You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout. The A’s can’t seem to score anywhere else but maybe they can get some action in the next three days.
Tonight at 5:10: Bassitt vs. Framber Valdez
Wednesday at 5:10: Manaea vs. Luis Garcia
Thursday at 11:10 a.m.: Montas vs. Lance McCullers Jr.
about the best pitching set up the A’s could do. Framber Valdez is fun to watch, but I do not expect to come out of this series in contention
LHP on the mound, so we get the Pinder/Piscotty/Schwindel version of mediocrity today.
Hey,who are these guys?
Oh, I forgot the game was starting. Maybe that’s why.
Now I’m tuned in, so the rally can fizzle out and Valdez can settle down and retire 14 straight or something.
Not quite, but WTF were Kotsay/Pinder thinking there?
there is your run chris. make it count
Can we get rid of Kotsay? He’s even worse than fucking Gallego.
Has Kotsay had his vision checked recently?
Apologize if This has been reported here already. I didint know that weems was claimed, although I expected him to be
that seems right
The good news is that the A’s are still batting in the alternate universe where Kotsay isn’t a moron.
Sweet almondy return!
Is Aces a hypocrite? As he yells at Kotsay for not sending Piscotty…yes he is.
still not enough
Bassitt maybe deserves a little more confidence than that.
is he going 9?
Shit. Fuck me.
Lowrie going after that ball looked like me getting off the couch.
We know Jed’s defense is bottom of the barrel. He needs to make up for it by being RISPy. Didn’t happen there in the top of the 5th.
Yeah that was a big lost opportunity. I don’t want to be pissed about it in the next 15-60 minutes.
Well it wasn’t 15 minutes…
Lowrie at least had a decent at bat. I’m more pissed about Pinder’s usual shitty approach and pulling a breaking ball a foot outside.
BeaneForst needs to show that inning over and over to Fisher to make him open the check book for Nelson Cruz.
FG Mock Draft – psyched that we’re linked to another football player.
I don’t think melissa lockhart mentioned him, so that is better
if the A’s were up in the 5th with the starter on 73 pitches, they would swing at every first pitch
but no doubles
but no doubles
but no doubles
What about doubles, Ed?
but no doubles
YOU’VE MADE YOUR POINT ED
Yes I’m hitting the panic button but it feels like we lost the game in that top of the 5th. Please let this comment look stupid in about an hour.
sigh
The Astros have so consistently been the instrument of the A’s destruction, it all just feels so inevitable.
Oh thank goodness we’re back, this would’ve been a bad last comment ever.
I am happy for the out, but no shame in walking brantly
We got through it. Now we just need to get 4 more innings out of the pen. This is fun.
The * pen is supposedly worse than ours. But our offense is giving off those familiar “done enough for today” vibes.
Thank the Gods for the shit crapping out. Gave me the inspiration to just unplug and go do anything but watch the rest of that. A new day is here.
On the pitching. Not comforting per se
All these white and red crosses are making it hard to choose who to root for.
but I like the english kits with the blue
Agreed, and I reflexively root against red uniforms almost always. The fans are more difficult to differentiate, unless you can see their teeth.
preeeeetty sure there’s a rule in england that you can’t score without a cross.
QED
Beautiful opening goal.
Grealish’s ostentatiously low socks…what is the deal there?
Chapman not in the lineup tonight. I can’t imagine it being a planned day off so this is troubling.
Why the hell are England fans singing Sweet Caroline? Awful song, made worse by the stink of Red Sox about it. Just ‘orrible.
They were so close to penalties, they needed to fail at something to get back to normal
The only acceptable Neil Diamond song is Solitary Man. More fitting in defeat; perhaps they’ll sing it Sunday.
Pretty sure the Dead never covered Neil. Phish has a number of times (though not recently), song here; Trey on drums with Jon standing at Trey’s mic.
That reminds me, Korach today referred to “Mr [Myles] Straw …. from Wichita.”
We are everywhere.
I definitely thought “hip” today when I didn’t see him in the lineup. Right injury, wrong player.
There is no such thing as stomach flu. Occasionally it’s food poisoning, far more common is norovirus, which is highly contagious. Chapman better be isolating from his teammates.
La Grange flu.
Or euphemism for hangover
trevor rosenthal day for the next 10 years is going to be better than Bobby bonilla day
Although, I was scared of him coming back with the tacky ban. What was lack of susnscreen. WOuld have been tough to decipher what was susnscreen and what was injury
Rosenthal’s deal is paid out over only 3 years. (I had to look it up).
Semien was the one they wanted to spread out over 10 years (since he wasn’t worth as much in present value as Rosenthal).
Top three salaries:
1. Elvis $14.25M ($6.25M covered by Texas)
2. Rosenthal $11M (some of it deferred)
3. Piscotty $7.58M
Looking forward to not being able to afford Canha next year.
Excited for him to be an interesting A’s trivia question answer in 20 years like Ryan Langerhans and Michael Barrett.
Ben Sheets
Also how many hip injuries is that now? Between Chapman, Laureano, Canha, Rosenthal, Fiers in spring training, is there an issue with the A’s strength and conditioning?
Oly Oly O!
Me listening to the tv people doesn’t help
Nor does me not being able to listen or watch.
i tried that sunday
the answer is right above this and neither of you are naked to your cleat.s
It’s worked before.
I keep forgetting because of being busy.
Surely they can’t lose both Andrus Homer Games.
the way the A’s are going, sending laureano is reasonable
Somehow we managed to outsuck the Astros there even though they made two errors.
9th inning, down 1, we have Piscotty, Bolt, Pinder against their (RHP) closer.
Typical Pinder at bat to end it.
Seems like most of FK decided to avoid watching today’s edition of horrible at bats, runners thrown out at the plate, and back breaking home runs given up in the worst moments. Probably a wise decision.
Looks like Pinder blew out his hamstring on top of it.
I had the game on but paying half-attention; these Astros games are tough to take. I don’t need to suffer through Montas tomorrow. Better things to do during the day, then on to Reno tomorrow evening to watch Luzardo and the Aviators.
I was half paying attention.
I had a soaker question, there is a getaway day game tomorrow. It is not mandated is it? it can’t be more than a 1 hour flight from houston to dallas
That’s correct, not mandated, it’s a choice by the Astros (who stay home to play the Yankees). The Astros play a fair number of weekday afternoon games.
Oh good, more Machin.
Starting to think you’re right about them just not making any moves before 7/31. If the free fall continues, it just seems like too many resources would be needed to fix the mounting number of holes on the roster. Between COF, DH, the bullpen, now another MIF…inertia seems to be the way to go when the best outcome is another WC berth (yes, giving up on the division in July isn’t great but it’s pretty hard to ignore the on paper talent disparity and 3-9 H2H so far).
It’ll be a win-win for ownership at any rate. Get a WC berth without spending an additional dime or just save a few bucks now and save even more when the inevitable tear down happens. Either way, the important thing is that they’re ready for the next Vegas trip.
Given how poorly they have played every business decision the last 14 months or so it wouldn’t shock me if they became sellers.
I guess not Machin
Also did not need to clear a 40 man roster spot so kinda confirms Moreland went on the COVID list.
what a dummy
If 6 runs wasn’t enough with Bassitt on the mound, how many do we need for Frankie?
Early slim lead, dominant so far starting pitching performance, inability to add on even though plenty of LOBs…hm what can go wrong?
Btw we should really just DFA Piscotty at this point. He looks done.
yeah, he has nothing.
Maybe score another run? Two more even?
Is the plan to use Trivino for two full innings (if necessary)?
Alvarez, Gurriel, Tucker lines up well for Diekman now.
Survived Diekman.
Just checked, and it is not my imagination that he is significantly worse against lefties (.250/.368/.438) than righties (.182/.273/.377) this year. About even for his career.
I think his fastball tails away from righties so it makes him more effective than a typical LHP would be against righties, but may come at the expense of some fastballs tailing into a LHB’s happy zone.
Hopefully the start of a turnaround.
A win!
you’re welcome.
i’m not even wearing cleats.
(gets home, checks box score). Well, good. Offense still MIA but that must have been Montas’ best effort of the year or close to the top anyway.
well, then
All in all it was a disappointing series, It was very evenly played and either team could have swept.
A rational actor would see this series and the flaws in the team. They are very addressable flaws. Like lenscrafters says corner outfield and some pitching should be doable in this competitive cycle.
The Athletic suggested that Greg Deichmann or Luis Barrera could be an appropriate return for Nelson Cruz as long as the A’s took his salary. God, I would have done that about 15 times already. This team needs like 3 pieces and it could win a WS. But without those three pieces, man is it frustrating. And given salary constraints, it might be a frustrating year.
Everyday I hope to read about a trade, not even a fuckin a trade. There are so many seemingly available parts that would improve this team tremendously
Soaker I felt that clearly here in Berkeley. Hope you locals are ok. I’m supposed to visit the lake in a few days
@FSU I felt it but just a nice shake. My house is on granite which doesn’t move a lot. Driving over 50 to Carson City I didn’t see any rock slides. Felt it in Berkeley? Huh.
Anyway I’m at Greater Nevada Field. First game since Cactus League 2020. Let’s Go Aviators!
The road team in the minors must have to provide its own bat boy. Paul Blackburn drew the short straw tonight.
I was going to make some crack about how that’s a good role for him, but I see he’s been LV’s best starter this year.
Looks like you got an ok version of Luzardo, at least.
He was very sharp, ahead in the count, just one unearned run on a throwing error by 3B Machin. Unfortunately the LOB-21 virus has spread to this part of the organization.
Looks like even Kolarek was effective. You picked a real unicorn of a game to attend.
”Former Aviators fan-favorite” Skye Bolt too dumb to give a “no comment” here.
What institution of so-called higher learning admitted that cretin?
Since Mr. Bolt enjoys the place so much I would be delighted to accommodate him by letting him spend the rest of the season there.
I’ve known about the idea of teams depreciating the value of their players for tax purposes since I read “Veeck as in Wreck” as a kid.
I didn’t know that the practice has expanded to other intangible aspects like TV contracts, and is still the main way that owners turn actual profits into fictional losses that they then write off on their taxes.
Also interesting to see how various owners respond to questions about this:
– Most either don’t respond at all, or give bland “we pay all taxes required by current law” answers.
– Dan Gilbert insists that not being able to avoid taxes that way “would be antithetical to capitalism and fatal to the United States’ economy.”
– Mrs. Donald Sterling goes full Trump.
Enraging.
The A’s could save billions taking good will writeoffs.
RIP Dusty Hill
good news! teams are throwing 2 strike curveballs to chapman now
Someone didnt read the scouting report.