I’m glad to see Reddick back, too bad Coco is out again.
Weeks 2B, Gomes DH, Reddick RF, Cespedes CF, Carter 1B, Inge 3B, Norris C, Smith LF, Hicks SS. Blackley P
Baseball 101: The early Birds 228
228 thoughts on “Baseball 101: The early Birds”
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I’m glad it’s an early game today. It’ll be over before wiffleball (if we can even get enough for a game.)
I just wish I didn’t have a board retreat today at 10. At least its only scheduled for 2 hour.
Also, I don’t think at 2 hours and held locally it can really be a retreat. We should just call it a meeting, because that’s all it is
Are there team building exercises like falling backwards and getting fat people through obstacle courses?
Something like this?
Nah, we sat around a table and talked about the same shit we always talk about.
*YAWN*
stop watching olympic archery already!!
Discovery of the day … raw video feeds of the Olympics, without commentary or padding, on the NBC website.
Bullseye!
The Money Shot.
ok, i am now seriously concerned about ken. he just said “they haven’t winned.”
Yikes, I’m worrying now too.
immediately corrected himself, but he did get all the way through winned and took a slight pause before he realized something was wrong.
Is Vince making Ken dumber through osmosis?
Greetings from Reno (burp). Waiting on my check at the coffee shop before heading to the sports bar….
The ballpark here is really nice. We were in the sports bar area above right field; seating outside, but you can repair to the bar or one of several restaurant areas to cool off – not a problem at night but very welcome for day games, I’m sure.
i saw some pics. it does look really nice.
It is an oasis in the desert of seediness that is downtown Reno.
Yeah, but I kinda like the seediness.
Seconded. I used to visit Reno 3-4 times a year, always stayed downtown. Love the seediness. I miss some of the really threadworn old school joints like the Pioneer and the Comstock. AT least the Sundowner is still around.
Reno misses you. Downtown was always single-industry and once California went big-time into Indian gaming the market disappeared, so real gaming revenue from tourists is down about 60% over the last two decades and attempts to adapt have been unsuccessful; the National Bowling Stadium only gets you so far. You want a gambling fix, you go to Cache Creek or Thunder Valley, or you want the full experience you go to Vegas. Reno is nowheres-ville. So is Tahoe in gambling terms, but as you probably notice from South Shore’s advertising campaigns they barely mention gambling anymore; they have other attractions to sell where Reno doesn’t.
weirdest wedding ceremony i’ve ever been to, a dungeon sub and a non-sexworker rockabilly are getting hitched on a bridge over the truckee by a friend dressed in a vegas elvis getup. it’s winter. the friend dressed as elvis happens to be a sub to a dominatrix who’s the bride’s maid. he complains that it’s really cold in the getup (it’s basically a nylon jumpsuit) and that his balls are gonna freeze off. so his dominatrix knees him in the crotch and says something like, i bet cold’s not the problem now, get on with it.
Good for her! He should have channeled the environmental discomfort properly without having to be reminded to do so.
End scene.
Yeah… I’m pretty sure this is what my wedding will be like.
So that’s what I’m missing not having a dominatrix?
If you have a 24/7 relationship and you’re not disciplined enough to handle your shit properly, yes.
I don’t have a dominatrix and I’m still terrified
A pro domme or casual play partner wouldn’t knee you in the crotch outside of a scene. However, people who live the lifestyle full time tend to take it quite seriously, and breaches of etiquette tend to be punished, whether immediately (when amongst others into the lifestyle), or later in private when such a breach happens around non-kinksters.
this wasn’t all that serious. she’s been busting his balls all weekend for fun. but yeah, most everybody there was full time into the lifestyle except a few of us, and everybody was definitely old friends.
I was almost tempted to write in for a couple credentials to see McCarthy/Anderson Mon/Tue but I just got back from a trip as it is and need to get back to some things around here. Reno’s a nice ballpark though, no question. I’ve seen a handful of games there.
We were all creeped out by the giant anthropomorphic baseball which slowly appears peering over the scoreboard for the seventh-inning stretch and sings “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. Weirdest things about it: a) it has hands, b) for a giant baseball, it has a very realistic-looking palate, and c) the announcer didn’t refer to it and the crowd was nonchalant, making it seem almost like a hallucination.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2dX_B6ovL48%3Frel%3D0” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
Does it “eat” people?
It looked like it could….particularly with the hands, the better to pick them up and stuff them in its creepy mouth.
When I was a kid we went to a Tucson Torros game and the San Diego Chicken was making an appearance. He “ate” my head. Somewhere there’s a picture of it.
There’s a series of weird mascots out there that as part of their shtick they eat a cheerleader or something person representing the opposing team. It’s… weird.
something representing the opposing team, some fava beans, and a nice chianti…
LAWN DART
I’ve seen a lot more fans in A’s garb in the Baltimore stands than I expected. It may be because the green and gold stands out so starkly among all the hideous orange.
Also, the A’s fans look happy there. Since I’ve been to Baltimore in July, I can only assume heavy sedation is involved.
this game is not giving me the magical feeling.
nope
Yup, afternoon activities may start a little early.
Damn. Wieters looked like he was hitting BP.
The series is the thing.
it’s a bad sign when you start hedging in the 4th.
If we take 2 out of every 3 from here on out…
Yikes. It may be Miller time.
“There’s a lot of ways I can see this thing ending, and hardly any of them involve Miller time.”
The humans are dead. Yahoo just told me 900046 fouled out to first.
Jonathan! Jonathan!
1 hit through 5 innings? I remember these guys.
this D is vintage too.
Come on, Reddick. Narrow the gap.
The gap between the ball and your bat.
here we go, oakland. here we go!
ruh-roh. KK just used “swung and gone” talking to vince.
Moss please.
The 12 strikeouts is cool but less so if you dump the last 10 outs of the game on your bullpen.
I don’t know if it’s live or taped (and the entire internet has me scared of Olympic spoilers so I can’t check), but there’s 20 min left in an interesting soccer game on Telemundo right now.
Edited–gonealookin
huh? but i spoilered that!
Holy crap, that was crazy!
Spoiler:
” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
between that and the line, we don’t get a lot of positive associations.
Henceforth when I hear the name Mendoza I’ll first think about funny clever guys on the internet instead.
and wine! i mean, awwwww.
i officially hated that game.
Bitch, please. I ooze awesome 24/7.
Good; I’m glad to hear you say that.
You are awesome 24/7.
I like this Blackley guy.
I disagree with this. To last in MLB as a pitcher you have to have the mindset that you can dominate at best and win at the least every time out there. Especially if you are Australian.
I’m pretty sure he was being funny about it.
I know, I was just making a sad humor attempt. Totally approve of Blackley’s overall performance so far :)
Prince Albert-in-a-can just GIDP’d to end the game for the Angels.
at least there’s that.
In South Lake Tahoe, Barton Memorial Hospital Acute Care is across the street from Staples. #strangebuttrue
Hee
This was so strange, because as I was reading it one of my Android Scrabble games went to my turn, and I made the words “INFLATER” and “DARIC” crossing each other.
Also in South Lake Tahoe: one of several stores selling things made with alpaca wool was displaying a Giants blanket and a 49ers blanket at the entrance and a Raiders blanket around the corner. We went inside, where the owner was glumly watching the end of the Giants game. Upon observing our green and gold garb, he volunteered “The A’s are having a great season, aren’t they? I sold out of all my A’s blankets last week.”
Real talk: The Olympics are pretty lame until the track and field events start.
I’m enjoying the shooting stuff
Guns don’t shoot clay discs…
25/25!
It’s like seeing the discovery channel and bees pollinating flowers — I turned on swimming and I CAN’T FUCKING TURN IT OFF
Thanks, and go As.
The swimming drags on and on, but I enjoy a lot of the rest. Badminton has been endlessly fascinating.
My problem is that I don’t have cable. I’ve only been watching what they put on NBC, which is mostly the awful stuff.
Let’s go back to the pool!
Yeah, but you’ll know the results 8 hours before it’s shown.
I said FK off the NBC and spent the day watchig CTV and BBC1. REAL TIME, FKERS!
So we don’t have a new SS yet? Dafuq?
Thanks, and go As.
Anyone notice that HP umpire Brian Runge called a ton of cut fastballs for strikes? If I were a manager, I would schedule a cut fastball pitcher when Runge was behind the plate.
You could call it the Runge-Cutter method.
(Anybody? Beuller?)
I smiled.
Yes!
I’m trying formulate a joke around Jacoby/Jacobian Ellsbury and his future as a free agent mercenary/Hessian. That’s a matrix/baseball/history joke.
I think you have to work the “eigen” prefix in somehow!
Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
#ReasonsForASixManRotation
First I saw your teaser back in the Radiohead WAR discussion, so I was looking forward to this one… and it did not disappoint.
Holy crap freaky gymnastics mother.
Yeah, that was like… I mean almost like she had a nervous tick or something
Thanks, and go As.
GYMNASTICKS!
yeah, gross.
OMG yes that woman is bat shit crazy.
Why don’t we have a new SS yet? IT’S 8AM.
Thanks, and go As.
Had a vision last night that the 2012 A’s would end up like the 2005 A’s: very talented, young, peak too early, run out if gas to more talented teams in the last two weeks.
If they go to the LCS the following season, I can live with that.
The trajectories are similar, starting with trading away the young, talented starting pitchers in the offseason. I think this team (and system) is more talented and has more future upside than in 2005, but unfortunately the same can be said of the Angels and Rangers.
I think the intangibles are on the A’s side this year.
To explain further would frustrate me and/or exasperate others, and I’ve said it all before anyways.
Your vision is disturbing. I reject it and replace it with my own, in which the A’s start to appear to run out of gas, but pull out some miraculous finishes as Mr. Carter carries the club on his back for two weeks, hits seven dongs (including two walkoffs), and the club wins the 1st WC spot by 1 game.
My gut feeling tells me the Angels win the division and the Rangers sink into the WC fight due to pitching injuries.
The Rangers are in a bit of a funk, but I’d have to be getting really good odds to bet against them winning the division.
That seems like the most comparable A’s team I can think of
Interesting. There was a report earlier that the Padres wanted Arrieta and two prospects (one high ceiling) for Headley.
I think Straily is clearly better than Arrieta so I’m assuming our two prospects wouldn’t nearly be as good as what the O’s would have to give up. Perhaps Straily, Ross, and B.A. Vollmuth, or Straily + Krol.
I think Arrieta’s pretty good. I’m not sure Straily’s better than him. Also I like Ross more than Krol.
Really? Arrieta’s 26 and has made 58 career starts with a 4.74 career FIP. His minor league numbers are also inferior to Straily’s.
Looks like Norris to Sacramento:
That’s just FKing dumb.
Thanks, and go As.
Norris does still have work to do to get more consistent at the plate. Yeah, WYSIWYG with Suzuki, but Norris is ideally going to be a big part of their future.
this is the move I waited for today?
That’ll teach him to show up Kurt.
Boo. :(
Shock. Stunned. Shocked and stunned.
What is the peer review on this kind of thing?
and so, the one drop rule triumphs again. now proven beyond doubt, barack obama IS black.
interesting
We’re not going to do anything.
Fk.
Thanks, and go As.
Because he’s a clubhouse problem, he seems to be implying.
right.
Screw Goldstein and that Kumar guy! I want Escobar.
I’m with you.
Fuck it then get Jimmy Rollins or something. DO SOMETHING.
Thanks, and go As.
rollins will clear waivers, so there is that.
you’re saying what we’re all thinking.
Didn’t Billy say something about having to do something and how these guys deserve a chance because of how they are playing.
So we made a move for a backup C..yeah, that feels right.
Billy’s new MO:
1st 3rd of the season – figure out what you’ve got.
2nd 3rd of the season – do FK all about it.
3rd 3rd of the season – PROFIT!
I mean, I understand not dealing Straily. He’s destroying the minors and should be up now, but not improving what is basically THE WORST POSITION IN BASEBALL on a team that has a playoff shot is FKing disturbing.
Thanks, and go As.
I think I’d be more disturbed if he gave away the farm to do that and right that may be the two options he has.
What does this season mean about Straily?
I’d guess Beane believes highly in his talent but either doesn’t want to trial by fire him or doesn’t want to replace any of his currently solid rotation with him.
I disagree. Let’s give away the farm and get Escobar, Headley, and Betancourt.
The Betancourt thing confuses me.
Thanks, and go As.
deep breaths
No thanks on Drew.
Why? He’s better than what we have now and would be auditioning for another contract.
Thanks, and go As.
1. He’s averaged the same amount of WAR per 550 PAs as Pennington over his career (both around 2 WAR).
2. He’s not under contract beyond this year so you’ll still have to solve shortstop in the offseason by trading prospects.
3. He’s coming off a major injury and he’s terrible thus far. It’s kinda like Conor Jackson redux.
1. He’s got a much higher ceiling though
2. There is a mutual option for 2013 that’s for $10M. Granted he’d probably opt out if he plays well and Oakland would opt out if he doesn’t, but stranger things have happened.
3. A broken ankle isn’t nearly the same as lyme disease or whatever the hell happened to Jackson. He was on pace to put up 4 WAR last year before he got hurt, and 5.1 the year before that. <100 PAs is rough to judge a guy on after the last two years he had.
Oh, and he's not pennington/hicks.
Thanks, and go As.
Ceiling’s meaningless if you’ve already been in the league that long. If we’re talking about ceiling, Pennington once put up a 4 WAR.
Extrapolating WAR is never a good idea. We can’t just assume a guy is “on pace” for a certain nth WAR season given WAR isn’t a counting stat like RBIs. And even if Drew actually put up a 4 WAR last season, that would make him about a career 2.25 WAR/550PAs player to Pennington’s 2 WAR/550. Given the inherent inaccuracy of WAR, there’s really no difference at all.
Any injury that causes a guy to miss a year is a big red flag in terms of affecting a guy’s overall abilities. Is it unreasonable to assume a broken ankle is going to affect Drew’s defense at shortstop?
I understand your impatience with regards to the shortstop situation, but making a move just to make a move is just going to lead to those Kottaras for Norris lateral moves that’s keeping this team running in place and not actually improving.
So you can’t extrapolate WAR but you can average it out, even though his last 2 seasons were both significantly better than his first seasons.
OK.
Thanks, and go As.
Um yeah? Not sure what your point is. Extrapolating one half season of WAR is much different than looking at what a guy’s produced per season his entire career given a large enough sample.
Why? He would be a good addition to our mediocre bullpen.
yes
Yup. I hate our farm. Let’s gut it.
Can’t wait for the A’s to do nothing else and watch Scott Ostler complain that they DIDN’T trade people away.
Because, of course, if the A’s did trade someone around the deadline, it would just be another case of them screwing over the fans.
I don’t get this. Making up a shitty quote is weird, sure, but its such a shitty quote, why did anyone attempt to look it up?
One of my coworkers suggested that Jonah Lehrer pulled out those quotes from this thing that’s housed in the office above me.
the irony of course is that dylan outlived the DAT.
The important question is where is he eating lunch.
You’re considering placing a bet on tonight’s game?
Awesome!
sigh
Thanks, and go As.
Where we going for that beer?
You guys should go kidnap a SS while you’re out.
heh
If I hear “but but but CHEMISTRY!!1!11” one more time, my head will explode.
Who said “chemistry”? Lemme at ’em!
this could have been done better, but its neat anyway
Hmm… Lowrie would be nice?
Thanks, and go As.
I came home to discover my cat has an abscessed anal gland. Fun!
that’s no fun at all. I’m sorry your cats don’t have Mr. Burns’ disease, thusly becoming imperious to everything.
Ah… poor thing.
:( poor kitty! :(
i came home to discover that i’d been wearing my contacts in the wrong eyes for the past 2 days.
I think EM wins the sympathy game here.
definitely! no sympathy needed here.
Wow. Well, there’s one of the advantages of glasses, there is only one way to put them on!
The vet gave Lily a shot of some wonder antibiotic that lasts for two weeks. Much better than the pink liquid I remember dosing my previous cats with, which they refused to consume no matter how much fish or chicken baby food was mixed in.
omg, i remember that pink stuff. we couldn’t get benito to take it no matter what we did.
at least i know why i was feeling so dizzy. ;)
Ouch!
MLBtraderumors’s compilation of pretty much all the A’s trade news of the day.
So it basically sounds like to me that the A’s aren’t willing to take on too much salary and they aren’t willing to trade away any prospects of note. If that’s the case, then I’m not sure what they’re expecting to do. Did they think they’d be able to land an above average shortstop or third baseman without taking a hit in some way? Was Beane waiting for Allard Baird to infiltrate the Toronto organization and give him Yunel Escobar for Neifi Perez?
blargh.
Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Ok, totally off topic here…Can anyone share how to get the URL for a tweet on your phone? I know that if you are on a computer you can click on the timestamp. I tried hitting the timestamp on my phone and got nothin. I also tried some of the sharing options and got nothing as well.
BTW, a tweet says that supposedly Drew was just called into Voldemort’s office in AZ..but then he went out and had BP, so no news for now…
On my ipod version (presumably same on iphone, don’t know about other systems), you go to the tweet, and then hit the icon in the lower right that looks like a rectangle with an arrow coming out of it. One of the options is then “Copy Link to Tweet.”
Spoken like a true ballplayer.
ick. :(
what is a “guy’s guy”?????????????????????
I dunno. Ask a repressed straight man. Not that he’ll tell you…
:(
i need to KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe it’s like a “gentleman’s gentleman”
tell me more!!!
Goes fishing, repairs own cars, owns a caulk gun.
huh.
I don’t know how to post an image. It asks me for a “width”. What do I put?
it had better be a pic of bojan.
Close
That is a loaded question.
I don’t know what smartass answer to reply with first!
You’re speechless!
Pretty much. Congrats! That doesn’t happen often.
Heee
You don’t have to put anything. If you’re worried the image will be too huge, you can enter 250 or 300 (pixel widths).
:(!!!!!!!
So….not as good as Bojan?
not. even. close. >:{
But he’s so teddy bear like!
:(
Aw…don’t be sad
is there a “grossed out” face i can type?
I think he was a butler though. This is a gentleman’s gentleman:
i need a butler!!!
I need a bunch of old family retainers, but I’m willing to economize on the chauffeur.
what about the coachman? ;)
And the Tiger!
OMG, yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A complete stereotype. Macho, masculine, etc. Men want to be him, women want to be WITH him.
James Bond. Clint Eastwood. Steve McQueen.
Thanks, and go As.
oh. :( i don’t like that. :(
ecrotia
oh! i do like that!!!!!!! :D
Truth.
Thanks, and go As.
I got Steve McQueen and Alexander McQueen confused.
Rick Sutcliffe may or may not be the dumbest television sports commentator in America, but he certainly sounds the dumbest.
McCarvaaaar is dumbererer.
A strong contender to be sure, but I still say that if you listened to them one after the other, Sutcliffe would make McCarver sound like a Fields Medal winner.
Did you not hear about how ALL of granderson’s grand slams have been with the bases loaded?