The A’s face an AL Central team for the first time in regular-season play in 19 months. OK, Miguel Cabrera and…hmmmm, there are several names I recognize but without looking at the roster it’s tough to name more than a half-dozen; Robbie Grossman is leading off and DHing tonight, and this is where Renato Núñez has landed for now, at 1B hitting fifth tonight.
Detroit has been a parade of Ford Pintos in the American League in recent years, with four consecutive seasons concluding at under .400. The sweep of the Astros in Houston earlier this week brings them to Oakland at 6-6.
I’ll have to keep setting my alarm to be ready for these 6:40 p.m. start times.
Tonight at 6:40: Manaea vs. LHP Tarik Skubal
Friday at 6:40: Montas vs. RHP José Ureña (Angel Hernandez should work home plate in this game)
Saturday at 1:07: Irvin vs. RHP and #1 overall draft choice Casey Mize
Sunday at 1:07: Bassitt vs. LHP Matthew Boyd
Last time detroit came to town, they brought comerica with them
check out may 19 in the game log
Learning the Tigers squad extra degree of difficulty with everyone wearing 42.
Good for Kemp and Pinder, walking the walk (despite taking few walks).
Renato Nunez is not that great, but I would rather have him than Moreland.
I’m not listening to the TV audio but I gather that graphic they’ve put up a couple times with the numbers and arrows means some genius has taken the temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction from a weather station atop a light tower, plus the phase of the moon, and claims to have figured out how the ball will carry or not carry to each part of the Coliseum outfield.
https://www.weatherapplied.com/
And here’s a photo of Ken at his desk.
He is not doing that part, but it looks pretty interesting to me.
Though I share some skepticism when it comes to that level of precision.
These bats have sat in a Mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnel’s porch since noon today…
This can’t possibly be accurate, except for maybe one specific set of fly ball parameters (launch, velo, pull vs oppo, etc). A Chapman liner vs an Olson moonshot to right center are not going to each gain 4 feet. The certitude with which these are presented offends me.
Clicking on the link to the company’s web page brings up a short video of how weather affects a golf ball. That makes a lot more sense than trying to figure this out in an enclosed stadium where the flags don’t give a clue to what’s going to happen to a baseball.
I’m just imagining it’s some type of mean.
They (claim to) model the full dynamics of each stadium based on multiple sensors, and can then apply an adjustment individually to any trajectory, which is obviously not reflected in the giant numbers shown in the outfield.
Fluid dynamics is a notoriously hard problem in general in applied math & physics, but also one with tons of literature with all kinds of applications, so it seems plausible that they could have models that work pretty well (and can account for things like what you bring up, different effects at different heights), although like I said, I do wonder about precision.
That sounds reasonable, it’s mostly the lack of any qualifiers in teh commentary that bugs me. Glen thinks a caveat is an hors d’oeuvres his club serves at the members banquet.
Tempted
You’d have some good icebreakers for your interview.
do it.
Start casting porosity!
“migrating our core to Python” and “improve the efficiency of our algorithms, and help our platform scale up as we grow” is a tough combination (and I’m assuming that by algorithms they mostly mean implementations).
Why they would migrate from C to Python if they care about efficiency is certainly a good question. But that combination is not impossible, depending on how inefficient the starting point is.
It’s all about how low you set the bar to begin with.
Efficiency for future development, rather than processing benchmarks?
you have nothing to lose
The Chapman non-HR couldn’t have been more perfectly timed for that new stat.
27 feet would probably be routine at Candlestick, but it doesn’t look that windy tonight at the Coliseum so that does not sound right at all.
Are these specially approved Jackie Robinson socks Manaea is rocking?
The rarely seen replay review which sustains an Angel Hernandez call.
Wilson Ramos can hit but my god he’s an awful framer.
I am radio only, chapman swinging at a 3-1 slider per vince. Was it a strike?
Yes, looked like a good pitch to hit.
Whoa, those 3D wind arrows are trippy.
You cannot walk Kemp there, my dude.
Need someone to quantify how many more runs we should have by now.
Leave the bases loaded 2 innings in a row. That never comes back to bite you.
this game is feeling familiar. My hope is the tigers bullpen is spent. they used 6 pitcjers yesterday and only 3 and 4 the two previous days. Getting to the bullpen early close may be good for the series.
Olson told Arneson where to stick his arrows with that one.
The model showed that it was the wind, in fact, that was aided by Olson’s HR.
well, OBP is going to be better aftertoday
Does it count as lawyerball when so many of the pitches are nowhere near the strike zone?
I feel like the tigers for most of my cases
does that count as “batting” around?
[shakes cow bell]
Televisions clicking off right and left as we approach midnight in Detroit.
The A’s are so bad. 1-5 with runners in scoring position.
1-6
1-7, 19 LOB
2-8
2-9
2-12, 27 lob
When Guduan comes off the IL we need to figure out a way to dump him on the Tigers.
not until after they play the Angels
So we are going to try and have Petit throw 117 games arent we?
OK Tony Kemp that was cool.
Gotta stay in, Elvis. There’s no backup.
I need a total implosion by Romo to keep my prediction of a 5-20 start alive.
Romo seems like a likeable character (Giants past notwithstanding) but a reliever who tops out at 85 should probably be thinking about what he will do after retirement.
with 5 young children at home, I can’t imagine he is in a hurry to be daddy daycare
I really believe I could be a major league-quality hitter against Romo.
Romo will go the way of Rodney soon enough.
– Piscotty went on paternity leave (it’s a boy), and Machin was called up. Melvin said he plans to use it as an opportunity to give Andrus and Chapman each a day off, but not today.
– Moreland is back in the lineup at DH.
So the bottom of tonight’s lineup is Murphy Brown and Elvis.
??
It’s Jed’s birthday maybe that’s why.
For the wired viewers tonight the A’s are again bumped to one of the overflow channels.
Montas doing the same thing as previous starts, bouncing the splitter so far in front of the plate that it is not even tempting as a chase pitch. (Castro did swing at one that bounced on the plate.)
Akil Baddoo is an 80 name.
KK tried to jinx the no hitter but vince wouldn’t let him
Yankees fans did what now?
i tried to find video. I watched the last out. it wasn’t there, but it was funny to see hunter strickland try to walk to the dugout like he didn’t know it was the 9th after he struck out judge or stanton.
Wheels
Somehow I had missed that Braden’s last-ever start was an April win over Verlander, incurring an injury from which he never returned. This day in A’s history, 2011.
Is the broadcast freezing for everyone?
i love the reminiscence about 3rd basepeople of the past 20 years
The reference to Kouz was a jolt, and also I’m finding Ricardo Rincon’s presence in the front row a bit distracting.
I am really not liking the cutouts in the diamond level. They were useful last year but the desperate novelty is long since played out.
it went quickly from greats to lets remember some guys
The White Sox manager also shouldnt be allowed to have a front row seat.
7th inning, esto signifinca guerra
petit?
It’s appearance #9 in game #14, something wrong with that?
Mike Marshall pace.
I’d love to believe Jed is going to have a 180-hit season but it just feels like there’s an Aw Shit moment lurking around every corner.
His superpower suit only works in Oak, he’ll be fine.
Angel has called some really bad strike threes on A’s hitters tonight and I’m not even mad. It’s fine.
So I guess Lou is going to sink or swim in this role. He seems like the one guy who has upside as a closer.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..
.500!
And ahead of Houston.
Reset the Soaker Day clock.
A crisp and tidy victory, and it was nice of the Tigers not to drag it out to 3-1/2 hours tonight.
I wonder how many teams have had losing and winning streaks of six games each in a 14-game span? Can’t be many.
Third team to do it in the first 14, per this:
The month we upgraded our Bob.
Because where else would I go for legal advice …
Early in 2020 we enrolled Lily in a ridiculously expensive 2-week animation summer school. Then the pandemic hit and everything was cancelled with no refunds. After uproar all round, they changed the decision to credit expiring at the end of August 2021. A year later, they now say they still can’t do in-person courses so they are running them online instead. The online class (a) is online which Lily is sick of, and (b) has about 1/3 of the class time of the in-person version.
We’d rather defer for another year but the company says they won’t do that because terms and conditions, and we have to use or lose the credit. Even if we sign her up for the online class that only uses 1/3 of our credit, so we’d lose the rest unless we sign her up for other classes she’s not interested in or give it away (which they are “allowing”).
It doesn’t seem like they’re offering a reasonable like-for-like replacement. Any recourse?
I am not the guy for you, but that doesn’t sound like equivalent services. I’ll see if anyone I know that may do more civil stuff knows of GM or NM don’t know
Generally, this comes down to the contract you signed initially, and the precise terms of any modification thereto. Perhaps as modified by things like false advertising law.
My guess is there is going to be a LOT of litigation in this area, and maybe COVID-specific rules get developed, but the general framework of a contract dispute is:
1. what did each side promise
2. did plaintiff perform (here, you paid)
3. did defendant perform (depends on the specific promise(s) they made, but maybe not)
4. was defendant’s non-performance excused (for example, it is not a breach of contract to fail to paint your house if it burns down before it was to be painted). They’re going to say non-performance is excused because of public health orders and the like.
But as to your specific rights, there isn’t an easy answer or universal standard I can point to.
Looking over tonight’s schedule to find something to watch after an A’s day game, I find a Trevor Cahill vs. Brett Anderson pitching matchup. Brett was in the Brewers’ rotation last year so everybody knows where he is, but I challenge you to name Cahill’s current team without looking.
Olson bomb!
Oh man almost back to back. There’s that daytime wind change on display.
Young Mr. Mize learning you can’t always sneak that fastball past the best guys. Had Olson 0-2, let it get to 3-2 and boom. Then Chapman was sitting on it early.
It’s Hatch Day if you’re into that kind of thing.
Back to Back Jimmy Jacks!!
Back to back!
That time they did go back to back! Canha did exactly what Chapman did, figured after the HR Mize would try first pitch fastball to get ahead, watched for a spot then crushed it.
Somehow when the A’s face the Detroit Tigers in October it’s never these Tigers.
Glen and Ray doing a lot of talking about the 2018 draft. Surprised that is allowed. Sigh…
Wow that was a gift.
Was that one intentional? Was the one Irvin threw last inning intentional after Chapman got hit? Seems like a lot of coincidence here.
Early impression is that the A’s have had a team meeting (not players-only, Bob included) and have decided to accept a suspension or two to make a point if it comes to that.
Hinch deserves to suffer through this.
Agreed. He shouldn’t be in baseball, but if he is he deserves a shitty team.
Twins best not be bringing COVID to Oakland.
The usual nerd alert for when I post this stuff. DL 8881 has not been rescheduled yet.
Monday’s game postponed, DH tentatively scheduled for 3:30 PM Tuesday.
Flight now (tentatively) scheduled Monday evening.
Profar doing things.
I’m surprised I’ve never seen anything like that before.
I wish justin turner didn’t hit that home run. 1-0 on a walk to the pitcher when you allowed onlt 4 baserunners through 7 or 8 or whatever, would have been cool
Also that would mean the catch saved the win. he misses and it is just tied.
On that catch, I rind it funny that is was a spectacular catch and he wasn’t fully extended. like it could have been harder to catch and he still would have
the content is kinda cute, but I watched it several times to see the set upfor calling games off video when your tema in on the road
I’m very much looking forward to the broadcasters traveling again, but probably not nearly as much as the broadcasters themselves are looking forward to that.
Discussing the A’s series at Coors Field (June 4-6) Ken and Vince suggested there’s optimism for being on that trip.
And reading something in The Athletic this morning, this is a Giants article but Duane Kuiper and Jon Miller both express a concern I have long-term. Even before Covid, ESPN was doing a fair amount of broadcasts, especially college basketball, with the announcers sitting in the studio and it was looking like a cost-saving trend.
It’s going to turn into a bauncast pretty quickly. NOt only from the observational and reporting perspective, but in talent.
I doubt a 45 year old former player will want to continue to work nationals games when they have to be at nationals park until 2 AM, on a tuesday and then up back at the park at 9 am for prep when they live an hour away in some tony viginia suburb.
same with pxp people, the good ones will go where a schedule allows them to be at the event live.
So glad we continue to trot Elvis out every day. The Machin clearly needs more tine off after his 1 game than Andrus does.
I like elvis’ personality. he seems fun and engaging. but
Agreed. I like Elvis more than I thought I would. And it has felt like he has had a lot of loud outs. But at some point we need something.
Vince, paraphrasing Bob, mentioned “it’s a personal choice” and “there can’t be any pressure about it”. I was thinking the issue was the second dose, rather than 16% of the team being insurrectionist anti-vaxxers, and I sure hope it’s the former. The other couldn’t be good for the clubhouse dynamic.
I’ve been marveling at the vaccine ads’ tagline “it’s up to you.” Clever double entendre, but also ugh.
Assuming 90% of non players get it, and 90% of Las vegas shuttle guys get it to not be an impediment to being called up that means 4 guys say no and you can’t get to 85%. Canha and lowrie are the only guys I would think would for sure get it.
It leaves it up to the OC and jesus crew.
Yeah, given the demographics of those who say they won’t get it (largest group is white republican men, plus a significant number of Latinos), I would not be surprised if there are a few in every clubhouse. And even among those who will get it, there is probably more tolerance for the idea that “it’s a personal choice” in that group than there is (for example) here.
I do think it was smart for the league to apply pressure indirectly by requiring a high percentage to get it before loosening restrictions. Do we know if other teams have hit the 85% already?
i thought I read yankees and cardinals
I would bet diekman would get it too
chapman manaea and kemp seem smart enough to get it. Olson has his autistic buddy so I bet he would, but I don’t know about pinder trivino kolerek and wendelken
I have no idea of what the personalities of murphy bassitt luzardo or garcia
Tom, guerra and irvin seem like shuttle guys that would get it to get along
Elivs petit montas and laureano have had recent experience (more recent for laureano of course) with getting shots for their work visas
Fiers is a 100% no.
I think, I think they could be close but who knows
Fielder’s choice, 8-5
The Hound with quite a Dodgeball 1st.
Better to just strike everyone out.
It seems like a problem if Tony Kemp is getting starts against lefties.
Tough for this team to beat a good lefty without Pinder and Piscotty.
Boyd might go the distance here. I sure wouldn’t remove him knowing what lurks in the pen.
Best thing the bottom of the order can do is to try to run up his pitch count.
Or that.
Wow
Sweep!
Pretty sloppy game by both teams, but ultimately Detroit wanted it less.
*fewer.
Hinch really did all he could to make amends with Melvin over the last seven games for the Tigers.
He had a schadenfreude-tastic thousand-mile-stare going by the end of the series, didn’t he.
If it does come down to the A’s and Astros, 3-1/2 games of the difference is the Tigers’ trip to Houston and Oakland in April.
I gave the notion of the Tuesday DH/Wednesday afternoon trip passing thought this afternoon because three games in 24 hours is an efficient payoff for 400 miles of driving, even with the seven-inning games. I’m glad we have a full season of baseball going, and that there are squirming butts in the seats and live crowd noise rather than recorded, but the in-ballpark experience still doesn’t look quite right to me. The first game of that hastily-scheduled doubleheader, starting at 3:30, I bet there wouldn’t be more than a few hundred people scattered about for the first few innings. I’m going to stick to the plan to wait until at least 50% of the seats are available, and preferably no restrictions at all. Based on Newsom’s statement I’d think June 15 would be the target date.
I considered going out for 14 innings today, but I’ll wait until shot #2 has achieved it full effect.
You need to get Korach to announce when that happens.
Maybe the Yankees and the Angels should form a Super League so they don’t have to compete for playoff spots with the Rays and A’s any more. If it works for Arsenal and Spurs…
I am having a tough time visualizing how a super league would make more money for those teams.
Think it mostly comes down to them (1) controlling the broadcast rights (especially in Asia) rather than UEFA and the domestic associations and (2) permanently locking themselves in as the ones in control.
I suppose the asia broadcasting rights, but could it be more lucrative than the domestic market? I think in the near term at least there would be a loss of interest. I don’t know the culture to well, but it seems it could go south pretty quickly
Seems like a combination of German ownership rules and Pep Guardiola may have already killed this stupid thing.
lol.
Juventes goes bankrupt when now? september?
This really turned out to be the FIAT of underhanded business plans.
First game against the Rangers is June 21, Game 74. Weird.
Between June 21 and September 12, 27% of their games are against the Rangers.
Geez. I remember there used to be stories about the human beings who set MLB schedules, and how difficult it was. I wonder if they retired, and we are seeing just how difficult it is in practice.
there is a 30 for 30
As i remember, MLB fired the couple that did it in favor of scheduling software, I may or may not watch what I linked
This seems like exactly the kind of thing they would have avoided.
Chan Poling’s father in law passed away. Today I learned who Chan Poling’s father in law was.
Sheldon Neuse in the Dodgers’ lineup.
battle of west division leaders
Kendall Graveman has some nasty stuff that he can show off when he has to throw only 20 or so pitches in setup relief.
Hit to the bullpen.
So much for that feel good story.
Not sure he got a real chance, but I’ve seen enough to think he won’t likely be better than Brown is right now. And I’m glad they’re keeping a plausible backup shortstop until Pinder gets back, rather than let Tom sit on the bench for another week or two. Kemp…I’m going to assume he’s a great clubhouse guy.
I wanted him to get a few more starts early on, but between size (5’9″), age (almost 27), position (only outfield), and the 1-for-16 start, his ceiling seems pretty limited, and it’s hard to make a case for keeping him on the roster all year.
that and so many lefties now.
AV bait
yeah, i saw that. it’s good work from an amateur. not sure about the Z corners. but very handsome and classic.
not unrelated, been watching a bit of streets of san francisco on youtube and getting nostalgic for store signage in old neighborhoods.
Interesting – I’ve never gone back and watched those old favorite shows like Streets or Rockford Files or Kojak. Can’t imagine them holding up but could be a nice nostalgia trip.
As someone who watches WAY too many of them they are just so different. They are very simple and there is very little continuity. But I actually find them to be a good breather. If I go to watch a new show I have to worry about knowing the whole universe, the backgrounds, etc. Or I can turn on an episode of Emergency! and not have to know anything at all about what happened before that moment.
yeah, they do not hold up. the plots have ridiculous writers’ logic. and the values are off the charts dumb.
but as long as they have lots of location shots, i’m in. probably with the TV volume off (after the theme song is over) and a record playing. and it’s fun to see young versions of all the actors.
The thing I find interesting is just how clearly they dont care. They will have a 2 minute shot of someone walking, or being put on a stretcher. Then cut to “so yeah that guy ended up being just fine”. It is clear it was widget work-put in the 47 minutes and on to the next one.
night and day have nothing to do with how much time passed since the last scene.
only on whether the current scene is solved with a car chase or a mugging.
I have had a sprained brain trying to figure out how long an episode might be with all the night to day changes.
It is almost as bad as trying to figure out how long the Korean war is by watching MASH. (I am certain Radar, Hawkeye, and BJ drove through some sort of worm hole on their way back from picking Beej up at Kimpo..)
traditionally, you left st louis on your wagon right as spring started so you got over the sierras before snow.
wagon train ran for 8 seasons (and nary a donner party episode).
I can see that.
I would like the person who designed the City of Berkeley’s font to be sent to Guantanamo.
yeah. fuck that pretentious POS font with a wooden duck.
tho, he says it’s an art nouveau font. meant arts and craft but he ain’t know it.
Can’t cancel the twins game out of respect for unrest tonight
Thank goodness.
Yes.
And terrifying that it could ever have been in doubt.
On a tangent, Lovecraft Country is an interesting mix of horror and 1950s US racism … the latter is often scarier.
I thought Lovecraft Country was brilliant. There were so many ways they sent the message that even the most mundane acts of living are be dangerous, even fatal, for black people.
I was enjoying Lovecraft Country, but it was too sci-fi for my wife and we dropped it.
Now what’s the excuse for the Reds game?
It FKing snowed here last night
It snowed again yesterday mid-afternoon. Should get into the low-80’s next week.
Rest in Power-Ballad, Jim Steinman.
you took the words right out of my mouth.
It must have been while you were kissing me.
hawt!
I’m really enjoying Dontrelle Willis on the pregame show. Hope he sticks around for a while. Also hoping Brodie Brazil sticks with the Spicoli look.
Willis need to get in the booth
The long hair gives him character.
I am at about 10 months since the last haircut. I cant stand it for the most part, but I dont want to cut it. I know I will never grow my hair out this long again and I keep thinking maybe I am about to cross the awkward point. But I do lovegetting to twirl my curls while I am bored.
I’m liking my current long hair, seven months since last cut (by self in backyard). But I’ll ditch it the first time the mercury hits 80° three straight days.
After being fully vaccinated and waiting the requisite two weeks I got my haircut Saturday for the first time in 14 months. Glad to say good-bye to my first-ever ponytail. Washing, drying and wearing was too much upkeep!
I still can’t decide about my facial hair. Probably need to lose my COVID 19 before I take it off…