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I figured it would be cruel and unusual punishment to subject you to the gory details of tonight's debacle.
So let's go straight to the comment of the evening instead, courtesy of iglew (after mikev checked in from the Coliseum feeling no pain, thanks to his pal, Captain Morgan):
Did you know you can comment on Athletics Nation from your phone or PDA? SB Nation has launched mobile commenting. Check it out next time you're shitfaced in the parking lot and have something to say.
Love it.
Fine, I'll talk about the game. It was more of the same for Ervin Santana who made himself right at home at the Coliseum. Again. With the exception of a booming homerun by Matt Holliday in the seventh inning- his first since June 5- Santana stifled the A's, who managed only a first-inning single by Orlando Cabrera and a sixth-inning two-bagger by Ryan Sweeney. Even the two walks allowed by Santana were erased on double plays.
But you didn't come here to read about old news, did you?
No, you're a fun-fact kind of crowd, I can tell. So how about a 2-run homer in the second inning by switch-hitting Kendry Morales, his 16th of the season, but his very first from the right side of the plate?
Not eyebrow-raising enough for ya?
Well, who else but against the A's can catcher Mike Napoli leg out two infield hits?
Yeah, those aren't fun at all. Well, there was the nightly tease. No, not Kim's money maker. The game, people. Concentrate. It happened in the ninth. It always does. Loaded the bases up for Holliday. Deep fly to center! Caught. Then Nomar struck out, and Kurt grounded out, and well, damn you All-Star Break for coming right when we were starting to make some noise.
The Angels were the ones with the loud bats tonight, breaking it open with a four-run fourth against starter Dallas Braden. In all, the Halos pounded out ten hits in five innings off Pepe.
And on this night not even a slew of rally pics could save the A's. Then again, is that really the point?
0 recs | 64 comments
yawn
{{stretches like kitty}}
{{goes back to sleep until 2011}}
emperor nobody - July 16, 2009
day off tomorrow so I can linger here and wait for all
the fascinating posts to read….. can’t wait. waiting.
ak_A - July 16, 2009
you probably should go play a video game
or read a book. OR you could put together a DLD and try to answer my challenge.
micdog2001 - July 16, 2009
notes post above - waiting.
turns up Buan show and heads to kitchen.
ak_A - July 16, 2009
Robert Buan is boring me.
Rated-R Superstar - July 16, 2009
Really?
I am shocked.
Kevin2 - July 16, 2009
sigh....ditto. i bet this is a long season, even for Buan.
ak_A - July 16, 2009
6-man rotation?
Sure, it saves the arms of the young guys.
muffinpryde - July 16, 2009
I'm stealing this from the last game thread
Kevin2 - July 16, 2009
Huh-huh,
Hey Beavis, … uhhhh … smell my finger. Huh-huh.
iglew - July 17, 2009
really glad i studied instead of watching this crap
btw…holliday homers? TRADE HIM NOW
Jpwest76 - July 16, 2009
I saw quite a few Angels fans heading from SF to the Coliseum; that was a first
New vintage types, for sure. I’ll be in or around section 218 tomorrow night. You’ll know me by the fact that, well, I just might be the only one there.
Ray of Lite - July 16, 2009
Billy Bean?
“For years, I have told the almost unbelievable, related the unreal and showed it to be more than a fact!”
Or Criswell?
You be the judge!
Kevin2 - July 16, 2009
Beane
Kevin2 - July 16, 2009
:(
that’s all I got to say about that…
oaklandSMASH - July 16, 2009
A flashback
to nicer days:
Kevin2 - July 16, 2009
If she can play 3rd, I'm buying season tickets
by the 3rd baseline, mind you.
Kallus - July 17, 2009
I'll say it again:
One Rally Kim is worth three Jamie Kotsays.
Baby ain’t got no back.
iglew - July 17, 2009
I'll take that trade...
not sure if I have the stamina for 3 Jamie Kotsays, though.
Kallus - July 17, 2009
Kim's butt is to die for,
but I think I’d have to go with Jamie Kotsay.
Leopold Bloom - July 17, 2009
You've got a deal.
I’d say this is a win-win for both of us.
iglew - July 17, 2009
I know its cliche but..
This team is really unwatchable. Worst offense Ive ever seen. And all hope rides on 3-5 prospects that a are a year + away. It will prob get worse before it gets better.
Syphon - July 16, 2009
No kidding
Well maybe not worse, but about 70-92 for this year and next more than likely. That’s what happens when you don’t draft decent offensive talent for over a half dozen years. Billy Beane seems to be drafting newer clones of himself. He has a mental block for offensive talent.
rovingralph - July 17, 2009
Ugh
At least the weather was pretty good, and the sandwiches we brought from Genova in Oakland were terrific. Some dudes behind us spent the entire game talking about business and stuff like that, which sucked. But so did the game. Kid in front of us wearing Angels clothing had a rally monkey which he didn’t need.
My main beef about the evening was Jason Giambi. He made a couple of good catches on errant throws from Kennedy, but other than that….he was horrible at the plate, his walk notwithstanding and he made no attempt to hustle in the field. A bouncer that scored a run in the middle innings, he just looked as it went by, not even attempting to move in its direction. Sorry, this guy has GOT to go. Super shift, which he constantly hits into, because he will NEVER bunt to get on base. What a fucking toad. An old tired, post-steroid bag of baseball bones. He doesn’t care one whit whether the team wins or loses or what he does, and Geren still trots him out almost every day.
Sick of it.
richwol1 - July 16, 2009
In Giambi's defense,
I think he probably does care one whit whether the team wins or loses. He just can’t hit any more.
iglew - July 17, 2009
If he cared, he'd pull himself out and either retire or go try some rehab
What’s odd is that despite his .191 batting average, he has a remarkably good OPS of around .690. Go figure.
richwol1 - July 17, 2009
not hard to figure
Pitchers still fear him. Add the fact that he’s the most patient bat on the team, and you end up with a lot of walks.
And also in G’s defense, he almost made a difficult sliding catch in foul territory after a long run. But he’s just not quick enough to be a good first baseman any more. As you noted in your original post he has terrible lateral movement. I think if Jason could get to the ball he would, because he still wants to win, and he still wants to play well.
But seriously, unless something changes, G needs to retire.
Brian in 317 - July 17, 2009
sometimes players are the last to accept that it's time to retire
Giambi once remarked that they would have to tear the uniform off him. I don’t doubt that he’s still hoping to bounce back sufficiently to justify playing.
OaklandSi - July 17, 2009
That's not remarkably good.
mikev - July 17, 2009
It is, in context
richwol1 - July 17, 2009
Well that was fun.
Fun in the sense that I got bombed, I mean.
Just like the A’s. I’m such a good fan.
mikev - July 17, 2009
Also, for the record, it was 100 Proof Captain Morgan.
That’s some good stuff.
mikev - July 17, 2009
I was asleep by 10 pm
Which is when the game started (where I am)
guess I didn’t miss much (sigh)
OaklandSi - July 17, 2009 via mobile
Rich Harden
6 innings pitched, 3 hits, 0 runs, 7 K’s. Just sayin’.
Vacafan - July 17, 2009
just readin"
ak_A - July 17, 2009
Rich Harden this season
ERA+ = 87, WHIP = 1.463
doctorK - July 17, 2009
That must mean that he's due for a coupled missed starts
franks a lot - July 17, 2009
Unless his velocity is back up...
..that doesn’t matter. Also, it was the Nationals.
richwol1 - July 17, 2009
LOL - You guys are right,
but I can’t get over it!! I need to, I know.
doctorK, I’m assuming that WHIP is bad? Help an old guy understand.
I just have nightmares in which Harden wins 20 again and a Cy Young while leading the Cubs to the World Series. It’s ridiculous, but I need him to be horrible, or I won’t be able to let it go.
Vacafan - July 17, 2009
well, not "again", but you know what I mean.
Vacafan - July 17, 2009
WHIP = Walks/Hits per Inning Pitched
WHIP = 1.463 is about 0.2 above his career average. ERA+ = 87 (meaning he’s 13% below league average this season) is far below his career ERA+ of 126. Both of these stats indicate he is not very good this season, even “when healthy”.
doctorK - July 17, 2009
I appreciate that, thanks.
I have a question … can these numbers be greatly influenced by a couple of horrible outings, or do they generally “even out” in the end?
I’m just thinking if a guy gives up 10 hits in 4 innings pitched a couple times during a ten-game stint, but is pretty good the other 8 starts, will/can the WHIP tell the whole story? IOW, has Harden been unbelievably awful for a few starts, and good the rest … or just mediocre the whole way through?
Vacafan - July 17, 2009
Harden's pitching log for this season
here It looks to me like Richie has basically been below average for much of the season.
Rate stats (WHIP, BB/9, K/9, etc) tend to even out as the sample size increases. This is happening for Harden, even though he’s only thrown 80 innings this season (sound familiar).
From this graph, you can see Richie’s arm fell off after his fourth start.
doctorK - July 17, 2009
Wrong headline
Here are a few to choose from:
A’s forgot to start the second half
The A’s are mailing it in
The A’s layed down again like a dead dog
Geren’s green men come with peaceful bats
Beane is still on vacation will return later this year
Arcman - July 17, 2009
the last one reads like a
“vacation message” for email and phones…pretty appropriate
OaklandSi - July 17, 2009
Geren's green men come with peaceful bats
That’s a good one Arcman.
sirbed - July 17, 2009
I must be a sucker.
I watched the whole game (and I live in the Midwest Time Zone). I was kidding myself the whole time that the A’s would win it in the 9th. The joke was once again on me.
BTW, does anyone else feel that the Angels are some smug m’fers these days? I give them credit, but they have these smirks on their faces that need wiped off.
KCa's - July 17, 2009
Remember when
Remember when the A’s played the Angels and they were so evenly matched that most games were nail biters?
Remember when announcers like Lon Simmons used to chastise the team on the air for lousy play?
Remember when Jason Giambi could hit?
Remember when the A’s had three great starting pitchers and an All Star infield?
This team is dreadful. No heart. No talent. Lousy manager.
The season was over a month ago for this team. Even in the beginning you could tell they had no cohesion, just a group of rookies and rent-a-players. I can’t stand to watch them anymore.
I’m going to one more game on Sunday for nostalgia’s sake. I’ve put the rest of my season tickets on Stubhub. Stick me with a fork. I’m done. And so are the A’s for this year. I’m not even going to listen on the radio. It’s too depressing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for next year.
This has been a fun blog, though. See you sometime around winter trading season.
rovingralph - July 17, 2009
Yes. No. Yes. No.
A’s-Angels used to be a great matchup.
Lon Simmons must be local TV guy, because I don’t know him. Last time I watched the TV coverage it was Fosse and Papa.
Giambi hasn’t been good for a long time. Even in NY he hadn’t fallen off the cliff yet, but he had traveled quite a ways downhill. That’s why they didn’t want him back.
The A’s never had an All-Star infield. Chavez and Ellis possibly should have been All Stars, but they weren’t.
iglew - July 17, 2009
Give and take
Lon Simmons did the radio broadcasts before the Beane era. He was a savage critic and for good reason. Now it’s almost all happy talk; they must be on Prozac. I don’t know how else you’d be able to watch this team game after game.
The infield was Chavez, Tejada and Giambi plus whomever they had at 2nd base (Ellis didn’t come on until 2002). Giambi and Tejada have been All Stars. Chavez, it’s true never was. He was a slow starter every year, but had All Star numbers at the end. Then his body fell apart, which was just plain bad luck.
rovingralph - July 17, 2009
iglew,
You seriously don’t remember Lon Simmons?! Damn, I’m old. Marquez, where are you?!
Vacafan - July 17, 2009
I didn't start following the team till mid-season 1999
The first game I remember was Tim Hudson’s first game (on the radio; even then I followed on radio more often than on TV). I think maybe I listened to one or two before that, but it was Huddy’s debut that got me hooked. I followed intermittently through the rest of 1999. It wasn’t until mid-season 2000 (Zito debut!) that I started following almost every game on a daily basis.
iglew - July 17, 2009
Still in shock.
67MARQUEZ - July 17, 2009
if you weren't convinced before last night
this team gave you more reason to believe that they can’t hit their way out of a greasy paper bag. We were facing a pitcher that was struggling all year, and Santana came out and owned us again. Why do I even bother to go to games. My beer wasn’t even ice cold. This team can’t do anything right.
sf drift king - July 17, 2009
I was at last nights game /sheds tear
Braden looked off. Like way off. Like waywayway off. His FB cracked 90 mph only a few times and he was relying on his changeup and breaking ball way more than usual. Since the changeup was being used so much(and was out of the strikezone so much), Angels hitters were just sitting on his fastball once he got into a 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2 counts. He didn’t help himself much either when he gave up all 4 runs in the 4th with two outs. Morales’ homer was just frightening. Waited for his FB like everyone else and just crushed it. He got 100% of it.
The angels were also picking on Kennedy. They put bunt and choppers down the 3rd base line all night. Kennedy has serviceable defense at the hot corner, but I think he bunt fielding/defense is weakness that other teams are going to start exploiting. He is rapidly turning back into a pumpkin and we need to move him for some good pieces before it’s too late.
But hey, Holliday’s homer almost hit the suites. Reminded me of when Big Bank Frank did it back in the day. Or was that Gant?
When Giambi walked in the 8th there was no reason not to pinch run Rajai and put in Crosby for the 9th. No reason not to do that at all. If Geren had put the runner in motion when Sweeney was up, that double play he hit into would have either moved a stolen-based-Rajai to 3rd, turned a DP into a fielder’s choice, or would have moved the 2nd baseman out of posiiton for the hit-and-run and you would have had two runners on base. Instead, it was an inning ending double play. And we wonder why we’re losing so much? Where’s your head Geren?
cityplANner - July 17, 2009
picking on Kennedy
That is what a good manger does looks for holes in the defense and exploit it. I will not forget the playoffs against the Tigers when the tigers thirdbaseman played on the grass no where close to the infield. He made some good plays stealing balls down the line but a couple of bunts would have been base hits and thus he moves in and misses those shots down the line.
Arcman - July 17, 2009
Bob Geren makes me sick with his positive bullshit spin he puts on everything
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090716&content_id=5897284&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak
“He had a pretty decent outing,” Geren said of Braden. “He pitched a little better than his statistics. … It wasn’t anything to be concerned with. He’ll bounce back.”
Trainman - July 17, 2009
In Geren's defense
He has to say this stuff to keep the kid’s on the pitching staff’s confidence up. They’re going to get beat up, he needs to be there to pick them up. That’s his primary job this year. Trotting the vet’s out day after day, hoping they bounce back and get some trade value, and pumping up the kid’s confidence. Let’s all just accept it, it makes it easier.
A'sfansince1970 - July 17, 2009
Bullshit
An honest answer would’ve been, “Dallas didn’t have his best stuff out there.” That’s kind of what he meant with “He’ll bounce back,” but instead we got bullshit about pitching better than his statistics.
It’s not Geren’s job to prevaricate about crappy play.
richwol1 - July 17, 2009
Doesn't change anything
Why does it matter what Geren says after a game? A loss is loss. Saying the team or a certain player was pathetic isn’t going to change the outcome or improve their overall tallent level…. and that’s the A’s problem (lack of tallent).
McBain - July 17, 2009
I completely disagree
because if I do a bad job, and my boss says “He had a pretty decent outing,” I continue to think that my bad job is acceptable.
I’m not suggesting Braden was somehow happy or content with his outing last night — he wasn’t. But please don’t tell me that a manager sugar-coating horrible efforts has no effect on a player’s performance. If a player is giving half-ass effort and the manager doesn’t call him out on it, he will continue to give half-ass effort. And there are lots of Oakland A’s giving half-ass effort.
Vacafan - July 17, 2009
Not disagreeing with the general principle,
but in Braden’s case, I really doubt that he’s going to think a performance like last night’s is acceptable, regardless of what Geren says.
iglew - July 17, 2009
It's not about any individual player
It’s the message Geren sends out to the entire team, on a constant basis. These players are not islands separated apart by a wide ocean. When Braden pitches a crappy game and gets praised for it, it sends the message that nobody has responsibility for doing their jobs. Sweeney must’ve been really flipped out that Geren singled him out that one time, because he never singles anyone out.
richwol1 - July 17, 2009
I'm generally supportive of the positive talk, but at this point
it’s becoming sort of ridiculous. It’s one thing to keep the guys’ confidence up, but he’s not fooling anyone any more. You have to be willing to tell it like it is at least enough to maintain some credibility.
I would love to see someone get Dallas’s reaction to Geren’s comments. I hope he’d say something like, “That’s nice that coach has my back, but he’s wrong. It wasn’t a decent outing; it was a shitty outing.”
iglew - July 17, 2009
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