Beaneball

ESPN Page 2 - Lukas: Good riddance, Mike

The linked article is tremendously stupid. Lukas should stick to uniforms. It's internally inconsistent (he refused to play first, and also he sucks at first! Uh, maybe that's why he refused to play first?) and only the gay thing (that he should have used the opportunity to say, "Ok, I'm not gay, but so what if I was?") carries any weight.

I wonder if maybe it's a joke? It's almost too over the top to be believable.

Hat tip to Deadspin.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 21:00 | |

MetsBlog.com » Opinion: Minaya, from Howe to Here

The Yemen Deli sent me this, and this is my email in response.

1. The old market was changing ten years ago, from one that focused on athletes and tools to one that focused on performance.  Beane was part of that, getting cheap guys who could hit but didn't sell jeans.  Then the market changed again, as everyone went "holy shit, OBP".  Beane realized that hitting started becoming overvalued relative to pitching, and had his three-aces years (top draft picks from terrible teams didn't hurt as to Mulder and Zito; Hudson was just a hell of a find).  Beane then realized that everyone knew they needed young pitching, and would overpay for it, so he dealt his young pitching and built a team based on defense: Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby, and Mark Ellis is the best defensive infield in baseball if Chavez ever comes back, though Daric Barton at first drags them down a bit.  Mark Kotsay the last few years was tremendous.  None of these guys has hit a lick in years, yet the A's were competitive.  Finally, despite the spread of information about hitting and whatnot, Jack Cust and Frank Thomas still cost the A's almost zero.

2. Players hitting the open market aren't the way that Minaya and Beane have thrived.  The Mets have precisely one major free agent on their team (Beltran), and the A's have none.  More importantly, the "locking them up" phenomenon doesn't reduce "players hitting the open market" because most players are being locked up only through their arbitration years, and occasionally (Evan Longoria) for one or two years beyond that.  Those guys will become free agents exactly when they used to.  They stop being the property of the team that drafted them exactly when they used to.

3. Cleveland, a small market team, inaugurated the idea of buying out the arbitration years of its young players back in the mid-90's.  This isn't anything new.

4. Maybe he's not talking about the arb-buyout contracts at all, but small-market teams actually locking up guys who are heading into free agency?  If that's the case, I can't think of a single example.  One reason for this is because there will never be any examples -- guys are, by definition, not young when they are heading into free agency.  Most are past their peak, only hitting free agency for the first time at around 30.  Only a guy like A-Rod hits free agency as he's entering his peak.

5. The idea that older players are breaking down more now is probably not supported by the evidence.  I'm not going to make a list, but I just don't see any difference now as compared to previous years.

6. The idea that this supposed extra breaking down is because of a lack of PEDs is preposterous.  Most of these old guys have never been linked to a thing in their lives, and most of them never will be.  Remember, something like 93% of players tested negative that year they did the anonymous sampling to see if there should be real drug testing in baseball.  Is it really the case that Carlos Delgado sucks because he's not shooting up anymore?  I highly doubt it.  Hell, Canseco was loaded with that stuff, and he still sucked at the end of his career.

7. Relying on older talent has never been a good strategy.  It works as a supplement, but you always have to have talent coming from elsewhere.  The Mets weren't going to be good because of Delgado and Pedro, they were going to be good because of Wright and Reyes.  And Johan, who's still young because he was rushed to the majors after being a Rule 5 pick.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 20:46 | |

Athletic Supporters | MVN - A's Must Find Consistency at the Dish

Consistency, Matthew Nielsen says! That's straight from the Joe Morgan playbook, as is calling out Jack Cust, wondering why he plays every day when he so clearly sucks. Answer? Best OBP on the team, at .426. No on else, aside from Frank Thomas, is even sniffing .400. Slugging at .462. That's tied with Thomas for the team lead. His seven homers lead the team. In short, he plays every day because he's the best offensive player on the team!

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 20:11 | |

It turns out that Chris Denorfia is, in fact, hurt, and that he is the move the A's made to get Rich Harden on the roster -- he heads to the DL. The A's are thus down to four outfielders, and one of those is Jack Cust, who Geren likes to sub for late in the game. This means, though, that when Mike Sweeney, Frank Thomas, and Cust are all in the game, Geren's going to have to pick his spots carefully regarding pinch-running. He can't just wholesale with Denorfia and Rajai Davis like he did before.

Nice to see the A's bring the bats back to life, by the way. They kind of took a week off, but 12 runs, even if against Sidney Ponson and the Rangers, is nice.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 00:08 | |

The Transaction Guy | MVN - Most Valuable Network » Blog Archive » Pitch F/X Profile: Greg Smith

Here's a great piece by Dave Golebiewski at The Transaction Guy. Smith's pitches, in short, have great movement despite not much velocity, and, as David Pinto points out (and as I think is most important given the variety Smith throws), his release point is incredibly consistent.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 11:46 | |

Good Problems to Have - Part I - Athletics Nation

Here's an interesting piece from notsellingjeans at Athletics Nation about how the A's are unlikely to be sellers in trades because of their hot start -- they'd have to tank enormously to put their record in a position where they could justify selling pieces like Blanton, Mark Ellis, or Justin Duchscherer.

I'm not sure I entirely agree because, supposing the A's do play, say, .460 ball from here on out, and supposing further that the Angels start running away with the West, I think Billy Beane is smart enought to put questions about "waving a white flag" to the side in favor of actually maximizing the talent on the roster for the contention years.

Obviously this is all moot if the A's keep playing well enough to contend.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 11:42 | |

Donnie Murphy pinch-ran for Frank Thomas today and then played left field. Is Chris Denorfia hurt?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 19:54 | |

SFGate: Oakland Athletics : The Drumbeat : Gaudin to bullpen

Athletic Supporters | MVN - an Oakland Athletics blog » Blog Archive » Gaudin To The Bullpen … For Now

The Official Site of The Oakland Athletics: News: Gaudin to 'pen to make room for Harden

I saw this from Susan Slusser first: Chad Gaudin is heading out to the bullpen to make room for Rich Harden.  Mychael Urban reports that Gaudin's (a) not happy about this; and (b) worried about what it might do to his health, coming back from surgeries as he is.  I understand the frustration of a guy with an ERA below 2.50 over his last four starts being sent to the bullpen.  But what are you going to do?  Joe Blanton's not going anywhere, you can't bounce Justin Duchscherer around, Greg Smith has been even better than Gaudin, and Dana Eveland ... well, it's not clear to me why Eveland is staying a starter while Gaudin is heading to the 'pen.  It's almost a coin-flip situation, although maybe there's a talent-evaluation component here: the A's pretty much know what they have in Gaudin at this point, but Eveland is still an unknown.  Is this just a hot start?  Are his runs-allowed numbers sustainable given his peripherals?

Melissa Lockard points out that putting Eveland in the bullpen might hamper his confidence -- he's been beat up pretty good the last few times he's made the majors, so to send him out to the sidelines now that he's having success as a starter might impede him mentally.  Lockard also asks why the A's don't move Harden to the bullpen, and her answer is sensible: there's a good chance they're looking to get what they can for him in a trade, and you don't build up a starting pitcher's value by throwing him out of the bullpen.

But you know, remember Jason Isringhausen?  Failed, injury-plagued starter turned dominant reliever after a trade to a new team?  Nobody wants this to happen to Harden, where the A's insist on keeping him in the rotation before they finally just give up on him only to see him have a few great years for someone else in a role that fits him when the A's could just as easily put him in that role themselves.

Keith Foulke is also due back in a few days, and Dallas Braden is likely to get the ax when that happens, heading back to Sacramento.  He somehow avoided the chopping block last time, being kept around over Lenny DiNardo, but I wouldn't expect it to happen again, not with the way Joey Devine has been pitching.  Unfortunately, when Harden needs to be added to the roster, I'm afraid the A's might go back to a seven-man bullpen and send out Chris Denorfia or something.  Here's hoping the A's do the right thing, pat Devine on the butt and say, "Look kid, good job, but we want a six-man bullpen, you're the odd man out, and you're also the guy who'll be up in probably two weeks because of the inevitable injury (Street, Harden, Duchscherer, Gaudin, a random reliever owie) or trade (Blanton, Harden).  So keep it up!"

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 18:42 | |

Baseball Musings: The Oakland Offense

Pinto's basic point: throw strikes and you win the game. This seems dead on. On the other hand, it's been true for at least the last three years, and the A's have still managed to win more than their share of games. For instance, 2006's pennant-winning team lineup included such luminaries as Jason Kendall, Dan Johnson, Mark Ellis, Bobby Crosby, Mark Kotsay, Jay Payton, and Marco Scutaro. The team slugged .412, good for second-to-last in the league. (In 2005, they were a little worse pure SLG-wise, but were 10th instead of 13th in the AL.) Yet that 2006 won their first-round series against the Twins.

I still don't think this A's team is going to finish on the top of anything, but I don't think it's the poor hitting that will do them in, especially since I think some of the bats will come around, power-wise, in particular Daric Barton, Bobby Crosby, Jack Cust, and Frank Thomas. I'm not saying the hitting will be good; I just don't think it has to be good in order for them to win. Instead, I think the pitching will eventually fall off: Dana Eveland seems to be pitching over his head, and Sandy Casilla and Andrew Brown have to come back to earth at some point, right? Will Greg Smith finish with a 2.54 ERA? I don't have much confidence that he will.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 13:10 | |