#Athletics Melvin, on challenges of playing at #Rays Trop: "It's unique here. At times it feels like you're playing in a pinball machine with all the rings and ground rules.''
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) April 26, 2021
Monday at 4:10: Manaea vs. Rich Hill
Tuesday at 4:10: Montas vs. Michael Wacha
Wednesday at 4:10: Irvin vs. Tyler Glasnow
Thursday at 10:10 a.m.: Bassitt vs. (TBA) LHP Shane McClanahan
Hill is 41 now and has been hit pretty hard. Glasnow has barely been hit at all (30-2/3 innings, 14 hits, 7 runs, 9 BB, 46 K). Joey Wendle is rocking the early part of the season to the tune of .324/.347/.549.
What I discovered Blew. My. Mind. -- Pat Boone
Even that deaf dumb and blind kid knows this place is a grotesque monstrosity.
It just wasn’t a great experience when I went there in 2017. Granted that was at the very end of the Trevor Plouffe Era, with Chapman called up immediately after that road trip, so the overall A’s fan mood wasn’t good anyway. But Marlins Park was a breath of fresh air (even with the roof closed) after that on that trip. I can’t see ever spending money to go back to St. Pete unless/until there’s a new ballpark.
So far Hill looks like his old self, while Manaea is OK but having trouble putting hitters away.
Don’t make the first out at 3B Ramon.
Just a horrible decision by Ramon to run. Short lead, defense attentive (holding him on) makes first out of the inning at third base. Take away his green light now.
To my eye, it seems like Chapman’s struggles right now come down to not being able to get around on fastballs. He had a 3-1 count that at bat, and Hill threw an 89 mph fastball right down the middle but he was only able to foul it back. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him miss some really hittable fastballs in good counts.
I’ve noticed some of those as well.
Exactly the same thing in his second AB, though he then walked on the 3-2.
Yeah, Murphy though, did not miss the next one.
Tony Kemp gets an A for effort in left.
Move over Capt Sal!
We’re going to have a stop-the-game ceremony the next time Canha gets hit. Sal should be there to present him with a case of Band-Aids.
how does a lefty hit him?
Breaking ball to the back foot in this case.
For Sal it was likely a tube of Bengay and a handful of greenies.
During his Oakland tenure the A’s played 1450 regular season games and Sal played in 1410 of them. Not quite Cal Ripken but pretty dang close, and I’d guess chemistry would be part of the explanation.
I think Arozarena is going to hit .800 against us this series.
The Tampa Bay talk is that he’s been “expanding the zone”, getting a little full of himself after his postseason.
yes
I might take the over.
Just what the doctor ordered–for one of the A’s to square up on one of Hill’s pitches. Boom!
Hit and run against a guy who’s having issues throwing strikes? LOL thanks for the help, Rays.
wait, tony kemp is starting v a lefty?
His last 3 starts have been in LF against lefties. Pretty good reason to want Pinder back asap (though Kemp has somehow found his way on base twice already).
Murphy doing it all today.
Safe (but may well not be overturned).
Yep.
And you don’t see Bob get that mad often.
Such a fucked up result. Clearly he’s safe on the correct angle. Just because you have to look closely doesn’t mean it’s not clear.
Seems like it should have been clear in real time to the guy standing right over it.
Some good defense this game!
Reply fail…
More like replay fail, amirite?
Hey-o!
….by the umps! Folks,
Bob’s problem is with Barber, the HP umpire. Remember that Barber kicked both Melvin and Lowrie out of a game a few years ago. If Barber gets the call (apparently) right with a “safe”, that call isn’t overturned either.
This is also the crew we had for the first 7 games of this season.
Wednesday we will probably have to contend with the combination of Glasnow pitching and Gorman behind the plate.
Different guy maybe? According to this (for an umpire fantasy league!) it was Will Little who tossed Bob and Jed, vs NYY in 2017.
Ooh yes, that’s what I was thinking of. Four-letter first name, six-letter second name, otherwise umpires aren’t very distinguishable.
But Barber did eject Melvin in another game in Tampa.
Replay is never going to work as long as you have the people who are incentivized to have it not work in control of the outcomes.
It probably shouldn’t be an active umpire sitting at the monitors. Have NFL officials do this for baseball and have MLB umpires do it for football.
Nevertheless, I was unenthusiastic about expanding replay beyond home run/not a home run, but I think as it has evolved it’s a 95% improvement over what we had before. Although I do have some sense that sometimes umpires now just mentally flip a coin and figure New York will work it out.
On this one I have more of an issue with the initial call. Just from where the ball was caught and where the runner was, he looked safe, and it should have been called that way.
I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t overturned on replay, with the standard of needing to be 100% clear.
He was getting his whole body ready for the out call before the ball arrived.
We hear a lot about umpires on the field being measured and judged (not that it ever changes anything), but do we know anything if umpires in the replay booth are being held accountable in any way?
There just seems to me to be a rise in obvious miscalls that aren’t being fixed with replay, and if the guys in the booth aren’t being held accountable, well that’s one way to get people questioning replay as a whole and sink the system.
Also it seems like the NFL has replay officials who are a separate group of folks from the regular on field refs (though obviously NFL replay isn’t perfect either), which seems to negate the potential conflict of interest issues MLB has with rotating on field umpires into the replay booth.
that seems like an HR nightmare. can’t see the factions getting on at all
They should do it rugby-style, where the conversation and video angles are public.
cricket too
Grrrr
I don’t think many A’s fans will be able to survive a season’s worth of Diekman and Trivino closing games.
Proud that my motivational grrr inspired Jake to get back to work.
Miracle. My health has really declined since the ’19 trade deadline.
Anyone have a GroupOn for defibrillators? Need to be prepared..
Mmmkay, the call at home plate didn’t really affect anything about the game such as forcing the A’s to use pitchers differently, so we’ll let that one slide.
After yesterday’s mini-meltdown to end the streak, it feels big to come right back and win a close one against a good pitcher (and with that bad call against us).
Where would this team be if they hadn’t resigned Petit?
Gros.
How is michael “fozzy bear” wacha been? hopefully bad
Pretty good oral history-type thing about Eck in The Athletic. I like this bit about Spring Training 1987.
Day off for Chapman today.
With four games on turf, Bob is likely giving almost everyone one of them off, but this one also seems like it might be needed.
I’m more surprised Brown isn’t in the lineup instead of Piscotty.
In my opinion third base is the ONLY place head-first sliding is smart.
Well, Chapman would have made that play.
Yup. Kiermeyer went on contact, with Chapman they get the out at home easy.
Bases loaded, no one out, and thise garbage results are actually better than I expected.
Potential big inning quashed by Machin and Andrus.
This is somebody who was thought destined for politics when he was with the A’s…
My personal Jerry Blevins memory is running into him the day before the 2012 playoffs started. It was at the MRI office.
A pair of True Athletics.
be nice if the A’s could find guys to play short like Joey Wendell
Wendle got us Heim, Heim (partially) got us Andrus.
Yuck.
Graphic just said Wacha threw 6993 pitches. Now thats a ironman.
ok, not listening or watching currently.
Olson doubles on a ground ball to 2b?
Down the first base line, fielded in the bullpen by the 2b because of the shift.
Korach rather comically called it foul at first, apparently being faked out by an indecisive Brian Gorman.
I’ve been harping on the Guduan issue, but with Fiers in the BP, Irvin still in the rotation, and Kolarek optioned, the A’s only have Guduan as a second lefty behind Diekman. This seems like a problem.
Montas get squeezed as bad there as the radio booth is saying?
The umps owe us more runs.
Oh, come the fk on.
I don’t have a great long-term memory for bad umpires (except for the two most obvious ones) but this crew has been garbage all year.
Any calls as bad as the Milwaukee interference travesty?
There are no calls as bad as that.
that was the same terrible call in anaheim in 2012/3/4? With dan otero?
Yes.
2014-08-28
Ultimately a happy ending–the result was of no consequence since the A’s lost nearly every remaining game that season.
Not that it mattered, but 1 more win ties us with KC. What is the 1st tiebreaker and would we have had that game in Oakland?
Still would have had to teach Lester how to hold a runner on…
Lost the season series to those guys, so game would have been in KC regardless.
This call is also impressive:
Yep. At least on that one, the runner’s body language looked like he was trying to avoid the tag (even though his feet went straight on the dirt). Therefore, F call but not F- like the “interference” on a runner jogging haphazardly 25 feet away.
@GM..AWFUL call before the HR. Like file it into evidence for Roboumps.
I know it isnt his nature, but Melvin needs to get run again after that horseshit.
Run you FKing moron.
I call BS on Fosse’s ad read that “new Junior Mints minis are made with 30% more chocolate” than regular Junior Mints. That just can’t be right, if they are indeed mini. 30% higher chocolate-to-mint ratio I might believe…
Are there still Kangaroo Courts? Because Seth Brown might owe his whole paycheck for that.
Inexcusable in a one run game. Between this, Machin/Andrus being utterly worthless (and Melvin absolutely refusing to do anything about Andrus), and shitty umpiring, this is really hard to watch without your blood boiling.
It’s not clear to me what Bob is supposed to do about Andrus.
Yeah I think he is the best option at SS…
I would PH Brown for Andrus before Piscotty. I would even PH Kemp for Andrus cause at least Kemp occasionally finds his way on base.
And then play Machin at SS?
This one is on the front office.
It’s not great but he did it last year. And yes, if they’re not comfortable with him getting any innings at SS then they need to get someone who can.
I think they’re OK with Pinder playing there for a few innings. Less so with Machin.
Clearly not focused vision of Renown.
Ugh..again actually happy the bottom of the order didnt find a way to end it. Just 2 normal crap outs.
Godamnit Glen
Guduan’s first K of the year (23rd batter faced).
Now let’s put a W on his record.
Holy smokes
Machin just doesn’t belong in the major leagues at all. Which is not to suggest that Pete Kozma, or at this point Nick Allen, would improve anything. It’s just a short spot in the organization.
I sure wish we hadn’t traded Neuse for Kolarek
Ugh, that one felt winnable, unlike Irvin vs. Glasnow.
^
Frustrating, to say the least. Dropping this winnable game with Irvin/Glasnow on deck is less than ideal.
Bob’s unusually terse in his postgame comments. Also looks like he forgot to use sunscreen yesterday.
I did not see Bob’s postgame, I’m sure the umpiring has him frustrated, but he also has got to be thinking: “I’m a Bay Area guy, managing in Oakland has been a great experience, but in 2022 I’ll be working for a team whose owner wouldn’t have been too cheap to make a serious offer to Marcus Semien.”
If that’s where Bob’s head is at he doesn’t show it.
Nobody this side of Matt Holliday would show it, and if Melvin could win a World Series with the A’s this year his price would be through the roof.
Grant Green taught me to never think it cant get worse but I just dont see how you can keep running Andrus out there.
I remember when they tried to limp along with Kurt Abbott at shortstop. That became intolerable by the middle of May. They rushed Miguel Tejada up from AA ahead of schedule, and that was tough to watch too, but at least it was a struggling but promising young player rather than a crappy veteran. The difference was, in 1998 the A’s weren’t going anywhere so they could suffer Tejada’s up and downs. It would be difficult to throw Nick Allen right into the fire.
Dept. of: Soaker gets his best (or at least most amusing) outside-the-box ideas late at night after a couple drinks.
The 1968 Detroit Tigers got to the World Series in spite of having one of the worst starting shortstops in the history of baseball.
Late in the season they brought their center fielder, age 26 at the time, in to start a few games at shortstop. This was a guy who won a Gold Glove as an outfielder that year. The shortstop thing worked OK, he started every game at shortstop in the World Series and the Tigers won the championship.
What are you looking for at shortstop defensively? Range and a strong arm.
“Say, Ramon, could you come into my office? I’d like to run something by you.”
Yoenis Cespedes is still a FA.
That was the exact thought I had. My guess is Elvis has a little more range than La Potencia, but given Chapman can take most anything regardless…
It has crossed my mind that Chapman could be the best SS on the team, although that move is still unlikely since
– that just moves the hole in the roster elsewhere, rather than actually filling it
– asking Chapman to change positions while he is already slumping at the plate might make things worse.
Khris Davis has been more valuable this year than Elvis
To be fair Ed you have been more valuable as well.
Wow-the worst part is he is pretty much doing what he has done the last 1-2 years, so this isnt going to change in any way.
The scary thing is Andrus has been far worse than he was even the last couple years. He’s striking out at rates he’s never come near before, and his power has never been close to this anemic.
Among 163 qualified MLB hitters, his .176 wOBA is worst.
His .242 xwOBA, while better, is still tied for second from the bottom, so while maybe he has had a little bit of bad luck, the main problem is that he just doesn’t make good enough contact.
If you go down to 50 PA, there are three players who are worse. (One of them is Martin Maldonado with an impressive .096/.161/.115.) But of course, the point is that players this bad usually lose playing time.
At least his fielding has also been bad.
I will say that there have been several occasions at least this season when he has fielded a ground ball and thrown to first base to record an out.
We have the Kemp, Machin, Garcia trifecta in the lineup today.
Giving Lowrie and Murphy the day off together is tantamount to punting the game, which given the pitching matchup may make sense. Glad Andrus is getting a day off anyway.
Nonsense, we’re going to score 10 today.
And a perfect game for Irvin (unless somebody hits a ball to Machin).
Machin will have to work hard to top that impressively bad play by Adames to lead off the game.
Arozarena is DHing tonight so he and Kiermaier don’t get a fight in the outfield after last night. Then Adames immediately steals that one from Brosseau, who had an easier play on the ball.
woof. that was bad. i don’t see how kiermeir isn’t killed by friendly fire
via GIFER
They would not do anything against Glasnow anyway, this way they can pinch hit at an opportune time…
kemp an on base machin
This new soccer tactic where you have a guy lie down behind the wall on a free kick looks totally ridiculous and also doesn’t seem to work. I love it.
is the guy in the same team as the wall or opposite?
Same team. He’s there to block a worm-burner when the wall jumps.
There was one today in Man City – PSG, and they had a great close up on the prone guy’s face as the ball was flying through the hole in the wall he would have filled.
huh.
and it doesn’t work meaning balls still go through him? or more like, everybody lands on him and trips while multiple clowns exit a small car?
guess i might have to pick a week to quit not sniffing soccer.
Meaning by doing that you leave yourself with one fewer body in the wall, which City exploited today. But yeah, the tripping thing seems like it could be a problem too!
the first city goal: i love those.
the one with the wall, not sure that having any more guys standing would have prevented that hole the two who were right there opened up.
Disregard. Got fooled by a replay.
pretty sure your pre-edited message was this link.
Sounds like a job for Hans Moleman.
PSG makes more of a fence, than a wall
Pretty good TOOTBLAN by Margot there, for that to happen with 2 out.
Rays radio announcers, who know Glasnow better than we do, were harping on how Glasnow’s command of his off-speed pitches was really off tonight. A’s got 5 baserunners in the first 3 innings but didn’t score. Then Glasnow K’d Moreland on 3 pitches, all off-speed. Uh-oh.
It’s odd, almost like Glasnow is doing his Grapefruit League WoT with the off-speed pitches. He’s hit 97-98 so I don’t think anything is physically wrong, but something ain’t quite right tonight.
Haha, sounded like Ray was about to praise his math teacher, not much of a distinction, but he zinged her instead.
So she’s not the best in the business?
chapman really doesn’t want Machin to touch the ball
2 TOOTBLANs and Glasnow not on top of his game. Maybe there’s a way to steal this one after all.
Once again, optimism from Soaker bodes poorly.
This is exactly why I leave the gambling to more savvy gentlemen like FSU.
One sign your ballpark sucks: it needs A-B-C-D rule sets each kind of ring involved with any fly ball.
I know I saw the fly ball that cleared the B-ring that stayed in play when I was there (the type of high fly Seth hit that Phillips was gesturing about tonight). Absurd that’s not a once-every-three-years freak occurrence.
Another good start from Irvin, though maybe not quite good enough today.
So we are doing this are we bob? OK. I mean it is a blow out
Down 2-0, Guerra pitching and Guduan warming up. Irvin pitched well tonight but it’s almost like the A’s just decided to concede this one and go for the split of the series and the plus-.500 road trip tomorrow.
Now Romo’s up.
never in doubt
I don’t know if it’s so much a concession as if half of your bullpen is Guerra, Guduan, Romo, and Fiers, you kind of half to use them in games like this. Bob’s already used Wendelken and Petit excessively.
I will never trust wendelken
Do not ban that defense vs. Olson. That was terrific.
Was there a guy lying down behind the wall?
hey o
“The A’s are in a pretty good spot here…”
…
“And Tony Kemp is the hitter.”
Oh.
Following only on gameday…Piscotty isn’t pinch hitting for Machin with the game on the line?
He was on deck to pinch-hit for Garcia…but that required Machin somehow keeping the inning alive. I didn’t get that either.
I didn’t have a lineup card in front of me, but if Piscotty pinch-hits for Machin there, in the bottom of the ninth you have Canha-Laureano-Piscotty, Chapman-Andrus-Kemp-Olson, Murphy C with Lowrie DH. So it’s not like they were going to have Guduan playing second base or something. I question that one strongly.
Bob was scared of it coming down to Andrus/Garcia if Piscotty gets on but the game still isn’t tied. There’s a lot of times where managers seem scared of what may come to be to the detriment of what is currently going on.
It also seems like they’re really trying to avoid Piscotty vs righties and there’s a weird level of trust in Machin.
From the back end of the bullpen to the bench, this team just has really poor quality depth. It’s so noticeable when just a single regular is out.
The bottom 6-7 spots on the roster just aren’t Major League-worthy.
pinder
If he comes back as nine Pinders we’d be
greatgoodadequate.I don’t object to Aramis Garcia. Your standard .175-hitting backup catcher who will start maybe 45 games. Yeah, we know he won’t hit, just do a decent job defensively.
Losing Pinder’s plate appearances to Kemp and Machin (and Andrus) is just lethal though.
With Aramis the impact never fades.
Oh great
Since I accidentally double posted, here’s other news.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but this seems reasonable.
Makes sense to me. Fiers is a bad fit in the bullpen (he hated following the “opener” previously), the only chance of dealing him to a bigger idiot will require giving him some starts, and all of the other five guys can use the extra rest.
Houston could use a fifth starter.
I remember McClanahan being linked to the A’s in the Kyler Murray draft.
Now we Rue not taking him.
Would’ve been Golden.
This made me Blanch.
Fly ball to right-center, Laureano and Piscotty both kind of jog toward it and it drops between them. Glen speculates that they must have lost it in the dome. (fk that place)
The gameday highlights description says that Meadows “cracked” the double.
At least we won’t get no-hit, but it looks like runs will be tough to come by again.
I have the gamethread for the Orioles series all ready to go, I might just post it later today to get the vile Tropicana taste out of our collective mouths.
Odd how the two stupidest parks are named after Big OJ.
Maybe try to make fewer outs on the basepaths like nincompoops.
There’s canny baserunning, uncanny baserunning and then there’s Ramon.
Yeah! Now we’re talkin’!
LOL this guy throws 100 mph, why would you throw anything offspeed to Chapman in the zone?
Very thoughtful of the Rays to throw a non-fastball to Chapman.
I would guess that the menu at Chicken Pie Shop of Walnut Creek is pretty much the opposite of “dynamic.”
Why does it feel like the Rays have 15 different relievers.
Split!
Scored 8 runs in 4 games, allowed 9.
Yes, pathetic offense is pathetic, but it was a blown third strike call away from allowing 7
I was not optimistic about this game.
I’m stunned that the Murphy-Umpire-Catwalk situation didn’t lead directly to a loss.
gonna have to look into this
ok. I have looked.
I am happy to have been in jail for that.
I will say it again, all weird happenings at a baseball park should be interpreted in favor of the road team.
Fix your park or suffer
Graveman (0.00 ERA) in for his third save…
He looks pretty good.