In this series, each team won a game the other probably should have secured and each team flat out won a game. Today was the Angels' turn to outclass the A's plain and simple, breaking a 1-1 tie on Torii Hunter's 3-run HR off of Brett Anderson and then putting it out of reach on Kendry Morales' 3-run shot in the 8th off of Jay Marshall.
The A's are going to have to figure out how to get Kendry Morales out -- or least keep him from playing pepper with the wall and with the bleacher fans -- because the A's and Angels match up 19 times/year and Morales is going to be around for a while.
Figuring out how beat John Lackey may be less likely but also less urgent, as the ugly-but-effective right-hander is a free agent after 2009. The A's scored their only run on a pickoff throw that bounced away; enough said.
Hey, if the A's can play even with the Angels going forward, they're in great shape. But...still a ways to go, methinks.
0 recs | 22 comments
that's how I see Lackey too, as:
Kallus - August 30, 2009
haha 'ugly-but'
DyeLongJustice - August 30, 2009
Even in down years the A's seem to play the Angels tough
but if you keep getting swept in Seattle or beat up by the Rangers it only helps so much. This division has three good teams in it with good baseball people running things so the A’s have a lot of work ahead of them to get back on top of the A.L. West.
sirbed - August 30, 2009
A's have done better against the Rangers than against the Mariners this year
all things considered, splitting this series wasn’t terrible.
OaklandSi - August 30, 2009
Wow...this has all been very exciting.....YAWN!!
wacchampions - August 30, 2009
sept callups
geren mentions mostly pitching early on…players already on 40 man such as blevins, reineke, mortnsen
sac signed chris gissell, activated chjris schroder, and called up benacka recently so they have reinforcements for their AAA playoffs
its too bas rivercats games arent televised in the bay area, that offense would be interesting to watch
Asfan4ever723 - August 30, 2009
last year the games were televised on milb.com for free
I don’t know if they’ll do that again…
OaklandSi - August 30, 2009
making the post game thread's posts an even number here.
ak_A - August 30, 2009
What the hell happened to Kendry Morales to make him a good baseball player?
designatedforassignment - August 30, 2009
The A's.
alox - August 30, 2009
Um the dude is a beast this year.
He doesn’t play the A’s enough to hit 30 jacks
designatedforassignment - August 30, 2009
At 19 games a season.....
I think we can can get the guy close to his goals.
Never underestimate the suckitude of the A’s.
alox - August 30, 2009
So AN/Chrome just ate my 3+k word post that was going up tomorrow
FML
designatedforassignment - August 30, 2009
You actually compose it in AN and don't save it elsewhere?
I basically never trust any web application with anything longer than a paragraph or two.
iglew - August 30, 2009
AN "autosaves" everything I write every couple of minutes --
I don’t know if that’s only a front page feature, or a general feature, but if it’s the same as for me then you’ll have it saved as an “unpublished draft” somewhere.
Nico - August 30, 2009
yeah i know... i do too but its just gone
and it won’t let me view it again because though i know the tag were good the last time i saved it, the embedded excel is breaking the editor.
designatedforassignment - August 30, 2009
Im a big believer in google docs and was saving it often
but then my the suspend feature which is a little buggy on the alpha ubuntu distro that im running activated while moving back to my room and bam it was gone.
designatedforassignment - August 30, 2009
Moral of the story
Don’t use pre-release software
nevermoor - August 31, 2009
Rajai Davis has made it up to 3 WAR,
which is all the more impressive when one considers he has only 275 PAs on the year. He’s leading the team in this category, edging out Braden and Holliday by a run. This is despite Holliday having 125 more PAs in which to show his mettle. Rajai was acquired at the opportunity cost of a roster spot, and has been more productive than fellow scrap heap pick-ups like Cust and Gaudin were in their best years.
I doubt he’ll keep up this torrid pace, and his current numbers are so far off his previous levels of production that its hard to tell exactly where his true talent level might be, but I would think if he can put up 3.0 WAR in slightly over half a season’s playing time, he’d be good for at least 2.5 playing more regularly in 2010, even with a healthy dose of regression mixed in. Of course he’s sporting a very difficult to sustain UZR/150 of 24.6.
If a fortune teller had told me in Spring Training that Rajai Davis would be the A’s MVP I would have called them a liar, and then when they showed me their fortune telling credentials to prove they were for real, I would have thought, “Shit! This season’s gonna totally suck.” But Davis’ improvement is remarkable even if it can be explained as a career year. Barring any trades/signings I figure the 2010 starting CF job is his to lose.
Aufheben - August 30, 2009
Casilla and Marshall
After September 1st, when the A’s bring up a handful of pitchers to work out of the bullpen, I’d find it a complete waste of outs to see Santiago Casilla in any game. I suspect he’ll be non-tendered at the end of the season, and he’s doing absolutely nothing now, other than handing courtesy runs to the opposition.
As for Marshall, he seems to be showing that he is not a major league pitcher, and given his minor league stats, I think he may never be one. He’s the perfect AAAA reliever.
(I stole the words “courtesy runs” from my friend Dr. Pez, who explains that a courtesy run is one scored in the ninth inning by the losing team in a blowout, more or less as a courtesy by the winning team).
richwol1 - August 31, 2009
+1.5
As for Casilla, it would be a crime if the A’s were to actually hold on to him and have to pay him an arbitration raise. Slusser even mentioned today that Kurt Suzuki may have been beaned over the weekend as revenge for Casilla hitting Angel batters…that kind of crap is unacceptable. He should probably be DFA’d right now and his spot should be given to Brad Kilby, or another non-roster reliever that deserves a shot at the MLB level that won’t put the future health of teammates at risk. Casilla/Garcia needs to go.
As for Marshall…this team just really needs to realize that he’s never going to be a multi-inning reliever and he sure as hell should never face multiple right-handed batters in a single outing…he really shouldn’t face any right-handers ever, but that might be unavoidable sometimes…
Taj Adib - August 31, 2009
A courtesy run
in this case, is the gift given by Bob Geren whenever he puts Santiago Casilla on the pitcher’s mound.
richwol1 - August 31, 2009
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