Beaneball

The AP game recap for Sunday's contest against the Devil Rays (dropped, 5-3) mentions that starter Dallas Braden was optioned to AAA immediately after the game to make room for Ryan Langerhans, acquired from the Braves in what can only be termed a desperation trade. Bobby Kielty will likely need to go on the DL, but as is the A's wont, it seems like it hasn't happened yet. In any case, it's not like the A's had any more outfielders available they could call up. Langerhans is hitting a downright A's-like .049/.188/.049 to start the year. That's two singles, six walks, and one HBP in 48 plate appearances. That said, he did put up OBP's of .348 and .350 in the last two years (373 and 369 PA's, respectively), while playing all three outfield positions (mostly the corners, which is understandable - even if he's a good center fielder, the Braves have a guy named Andruw Jones out there - you might have heard of him). Langerhans is a lefty swinger who's batted almost exclusively against right-handed pitchers in his career (685 PA's against the, compared to just 121 against portsiders). On the other hand, in that limited time against lefties, he's hit better against them than against his natural enemies: .364 OBP and .287 BA vs. just .332 and .234. He has never batted in Oakland, but maybe his home/road bias will carry over. Despite Atlanta not being known as a launching pad or anything, Langerhans has hit .298/.382/.442 there compared to just .188/.293/.315 on the road. Who knows at this point what the A's gave up to get Langerhans, but hopefully it wasn't much, especially in light of losing Marcus McBeth to get a guy (Chris Denorfia) who won't even be able to fulfill his fourth outfielder duties until next year.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 21:15 | |

Hat tip to Catfish Stew for pointing out that the A's traded for Chris Denorfia from the Reds. Denorfia's on the 60-day DL currently, so he'll remain there for the A's. Denorfia's a 27-year old outfielder with about 150 PA's in the big leagues. He's exactly the A's kind of hitter: good on-base skill (.377 OBP in the minors), now power (.441 SLG). He's been on the DL since March 24th of this year, so he'd be eligible to come off around the end of May. In other words, he's not an immediate solution in the outfield. Plus, he's coming off of Tommy John surgery in his throwing elbow (the surgery happened on April 3rd), so I can't imagine he'll be ready to come back at that point.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 00:54 | |

Dan Johnson's down in AAA, rehabbing. He went 2-3 with a homer last night, apparently. He will likely be ready to come back somewhat soon, which is good, because Todd Walker isn't a first baseman (the jury is out on whether Johnson is, but he's a better bet to bring some offensive value than Walker). Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the outfield quandary, because it's not like Walker can cover center, and neither can Johnson. But hey, wasn't Johnson supposed to be out for something on the order of months? What is going on with the A's medical team? Why do we never know what's happening with Oakland injuries? UPDATE: Huh. I spoke too soon. Dan Johnson has been activated, with Adam Melhuse headed to AAA. That's an odd move on a lot of levels. I guess they really wanted Johnson's bat, such as it is, in the lineup. It really is kind of punchless right now, so I guess that's a good thing. But oddly, this means no backup catcher for Kendall. Melhuse can't come back up for ten days unless there's another injury, so that means that Mike Piazza is the in-game option at this point. (If there were an injury, presumably Kendall would be DL'd and Melhuse would just come on back. It's the old Earl Weaver move - your backup shortstop should be in AAA. You can make do with a random guy standing around out there for a few innings until you can get a real player there for the next game.) I wonder whether Melhuse will be back at all or whether the A's will just (a) start Kendall every game from here on out; (b) go with Piazza behind the plate once every two weeks; (c) find out that Marco Scutaro was a catcher in little league. Who would Melhuse replace if he came back? I guess Danny Putnam would be the guy to head back down once the A's get Kielty and Buck back.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 22:31 | |

The A's beat the Orioles today in Dallas Braden's major league debut. Braden threw six innings and gave up just one run, which is enough for me to start calling for a trade of either Joe Kennedy or Esteban Loaiza right now. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by Nick Swisher straining his left hammy and rolling his right ankle in the first inning while running the bases. With Milton Bradley DL'd, Mark Kotsay DL'd, Travis Buck nursing sore wrists, and Bobby Kielty out with a hurt calf, this left the A's with precisely two outfielders: Shannon Stewart and Danny Putnam. Marco Scutaro came in for Swisher and played right, with Putnam moving to center. Putnam has apparently played center in Instructional League, but it's not clear whether he's ever played there in normal baseball. But it's really just one on top of the other, though, isn't it? Looking down at the minors ... well, it ain't pretty. Hell, there's a reason the A's went with Putnam when Bradley went down, isn't there? Charles Thomas is at AAA, but he's not on the 40-man. Maybe this is all no worry, because Swisher says he's fine ("no wheelchair"), but do we really want a guy with a tender hammy running around center field? Swisher's not exactly silky smooth out there as it is, so one certainly worries about the range that a hobbled version will have.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 23:04 | |

Danny Putnam got the start for the A's tonight in right field with lefty Erik Bedard on the mound, which means (a) that Milton Bradley went on the DL and (b) that the A's didn't use the roster spot to bring up Dallas Braden. I'm very unclear on what the roster is going to look like over the next few days, but leave it to SuSlu (Susan Slusser) to clear things up for us: Rich Harden has gone to the DL, since with retroactivity, he'll be back before too long anyway. With Bradley also going to the DL, that creates the two spots filled by Dallas Braden and Danny Putnam (up from AA, actually). Putnam was also not on the forty-man roster, so my earlier question of who was going to be removed in order to get Braden up got doubled. The answer turned out to be Scott Dunn, who was released. That was kind of predictable, I guess. As for the other roster spot, Mark Kotsay was pushed to the sixty-day DL to create room. Apparently Travis Buck didn't only sit because Erik Bedard's a relatively tough lefty, but also because he has two sore wrists. For a guy whose major worry as a hitter is whether he'll have power, wrist injuries aren't the way to go. See also Eric Chavez's forearms. Of course, the other news is Brad Halsey ripping the A's a new one for ticky-tack behavior with regard to his injured arm. He's having an MRI, and he says that the A's chose not to start him on Tuesday (going with Braden instead) because if he came to the majors and then was hurt, they'd have to pay him major-league money while he was on the DL. Billy Beane denies this on all counts: not only was Halsey never scheduled to be the Tuesday starter, but Beane was unaware, he says, that Halsey was having an MRI done. Who knows who's right. It would hardly be unexpected for a team like the A's, not knowing for throwing cash around lavishly, to save a few pennies here and there on a guy like Brad Halsey. One interesting thing is that, while Halsey specifically mentioned throwing the ball for some other team in the near future, the A's say that he hasn't been eliminated from consideration for making a start if the A's need it, whether due to Braden being ineffective or someone else getting hurt. But hey, at least the A's won tonight, powered by a couple of Nick Swisher homers. The bullpen was mediocre, but since the win is all that matters in real life, I'll take it: Alan Embree gave up a three-run bomb to Aubrey Huff, who I'm carrying on my fantasy team. Danny Haren's only run allowed was a solo homer by Brian Roberts, also on my squad. And Haren himself is on the team as well, so I'm really happy with seven innings, five strikeouts, and the victory. Haren's now 2-2 - you don't see too many pitchers getting decisions every time out in these days of lots o' relievers and rough-and-tumble offenses.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 22:13 | |

In this entry, we noted that Susan Slusser was calling "Halsey" as the guy who'd pitch for Rich Harden on Tuesday. Here, though, Melissa Lockard at Scout.com says that Dallas Braden has gotten the call. The language used is definitive, rather than the speculation Slusser was using in the blog, but it seems a little weird. Halsey is available and on the 40-man, while bringing Braden up would require a (40-man) roster move. Candidates for removal might be:

• Scott Dunn, a 29-year old reliever with, it seems, good stuff (lots of strikeouts) but no command (lots of walks)
• Shane Komine, who's already 26 and probably doesn't have a career outside middle relief in the majors
• Dan Meyer, who turned 26 without any of us looking and who, according to this site, hasn't pitched yet this year.
• Jeremy "Jeans" Brown

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 07:22 | |

At least things are going right somewhere in the world: Jean-Marie Le Pen received only about 10% of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election, placing a distant fourth and leaving him on the outside of the runoff to take place in about two weeks. The turnout rate for the election, by the way, was near 85%. Democracy can involve participation.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Politics at 06:37 | |

Know why the Lakers can't win their series against the Suns? Because it doesn't matter how good your game plan is (very good) or how faithfully you execute it (pretty well) if your players just aren't very good (they aren't).

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in L.A. Lakers at 23:00 | |

The inevitable has happened: Rich Harden will miss his next start. Brad Halsey will apparently pitch in his stead. No analysis is needed to show that this is a bad thing. At least Chad Gaudin has emerged as a viable starter in Esteban Loaiza's absence, right? Six starters and all. UPDATE: Susan Slusser has since updated her post to reflect that Milton Bradley could be hurt with a recurrence of his hamstring problem. If he went on the DL, as she noted, that'd make it easy to bring up Halsey for a quick start without worrying about which reliever the A's are going to send down to make room (since Harden won't go on the DL - the A's hope to have him back sooner than they could get him on the mound if he had a DL stint).

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 20:34 | |

I've got four pictures to show you. They're screen captures from the late innings of today's A's-Rangers tilt. I didn't start "watching" the game until it was already bases loaded, one out in the eighth, with Sammy Sosa at the plate and Justin Duchscherer on the hill. The below thumbnail (click for the full image) captures what happened: What on earth happened there with balls three and four? Aren't they right down the middle of the damn plate? Ok, so the A's got a couple of calls in the top of the night as well. Check out Mark Ellis and Jason Kendall's at-bats, focusing on pitch one in Kendall's at-bat and pitches one and three to Ellis: But then the kicker came against Nick Swisher. Check out the last pitch in the at-bat, the pitch on which he struck out looking. That's like a foot outside and low! So I guess the real question is whether these are actually accurate depictions of where these pitches were being thrown. How good is GameCast at this thing?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 18:15 | |

My rooting interests in this first round of the NBA playoffs:

• Orlando over Detroit. I've never really liked the Pistons, and I have a soft spot in my heart for Darko Milicic. Plus, who doesn't love Dwight Howard? I want to see him average 20 rebounds a game for the playoffs. EDIT: How did I forget Grant Hill? Such a sad career it's turned out to be, which only makes it easier to root for him.
• Chicago over Miami. I hate the Heat. Ugh. Dwyane Wade? He'd be a very good player, as opposed to the Next Jordan, if he didn't get so much referee love. Shaq? He's the reason everyone hates Kobe. On the other side, Luol Deng is fantastic, and while I'm neither a fan of Ben Gordon (shoots too much) nor Ben Wallace (Pistons taint), Deng + Kirk Hinrich is enough to overcome that. Plus, they're playing the Heat.
• Toronto over New Jersey. I like Jason Kidd (NoCal!) and Richard Jefferson, and Lawrence Frank is one of my favorite coaches. But the Vince Carter factor is just too much for me. I don't necessarily like the Raptors all that much, but I want them to send VC packing. (Unfortunately, after seeing Game 1, it looks like they're overmatched.)
• Washington over Cleveland. I know Gilbert Arenas isn't playing, but it's still his team, so I'll root for him. Plus Eddie Jordan = straight-up GQ. Also, I really don't like the idea of LeBron mailing in half a season and then winning anyway.
• Dallas over Golden State. I usually prefer underdogs, but not this time. I do like Mikael Pietrus, but I'm a Nowitzki fan, just for the sheer physical freakishness of watching him play.
• Houston over Utah. This is the hardest series for me to pick. In the end, though, I can't root against Yao very easily - see my above comment about Dirk. It's just so much fun watching him shoot.
• San Antonio over Denver. I hate David Robinson. Sanctimonious bastard. Austen and I agree wholeheartedly on this one. But, for all the games he spends sitting in the stands, he's not playing anymore, and his taint is finally beginning to wash away. And while Allen Iverson is truly a joy to watch, Carmelo is ... not. That silly slap-punch + backpedal (Stop Snitchin'!) just solidified it for me. I'm a 'Melo Hata. On the other hand, I'll always root for Marcus Camby (UMass!). But in the end, Tim Duncan's role in getting Joey Crawford booted out of the league and the idea that if Manu Ginobli hadn't been a basketball player, he'd have made a remarkable non-Euclidean geometer convince me that it's got to be the Spurs. Just so long as David Robinson doesn't show up on the TV more than twice per game.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 18:42 | |

This year, I sporadically updated the NBA Heavyweight Championship sidebar over there on the right. As I note, I blatantly stole the idea from Ken Arneson. He tracks the Heavyweight Championship in baseball. This year, the Heavyweight of the Year award (for the best record in championship bouts) goes to the team that also had the best record overall, the Dallas Mavericks. The Utah Jazz wound up holding the belt at the end of the year, beating the Rockets to take it, which, happily, sets up a first-round playoff matchup between the two teams. The belt will not be in question, however, as the Jazz are immediately stripped of the championship upon the start of the playoffs: the belt goes to the team that also takes home the trophy in June. I also have a further award to hand out: The Wussy Trophy, which goes to a team that manages to avoid entering any championship bouts during the year. This year there are two Wussy Trophies, one to (oddly) the Detroit Pistons and the other to the Charlotte Bobcats. On the other side, the Toughman Trophy goes to the Utah Jazz, for fighting with the belt on the line an astounding seventeen times, nearly 20% of their overall schedule.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 10:49 | |

Oakland scoring sixteen runs is good and all, but it always gives me a little worry in the pit of my stomach because it makes me get this irrational "They've used up all their offense!" feeling. Of course, sixteen runs in Texas is like six anywhere else, so it's also not that big a deal. (I guess that's an exaggeration. If that were true, Joe Blanton's three runs allowed would be equivalent to, what, like one?) Travis Buck, by the way, happens to have the best headshot in the entire league. See it here. More importantly, he's been a bit underpowered as a minor leaguer, so seeing him get his first major league homer is a nice thing. At this point, he's absolutely ripping the ball: 282/440/564. He's not making great contact (fifteen strikeouts in just 39 at-bats), but he's hitting the ball hard (seven extra-base hits to just four singles) and taking his walks and seeing pitches (10 walks (one intentional, three last night), 4.27 pitches per plate appearance). Twelve games is way too early to make long-term judgments obviously, but he's certainly doing everything the A's could have hoped he'd do. I'm happy that Milton Bradley finally came back yesterday. He managed to walk four times yesterday to go with his single. In total, the A's walked twelve times yesterday, with just five strikeouts. The ugly? Mike Piazza had three of those strikeouts as he wound up 0-6. Eric Chavez probably would have gone 0-6, too, except that Adam Melhuse spared him a sixth at-bat by pinch-hitting for him in the 8th inning. The defensive lineup in that last inning was a little odd: Melhuse was at third base (he's played there nine times in his career), Bobby Kielty was in center, and Marco Scutaro was playing short (which he probably plays the worst of his three positions - his range doesn't seem to be that great).

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 10:30 | |

I have to say that the Eleventh Amendment was not the first thing that sprang to mind after the disaster at Virginia Tech. But apparently Virginia's thinking about just that - the state's (oops: commonwealth's) solicitor general, William E. Thro, mentioned that the state would invoke its sovereign immunity to prevent suits in federal court. He also mentioned that people could sue in state court, but could get no more than $100,000. Link. Thro (who, I'll note for the hell of it, went to U. Virginia for law school, has an M.A. from the University of Melbourne, and is an Eagle Scout) is presumably referring to a state statute waiving its immunity from suit in its own courts for negligence, but only to the extent of the $100,000 that he mentions. A quick spin through Westlaw turns up no statute, but I didn't look very hard.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Law at 23:29 | |

Marco! Scutaro! Marco! Scutaro! That will be all.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 23:31 | |