Waitress, I’d like the Eggs Abad, with extra salmonella please.
Jesse Hahn on the mound for the A’s, while Dallas Keuchel faces this lineup:
Burns CF, Semien SS, Reddick RF, Butler DH, Lawrie 3B, Phegley C, Canha 1B, Gentry LF, Sogard 2B.
Your dream team announcing combo of Vince, Glen and Ray calls all the action from Minute Maid Park.
Smells like…victory.
I really like vince on TV
Trade ya for Ray.
I will wily taveres him
Anyone not going on the 28th want a Stephen Vogt bobblehead?
I am not going
But do you want the bobblehead?
why yes, are you offering?
Yes
can I have it? on the 6th?
Sure
I’ll bring beer
One thing we have *plenty* of!
Brown ale to Newcastle.
ASVD
yes, very good
I am going on 5/28, but as usual time spent in the lot pregame >>> than any giveaway trinket, for me.
I am going, but I’m not going to be able to get in line until 4 PM or so, which might not cut it. But I’m going to bring a sign offering to buy one off Yankees fans for $20.
I just looked up George Springer on fangraphs. How the hell does someone have a 104 wRC+ with a .185 batting average? Joe Morgan eat your heart out.
Now that’s a fun tidbit right there: A’s are 1-8 against left handed starters this year
Wash please.
There’s your daily error for Semien
marcus. don’t think. throw
and yeah canha, catch that
Earlier in the game Ray repeated his “if people just leave him alone and don’t write about it, he’ll be fine” theory. So that error was our fault, or Slusser’s, or something.
I blame Ray. He was talking about it.
The act of observing disturbs the observed.
Seriously, how many E’s will Semien be allowed to make before he’s no longer the starting SS? At this point how much worse could Lawrie or Sogard be, really?
Despite his bat, I could see Semien being sent to AAA when Zobrist comes back and then returning when Zobrist is traded.
You don’t send down .313/.357/.506
He’ll be fine. This is the perfect season to let him actually learn the position, we’re not winning shit this year.
Thanks, and go As.
Failure can become mentally destructive and even if the team is 50 games under .500, there’s still pressure in the major leagues that doesn’t exist in the minors. A month getting it together defensively at Nashville might not be a bad idea for the long term.
Agreeing with both of you, only solution is 2B.
That’s what I would think too
when Robertson comes up in september
If he weren’t hitting I’d be more inclined to agree with you.
I don’t think he’s got any mental issues, he’s just making simple mistakes.
Thanks, and go As.
I’m still hopeful/stupid enough to think there is a glitch that a few good hours with Wash will clear up.
Remember, Donaldson’s rep was as a shitty defensive player. And say what you want about Marcus at least now he should know he needs help (but has the bat of a potential all star)
I’m with MikeV on this one. Believe it or not, Semien doesn’t even have the worst error contribution to UZR in 2015 — that award goes to Ian Desmond (caveat: UZR updates somewhat infrequently, so Semien might take the top spot in the next update). Now I’m not exactly sure of the details in how ErrR is calculated, but the point is that there *are* other major league shortstops who make lots of errors. Desmond has been a 4+ WAR player for the past three seasons (he’s not looking so good in 2015, but that’s mostly because he isn’t hitting).
Semien is the worst fielding shortstop in MLB, but I don’t think he’s in such a different category that his SS experiment needs to be called off, especially since this isn’t a contention year.
I hate to be harsh, but if he can’t get over the mental side of struggling in the field, he’s not going to last in the bigs anyway.
I’m not even sure what part of it is mental at this point and what part is him just not being very good in the field.
The one positive is that his struggles in the field don’t seem to be affecting him at the plate.
Someone suggested a few days ago that he could end up in CF. That makes sense to me, as his current fielding problems could be just as much of an issue at 2B as at SS. And he’s certainly hitting well enough to be an asset in CF, or even in LF for that matter. The main problem is that we still don’t have another candidate to be our everyday SS.
He could have a future in the OF, yes.
Watching him live, I feel a little more comfortable “scouting” him…
Semien flashes SS tools when he doesn’t have time to think. I’m not sure if he can range deep in the hole and gun someone out at 1st (he didn’t get the opportunity while I was watching him) but he has the arm strength to make at least the routine throws. His worst throws come when he has time; and he’s not rushing, he’s being appropriately deliberate (if that makes sense) and then sending a worm burner to 1st base. His range seems fine although he’s not very instinctive and the hands look OK to me.
But he’s definitely less than the sum of his parts while playing SS.
Marcus Semien: Shortstop? But I’ve only ever been a utility guy.
Billy Beane: It’s not that hard, Marcus. Tell him, Wash.
Ron Washington: It’s incredibly hard.
People keep bringing it up, but is there anything at all that points to it being a mental thing as opposed to him just flubbing some grounders and missing some throws?
He’s still hitting the shit out of the ball. If someone is really a headcase, they’re going to let it affect him all the time (see Reddick)
Thanks, and go As.
There’s a difference between being a temperamental headcase (Reddick) and just having a mental issue (not able to do something you’ve repeatedly done all your life).
I can’t explain it other than it has to be mental; I’ve seen him do everything right to set up and make a good throw… then he bounces it to 1B.
But when it’s a pure reaction play, no time to think be for making the throw, he hits the glove.
Glen “white sox came storming back”
uh, no, just team dynamite doing its thing
Vince described Abad as “really inconsistent” — if only.
I am relatively sure he thinks “consistent” means good and “inconsistent” means bad
They all do.
No, ray, they don’t have to bunt because there is a guy in scoring position with no outs, not because there is a passed abll
that scores the runner regardless
remember when this half inning started?
I think I need to shave again
DirecTV is showing signs of succumbing to this thunderstorm, which may spare me from part of the rest of this.
I am not sure keuchel is wrong on that pitch. seems like han got it
Alright bases loaded A’s. Let’s do this
Probably should have specified what “this” meant
Well, Gentry was going to have to do something…
Even the spare bland descriptions from Gameday cannot mask the despair of needing Gentry to come through at a crucial moment.
naturally
No you throw it to who.
if only who wss the firstbaseperson
nice one craig
does it count as a runner in scoring position if its billy butler on 2nd?
Apparently so!
Two outs running on contact helps.
missed it
shut down fram. drinmk
Shutdown Inning Lost: A Poem in 12 Sections
I don’t think Reddick wants to play any more today.
Im at work, was the called strike 3 an actual strike?
It was borderline, low and away, certainly called a strike a fair number of times even if off the plate by a couple inches.
Fair nuff. Thanks
hey dude how was the game?
Thanks, and go As.
The tailgate on Saturday was fun. And hanging out with everyone in the section (thanks again for the tickets, Bryan) on Sunday was cool.
The games themselves?
Typical A’s baseball, circa 2015.
Eh, the important stuff was fun.
Thanks, and go As.
Very true.
If work keeps being slow I might be able to catch a couple more games.
Definitely more an “I’m frustrated” rather than “You blew the call”. He came pretty close to an ejection over this.
Thanks
Gentry, Sogard, Burns are coming up in the 9th so I’m feeling pretty good about 6 runs A’s mojo.
How the hell do you double on a “soft line drive to second baseman”?
It was more of a blooper over Canha’s head. It didn’t make it out to Reddick so Sogard had to go over to the foul line to track it down.
The MFker landed on the infield dirt.
The 28th loss will be 5 more than any other AL team has, and 3 more than any NL team. I’m afraid Real BC Oakland is facing relegation.
Sagh.
120 more games of Vince blathering on about “what the A’s need to do to turn this around” is going to be a lot more than I can handle.
In a month or so when we get officially eliminated and there’s nothing the A’s can do to turn it around, he’ll come up with something else.
The reality is, to get on track and turn this around next season…
If we’re All Out for this year, let’s break some new ground in the broadcast booth with Kirsten Karbach.
That’s no good … she tells you what’s happening.
she is so much better than vince.
how can we help?
What you’re really saying here is Ken is dead, aren’t you?
Or since the operation, he is now Kirsten.
She does that weird “radio voice” thing that irks the hell out of me. The guy who preceded Greg Papa did that with the A’s and it made me cringe to listen to any word he said.
I still feel like there is legitimate ML talent on this team, but it’s too big a hole. So here’s the plan:
Trade Kaz to BOS for Cecchini/JBJ
Trade Zobrist to NYY for Rob Refsnyder
Trade Clippard for a reliever prospect
Explore trades for Reddick and Vogt. Both are decent sell highs.
Let Semien and Canha play SS and LF for the rest of the year. The record for most E as a SS since WWII in a season is Roy Smalley with 51 in 1950. Let Semien try for it. Canha is in left to play Muncy at 1b. Call up Wendle and see if there’s anything there. Let Lawrie, Butler, and Crisp (if he comes back) try and prove their value. Any are available in trade. DFA Fuld. Play Gentry against all LHP for another month. If there’s nothing DFA him.
Lineup:
Burns
Semien
Reddick
Vogt
Butler
Muncy
Canha
Lawrie
Wendle
Add Cecchini, JBJ, Refsnyder when they get here for those struggling.
Rotation:
Gray
Hahn
Graveman
Chavez
Leon/Bassitt/Nolin/Zito/Pom/Griffin
Give all the young SP every opportunity to pitch. Let them get their struggles out this year. Gray is simply too good unless there’s an absolutely dynamite offer. Do not trade unless there is a literal A prospect on the table or a young player with 5+ years of control. Repeat: DO NOT TRADE GRAY.
Bullpen:
Alvarez
Venditte
Scribner
FRod
Otero
…
Look I don’t care who is in the pen as long as Abad is gone. Have Doo take it incredibly slow if he’s really only throwing high 80s. Maybe even shut him down. Trade EOF for nothing. Trade Clippard for something. This problem child has already cost the A’s this season.
is Jon Bon Jovi good at baseball?
Also trading Zobrist for one 2B spec seems like selling low.
Thanks, and go As.
A 24 year old B prospect before the season who has a 143 wRC+ in AAA. And Zobrist is coming off injury.
I would worry that JBJ’s upside is basically Craig Gentry.
We can corner the market on fast outfielders who can’t hit.
It is a worry. But he can certainly field, and he did put up a 154 wRC+ in AAA this year.
No on the Red Sox package. JBJ is somewhat interesting but Cecchini is pretty horrid. He looks like Sogard at best without the plus defense or shiny minor league numbers.
They should definitely explore a Reddick trade. He’s at his highest value right now and maybe he’s actually broken out. But with him, there’s always the chance of getting injured again and becoming inconsistent. Not someone I want to commit long term dollars to.
Cecchini hasn’t hit at AAA but at every other level, he’s hit quite well. He can fake a SS and would give the A’s another option there.
I’d rather have a real SS.
And a shiny hat.
Sogard has plus defense?
I’d think so. Maybe not uber defensive, but better than average.
PASSES THE EYEBALL TEST!
But seriously, he seems very steady in the field. Isn’t he?
Ha, yeah. The eye test + not remember hearing anything negative (or positive) about it from a visual or statistical sense made me feel it was a fair assessment. I was fully prepared to be proven wrong though.
He has career UZR/150 of +4.4 at 2B over ~2000 innings. At SS, his UZR/150 is -12.1, but it’s only 400 innings. I think that the best guess is to heavily downweight the SS UZR number (because sample size is too small), which would lead to the conclusion that he has above average defense at 2B, which would translate to roughly average defense at SS (I think the relative positional adjustment between 2B and SS is 5 runs?).
I’ll admit that it was not a thoughtful question, but reading this doesn’t really convince me that defense is an asset for Sogard, so much as we think it SHOULD be an asset for a light-hitting MI.
That said, I just did a Fangraphs leaderboard for 2013/2014 (to get ~2000 innings) and the closest comp is Hunter Pence at 4.2 (#36 of 121 qualified), with next closest being Kendrick (5.2) and Miguel Cabrera (3.9). So it’s certainly fair to call him above average, but he’s no defensive specialist. Which, I guess, really just gets us into a debate about what “plus” defense means.
I think it’s fair to say he’s not a defensive specialist. He’s an above average (though not “good”) defender at one position and average to sub-par elsewhere. That hardly constitutes someone who should be viewed as a specialist.
If I weren’t still smiling about Steph Curry’s daughter, this baseball season would really be pissing me off right about now.
BUT THINK OF THE BEAT WRITERS ON DEADLINE
This anchor on ESPN right now is actually trying to argue that it was inappropriate for him to bring his kid to that press conference because it would be inappropriate for her to bring her kids to the set while she’s anchoring. She doesn’t seem to understand that playing basketball is his job, not press conferencing.
when you are dong something at work, the appropriate arbiter is your boss. If your boss says no, don’t do it.
in this case, more people watched/clicked on stories about the kid that any other press conference after a basketball game. I think the boss is fine with that
I watched the video before I knew that reporters were bitching, and for about two seconds I have to confess I thought “huh, I would be mildly peeved if I had to find a cut of tape to pull from this thing and there was some toddler babbling over the ten seconds I wanted”. And then I remembered how many events, sports and otherwise, thatI’ve tried to pull cuts from where there was coughing, sneezing, rustling papers, sirens going by outside, cell phones going off, and generally crappy audio quality interfering with my plans. Broadcasters need to realize that the world is not going to deliver us pristine audio and video, journalists in general need to realize that news doesn’t happen on schedule and according to plan. And a person who lives with a two-year-old child is usually quite used to thinking and speaking while the child is doing their thing.
I think she should just do all the pressers by herself. So adorable. I want Klay to bring his bulldog next time.
HOLY SHIT. BEST DAY EVER! I got a $1.25/HR raise and Dr. Asshole got backstage passes to an Avett Brothers show and he gave them to me. /dead
and you missed the game!!!!
And then Asshole, hot intern, and some coworkers went to dinner.
With you?
And would that be good or bad?
But I’m glad you had a good day.
Oh yeah. With me. It was nice. We have disgusting conversations.
Because sick people are disgusting!
Bravo!