt, Phegley
Infield: Davis, Zobrist, Semien, Lawrie, Sogard UT
1B/DH: Butler
1B/#5 OF: Canha
OF: Crisp, Fuld, Gentry, Reddick (maybe Burns to start if Reddick on DL)
No dispute, but I have a feeling in the back of my head that Billy would like to keep Zito if he can. I dont think he would ask him to stay and go to AAA, but if anyone has an option I could see him trying to work around it at first. (I hope my feeling is just indigestion…)
Hahn appears to be in the rotation. The only possibility would be Zito for Graveman to begin the year, unless somebody gets hurt in the remainder of Cactus League. Even so, that gives Nashville Graveman, Bassitt, Nolin and Leon, plus Parker and Griffin are lurking for midseason. I’ve never taken Zito very seriously so possibly I’m underestimating him, but it sure looks to be in his interest to find a job with another club.
That’s why he’s with us. A’s have credibility as willing to let vets walk if anyone else calls.
Fangraphs just started their positional power rankings, which I always find to be a good read. They started off with catcher and ranked the A’s a respectable 14th (though spots 12-19 are all basically a tie, differentiated by just 0.2 WAR). They did say this though:
We’ll see how that shakes out. I’m afraid Butler has to be 2006 Frank Thomas for this team to score enough to win.
It’s a very deep lineup. There’s no Callaspos any more. Except maybe Fuld.
Fuld’s not a very good hitter, but he’s a good enough baserunner to make up for some of it. I can live with him batting ninth and catching everything hit near him.
The weird thing is his reverse split. That makes a platoon with Gentry less attractive.
And at #15 with the exact same projection is San Diego and Mr Norris.
Yeah. I like that trade.
Very much so. As much as I liked D-No, I cant see him throwing 1 hoppers 3 steps too late all season long anymore.
Or dropping pitchouts.
to quote a good friend “fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk fk “
I’m comfortable with Vogt and Phegley as the starters but the issue is the lack of depth. The third string catcher is the guy they absolutely refused to play down the stretch last year and after that is basically an empty void.
I’m actually troubled by the overall lack of depth I see on this roster. There is depth in SP and 2B, which is where the usual ZOMG A’s are so good at having depth!!! articles come in. But there is very little depth at C, SS, 3B, and especially the outfield. I see the outfield and 3B being pretty big issues since the incumbent starters there are all injury prone.
I see Zobrist and Semien as providing the IF depth (though I might be wildly optimistic about their versatility), but it’s true that any injury at 2B/SS/3B turns Sogard into a full time starter, which is a bad thing.
It’s kind of depressing that Fuld has a significant role on the team. I would be ok with him as 5th outfielder on a team that had set roles and didn’t platoon as much as the A’s. But on this team, his bat is probably the most obvious hole (along with Sogard’s).
From what I saw in Arizona I think Burns and Ladendorf have a good chance of spending a fair amount of time on the 25-man roster this year. They’re trying to make Ladendorf a Tony Phillips type player.
I think I’m bullish on Ladendorf, but Burns not so much. With the A’s platooning philosophy (which I think is necessary for them to be competitive), you need everyone on the roster to be able to hit at least a little… and I’m not sure that Burns will.
Are we taking our chances of competing seriously? If so, then depth is probably a problem. If not, then does it matter if we have to have some major holes show up and help raise our draft order?
From this viewpoint, it looks like a high variance season to me. I think there are fairly credible (but optimistic) scenarios where the team is pretty damn good. But they could equally well go down in flames due to a combination of injuries and poor performance from untested players. I realize that you can basically say the same thing about a lot of teams, but I think it applies especially to the 2015 A’s.
If Semien and Lawrie are good, we should be in the division race. If not, problems.
There should probably be an outfield caveat too. And we need Butler to do better than his 2014 wRC+ of 97, but I’m fairly confident that he will.
so like 2007, and 2008
This team is more talented than 2008. And less decrepit, or at least less dependent on one or two injury-prone players, than 2007.
Yeah OF is the big worry for me:
Crisp (frequently hurt, getting old), Reddick (frequently hurt, erratic), Fuld & Gentry (defensive specialists and platoon bats at best), Canha (rule 5 RH platoon bat also needed at 1B), Hassan, Burns…
So in the best of circumstances we have 3 OKish options, and after the inevitable injuries we’ll have a major hole or two in the lineup.
Zobrist can play OF too, but that just moves the problem to the infield.
I’m lukewarm about Canha’s chances of lasting very long. The skill set seems to be right-handed hitting Cust, and with Rule 5 guys usually getting about 3 plate appearances per week it’s going to be tough to reserve a roster spot for that. Most likely after several weeks they’ll have to make a trade if they want to keep him in the organization.
Isn’t he more or less platooning with Ike Davis at one of the 1B/DH spots? I would think he’ll be getting 1-2 starts per week, maybe even more as some of those OFers get hurt.
(Whether he’ll actually be any good, I have no idea.)
That is his shot, to be Freiman from a couple years ago. I don’t think they want his glove in the outfield. I’m not sure about his 1B defense, but they can figure out whether Butler or Canha is the less-bad defensive option vs. LHP.
I just cant see how we compete with likely 1 starting quality healthy outfielder from the sum of the parts.
This is a big problem. But, if they can hang around for a while, Beane does have the pieces (young pitching) and probably the willingness to make a move for an outfielder or two as they become available.
The big problem is that the resource most likely to be able to command something valuable is either A Sonny B Kazmir C a healthy Dylan Overton And it would be hard to have a future without A or C if it exists or contend without A and B.
I don’t think Kazmir is likely to bring that much back, or else he would have been traded already. I definitely would not trade Sonny if we’re trying to contend this year and next (we are). I would have no problem trading Overton for the right piece, but I also think some combination of the multitude of young third/fourth starter types we have collected could bring back a non-star but still valuable hitter.
I’m still worried that a move like that would only succeed in moving the Overton window.
Josh! Come quick! Someone figured out how to move the Overton Window!!!
Beane can move anything. ANYTHING.
I think Kazmir would be a valuable commodity at the trade deadline if healthy and performing due to his salary and lack of a long term commitment.
Overton is the only thing we have in the system even close to to being more than a number 3 starter.
I agree on Kazmir. He could bring a pretty decent return midseason.
Defense, defense, defense. The Fuld/Gentry platoon will likely be above average because of their defense. And Reddick is starting quality. And then you have the corpse of Coco, who admittedly is probably not starting quality any more. And that’s not counting Zobrist at all.
I actually am reasonably optimistic about the season. There’s nobody who shouldn’t be on an MLB roster on the team and I feel like those teams over-perform a bit. Same reason I think Houston will over-perform a bit.
Fuld will likely regress into being not good.
Gentry Reddick and Coco will combine to play about 300 games between them.
I just clicked over to the fangraphs depth chart. They have 560 PA for Crisp (525 in LF, 35 in CF) and 525 PA for Reddick. I’m more optimistic about this season than DFA, but that does seem pretty high.
Do they list somewhere which fangraphs writers are responsible for which depth charts?
I agree about Fuld. Honest question: what’s Gentry’s injury history besides last year? And yes, Reddick and Coco likely will spend time hurt.
I’d definitely be more optimistic with Olivera so Zobrist could spend quite a bit of time in the OF.
If the rumors about a 6 year deal for Olivera are true, I want no part of that.
Thanks, and go As.
Gentry has been DLed 6 times in his career, including a history with concussions and broken bones.
There are also a lot of nagging injuries.
http://www.prosportstransactions.com/baseball/Search/SearchResults.php?Player=Craig+Gentry&Team=&BeginDate=&EndDate=&DLChkBx=yes&InjuriesChkBx=yes&submit=Search
I too would feel better with Olivera, but I don’t think thats happening, plus if it does why the fuck didn’t we give that and the billy butler money to donaldson and keep him?
and here it is.
Thanks, and go As.
Of course. That qualifies as why-not flier money for the Dodgers
what are they going to do with Van Gough?
I just like saying “Vogt and Phegley”.
Literal lol at the Arizona catching situation. Tuffy Gosewisch!?
In 179 major league PA, he owns a 33 wRC+. Not really fair to judge him on that little, but it’s funny so I’m going to do it.
Modern-day Bill Bergen.
He focused all his major league quality talent on his name
Venditte :(. Also, would be sort of cool to see Zito make 1-3 starts, but I just can’t see it. Maybe instead of Graveman to get an extra year of control?
Given past practices, I bet he gets a cup of coffee at some point when we’ve blown up half the bullpen and put them on
a bus to sacto.I just don’t see it with Zito. Graveman looks very much like the next 3.5 ERA out-of-nowhere A’s project.
Seems like Beane has been doing a favor for Zito by showcasing him for other teams, while also holding him as a worst-case back up plan.
Yes, with Cactus League season being absurdly long and the option of having a major league pitcher throw in a minor league game as Kazmir did yesterday, it’s not like Zito is hogging innings that somebody else would need. Zito’s best chance would have been if Hahn, Graveman and Bassitt all needed to start the year in Nashville.
I assume we would stash Venditte in Nashville for a bit if he doesn’t make it. Anyone know if he has a Moss-style out clause in his deal?
I hope not. And I think he may realize that it is in his best interest to stay and go to Nashville. It seems like he never really got a shot before and if any team will try something unusual like a SP, it is us.
By the way Aces, is the excitement building in Fresno for the arrival of the Astros? I have to think their advance ticket sales are through the floor.
Well, now that Dan Straily is heading there I’m sure that demand is spiking.
I will make sure to buy seats in the OF for all of Dan’s starts. The kids love getting baseballs at the game.
I’m finding it very interesting. The initial reaction was exactly what you would assume: tons of Giants fans crying and angry at the Grizz for changing teams and swearing they would never go to another game.
But the FO has taken this chance to actually change things up. For years their marketing strategy has seemed to be “we have the ‘lil Giants here so show up”. Now they have become super active in promoting a local team. They look to be improving some of the promotions and concessions, and are really appealing to support the city.
I want to see the opening night crowd, but I have a feeling by the end of the year this may end up being a net positive for the ‘no. Especially if we can finally get a winner here (which with the Astros farm system is certainly possible).
And full disclosure-of course I’m biased. Maybe this is all Pollyanna marketing and 300 people will be there opening night.
Also is it bad to hope Trogdor gets hurt and comes for a rehab stint?
Pollyanna marketing?? Impossible…
Was just coming over to post that. That is without a doubt the strangest promotion I have seen in a long time. I get it, but really???
Living near Sacramento and getting Rivercats stuff now sucks.
Venditte has never even made a 40-man roster, so he wouldn’t have an out like that.
I think nm is probably right, he won’t make the club to start the year, but it seems like there’s a good chance we’ll see him at some point.
Also…no Alvarez?
He has ~40 innings at AA, none at AAA, and 8 for the Padres last year. I think he’s in the minors to start the year.
Alvarez is at the top of the list of relievers who show up in Oakland by Memorial Day. Clippard and Otero are solid, Scribbles is out of options but I think is there on merit. Cook is the one I wonder most about. They need to clear a roster spot for Doolittle well before Memorial Day, one hopes, but injuries usually take care of that.
And the way Cookie is pitching heck he might be tossed over for Z at this point.
Did his arm come off and they just used duct tape to fix it?
Cook optioned down already.
Alvarez probably gets his spot on the opening day roster (or at least, so sayeth the Sluss).
Damn. It seems like the right move, but still, damn.
tough fall.
but yeah, right move
I had yesterday’s game DVR’d and once I heard what happened, watched only his half-inning. It looks like it’s gotten between his ears even more so than the mechanical stuff. We know what he can do if he’s healthy, so maybe a dozen successful Nashville appearances is all it takes to get his shit together.
That’s what we get for having someone from Clovis High for Christ’s sake..
I apologize in advance for the next few hours you are going to waste after clicking this.
HTML 5 Drum machine
Thanks, and go As.
He has the body of a Jayson Nix but fields like a Mark Ellis.
no batting gloves? sold
All our prospects are on the cusp of being MLB stars with swings like [switch (race); case (white) giambi; case (brown) tejada; case (black) reggie; default chavez (not-mexican-enough)] and gloves like [switch (position); case (MI) Ellis; case (OF) Crisp; case (CI) Chavez; default steinbach].
We are so lucky to have [insert minor leaguer] in our system, and the fans will certainly appreciate their luck soon!
Fangraphs 1B projections have the A’s somewhat below average there. One thing that stood out when looking at “who’s about the same as the A’s?”: Remember when Mark Teixeira was considered one of the best players in the game, and now compare his projected line to that of Ike Davis; they’re pretty close.
Yeah, 1B is not looking so good. 2B is better, though the A’s production from that position entirely depends on how much Zobrist plays there. They give him 45% of the PA, which seems plausible but totally depends on who gets hurt in 2015 (please not Zobrist!).
I’m back from my Florida/Caribbean adventure. I just got to one spring training game, Twins vs Orioles at the Twins’ newly renovated Hammond Stadium. The program touts the stadium’s new “Super Vomitory” which it says “connects the concourse with the bowl and the sights, smells, and sounds of the game”. Brings a whole new meaning to the term “hurlers”. It was an okay game, the Twins were behind but came back to win. It was way too hot, but they have some nice shaded bar areas with tables and chairs on the upper level in right field. I didn’t get to see either Kurt Suzuki or Tommy Milone, alas.
The cruise part of the cruise was lovely, lots of great music and old friends. The various island destinations were okay (but also way too hot). Unfortunately I got a cold or the flu just as the cruise ended, and was so out of it on the way home that I apparently left my iPad and my passport on the plane.
Sounds largely good until the last sentence
Ouch–can they find them for you??
So far, Virgin, SFO, and the cab driver all say no. I’m pretty sure it was on the plane. This was my first time taking Virgin and I wasn’t all that impressed; for one thing, their in-house entertainment system has an all-Giants channel and the audio level on it is much hotter than the other channels, so even quickly scanning through to see what was on was made painful.
Virgin America knows all the places you want to be. Fly away with me.
That thing is cute the first time, but frequent flyers must find it super annoying.
I have it memorized.
Ugh that sucks.
Has anyone heard any details yet about the Opening Night parking lot scene? Wondering if we’ll be able to tailgate in our preferred spot, or if directed parking will be in force.
I probably won’t be able to get there until close to 4:00 I suspect. Unless Carolina is in the national championship game, in which case I’ll have 4 A’s tickets to sell quick.
A newly-married Bryan and Ralph will be setting up something low-key – canopy and tables but no grill unless someone else brings one – at their usual spot (A8, row 12, closest to the fence separating the parking lot from Amtrak) starting around 1pm, and then continuing with dessert after the game. It might be easiest just to piggyback on that, especially with the later arrival (NC permitting).
I will be bringing a grill and some gear but not the full version of my tailgate set up. My assumption is that directed parking will be used and thus coordinating locations will be impossible. Would be surprised and delighted to be allowed to park in the usual spot.
It’s about time he made an honest man out of him.
““We have taken steps … to prevent recurrence of corned beef sandwiches in future flights”
But did it have kraut?
6/62, 28M signing bonus for a 29 year old who might need TJS? That’s ridiculous.
Thanks, and go As.
From what I heard, the Dodgers have a club option for $1M in 2021, that kicks in if a surgery will be required during the contract.
It’s too bad those Grateful Dead shows couldn’t be at the Coliseum, for old times’ sake. The A’s are home that weekend, but even if they weren’t I bet the Levi’s Stadium people would have put together a better offer; seems like they’re going after the mega-events intensely. No, I have no interest, I’d rather leave that the way it was in the early ’90s, but if any of the other oldsters have thoughts of doing that, have a real good time!
Didn’t even try for tickets, but I’d go if some friends had extras. Not going to sweat missing it, there’s still plenty of good times to hear the music, especially with Phil so close at TXR.
But I did get tickets for the Levi’s shows. Almost forgot about it, then entered the drawing a few hours before it closed. Was surprised to get a pair for both nights, kind of crappy seats but it should be fun.
Me too, obstructed view for the first night, decent (but expensive) seats for the second.
Nice, also obstructed view first night (to the side of the stage) and nosebleeds for Sunday. We should try to coordinate.
my friend got tix but needs to get face value for them.
if you know anybody.
Thanks, and go As.
How many for which date?
I believe 4 each for Sat and Sun, but I will double check.
Thanks, and go As.
Thanks
I’m glad they’re doing it at all, and not trying to tour it in multiple cities at their age.
@Soaker: Yeah, same here. I think the band saw from the Soldier Field response that there is a huge demand, and much money to be made. I don’t begrudge them that, but neither do I want to pay 100 bucks to attend a massive stadium show featuring a frail husk of the band I once loved. Also, by far the least pleasant show I ever saw was also the largest venue (Foxborough; the problem may also have been all the Massholes).
Last time I mentioned it here (January), my wife’s book contract had just fallen through because her publisher up and decided to close shop. Her agent went back to square one and just yesterday she got an offer from a bigger better publisher that wants to do a two book deal (the original book plus a newer one that is at the second draft stage). So she is pretty FKing stoked. That business is crazy.
all business is crazy.
and, woohoo! congrats!
yay!!!!!
That’s outstanding, I have so much admiration for people who successfully sell their writing. Good for her.
Fantastic. Let us know when it’s available at
our friendly local bookstoresAmazon.I’ll pencil you all in for preorders. Gotta get those presale numbers up to convince the publisher to go all in on the print run.
Excellent!
kinda makes sense. once she was wanted by a publisher, it was easier for another publisher to want her. and publishers are more interested in locking down an ongoing author than a one-off, because that’s where they make their money. which is to say, yay!
She was pretty stressed for a while, and it seems like most of the authors who were stranded by Egmont are still looking for new publishers. It was her agent’s idea to start shopping the second book at the same time, thinking that it could sweeten the pot a bit. Also, since the first book is already mostly edited and now on a fast-track schedule, her second book will be the real first opportunity to work closely with the new editor.
Awesome!
Right on!
HA HA HA, right out of the Pascual Perez playbook:
That’s hilarious. I guess that helps explain the nine runs he coughed up in 1 and 2/3.
what if pasquel perez had google?
I just notices soaker mentioned pascuel perez in his comment. rtc,e.
I wonder if the cubs are going to gove Edwin Jackson directions to county stadium, old busch, forbes field, Atlanta fulton county etc for the entire year?
It wil be so awkward when he shows up at the Polo Grounds.
there’s a whole thread about this at FK.com.
asvd
Actually, it’s something you have to concentrate on. It would be pretty easy to glance at the schedule, see A’s @ Rangers and think the game is in Goodyear rather than Surprise. At these two-team sites, there’s a game every day so either the Reds or Indians are playing in Goodyear and you’re in the traffic coming into the ballpark thinking nothing is wrong. As the visiting pitcher I bet you could get all the way to the clubhouse before the light bulb goes on.
I can see that.
OTOH, Edwin Jackson is on the team that used to be at Hohokam, so should be at least a little bit aware of the changes.
Starting early this year.
Argh. Maybe the roster reinforcements should start early this year too.
New York Post article, but still: We now have proof that there’s a ceiling on the local television rights revenue, and a lot of teams are probably at the ceiling already.
I saw something a couple weeks ago about the Rangers TV deal – I forget the exact numbers, but they’re locked into something like $80 Million/year, and now averaging only 20K viewers per game.
There is definitely some kind of market correction coming.
Not quite as bad as I remembered, $115 million but 58,000 average viewers.
So about $12 per viewer per game.
The Pac-12 Network/DirecTV issue has reminded me that I can in fact survive without seeing every Cal football game.
I’m willing to pay a pretty penny to watch 90 A’s games a year (not sure I need to see 162, or the 145 that CSN-CA makes available) as long as I don’t have to pay the 10 cents/month for The Food Channel and each of the other 180 channels I receive but never watch.
The whole thing reminds me that when I first got my own telephone service it was illegal to own your own telephone. The customer had to lease one of Pacific Telephone’s sets and pay a fee in their bill every month. That eventually collapsed under the weight of changing technology and this will too…but not without a lot of pain on all sides.
I certainly hope so. The local TV deal disparities between teams have gotten ridiculous in recent years
Man, everybody in that story are bad guys. Poor Time Warner Cable, now will get less money from Comcast. God I hate cable companies.
have fun as the new newspapers assholes!
Heh heh.
Giftastic Fangraphs piece on the Grave Man’s pitches
Kinda weird follow through with the back leg
Thanks, and go As.
He’s in prime position for the kick-save on any grounder up the middle.
Should we schedule the toe surgery now?
or wicked googlies
These new USA soccer uniforms are embarrassing. WTF Nike?
don’t worry. the US unis only last about as long as USMNT leads.
:O
Is it a good idea to leave the other team’s striker completely unmarked right in front of the goal? It seems like not a good idea.
just forget about him being there too.
Hmm, I like this second half better. Would be nice to leave this dank, miserable-looking Scandinavian monument to soulless stadium architecture with a win.
yeah, that was a nice goal. especially since altidore coulda probably chipped it over the goalie, but went for the unselfish, sure thing.
they forgot about a guy again.
Same guy.
x3 + a little wind.
Our defense can get Bent(ner) as far as I’m concerned.
This team gives up so many late scores that I expect to see Jim Johnson subbing in around the 75th minute.
apparently they can’t get bendtner.
huh. aussies holding a 2-2 tie against germany?
Or not. Whatever.
my other comment was backhanded, but this one isn’t supposed to be. maybe they’re thinking of the women first. wide neck can be a flattering look for them even if not for the guys.
I could see that looking a lot better on Alex Morgan than it does on Michael Bradley.
this comment is true from everything between a soccer jersey and a, i don’t know, fried egg or something.
Fried eggs on Alex Morgan…Guess I can never eat breakfast with the kids again…
am I bad for thinking Sydney Leroux is (approx) 86 times more attractive than Morgan?
Thanks, and go As.
i don’t know. is it bad when you like breast and your friend likes thigh, but neither one of you is invited to thanksgiving dinner?
what if both are vegan
Thanks, and go As.
this conversation is making me horngry.
I disagree on that, but you’re not bad for thinking it.
No, but when in doubt go with the Cal woman.
I think both are very attractive and are of similar attractiveness, even though they get there in different ways.
Not at all. But then again at this point I am thinking Alice from the Brady Bunch is a fine catch so I’m ok with whatever woman you suggest.
Setting aside the neck thing, did they have to use every single shade of blue on the color wheel in a single kit?
and then put big ass white stripes down the side..
AND THEY GOT RID OF THE BOMB POPS FOR THESE
Thanks, and go As.
av bait
wish i had time right now.
“messi is clutch.” BOTTOM LINE.
there has to be some people measuring spacing or something, right? I imagine he gets defenders to more closely mark him even without the ball. I would guess that makes for more opportunities for his teams if not more time with the ball.
they acknowledge the other parts that would go into a complete analysis toward the bottom — playmaking, drawing defenders/spacemeking, and the flip-side skillset, defending.
Sure, and anything that relies on a WPA-esque measurement is awfully reliant on quality of teammate (for example, why penalize CR for having teammates who score three OTHER goals and shut out the opposing team?). Layering on TV viewership only multiplies the problem.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1597790-the-most-important-new-advanced-soccer-statistics-and-why-they-matter
(pass-cum-shot isn’t and is what it sounds like.)
rabbithole nerdbait.
I’m sure there is absolutely nothing to see here and is all a big misunderstanding.
So anybody here watch The Jinx? If not and you liked True Detective and/or Serial, you should try it.
I just watched it over the last week. True Detective comp is weird, except that is definitely what they are going for with the opening credits. I thought it was actually a bit weak as a documentary — too much soft focus reenactment with camera shots that cut off at the shoulders to make it less obvious that you’re watching actors. And it was kind of lacking in suspense. Obviously much of that is due to the fact that I had already read about the ending, but even if I had come in completely fresh, I think the result was never really in doubt.
But all that criticism aside, dude making the film was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time and I think that’s at least 80% of the job right there.
Well put. I found it interesting but they milked it for maybe 1-2 hours more than necessary. The Serial comparison is an interesting one – at first I wondered if my feelings about BD were going to be precisely the opposite to those for AS, in that despite him being weird and creepy he may not have actually done it. But, nah. It did make me want to watch All Good Things to see how it’s handled in fictional format.
A friend in NY has had Durst Corp. as a client, and he says meetings with Douglas and the family were monumentally weird.
Yeah the family seems awful. “Hey Robert, get up and get out of bed. Quick, before you miss the chance to watch your mother jump off the roof to her death.”
Yeah, that story was super strange. Was the idea that seeing the children might convince the mother not to jump or….?
And after all of it, I’m not sure if BD was a smart psychopath or a monumentally stupid one. I mean, he’s definitely charismatic at times. And I have no idea if I should spoilerize or not, so I will:
But getting arrested for the sandwich? Saying what he did in the bathroom of the damn people recording you AFTER messing that up once before? Hell, agreeing to the interviews at all. And yet he’s a phenomenal witness in Texas and with possible help, completely threw off the police in the original investigation of his wife.
And if you want a different fictional parallel to pull instead of True Detective: The Talented Mr Ripley.
There was some guy waving a gun today on one of the main squares in Stuttgart. One guy, one pistol. It resulted in 250 police storming and sealing off the area of basically everything in the same zip code and laying the traffic (but not the guy with the gun who surrendered) dead. I had to drop my car along the street and take a subway home. We are such beginners when it comes to guns in public.
Sounds better than our policy of just casually shooting people like that. Or was he white?
Heh
Dean Smith really was a hell of a guy.
Yup.
Very nice
If I shot Reggie Miller with a tranquilizer dart no jury would convict me.
My only concern is that it will wear off before the NBA playoffs are over.
Carolina played about as good as I’ve seen all year in that first half. Let’s hope it continues.
They played well in the second half too. Wisconsin was just better.
What happens if the final is NC/NC State?
Scratch that.
Whoops
he is an American treasure
You spelled “fucking idiot” wrong.
[checks] nope. treasure.
(didn’t listen to his commentary of course)
“Honey, why aren’t you going to bed?”
“I’m too busy making a photoshop that is going to go viral and for which BleacherReport will give someone else credit.”
1) awesome 2) lame
Weak sauce, eh?
WTMWT????
nothing when he is facing the A’s
Fuck this Giants broadcast.
Fuck ’em all.
what’d they say? fosse seems to not be following the game
Just the general smugness that comes with winning 3 WS in 5 years.
Was listening to the radio and they are calling their 3 trophies “the triplets”. never heard of multiple births over non consecutive years being grouped like that but ok…
I really didn’t need to gag while eating my breakfast
Jesus…I thought we were through the worst of it, but nope.
at least it’s a week or two after the viability of: panda hat trick.
Baseball? Wut?
Only $130 for a Madison Bumgarner World Series MVP commemorative bat?
Where do I sign up?
Sell a million of those and they can sign Zito for another 7 years.
seems like there are cheaper ways to bash my brains in.
fosse tells me that Chavez is pitching well, then describes every inning and it seems like the opposite
no vince, the giants third base coach leaving will not really have a big impact on their season
That’s where you’re wrong Ed, Flannery was their only clutch stepper.
I am fairly certain the A’s broadcast team, including KK, don’t understand the phrase “that quickly.” Fosse just used it after 2 runs scored and 4 batters this inning
I hope the kids club water bottle isn’t the same one from 2010 or 11. its not well balanced
Slusser in the booth makes it listenable
Do we know that Ken is going to be back for Opening Night? I remember reading that he would be missing the “early spring games”, but if he’s not there tonight he probably wouldn’t be there this weekend as well, and that’s the entire Arizona radio schedule. I haz worries.
I thought he wasn’t gong to do any spring games. I suppose we will see APril 2
I saw him up there briefly with Vince and Ray when I was at that Las Vegas game and he probably said something then, but I missed it and haven’t seen anything further.
Ken “will rejoin the broadcasts at a later date”, said Vince, vaguely, right there. Which suggests to me Opening Night isn’t looking likely.
That’s no good. I’ll be an optimist and hope that was justr Vince being his usual imprecise self.
Ken needs to step on the clutch
(mention of Roxy joining Vince during the Bay Bridge Series, and about Ken):
Ray: Sometime in April, I guess?
Vince: That’s what we’re hoping for.
I know Roxy has assignments with ESPN and Pac-12 Network and his P-12 duties may include some college baseball, so I don’t know that Roxy would be a viable substitute in April.
Bruce Jenkins’s column today has a note quoting Korach as “virtually certain I’ll be doing games at some point in April.”
I feel bad for the guy and his knees and joints and back.
If it was up to me, I’d put him on a hybrid John Madden/Vin Scully No Plane plan where he does all the home games, and then does road games in Anaheim and NL West cities, and occasionally Seattle when train/RV travel is feasible.
I agree Vince and ray the giants playing in Oakland to end the season is dumb, but I don’t think the dodgers or padres will be too concerned that the giants will have a DH for the final three games
I made four cakes for a baby shower tomorrow. I think I need an insulin drip now.
I know its meaningless, but the giants are 6-19 and 1.
(especially meaningless since lincecum pitched ok and the a’s scored runs on a AAA guy)
(They scored the first four off of Timmy.)
You are not necessarily disagreeing
Good point.
Two doubles, a triple and three home runs for Moss in 25 at bats this spring. It seems that his hip is getting better…
Ike Davis and Billy Butler are having good springs too. I still don’t like that trade though.
Sure, but with Moss it was more of a question “if recovered from injury”. And the early results seem to support the theory that he is.
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It’s a folky fingerpickin’ Friday today, albeit inspired by the saddest of possible occasions. Guitar virtuoso, Pentangle co-founder, solo artist, teacher, and raconteur John Renbourn passed away yesterday from a heart attack at the age of 70, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most astonishing instrumentalists of ours or any other lifetimes. Blog with us now for a tribute in the form of a gorgeous JR solo set, captured by Australian radio in 1987 and remastered all day yesterday by yours truly in honor of this most legendary player.
Go Zags, beat Eds! Salvaging a tie in the FK alma mater battle is the best I can hope for.
like life, it always ends in a tie
At least we both beat that bastard bed.
Sup?
Yo,
*nods*