How perfect.
Should the A’s make deals to contend, deals for the future, or just play the hand that Billy dealt them this winter? The obligatory second half question is posed by The Slusstress, Stiggy, and Monte “Shallow End Of The” Poole.
Susan’s A’s are “plucky” and “have gumption” and “a dash of moxie”! Ryan Cook “expects to win”! Bob Melvin says they’re “battle-tested”! And Brandon McCarthy doesn’t feel silly (Amanda’s rebuttal is pending).
The gumption Oakland showed in the first half combined with outstanding pitching makes the team a difficult assignment for any opponent, and the A’s believe that combination also would make them dangerous down the stretch and in any postseason scenario.
“I think we’re still in it,” A’s starter Brandon McCarthy said. “Some holes we had early, we’ve added pieces that helped, and we’ve become a seriously competitive team, especially with that second wild card.
“I think we can make a run at it without feeling silly for saying that.”
Stiggy has the word from the front office (caveat–their lips were moving):
“I don’t think if something is within your grasp, you ignore it,” A’s general manager Billy Beane said. “When we made these trades, we made them with the (emphasis on) the long-term future. But if the future is now, you’d be a fool not to make that attempt.”…
A’s co-owner Lew Wolff told this newspaper the team has the capability to take on payroll.
“You’d have to ask Billy,” Wolff said. “If he wanted to add somebody, it’s not a matter of money. It’s a matter of availability and his decision.”
And Poole? The A’s are in it despite the crocodile tears of Selig and Wolff that they can’t possibly have enough resources to contend, so probably what will happen is a deliberate attempt not to contend. You know, even when I don’t disagree with Poole’s general themes I find it very hard to read the same exact column 20 times a year. In rock band terms, he’s the Boston or Scorpions of sports writers.
Much as I like to win, and disdain the idea of tanking for draft position, it says here that the A’s would be idiots to try and add pieces for 2012. They have no chance at a playoff run, and probably won’t even threaten a .500 finish. Mercurial team is mercurial.
In other news, tomorrow would have been Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday! Here’s a Trib piece on Bay Area observances, including a musical running at Freight and Salvage.
Lastly, for the special Aryan in your life who needs a gentle push towards better dental hygiene.
I’m really tired of Monte Poole.
How great is this guy?
soo great
I don’t know, Ray. It’s hard to tell just how great he is, but I’d have to guess, very.
How great does it feel knowing that you guys are dumb enough to put yourselves in the position where you can just go up there, be confident, and, knowing that you’re dumb, have success?
Pretty dumb, Ray, errr… what was the question?
“Well, Ray, I have to put things in perspective. You know how it is. One day you’re young and strong and the world is your oyster; The next day you’re sixty seven years old with knees made out of cheese, staring forced retirement, boredom, and death right in the face. The world is a harsh mistress, Foss.”
He’s no Bryce Harper.
Ha, my mom & I used to have a running job about catches of “He’s no AJ Hinch.” I vaguely remember it starting after a conversation when he had a bunt single and stole a base or something. Then the other catcher tried it too and failed.
I think this team can finish at or above .500 and probably will. It would be stupid to trade Straily for 2012 upgrades, but Colon and Balfour can go, no problem.
and Coco
Thanks, and go As.
or Thmith, if anyone overvalues him.
I’d love for the A’s to move both Coco and Smith, so La Potencia can take over CF, and Taylor could be brought up to play LF.
I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW WE CAN GET CODY ROSS!!!
I doubt they’d trade prospects for 2012 upgrades, but I wouldn’t really object to trading them for 2013-15 upgrades. I doubt this team is going to be any better in 2016 than 2013, so they might as well try to contend in 2013-15 with Reddick, Cespedes, Weeks, Norris and smoke-and-mirrors pitching, even though it’s a longshot. I don’t see anyone above AZL that’s so great that I wouldn’t trade them for Chase Headley or Justin Upton or Aramis Ramirez and try to compete (probably unsuccessfully) over the next three years.
I agree with this.
I think this team can be both buyers and sellers. Coco and Colon can hopefully bring back some prospects, who can then be flipped or used to replace prospects dealt to fill holes.
OMG LEW DOESN’T WANNA WIN
Thanks, and go As.
Lew always looks a lot better if you judge him on what he says rather than on what he does.
That is SO not true.
I hope we do shed Coco and Balfour.
Balfour I’d only trade if we’re getting value back. Coco I’d do a straight salary dump.
Agreed. Unless he gets even worse in the second half, Balfour is a solid pitcher. Crisp is a millstone.
I think you guys are all borderline crazy on the subject of Crisp. He’s not the bargain he was the last couple of years, but he’s only a millstone if you ignore defense and baserunning, and/or get too excited about those mercurial performances from other hitters who still don’t actually project to be very good.
Not to mention Yoenis is only healthy in alternate weeks (no relation). No Coco means more CoCo and I don’t want that.
yup, I think the only way we get anything of valuse, prospect or otherwise, is balfour.
Maybe Toronto wasnts godfrey back and Balfor for excobar.
(before you reply, I know that Godfry won’t get escobar)
Well, now hold on. *WHICH* Escobar?
of the two?
It’s too bad about Andres and Pablo.
OK, but tell us more about this Valuse fellow.
I am a bad typer to begin with and I am currently C.I.L. (cat in lap)
Ahhh… pet the little one for me… and then give the cat some scritch too.
done
“You want Teófilo Stevenson to smoke American Spirit? Why did I ever let you into my house?”
:)
still by far the best boxer I have ever seen
Setting aside the “made in China” issue for a moment, why the FK do we keep letting Ralph Lauren make us look like obnoxious fools with those ginormous polo logos on our uniforms?! What, there hasn’t been some other iconic American designer in the past quarter century who might want to take a crack at it? Also, I don’t like spoilers of the walk of nations unis. I want to be nauseated by our uniforms in real time!
And every freakin time, Ralph Lauren sends us out in the same damn Euro-prissy look, taking what sucks about most of the rest of the world’s uniforms, then completely embracing that suck, rather than being remotely interesting.
Just have them do the walk naked. Hell, have everyone walk naked, so the world symbolically that they have nothing to hide.
well, it is the olympics…
Exactly.
Also, Project Runway starts again Thursday. W00t!
Wooooo!!!!
I was just thinking that Project Runway, or some other reality show, should be the method for future Olympic uniform designs. They might not turn out any better than Ralph Lauren but they’d surely be less boring, and the show could stipulate made-in-America as part of the deal.
They could even let “America” decide the winner.
They look like Hitler Youth uniforms.
The Olympic ‘uniforms’ really piss me off this year, and I think the HUGE logo is a big reason why.
Apart from the fact the whole getup looks like shit, that is.
But not having giant logos would imply that corporations aren’t the most important
thingspeople in the world. What are you, some kind of socialist bastard?Yes. Yes he is. What of it?
WHY DO YOU ALL HATE AMERICA???
What has Americas ever done for us?
America gave you the right to own slaves and buy tax-free tea, until those damned libruls came along and ruined everything.
Pfft.
because it’s the only country that can’t walk in neat little rows during the opening ceremony?
We’re non-conformists, just like everyone else.
Link?
here
thx
they look preppy. but there’s also a certain eastern-european tank commander look to their head-wear (your proximity can correct me if i’m wrong). and i much prefer it to the traditional yee-haw, the US is cowboyz and other unsubdued looks.
what’s really wrong though is the logo. whyTF is the polo on there at all?
whoops. linkfail on looks.
I think they should just wear Mad Men suits
I forgot about the cowboy ones – that was in Sarajevo
wow most of those are fucking aweful
Great caption. Oh, it’s not?
Sjedinjene AmeriÄke Države
i was wondering what the D was for.
Don’t click if you’re behind on Breaking Bad: Tim Goodman on what to expect from Season 5. Loving this:
More Season 5 buildup.
And
Ha! Those are hilarious. I love the underpants.
Good news for fellow destitute NRAFers: tonight’s game is the freebie on mlb.com TV.
It’s more than a feeeeeeeeling
(More than a feeeeeeeeling)
When I hear that old song they used to play
(More than a feeeeeling) …
hold me now, warm my heart
stay with me, let loving start
(can’t quote boston when we’re playing the twins…)
heh.
Adios to mexico (texas tornados) for the next series
Good to know. I may have to park myself and the kids in front of the TV for dinner as a little “treat.” (For them, dinner in front of the TV, for me, just watching the game).
With the lights out… it’s less dangerous… here we are now… entertain us…
(oh wait… same song, different eras)
Thunderbutt, AGAIN!
Also, Extra Innings is free for the next 6 days.
Not unlike a bad penny.
Where does one get these Extra Innings for free?
I have DirecTV, and those are usually in the 700+ digit channels.
Too bad my crappy internet is so slow that I can’t take advantage of this. Also, I’ll be out tonight (I have a life!).
Bastard.
My parents were legally married for 6 1/2 years before I was born. No word on how many years they were illegally married for.
not sure weather we’ll have a game tonight anyway.
Cloudy with a chance of wet paint:
Just getting prepared for September a little early.
The schedule is pretty favorable this year. The shortest time between a Raiders game and a subsequent A’s game is 4 days, and there are none of those situations where the Raiders play two games while the A’s are on a single road trip with the football seats being left atop the outfield for several days.
What about when the A’s are in the playoffs?
Heh. The Raiders’ only home game during baseball’s postseason is 10/21 vs. Jacksonville. I believe the A’s would have to be hosting Games 6-7 of the ALCS for that to cause a conflict.
Hey A’s
Let’s do this.
so they would have to have home field advantage?
I kinda like “Rock You Like a Hurricane”. I’m trying to think of a Boston song I like but am coming up empty. I’m willing to take suggestions though. It’s my goal to like at least one song by everyone famous.
“Rock You Like a Hurricane” and “No One Like You” are literally the same song. It’s amazing that Scorpions got away with that shit.
No, it’s “No One Like You” and “You Give Me All I Need” that are the same song.
It bet all the self-plagiarizing makes for some kickass medleys at their live shows.
I never saw the Scorpions live but I did see UFO. It was surprisingly entertaining.
“they can’t help it. it’s their character.” —orson welles
for a second I read that as “Someone Like You” and was gonna say that it would be Adele that would be getting away with it…
I love Rock You Like a Hurricane; it came up on shuffle for me this morning. It’s just that all the other song on the album sound exactly the same. I’ve always found Boston to be that way too.
Snerk.
If “Foreplay/Long Time” doesn’t do it for you Boston-wise, nothing will.
which means that likely nothing will.
“Foreplay” is kinda good, but “Long Time” is boringly Boston. That’s the best I’ve come up with so far though. I’ve almost given up on finding a good Boston song.
Memo to Kessler: when you’ve lost Sullivan…
I’ve given up on trying to keep up with the torrent of Sullivan posts, but hasn’t he hated Romney for a long time?
No idea. I would have assumed not, but I don’t read him.
Either way, though, it’s a weak “fact” checker performance.
It is, although the focus (from some on both sides) about whether he could/should be prosecuted for the seemingly conflicting statements is kind of beside the point.
As I read the Obama response it’s “either he is lying about leaving in 1999 or he committed several felonies” which makes sense to me.
they have played this one well, it seems
Whether or not it makes a difference has yet to be seen. I do think it will affect your more moderate voters, maybe not into voting for Obama, but possibly into not voting at all. But your hardcore right-wingers really couldn’t care less what Romney does or has done.
In debate this is called a double bind.
In most other parlance it is called an Admiral Ackbar:
In chess it’s called “zugzwang.”
In litigation, it’s called “winning”
It’s also called “winning” in CharlieSheening.
This is basically the point I was trying to make.
Yes, he is basically lying, and Obama is right to go after him for it, but it’s not a legal issue.
when people talk about crimes and when they are committed, its not enough to read the statutory language.
It seems true that there may be enough for an indictment, but not necessarily for conviction. Plus there are many defenses.
Jim Miller -> Paternity leave
Figueroa -> A’s
Chris Ray signed -> River Cats
He was a stud in MVP 2005
Is that the new Moneyball?
i so want to understand what’s going on but as soon as they start talking about 7 billion, 4.4 billion, 5.8 billion, my eyes gloss over and my head plays circus music. i have to start with the basic questions, is that money at all NOT imaginary? it’s gotta be, right?
It is to them.
i remember a moment in argentine monetary history when inflation was so insane, they decided to just knock off a few zeros from the end of all currency. so 10000 (true story, i used to walk around with a 10000 pesos in my pocket, because that’s what school lunch for the week cost) became 1. i wonder if we don’t need to do that here to help people get what’s going on (not that they want us to get it). i’d much rather understand that they lost 700 bucks (i’d be like, you IDIOTS, did you check the pockets of the pants you wore yesterday?? whereas now i’m like, $7B… one, two, three… many? oh look, squirrels!) and be confused when buying a soda for .000000075 (number of zeros not drawn to scale).
of course, the zeros will probably protest being pushed around.
When I lived in Russia it was about 5000 rubles to 1 dollar, so my Peace Corps “stipend” ended up waivering in between 1.8 and 2.2 million, which ended up being 2-4 times what my Russian colleagues were making. Plus I had my apartment paid for, which was another $150/month (paid in US currency). Then Russia did the same thing as Argentina, but only knocking 3 zeroes off, which of course cost a lot of money just to print and administer and was so confusing that a lot of Russians ended up losing their life savings, or so the story went.
The somewhat embarrassing part of it was that, taking the apartment into account, I was paid about 5 times more than some of my Russian colleagues and probably a bit more than the director of where I was working, although I’m sure she made up for it with other “side projects.”
i thought this was going to end… “and the corp didn’t realize this, paid me with just as many zeros as before, and i bought half of siberia.”
Heh. Fortunately, I was out of the country by then. And you are WAY overvaluing Siberia.
We had the same – our denomination was by a factor of a cool million. To make things worse, there was a period where both the old bills (up to a billion) and new ones (tens and twenties) were in circulation. (Or, to make things better, if you are a waiter on an island where confused and drunk tourists just open their wallets to you and say ‘pick whatever is right’)
And then there was Hungary in 1945-1946
they should have called the new one hellapengő
there’s a waiter in italy who still has his hand in my wallet for that birra i had in 92.
And people thought “greaser” was obscure. Has anyone ever heard this?
(And what does Bob Geldof think?)
I think that slur was coined during an especially racist run of Garfield strips.
“i’m not over-white. i’m under-latino.”
hee
heh
they are just full of hateful words over there.
(also, i thought sunday was black.)
Sunday is bloody. Which is offensive to Native Americans.
and Northern Irish.
and, by extension, everyone else
and russians.
Only the Catholics/Republicans.
and U2 haters.
Then you need to drop “Northern”.
oh yeah… it was Thin Lizzy from the north…
I used to think they were from Philadelphia, for some reason.
I was thinking more of the universality of U2’s offensiveness.
Thursday I dont care about you-now that is a day with a self image issue.
don’t call me a wednesday just because i like to hump.
well played
I won’t call you Sunday…Sunday always comes too late.
TWSS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
Thanks. I bookmarked this to make up for my lack of Ethnic Studies credits in college.
I *KNEW* Macs were racists!!!
Everyone’s a little bit racist, soooometimes!
Doesn’t mean we go around committing hate criiiiimes!
Something in your eyes just told me,
You’re from overseas.
you kids are funny!
May I be the first to make the obligatory “Who’s Fabio?” joke?
Another reason to love living on the west coast – any east-Pacific hurricane is sure to die a quick death in the cold waters to come down from the north.
Ruh roh romney
Kids if you want some fun, Mr. LePage is your man
How can you not resign after something like that?
because you have no shame, or you think that you are truthin
Reports are the A’s signed Nolan Sanburn but are not signing Kyle Twomey.
Who and who?
Draft shit.
What and what?
Appel is returning to Stanford for his senior year.
A representative in Spanish Congress after the vote goes through to substantially cut the salaries and benefits for a wide range of employees. Among the applause she says: “que se jodan” (fuck them)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ddjQ12-zHF8%3Frel%3D0” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
Wow!
Nice compilation of the A’s first half.
In
Lake WobegonOakland, all pitchers are above average. And REDDICK.If find his bar charts for the pitchers unreadable.
Agreed – without a context of how much each pitcher pitched, it really doesn’t make much sense. I’d rather just have a single bar that combines all starters and a single bar that combines all relievers.
could he use some easier to read colors pretty please!!!!
read the tagline and then the thread dfa
Current tagline – “My favorite color is boobs!” That would give Fuentes the biggest boobs.
Heh.
I dislike errors.
in that case, you’ll do well to stay away from reggae.
OMFG! The most common spelling/grammar error in the BDSM community.
If only all the position players were strong, or good-looking.
This is a pretty neat feature.
It is. Somehow it seems that everyone from THT is now on BP
I think BP pays better.
If the players and MLB insist on the 4 day ASB, they should at least open the second half with the fanfare of opening day. Have game scheduled all day long and stuff
I like to imagine that we just finished the Apertura and are now beginning the Clausura.
yay!
Good idea.
Or, if they want to half-ass it, give 26 teams the Thursday off and have 2 nationally televised games on said Thursday.
Few things from the new CBA:
1. Beginning with the 2013 championship season, the Office of the Commissioner will prepare a schedule based on the following criteria:
…
The All-Star break will contain four days for all Clubs.
2. Club championship season games shall not be played during the All-Star break. Further, any workout scheduled by a Club for the off days immediately following the All-Star Game shall be voluntary.
championship season=season?
yes.
What the hell does the first part of #2 mean?
I am guessing championship season is the season, and the provision is providing that no make up games will be scheduled during the 4 day break
But teams could play an exhibition?
No.
The old in-season trip to Midland has been permanently abolished, and as Ed says above the 4-day ASB is absolute, no exceptions.
NO FUN SHALL BE HAD!
I think they should have a zero day ASB.
or a whole week. This mooshy middle sh!t sucks.
Talk about fucking up H2H fantasy leagues
I put up a game thread in case anybody cares.
Hi.
Thanks, and go As.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gVn2rTWhj3Y” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
That made me LOL.
See? Dogs are fantastic.