The 2022 Ray Fosse Memorial Series continues and concludes with four games in beautiful downtown Cleveland’s Progressive Field. The Indi Guardians swept three at the Coliseum at the end of April, so the A’s must reciprocate with a sweep of their own to take home the Fosse Cup, which is of course one of Ray’s cups from his catching days.
Checking the Cleveland weather…eh, OK I guess. A nice temperature range between about 65°F and 75°F during all of the games but chances of rain showers for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games, though nothing that looks heavy enough to result in worse than a delay.
In now-regretted selections made around the start of the season, two of the four games are on national television outlets. Jerry Blevins joins Vince on radio for the series. I do hope Jerry has done more preparation than Coco Crisp ever did when he sat in that chair.
Thursday at 4:10: Kaprielian vs. LHP Konnor Pilkington
Friday at 4:10: Blackburn vs. RHP Triston McKenzie
Saturday at 1:10: Montas if he’s still on the team vs. RHP Zach Plesac (NBCS-CA/FS1 coexist)
Sunday at 8:35 a.m.: Irvin vs. RHP Cal Quantrill (Peacock streaming exclusive)
A little break for the A’s as they miss ace Shane Bieber, who started Wednesday night’s game. They do not miss early season MVP candidate Jose Ramirez, who has posted .285/.388/.611 with 14 HR and 54 RBI.
Not Karl Pilkington?
An Idiot Amound.
Bethancourt was meaner to him than Gervais and Merchant combined.
Outfielders, be on your toes. The dreaded no-range Elvis/Jed middle infield combination presents itself.
Hit and runs!
Blevins doing a great job!
He is really great
Agreed. Knowledge and affable. I like ex-pitchers in the booth. Would pair great with Ken when Vince moves to TV.
He was great as an analyst, but I don’t think he did PXP, I was in and out of the radio today.
SO far he is my fav in that roll, but I think Alex Jensen is the best of the pxp/color. Roxy is good, but I think he is a little too , something. Polished? I like jensen.
3 man both with Roxy doing PxP with Ken and then maybe taking an inning or 2 of color for Jer Bear? I mean I know it is insane to think any additional expenses…
Wait..we are allowed to run around the bases in multiple innings?
It’s unusual but OK as long as they give the runs back, preferably in the bottom of the same inning.
In the most idiotic and useless ways possible.
turned back into zach jackson
I get it, the A’s need every platoon advantage possible, but I hate Bob III’s 3 pitcher innings. I think that should be banned.
Ed-Im guessing if they would get people out we wouldn’t have this.
yes
It would be something if Bethancourt pitched one day and hit for the cycle the next day…
Lou really is cursed.
Yay for “showing some fight” though.
And it’s time to go over to Angels hate-watching.
Dammit, Scioscia wins a game in June before Bob does.
Oh, Lou…
Our Ohtani is having a good week
I was just starting to wonder if I needed to stop making fun of him.
Fourth straight game with a 2-0 lead.
Let’s remember some guys with vince, to Jerry: “Do you remember Craig Italiano?” Jerry “yes.” vince “he went to flower mounder high school”
That was the year we shifted strategies and took 3 high school pitchers in the 2nd and 3rd rounds (Italiano, Lansford, Mazzaro). Only Mazzaro ever reached the majors (-0.5 WAR).
Vin to win!
I have already forgotten how Mazzaro was pronounced and how it was supposed to be pronounced.
Pretty sure Pauley B just said something was hit like a trUCK.
Bob III playing press you luck
Blackburn flinging in the dead of night.
No Vince, it’s not trust in the starter from the manager
Chapman woulda had that.
yeah, we get a lot of that
The stats all love Smith at 3b. I don’t really see it.
sagh
Yeah, you know, it sucks. But they scored 2 runs
Call it now for rain. Pull those runs off the board and send everyone home with no fireworks.
How does anyone ever lose to this team?
Well that felt grimly preordained
We may never win again.
20 games under .500 is one of the first big mileposts you pass in a truly godawful season.
To be 20-40 puts the ordinary rule that every team loses 1/3 and wins 1/3 in dire straits.
The pitchers in the SD-Col game have a tic-rac-toe game on the mound.
I really love stuff like this
I know its the whole point, but twitters “things you might like” feature is solely things that piss me off
uh oh, this bunt is gonna make vince call for it more
It’s Belmont Stakes Day! Third leg of the triple crown, going 1.5 miles around Big Sandy. Between getting two kids home from college then dispatching Nurse and Primera to SFO to fly to Europe and become dual citizens of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (really) I have not had much handicapping time.
I’m going with Mo Donegal ($5 to Win #6), to finish ahead of We The People or Nest ($5 Exacta 6/1,3 = $10), then a handful other chances to round out the board ($0.50 Trifecta 6/1,3/1,3,2,4,5,8 = $5). I think Mo Donegal will like the distance, will rebound strong off five weeks race since his Derby run (better than it looked), he’s won on this track, and I like Irad Ortiz to work out the right trip.
Ch-ching!
Win, exacta, and trifecta = +$160.75.
Hell yeah Seth! Snap that 0-10 bags juiced with the Salami!
woohoo!
Great at bat. Really saw the pitches well, first pitch big swing/miss, few good eye takes, work to 3-2, gets the high heater he missed first pitch and crushes it.
How did that pitcher throw so many 93 mph dead-center fastballs past us, though?
Great..now I have to go car shopping EVERY day.
no you do not.
10 days of fermentation should make the victory cabbage taste extra sweet.
Ramon got kicked out for a much more pedestrian reason
it’s peacock premium. I got peacock to watch rutherfird falls but they onlt gave a few episodes for free. I am not paying for more.
I don’t think this content model is going to work
it’s peacock premium. I got peacock to watch rutherfird falls but they onlt gave a few episodes for free. I am not paying for more.
I don’t think this content model is going to work
I get Peacock as part of my cable subscription, but I’d never pay for it a la carte, it’s hard to imagine the case for a cord cutter including it instead of a bunch of other choices.
I will say so far I am liking their production style, and the three man booth with an analyst from each team (Dallas for us, Rick Manning for them, who struggls to not say Indians).
I paid for it for the Olypmics and it was mostly a disaster. Terrible interface.
I liked Rutherford falls when I got Peacock with comcast before cutting the cord.
The app has gotten a little better recently, at least on Apple TV. I watched Top Chef on it and was pretty impressed.
Most of their original content looks absolutely horrible, but I did enjoy the murder-mystery-on-a-British-nuclear-submarine show “Vigil”.
I think the interface issue was with the olympics specifically. They had a very confusing way of organizing things and every time I’d try to find a specific event it would take a good 10-15 minutes to get even close.
I wanted to see more. Just not $6 a month wanted
We got Peacock because my wife wanted the figure skating coverage (Olympics and otherwise). Hanging on to it for now because there are a couple of shows she is interested in, but hoping to drop it soon.
Ramon! Stay angry buddy!
He knows it’s his ticket out
Anger: the best PED of all
I don’t mind a game at this hour. I can half pay attention while cooking pancakes, like if it was Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers or something.
exactly
Getting the run, hit, and error, in early today
And the teAse.
The rare pre-9 am *click* may be in order here.
Sweden v Norway looking more appealing.
All important UEFA Nations League B, Group 4 clash. I’m in.
Ramon might need to yell at the hitters every inning to keep us in this game.
Quantrill and Irvin pitching to avoid having to feed their parking meters.
Loving the playful banter with Vince on the bird app.
Is vince better, or did I just get used to him?
Been wondering this too. I really enjoy listening to him now. Wasn’t always the case.
In early October 2012, two days before the playoffs, I was in the waiting room for an MRI and Jerry Blevins walked out, worrying me greatly. I nodded and he smiled. As it turned out he pitched great in that ALDS.
Bullpen meltdowns and no hitting is a problem, but it wasn’t totally embarrassing. Not watchable, but not embarrassing.
Nice to get the loss in before lunch. Cross that off the day’s to-do list.
This has to be the low point of position player pitching. No effort at all.
) and absolute bottom. So all that remains is to define a scale.
please tell me the A’s already played the yankees
Baseball offerings for this A’s off day include two NCAA elimination games on ESPN2. UConn at Stanford’s famed “sunken diamond” at 1pm, and Auburn (pitching coach Tim Hudson has not aged a day since last in MLB) in Corvallis at 4:30pm vs the Oregon State Beavers.
Furd gave up three runs in the top of the first then stopped the bleeding, goes on to win 10-5 and advance to the College World Series,
Underway in Corvallis with Roxy Bernstein on the call.
Even if there’s no hope, how ’bout a ray of light?
I love this man.
MLS is giving up on regional sports channels altogether and putting everything other than a few national ESPN/Univision broadcasts exclusively on Apple.
Apple is really hoping the ted lasso audience will cross over to actual soccer
Baseball could go that route, either going in-house with MLB.tv or partnering with Amazon Prime, Apple+, Youtube etc. It would first make sense for teams that don’t get huge revenue from their RSN deal, such as the A’s, don’t have an equity stake in the RSN, such as the A’s, and can easily extricate themselves from their current TV contract, as the A’s can with their opt-out after next season.
The trouble with the A’s going that route is they would actually have to put out a product more than a few people would be interested in paying for.
I’m
hopefulhoping the A’s won’t be this unwatchable in 2024. They would be a candidate for guinea pig for the MLB.tv in-house plan. Guarantee Fisher more money than he would get from Comcast-NBC for the remainder of that contract, which runs through 2029 without the opt-out, and play around with pricing plans to see how to maximize revenue (obviously charge more for a by-the-game Yankees game than a Royals game, but how much more?). RSNs as they exist now look mostly dead by 2029 anyway so MLB would have some valuable data as it rolls out the option in more cities.Lightning Avalanche sounds dangerous.
A thunder+snow storm is a neat weather experience. Muffled quiet like a regular snow storm, but with thunder and lightning.
Vince’s broadcast partner today is some guy named Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, late of the Lansing Lugnuts
I’m wondering if they’re auditioning these minor league guys with an eye toward an expected job opening.
Came across this article when wondering who JGS was. Apparently it was Vince’s idea.
“Cotroneo pitched the idea of minor league broadcasters filling in while Korach was away, which gave Goldberg-Strassler and others a chance to spend some time in the bigs.”
Vince is a good dude.
yeah, that’s cool
I like him! He has excellent timing, each comment ends before the next pitch, properly secondary when Vince has the call, enthusiasm with proper restraint during his own innings. Strong vocabulary. Not the classic announcer baritone but that’s ok. Call him up.
I didn’t get enough to know. the little I did hear was cool. Seemed very prepared. I still like alex jensen best, but I didn’t give today much time
Jonah Bride literally wears his religion on his sleeve.
No one gnaws on their bitterness quite like Boston fans.
Wonder if they’ll start chanting it at Red Sox / Yankees games too, just as an expression of inchoate generalized rage.