Your Oakland Athletics cunningly weave their way through Bay Bridge traffic to battle Orange and Black Death in Baghdad by the Bay, in the first three of six consecutive games vs. the loathsome foe.
Friday at 7:15: Jackson vs. Bumgarner
Saturday at 7:05: Anderson vs. Samardzija
Sunday at 1:05: Manaea vs. Suarez
Casilla and Hatcher are appropriately joined by Bleich, a 31-year-old, 10-year minor league journeyman lefty out of Furd who would be making his major league debut if called upon.
The Fosse on Radio warning flag is posted for all three games of this series. Enjoy the weekend!
The orthopedic community looks forward to Brett Anderson’s at-bats.
Hit!
And that raises his career batting average to >.100.
The orthopedists remain alert.
Is TV Fosse and Braden at home, but Fosse or Braden on the road? I think each is easier to take together than separately.
I believe they have used Braden as the “field reporter” at a few West Coast road games. At least at Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium, as he bailed on the 209 to live in LA. It might depend on if there’s an adequate location to set him up next to the dugout at those other stadiums.
I like the early version with Mick Ronson better than the album track.
I’ll go with Hornsby.
Great range.
I have the TV sound muted, but this shot of Kaval makes me start singing the theme from “The Love Boat”.
This inning got weird.
Thanks you Giants for the gift out. But Edwin, man…
Lowrie out. Shit.
Man named Jed out. The no smoking sign may be turned off at Chez Aces
Khris in the outfield with a sore throwing shoulder. I’m scared.
Not a bad escape act there. Maybe white cleats are what Edwin’s needed all these years.
They need a quick trigger here. Jackson looks awful.
This feels like a reality check game. Then again we also dont wake up until the 6th – 7th inning.
Goddamn, this team takes amazing at bats.
That was a great AB.
That won’t be our last scoring chance but it sucked a lot to fail there.
Ugh, Pinder had some pitches to hit there and can’t believe Sandoval made that play of all people.
Well that sure sucked.
Dull sucks. Why is he pitching here instead of Pagan?
This is an unusual spot for a major league debut.
Yeah WTF?
It wasn’t very good; at least it was quick (TWSS).
Uh. Welcome to the fuckin show?
Thanks, and go As.
This is Melvin’s worst managed game in a while. A one run deficit is nothing to this team and is not the time to be bringing in your shit options in the pen. Pagan and Buchter both made more sense here than Dull and some 31 year old rook. Hell even Trivino starting the inning would’ve been fine.
He managed the game like it was already lost.
Aaaand it’s time to check out these various versions of “Madman Across the Water”.
Blech.
If the goal of that ugly 7th was to make the A’s 8th inning rally even more beautiful, well, mission accomplished.
It was beautiful in its simplicity.
In four starts now in AA, Parker Dunshee has a K/BB of 15 — 30 Ks and 2 BBs in 27 innings. The only problem is the four homers he has coughed up.
I know his stuff is suspect, but given the state of our pitching pipeline I think we are going to see him in Oakland before too long.
(To be clear, I’m only thinking about this because I need to feel like we are going to have an actual rotation in 2019. I can’t deal with waiting for 2020 on that front. Manaea, Montas, Mengden, Luzardo, Dunshee is the best I can come up with unless they open the checkbook.)
Bassitt could be in that mix too. It seems like he is roughly as good as he was before surgery, which is nothing special, but probably worthy of a big league job. And it would also be worth picking up a Cahill/Jackson type veteran again for depth.
smyly may be back soon
2019 is going to see the angels without richards and ohtani. the mariners will have and older hernandez and apparently wade leblanc to go with paxon. I am sure these guys will overpay for keuchel, corbin, happ, or morton.
I don’t want to give up much for 2018, I still have samardija ptsd.
Still haven’t forgiven FKing Pomeranz.
Brian Howard, incidentally, has struck out 19 and walked 2 over 17 AA innings. He and Dunshee really do sound like Griffin & Straily: The Next Generation.
After a dreadful start on Friday with just 4 points through 15 holes (Modified Stableford scoring), Mulder catches fire to put up 43 points in the next 21 holes and join the final group on Sunday along with leader Joe Pavelski and third-place Tony Romo.
Hard to root against the Great Pavelski.
Still I liked how Mulder said his kids think of the Tahoe tournament as “the one where we get to run on the green at the end.”
Have you followed the Mulder group again this year?
Oh, no, after last year I decided the event had gotten way too big for me. Very few people pay any attention to the golf, it’s all about getting close to the players. I’m just not into festivals any more. The low-end PGA event at Montreux near Reno, an alternate-field tournament with the top 60 in the world being at an invitational that week, is more my speed, with the walking gallery often being a dozen or so, and that usually includes some players’ wives and/or parents.
these look like good moves
I support every single one of them.
Anderson and Hatcher are also on notice.
Seven plausible starters healthy now. Who should be in the rotation after the break?
My order would be something like: Manaea, Montas, Cahill, Jackson, Mengden, Bassitt, Anderson.
But Mengden, Montas, and Bassitt can all be optioned (as they are now), while Anderson would probably have to be DFA’d. Not a great loss, but they might prefer to keep that depth for a while.
KK said the other day that the giants were bad against lefties. I don’t know if that is true, but he mentioned it as the anderson manaea to end the half were by design. If that is the belief, I can see Manaea and anderson starting the half
I think it is true, and it makes sense with two of their three best hitters being lefties and Sandoval being absolute trash from the right side.
Probably fair to say that Brett has two starts to prove he shouldn’t be dumped.
Anderson still tantalizes, a random dominating gem feels possible. As does a 1.2 inning shelling, but still.
With all those starters parked at Nashville, based on what I saw tonight I don’t think Anderson throws another pitch for the A’s.
Yeah.
Kind of funny that we finally get rid of Casilla, while keeping Bleich, whose MLB career consists of a hit a HBP and no outs, on the roster.
I’m still befuddled by the choice of spots for Bleich yesterday.
I think they got him up to face Duggar and Belt, thinking that Dull would have at least gotten one or two outs already. But he didn’t, and at that point they had no choice.
i wonder if scherzer is available?
Brett should consult Jamie Moyer for advice on how to succeed with this stuff.
His control just isn’t good enough to succeed with this stuff.
Samardzija doesn’t look great either. But I’m worried that WWP at night is even worse than the Coliseum for the A’s homer-emphasizing offense.
That KD fly ball died like it got shot mid-flight.
Canha seemed unperturbed though.
He annihilated that pitch. He was looking for that exactly.
Reminded me of one from the other night when Dallas said “he liked what he saw and swiped right”
lol. that’s a good one.
Chapman is so good. Smooth on all three outs to bail out Anderson. That first out pivot turn at second on the unusual shift was just so natural.
Khris’s “arm” turns two grounders into a run.
Heh heh thanks.
His throwing mechanics are just so weird. Why does he cock his wrist and fling it like that?
I hate it when they cut to another camera shot just as he’s doing that. It’s oddly fascinating to watch.
Checking back, Khris last played in the field in an AL park on April 2. The infrequent appearances must be making whatever version of Sax-Knoblauch Syndrome he has that much worse.
I didn’t realize how bad McCutcheon has gotten.
I take back waht I thought the other day about maybe thinking Submargarine wouldn’t be a terrrible pickup
Thanks, and go As.
Just with those few 2014 pitches they showed, the difference was shocking. He might make a few calls to NFL teams to see if there’s any interest.
after 2020? because he has $36 million reasons to keep going until then
Melvin correctly pulls the plus on the next Anderson high wire act.
All those hits the Giants have won’t mean shit when they LOSE!
It’s been awhile since I thought about how much I despise Derek Holland’s sniveling face.
He finally got rid of the pathetic 15-year-old-kid mustache but it’s been replaced by orange clown shoes.
Shouldn’t we be pinch-hitting for Fowler against a lefty?
Boog must be toast? He last played for the Sounds on June 21.
Probably, but not in an NL park with a thin bench.
Feels like benches could empty at some point in this series.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Canha get plunked after that.
If he isn’t hit today or tomorrow, Bumgarner will get him on Friday. Book it.
he has a job broadcasting baseball 162 days a year
I love it when he gets feisty.
Among the Vince postures I dislike the “Calm down silly fan” posture especially.
That was a FKing bomb.
Thanks, and go As.
trivino for 2?
24 pitches in the 7th
12 pitches in the 8th
I expect Buchter.
Posey really looks slow on fastballs.
The Giants have only the backup catcher left on the bench, with Melancon due up third in the eighth.
you know you are ging to see bumgarner
this game is way too long
2:40 thru eight ain’t bad. And the 30 minutes that top of the 9th will take won’t feel burdensome.
Was this one of those stupid 7:15 starts the Giants love so much?
those numbers for the giants are horrendous. also, if you are going with a softball uniform, put the names on the back
Blake, strikes are better
Yes
One of those insurance runs from the last couple innings sure would feel good right now
I can’t believe Posey laid off that 2-2.
Right?
This is getting Balfour-esque.
This feels very Balfourian.
Is this an homage to Jairo?
Good call by Braden. Whew.
Oh man Treinen was not sharp at all except for that last pitch which was nasty AF.
How many of the A’s wins are relief wins? Half?
24 of 54.
Four games out!
I don’t enjoy watching games that the Giants are playing in. There’s something joyless about them. I blame Posey.
This is exactly the right response. I only wish Hunter Strickland were around to freak out about it.
but I thought it wasn’t a flip?
One win fewer than the NL leader!
was just reading the comments section in mlb trade rumors for the casilla dfa, and boy are those guys as excited as we are for a hatcher dfa
Manaea bats right. Rickey style.
great at bat. got robbed. either him or semien did. plate is 17 inches, not a hole in the middle
luzardo
curt young?
Looks like crsp in orange.
Three games out.
These threads are gonna start getting used in the second half if we keep this up.
Ive learned my lesson though (I hope). Im enjoying this fun team and whatever will be will be. Enjoy the time off kids. Just be ready to keep gojng when we return.
Second half sure but WTF am I going to do Mon Weds and Thurs? Worst days on the sports calendar all year long.
I think was the first time I’ve been at AT&T for an A’s win. I may have gotten slightly obnoxious.
did you hear any lets go portland for giants fans?
No! That’s not cool.
Marine layer responded to a tweet that mentioned giants fans doing that. Was wondering if it was isolated or wide spread
Heh. That’s too clever, and too accurate, to come from Giants fans.
Lot’s of bad memories in here but there is an instructive thread about rentals being better when you are already ahead, not chasing
A little weird that they outright skipped the A’s trades.
Yea that’s really odd.
Thanks, and go As.
Just Lester, right? I’m having trouble remembering another trade that fits the criteria (midseason trade for a player who would be free agent that offseason).
Yeah.
Dye had another arb year left.
Dotel had another arb year left.
Samardzija had another arb year left. (Hammel was a free agent, but was not the centerpiece.)
Even Lester was unusual (and stupid) as a “rental” since instead of giving up prospects we gave up a key part of the current team.
A’s are selling $10 tix for Mt Davis on Sat 7/21 with goal of breaking the Coliseum single game attendance record.
That price seems too high.
Good luck with that.
I sat there for the Jeremy Giambi game (55,861). Slusser says they got 55,989 for a Bay Bridge game in 2004, and that the current capacity is 56,782. Is there really that much interest in these two teams right now?
No there’s no way they sell out the expanded capacity.
Worth observing that the old A’s administration would have kept the 35K capacity and enjoyed dynamically pricing the remaining seats though the roof.
I haven’t been there in about a month, but there is a roof now?
SuSlu retweeted this, so… guess we’re gonna be buyers?
Thanks, and go As.
he has been saying that, I still don’t know what it means,
We’re getting Hanley for sure this time.
I’m not at all a fan of the HR Derby but the alternate espnews feed with Bill Nye and other geeks is a hoot.
We just got tickets for Sunday’s game – pretty slim pickings, so there should be a good crowd. But I still have a hard time seeing how they fill the place – including Mt. Davis – on Saturday when they didn’t do it on the freebie.