As the Cactus league plods to its eventual conclusion, it’s time to play hide the starting pitchers.
One night suppose that the A's prefer not to have the Angels see Raul Alcantara today. Alcantara is getting in his work in minor-league game
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) March 28, 2017
So while the A's are having Alcantara skip the Angels today, the Angels have done the same thing with Nolasco, who had been scheduled today.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) March 28, 2017
Replacing apparent rotation member Alcantara on the hill today is last year’s second-round pick Logan Shore.
A's at Angels and Logan Shore is Oakland's starter today: pic.twitter.com/UZFtBhL7Q1
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) March 28, 2017
I have very little idea who many of the rest of those names are.
Jaff is beck.
Nice one!
I heard the other day that the A’s play the first 8 days straight, while one of the others in the division (Angels? Rangers?) won’t need to use a fifth starter until something like 16 games into the season. That seems a little crazy.
This spring training has really been an exercise in separating the weak from the Jaff.
Fangraphs wrapped up their positional power ranking series today. It doesn’t look great for the A’s, but they do project to be above average at the following positions:
* Catcher: 6th place with 2.9 WAR from Vogt (1.9), Phegley (0.7), and Maxwell (0.3)
* SS: 12th place with 2.3 WAR from Semien (2.2) and tiny helpings of Rosales, Pinder, and Barreto.
* LF: 10th place with 1.8 WAR from Davis (1.6), De Aza, Canha, Joyce, and Smolinski
* bullpen: 13th place with 3.5 WAR led by Doolittle (1.5), Madsen (0.6), Dull (0.5), Hendriks (0.4), and Casilla (0.3)
Somehow the Fangraphs full season projections still expect the A’s to win 79 games, which would be a big improvement over the last two seasons. I think the main takeaway is that the team has depth and lots of non-terrible players… but they don’t have any good players either.
Alejandro De Aza opted out of his minor league deal yesterday, apparently having been beaten out for the fifth outfielder spot by either Jaff Decker or None of the Above.
There go our World Series chances
So at our best positions we are slightly above average? YAY BASEBALL!
4! of 11!
Normally I’d agree but the monotony of watching Rajai, Rosales, Alonso everyday…at least we get to see interesting prospects right now.
It’s a 2009 roster.
Adam Kennedy: 587 PA
Orlando Cabrera: 448 PA
Rajai: 432 PA. He did manage a .360 OBP; he hasn’t come near that since.
Washed-up Jason Giambi: 328 PA. Somehow he had a part-time job for 5 seasons after that with Colorado and Cleveland.
Nomar: 169 PA
What was left of Bobby Crosby: 272 PA
Oh yeah, I forgot: Matt Holliday: 400 PA
The reason to watch that team was that Anderson, Cahill, Braden and Gio combined to make 101 starts. I’m staking a lot on Manaea having a big season, and probably Cotton looking good and somebody else (Gossett?) emerging. And definitely, Chapman and Barreto playing well enough in Nashville to push a couple journeyman aside after the All-Star break.
I love good third base defense like anyone else, and dingers, but is there any reason to think chapman is going to make any contact in the majors?
Chapman is an unknown, and I know sometimes the shiny new toy isn’t as good as the well-used old one, but I’d be more interested in watching Chapman sink or swim in August and September than running Trevor Plouffe (moderate power, but one season in his career with OBP > .309) out there for 150 games. Particularly with a roster that’s so chock-full of other journeyman types: Alonso, Lowrie, Rajai, Joyce, Rosales.
Another dismal thought about 3B going into the season:
Prior to arriving in Oakland:
PLOOOOOFFF (age 30)
2909 PA with Minnesota: .247/.308/.420
KOOOOOZZZ (age 28)
1775 PA with San Diego: .263/.309/.436
can trevin Ploofmanov catch?
Keep the A’s name out yo mouth, Goodell:
Yeah that’s total fucking bullshit. The Coliseum lease terms give City/County full rights to tell the A’s they have to accommodate a new Raiders stadium. There are legit reasons the NFL can cite to say they tried but couldn’t make Oakland work, but that ain’t one of em.
Does it even matter at this point?
Best part? My prediction of a new baseball-only stadium in the coliseum complex just got a step closer to reality.
And fuck the Raiders.
With the Raiders possibly not welcome at the Coliseum after 2018, the next question, assuming Mark does nail down the B of A money and sign a lease, is whether Sam Boyd Stadium can be adequately upgraded to minimum NFL standards.
I think the issue of scheduling games in an unroofed stadium with aluminum seats is surmountable. In the first 5 weeks of the season, play 3 road games, one home Thu/Sun/Mon night (5:30 p.m., hot but tolerable) game and have the bye week. That means the first home Sunday afternoon game is Week 6, which in 2016 was October 16. August preseason games would suck but they aren’t part of the national TV deal so they can be played at 7 p.m. local time or later; the Cardinals did that for years in Tempe.
I see difficulty playing even one lame-duck year in Oakland. The 1996 Houston Oilers drew 20K, 20K and 15K for their final 3 games in the Astrodome, and red flag for Raiders fans, they went 6-2 on the road but 2-6 at home. They were supposed to play in the Astrodome in 1997 too but bailed out and went to Memphis (where they also drew poorly, because Memphis doesn’t care about a team in transition from Houston to Nashville). They finally at least got to the right city in 1998 when they played in Vanderbilt’s stadium, then moved into the new place in 1999. 2017 is set, but after that I don’t see the NFL wanting to repeat that story, and once the Raiders commit to Vegas they ought to start building support there rather than wasting time in a place like San Antonio.
Adding one thing here: I’ve read a few places today, including on Deadspin, that Memorial Stadium at Cal is a possible alternate venue for the Raiders. No, it isn’t. The Raiders played one regular season game and a few exhibition games there in the 1970s due to the A’s priority in the Coliseum, but the City of Berkeley decided the games were a pain in the ass and imposed a tax for the purpose of making such games economically unrealistic.
Santa Clara seems like the only feasible non-Coliseum option to me. But I actually think they’ll draw ok in the lame duck years. It’s a good team now, Raiders fans have waited a long time for a championship contender. I’ve renewed my season tix and don’t regret it at all.
In sports that count, Argentina at Bolivia kicks off a very nice day of South and North American world cup qualifiers.
While Bolivia is wretched, it’s always fun to watch the Argentinian superstars (minus one little potty mouth) suck wind at 12,000 feet.
Ecuador-Colombia is the biggest game of the round, with Uruguay also having a key road game at Peru.
Tonight in the Northern Hemisphere, the rampaging USA heads down to Panama to break more hearts, Costa Rica has an always emotional match in Honduras, and Mexico hosts Trinidad and Tobago.
i hate the at-bolivia game. i’m totally winded 0:22 in just sitting here.
Could be a long afternoon.
though the interval between goalie face to goleador pate was so short.
They look soooooo tired.
i clicked out a while back. too much work to do it unhappy.
Start saving for the trip to New Zealand.
Lord of the Rings was an alright franchise. The Two Towers was always my personal favorite. How about you, Glorious Mundy?
All of them were 30 minutes too long.
Only if you lack patience ;)
i’m interested to see what the team strategy would be without him.
Much of the A’s section here reads like a parody of stereotypical useless scoutspeak:
I hope the one dude is right about Graveman though.
Intuition > Sabermetrics.
he is, dammit
Start the extension talks now.
Crap, too late. We’re already priced out.
I picked a FKin’ A day for a final ski of the season:
I was out on the Bill King Deck for a few hours, reading and working on my Bill King tan.
I had to go to Reno yesterday and decided to go through Incline and over the Mount Rose highway. That’s one of my favorite areas for a day hike. There’s not much chance of hiking up there before July 4, maybe even into late July.
Slusser is over this shit.
I wonder if she still roots for the A’s
the simpsons classic gags keep falling. first president trump. now which was the style at the time.
I feel like we’re ignoring the Elephant in the room.
I don’t really like talking about how the windies shit the bed at their own t20 tournament
This is great. They’ll just squeal out around the seventh with all the real players and staff, and leave a bunch of nobodies to figure out how to finish the game and clean up the equipment and stuff.
Wait till you see the team the Giants send to the Coliseum on Saturday. The Giants regular season opener is Sunday at 1 p.m. in Phoenix. There’s a CBA-mandated off day between departure from their spring training camp and the season opener, and for the Giants that is today.
this is so dumb.
I really wonder if margins are better in spring training. they seem really really stuck on this long pre season
The standard line used to be “We need a long spring training so the pitchers can be ready.” Now teams hold pitchers out at the beginning of the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues, for longer this year but that even happens in non-WBC years. I used to pay attention to battles for roster spots, who was having an especially good spring etc.; except for when I’m actually in Arizona, which I haven’t done for a couple years, I’m now more in the “wake me up on April 3” mode.
I suppose one indirect consequence of having three games on Sunday is that the A’s are playing the only West Coast night game on the real Opening Day, meaning we’re on ESPN baby.
I’m going to be out of town for my first Cincinnati Opening Day
As part of its contract, ESPN is required to show each of the 30 teams at least once.
Tampa Bay Rays: check (early this Sunday vs. the Yankees, who will be on ESPN more than once).
San Diego Padres: check (Monday afternoon vs. the Dodgers).
Oakland Athletics: check, in a game nobody will watch because it’s opposite basketball.
Looking ahead at some other likely one-timers:
Minnesota Twins: check (April 19 vs. Cleveland)
Colorado Rockies: check (June 26 at San Francisco)
Chicago White Sox: check (July 26 vs. the Cubs)
That’s most of the teams they need to clear out to make way for the Cubs, Red Sox and Yankees. The Brewers and Reds aren’t scheduled yet, but they’ll probably try to get rid of them early (maybe just schedule a Brewers vs. Reds game).
The ESPN crew for that Monday night game is presumably going to be the dregs of Bristol plus Dallas Braden.
Ooh! Dallas in right field again!
Sorry, EM.
The ESPN PR blurb, which always has a statement like “when the New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle take on the Boston Red Sox and Ted Williams” made me laugh.
To be fair, Trout is still young, so maybe one day he’ll hit a clutch WS HR like Rajai did.
mlb.com has been redesigned and I hate it.
Gameday Classic still works. The general code is:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2017_03_30_wasmlb_bosmlb_1&mode=classic
The non-obvious team abbreviations are:
Mets: NYN
Yankees: NYA
Cubs: CHN
White Sox: CHA
Dodgers: LAN
Angels: ANA
Nationals: WAS (seems to be “WSH” everywhere else)
Cardinals: SLN
uhg. reading comments on jezebel. I cannot believe how many people think harris is a good person.
@Ed: Because the further away from a politician one is, the more they are defined by broad brush strokes. This used to drive me crazy, seeing politicians whom I knew from first hand experience to be assholes or incompetents get praised by the larger audience who only sees them through a distant media lens.
This is why I now vote much less idelogical the more local a race is. When it’s closer to me, practicality and competence matter more. Kamala Harris as a national-level Trump opponent is great, but I wouldn’t support her as my City Councilperson.
reading that merc article made me think they have some long moneyfrontoffice plan in place
link?
soot sorry. thought i read it from here
Have I mentioned that I love Marcus Thompson? Because I love Marcus Thompson. He was an excellent Warriors beat writer, but it is even better having him as a real-deal Oakland-bred sports columnist.
I think it’s cool to see the A’s embrace their history. They’re the second most successful franchise in Bay Area history behind only the 49ers.
DMOAS!
Santiago Casilla started today, got one out, gave up five runs on two homers, and is done.
Our Four Proven Closers have all followed up their mediocre 2016 seasons with horrible springs. Hopefully Bob will figure out to give high-leverage innings to Dull and Montas sooner rather than later.
You say that as if the 2017 A’s will have high-leverage innings
“The lights have not yet taken full effect, but Bob Melvin desperately wants to keep the A’s in this game and give the team a chance to break this losing streak, so he has gone to the mound to remove Alcantara and is calling on Dull right here with one out in the top of the third inning.”
Doolittle is currently in there not getting outs.
Madson also just gave up a homer.
If they are both in at the same time doing that it is rather impressive.
never fear, the JP Sportsman is picking them up. Just as it will be in the world series
USA Today didn’t put this at #1 but I’m giving the Royals the nastiest new food item award. Don’t click here if you’ve just eaten.
The taco dog looks pretty revolting.
Happy Birthday andeux! For your present, here is a stack of coupons which will allow you to buy craft beers at the Coliseum for just $10. Enjoy!
Happy Birthday Soaker! I got you a lifetime membership in the Trevor Plouffe fan club.
I recall reading back maybe when he was in SD that the pee-on-you gag was a staple of Greg Maddux’s locker room repertoire. Pretty sure he’s a serial pee assailant.
I’ve heard this Maddux story before. Supposedly he was pretty notorious for it.
And Trump reconsiders his decision not to throw out the first pitch on Monday.
It’s just locker room cock.
Getting into the R Kelly game no doubt
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-almost-certainly-james-comey-s-twitter-account-1793843641
Well, here it goes.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-flynn-offers-to-testify-in-exchange-for-immunity-1490912959
Thanks, and go As.
Unless he gives a proffer confirming that he’ll roll on one of a very short list of names (Trump, Bannon, Kushner, Sessions, maybe Don Jr. or Ivanka), FK him.
Wouldn’t it be great of he can get both pence and trump? leaving us with light weight ryan?
#HouseofCards
Casts this in an interesting new light, doesn’t it?
less than 2 months ago, he was fine
No, see, Trump made him NSA knowing that in order to catch a spy you first have to give him access to all of the classified information.
he really is playing 4D chess
So Flynn’s got a very serious lawyer from a very serious DC law firm with deep connections to the institutional GOP. This is going to get interesting.
shouldn’t he have a criminal defense lawyer?
I think right now he most needs a political lawyer. Someone who can cut deals with senators and keep him from perjuring himself on CSPAN.
This is Flynn’s lawyer, by the way.
Can you get immunity to polonium?
Dodgers got immunity to Luis Polonium back in 88.
Too soon.
Good article on Farhan
“Can I have $5?” actually works! I bet that’s Jennifer’s cousin.
Lowrie gets injured getting back at first?
He survived that one, but the Bay Bridge Series has been problematic in the past. I remember Coco getting hurt on a slide, and last year Doubront went straight from the Bay Bridge Series to Dr. Andrews’ operating table.
And there went our WS hopes.
oh how could i have forgotten about vince.
“LINE DRIVE. and panic reaches out. to his left.
the ball lands beyond him and davis….is on safely with the third single”
I appreciate that the A’s are using a DH in this game, because FK the NL
Good to see the A’s offense in mid season form
http://www.athleticsnation.com/2017/3/30/15120366/may-we-lounge-again?&_ga=1.31926265.676625243.1490555856#421872831
Crossover episode tbh
Is that like when Simon & Simon visited Magnum PI?
oh man, i love that back to backer.
i’ve had the S&S theme song in my head all day. thanks! i mean it.
I may or may not have the Magnum PI theme song on my iPhone.
Did I already make trhe A’s offense in mid season form joke?
Re-using jokes is good for the enviroment.
Team Dynamite!
nice play jed
montas
I love krukow thinkingg the guy who ran on the field is going to jail, and going to have “rough couple of days”
I’ve been reading up on the team and I bought the MLB package. The two questions I’m interested in are why isn’the Healy the everyday 1B and how good can Cotton be? I kinda feel like this might be an interestng team.
obv because Yonder Alonso is in the best shape of his life.
Thanks, and go As.
I’m hoping Alonso and Lowrie are gone by June.
like losing an all suck at the deadline
new swing, yo
I’m buying into this one. Seriously.
i mean, it worked for healy and he was never a prospect
I thought they were going to move Healy from 3B to 1B once they were ready to give Chapman his shot at 3B. Let’s say that’s August 1. So they kept Alonso to play 1B for the first 100 games and then, if lucky, they could dump Alonso on somebody at the deadline and have Healy and Chapman finish the season as the corner infielders. The mystery move to me was the signing of Trevor Plouffe to be the everyday 3B, which relegates Healy to DH.
As a lifetime member of the Trevor Plouffe Fan Club I hate to say this, but honestly, Trevor Plouffe sucks. Healy didn’t embarrass himself defensively at 3B last year to my recollection and it seems like they could have found their DHing elsewhere.
I don’t know enough about Plouffe to have much of an opinion on the signing.
It’s such a shitty delivery service.
Thanks, and go As.
Zuckerberg is counting on him to put up the dominant numbers he showed on the Obama campaigns. His peripherals were still good at Uber, it’s just that Kalanick’s defense behind him kept letting him down.
I just hate to see a young guy like Healy play so much at DH especially to give at bats to dead weight like Alonso.
healy doesn’t seem that good at third, i haven’t looked it up though
I’m also hoping Melvin doesn’t use a set closer and we move on from Vogt behind the plate.
If Maxwell is ready to play every day, left-handed hitting veteran catchers do have trade value. Meanwhile, Vogt is not terrible unless you try to make him your cleanup hitter, which they do, and he’s a fan favorite on a team that doesn’t figure to contend and has a bunch of short-term placeholder types in the lineup whom the fans have no real reason to get interested in.
Fair enough…I just think he’s pretty awful defensively and I hope that doesn’the hurt the young pitchers.
Bed! I’m sorry your Jayhawks aren’t playing this weekend. I’m sorry our Raiders are desert nomads. I’m sorry I used your wedding dress to wax the car. Let’s just say I’m sorry about the whole damn thing.
Congrats to you and Ol’Roy for Carolina making another Final Four. As far as the wedding dress it was a knock-off so no problem…as far as the Raiders…well, I’m disappointed but not surprised.
Old white guys with weird hair are not making 2017 a year to remember so far for me.
Are we Dr. Bed yet? running the arkansas school systems?
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/06/a-floating-stadium-idea-floated-for-as-during-office-hours/ You gotta believe
http://www.athleticsnation.com/2005/8/1/131217/9796#221627
http://www.athleticsnation.com/2005/8/1/131217/9796#221599
Khris Davis has a hideous tattoo of a B-2 in mid-carpet bombing, and other A’s tat tales.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/31/as-ink-the-stories-behind-oakland-athletics-players-wild-tattoos/
young men with money….
The story about the uncle makes it even better.
“myself’s”
people really go out of their way to use that word.
If Axford has another kid, I’m thinking Wild Turkey if it’s a boy, and Rebel Yell if it’s a girl.
canadian club?
Conservatives are not more libidinous in my experience (insert Small Sample Size joke here). They are certainly more invested in repressing theirs though.
I don’t see how it’s anything but a no-brainer for the Democrats to filibuster Gorsuch:
1. It’s substantively correct — he’s quite right wing.
2. It’s a signal to the base that didn’t turn out in 2014 (and to some degree in 2016) that they the party is worth turning out for in 2018.
3. There really isn’t a voter block that matters who will be angered by the obstruction. Independents either won’t care (see Merrick Garland) or will be motivated to vote to protect abortion rights now that it’s clear that Trump going to nominate people from the Pence wing. Conservative turnout won’t be any more juiced by this issue than it will already be by the prospect of getting to replace Ginsburg or Kennedy and finally kill Roe.
4. If they are successful, the next nominee won’t be worse. Trump won’t find someone younger or more conservative than Gorsuch. If the fear is that Trump will nominate a hack or crony, the Harriet Miers fate awaits.
5. Not filibustering this time won’t mean the filibuster will remain in place next time a Republican president sends a SCOTUS nomination to a Republican senate. The same threat to blow it up will remain, and that time the president might not have a 35% approval rating. If there is a time to test whether McConnell has the votes for the rule change, it is now when the GOP is in a tight spot AND the Democrats have the moral high ground due to the Garland fiasco.
6. Worst case scenario is that Gorsuch gets confirmed (that happens anyway), McConnell has to expend political capital on the rule change on behalf of the least popular president since late Nixon, the Democrats showed some spine, and the filibuster is gone for the next time a Democratic president wants to nominate a liberal but has only 50 votes.
Agree 100%. I get the sense Schumer knows this too, but we’ll see.
Yes, and re #2, lets hope the Dems are finally realizing this is not business as usual, and political capital is no longer something to be conserved for selected fights, but rather, the horrified majority of the nation wants this madman thwarted at every turn using every available legal means.
Had to do this to maintain the upper hand in a front office Bay Bridge Series.
special assistant for tanning?
That’s nice, but I think Eck is pretty busy with his day job on Red Sox telecasts, especially since Jerry Remy recently had a relapse of his cancer. So I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of Eck “representing the A’s at community and fan events”.
Our Rickey and Eck vs SF’s Willie Mays and Will Clark, who ya got in the front office special assistant throwdown?
It’s Bonds I’m worried about (though he is a “special advisor to the CEO” so maybe a different fake category).
Watch out when Will Clark is “doing his job”, according to Duane Kuiper.
“>
Oh wow
I hope it was an anti mexican eo on Cesar Chavez day
Oh man.
Pence’s little head nod is great. Yes, I will go pick up the thing you were supposed to sign, the thing that we are all here for. Sure boss.
Too perfect.
my “buddy” ted interviews Sean Doolitle
In addition to the $50 million, Rougned Odor’s new deal has Texas give him two horses.
asvd
nice
I assume the value of the horses counts against the luxury tax.
He already has a homer for each horse.
I met this guy the other night at the Ivy Room. Guess he’s a jazz fan too.
he likes the A’s? thought he was strictly giants. or, i guess he’s just a writer with a topic.
chatted with him now and then when i worked at 826. he had a sportswriting workshop, would take the kids to pac bell to interview players for stories.
one time i may or may not have confused him for noah hawley or vice versa.
His friend spotted me with my A’s hat on. He claimed true A’s fandom and then introduced his buddy, the writer, who while a G’s fan wrote the book. Thought it was a story that he wanted to tell even though not a “labor of love”.
huh.
that other thing on his site, the radio play-by-play audio thing, looks really interesting.
The last two nights have featured the A’s “A” lineup and I can’t say I’m too encouraged right now.
It looks like both the re-branding to “NBC Sports Bay Area”/”NBC Sports California” and the appearance of Giants and A’s games on the app takes effect on Sunday with the Giants season opener. The Bay Bridge Series games tonight and tomorrow aren’t on the app.
It’s significant here because on Tuesday night, the A’s, Giants, Warriors, Kings and Sharks are all playing West Coast night games. DirecTV has four channels available and in the Reno market the A’s are the team which gets shut out according to the on-screen guide; we get both the Warriors and Kings games. But the Angels-A’s game that night is showing on the “Upcoming Games” on the app, so yay, I’ll be putting that to work immediately.
I’ve got the Giants game on through the NBC Sports Apple TV app. Works very smoothly, looks great (other than it being the Giants).
A run!
Jaff Decker looks like Derek Norris.
good first/last almost anagram
teA’se is in mid season form
Man tries to burn EU flag. Flag doesn’t burn because of EU regulations on flammable materials
Make flag burning great again!
[brings star spangled banner made in china within 2 feet of open flame] [polyester goes up in a single puff of GHG] [gets 2nd º burns on hand and can’t afford ER visit]
‘MURICA!
A batter, as they say, is only fit for baseball and fish.
We never talk about Mad Men anymore :(
Nor Cheney Nixon Clark or Schofield.
Nixon did a lot for the Indigenous peoples though honestly
I’m writing a new season in my head…lots of Joan scenes so far.
My man!
Dude Joan was such a babe and such a good actress.
Do we wait for the Lowrie injury to sign Jimmy Rollins or just do it now? I figure now that his career has hit rock bottom he will finally be interested in taking a paycheck to play for the hometown team.
I’m wary of all jokes like “Rollins signs with A’s” today. You ain’t foolin’ me.
I think he has his sights set on the Newark Bears or St Paul Saints. Any place besides Oakland.
:D
Thanks, and go As.
TWO runs.
Scottish football has always been slightly ridiculous, but if Celtic win their game in hand they’ll have twice the points of the 4th place team and as many as the 2nd and last placed teams combined.
So they’re really going with thirteen pitchers. There are going to be so many adventures in centerfield and bad matchups in the late innings.
Matt Joyce does have value but a three-man bench makes him a worse player than he really is.
And the bullpen is still going to be terrible.
Separating the weak from the Jaff.
There must have been some sweating and swearing in the Upgrade living room at the end of that.
I was remarkably calm. Carolina had an answer almost every trip. Should be a great game Monday, not a moment of which do I expect to enjoy until possibly the end. I’ll scope out the Shibe Park Tavern in lieu of the pre-game Rickey and Bill appreciations.
I’m sure Oregon fans will take awhile to rebound from that loss.
Thanks, and go As.
win
Why did MLB decide to open the season with a game in Tampa?
nothing says spring like heading to the great indoors!
lots of gross things, but…Bill king
If the Astros can admit the hill was a mistake, I say the Diamondbacks can do the same with the stupid path to the mound.
they have to leave it until the day the orioles arrive
any other pitcher in baseball is fun to see hitting a home run.*
*not an endorsement of pitchers batting
any other pitcher in baseball is fun to see hitting a home run.*
*not an endorsement of pitchers batting
this is just odd
ex-Texan
I thought he was from New york, florida, Arizona?
All of the above, but also worked for both Rangers and Astros.
These Diamondback uniforms are a sin against god.
The caps. My god, the caps.
why don’t they just go ahead and partner with hypercolor?
They’d spend too much time blowing on each other’s uniforms rather than playing baseball.
I have to admit my interest in a Jake Lamb bobblehead is lessened by the fact that I’ve never heard of Jake Lamb.
lolgiants
i really really hope Casilla gives up no runs all year
Hahaha Giants
On pace to blow 486 leads.
High priced closers are a suckeres bet.
So…are game threads still a thing or should I just say random bits of nonsense to myself and maybe the dog during A’s games?
Yes.
With the Raiders leaving Oakland should I…
A. Stick it out. It may be a bad marriage but till death do us part.
B. Go Niners!
C. Go full Fatal Attraction and start rooting for the Broncos
D. Roll Free Kraut style and watch Futbol instead.
Be the man who introduces cricket to the Arkansas school system.
its a brilliant game for elementary school PE
If cricket involves guns in any way I think I could sell it here.
you could call people “chinamen” and tell someone to “put some irish on it”
Either A or D. I’d gouge out my eyes before choosing B or C.
i mean, a vegas game wouldn’t be the worst way to spend the unspent season ticket moneys
Las Vegas is my least favorite city in the United States. I think gambling is stupid, I hate the desert, and the types of shows they have there aren’the my cup of tea. For the twenty years they play there before moving to Guam I’ll never see a game there.
As a Niners fan def recommend eye gouging yea
B. Because now that the Raiders don’t suck you need to stay miserable somehow!
Good point…any chance the Niners can sign Jeff George and hire Joe Bugel? If so I’m in.
They’d be upgrades!
I think I’m going to start doing all my communicating through postcards.
I don’t want to leave anyone in suspense here so…yes, it’s true I had all the blood in my body removed and replaced with apricot-pineapple jam.
Can salt water taffy be made near a lake?
Only in Utah.
I’ll assume this taffy doesn’t use caffeine, loves Mitt Romney, and has multiple taffy wives.
Yes, but the taffy ends up rejecting Keynsianism and ranting about efficient markets.
Laffery Taffy
Little known fact…Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Just remember it could be worse…Donald Trump could be president.
this lol hurt so much.
ASVD
I missed you
Also, I’m so stealing this
The 2017 Oakland Athletics will…
A. Win the whole damn thing
B. Pull a Billy Beane and lose early in the playoffs
C. A middle of the road team in the middle of the pack.
D. EPIC SUCKAGE
E.
D-
It’s bad lol
Little known fact…Cuba and the Soviets conspired with the CIA, the mob, Nixon, and LBJ to assasinate Abraham Lincoln.
Can you grill fresh water trout near the ocean?
No, but you can make fishcake by the ocean.
Always remember life is a marathon not a sprint. Also, always remember that a marathon is a marathon not a sprint.
Things I don’understand…Radiohead, how they get the holes in Swiss cheese, proper topics to post about on A’s baseball related blogs.
My fortune cookies are always too positive. I think they should take into account current events.
you are including “,I’m bed” with every one?
They used to be negative but then white people complained
If I could do it all over again I’d eat more mayonnaise,.
you are no patrick henry
Noam Chomsky was right…trickle down economics is free market capitalism at its best.
Hi Jennifer.
DMOAS!
The difference between empathy and sympathy is mostly spelling.
Sorry for being a baiting fool guys – I think I just like bringing up the AN – Free Kraut connection for little real reason
I am pretty sure we have very little emotional attachment to AN
Fosho. It was just very immature of me. I apologize.
nm, I don’t remember if it was already asked and answered – what happened to the “up” link in the reply thread?
Ooo… forgot about that piece of lost code.
Really need to take a night and re-immerse myself in things.
This is what 2012 has done. I don’t care that we’ll be lucky to win 75 games, I’m pumped! LET’S GO OAKLAND.
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Declined to go to the tailgate and game today because boys have school and soccer.
Well it’s Spring Break and soccer was cancelled. FK.
Thanks, and go As.
So now you can all come!
if I could afford it, I would. But… yeah.
Thanks, and go As.
Yikes – even the value deck seats are $29 each. That’s crazy!
Price gouging for a 72 win team. FKing ridiculous.
Thanks, and go As.
You could always come for the tailgate and listen to the game while playing with the kids in the lot?
$5 for Wednesday’s day game if they’re still on break.
good luck with the baseballing and stuff, everybody.
The A’s are claiming to have a “Gastro Pub” inside Shibe Park Tavern, along with the 77 beers on tap and a pool table. I await a review from one of you FKers on the cuisine.
I can comment afterwards on the state of the TVs there, besides that I likely won’t notice. Go Heels!
I’m already a little burned out on Statcast.
Usual lot spot. Best Opening Day weather in years.
Curse the sun!
ed bait.
nice
tried to watch. it was hard. premise ok, but whole episode was about something very very stupid and mot mocking the tech bros as much
yeah, i skipped around. the smaller gags are better.
We got younger!
how the fuck is that possible
at least we suck but we’re old too!
Thanks, and go As.
We wish Mr. Bowen the best of luck in his job application.
That’s great.
hahaha
Access denied!
I wonder how CJ Wilson’s car dealership is doing.
first dr. K?
Someone had to break the seal.
have a doublegood freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4 day, everyone.
Seems pretty low energy tbh.
I can’t tell you how inspiring that quote is.
Well, someone is taking those “alt/rogue [agency]” accounts seriously.
WTF?
fake summons. sad!
5 – 4 SCOTUS ruling, sorry, Twitter loses.
My one hope for Gorsuch is that he will be less inclined than, say, Alito to just defer to whatever the hell the government says when it comes to law enforcement powers. This in particular is an area where “conservatism” ought to lead to protecting a private corporation’s right to protect individuals from the government absent a very strong showing of compelling need.
All his rulings are tainted so it won’t matter much what he ends up deciding. Every action he has is a further destruction of our government by virtue of just being there.
SO low energy
I thought he was a winner. That’s loser talk. Sad.