The Oakland A's, MLB's newest AAAA team - Page 4

**vols kick balls** · 03-26-2008, 08:20 AM

I kind of like waking up to a baseball game. It's kind of cool. 4-1 A's going into the bottom of the 7th.

KCVolLaw · 03-26-2008, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justingroves

KC, you're right. Emil is pretty dumb

I haven't seen it, he get caught in a rundown? One day drives in the winning run, the next day gets caught in a rundown to end a game. I rest my case.

**vols kick balls** · 03-26-2008, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCVolLaw

I haven't seen it, he get caught in a rundown? One day drives in the winning run, the next day gets caught in a rundown to end a game. I rest my case.

It wasn't to end the game but he was the tying runner in scoring position and he tried to make it to third when he had no chance killing the rally in the process.

KCVolLaw · 03-26-2008, 02:39 PM

well that sounds like him alright

volfanbill · 03-26-2008, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCVolLaw

well that sounds like him alright

He had a big day today though. A's now 1-1 on the young season. Might be the only time we're .500 all season. and Keith Foulke looks really good. What the Foulke?

Vercingetorix · 04-08-2008, 01:20 AM

Okay Bill, I've ponied up for the MLB Extra Innings package, so I anticipate sitting here after midnight this year watching a lot of west coast games finish up. Should the A's be my go-to team, when they're on? What kind of a team do they have this year?

I'm not looking for a second team or anything, because I don't believe in sports bigamy; I just want to know who's playing the most interesting baseball out on the west coast. I'm an NL guy but am fairly bored by the Padres, Giants and Dodgers. Do the A's have anything to offer the casual viewer?

volfanbill · 04-08-2008, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

Okay Bill, I've ponied up for the MLB Extra Innings package, so I anticipate sitting here after midnight this year watching a lot of west coast games finish up. Should the A's be my go-to team, when they're on? What kind of a team do they have this year?

I'm not looking for a second team or anything, because I don't believe in sports bigamy; I just want to know who's playing the most interesting baseball out on the west coast. I'm an NL guy but am fairly bored by the Padres, Giants and Dodgers. Do the A's have anything to offer the casual viewer?

The A's will be a fun team to watch. I'm expecting a just below .500 finish, but they're a young team who might beat the Angels 13-2 one night only to lose 9-1 the next. The Angels are the class of the AL West, and while all the analysts seem to love Seattle, I really don't see them making a serious run at the Halos unless LAAAAAAAAAA gets wrecked with injuries. The Rangers are the Rangers and they'll be horrible in July, August and September.

Keep an eye on Jack Cust and see if he can continue at last year's pace or even improve. Daric Barton is a work in progress at first base and while he'll get plenty of chances to prove himself, Mike Sweeney might see some good PT there.

A .500 season rests on the shoulders of Jack Hannahan (Eric Chavez' successor), Travis Buck, and Emil Brown. From what KCvollaw told me, Brown is essentially a younger version of Eric Byrnes. Dives for everything and goes into some serious batting slumps. I'm fine with the A's bullpen, Embree, Dinardo, Foulke (back from retirement), Casilla and Huston Street to be the closer. The big question mark is starting pitching believe it or not. Joe Blanton is probably the most experienced due to all of Harden's injuries. Harden is also nothing more than trade bait. If he has a good season, expect to see him in pinstripes by the All Star Break.

volfanbill · 04-08-2008, 09:21 PM

however vercin, I gotta think the DBacks will be the most fun team to watch this year out West. They've got two potential Cy Young winners for this year, Randy Johnson isn't far from rejoining them and they've got Justin Upton in RF.

Vercingetorix · 04-09-2008, 01:11 AM

Funny you should say that; I'm sitting here watching Arizona pound on the Dodgers right now. They wouldn't be a bad team to watch, sure, but one problem is that I don't like them much -- I don't know that I want to spend the last 45 minutes before I go to bed rooting against someone every night. Probably more soothing to watch teams that I don't care about one way or the other.

I figure should watch an AL team, since I usually only see AL teams on Sunday nights. The A's are more immediately interesting to a Bill James devotee such as myself because of Billy Beane, but the pipeline seems to have dried up a little for Beane of late. As an outsider, it seems to me that other teams are catching up to the A's in terms of scouting and player evaluation, meaning that Beane's got a lot more competition coming up with these players than he used to. Plus the A's were killed by injuries last year, of course. It looks like they have a few young, interesting players -- at least judging from the stat sheet -- and that's enough.

I don't know; maybe I should just watch whichever games are closest on a given night. I just somehow think I'll learn more by watching one team semi-regularly than watching a couple of random innings here and there of everybody.

It may come down to whose announcers suck the least, actually. This one Arizona guy is particularly annoying.

volfanbill · 04-09-2008, 09:27 AM

If Billy is successful with the moves he made this offseason, he should go down as one of the most successful GMs of all time. I'm very thankful that he didn't take the Boston job a few years ago and I have full faith he knows what he's doing. I wasn't as surprised with losing Haren as I was Swisher, but from all reports these moves will have Oakland contending again by as early as next year. If he can get something valuable out of Harden, I'm definitely all for it. It's tough being an Oakland fan with how Beane operates because you can't really get attached to any players, but it's obvious his system is the best the A's can ask for given their financial situation. He has definitely taken James' sabermetrics approach to a whole new level and teams like the Brewers, Twins, Rangers etc are just trying to keep up.

As for the A's announcers, with the loss of Bill King a little over 2 years ago, no one has stepped up to be that guy. All the different ones I've heard (there's 3-4 different ones) all seem to be boring and dry. That could be good, that could be bad.

volfanbill · 04-10-2008, 11:15 PM

and Rich Harden is already hurt. How.......

completely expected. He was just going to be trade bait, but he's hurting his chances for something good. I was really hoping he could stay healthy just long enough for the yanks to take the bait and give us something good in return. Eh well.

**hatvol96** · 04-11-2008, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

Funny you should say that; I'm sitting here watching Arizona pound on the Dodgers right now. They wouldn't be a bad team to watch, sure, but one problem is that I don't like them much -- I don't know that I want to spend the last 45 minutes before I go to bed rooting against someone every night. Probably more soothing to watch teams that I don't care about one way or the other.

I figure should watch an AL team, since I usually only see AL teams on Sunday nights. The A's are more immediately interesting to a Bill James devotee such as myself because of Billy Beane, but the pipeline seems to have dried up a little for Beane of late. As an outsider, it seems to me that other teams are catching up to the A's in terms of scouting and player evaluation, meaning that Beane's got a lot more competition coming up with these players than he used to. Plus the A's were killed by injuries last year, of course. It looks like they have a few young, interesting players -- at least judging from the stat sheet -- and that's enough.

I don't know; maybe I should just watch whichever games are closest on a given night. I just somehow think I'll learn more by watching one team semi-regularly than watching a couple of random innings here and there of everybody.

It may come down to whose announcers suck the least, actually. This one Arizona guy is particularly annoying.

Billy Beane's "genius" was a mirage built primarily on the Big Three. Now that they, as well as the best talent they got in return for them, are gone, his inadequacies will be exposed.

volfanbill · 04-11-2008, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hatvol96

Billy Beane's "genius" was a mirage built primarily on the Big Three. Now that they, as well as the best talent they got in return for them, are gone, his inadequacies will be exposed.

Funny that the big three have been SOOOOO successful since their departure from Oakland. Also funny that he did it once before trading the big three. His only inadequacy is that this philosophy can only yield short term results.

volfanbill · 04-11-2008, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hatvol96

Billy Beane's "genius" was a mirage built primarily on the Big Three. Now that they, as well as the best talent they got in return for them, are gone, his inadequacies will be exposed.

also funny that most scouts are saying Beane has gotten much better prospects than he did off the sale of the big three. They are still reaping the benfits of the Tim Hudson trade. Charles Thomas, Dan Meyer and Juan Cruz proved invaluable to the organization.

**hatvol96** · 04-11-2008, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by volfanbill

also funny that most scouts are saying Beane has gotten much better prospects than he did off the sale of the big three. They are still reaping the benfits of the Tim Hudson trade. Charles Thomas, Dan Meyer and Juan Cruz proved invaluable to the organization.

You have got to be kidding. Yeah, those three are well on their way to Cooperstown.