There nothing worse than rooting for a losing team with a bunch of players you know won't be around next year. When my brain starts looking around for scapegoats, I immediately head for the nearest future-ex-Athletic: Hatteberg, Durazo, Byrnes, Ginter, Dotel. If you're going to lose, lose with youngsters who have a chance to improve.

The last two nights, the lineup has featured Dan Johnson, Bobby Crosby and Nick Swisher, each of whom had at least one extra-base hit. They're young, and they've got power. That's the way I like it. Suddenly, being an A's fan feels a whole lot better: it's a team with a future, not just a past.

I loved the fact that Bobby Kielty hit right-handed against Hideo Nomo last night. He did this once before this season, against Tim Wakefield. Right-handed batters are hitting .327 against Nomo this year, lefties only .244. That's what switch-hitting is for: to use platoon splits to your advantage. Kielty singled and walked off Nomo.

Dan Haren threw a complete game last night, allowing one run in nine innings. That was an encouraging performance, although I'm not quite ready to jump on the I-Love-Haren bandwagon just yet.

Haren is obviously extremely talented, with great stuff, but at this point, he's a frontrunner. When things are going well, they go very well, as it did last night. But Haren hasn't quite mastered the art of getting out of a jam. He has a tendency to let a small problem explode into a huge rally. His ERA (4.34) hides this problem a bit; he's allowed nine unearned runs so far, for an average of 5.56 RA/9, which is more reflective of his problem working out of jams. Also, he's given up more multi-run innings this year than single-run innings:

 

Runs Allowed	Innings	Total Runs
0	49	0
1	8	8
2	2	4
3	4	12
4	0	0
5	2	10
6	0	0
7	1	7
Total	66	41

The ability to minimize the damage in a rally is, I believe, a learnable skill. It's what made Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder such great pitchers. Turn a couple of five-run rallies into two-run rallies, a three-run rally into a one-run rally, and suddenly you're an All-Star with a 3.50 ERA instead of an Average Joe with a 4.34.

I think Dan Haren has the talent to be such an All-Star pitcher. But nine smooth innings against Tampa Bay doesn't really show me anything. He never had more than one baserunner on base at a time all night. When we start to see him get out of jams with some consistency, then we'll know that Haren has truly arrived.