Beaneball

I'm excited that the A's have decided to call up Brooks Conrad to see if he can add some life to the offense from time to time. He'll apparently play third base against lefties instead of Jack Hannahan, who's, to be charitable, not really doing so well with the bat. Conrad, who's 28 this year and has yet to play a day in the majors, isn't a high-average hitter (just .242), but he does have some pop in his bat: exactly half of his hits have gone for extra bases, and his SLG is double his batting average.

Donnie Murphy was DFA'd to make room him. Murphy's young enough, versatile enough, and has hit well enough in the minors that he might not make it through waivers. He's only hit .192 in 362 career major league plate appearances, but his career minor league line of 281/346/436 might intrigue someone, especially since he's still just 25.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 18:55 | |

Can someone tell me what Huston Street's deal is? The A's tie the game against Jose Veras and manage to score a run on Mariano Rivera, which is still nearly impossible to do, only to see Street blow the lead. We're now a Brett Gardner base hit away from losing this game. And this could be worse if not for the fact that the Yankee pinch-runner got caught stealing. Maybe the game would already be over if that hadn't happened.

Thankfully, Street gets the last out on a popup, lowering his ERA back "down" to 4.19. But we're still going into extras because he can't hold a lead these days. He's pitching about as well as his good buddy Joe Blanton. In the story about the Blanton trade on the official website, Street sounded pretty forlorn. He can't really blame his performance on that, though, because he's been pitching like this basically all year. The A's aren't likely to make a push for the postseason, not with this offense, but what Street's really doing is hurting his trade value. Don't the Dodgers need a closer? Could we get a third baseman from them? And maybe Andre Ethier back? Or Matt Kemp?

Ok, we're in extras. (I'm "liveblogging" this in the sense that I'm watching it on MLB Gamecast as I type.)

Edwar "No D" Ramirez is in for the Yankees. I think the A's are probably going with Andrew Brown next inning. Jose Molina is also in for New York, which should cut down on their running game a bit (Rajai Davis and Ryan Sweeney both stole second against Mariano/Posada in the 9th). Crosby flies out. Ellis is terrible at the plate, so I'm betting on Donnie Murphy with nobody on and two out. If this were Marco Scutaro, that might be a great situation for the A's, but Murphy doesn't seem to have Scoot's clutchitude.

But hey! Ellis gets on base by accident as Ramirez hits him with a changeup. Way to take a soft one for the team, Mark! The pitch didn't look very far inside on Gamecast, so he may have done a sort of turn-the-elbow-in-toward-it kind of move. So now Murphy with one out and Ellis on first (twelve steals this year, caught just twice) and Wes Bankston, Oakland's third-best hitter, up next. Murphy's batting .186, which is bad, even for the A's. Ramirez's changeup, which Murphy just fouled off, looks, in Gamecast at least, like it has some ridiculous break on it. How did people even know about baseball before the internet? Now the count is full. I think I send Ellis here, and damn the consequences. Ramirez will probably come back with his fastball after throwing three straight changes, the last two in the dirt. And he does come back with the fastball, but it's low and Murphy is on first with a walk. I don't know if Ellis was running on the pitch or not.

So Wes Bankston, with two singles and two whiffs on the game. His second single set up the A's 7th inning run against Veras. Wow, Ramirez gets a called strike on the first pitch that from here looks to be about six inches off the plate. The immortal Rajai Davis is on deck. It's 0-2 after two foul balls. Bankston's in trouble. And down he goes, swinging at the changeup that ends up low and in.

It's too bad speed only helps after you hit the ball. Davis is hitting .207 for the year. Oakland pretty much just has Emil Brown left on the bench, and Davis is a good defensive outfielder, so I guess I understand not pinch-hitting. You can't really say "damn the defense, we're going for the win" on the road, because you've always got to play the bottom half. Plus, Emil's not that great anyway. And Davis is down on strikes, also chasing a changeup down in the zone. Well, no, down out of the zone, almost in the dirt, it seems. So that's the A's half, and we go to the bottom of the tenth, sudden-death style.

The Yankees have Richie Sexson on the bench, but I guess we won't see him unless the A's end up using Jerry Blevins, a lefty. Ah, but look, there is Jerry Blevins after all. It's Jeter, Abreu, and A-Rod coming up, so Sexson won't hit for any of them. But if it gets the cleanup spot, where Justin Christian pinch-ran for Jason Giambi, you can bet he'll hit there. Christian hits righty, but he's got 18 major league at-bats. But look, we probably won't even get to that spot since Jeter just knocked the first pitch up the middle for a single. Winning run on first for Bobby Abreu.

I know Andrew Brown pitched yesterday, but with two righties and then the Justin Christian spot coming up, don't you want to use your right-hander out of the bullpen here? Especially since he's probably the better pitcher of the two anyway? Not my favorite decision by Bob Geren, although who knows what he knows about availability.

Abreu hits a grounder to Murphy at third who gets the force at second. This is where actually watching the game can't be beat. I have no idea how that play went down. Soft roller and it was a good play just to get the out at second? Throw down to first that Abreu barely beat? Bobbled transfer by Mark Ellis? Who knows! Anyway, here's A-Rod with Abreu on first and one out. Alex is 0-5 with three whiffs, so he's either due or he's not seeing it well, depending on your hopes and wishes.

2-2 count after five pitches, then a curve too low for ball three. Abreu steals second on the pitch. Which sucks. So they give A-Rod the intentional pass, bringing up the DH spot with the winning run on second, one out, and a large, lumbering slugger coming to the plate in Richie Sexson. The last thing Sexson does well is hit lefties, so I'm worried here. Blevins gets ahead with a low-and-away curve, strike one. Ground ball, Jerry, ground ball. A fastball right down the middle, but Sexson swings and misses, 1-2. Curve in the dirt fills the count. Strikes, Jerry, strikes. He struck him out! Got him swinging at the heat, pretty high from the looks of it, on the outer part of the plate.

So here comes Jose Molina, who I think is #2 of the Flying Molinas? Bengie's #1, right? Or is Jose #1? Anyway, another first pitch curve, hit foul for strike one. Jose's a hacker, so first-pitch off-speed ain't a bad idea. Another curve, even lower, and Jose grounds out to Crosby at short, ending the inning. Whew. Each side works out of a jam, and we're on to eleven.

The Yankees' remaining pitchers are Dan Giese (?), LaTroy Hawkins, and David Robertson (?). I wouldn't be surprised with a second inning of Ramirez despite that depth, though. For the A's, with just Andrew Brown left, I think it'll depend on if they score in this inning. And yes, it's Edwar Ramirez coming out for another inning of work. Top of the order for Oakland: Sweeney, Suzuki, Cust. Sweeney quickly is down 0-2 after swinging at a couple of those changeups. He gets another change on 1-2 and puts the bat on it, but it's a grounder to Betemit at first.

Suzuki to the plate, working on a 2-5 day. Just like Sweeney, he's down 0-2 as Ramirez doubles up on what Gamecast thinks are sliders. I'm suspicious, because I don't think he threw any sliders last inning. And just like that, there's a changeup and Suzuki strikes out swinging on three pitches. Ugh.

Well, here's the one guy who can put the A's up with one swing of the bat, Jack Cust. He does swing the bat, but through another changeup, so he's down 0-1. Ramirez could get out of this inning in about 10 pitches. That's another slider, and it really does look like a different pitch than the change, so maybe he really does have it. 2-1 count now after a slider misses well low and in and a fastball is up and off the plate away. Cust has three whiffs in the game and two walks, and it's now 3-1, so he's working on his third walk. Ugh, changeup called strike two, but it looks outside from here. And yet another changeup, down, Cust swings and misses, and he's got four whiffs in the game.

Bottom of the 11th. Ah! I missed someone in the bullpen! Lenny DiNardo is in to pitch for Oakland with Cano, Betemit, and Cabrera coming up. The Yanks only have Chad Moeller on the bench, so I'm guessing that what we see is what we've got for them. And with Emil Brown not likely to pinch-hit for any of the A's, and the same for Rob Bowen, it looks like we're hunkering down and going to war with these lineups.

DiNardo did pitch an inning yesterday, so I don't know how much he's good for today, but he's normally a long man, so if we remain scoreless, we might be seeing plenty of him. On the other hand, his ERA is over nine, so our odds of remaining scoreless in extras are low.

Another leadoff man reaches for the Yankees as Cano gets his fourth hit of the game, a single to center. Wilson Betemit to the plate with the winning run on first. Again. Betemit sacrifices Cano to second. Do you walk Cabrera to face Brett Gardner? Melky's hitting under .250 this year, so it looks like Geren says no to that option as DiNardo gives him an 83 mph "fastball" on the first pitch, fouled off. He fouls off a would-be ball one for strike two. DiNardo hasn't thrown a ball yet. Now, with Melky down 0-2, would be a good time. He gives him a fastball in a little further from the first two, and Melky takes it. A changeup misses badly on the other side and suddenly we're at 2-2. The fastball was a good idea. The changeup was just a bad pitch. A couple of foul balls, one on a curve. And now we're full. Come on Lenny, I know your stuff is marginal, but strikes! Well, that last changeup might not be a strike, but Melky hit it anyway, and he's out on a flyball to Carlos Gonzalez in right.

Two outs for Brett Gardner, who hit a double in his first at-bat. It was his first double. Ever. (Well, at least ever in the majors.) He's hitting .178 on the year, and he's left-handed. Let's go, Lenny. First pitch fouled off, 0-1. Gamecast is calling these 82 and 81 mph pitches changeups, but I think they might be fastballs. A marginal curve, looks a little high and a little outside, called for strike two, so we've got a 1-2 count. And DiNardo gets him on a fastball down the heart of the plate, getting Gardner to fly to right. Lenny's ERA is down all the way to 8.49 after that inning, a reduction of about a run and a half. Nice work, Lenny. See you in the bottom of the twelfth. (Although I'd rather see Andrew Brown and damn the consequences because it's back to the top of the order next inning for the Yankees. Granted, they're 1-13 on the day, but they've got five walks between them and they're still good, dangerous hitters.)

So in comes David Robertson, who doesn't even have a proper headshot in Gamecast -- his picture is a super-cropped action shot, so basically what I can tell is that he's white. He hasn't pitched much this year, only 34 PA's against, but he's done well so far. He'll face Carlos Gonzalez to start. Gonzalez is listed as having gotten an intentional walk back in the 7th, but it came on a 3-1 pitch with the bases loaded. Now, it's possible that Girardi walked him to avoid giving him a meatball, but that's kind of absurd, isn't it? He's not Barry Bonds. I think Gamecast just hasn't figured out that it was simply a bad pitch, waaay outside by Veras.

Anyway, Gonzalez flies out to Gardner in left. Gamecast alerts me that there's video of Gonzalez making a sliding catch last inning, so perhaps he's the reason we're still playing this game.

Bobby Crosby, 0-5, but, surprisingly enough, no strikeouts, is up now. Robertson's given him four straight curves, but on a 2-2 fastball, Crosby knocks a hit, a line single to right. Nice job, Bobby. Way to wait for your pitch.

Ellis whiffs on a first-pitch fastball up high, so he's down in the count early. He's still 0-4 after taking that HBP in the 10th. He swings at another high fastball on 1-1, hitting it foul. He gets the count full, though, by taking two more high pitches from Robertson. Not one of these five pitches has gone below the waist of the graphical batter here in Gamecast. And Robertson ends up paying for it as he throws another high way that Ellis takes for ball four. First and second, one out for Donnie Murphy. Murphy walked his last time, and Thunder Matt Murton has sucked so far, but he had two hits today, and I'd rather see him in this spot than Murphy. But that's what happens when your closer blows games -- unfortunate late-game lineups. Murphy, by the way, strikes out on three pitches. Nice one, Murph. The last was a fastball that might be a little low and a little away, but it was 0-2, so you can't take that pitch.

Ok, I don't get this one at all. Emil Brown is in to hit for Wes Bankston. Bankston, who's probably the third-best hitter in this lineup, is being hit for by a guy hitting an empty .255. (Video alert tells me that Gardner made a nice catch on Gonzalez's inning-leading-off flyball. So I guess the favor has been returned.) And predictably, two pitches later, Emil Brown grounds out. So now what do you do defensively? I guess Emil plays first? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. He hasn't played a single inning there in the big leagues. But that's precisely what's happening. Emil Brown makes his first-base debut. Congratulations, Emil.

Jeter will lead off against DiNardo. He's reached via walk and single today. (I just realized that Gamecast actually adjusts the height of these batters to fit the player who's hitting. Mark Ellis's avatar was significantly smaller than Jeter's is. Nice!)

And yet again, a leadoff hit for the Yankees. Jesus. Another single up the middle for Jeter, and the winning run is on one more time. Abreu, who's walked three times so far, is up. A-Rod and Sexson will follow.

The count is 1-2 on Abreu. DiNardo seems to have one pitch, but Gamecast has him throwing this sequence to Abreu: change, fastball, slider, fastball. Odd. Abreu puts a fastball very low and very away in play. Unfortunately, it's apparently so softly hit that DiNardo has no play at second and can only get Abreu at first, so it's a de facto sacrifice bunt by the right fielder. Up comes A-Rod, who's got seven LOB already today, and three whiffs. Will they ... yes, they will intentionally walk him. How many guys go 0-5 with three strikeouts and get intentionally walked twice? That's amazing.

So, Sexson with two on and one out. GIDP, Lenny! First pitch ... ooh, low? I don't know. I guess. Ball one, though. Richie's knees are higher than most players', I guess. Next pitch a smidge higher, but also a ball. Third pitch is high enough, but just off the plate (I guess -- it might be catching a corner). God, what a time to get squeezed. Hey, strike one! But false hope abounds. Ball four, and the winning run is at third base for Jose Molina. If there's ever been a time for a 1-2-3 double play, it's now. If there's ever been a time when I've been more sure the A's were going to lose on a walk-off walk, though, I don't know when it was.

First pitch is way inside. Maybe almost lost the game on a walkoff HBP. Ball one. In the strike zone! Amazing. Fouled off, 1-1. Basically the same pitch, same result, 1-2. Holy god, what did I say. Walk-off HBP. Unbelievable. It's in the same place the first one way, but this one got him. In-freaking-credible. Lenny DiNardo, your A's twelfth inning man. Why? Why does this happen to me? Gallagher's final line looks bad (four walks and seven hits in five innings) but still only gave up two runs, the setup guys (Embree, Casilla, Zielger) threw scoreless innings, the A's eeked out some runs to take a lead, and Street blew it all to hell. Jerry Blevins was shaky, but got through his inning. DiNardo ... well, there's a reason he was in Sacramento five days ago.

Ah ha. Here's the story on the intentional walk, which I glean from video on MLB.com: Veras threw a wild pitch on 2-1 that allowed Bankston to score the tying run and allowed the other runners to move up. Thus, with a 3-1 count, a tie game, and runners on second and third, the Yankees elected to throw an intentional ball four to Gonzalez. Ok, so that clears that up.

As for the Gonzalez diving catch -- my god, that was a hell of a catch. Full extension, diving as the ball sliced away toward the right-field line. If he misses, the game is over. If he lets the ball drop in, Cano might score from second (although with just one out and Gonzalez perhaps catching the ball, Cano might not have gotten a great jump and thus might have held up at third). Regardless of its implications, though, just a great catch.

Gardner's catch on Gonzalez wasn't quite as nice. The Yankee announcers referred to it as "robbing Gonzalez of an extra-base hit", but what made it difficult wasn't so much the hit itself as Gardner's misread of the ball which forced him to have to reach back to his right to make the play. If he'd gotten a better jump and/or positioned himself properly, it would've been a catch not worthy of a highlight. I will note that it's easy to misjudge Gonzalez's balls, though, because the baseball really jumps off his bat. I haven't seen him hit as often as I wish I could, but the few times I have, he's really put a charge into the ball without seeming like he's swinging from his heels like Jack Cust or Jason Giambi. Just smooth, easy power.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 13:23 | |

Daric Barton's headed to the DL. Apparently he dove into a shallow pool over the break and hit his read bad enough that he got six staples and some neck pain. Frankly, this probably helps the offense with Wes Bankston coming up to replace him, but still, you don't want to see Barton losing development time, even just two weeks. Plus, Bob Geren's kinda pissed: "I'm upset about it a little bit. It seemed to be a careless mistake that hurt the team." See, I told you he reminded me of Coach Taylor. He probably chewed him out in his office.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 14:31 | |

Bruce Jenkins starts so promisingly with this piece, and then he just loses the thread and completely falls overboard. (Mixed metaphor, what?)

If you're an A's fan and took the time Sunday to watch the Futures game, a minor-league prelude to the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, you're probably not upset or disappointed over the Joe Blanton trade.

Ok, that's cool, that's your angle: the A's are building a really strong team for next year and the year after by making these recent trades as well as the Haren and Swisher trades this offseason. Jenkins mentions Cliff Pennington, who, despite no power whatsoever, has a .400 OBP at Sacramento; Henry Rodriguez, who impressed everyone with his 100 mph heat; Brett Anderson's two pickoffs in the game and his 12 K debut at AA; and Trevor Cahill, who's been whiffing people his entire career despite not having Rodriguez-type velocity. But then.

We could go on like this all day - about Carlos Gonzalez, about the other two pitchers in the Haren deal (Greg Smith and Dana Eveland), or about the immediate impact made by outfielder Matt Murton and pitcher Sean Gallagher (at some point, the Cubs are going to miss him) after arriving via the Rich Harden trade.

Matt Murton?! The immediate impact of Matt Murton? Dude's 1-13 with one walk in Oakland! His immediate impact has been to hit even worse than Emil Brown. That's a hell of an immediate impact.

Make no mistake, the deal makes sense for the Phillies. Blanton is only a shade beyond ordinary (and I have to mention this again, as the man makes his exit: Have you ever seen anyone who looks so much like a Joe Blanton?), but he fits one of the really pathetic terms of modern-day baseball: an "innings-eater." That means he's good for six or seven decent innings and then, what the hell, you're on your own. Not that this makes him much different from anyone else in this era of the 100-pitch limit, but despite his numbers (5-12, 4.96), he's considered a "serviceable" starter.

Of course Jenkins has to get in a dig at the idea of pitch counts. And, you know, saving pitchers' arms so they can live to throw another day. Because who the hell actually wants to watch Kerry Wood as a starter anyway? More importantly, Jenkins completely understates the value of a real innings eater like Blanton. "Not much different"? Over the last four years (counting this partial season we're in right now), Blanton has thrown 752 2/3 innings with an ERA+ just slightly over 100 (i.e. he's an exactly average pitcher for those innings). How many guys can say the same? Baseball-reference.com can tell us! There are sixteen pitchers who meet the Blanton minimum standards. There are, in fact, only seventeen pitchers total who have pitched Blanton's number of innings in that span. (The 17th guy is Livan Hernandez, whose ERA+ is just 92.) So at the very least this points out the relative rarity, contrary to what Jenkins thinks, of a guy like Blanton, even if he's not an ace. But what's a little more interesting is that Blanton's pretty unique -- as I said, there's only one pitcher on this list whose thrown as many innings as he has over the last four years but has a worse ERA+. There are only four other players with this many innings and an ERA+ under 110: the aforementioned Hernandez, Greg Maddux, Javier Vazquez, and Bronson Arroyo (who's at 109, so he could move off the list with a few good games). In any case.

Judging from the season's first half, Blanton could make a division-winning difference in Philadelphia. The Mets are going overboard on the wonders of new manager Jerry Manuel, but any change would have been welcome after weeks of chaos surrounding Willie Randolph and his fragile job security. The Mets will come back to earth because they're old, vulnerable and emotionally weak at some key positions, notably shortstop Jose Reyes and center fielder Carlos Beltran. The Phillies know that with their superior character, a third reliable starter (to join Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer) can put them over the top.

Emotionally weak? Really? Um, Bruce, you're based on the west coast. I don't think you go into the Met clubhouse all that often. Even if you did, what exactly is your evidence that these two are "emotionally weak"?

The beauty of this deal, for Oakland, is that unlike the Harden, Haren, Jason Giambi or Miguel Tejada decisions, this one won't cost them any fans. Wait - they don't have any fans to begin with. Maybe 10,000 die-hards, tops. It's a brutal world, but it's Billy Beane's world. No other executive in baseball could make it so livable.

Sigh. Can someone please, please, please not write an article about the A's that mentions how few fans there are? Please? I mean, clearly there are more than 10,000 A's fans in the world.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 11:28 | |

Dear Murray Chass,

You're an asshole and a moron.

Best wishes,

Jason

(From Murray's new not-a-blog website: "this site will most likely appeal primarily to older fans whose interest in good old baseball is largely ignored in this day of young bloggers who know it all, and new- fangled statistics (VORP, for one excuse-me example), which are drowning the game in numbers and making people forget that human beings, not numbers, play the games."

I'm not even going to rehash the arguments against this brand of nonsense. You can read them at Baseball Prospectus, at Fire Joe Morgan, in Joe Posnanski's columns or his blog, at Baseball Musings, and anyplace else you find smart, numerically literate analysis of baseball written by people with a true passion for the game. Because guess what, Murray, you fucking dinosaur, your kind is on the way out. Your approach is tired and your unwillingness to embrace new sources of understanding about the game (which I'm going to go ahead and attribute to a lack of intellectual capacity until you show me otherwise) aren't welcome. It's a new world, Murray. Evolution. Survival of the fittest, and your chances of getting eaten by a tiger are getting better every day.)

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 16:09 | |

Let's just call up Eric Patterson now and move Mark Ellis over to shortstop. Or put Patterson at third. Or at short. Or put Kurt Suzuki at third and let Patterson catch. I don't care, because he's on fire at AAA and the A's can't hit. Patterson had three more hits yesterday, including another double and another homer. In his four games in the A's system, he's got an OPS of 1.576. (This is after putting up a robust .875 for the Cubs' AAA squad.) I'm pretty sure the man can hit. He's stolen 12 bases at AAA this year, and has been caught exactly zero times. This brings his career minor league rate to 79%, which isn't Carlos Beltran, but it is the kind of rate that can help the A's if he can keep it up in the majors.

I'm getting a little too excited about this, I know, because it's been four games with Sacramento. That said, the general statement you can make about Patterson ("he can hit") remains true whether you're looking at these four games or his nearly 2000-PA minor league career: .303/.367/.475 is an excellent line if he can stick at second base (and based on the fact that he's played second base in all four of his games at Sacramento, it looks like the A's will give him every chance to prove that he can stick there).

We all love Mark Ellis, partly because he's one of those "best defensive players never to win a Gold Glove" guys, partly because he's gritty and awesome, partly because he's said he wants to stay with the A's, and partly because he's the career leader in homers hit by players born in South Dakota (although watch out for Jason Kubel -- he's coming hard). But you have to ask about the warts as well, and here's the major one: Mark Ellis cannot be counted on to consistently hit the baseball. He had an excellent 2005, with an .861 OPS, and a good 2007, with a .777 OPS. But in those two years, his batting averages were .316 and .276. In 2003 (he was hurt in 2004) and 2006, he batted .248 and .249. This year, he's at .238. His OPS is in the low .700's. Is that the kind of performance you want to pay free agent money for, from a guy who'll be 32 next year? Patterson's PECOTA weighted mean for this year is basically what Ellis hit last season (and that doesn't take into account how well he's hit and stolen bases this season) -- isn't it worth it to get Mark Ellis's peak offensive performance out of a much younger and cheaper Eric Patterson, rather than paying Ellis himself to hit below his peak? And to be a constant declining presence in the 8th spot of the order for the next three years?

Fortunately, I have faith that the A's understand this, and that they're perfectly willing to let a fan favorite walk (they traded Rich Harden!) to replace him with a guy who will bring about the same value (just in a different shape -- more offense, less defense) for much cheaper.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 12:28 | |

Eric Patterson continued to make his case as the better Patterson brother and a valuable member of the Harden trade as he went 3-4 with a double, a homer, and two walks in leading Sacramento to a 12-2 win over Anaheim's AAA outfit. Danny Putnam tried to stifle claims of his demise by hitting his 13th homer of the year. The 25-year-old outfielder is hitting a robust .357/.505 despite a batting average of just .264. That's nice power for the lefty swinger trying to redeem himself after pitiful showings at AAA and the majors last year.

Josh Donaldson, meanwhile, also went 3-4 with a double and a homer, but with no walks, as Stockton managed 12 runs in their own win. However, backing up the claims that Donaldson's trouble is behind the plate, not at it, he had his third passed ball of the year. I'm not sure, but I think that's only counting the three games he's caught in the Cal League. He's hitting .500/.538/.833 in his first twelve at-bats, which is a hell of a way to make an impression, but he's going to have to start actually catching the ball if he wants to have a future with the A's.

Meanwhile, at the big-league level, Rich Harden made his Cubs debut. It was the best of times and the worst of times, though, as he struck out ten in 5 1/3 innings, but he only lasted 5 1/3 innings, throwing 96 pitches in that time. He also had his lowest proportion of swing-and-misses since a May 28 game against the Blue Jays -- that's an odd stat given ten strikeouts out of 24 batters. Of course, the Cubs also blew a seven-run lead before coming back to win the game in extra innings, so Harden was robbed off the win he deserved. Chad Gaudin relieved Harden, inheriting two runners but stranding both in pitching two thirds of an inning before yielding to lesser pitchers like Kevin Hart. (Harden, by the way, was 0-3 with three whiffs in the game.)

Thunder Matt Murton was less than thunderous, going 0-4 in a 4-1 loss to the Angels.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 17:26 | |

Everybody already knows that Sean Gallagher pitched a marvelous game, striking out seven in his seven innings while giving up just two runs. Yes, this wa Anaheim, which has an underachieving offense, but it's still a great performance. Here's MLB.com video of Gallagher's day. (It's actually the entire package of highlights from the game, but it leads off with Gallagher's performance.) Note especially the tremendous bite on his breaking pitches, and the fact that his fastball was in the mid-90's. With Harden's velocity falling off in the last two starts, the A's were down to exactly zero starting pitchers who could bring the heat. But they're back to one now.

You should also check out Emil Brown doubling to left to score Jack Cust. (a) Juan Rivera really made an atrocious play out there, trying to slide in front of the ball. I'm not sure if he was attempting to catch it or just stop it from getting past him, but he accomplished neither. (b) Jack Cust really unhitched the trailer, scoring on a slide just ahead of the relay to the plate. Wow.

Anyway, as for the rest of the returns on the trade: Matt Murton only went 1-5, but the hit came on an 0-2 pitch from Jon Garland with the bases loaded and two outs in the third inning. It's hard to call any hit key in a seven-run win, but at the time, the score was 5-2 A's, and getting Murton out in that situation would have left the Angels in a much better situation. Instead, he drove the single to right field, it was a five-run game, and Jack Hannahan capped the scoring in the next frame.

Meanwhile, Eric Patterson flashed the power-speed combination that's the entire reason the A's picked him up in the trade, hitting his first Sacramento homer and his stealing his first Sacramento base, though the River Cats ended up losing on a three-run homer off the bat of Sean Rodriguez in the bottom of the tenth. Landon Powell and Brooks Conrad also homered for Sacramento -- for Conrad, it was his 19th of the season, though his overall hitting stats are unimpressive: .230/.315/.464. That's a great ISO, especially for a utility guy (he played left field last night), but you'd like a little more contact ability from a 28-year-old in AAA.

Finally, for Stockton, Josh Donaldson had a couple of RBI singles, although he also struck out swinging three times and made an early throwing error. The Ports pulled out the win despite all five pitchers giving up at least one run.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 12:13 | |

So Sean Gallagher's currently working with a 9-2 lead in the top of the fifth, which I think is more runs than Joe Blanton had gotten all year before his last start. That's quite a welcome.

More importantly, though, the A's did the right thing with Thunder Matt Murton: he's in the starting lineup today, batting second and playing left field. Wes Bankston, despite hitting quite well, was sent back to AAA. This is simple recognition of a basic fact by the A's front office: Thunder Matt might contribute to a winning A's team next year, while Bankston is unlikely to do so. Of course, with Daric Barton still not really hitting, even halfway into the season, it might have been acceptable to send him down instead of Bankston, but that's again an easy choice for a developing team: play the kids who might be around for five years, not the Quad-A guy who's just as likely to be a Twin next year as an A.

And you know, not to get too optimistic, but with the A's teeing off on Jon Garland and Gallagher racking up seven whiffs through five innings, and even Jack Hannahan getting into the act with a homer, maybe Thunder Matt and Barton will help the A's push this year. The trade might have been a white flag, but that doesn't mean the players will stop playing.

(By the way, how cool is MLB Gameday's rollout of the 3D pitch visualization? It's not perfect, but we're really getting there with this pitch tracking stuff.)

EDIT: I'm an idiot. Wes Bankston isn't an old guy, he's only 24. (Although Jane Lee at MLB.com thinks he's just 22.) I just assumed he was old because he'd been DFA'd and waived by the Rays and Royals. I can see why the A's claimed him: he's still young, and while he's been up and down, he's definitely hit: .289 .385 .513 at A-ball as a 20-year old (repeating the level); .292 .362 .482 in AA at 21. He struggled after being pushed to AAA at 22, and didn't have a good consolidation year at 23. The worry for the A's is that he's abandoned his plate discipline as he's moved up (or else he's one of those hitters that takes bad stuff from bad pitchers at lower levels but gets exploited by better pitchers who are willing to challenge him as he moves up): his walk rates have been 6.8% at 18 in rookie ball; 12.4% at 19 in A-ball (he more or less skipped Low-A); 13.4% repeating A-ball at 20; 19.2% at 21 in High-A; 8.9% the same year in AA; 6.6% at 22 in AA; 4.8% at AAA the same year; 5.9% at 23 at AAA; and 4.5% at AAA this year. Oddly, his ISO's don't seem to track his walk rate, as they've come down from when he was at lower levels, but he's still ISO'ing .216 this year and was at .180 last year despite those bad walk rates. Also, just eyeballing it, his strikeout rates don't seem to have differed at the extreme level that his walk rates have. In short, what's going on with Wes Bankston? Who knows!

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 23:48 | |

Wow, Jack Hannahan just leveled Jeff Clement, the Mariners' catcher. The video should be on MLB.com somewhere.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 23:24 | |

Second post on the Rich Harden trade, with some outside commentary.

First, I feel worse about the whole thing, but I don't think it's as dire as everyone else seems to. There's a lot of "my goodness, is this the best we could do for a pitcher of Harden's caliber"? And I think Joe Sheehan gets it mostly right: nobody has any idea what Rich Harden is. He could finish the year with a 2.50 ERA, he could finish the year with exactly the numbers he has now because he gets hurt in his next bullpen session (remember: one quality start in his last four, and a notable decrease in velocity ...). This isn't the 2004 Rich Harden the A's traded, but the 2008 version, the one who hasn't just been hurt, but has been chronically hurt, and not the way Bobby Crosby has, but in his pitching arm. The A's weren't going to pry Matt LaPorta from the Brewers or Joey Votto or Jay Bruce from the Reds or Josh Vitters from the Cubs. Harden simply isn't worth that much. Maybe you'd like to see the A's have picked up Felix Pie in the deal or Rich Hill, but you know, would Rich Hill instead of Eric Patterson really have made us feel better? Pie instead of Gallagher? Outside of Geovanny Soto or maybe Vitters, the Cubs don't have any young players anybody would feel excited about.

Christina Kahrl is much more down on the deal, and she's where my invocation of Pie and Hill come from. "Where's ... somebody with real upside?" she asks. Maybe they just couldn't get Pie from the Cubs, or maybe the A's don't actually like Pie and would rather have the average guy they know will be average (Murton) than the guy who might be awesome but might hit .230/.260/.400. In the end, Kahrl labels this a salary dump (though a misguided one), but I think I agree with Sheehan's idea: this is a high-risk asset dump, getting something for him while you still can.

Ken Arneson says what I think a lot of A's fans feel, which is that the A's gave up one of the most exciting pitchers in the game and got back nobody who arouses any kind of excitement at all. He's exactly right, and he's also smart enough to realize that this doesn't necessarily make it a bad trade, but it does make it one that hurts.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 20:26 | |

The A's did exactly what I hoped they wouldn't and called up Dallas Braden. My first thought was that he was just up to patch the bullpen hole left by Chad Gaudin, but that doesn't fly because even without Gaudin, Oakland has six bullpenners active. So maybe he's up to take a spot start in Rich Harden's spot? But that spot doesn't come up until Friday, which should be plenty of time for Sean Gallagher to arrive. In fact, ESPN has him listed as Friday's probable starter. So I guess Oakland's going with 12 pitchers again, even though Duke is a machine, even though Thunder Matt Murton is coming to push Emil Brown to the reserve spot he deserves. Maybe the A's will go with Murton anyway and cut bait on Brown now. If either of these guys is going to help the A's next year as a reserve or platoon bat, it's Murton, not Brown. So let's see what he can do starting every day for the rest of the year.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 12:11 | |

Jake informs me that I was mis-stating Matt Murton's name. It's actually Thunder Matt Murton. I will absolutely be taking up this name, and I hope Thunder Matt can become the power source in the outfield he was supposed to be for the Cubs.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 21:22 | |

So with the A's six games back, Billy Beane throws in the towel, trading Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Cubs. Baseball Musings had the first story that I saw. Dave Pinto's initial reaction is that Beane didn't get enough back.

So who did the A's get back?

Sean Gallagher's a 22-year old righty starting pitcher. He threw eight games out of the Cub bullpen last year and has made ten starts this year, with an ERA of 4.45, but a DERA (defense-adjusted ERA) of 4.86. His homer rate is low in the minors (0.49) but high this year (0.92). His strikeout and walk rates are 7.52 and 3.38, so he's missing bats, but you'd like to see him cut a walk or so off those numbers. His BABIP of .310 looks about right given his line drive percentage (17.9%). So what's Gallagher? How about a younger, cheaper, better Chad Gaudin who's under the A's control for the next four (?) years, and still has one (?) year before he hits arbitration.

Next is Eric Patterson. He's a lefty hitting second baseman with a grand total of 20 big-league games under his belt. He is, of course, the brother of the much-maligned Corey Patterson. His PECOTA had him hitting .270/.340/.441, which around here is what we like to call "Mark Ellis". His walk rates in the minors have been just shy of 10%, but down to just 5.6% this year, while his ISOs have trended up: .145 at AA in 2006, .159 at AAA last year, and .197 this year (though his .388 BABIP is likely fueling some of this). Patterson's already 25 this year, so he's not likely to make any more huge leaps forward, but he does seem like a nice player to have around at second base when the A's don't resign Mark Ellis. (As much as we'd like Ellis to stay, doesn't it seem rather un-A's-like to give a guy who'll be 32 next year a free-agency-fueled extension?)

Third is Matt Murton. Murton's been talked about for a while as an easy "plug him in and let him hit" solution in left field for the Cubs, but they've never really given him a shot. He's already 26, and while he's hitting .298 with an OBP of .391 in Iowa, his slugging his dropped to just .382. This is a guy whose ISOs in the minors were normally in the .150 range, so unless something's gone horribly wrong, we might expect him to hit better than he's showing right now. In fact, given his years of being jerked around, this might the kind of scenery-change trade that gets him back on track. PECOTA had him hitting 288/354/453 this year, producing an EqA that would rank him sixth on this year's A's, just behind Ryan Sweeney.

Finally is the first guy I haven't heard of, Josh Donaldson. Donaldson's 22 this year, a former sandwich pick out of Auburn who plays catcher. Despite his age and college pedigree, he's playing at A-ball after spending last year at the Rookie and Low-A classifications. He hit 346/470/605 last year at Low-A, but he's not exactly tearing up Peoria, hitting just 217/270/349. His BABIP is way down, but so are his walk rate and strikeout rate, so who knows what's going on.

John Sickels had Donaldson as the Cubs' sixth-best prospect coming into the year, and the best catcher not named Geovanny Soto. He gave him a B, which is a nice grade for a guy with just one pro season under his belt. Baseball America ranked Donaldson seventh. Gallagher was fifth on BA's list, with Patterson not making the top-ten. Sickels has Gallagher third and Patterson fourth, both grade-B, with a note that Patterson would be a B+ except for his defense.

So for Harden and Gaudin (a guy whose ERA is deceptively low, given his high walk rate and low strikeout rate; Cubs fans may end up unpleasantly surprised with him), the A's get three of the Cubs eight or so best prospects, just one of whom is a ways away from the majors, as well as a guy who could slot into left field and be a decent power bat right away. A's fans might tear out their hair that Josh Vitters wasn't in the deal, but even for a pitcher of Rich Harden's caliber, asking for Vitters was probably too much. Harden is simply too much of a question mark (still) to get a top-notch prospect in return, especially since he's being traded to the NL, where he'll have to swing the bat and run the bases. Who knows what could happen to him on a slide into second base.

What does this mean for Oakland's roster? I assume Gallagher slots directly into the rotation, since Oakland is now a starter short (where yesterday they were a starter long with Gaudin sitting around not doing much of anything). I hope that Murton now slots in as the everyday left fielder, with Ryan Sweeney in right and Carlos Gonzalez in center. Jack Cust can DH, Em(a)il Brown is the fourth outfielder, and Rajai Davis continues his role as defensive replacement and pinch runner. Oakland had been carrying twelve pitchers, so hopefully they use this opportunity to get back down to eleven, putting Murton on the roster without having to send anyone down. (A bullpen of Street, Embree, Andrew Brown, Ziggy, Jerry Blevins, and Sandy Casilla is a damned good one, and I see no need to go dipping into Sacramento to pull up Dallas Braden.) Eric Patterson is more of a mystery. Do the A's keep him in Oakland as a utility infielder and send Gregorio Petit back down? Even though Patterson can apparently barely even handle second base? Is the acquisition of Patterson a prelude to a trade of Mark Ellis? My guess is that for now, Patterson will be the backup infielder and Petit will go back down to Sacramento. Donaldson will presumably join Kane County, where Jake Smith, a 25-year-old, is currently the starting catcher.

The next question is what happens when Frank Thomas comes back. Three-way platoon for two spots between Cust, Sweeney, and Murton? And what about when Travis Buck gets himself right? And what about Patterson, who may already be transition to the outfield since his infield defense is rocky? The "too many players" problem has never been nearly as big a worry as the "not enough players" problem, though, so I think Billy Beane is probably not fretting overmuch about this.

It is a sad day as an A's fan to see Rich Harden go. I'll root for him in Chicago because he was always a guy you wanted to see succeed. It's a cliche at this point to say that Harden is a guy who looks like he can throw a no-hitter every time out, but it's true. What's even crazier is that people still say that the fact that he's now a two-pitch starter: fastball and changeup. But what a changeup!

Milwaukee's acquisition of CC Sabathia appears to have set off a chain reaction in the NL Central, so the next question is whether the Rich Harden trade sets of a similar chain reaction in the Oakland front office. Mark Ellis? Huston Street? Joe Blanton? Alan Embree? If any of these trades happen, can we please get a third baseman who will outhit Jack Hannahan? Or maybe Eric Patterson is already in the A's designs to be that guy? (Patterson has played nothing but second and outfield in his professional career, so third base may be asking a bit much. But he'd have to hit better than Hannahan, right?)

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 20:07 | |