Baseball Toaster Catfish Stew
Help
STOP CASTING POROSITY! An Oakland Athletics blog.
Frozen Toast
Search
Google Search
Web
Toaster
Catfish Stew
Archives

2009
02  01 

2008
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2007
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2006
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2005
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  01 

2004
12  09  08  01 

2003
12  11  10  09  08 
Email Us

Ken: catfish AT zombia d.o.t. com
Ryan: rarmbrust AT gmail d.o.t. com
Philip: kingchimp AT alamedanet d.o.t net

Ken's Greatest Hits
28 Aug 2003
12 Jan 2004
31 May 2005
11 May 2005
29 Jun 2005
8 Jun 2005
19 Jul 2005
11 Aug 2005
7 Sep 2005
20 Sep 2005
22 Sep 2005
26 Sep 2005
28 Sep 2005
29 Sep 2005
18 Oct 2005
9 Nov 2005
15 Nov 2005
20 Nov 2005

13 Dec 2005
19 Jan 2006
28 Jan 2006
21 Feb 2006
10 Apr 2006
16 Apr 2006
22 Apr 2006
7 May 2006
25 May 2006
31 May 2006
18 Jun 2006
22 Jun 2006
6 Jul 2006
17 Jul 2006
13 Aug 2006
15 Aug 2006
16 Aug 2006
20 Aug 2006
11 Oct 2006
31 Oct 2006
29 Dec 2006
4 Jan 2006
12 Jan 2006
27 Jan 2007
17 Feb 2007
30 Apr 2007
27 Aug 2007
5 Sep 2007
19 Oct 2007
23 Nov 2007
5 Jan 2008
16 Jan 2008
4 Feb 2008
7 May 2008
20 Jun 2008
4 Feb 2008
Pick Your Headline
2008-07-31 01:56
by Ken Arneson

My wife and I disagreed about Wednesday's game--she thought it was a sloppy game, particularly defensively, while I found the defensive miscues forgiveable, and the game tense and full of interesting storylines, even if the final result was disappointing. I couldn't pick just one main theme to go with, so we'll run all the different headlines, and you can pick your favorites.

 

Shoved Backwards
Untitled

Carlos Gonzalez gets thrown out at the plate, and gets a fistful of Miguel Olivo when he tries to run him over. You can call it bad baserunning, or bad third-base coaching, but I think it was just a good play by the Royals, a well executed relay throw on a double by Jack Cust. If this run scores, the A's probably win this game in regulation. Instead the A's lost in extra innings, and got swept by the Royals. In recent years, such a sweep would be a total embarassment, but this Royals team isn't that bad anymore. The back half of their bullpen is quite solid and the starting pitching isn't at all embarassing as it once was. Find them a real shortstop and first baseman, and they're probably a .500 team. Meanwhile, the A's are moving backwards, falling below .500 for first time in many weeks. They've been freefalling ever since the Rich Harden trade.

 

Pitching Uphill
Untitled

Speaking of Rich Harden, I got my first look at Sean Gallagher in this game. My impression of him is that he's still immature as a pitcher. He kind of reminded me of when Dan Haren first arrived in Oakland...he'd have three or four or five quiet innings, and then he'd have one inning where all of a sudden he'd seem to be pitching uphill. Something would go wrong, and then he'd try to power his way out of a jam, and suddenly there's balls flying off and over the fences, and a small rally turns into crooked numbers. When Dan Haren learned how to give up one run in a bad inning instead of three, he became a star. Hopefully, Gallagher can make that leap someday.

I learned some more stuff about Gallagher, thanks to Cliff Clavin, who sat behind me at Wednesday's ball game, informing everyone in our section of a bunch of little-known facts:

  • Rich Harden was traded in a straight up one-for-one deal for some guy named Gallagher.
  • Gallagher's fastball is 10 mph slower than Harden's.
  • Billy Beane thinks he's a genius, but in reality, even Cliff Clavin is smarter than Billy Beane.
  • Beane traded away Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Barry Zito, and Jermaine Dye.
  • In Moneyball, Beane said that he expected Jeremy Brown and Scott Hatteberg to be superstars.
  • Mark Teahen was traded to Kansas City in the Johnny Damon deal.
  • Wes Bankston was acquired in the Joe Blanton trade.
  • Greg "Moon Man" Minton is the brother of Billie Jean King.

Ain't life grand? You learn something new every day.

 

Banny Log

Untitled

It was also my first look in person at Joe Posnanski favorite, Brian Bannister. Bannister is in many ways the anti-Gallagher. No, Bannister doesn't assemble broken watermelons. He's a pitcher who, unlike Sean Gallagher, has few physical gifts, but understands the mental side of pitching. I can understand why Bannister is fun to watch. He works the hitters, changing speeds and locations, and you can kinda see the mental gears turning in his head as he tries to set up the hitters. Some of the A's younger hitters, like Gonzalez and Bankston, were out-brained by Bannister a couple of times. But you could also see that he had trouble putting away the mature hitters like Jack Cust and Mark Ellis, who weren't easily tempted into biting on Bannister's nibbles. Bannister's pitch count got high very quickly, and he was out of there by the sixth inning.

 

You Are My Sunshine
Untitled

Bannister was betrayed a couple of times by popups lost in the sun. This was part of the poor fielding that my wife thought made the game seem sloppy. But in the Royals' defense, the sun was absolutely brutal. The sky was so bright I ended up with a headache by the end of the game.

 

A Star Is Born
Untitled

The wheels fell off for Gallagher in the sixth inning, giving way to Brad Ziegler down 3-2 with two runners on. Ziegler proceeded to get out of the jam with no further runs scored, and added two more innings after that to his major league record for most scoreless innings to start a career.

At first I thought this streak of Ziegler's was a cute little story, a form of beginners luck more than anything. But after Wednesday's performance, I'm getting sold on him. I'm beginning to mentally accept the idea that he really could be a star sidearming MLB reliever like Dan Quisenberry or Kent Tekulve. I'm not alone in this feeling: Ziegler got a standing ovation as he walked off the field, a rare event for a middle reliever.

If you want some numbers to support how amazingly good Ziegler has been, run over and read this article by Rany Jazayerli at Baseball Prospectus. Those double-play numbers are unbelievable.

 

Maybe It's Goodbye
It was the A's last game before the trading deadline, which means a certain sentimentality seeps into the proceedings. Any one of these players could be in another uniform tomorrow. You start wondering: Is this the last time I'll see Huston Street take the mound in green and gold?
Untitled

Mark Ellis tied Dick Green today for most games played as an Oakland A's second baseman. I think this record solidifies Ellis as the best A's 2B ever. But wouldn't it be a shame if after tying this record, it turned out to be the last game for the team? A's players come and go; longevity in an Oakland uniform is a rare thing, so a player who can reach a most-career-games record will be a particularly difficult loss to accept. Was this the last double play we see Mark Ellis turn?
Untitled

I guess we'll find out by the end of the day. *Sigh.*

Comments
2008-07-31 04:41:05
1.   cubfan1024
Randy Moffitt was Billy Jean King's brother, Greg Minton was simply a dentists dream patient
2008-07-31 07:07:10
2.   Derek Smart
I think you're bang on about Gallagher. He hasn't figured out that when he gets in trouble, throwing harder only makes it worse, and like you said, making that leap, becoming a 'pitcher' instead of a 'thrower' will go a long way toward making him an above-average starter.

However, I think some of that also comes down to him not having confidence in his off-speed stuff, which to my eye, is hit and miss right now. If he can start to feel good about what he can do with pitches beyond his heater, I think that's what allows him to make that transition to a mature, thinking pitcher.

2008-07-31 10:57:14
3.   toni
it is a strange thing being an A's fan at the trading deadline, it really is a double-edged sword. I so don't want Ellis to go. But I wouldn't mind the trio of Chavez/Crosby/Street leaving.

Of course the first is never going to happen.

The second, is a big maybe.

And the third is most likely along with Duke and Ellis.

And if the A's are finished with all their moves, I know I'll feel a sense of let down... that we didn't add the necessary pieces (RH power bat) to seriously contend in the next few years.

Double-edged sword.

2008-07-31 11:05:37
4.   Philip Michaels
Saw Bannister on Friday night in Kansas City where he pitched well-ish against the Rays but got done in by an MIA Royal offense.

He seems quite uncomfortable pitching from the stretch. Took about a million years to throw when there were runners on base, which is one of my pet peeves. Gives me flashbacks to Corey Lidle in Game 4 of the 2001 ALDS.

On another note, there seems like quite a lot of empty seats at the ol' yard. I went to Root Beer Float Day in 2005 and we were packed in cheek-by-jowl. I realize the A's are probably playing their most uninspiring stretch of baseball right now and that the Royals aren't the most glamorous opponent in the world, but they can't break 30,000 on Root Beer Float Day? That's alarming.

Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.