I'm glad I went to the game tonight. Not only did I see an A's win, but I saw Trevor Cahill be the very best he can be; he gave the 43,000+ in attendance more than a glimpse of the future pitcher many predicted that he'd be. Facing an Angels lineup that checked in tonight from 1-8 at .307, .303, .317, .303, .302, .299, .295, and .310--almost unbelievable numbers in succession--Cahill shut them down like they were...well...the A's. Cahill finished his night at 97 pitches, 7 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 K, and zero runs. Considering his opponent, that's having a night.
It all started so innocently. Cahill had two walks in his seven innings, and they came on the first and second batters of his night. But he turned things around in a hurry with a strikeout, a pickoff and a ground out to end the inning, and he put it in cruise control the rest of the game. Cahill allowed a two-out single to Vlad in the fourth, and a leadoff double (that didn't score) in the sixth.
Had his performance been any less impressive, Ervin Santana would have had a night of his own. At the very least, he probably wished Ryan Sweeney had stayed home. Sweeney put in a bid for the cycle tonight with a single, triple and a homerun, and was responsible for the A's two runs; enough to win the game. Sweeney homered in the second to give the A's the early 1-0 lead, and he tripled and scored on a Barton single in the sixth. Wuertz (eighth) and Bailey (ninth) wouldn't need the insurance run. Bailey allowed a perfectly-timed bunt single to Torii (Bailey fielded the ball, but did not throw, and something about this motion sent the trainer out), but got Vlad out to end the game, and to give the A's a well-earned win.
Worth noting was a web gem that can only be described as awesome; as it sent A's and Angels' fans alike to their feet. Suzuki hit a ball up the middle that the second baseman Izturis fielded from a prone position and flipped to the shortstop Morales, who threw to first for the out. It was incredible in person.
But the defensive momentum and the rally monkey were not enough to get the Angels off the deck in this one, as the A's rookie pitcher just dominated the likely playoff-bound Angels in every way possible. From the third batter of the game on, Cahill was in control, and if this is a preview of 2010, I like what I see.
Tomorrow's game will be slightly earlier at 7:05; will feature Tomko vs. Bell, and will be hosted by the talented 67marquez. See you then!
0 recs | 113 comments
Yay, A's. Yay, Cahill.
Sacramento clinched the division tonight but they backed into it, losing to Fresno while Reno also lost.
Flashfire - August 28, 2009
Oh, Eveland fell apart in the seventh, allowing five to reach base without recording an out
And the River Cats struck out 17 times tonight. Chris Carter never seems to have good games when I watch him. Tonight he was 0-for-5 with three whiffs.
Flashfire - August 28, 2009
Stop watching him.
mikev - August 28, 2009
Maybe I'll try covering my eyes next time
Flashfire - August 28, 2009
Fair compromise!
mikev - August 28, 2009
Failure to perform when being watched.
Must. resist. innuendo. in. recap. thread.
iglew - August 28, 2009
hahahhahahha
maybe im just drunk enough that this is the funniest thing ive heard all day
designatedforassignment - August 28, 2009
The A's...
…never seem to have good games when I watch, either.
I really wish MLB would lift these black out restrictions!
LeSaboteur - August 28, 2009
I'm pretty sure I heard Ray Fosse call a run a "point" tonight.
travdog6 - August 28, 2009
frickin LOL!
dude, I couldn’t not sig that (if I may)
Kallus - August 28, 2009
When he calls them "hotties" then we'll know for sure he's the real Cindi.
pam5981 - August 28, 2009
I'm still waiting for the three-dib homer.
danmerqury - August 28, 2009
I object to your picture caption.
First it’s Nico’s offensive humor, now you’re introducing politics.
Oh, wait, “I rock”. Oh, nevermind.
iglew - August 28, 2009
Iraq my brain to try to understand this.
Nico - August 28, 2009
I ran a mile
bobnothing - August 28, 2009
I ran, I ran so far away....
jeffro - August 28, 2009
Can't Russia good pun out too quick
MobiusKlein - August 28, 2009
Especially when you're Hungary.
oblique - August 28, 2009
mmm Turkey...
dtownmbrown - August 28, 2009
Eh, too much Greece.
Nico - August 28, 2009
I almost posted this, but refrained
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
That's a bunch of Istanbul and you know it!
Nico - August 28, 2009
Why do I suddenly feel like a Nation's burger?
oblique - August 28, 2009
kenya let it go?!? sheesh
dtownmbrown - August 28, 2009
USSRry.
Nico - August 28, 2009
I saudi too, frineds?
dtownmbrown - August 28, 2009
friends*
dtownmbrown - August 28, 2009
I just saw the Angels defensive play on ESPN.
It really was sweet.
(I was confused in the game thread, though. I thought it was a DP.)
iglew - August 28, 2009
cahill's season so far
april – 3 solid starts, 1 terrible starts vs TB 7er
may- 2er or less in 5 starts, 1 terrible start vs DET 7er
june- 2er or less in 4 starts, 3er vs MIN, 7 er vs Rockies
july – 3 terrible starts: 1 vs CLE, 2 vs BOS. Out early vs LAA, Good start vs Minn
august- 2 terrible starts (TEX/TOR), last 4 starts very good (reached 7innnings in 3 of the 4, 0 hr given up over that time)
It was mentioned during the game, cahill dumped his knuckle curve (which scouting reports previously reported as plus potential)…now just throwing slider and changeup.
Asfan4ever723 - August 28, 2009
Sweeney
he’s been hitting around .300 over 197 ab’s since june after coming back from injuries. If he can boost his power around 15+ hr/yr that would be a decent fit as a CF. His overall stats compared to last yr isnt much different, so a strong finish through september would be a slight improvement going into 2010.
Asfan4ever723 - August 28, 2009
sweeney
in fact, there’s been a spike in sweeney’s power production recently. after last night’s game, i felt like i’d seen sweeney’s name on 2B or HR more frequently, and sure enough his august slg has been over 500. i think (hope) this is an encouraging sign and perhaps not a fluke considering that we’ve all heard about his regular moon shots during batting practices. maybe he’s finally channeling that power into game situations?
tas7b - August 28, 2009
That would be good, because I really think he's a good RFer
He gets much better reads and is just very comfortable there. But he has to hit for some power to make it as a RFer.
Nico - August 28, 2009
Ethier
I was looking up his stats, i dont think any scouting reports projected him to be a 30hr/100rbi/.900+ OPS type. Definitely one of the A’s former prospects that exceeded expectations. Still waiting for Buck to be that similar player which A’s thought he could be.
Asfan4ever723 - August 28, 2009
It helps a lot that he’s got Manny in the lineup. Before Manny showed up last year, he had something like 8 jacks. After the trade, he went on a serious tear and hit around another 15.
speckops - August 28, 2009
I just finally got to see
The Izturis/Aybar flip play on Suzuki, ooh my that was hot. Looked like Hunter robbed Zook of a HR too, that ball looked like it might’ve cleared the wall, so dude got straight jacked tonight, not once but twice.
Other than that, it struck me watching the MLB highlights package that each highlight the Halo announcers were caught talking about Cahill/Anderson/Mazzaro/Gonzalez in the same breath as Mulder-Hudson-Zito, as my grandma used to say, “From your mouth to God’s ears.”
Cahill tonight was right on top of his thing, the grounders are the barometer with him and it was all heavy-ball, power sinker groundouts, an excellent sign. Again the pattern holds and it’s my view that the pitchers are a full year ahead of where I thought they’d be: I expected dominant quality starts like this next year and we’ve had quite a few from all of them to this point, I am encouraged.
I wanna reiterate what I said in the game thread, which is that my gut instinct tells me that the Angels have peaked too soon (2002 A’s, anyone?) and despite the fact that they are a super solid club with a definitively aggressive approach in the box, on the basepaths and in the field, they aren’t gonna win the ring this time.
emperor nobody - August 28, 2009
on the Izturis/Aybar flip
The Angels color announcer exclaimed during the play “CHEESE AND CRACKERS!”.
A more homerific phrase I have never heard. And that includes Hawk.
cityplANner - August 28, 2009
he also said
to call the cops, presumably becuase of the robbery that had just happened.
The Halos announcers sound like frat boys at a kegger… Ken Korach calls a game like a grown-ass man and I’ll take him anyday. Plus when I hear him, I remember his witty exchanges with the King, like this classic:
Bill: Man, this guy is really smokin’.
KenKo: Oh, yeah , Bill? What’s he smokin’?
emperor nobody - August 28, 2009
Korach is a GROWN ASS MAN DAWG
jeffro - August 28, 2009
KenKo is awesome, but I'm starting to realize
how much his awesomeness developed as a foil to Bill King. KenKo really shines when he’s working opposite someone who is zany and outspoken.
I think part of the reason Vince is so lame is that it’s a bad partnering. KenKo’s style makes Vince try to fall into the Bill role, and he’s awful at it. Vince has actually gotten a little better this year at basic play-calling skills, which may well be KenKo’s influence, but I think they’d both be better off if Vince moved on to somewhere else.
iglew - August 28, 2009
new sig line... i love it
designatedforassignment - August 28, 2009
Cheese and crackers!
That’s fantastic. Is the Angels announcers a nine-year-old boy in 1952?
iglew - August 28, 2009
Handi-snacks!
JediLeroy - August 28, 2009
Suzuki must hate the Angels.
Hunter took away a home run, Izturis and Aybar took away a single AND he was hit by a pitch.
OldhamA - August 28, 2009
That was an easy play for Hunter
Not one of the hardest to catch. I watched the replay a few trimes and I thought it was about 2 inches from going out and to me it looked like it would hit the top of the wall.
Trainman - August 28, 2009
Yep
I’d say he took a double away.
jeffro - August 28, 2009
I'm sure he didn't like being hit by the pitch,
but I’d bet that Kurt doesn’t at all hate the Izturis-Aybar play.
When you’re a professional baseball player, you make lots and lots of outs. It’s just part of the numbers. And there’ll be plenty of times where you deserve to be out but you’re not, or you deserve to be on base but you’re out.
In that context, compared to all the other little twists of fate that might happen, I would think a guy would get some satisfaction in knowing that what got him out was a fuckin-A awesome defensive play. I think he would totally respect that and admire it.
And even more so since the team still won the game.
iglew - August 28, 2009
In his prefame show Marty Lurie
Cited Sweeny’s great numbers against Santana ( the only A with good numbers) and added, “they ought to bat him cleanup!” Looks like Sweeny played true to form.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009 via mobile
Pre-game
iPhone changed the word to prefame three times!
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009 via mobile
tech is killing language... prefame's not even a word
though it’d be a cool TV show about wanting to want to live forever, wanting to want to learn how to fly.
AV - August 28, 2009
it would be an even cooler musical, before the TV show
yes, I am old enough to remember ;-)
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
He has a bright future and this shows it
Athletic - August 28, 2009
Bailey apparently tweaked the other knee a little
With two outs, Hunter bunted for a base hit, and Bailey, fielding the ball near the third-base line, appeared to tweak his right knee; the left has bothered him much of the season. Geren checked on Bailey, who was OK, so he took an official visit and gave Bailey instructions about pitching to Vladimir Guerrero.
Bailey got Guerrero to skip a grounder off the mound toward second baseman Mark Ellis, who made the easy throw to first to end the game. Over his past 10 innings, Bailey has six saves and two wins, he’s allowed two hits and he’s walked none.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/SPT119EM3I.DTL#ixzz0PUplECN0
Trainman - August 28, 2009
Can we get over the "lots of IP, no runs, no strikeouts = good performance" notion?
I see that line and say “Wow, Cahill was pretty awful last night. The A’s really lucked out to win that one.”
PaulThomas - August 28, 2009
2 hits and 2 walks
Did you watch? He was dealing. It wasn’t entirely luck.
jeffro - August 28, 2009
Missing the point
Cahill isn’t going to be good until he strikes out hitters. Any start in which he does not strike out hitters is bad news.
At this point in the season, I’d rather see 5 IP, 9 K, 1 BB, 10 H, 5 ER and an A’s loss than the line he put up and an A’s win.
PaulThomas - August 28, 2009
I think it's far too simple either to say "great outing"
because the IP and runs were low, or “lucky bad outing” because the Ks were low. Santana was far worse than he pitched (6IP, 2 runs) in that he gave up two fly balls to the wall, with matching screaming liners that were caught.
In contrast, Cahill was not giving up a ton of well hit balls; he got a lot of topped routine grounders and that’s a good sign. He also walked the first two hitters he faced after the game started late, and then pitched 7 IP with no BBs, which is key for him. On the flip side, he didn’t miss a lot of bats and the Ks were low. My conclusion? Not a great outing, but certainly a very good one.
Nico - August 28, 2009
5 IP, 9K, 1BB, 10 H, 5 ER
Sounds like Brett Tomko’s probable line tonight.
richwol1 - August 28, 2009
2 Ks and 2 walks in 7 innings with no homeruns
is a 3.48 FIP. That’s quite good. I certainly understand the sentiment, but the low walk rate is good, and though it doesn’t affect FIP, the high groundball rate is very encouraging. Keeps ’em in the park too.
King Richard - August 28, 2009
FIP doesn't distinguish groundballs?
How did he look on tRA? That’s the one that separates them out, right?
iglew - August 28, 2009
2.22
One line drive, no home runs, two walks is a very good performance as far as run prevention goes.
It’s not exactly indicative of future good performance though.
Graham MacAree - August 28, 2009
do you have a tRA alarm that rings?
then you spring into action answering any question?
Future Ed - August 28, 2009
I was wondering the same thing.....
Lots of technogeeks on LL. I would not be at all surprised if Graham has some sort of script that runs through all the SB Nation RSS feeds looking for certain keywords.
iglew - August 28, 2009
Now I want to test this theory.
In some random off-topic thread where we’re talking about which player has the best-looking ass, I’ll post “Graham! tRA!” and see if he appears.
iglew - August 28, 2009
Graham's ass' tRA is 2.22
Future Ed - August 28, 2009
I'll let the results speak for themselves
Flashfire - August 28, 2009
What Graham said
I guess it depends on what your definition of “good performance” is. While high strikeout totals may be more indicative of sustainable success, it’s not like the guy was getting hammered and saved by lucky plays.
Either way, it’s a ridiculous stretch to say that Cahill was “pretty awful” last night. That’s intellectually dishonest, even if you’re just trying to prove a point.
JediLeroy - August 28, 2009
I think a better way to say it would have been,
“Cahill pitched well last night, but in general he’ll need to strike out more than 2 batters every 7 innings to pitch well on a regular basis.”
Nico - August 28, 2009
Agreed.
JediLeroy - August 28, 2009
Counterargument: Glavine and Maddux got away with being groundball pitchers who didn’t strike out many guys or allow balls to leave the yard that often.
Obviously exceptional cases, but I’d be thrilled if Cahill came even close to matching them.
speckops - August 28, 2009
You don't even have to resort to those outliers to make your point.
Generally, pitchers with high strikeout rates correlate positively with good performance while pitchers who don’t have high strikeout rates don’t. The exception to that general rule are pitchers who don’t strikeout a lot of guys but also don’t walk a lot of batters and have high groundball rates.
lenscrafters - August 28, 2009
The problem is that Cahill has shown a propensity to walk a lot of hitters
and not strikeout a lot of guys.
designatedforassignment - August 28, 2009
The distressing thing
is that he did have a high K rate in the minors. I’m not sure if the same can be said for successful big league pitchers with low big league K rates.
jeepers - August 28, 2009
8.0 K/9 but with 4.6 BB/9 at Double A is good, but not great. It’s really important to remember that almost all of his stats come at A ball.
speckops - August 28, 2009
Yeah. Obviously if he gets that K/BB ratio to more like 2, then he’ll probably be ok. The problem is that he strikes out so few people (as of now, at least), that for him to do that, he’ll have to be walking at most 2 batters per 9 innings. And that’s damn good control.
speckops - August 28, 2009
I thought Cahill pitched well last night,
but he was lucky to get out of so many hitters counts unscathed. In the future, I’d like to see him get ahead and stay ahead more often.
travdog6 - August 28, 2009
Yep.
I’m not really talking about Cahill specifically, just making a point about pitchers in general. Paul was wrong to insinuate that high strikeout rates are the only way through which pitchers can achieve good performance. And he was wrong to characterize Cahill’s performance yesterday as “pretty awful”.
lenscrafters - August 28, 2009
There are exceptions
In Tommy John’s best years, his strikeout rates were generally less than 4 per nine innings. The old Yankee great Mel Stottlemyre only had one season of 5 strikeouts per nine innings. But those are exceptions.
You can’t always look at strikeout rates, but it’s a good indicator.
richwol1 - August 28, 2009
I disagree.
There have been legions of extremely successful pitchers in baseball that don’t strike out hitters. All that matters is getting outs.
jeepers - August 28, 2009
I was at the game last night and ran into a depressed looking Rev in his seat
I introduced myself, told him i read his site and was from AN. He said to tell Blez he said hi.
I restrained myself and was quite civil. I wanted to say something along the lines of
“The other 3 AL West blogs pretty much agree your site has all the douche bags” but i was nice.
SoCalA'sFan - August 28, 2009
Saying that would have been self-refuting.
MobiusKlein - August 28, 2009
ditto
jeffro - August 28, 2009
that's why ididn't actually say it.
I have some class!
SoCalA'sFan - August 28, 2009
Ooh, I like that!
Deserving of your username, too. It has a Gödel-Escher-Bach feel to it (though in that respect it would be better if it were turned around somehow so that NOT saying it was self-refuting).
iglew - August 28, 2009
There's a quote in that vein
“Better to remain silent and be thought an idiot than open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
MobiusKlein - August 28, 2009
well this was a pleasant surprise to wake up to
i was kind of out of it last night and saw 2-0 and some headline about sweeney’s near-cycle my brian told me we were still playing the mariners and mike sweeney hosed us.
i was pro-sweeney (ryan) at first, recently became anti- (due to his lack of power), but now i’m intrigued again… could sweeney or buck play LF and make hairston the 4th OF (assuming buck gets his act together)?
jlanning17 - August 28, 2009
If it hasn't already been previously mentioned i thought Cahill was really lucky last night
He threw almost as many balls as he did strikes, and a patient team surely would’ve got more BB and scored on him.
SoCalA'sFan - August 28, 2009
See I did notice that; he did not throw a lot of strikes
But I thought it only made him less hittable. He kept the Angels off-balance the entire night, and they weren’t swinging at first pitches either; they were taking counts. He had very few really solid swings off him.
baseballgirl - August 28, 2009
That's a better argument for what PaulThomas was getting at.
jeepers - August 28, 2009
Agreed.
JediLeroy - August 28, 2009
one of the sportswriter wraps (forget which)
mentioned that he got many ground ball outs. If so, that to me is an improvement over most of the games where I’ve seen him pitch this season (mostlly in the first two months of the season), where most of the balls put in play were in the air, and where he missed the strike zone mostly high instead of low. Since he is being advertised as a sinkerball pitcher that does seem significant.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
So, 2 runs scored is OK if there is a win
but, boy does this team suck if its a loss
Future Ed - August 28, 2009
the A's were as bad as ever against Santana
only Sweeney has a good record against him — and he basically provided the offense. The difference was Cahill.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
it is annoying how santana owns us
jlanning17 - August 28, 2009
kazmir to angels deal falls through
Asfan4ever723 - August 28, 2009
Probably good news for the Angels
Kazmir seems to have more “Gio” than “Lester” in him.
Nico - August 28, 2009
the very latest
from MLBtraderumors is that it is going through.
I’ guess we’ll find out fairly soon.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
I could see this being a pretty poor deal for the Angels
They part with prospects — it remains to be seen how good those are — and they absorb a substantial contract in order to add a SP for whom a line of 5 IP, 3 BB, 100 pitches is not unusual.
Nico - August 28, 2009
word is that the Rays will receive at least two prospects
their names are Alexander Torres and Matthew Sweeney. In addition they may also get PTBNL. All this comes from MLBTraderumors.com.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
last time Kazmir pitched was August 26
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
Everidge sent down for Patterson
whoopdeefuckingdoo
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/athletics/detail?&entry_id=46465
Trainman - August 28, 2009
Barton stays, and Tommy Time is over. Good choice.
Nick - August 28, 2009
he may not be over, just sent down til September
the A’s unsurprisingly need to see more of Barton to see how he fits into their plans next year — or showcase him for trades.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
would rather it was Cunningham
richwol1 - August 28, 2009
Not if the callup is mostly going to be pinch-hitting, pinch-running, or just sitting
Nick - August 28, 2009
The decision to call up Patterson and not Cunningham
could be seen as a compliment to Cunningham, since the Rivercats are about to go into post-season. Though Patterson’s a great hitter as long as the level is AAA.
Nico - August 28, 2009
Korach mentioned that Hairston is nursing many injuries
and Patterson gives them someone who can pinch run and play many positions.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
Marty Lurie just did an amazing interview with Huston Street
he talked alot about the 2006 A’s and Macha, and of course his current team. If you missed it Marty will have it on his site probably by tomorrow.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
What was the gist of it?
Flashfire - August 28, 2009
he said the 2006 A's were built to "win now"
while the Rockies feel they are likely to be together for at least a few years. He talked about what Thomas used to do to prepare, and how he basically taught hitting all the time. He had some interesting stories.
He actually talked about many of the players both on that team and on today’s Rockies.
Probably most interesting was his comparison of Macha and Jim Tracy. he said both emphasized that while the minor leagues were about development, the major leagues was about winning. He thought there were many misunderstandings about Macha. He did say that both managers treated the players like men, and basically butted out of the clubhouse. While he didn’t say it, I couldn’t help thinking that he might be contrasting that with Geren and Beane.
There was much more…it’s worth listening to.
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
Interesting, thanks
Flashfire - August 28, 2009
Ooh -- Scutaro hit in head by Beckett pitch,
left the game? Hope he’s ok.
Nico - August 28, 2009
oh no!
OaklandSi - August 28, 2009
Harden claimed on waivers?
Twins supposedly grabbed him, but it’s not clear year what will happen next.
travdog6 - August 28, 2009
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