The stop in Baltimore should be a break after the misery of Houston, but the last couple days reminded us that the A’s are more than capable of stringing together a run of lousy, bullpen-killing starting pitching performances.
Three night games and a day game before what I’d expect to be Marlins Park-like crowds at Camden Yards. There’s a chance of rain tonight but the weather there mostly looks decent.
Tonight at 4:05: Estrada vs. RHP Andrew Cashner
Tuesday at 4:05: Anderson vs. LHP John Means
Wednesday at 4:05: Montas vs. RHP Alex Cobb RHP Dan Straily (Cobb to IL)
Thursday at 9:35 a.m.: Brooks vs. RHP Dylan Bundy (MLB Network)
The ongoing Chris Davis debacle is well-documented. Per Cot’s his contract runs through 2022 at a gross $23 million per year, of which $17 million is current salary. He gets deferred payments of $3.5 million per year from 2023-2032 and $1.4 million per year from 2033-2037. So there are a lot of very nice fishing trips in his future.
Ex-A’s report:
Richie Martin: Coming off a .300/.368/.439 season at Midland, he’s their starting shortstop to open the season. 2-for-23 with 2 BB and 11 K so far might be an early indication of how that’s going to go. In theory the Orioles can afford to stick with him but in practice, you get well into the season and he’s .150/.200/.250 or something like that, he’s going to be damaged goods. There could be an A’s-Orioles trade at some point to resolve that issue.
Renato Núñez: Everyday DH, and often hitting in the cleanup spot. I don’t think we care all that much.
Dan Straily: Signed after being released by Miami at the end of spring training, the 30-year-old journeyman made his Orioles debut out of the bullpen yesterday, facing 11 batters and giving up 5 hits, including 2 homers, and 2 walks before second baseman Hanser Alberto was called to the mound to mop up for the day. Dan presumably is giving a lot of thought to life after the conclusion of his baseball career.
If EstHRada can avoid the walks maybe it’s something like 7-5 A’s after 5 innings.
Morales looked like he was running in dry sand trying to get down the line before Richie Martin could find the ball.
UnbeFKinglievable
My first guess was Chris Davis got a hit.
Checking the box score, I assume this is Profar’s error?
Little League HR; Profar made a good throw that happened to hit the runner and deflect toward the dugout.
Yes. He turned a two-run triple into a three-run little league homer by two-hopping a lawn dart to third.
BTW, the Velez/Davis 0-fer record is only for position players. Jon Lester was 0-66 before getting his first hit.
The irony is that the Baltimore fans are cheering for him now, but as soon as he gets a hit he’ll be hitting .037 or something and they’ll go back to booing him.
So now Chris Davis just needs one more to have the record to himself. Another hard-hit rope and he also gets the Golden Linea.
And there it is!
The HOF will want the baseball, the bat, his batting gloves…
Meanwhile Profar is nearing the demimendoza line.
I actually do think Profar is going to be an asset to this team but these outs are as feeble as they get.
Estrada wants sole possession of the “Human Batting Tee” nickname.
Three triples by the #8 and #9 hitters (combined 4-for-45 with 0 XBH prior to tonight).
Richie Martin hitting a ball that far to the opposite field kind of underscores how pathetic our pitching is.
wait. Is that our richie martin?
Yup
sad
I’m still flummoxed by the whole affair.
Do the A’s make a giant sucking sound if nobody can hear it?
FWIW the Marlins have three (out of seven) home crowds smaller than that.
back to back ch/kh ris davis abs
Christ, second time Canha strikes out on a full count ball four in a critical situation.
shitty team is shitty
It would be real tough to overcome this sort of starting pitching two years in a row.
The rotation will be a lot better when Manaea, Puk, and Luzardo are all healthy*
*(probably never)
I really believe that is their thought. Those 3 plus Cotton/Estrada and Fiers are the basis of a 2020 rotation. They think last year was a fluke and dont expect to catch lightning in a bottle twice. Which is dumb and resting the hopes for half a decade or so on a young unproven pitcher strategy that has failed before.
Just wait until Harden is back! And Duchscherer should be throwing off a mound any day now!!
Jarrod Parker scoffs at those ironmen.
if only there were a starter available that fit the contention window that will just cost money and a shitty draft pick
Tanner Anderson is getting lit up tonight in El Paso, if anyone was hoping he would help.
Thinking about the Aviators, I was playing with Google Earth and saw that the new ballpark is at just about exactly 3000′ elevation, being basically at the base of the mountains on the far west side of the valley. Downtown is about 2100′. It’s not the Reno park, at 4500′ with a strong wind typically blowing out to right field until the sun sets, but we’ll still have to adjust some of our evaluation of the pitching and hitting stats. Aviators’ home opener is tomorrow night and I’ll be down there to check it out in a couple weeks.
The El Paso park seems to agree without Dustin Fowler. He’s batted .524 with four homers in a five-game series there.
brett anderson will be lit up tomorrow
Profar instead of Lowrie, plus a full year(?) of Rodney, ought to be worth about 15 losses.
Down 3 vs. the Orioles you’re still in the game in the 9th. Not down 5. Thanks Buchter and Rodney.
I guess the bright side is that this current Rodney/Buchter shitshow is less painful than if Canha or Pinder managed to come through.
Another positive is that Rodney is so godawful that he may not last nearly as long as Casilla.
Not gonna lie, I was hoping for Davis to run into one there to underscore just how much Rodney sucks.
Wahoos!
I don’t mean to come off as overly entitled. Having typed that, I feel more offended as a fan by Fisher/Beane/Forst putting out this sorry ass excuse for a starting rotation than just about anything the A’s have done in the last 10 years.
It’s one thing when the roster is just bad/old/past its competitive window or whatever. I can understand not wanting to throw a bunch of money at patching up every position. But here they had a good, prime-aged roster with one obvious, crucial place that needed patching, and they just decided not to do it. We have a right to be offended by that.
I agree and I add the Catcher to it. The pennies we saved in not bringing Lucroy back are not going to pay any sort of huge reward.
Ugh. That one was insane. He wanted to come back, took a pay cut elsewhere, but we’d rather go with three shitty catchers, who combined aren’t better than him. For what?
Rodney’s $5M option, duh.
Thanks, and go As.
Agreed.
I don’t really see it as entitled. I’m seeing two concurrent issues, one that supports them and that doesn’t coming to a head.
As GM said, there’s an obvious need, the were players available for them to grab. Even semi-cheap ones on the short term that would be better than this garbage. And there should be plenty of money available to get it done. And it’s the norm for the industry so not doing it is inexcusable and indefensible.
On the other hand, I feel like we’re closing in on a bubble burst for the league. The salaries for the top players are so out of whack for what they’ll earn during their contract that few teams will soon be able to handle them… again. And it’s no team or players for fault in this case. We no longer have the Yankees/Red Sox trying to buy the series types of things nor are the players getting them not supposed to get it all things considered. It’s just the new normal is causing a large crevice between the haves and have nots. I also don’t see the money sources to pay them holding up long term. It may be another 10 years, but there will be damage along the way. And none of that gets into the wages the youngster are getting which is grotesquely out of whack with what they deserve. Imagine being Chapman making what he’s making seeing Harper et al get huge amounts of money and knowing he’ll have to wait another 3-5 years to touch that. Who knows how that’ll play out but if something happens in the short term it’s likely to hurt teams like the A’s/Rays more than anyone else so getting stuck with any huge contracts probably doesn’t work out well.
Right now though, I still think the former, the indefensible part, still stands. You can justify not going big, but doing nothing is just insane.
You are right. like GM said. This could be a good/great team. All it takes is money.
Men’s BB coach from the colins hired by the Eds. I think this is going to turn out poorly for both Cincinnati and UCLA.
gross
It’s a good thing the Orioles are utterly incompetent in every aspect of the game.
Profar’s postgame interview was charming. He seems like a sweet guy.
I turned on game in 7th inning. A’s up 6-0, trainer on mound with Anderson. One of these things surprised me.
A right butt cramp was the issue, apparently.
The Aviators christen their new ballpark with a most satisfying 10-2 thrashing of the Sacramento River Cats. Mengden 6 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 9 K.
It didn’t go so well for Midland, who are the first visitors to the new ballpark in Amarillo TX (AA team relocated from San Antonio to make way for AAA baseball there). I mention that because the team the Rockhounds lost to is the Amarillo Sod Poodles.
I suspect the Giants have given Sacramento another bad and boring team. They do, however, have Carl Yastzremski’s grandson.
On a trip to New Orleans last weekend I discovered that the local AAA affiliate has recently been renamed the Baby Cakes.
I happened down a rabbit hole tonight and noticed there’s a team in Georgia, the Macon Bacon.
At one time there was a hockey team in that city, the Macon Whoopee.
If Josh Reddick is Spider Man, Marcell Ozuna may be the Greatest American Hero.
believe it or not
i didn’t watch the broadcast, but saw the highlights. Glen is so bad at play by play
I’m sure somebody has a definite answer on this but I haven’t seen it. My guess would be that the all-time hitless streak when pitchers are included belongs to Bob Buhl. Bob famously went 0-for-70 in 85 PA in 1962. His overall streak was 0-for-87 in 102 PA from Sept. 1, 1961 to May 8, 1963. Somebody might possibly have a two-season streak that would be longer.
Bob was a solid #2 or #3 pitcher who won 166 games in his career, but hitting wasn’t his thing. In 953 career PA he put up .089/.129/.091. That’s even worse than a contemporary, the notoriously dreadful Sandy Koufax, who in 858 PA went .097/.145/.116.
all three montas strikeouts were in the 7th
500 baby!
All is forgiven.
don’t tell sam
The Orioles are so bad it offends the senses. There’s maybe one player (Mancini) on this team right now who could make the A’s 25-man roster.
listening to the radio it seems that Khris davis is on the orioles. He can make the A’s roster. when did he get traded anyway?
I mean, Richie martin and renato nunez are starters, so…
{auto comment questioning why KD isn’t signed yet}
This Ratto sentence made me sad.
its not my team so it does give me satisfaction to think once durant goes, the team will not be the dominant threat it has been for 4 years
I’m torn between my decades-long love for the team, and my desire to see some of the more irritating bandwagoners be unhappy.
Yes it will.
Thanks, and go As.
Tiny sample and El Paso/Las Vegas, yes yes yes…but Sean Murphy has come out of the gates batting .391/.500/.609
I’m just saying Hundley should probably be going week-to-week on his lease.
Hundley needs to have a big GIDP surge because he’s now trailing Khris in the HR vs. GIDP challenge, 9-5. Plus Khris has 15 HR in 120 career PA in Arlington.
RIP Tommy Smith