Matt Harvey is on this team?
there is…others as well. Likely 25 other players. All fine players, it’s just hard to pay attention. NO Canha “under the weather”
While we were waiting to publish Matt Olson got a hit and there was nothing else.
Ray is on the radio. I don’t know where this is on Tee Vee
It’s on the usual TV home something something CSN, Dallas Braden soloing the color duties back in Oakland.
Tomorrow they get booted to the auxiliary something something CSN+ channel to make room for the Sharks, playing out the end of their non-playoff season very poorly.
I remember when I was supposed to be excited about the Sharks. Seems like ages ago.
They made the classic sports roster mistake of adding a bunch of veterans for the 17-18 and 18-19 seasons, then watched them all deteriorate together.
Chris Davis is on the 60-day DL. I don’t know why, don’t really care and suppose Orioles fans don’t care either.
Taxi squad for this trip per the game notes: Austin Allen, Luis Barrera, Mike Fiers, James Kaprielian, Pete Kozma
There’s a woman’s voice on the Orioles radio broadcast (my rule continues to be, listen to announcers who are at the ballpark). According to my master list it must be Melanie Newman, and she does 4 innings of PxP. I’ll give her a listen.
The Orioles have also, effective today, joined this trend:
This is a good trend, the more widespread the less unusual it will sound. I’m sure I’ll find it weird at the Coliseum for awhile. In just 11 more days!
I don’t know much about other teams’ PA announcers but I do remember that Rex Barney, the old Brooklyn pitcher, did that in Baltimore for many years. His signature was “Give that fan a contract!” after a good catch on a foul ball.
The article on Orioles.com says:
I’ll have to look that one up. Did he scream into the mic, “Oh for fuck’s sake, why am I going to suffer through this shitty team for another season?”
I don’t see anything bad on his Twitter feed but maybe it’s been sanitized.
Unless he was too liberal?
I’ve been scrolling through it too. Almost all sports and beer (he also works for Guinness), and two or three very mildly liberal posts like that.
Here you go
If he wants to start rooting for the A’s it sounds like he would be an A+ contributor on FK.
They’re worried their concessions might not sell. Duh.
a friend invited me to a giants game, so I am going to check that out in a minute.
Mandatory proof of vax/neg test feels safer I imagine.
yes. We’ll see about enforcement.
Also makes it harder to find friends to go with you
Irvin has bailed the A’s outfielders out a couple of times today.
Any thoughts on Irvin overall?
He had two not-so-great starts against the *s, and now two good starts against lousy teams. Even in the first two, at least he didn’t walk too many. Seems to me like a guy who could stick in the back of the rotation, better than a Mengden or Blackburn, but maybe I’m giving too much weight to carving up Detroit and Baltimore.
Seems like he knows how to pitch and keep hitters off balance, doesn’t walk too many, and isn’t as homer prone as a Fiers. Not bad for the back a rotation.
I was thinking, a bit Saarloosian (not the L/R part). Neither one blows you away with K/9. Serviceable at the back end until somebody better comes along.
Maybe Dallas Bradenian.
This made me remember a 2006 photo of Saarloos wielding a champagne bottle in wild celebration which I photoshopped it into an illustration for Apachylypse Now.
And then down the 2006 rabbit hole for this excellent memory.
Little things that annoy me: A 26-year-old guy dubs himself “Travis Lakins Senior“. It strikes me as too pretentious at 26.
At least it’s not “Travis Lakins, First of his Name”
And at least he doesn’t have the “Sr.” on the back of his jersey, which is one of my personal get-off-my-lawn triggers.
Remote broadcast Glen is so unsure about fly balls that every call starts “that one’s hit well” so he can ramp the excitement up or down once he sees how the outfielders are moving.
Hope Fiers is ready to be the long man out of the pen.
This is how they look to me as well. We’ve had Travis Lakins Senior and Dillon Tate out of the bullpen and Cole Sulser was warming up. We’ll be done with these guys for the season in 10 days, I likely won’t watch another Orioles game for the rest of the year and I’m not inclined to invest any energy in finding out any more about them.
The radio broadcast team is as unmemorable as the players. I don’t object to them but they don’t stand out for any reason, aside from one being female. The Orioles dumped a lot of their broadcasters after last season, including Gary Thorne who did their television for years and wanted to come back but was told his contract would not be renewed. Like the on-field product, the broadcast team, aside from aged part-timer Jim Palmer, comes young and cheap.
Gary Thorne is one of the best out there. Crazy decision.
Ditto this, he’s also one of those PxP guys who can be excellent in multiple sports.
Thorne isn’t listed in the index of Ken’s Bill King book, but I recall either Ken saying, or perhaps Bill saying himself, that Thorne was one of the sports announcers Bill most enjoyed listening to. High praise.
He’s phenomenal at hockey. I also remember (Cardinals fan that I am) searching out his superb call of the 2011 world series. Can’t believe we’ve had J** B*** for like 20+ years now.
Yusmeiro for Mayor-o!
Did I miss a reason DieBBman is now closing instead of Sweet Lou?
I don’t think Bob is ecstatic about either one at this point, so he’s using both to decide which he’s least uncomfortable with (or, one hopes, gives each a chance to establish himself as the guy).
Maybe trying to manage Lou’s workload a little too?
Yeah, Lou threw almost 50 on Wednesday. Also, Bal is last in the league in BBs, good matchup for Diebb.
12
There are only 10 teams with a winning record right now in baseball, California has four of them. Yesterday it was even five out of nine. Combined California rcord is 61-39, or a clean .610 winning percentage
Several good stakes fields on the card at Golden Gate today. A week before Kentucky Derby Day, time to dust off the handicapping skills. The 12th in particular looks like a great betting race.
In the upcoming California Oaks I’ve got $5 to win on #5 Ida Claire, a value play at 12-1.
Lost that one. For the nightcap I like the favorite #6 Baja Sur, play a $1 exacta 6/1,8 and $0.50 trifecta 6/1,8/1,2,4,5,8, six bucks.
Oh well, $11 less to lose on the Derby next week.
Speaking of the Derby, if the favored Essential Quality wins, he’ll pay a little less with this guy betting on him.
Interesting angle, I am sure the sales volume and markup and refund hassle factor are worth way more than basically the vig on the horse bet. IIRC that guy has done similar mattress promo / hedge bets on the Astros.
He’s going to make a pile of dough if the Astros beat the Braves (he **claims** there are no hedge bets).
that is amazing.
Seems odd to make the smallest bets at the places with the best odds. Are there limits?
Yes. Checking DraftKings for example, the maximum amount bet generally must be such that the net payout is $1 million for MLB bets. McIngvale probably has Super-VIP status allowing him to bet 4 times that much.
EQ is 2-1 favorite on morning line after the post position draw, I will be looking elsewhere. With so many of the top three years olds having dropped off the Derby trail, this strikes me as a year we could see a longshot winner.
20% chance of rain in Baltimore at 7 p.m. game time tonight, but rapidly increasing to 80% by 10 p.m. Pretty much no chance of rain on Sunday if they have to go with a doubleheader.
The radar says this is an exercise in futility but we’ll see.
Can the A’s Declare the innings until we get through the 5th?
My house was definitely cheering for outs in the 4th and 5th.
Holy crap, Jacob DeGrom has faced 101 hitters and struck out 50 of them!
Yowza!
And yet, he only has 2nd best K%-BB%
I’d definitely trade Andrus for him.
I’ll throw in Kemp!
I’ll add Pujols.
Odorizzi pulled after one batter for the Astros.
Angels don’t care
Opposing LHP in something like 6 of our next 9 games.
Chapman/Murphy/Laureano need to get hot.
Real genius move playing the infield in against Olson in the first inning.
Wade LeBlanc pitching for the Orioles is so classic. Mediocre journeyman gets one last chance with horrible team, gets clobbered in 30 or 40 innings and then it’s off to Korea (for a younger guy) or ranching (for older guys like LeBlanc).
(speaking of pitchers past their sell by date) LeBlanc got DFA’d after the game, not unexpectedly.
I notice that Ross Detwiler is the Marlins’ starting pitcher in San Francisco today, though he’s only been pitching in short relief so he might just be an opener.
MLB needs to figure out a way to call pitches without finger signs
Angels using a position player pitching and Otanhi is using a fielders glove today
I did not remember Todd Walker ever playing for the A’s (the final 52 PA of his career).
I think the Orioles are filibustering.
It will be really annoying if they don’t make it through 5 innings because of this glacial pace.
Assuming this game has to be finished tomorrow before the finale, do the teams get a 27th man for both games?
I can’t find any evidence of that. If they play 3 innings tonight, I think they re-start this game in the 4th tomorrow and then play a full 9-inning regular game. It’s not a doubleheader. But I’m not totally certain about it.
I have spent the better part of an inning digging through the Operations Manual and this does seem to be the correct interpretation.
Obviously the better thing is if the rain holds off for another 45 minutes or so and we conclude the bottom of the 5th with the A’s leading. The regular rules apply to that, it’s a 5-inning A’s victory.
Anyone that sees three pitches in this top of the 5th should be fined
Melvin concurs.
Now that inning was well executed.
You’re right, Ramon, but please don’t get tossed.
This game might go into tomorrow without any rain.
Brick backstop facades near the plate are a great thing.
Is this the return of Humidity Hound?
A full game of Braden in a two-man booth is a little much for me. Get Dontrelle in there.
Watch out Cap’n Sal, here comes Canha!
Move over Sal
Here comes Canha
And he’s getting beaned
Move over Sal
Mark’s took another
He’s an HBP machine
Jed is Superman.
That’s the way you make him pay for hitting your guy.
I dont think the heavy stuff is gonna come down for quite a while.
If I read that right we are now at a neutral run differential.
I don’t know how Orioles fans can watch this shit year after year.
Well the attendance was plummeting before Covid. There was even a little talk of relocation. (Which would be remarkably stupid. It would also open Camden Yards to the Rays moving there and I bet they would jump at that opportunity. And Baltimore would welcome an intelligently-run franchise.)
There’s nothing SpeeDee about this one, Glen.
Did the temp (and humidty) drop?
This is where Earl Weaver used to order his hitters to swing weakly at every pitch until they made an out.
How do you miss that call? Ridiculous.
Good shot of Bob in the dugout making the universal symbol for aw, fk it.
GM my assumption is he has seen the score, the weather forecast, and has reservations somewhere already.
Noting worse than trying to help the kids get cleaned up after cotton candy.
Need one of those GIDP requisition forms expedited.
Even the Weather Goddess is helping the A’s right now.
Official!
The broadcast is morphing between the A’s and the Sharks.
That whole stretch of the game was so distracting we switched to radio and endured Ray horning in on Ken & Vince. Nothing makes me appreciate Vince more than the comparison of him with Fosse in the booth.
The Sharks game keeps attacking the broadcast, sort of like the office buildings in the opening short film before Monty Python’s Meaning of Life.
The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
I have not had any issue with this on Youtube TV; must be a Comcast problem.
Yeah the local Comcast slate has a few channels which occasionally glitchy, including NBSCA.
The ads for Tahoe Blue Vodka with its pure water don’t mention how much used beer I’ve emptied into the lake over the years.
8 straight and counting
Made it to the ninth inning before resorting to the kitty litter. That didn’t look likely three hours ago.
I wasn’t doing some farcical self-parody when I said they would start 5-20 and disappear for the rest of the year. I honestly thought that’s where these guys were headed.
Today is a means test
Braden is loving this matchup of thinking man’s lefties.
Reply Hays-y, try again later.
Side note, the top image search results for this are all venture capital firms for some reason.
Means is pretty good but I haven’t seen anybody mouth-breathe on the mound like that since John Lackey.
The O’s have these beautiful home whites in their closets and yet they insist on wearing those hideous orange batting practice jerseys two thirds of the time.
Keep the ball in the FKing yard.
I was thinking maybe Murphy was part of the problem, but results are the same with garcia
OK, this is the spot that makes or breaks Luzardo’s starts. Good Zeus settles right back decisively. Bad Zeus tries to be too fine and makes the same mistakes again.
Wow that was exciting. Teetering, behind 2-0, then three straight perfect pitches to K Franco
Having almost half the lineup below the Mendoza line makes it tough on the pitcher.
OK, Means is gone, shake those bats awake.
The bottom of the order is going to need a defibrillator.
Bob you can PH for Andrus. And also not have to start him every fking game.
Joge mateo lost a roster spot a week too soon and there hasn’t been a back up short stop since
The ads behind home plate saying “Pennington: the grass is greener” might be sending some kind of coded message.
{Nick Allen googles flights to Tampa}
BTW, Mateo has played five positions (plus DH) in his brief MLB career, and SS is not one of them. (And that’s even with Tatis missing 10 games this season.)
That seems odd.
I sorta get not playing him at short this year to see if Kim can handle it. but that is odd
Olson is just so damn slick on that first to third play. Pretty.
We’re going to use Romo in a close game? Again?
Pretty good opportunity here to send him on his way to Rodneydom.
Yeah this feels like a white flag.
Apparently Romo has Mancini hypnotized.
I liked Guerra better when he was getting more of the first true outcome.
likewise, Andrus when he wasn’t booting routine grounders.
Early April making a comeback it appears.
Get it all out of the system this inning.
The degree of difficulty to sustain this win streak is sufficiently high now.
Lowther of the hill people.
looks like i picked the wrong day to quit not watching A’s baseball.
At least now I can start wearing my green hoodie / putting my left shoe on first / changing my underwear again.
I know it’s the last Marlins vs. Giants game of the year and MLB would rather not force the Marlins to go back to San Francisco, but if they keep playing, in a couple innings those boats in McCovey Cove will be able to float on the infield.
it’s too bad kershaw didn’t bounce into a double play so the pitcher would have to become the ghost runner in the 11th
ARod thinks there should be more intentional walks.
Aside from the talent, good looks and money, it must be nice to be Alex Rodriguez. How great would it be to live in a world of such wonderment that you have new things to learn every minute and you don’t ever have to retain useful or challenging information.
So how long is Guduan going to hang around?
When facing a batter–interminably.
Fiers will “sit in the bullpen.” Sounds like they’re pretty excited to have him back.
While Irvin probably > or at worst = Fiers, right now Bob only has one usable lefty in the bullpen. I’d send Irvin to the pen but try to keep him stretched out enough that if Fiers pitches his way off the team Irvin could quickly reclaim that spot.
Irvin is not really a lefty specialist. His best pitch is the changeup, which is not as effective/he might not even throw against LHB. He has a reverse split for his career (enormous sss reverse split in mlb.)
I think part of the thinking might also just be that whatever you think of Irvin vs Fiers long term, Irvin seems a better bet the next couple starts since Fiers could just be rusty and terrible.
I’m not really sure why Fiers was even brought back considering that the team wasn’t short of middling back end of the rotation options and he himself stated he had no other offers. He also looked abjectly terrible to me last year – his stuff seemed like it’s hanging on by a thread.
I don’t think he could’ve gotten a major league offer, but the A’s seemed all too willing to give him not just a MLB offer but a also a 3.5 million guarantee even though they were dealing with the miserly money situation we’re well aware of.
This all sounds pretty weird. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are trying to work out a trade or something.
Historic day for man buns.
Leaping out from the Census report: Wyoming has 576,851 residents. The older I get the more appealing that sounds. I’d have to tune out the right-winginess if Liz Cheney isn’t conservative enough for them, but hell, move to Thermopolis and soak away my remaining years.
Counter-proposal: Merge Wyoming and the Dakotas into one state, give their senators to DC and Puerto Rico, no change to # of stars on the flag.
I want the flag to change. Of course Im also bitter that I’ve never seen a British coronation and there was no new Pope for most of my young adulthood. I guess I just like change.
I’m bitter that I haven’t seen the last royal strangled with the entrails of the last priest. I guess I also like change.
i’m just happy all a sudden we decided medium rare pork is OK to eat.
There is something to be said for incrementalism.
Only as an ingredient in beer.