We will not see the baby jesus until Wednesday at the earliest, I am hoping for a decent showing
Fiers v Greinke
Roark v Miley
Anderson v TBA
Bailey v Verlander
The first coming 144-147 275
275 thoughts on “The first coming 144-147”
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this may be the last we see of phegley. He refuses to help the pitchers
Dear directors: If there is a close play, I want to see the close part. don’t start with 2 different slo mos of the fielder picking up the ball
Just let Blackburn pitch the rest of this one. I’m not going to watch this anyway.
its 6-0 in the first and you are the 9th batter josh…let it go
I hope they consider starting Luzardo in place of Anderson…this is looking like a sweep if we don’t win tomorrow.
Where did they ever find footage of bobby crosby GIDP?
This is pretty much the closest I’ve seen a pitcher just intentionally throw BP in a game.
he did not seem happy with phegley. and phegley was not even trying to stay still when catching the ball
again with ground rules. If something funny happens, it should be ruled against thte home team. always
the ball should not be dead, the batter should have been out
Comcast displays WAR. I just looked it up, its bWAR. I did so because they were comparing Bregman and chapman. Fine. I thinkbregman right now is good, I think I d rather have chapman, but whatever.
Thing is, he has played 700 innings at third and 400 at short.
I will read about whatever records the Astros set tonight online in the morning.
alverez is hitting 5 tonight
Reddick will make the 3rd out of every inning.
damn
baby steps is remembering your own comment from 30 mins earlier.
you’ll get there.
10-0 in the 2nd seems like a time to stop at second, but whatever not a good play by brown
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Fiers’ unbeaten streak ends tonight.
You may be on to something.
I like the way chirinos was smiling around first on his homerun until he looked in and saw fiers and went all stoic
Thank God Lil Miss Aces has voice lessons tonight. I can skip this and the beginning of MNF.
Agree that this shoukd be Blackburn’s show until he throws 155 pitches (maybe 3 innings?)
I thought the Aviators season was over?
seth brown, now playing first, threw the ball from the last out on the mound, like he is in little league
That’s really cute.
I’m mglad this is september. I do not want to see a position player pitch
not sure I agree with hotting murphy for davis. Davis needs as many ABs as possible in dead games
no comeback today
Looks like ted lieu is losing supporters tonight
cleveland in for three
Damnit Scioscia!
Reminds me that tonight’s game in Anaheim is one of those Youtube-only games, here.
@Ed-but he’ll be back in time for our games with them.
Destroy the NCAA
Heh. They’re also going to need a 40-man spot for Montas in a couple weeks. I’m thinking Blackburn should be sure to enjoy his final days in MLB, even if they include another sacrificial pounding or two like last night’s.
Piscotty could also be moved to the 60-day DL if they give up hope of his coming back this season.
As Slusser points out, Taylor is not eligible for the postseason roster (not in the organization on August 31). Phegley and Murphy are the only catchers without a further 40-man roster move.
The A’s were in trouble with their catching in 2014, had they won the wild card game and moved on, due to injuries.
Reading the Joint Drug Program document, I *think* Montas remains on the 40-man roster during the postseason despite being ineligible for the active roster. It seems to raise the possibility that, in the event of an injury to Phegley or Murphy beyond the wild card game, there would have to be another 40-man roster move to bring another catcher (Garneau I guess) on to the 40-man roster.
Another wrinkle, per Slusser:
Barrera apparently doesn’t open up a postseason 40-man spot (and neither would Piscotty) because he hasn’t been on the IL long enough. Here’s the rule:
So if this is all correct, while I suppose Taylor > Herrmann both short and long term, it seems like they’ve paid an awfully big price in loss of postseason options.
The issue also could have been avoided by putting at least one of Murphy/Luzardo on the 40-man on August 31.
Yes, this is really dumb.
If Murphy can supplant Phegley as the main catcher then it would make sense to use the one available substitution for that. But while that’s what we all seem to be hoping for, I don’t think it’s realistic at this point.
So if we’re only talking about the backup catcher role for the postseason, it seems like Herrmann+Luzardo could potentially be more valuable than Murphy+Diekman (or whoever). (I mean, we haven’t seen Luzardo pitch yet, so let’s not go too crazy.) Meanwhile, Taylor has been freely available talent 3 times in the last year, and probably would have been again at the end of the month if we hadn’t claimed him, so I don’t really see any urgency there.
So yeah, this seems like it takes away some options, and that could have been avoided in a couple of different ways.
OTOH, if any pitcher gets injured in the next two weeks, the petition option might be available to get Luzardo on the roster.
“Why is everyone looking at me?” -Brett Anderson
blah blah blah, who do I knife?
I feel the A’s can make a convincing prima facia case for IL’ing any number of their current pitchers.
But wait. If Piscotty stays on the 10 day and is unavailable, anyone in the organization on the 31st would be available to replace him since he’s post 10 days, no?
Slusser now agrees with you:
Who else can you Nnancy Kerrigan before there’s 10 days left in the season to add more?
Krash
Do they have to reinstate Montas before the end of the season? I’m not really expecting him to pitch.
I think Melvin and the FO have already commented that they expect him to be in use the last week. And I believe he has been down in AZ staying in as game shape as can be.
Yes (top of page 47).
Why aren’t the Vegas middle infielders up with us yet? Last night would have been a nice chance to waster a ABs with Barreto.
Barreto is, and struck out twice.
Don’t know what the deal is with Mateo. Presumably the fact that the starting 2B job has been given to Profar, Barreto, Profar, Joseph, Profar, Neuse, and Profar says something about his status as a prospect.
Sonny Gray has had a very good season and his contract isn’t that onerous so I don’t think a package of Mateo, Fowler and Kaprielian is going to land him.
absolutely disgusting
Thanks, and go As.
They teach everything wrong at Stanford.
So disgusting that you would change your signature?
Well this already feels much better than 24 hours ago.
My early exit from last night’s game gave me a chance to prove something to myself, which was: I really don’t have much of any interest whatsoever in the 2019 Oakvegas Raiders.
I was surprised at how much the Raiders held my interest last night. Them not relentlessly sucking had something to do with that.
So the US are playing Uruguay in a friendly, at Busch Stadium, in front of like 15,000 people.
Such a bad, bad look.
Thanks, and go As.
More Murphy please – I want him to start the potential WC game.
Singled him right out of the game. Wow.
I loathe first-inning blowouts regardless of whether they are for or against so this would be a nightmare road trip if I were in Houston.
Incidentally I rejected the trip to see Cal in Oxford MS a week from Saturday several months ago. A trip like that costs around $1000 and there was nothing else attractive in that area of the country to match it up with. I’ve spent $1000 on A’s weekend trips such as the one to Pittsburgh earlier this year, but that’s three games, I don’t have everything staked on a single game that could be a blowout with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter.
Wow, spend a few minutes typing some boring comment about the post-season roster, and I miss an A’s touchdown.
I’m rarely at home in time to see the start of these 5pm games, catching up today is much better than yesterday was.
sigh
On the bright side we can all agree the A’s batted around,
we can indeed!
Is…KD starting to figure it out?
I’m afraid he used up his good September moment on the 10th of the month.
Doesnt he destroy in Arlington usually? This may all solve any mental part.
He used to, but I was in Arlington the last time the A’s were there and it didn’t go well for him at all.
You may have a point here…
Maybe he’s finally healthy?
never fall in love in september or something
Yes
When Roark called Murphy to the mound, Melvin should have come out as well. If somebody’s going to be kicked out in the second inning of a game like this, which could have happened, it needs to be the manager, not the starting pitcher.
It was kind of a clever way to get to talk with the ump, and Roark was aware enough to use words that wouldn’t get him tossed. I like the way he kept his glove over his mouth when talking to the ump.
It was also refreshing to see an ump not make a huge deal about a pitcher visibly disagreeing with a call.
It was obvious why Roark wanted Murphy to come out. Melvin should have seen that and immediately gone out and said, before the umpire got there, keep your mouth shut and let me abuse this guy.
The calls weren’t even that bad. The first was pretty clearly a ball, the second probably a strike but borderline.
Every time I hear Sneed’s name I think of the Lorax.
I thought it was funny that Vince didn’t know where Elko, NV (Sneed’s hometown) is.
he knows dallas baptist
Starting to feel a little comfortable with the lead now.
So Springer is going to have a 4-homer night and they’ll still lose by 10.
nice call vince
Daaaaaaamn that went far.
Murphy is going to be really good. Health is the only question.
He appears to be the complete package. I’m looking forward to playing a team that tries to run on him.
I’m not convinced yet, although he is obviously an exciting prospect. I think his framing is currently not good, although he is more equipped than most to improve, and he may struggle to maintain a .300 obp.
Agree on the framing but that’s something I don’t expect a young catcher to be good at right away. Disagree a lot on the OBP part, I think he’s already having better at bats than Chapman and Olson did when they came up.
If his bat is on par, I hope they give him time (at least in practice/spring training) playing elsewhere. Give him a break from squatting. And his bat plays, you’d want to keep in the lineup.
No questions about the power anyway.
That second Olson HR was the dagger.
The Astros’ batboys put the “A’s inning baseballs” and the “Astros inning baseballs” in the wrong boxes tonight.
I am starting to think you are right
Something genuinely weird going on tonight with the Yankees giving up 11 to the Tigers.
I mean, I am not convinced this is going well
15 by the home team, then 15 by the visiting team. I’d start with the Coors Field records.
Didn’t take long. The first time it happened at Coors Field was the 30th and 31st games ever played there.
7/3/1995: Rockies 15, Astros 10
7/4/1995: Astros 16, Rockies 8
Dammit Josh.
So this series is now tied.
I just got home and totally enjoyed listening to the Astros broadcasters explainig this. May go back and rewatch it all tonight.
Normally I want to “save some for tomorrow “. I hope we score 30 tonight.
I want to score in every inning.
I do too, but it’s just not a very good look for MLB to have two of its better teams go 15-0 and 20-3 on consecutive nights.
Ugh, now I’m wishing Anderson started tonight.
Stupid Rangers bullpen
Please stop sending Jeff Mathis up to to bat at least.
Stupid slegnA
Seth Brown and his trapper glove of renown.
Argentina is doing to Mexico roughly what the A’s are doing to the Astros.
conga line.
Reliever Mengden doesn’t have time to do his mustache.
That’s always been his thing, even when he was the scheduled feature pitcher behind an opener last year.
As Ken points out, in line for his first MLB save.
Replay review in a 14-run game in the ninth.
When Hendriks is trying to preserve the 21-19 win 30 minutes from now your implied criticism will seem absurd.
Loooong replay review
Mengden is still pretty bad.
3:20 for a 21-7 game isnt bad.
Astros 22, A’s 21, a testament to how compelling these last two nights of combat between these AL West archrivals has been.
Two of the best teams in an extreme season, if they play two straight 11-10 games in October it’ll be remembered for a long time.
The Rangers just misplayed a tapper 3 times so the Rays take the lead in the 11th. Hope they save of that little league bs for us too.
Owe. Yelich JDing his knee to end his season. It was surprisingly ungruesome to watch.
Ratto rambles about the most exciting race no one’s watching.
I didn’t realize Melvin “is a year and two weeks away from being the longest serving A’s manager since Connie Mack.”
I liked his comment about how we seized on the idea of an opener more than anyone else. Glad he has been watching this season.
Slusser reports that tonight Laureano will start in right field Luzardo is expected to pitch in relief.
Jesus of the House Luzardo, first of his name, King of the Moundmen and Protector of the Realm, Lord of the East Bay, Flinger of Fast Balls, Bender of Curves, Changer of Pacez, Khal of the Great Grass Infield, the Unburnt, Winner of Pennants and Father of Luzards.
It is known.
I’m sure that the limping and extra rest and move to RF aren’t a reason to worry about Ramon at all.
Two games on, one off, is pretty much the same as one and a half on, three and a half off, followed by a position change, right?
Not at all a bad pitch that Springer hit out.
God FSU, you have me asking
Durant questions about Ramon. How much more can he hurt it vs slowly recovering.
Based on that shut him down now. We will go with Brown.
I assume it’s chronic not acute, Ramon played through it for a long time. So probably minimal risk of a KD (or a Dravecky, ouch).
YOU’RE NOT HELPING MY PARANOIA WITH DRAVECKY!
I thought this was supposed to be a bullpen game for them. Get this guy out of there.
Choo choo, Marcus!
I like the way Jurk store has been hitting, but I can picture me having 36 comments about a play in the field during the playoffs.
Bob seems to be thinking along similar lines, as he replaced him for defense last night with the rookie who picked up the position a few weeks ago.
I wouldn’t let Anderson face the top for the 3rd time…frankly this has already gone better than expected. Bring on Luzardo.
Yeah and don’t let him get into another jam first.
Somehow a single, botched DP, double, and a bobble in the outfield worked out perfectly for us. Luzardo looks like he’s coming in for the 6th.
You said it, man!
Good swing Seth.
And the Rangers have blown the 7-2 lead.
Bullpen game my ass.
Nails never fails.
Angels and Rangers better forfeit when we play them.
Verlander is good, but I don’t think his WHIP is actually .077 as the graphic says.
That’s about 15 total hits/walks over 200 IP right? Maybe if only pitched against us.
How many more double plays is Profar at 2nd gonna cost us?
Murphy tagged the little guy twice.
FK yeah Murphy
The Murph!
This is out of control. Does one of our players have to die before something happens?
Punishing them with runs is nice at least.
Please be good, kid.
I am optimistic.
He looks good. Easy 96 with sink and has 98 if needed. After the Maldonado home run, he showed the ability to throw off speed stuff for strikes in fastball counts. Great stuff with good feel for pitching. Fastball command probably still needs a little work but that will come.
I would let him start the 9th.
Agreed.
Como se dice, nasty?
BoMel better remember that we were waiting while he got stretched out. Not 1 inning.
Pretty sure the Astros got Chirinos/Maldonado specifically to fk with us.
I know, Maldonano hits like a lesser Molina against everyone except us.
Ok, welcome to the bigs I guess.
Nobody fks with the Jesus.
Jesús holds.
Sweet, so worst case we’re tied with Cleveland after tomorrow.
Not expecting anything from Verlander vs. Homer Bailey. A split in Houston is great.
so much for sonny’s no hitter/shutout/lead
Rays lose.
Rangers held on!
today is a 5 pm game? why the fuck am I working from home then?
I guess the Astros don’t feel the need to give themselves an early flight to Kansas City. The A’s obviously don’t have to go far.
The Rays have to travel to the OC after a night game in Arlington. It’s 94 degrees right now in Arlington, so they are probably fine with that.
97 degrees is the forecast high on Sunday when the A’s do play a day game in Arlington. Starting pitchers haven’t been announced for that series, but fortunately Bassitt shouldn’t be on turn.
Wearing pants sucks?
Thanks, and go As.
The A’s play six straight 5pm start games in TX until the noon Sunday getaway.
Factoid from David Feldman, via the Slussercast, on the Fiers blowup:
The only other Oakland pitcher to give up three home runs in the first inning was Catfish Hunter in 1968. It was in his next start after his perfect game, against the same team he threw the perfect game against (Twins). The homers were by Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and someone named Rich Rollins (scoring Harmon Killebrew). Catfish gave up eight runs in six innings that night, and still picked up a win.
Huh, Rangel Ravelo, the missing piece of the Samardzija trade, is up with the Cardinals.
Either you made that name up or you’re speaking in a Scooby Doo voice.
Ahem (and for that matter)
Damnit. I’m gonna go swipe some taglines from Lookout Landing.
Some good hot takes in that first thread. colin made a good call on Canha, even though we haven’t seen him play 3B yet. mikeA had the least tepid endorsement of Semien.
I’m self promoting an Alberto Collapso transaction reference.
Stupid park is stupid.
Seth Brown and his bad swing off-field flare of renown!
Fosse says that a pitcher wants his catcher to “go to the pitch I want to throw. I can always shake off it.” So, mind reading?
nah, you just wait.
i had a boss like this. open up the meeting for discussion, let everybody make suggestions, let it go round and round, until she heard the one she already had in mind from the get go: great suggestion / case closed / it’s workerbee’s burden if it doesn’t work.
I’m really sick of seeing bad dog Cooper in the corner like a Blair Witch victim.
Chapman needs a day off.
Khris davis need a month
He is getting it.
Why is the piping on the Astros home whites hideous orange, when elegant navy blue was just sitting there?
Moonshot
Dang Olsen is so dialed in right now.
The guy with the 80s-style Astros t-shirt with “KATE UPTON” in place of “ASTROS”….no.
Astros broadcasters have been plugging the HOU Open non stop all series. I wont complain because the results have agreed with us recently.
It’s hard to understand how, with 6 starting pitchers and Luzardo, we still somehow are starting Homer Bailey in Houston.
Apparently his lifetime #s vs Houston are very good even with the last bad outing.
He’s looked good tonight.
Good as he has been so far, it feels like tempting fate to let him face the heart of the order a third time.
yup
Seems like a mistake to let him face Bregman.
Seems like a mistake to bring in Diekman.
only to face one batter. that is fine
about that
Two awful Profar throws so far with no damage.
Let’s knock him out in this inning. Why not.
Or not.
Ugh, hopefully that inning didn’t give Verlander another.
Hopefully that inning didn’t give him yet another.
Murphy throws him out.
(Too soon?)
This is incredible. I can’t believe we got out of that (thanks for the huge assist Jose).
See if you put Profar in the outfield he can be Willie Mays out there!
if you “need” his bat, he can play left of DH
I don’t know bob.
Yeah that was about three more hitters than I feel comfortable seeing Diekmann face,
seems like pitching to a righty just to left left reddick in september wasn’t well thought out
OK. More A’s runs please.
Interesting time to get Puk up.
for alverez?
Correct. Big spot.
can the bench call the pitches?
I prefer Puk to Diekman or Buchter (just by default), but he is potentially homer-prone.
Especially weird given they had seemed to have landed on just bringing him in to start clean innings.
I don’t know, not giving bregman anything to his is OK
not a bad pitch kid
Not terrible, but got too much of the plate, after falling behind.
I’m still hopeful that he can be a good starter next year, but he has some work to do. Luzardo (SSS) looks much more polished.
That’s also the impression you get from looking at their minor league numbers over several years.
Why does this out feel impossible.
it’s possible, it’s just chirinos is going to make it tryig to go to second on the throw home
And how is it only the 8th?
Rays lose…
Thank you Marvin Hudson.
Thank you overrated Astros prospect.
it is happening in slow motion Ken. Blake is slow
More runs please.
11/12 pitches out of the zone per gameday.
Khris?
Old man Ryan takes this fan business seriously. I imagine he spends the between inning breaks scowling at other fans who don’t play the game the right way.
Maybe it makes sense, but Neuse as a late inning defensive replacement at 2B caused me to laugh out loud.
Uh, not a good start Liam.
Nice job, but no extra points for raising the degree of difficulty.
It really feels like A’s pitchers are trying to be too perfect today.
I’ve made my peace with whatever’s about to happen.
Triple play please
We were playing with house money this game anyway.
that was a strike all night
I dont know how you put Treinen on any postseason roster at this point.
That last comment was made in the McDonalds drive thru but just typed now.
Happy Meals for everyone!!!
God, this is what baseball is going to be like for the next month, isnt it?
If we’re lucky.
That’s fair.
Yeah, and we can’t even use the t-word.
4 high fastballs nothing else.
I had some doubts along the way tonight…
Hendriks is a minor miracle.
FK YEAH I can’t believe we won this fucking game!!!
We actually pinned a L on Verlander.
Amazing we won that game.
The A’s are valiant as fuck, because I sure died a thousand deaths tonight.
Half a game ahead of TB.
Now just need to avoid letdowns against Texas(6), KC(3), LAAA(2), Seattle(4)
equal to CLE on games. one fewer than TB
This is my worry. We seem very good at playing to the level of the competition.
A’s fans who traveled to Houston got some fairly decent baseball after all after those first two blowouts.
About to be 2.5 behind Minnesota. If they get swept in Cleveland this weekend, they will have a foot in the crap, though their White Sox, Royals, Tigers, Royals run in should save them.
What are the odds Minnesota fall to the Wild Card (or even out)?
Fangraphs has it at 6.2% they lose the division and 1.1% they fall all the way out of the wild card.
At 3.5 up and with their schedule, I’d say one win in Cleveland puts the division to bed.
I wonder what the odds were for the Rangers in 2012 around this time.
Gotta root for the Phillies over the next two weeks. Need them still in contention when they go to Cleveland next weekend, then they have five with Washington, who we need not to clinch before they host Cleveland the last weekend.
That shouldn’t be hard to do – I got nothin against the Phils anyways.
The Phillies are hanging in the wild card race by a thread, 3 back of the Cubs and Brewers for the second spot. Close enough to try this weekend in Cleveland.
The Nationals have come back to the pack, just 1.5 up on the Cubs/Brewers. Good chance they will need some wins against Cleveland the final weekend. Of course, by the time that Cleveland/Washington series rolls around, we might not want Cleveland to lose any more.
Phillies aren’t hanging on too tightly
Their pitching is atrocious.
Now I’m going to have that Eddie Money song going through my mind all day. Better than a Journey song, I suppose, though there isn’t much difference in the music.
Which one? He had a few bangers.