Beaneball

Tip o' the cap to Athletics Nation for pointing out that Juan Cruz has been traded for Admiral Brad Halsey. Halsey spent last year as a starter with the Diamondbacks. His homer rate was high (one every eight innings), and his strikeout rate low (4.5 / nine innings), but his walk rate was also low (1.25 / nine innings). His 4.61 ERA doesn't look terrible, especially for Arizona, but that does hide 19 unearned runs. In other words, I wouldn't expect Halsey to contribute much at all. Maybe he's a project, but more likely he's filler, a quad-A player, and the best the A's could get for Cruz at this point. The A's are now the third team to give up on Cruz despite his youth (he's still only 27) and his electric stuff, so we'll see if he can ever carve out a consistent career for himself. EDIT: Halsey is, by the way, a former college teammate of Huston Street and Omar Quintanilla. Technorati: Juan Cruz, Brad Halsey, Oakland A's, Arizona Diamondbacks.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 14:28 | |

I have a new favorite commercial:

Open on 911 operator, middle-aged African-American woman, in call center. Operator: Hello, 911. Cut to frail blond woman in nightgown sitting on her bed with the phone. Her husband, scrawny, dressed in boxers and a t-shirt, is looking out the window nervously holding a wooden tennis racket. Wife: Someone's trying to break into the house. Cut to closer shot on operator. Operator: Sorry, ma'am, our local community college had its budget cut, so we're a little short on police at the moment. Back to the bedroom, where the husband starts to move toward his wife. Wife: What? Back to the 911 center. Operator: Yeah, do you happen to have a rolling pin or a golf club? Back to the bedroom, where the husband is now standing in front of his wife, knees slightly bent, cradling the flimsy tennis racket. Wife: Uh, n-no. 911 center. Operator: Can you do any kicks or pressure holds? How 'bout jujitsu? Bedroom. Wife: Kujitsu? Looks up at husband, who gives a disbelieving, exasperated gasp. Blank screen with text: 83% of first responders. VO: Less support for higher education means fewer trained police. Fade-in below earlier text: are trained in community colleges. VO: [Reads text] Back to 911 center. Operator: Are you limber? Can you run? [End matter, website, more VO, etc.]

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Television at 15:48 | |

Baseball America reports today that Javier Herrera may miss the season with an elbow injury. Here's the relevant quote:

Athletics outfield prospect Javier Herrera will likely miss the entire season after being diagnosed with an injured elbow ligament that will require Tommy John surgery. Herrera, the organization's No. 2 prospect, was sent to the minors after a stint in big league camp. After reporting to the minor league camp, he reported pain in his elbow. Dr. Doug Freedberg in Phoenix confirmed the injury and told Herrera that he would need reconstructive elbow surgery.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 16:59 | |

SG over at the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog has run some simulations using Diamond Mind Baseball and three different projection systems (PECOTA, Diamond Mind, and ZiPS). A's fans will be happy to know that Oakland is really the class of baseball, with only St. Louis close behind. Under Diamond Mind, the A's project to 95-67, best in baseball, with the Cardinals second at 94-68. Making the playoffs 91% of the time, they were more likely to be in the postseason than any other team. St. Louis was second at 86%. The next-best teams in the AL West were Texas and Seattle, with .500 winning percentages. That's right, the Angels are projected to last place, under .500. PECOTA has the A's at 93-69, tied with St. Louis and the Dodgers, and a game ahead of the Yankees. Oakland finishes nine games ahead of Anaheim and Seattle. Their playoff percentage drops to 80%, though, a stat the Dodgers lead with 87% of their seasons resulting in playoff berths. That's a function of weaker competition in the NL West, certainly. Finally, ZiPS puts the A's nine games up on the Angels, at 96-66. The only other team that matched that record was, again, St. Louis, and, again, no team made the playoffs more often (92%). It's nice to see the objective projections have vastly more faith in this team than I do. Not that I don't think they're good, but I'm a pessimist by nature, so I'm convinced that Esteban Loaiza is going to blow, all the sophomore stars are going to hit the dreaded slump, and Eric Chavez and Bobby Crosby will again fail to stay healthy. Technorati: Oakland A's, Projections, ZiPS, PECOTA, Diamond Mind.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 12:10 | |

The A's made three more cuts yesterday, sending Daric Barton, Cliff Pennington, and Chris Mabeus to the minors. Barton and Pennington need no introduction: they're two of the team's brightest prospect stars. Mabeus has been with the A's since 2001. He was drafted in the 13th round out of Lewis-Clark State (in Idaho, not Lewis and Clark in Oregon). He's had good numbers as a minor-league reliever, striking guys out, not really giving up too many walks and homers, and keeping his hit rate low. That said, remember all the usual cautions about minor-league relievers before you get too exicted. Technorati: Oakland A's, Daric Barton, Spring Training.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 11:36 | |

Somebody managed to get to this blog by using the following search: "juan gave two thirds of his baseball card collection to his best friend marcus. he gave one half of the cards he had left to his brother. finally he gave one half of the cards he had left to his sister. he had 25 cards left. how many cards did juan have originally in his collection?" First, that's pretty amazing. Second, let's figure this out, since I am, after all, a former high-school math teacher. The easiest way is probably to work backwards. If he's got 25 now, and he gave half to his sister, he must have had 25 x 2 = 50 before he gave to his sister. And if he had 50 before he gave to his brother, he must have had 50 x 2 = 100 before he gave to his brother. And if he had 100 after he gave 2/3 to Marcus, then he must have had 100 x 3/2 = 300/2 = 150 before he gave to Marcus. So to check: 150 x 2/3 = 300 / 3 = 100 x 1/2 = 50 x 1/2 = 25, as he's supposed to have. So he had 150 when he started. EDIT: I'm stupid. If Juan gave 2/3 of his collection to Marcus, then he retained 1/3. Thus if he had 100 after giving 2/3 to Marcus, he actually had 100 x 3 = 300 before giving to Marcus. Thus the correct answer is 300, and I'm an idiot. Thanks to the rather charitable commenter who pointed this mistake out. Technorati: Math, Word problems, Baseball cards.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Education at 10:14 | |

Two quick questions about Barry Bonds:

1. Presumably, he stopped using "the cream and the clear" once he figured out they were illegal / banned / whatever, and once baseball started testing for them. So, if his weight-gain is everyone's big evidence that he's a user, why hasn't he lost weight in the last two years?
2. Does anyone realize how big Ken Griffey, Jr. has gotten in the last few years? He used to be just as skinny and wiry as Bonds was, and now, while he's not quite as big as Bonds, he's filled out a lot. Why hasn't anyone accused him of steroid use? (Do note that my point is not that Griffey's a user: it's an attempt to undermine the standard evidence presented that Bonds is only as big and strong as he is because of chemicals.)

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 06:55 | |

According to Lee Sinins's ATM Reports email today, the A's made some cuts. Javier Herrera, Hiram Bocachica, Danny Putnam, Raul Casanova, Adam Johnson, Alex Santos, and Mac Suzuki are all gone. Herrera is the A's second-best prospect by Baseball America's reckoning, but he's an all-tools guy so far, and even BA admits that he's had trouble translating that into performance thus far. In other words, don't be surprised if he's 17th on the list next year, and completely off it the year after that. BA notes that he could be a 30-30 guy in center field, a rare commodity, but couldas and shouldas and wouldas aren't worth much in the big leagues. Danny Putnam's more of my kind of guy. BA describes him as "short and squat" and notes that he'll "need to pay better attention to his conditioning" in the future. Moreover, he has an excellent pedigree. He was drafted out of Stanford after having been a high school star at Rancho Bernardo in San Diego, a school that's produced six first-round draft picks since 1995. Also, his high school coach was Billy Beane's coach as well (though at a different San Diego school). Most importantly, his career isolated OBP is .097. Casanova's a 32-year old catcher with 947 major league at-bats in his career. His professional debut was in 1990, with the GCL Mets, a team that also featured an 18-year old Brian Daubach. He's a low-average guy (.232 career in the bigs) but he's got a .068 ISO-OBP and a .167 ISO-SLG. In other words, he's Oakland's kind of fourth-string catcher. His numbers are remarkably similar to, for example, Sal Fasano's. Johnson's another San Diego product (Torrey Pines), and a Fullerton grad. He comes from Minnesota's system, where he posted good strikeout numbers, but not much else. Santos is a Miami grad originally from the Tampa Bay system. Some of his peripherals look fine, but considering that he was a minor-league closer last year at the age of 28, I think we can discount the idea of him playing a major role in an Oakland stretch run any time soon. Or any time ever. I talked a little about Suzuki previously when he was profiled by one of the newspapers. He'll sit around in Sacramento and need about four starters to get hurt for him to get a shot. Technorati: Oakland A's, Javier Herrera, San Diego.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 19:57 | |

For Civil Procedure tomorrow, we had to read excerpts from an appellate opinion in the "A Civil Action" case, Anderson v. Cryovac. The opinion is at 862 F.2d 910, and can I just say that it's remarkable? The judge (Selya) must have known that Jonathan Harr was following this story around for his book, because he threw in his best writerly touches and his best showoff vocabulary. Some samples:

• "We eschew an exigetic presentation of the litigation's history ..." p. 913
• "This parcel is a cynosure of the case." p. 913
• "Soon thereafter, a new cloud darkened the horizon ..." p. 915
• "The adoption of the Civil Rules put an end to this desuetude." p. 915
• "To explain, we turn first to the propriety of the paralipomena." p. 917
• "In light of this unmistakable potential for amphiboly ..." p. 917
• "To drive the final nail, we note that when the judge, following the charge, asked for objections at sidebar, plaintiffs' counsel registered no opposition to the interrogatory." p. 918
• "Especially where, as here, plaintiffs bear a lion's share of the responsibility for the infelicitous phrasing ..." p. 918 (A lion, a bear, and "infelicitous?" Wow.)
• "We do not believe that preservation of the claimed error referable to pre-1968 contamination saved the plaintiffs' bacon." p. 918
• "Inasmuch as plaintiffs accepted and endorsed the interrogatory as submitted, they cannot now complain that they were caught in its toils." p. 918
• "Not easily daunted, appellants asseverate that ..." p. 919
• "By answering the four-part interrogatory with an unbroken skein of 'noes,' ..." p. 919
• "We limn the pertinent testimony." p. 920
• "We need ride this horse no further." p. 921
• " ... elsewise it would be pleonastic ..." p. 923
• "Once we leave the starting gate, the borders of the course blur." p. 923
• "Our sister circuits have set some guideposts along the track ..." p. 923
• " ... spoliators would almost certainly benefit from having destroyed the documents ..." p. 925
• " ... need only carry that devoir of persuasion ..." p. 926
• " ... overwhelming evidence, to call a spade a spade ... " p. 927
• "There is no need for us to determine how many angels danced on the head of that particular pin ... " p. 927
• " ... Beatrice played possum ... " p. 928
• " ... possibility that further undisclosed information lurked in the shadows." p. 929
• "Sensitive to the unseemliness of grilling fellow attorneys ... " p. 930
• "Nor was this some fribbling matter of marginal relevance." p. 930
• "The second string to appellants' bow is markedly more resilient." p. 931
• "This exhortation strikes us as idle persiflage." p. 931

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Law at 18:19 | |

I've never been a fan of college sports. My excuse was always that it was too hard to follow the teams because there are so many of them, and no one will ever keep a player longer than four years (and most players aren't stars at the college level for more than two years). Those things aren't any less true than they used to be, but catching a few games this weekend capping off Championship Week in college basketball has convinced me that this is something I've got to get into. The action was capped off for me by the Duke-Boston College game today, which was absolutely fantastic. JJ Redick was doing his thing, dropping threes from South Carolina, Josh McRoberts busted out in a huge way, Greg Paulous did his scrappy white guy thing and nearly started a riot, Al Skinner coached up a damn storm for BC, and Louis Hinnant, a 7 PPG scorer, had the game of his life, nearly carrying BC to victory with 20 on 7-9 shooting. There was energy, there were guys diving all around the floor, huge shots, big misses, bad fouls, cool execution, poster-worthy dunks, nutty passes, and a half-court shot that came uncomfortably close at the end of the game. Bomani Jones said it right on Page 2 this week. College basketball is fun because the players just aren't that good. In the NBA, the players are too smooth, the team defense too good, the offensive plays too crisp, the defensive rebounding too solid, the ball-handling too sure, the passing too on-target. Sure, there's energy. Sure, there are guys going to the floor. But it's different than in college, when every pass carries the possibility of a ball (or player) flying into the stands, when every layup could be blocked because the players just don't protect the ball that well, when every missed shot results in an 8-player scrum under the rim because no one's learned the fine art of boxing out. And at the same time, if you watch the right teams, you can have your breath taken away by the individual skills of certain players. JJ Redick's 30-foot shooting stroke comes to mind. Adam Morrison doing his best Dirk Nowitzki impersonation. Rudy Gay's smooth all-around game. I'm not giving up the NBA by any means. My enjoyment for the game may have risen to the level of "love" in the last few years, and the NBA is the best game in town, but I see no reason why I couldn't add the college game to my docket as well. College football's a whole other story, though, so don't even bother asking me about that. Technorati: College Basketball, JJ Redick, Rudy Gay, Adam Morrison, Duke, Boston College, Al Skinner

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 21:25 | |

Here's the quote (well, paraphrase) of the day from Ken Macha:

The White Sox hit five homers at Tucson Electric Park, two off Chad Gaudin, two off Mac Suzuki and one off Ron Flores. Macha blamed poor pitch location.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 19:58 | |

Over at Dodger Thoughts, I see the news that Andre Ethier is hurt already. He apparently jammed his should diving in the first inning. How much does that suck for Ethier? He gets traded for two major leaguers, shows up ready to prove himself, and gets hurt before the WBC has even ended?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 09:02 | |