Here’s my presumptive, scribbled on a napkin, 25 heading into Spring Training:
Rotation: Graveman, Manaea, Mengden, Triggs, Bassitt
Pen: Treinen, Petit, Pagan, Buchter, Hendricks, Dull, Coulombe
Catchers: Maxwell, Phegley
Infielders: Olson, Lowrie, Semien, Chapman, Pinder
Outfielders: Joyce, Fowler, Piscotty, Powell
DH: Davis
Miscellaneous: Nunez
I’m sure I forgot someone and/or assumed a player has an option (Cotton? Montas?) that doesn’t exist.
Anyway, bring on the baseball already.
The media guide is finally done. Let's play ball. pic.twitter.com/otyH7TRhpp
— Mike Selleck (@MikeSelleck) February 7, 2018
Yeah, yeah…Casilla.
FK that though.
Brandon Moss is gonna hit 40 bombz
Link to the PDF of the 2018 Media Guide (630 pgs.) I refer to that frequently during the season.
Link to the options list, maintained by some guy who usually seems reliable on these matters. Núñez and Alcantara
and Montasare out of options.Hmm. I think we would lose Montas, and I would rather that not happen just yet.
I think Slusser said Montas had a 4th option.
edit:
If I had read his info in the Media Guide which I linked, I guess I could have figured that out.
This entry in the “Significant and Recent Trades During the Billy Beane Era” makes me so happy.
A great trade, since the A’s offloaded Plouffe’s final 114 PA of .168/.263/.248 onto the Rays. I hope when Billy got the Paypal payment from the Rays he went across the freeway and got bags of Double-Doubles for lunch for the entire front office (probably couldn’t afford fries though). It looks like Plouffe is still a victim of this locked-up free agent market, there for the taking for anyone with the cash on hand.
The Rangers are ready if Beltre (39 y.o. at start of season) gets hurt.
(“infielder/outfielder”??)
Looks about right.
Bassitt was used only in short stints (2 1/3 innings or less) in the minors late last year and only threw 50 innings total for the year after his surgery the year before, so I’d be surprised if they want to use him as a starter for the full year, if at all. Other candidates for that spot (or for that matter any of starters 3-5) are Gossett, Blackburn, and Cotton, but they all do have options left.
Back of the bullpen is also uncertain, as always. I would pick the same 7 as you did as the most likely, but Dull, Coulombe, Hendricks were all only OK last year, and could easily lose out to Montas, Alcantara (out of options, and showed some promise in his second time up last year), Casilla (ugh), Hatcher (yuck), or one of the starters.
Much more certainty on the hitting side, with the only likely competition being for the bench spots.
Bassitt does fit better in the pen, but those other potential starters are so uninspiring. Gossett was terrible, Blackburn was smoke and mirrors and then got hurt, and Cotton is a complete enigma.
They really should swoop in on some unsigned innings-eater.
This Quincy Jones interview is amazing.
Man, that just keeps on giving. “When you go after Cîroc vodka and Phat Farm and all that shit, God walks out of the room.” “(Brando) was the most charming motherfucker you ever met. He’d fuck anything. Anything! He’d fuck a mailbox.” “The Catholics have a religion based on fear, smoke, and murder.” “(The Beatles) were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard.”
Did you see the followup from Pryor’s widow?
Story in The Athletic about the Athletics trying to get more athletic.
Some interesting stuff in there about the organization trying to teach more aggressive baserunning in the minors:
I’ve wondered whether one could quantify the effect of aggressive runner behavior on pitchers, and turn it to a tactical advantage. One pick-off sure would drop the percentages though.
It is preferable to our usual baserunning approach, which is to never take an extra base and also get picked off a lot.
That’s a really unexciting roster.
And still such an improvement over the one we were looking at last February.
Offense projects to be decent (maybe even good) for the first time since they traded Cespedes.
On the other side, that’s an awful lot of meh in the rotation.
It has the correct number of Billy Butlers
Minus infinity?
Must you people put everything on a log scale?
The Cosmos and Billy Butler is only two things, though technically one of the two is everything.
Murderers…
Wait no.
Tax Fraud….
wait no.
Petty larcen…
wait no.
Jaywalkers’ Row.
Thanks, and go As.
implies getting on base regularly.
loiterers?
Vagrancy row?
Truants?
Tell ’em, Klay
That’s a 95 win team.
Since you didn’t define how many seasons it would take I’m inclined to agree with you.
I still think it’s too many under these conditions.
Stop the presses.
WE GONNA BE SHAMPIONSHIP.
Thanks, and go As.
But think of all the draft picks we just lost out on.
Oh my goodness, look who’s taking on Trump on Russia and DACA. Where’s the “Little Georgie Bush” tweet?
If he’s smart, he’d go with Curious George Bush.
Treating this as a FKwiz…
Hudson
Mulder
Zito
Gray
Cahill
Blanton
?
?
I’m having a hard time thinking of a single starting pitcher the drafted by the A’s who did anything for them in the 90s before Hudson arrived.
Braden?
Harden?
Street?
bonderman?
misread
zeigleer and ross? would not have picked them
I think he is now counting WAR accrued for other teams in the total.
BONMDERMAN!
DMOAS!!
Doolittle?
Thanks, and go As.
Yeah, I just looked and Doolittle accumulated 6.5 WAR in his first five years 2012–2016. Seems like he should be on that list.
podcast rec / DM bait.
investigative journalists explain a scoop they worked. so you get the story — usually not familiar already because mostly from england — plus the excitement/toil in 1st-person POV.
—
not bait for anyone. just a landing page that made me chuckle.
* GM bait.
i blame last night’s late dungeons and dragons sesh.
This Uber trial must be fun to cover.
Friend of mine from high school evidently got Levandowski (who was in our class at Tam High) to agree to be interviewed on camera to produce a documentary about this whole business.
They settled today. Too bad, I was enjoying all the dirty laundry coming out.
Oh baby, there is curling on the TV right now.
Damn it. Why am I not home right now.
I was at work and tried to stream it. It worked and now I am telling my boss expect an unproductive week or so.
I can’t get into the mixed doubles. The two-person teams don’t have enough frenetic sweeping for my refined curling tastes.
I still don’t understand when “five stones all basically on center” is a dramatically-awful position that can be swiftly cleared and when it is an amazing position that practically guarantees a high scoring end. I found it made watching US-Canada difficult.
Not sure it really guarantees a high score as the odds of an opposing stone to close the gap increases. The real awful part is not having easy control over who would get that score in the end.
” frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; encrypted-media” allowfullscreen>
Thanks, and go As.
The NBC app has a dedicated “Olympic Profiles” channel, I guess for when you only want the soft focus crap without the pesky sports.
Just to brag a little – my cousin was the flag bearer for Croatia
That’s fantastic!
What events is he skiiing in?
DH, SG & AC
He is not skiing too well right now, as he is still struggling to find his form after losing a year due to knee injury. But still, he has already made his fourth Olympics!
“Croatians are so dedicated to this sport because skiing down hills is the only way to get to and from school there, and they have to go fast to escape the bears that are always chasing them.”
/Katie Couric voice
That was soooooo bizarre.
Wait. Someone actually said that?
Basically, except about Netherlands / Skating / frozen waterways
Betsy DeVos
She probably would have said that if she only knew what Croatia is
The wind situation seems pretty dicey up in those mountains. I hope conditions are safe when they are finally able to go.
“Skating is an important mode of transportation in a city like Amsterdam…”
When I visited the Netherlands in January 1997 everyone there was excited about the Elfstedentocht, so I’m going to rate this one was partially true.
Vindicated
Ross Douthat is so weird.
I lost count of the number of unsupported assertions in this column, but I was still hoping that when I got to the end of it he would actually propose a (Constitutional) solution to the problem he thinks we have. But nope.
Basically, he is just pro-sexual repression and would appreciate it if someone else would work out the details for him.
Am I imagining it, or have the scoring rules for figure skating changed at every Olympics since like 1988?
The “Olympic Athletes From Russia” thing is hilariously cumbersome. Their plain white jackets with those words awkwardly written in a circle makes it art.
I didnt think it was a terrible idea at the time, but it is just awful. Every time they just say “the Russians”. And clearly Russia will claim all of these medals. So what exactly does this “punishment” do?
They even get to compete in the team sports! It is so stupid.
it only works if the medal count stays meager. puts russia in a position to claim the few they get and admit that they rank lower than, say, japan. and doesn’t let them say coulda/woulda been #1 again if only the mean IOC hadn’t been so mean.
The Russian curlers look pretty badass in all black though.
And now we know why they looked so good…
It’s the nicest attire they ever wore
Jeez Loaiza!
prolly just a translation error. thought he was asking for tips on his fast ball delivery, got delivered a speedball.
That seems like a lot of drugs.
los hermanos Loizia do not approve of drugs
neither do i.
but it’s my birthday.
This is an impressively stupid idea.
there is no aspect of government where they won’t try to enrich their friends
I think the grifting potential may be just a side benefit here. The primary goal is making life harder for the poor.
Let them eat Velveeta!
Ed’s second-favorite radio play-by-play broadcaster retires.
say it ain’t so!
It ain’t so.
Surely Vince Cotroneo deserves a shot as a lead broadcaster after all these years as second banana. They would have to pry him away from the A’s, but Vince, you ought to send them some tapes. Wait, don’t send tapes, just let your outstanding resume speak for itself.
Mark Davis is preparing a bid for those right now.
Class action lawsuit waiting to happen right here
“If healthy” season is upon us
Just waiting now for someone to show up in camp “in the best shape of my life”.
And yet still “in the best shape of his life”.
Let’s see how long this lasts.
so, no roster benefit to Otani?
Former A’s updates du jour:
Jarrod Parker, moving on.
Dallas Braden, must improve company he keeps
Derek Norris, needs to stfu
thanks wetransfer for the fun surprise artwork (it made me smile through the 15-minutes-past-deadline feeling).
https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/martin-gordopelota/
The men’s halfpipe is mind-boggling (though yesterday’s qualifiers were better than tonight’s finals), but if you’re going to take the proffered flag and drape it round your shoulders for photos, Shawn, exiting trailing it behind you like Schroeder’s blanket is not a good look.
Yeah that was bad.
Has anyone seen my keys?
You’ll have to excuse me I’m a little behind on the A’s off-season plans. Did they at least re-sign Ozzie Canseco?
Ozzie Nelson and Connie Francis, which is close.
Connie Francis was no Connie Selleca.
Connie Selleca was no Clemenza & Sollozzo
Roberto Clemenza, so young, gifted, and selfless. Tragic.
Has anyone listened to Alicia Keys?
is that a band?
You’ll have to excuse me I’m a little behind on the White House’s budget plan. Did they at least consult Ozzie Canseco?
Has anyone voted for Alan Keyes?
came for the alan keyes reference, was not disappointed
Speaking of Ozzie Canseco and losing my keys…I ate some banana bread for lunch today.
You’re an Iron Man
Morton Downey Jr. is so good in that role.
I had a year or so where I loved the Morton Downey Jr show. Then I turned 14.
If you dont like my butts then kiss my ASH!!!
Don’t worry…I’ll be breaking down the A’s roster, and their chances of making it back to the World Series in 1990. A quick preview I like Ozzie to be the better of the Canseco brothers.
I like Felix Jose to be the better of the Jose brothers.
I am the very model of a New York Times contrarian,
My intellect is polished but my soul’s authoritarian,
From Allen down to Exxon, bullies’ water I am carrying,
Except for Donald Trump’s, because I find him a vulgarian.
I’m very well acquainted, too, with arguments political,
I love to mount defenses for the vile and hypocritical,
I filigree each sentence till its meaning I am burying,
My job is to distract you from the rising smell of carrion.
My eagerness to stand up for the powerful is frightening,
I’m always showing up when a sepulcher needs some whitening,
In short, with polished intellect and soul authoritarian,
I am the very model of a New York Times contrarian!
There’s nothing that I relish more than playing Devil’s advocate,
My beat is moral virtue comma complete, total lack of it,
I’ll only call you “victim” if it’s clear that you’re a predator,
I’m lucky to have landed with a sympathetic editor.
Hate-reading makes my columns all go viral like canarypox,
Present me with the truth and I will turn it to a paradox,
I’ll spew undoubted bullshit till you’ll swear that it’s veracity,
Sometimes vocabulary gets confused for perspicacity.
Matthew Dessem/Slate
Clever!
I’m excited to announce my new favorite NFL team is the Orlando Breakers.
We are now rivals in leagues and FL cites.
Tampa Bay Bandits forever!
You can keep your Fakeys and McTwists, I’ll take the Hog Line and the Button and the House. Most especially when called by the delightful Scottish women’s curling commentator.
jimmy
…and andeux wins the… it’s called a grill,right?
I’m actually excited about the upcoming A’s season primarily due to my Fosse fetish.
How great does it feel?
I took a quick glance at all the posts since I was last here…it looks like you folks still need me to explain VORP.
I took a look at the names of the A’s players in the post…only about half of them seemed made up to me.
they other half are named “Matt”
Never forget…Jimmy Key died so you could post in this thread.
Alright…I love you all. Say hello to your mother for me.
Canadians, eh?
Interesting
The A’s starters will be an ensemble cast.
Looks like Montas almost exclusively started before 2016.
For some reason I think he could be more effective starting, where he can’t just try to throw it 100 mph past every hitter. It would help if he could develop a decent changeup though.
to start what?
Get busy livin’.
lol
Salah?
He’s good.
The tweet wasn’t there when I first replied.
lebron then
“Danny” Coulombe
because casilla is no longer with the team?
There’s nothing like tuning into 95.7 The Lame – the A’s flagship station – to hear Greg Papa go on and on about the Gnats. Hearing him call call Ron Wotus “Woti” just about made me want to lose my lunch.
Wait, they stopped talking about Jimmy Garoppolo?
I caught a bit of the A’s/Raiders flagship station this morning and they were discussing — I kid you not — who will get the bigger contract, Garoppolo or Bumgarner.
This morning the topic was “will Giants fans still love Timmy if he signs with the Dodgers.”
He picked a different blue.
I listened for about 30 minutes yesterday. Long monologue by the host about what a great offseason the Giants have had, followed by a segment with Jon Morosi about what a great offseason the Giants have had. Not one indication that the A’s exist.
lONGORIA AND mCcUTCHEN IS A GREAT OFF SEASON?
Yes. In, like, 2013.
Thanks, and go As.
It’s a bit sobering that the late and current “oldest living A’s” are guys I watched play.
I always think I remember tito francona, but I actually remember tito fuentes.
And when you think of Tito Fuentes I think of Tito Puentes.
tito’s tito’s everywhere, nor any greyhound to drink.
amazing investigative work on election-influencing via bots.
ok, ok. you *don’t* know spanish. sheesh.
that link didn’t tell me where the library was AT ALL
here you go. map to your nearest default-password vulnerable device. i’m assuming the library has a couple at least.
tammy is getting obliterated on the twitters. Although the word obliterated implies she understands and will be actually destroyed.
Today I learned that no matter how much fun it sounds like, you really don’t want a Queen For A Day interview.
The Hawaiian Goddess of Crappy Weather, Rainarainalotta, has obviously been eagerly awaiting the start of my Maui beach vacation for some time.
Maybe curl up with a dear friend.
(h/t EBX with some otherwise bogus opinions)
This looks like the fourth straight day of dreary gray with rain on and off. I have been here several times in February and there can be a lousy afternoon or 24-hour period but then it clears out, so this is quite surprising. It’s not a place where there are a lot of alternate indoor activities, and Chaminade’s home court is in Honolulu, not Lahaina.
I’m getting on the plane in a few hours having compiled a Sunny Days batting average of .200 (2/10). Don’t think I’ve ever hit under .600 before. Cloudy days are still fine at the beach if it’s not raining but there was way more rain than I’ve ever seen. Kihei, on the leeward side of Haleakala, usually looks rather desert-like; I’m leaving it nice and green this time.
A hui hou.
Lots of Kona weather – ugh.
USA skeletoner’s dad rocking an A’s cap trackside.
ruby ridge, y’all.
Hooray for him going to the other league.
He’s going to fail the physical, hit the DL, then come back just to throw shutouts against Oakland
Puk throws, Melvin watches, dubs him “The Little Unit.” I might’ve made up that last part.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/athletics/article/A-tall-order-A-s-prospect-A-J-Puk-compared-to-12616792.php
NBC just FKed up coverage of the Women’s Super G so bad.
They declared the Austrian defending champ the gold medalist because all of the supposed contenders had gone, and then they went to a long commercial break. They came back, and had to sheepishly show a replay of a Czech skiier who came out of nowhere to dramatically beat the Austrian’s time.
There weren’t any Americans so who cares amirite NBC
Thanks, and go As.
They lost interest two skiers in when it was clear Lindsey Vonn wouldn’t medal.
I’ve watched a lot more via stream this year, great both for seeing the full competition and for a less partisan production. The complete men’s snowboardcross was a lot of fun, while the women’s I watched on NBC was tightly edited and basically the Lindsay Jacobellis show.
Funny thing, the girl who won is actually a snowboarder who was racing on borrowed skis
Mikaela Shiffrin’s skis finally make the podium …
Our new prospect Jesus Luzardo is a recent grad of Douglas High in Parkland, mourns the AD just killed there. Damn our craven fucking Congress.
Daniel Mengden’s mustache is still rounding into form.
Clearly not BSOHL.
Come on Rochdale
And I turned it off in frustration before the miracle equalizer….
WTF are the Rays doing?
Looks like a picked a good year to ignore the NBA all-star game.
Official “Pace of Play” rule changes for this season
Attn: dmoas
Good step, but needs to be shorter for local games. At least 30 more seconds, preferably a minute.
The mound visit stuff is going to be awkward. No more than six total “mound visits” (with one extra granted for each extra inning) that don’t result in a pitching change, with “mound visits” defined to include any time a player leaves his normal position to go to the mound except when a player needs to use the spike cleaning thing, or when the home plate umpire agrees that the pitcher and catcher need to discuss a cross up.
I don’t like it, but if they do it, it should be limited to coach’s visits only.
I don’t think they’ve thought this one out.
I have come to the conclusion that simultaneous-start cross country and biathalon races are easily the best/most exciting winter olympic events. It is not even close imo. Also, the Norwegians are goddamn super-human monsters.
The worst/least exciting I am going to say is when the skiers do the half pipe. God that is boring.
Ahahaha
The mass start biathalon finish yesterday was nuts!
I’ve decided that every snow trick event is minimum 10x better on snowboards than skis.
I’m finding most of the trick stuff very boring. In contrast to the actual, you know, races.
That said, the skiiers need to find a way to make their events more compelling. 1 run each from 50 people makes for bad TV.
Relays!
Skier one goes down the mountain, hands poles to skier 2, who gets on the chair lift…
There is some kind of side-by-side giant slalom team match race thing going on right now.
Kinda cool format, mixed gender squads in a set of duels.
Yes, I really enjoyed those.
Especially since the first time I saw the two-hand punch technique I thought “how do you not get clotheslined trying that” then some French guy got clotheslined trying that.
BTW just because, one of the contestants on this season of Top Chef kinda looks like you.
Big Joe! I said the same thing! (pre-diet nm, at least)
Interesting. I guess I’ll have to check it out.
It took three Germans working together to keep the Norwegians off the podium in the Nordic Combined.
The penalty loop (or, as my kids have taken to calling it, the “lap of shame”) when you miss a shot is a phenomenal thing.
Baseball needs a lap of shame for every 4 pitch walk.
For some reason I love the slopestyle. I think it’s the backwards skiing.
That women’s x-country relay was spectacular.
Moment of the Olympics for me.
A couple of really nasty falls tonight in the halfpipe. I guess that’s a form of excitement.
I don’t know who any of these hockey players are but I’m into it.
USA women curling team playing top ranked Korea right now in what almost a must win for our medal round hopes.
Ouch, yielded a devastating 4 point steal in the 5th End, even with the hammer.
The Korean curler with the big round glasses is cool as hell.
trump.dating
trump.dating is based on his highly radioactive tweets, which have a half life of about an hour.
Of course
i wouldn’t have heard about it if it wasn’t for that bit of facepalm.
That seems… short… sited?
Short-track speed skating relays are delightfully stupid.