There nothing worse than rooting for a losing team with a bunch of players you know won’t be around next year. When my brain starts looking around for scapegoats, I immediately head for the nearest future-ex-Athletic: Hatteberg, Durazo, Byrnes, Ginter, Dotel. If you’re going to lose, lose with youngsters who have a chance to improve.
The last two nights, the lineup has featured Dan Johnson, Bobby Crosby and Nick Swisher, each of whom had at least one extra-base hit. They’re young, and they’ve got power. That’s the way I like it. Suddenly, being an A’s fan feels a whole lot better: it’s a team with a future, not just a past.
I loved the fact that Bobby Kielty hit right-handed against Hideo Nomo last night. He did this once before this season, against Tim Wakefield. Right-handed batters are hitting .327 against Nomo this year, lefties only .244. That’s what switch-hitting is for: to use platoon splits to your advantage. Kielty singled and walked off Nomo.
Dan Haren threw a complete game last night, allowing one run in nine innings. That was an encouraging performance, although I’m not quite ready to jump on the I-Love-Haren bandwagon just yet.
Haren is obviously extremely talented, with great stuff, but at this point, he’s a frontrunner. When things are going well, they go very well, as it did last night. But Haren hasn’t quite mastered the art of getting out of a jam. He has a tendency to let a small problem explode into a huge rally. His ERA (4.34) hides this problem a bit; he’s allowed nine unearned runs so far, for an average of 5.56 RA/9, which is more reflective of his problem working out of jams. Also, he’s given up more multi-run innings this year than single-run innings:
| Runs Allowed | Innings | Total Runs |
| 0 | 49 | 0 |
| 1 | 8 | 8 |
| 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 4 | 12 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 2 | 10 |
| 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 1 | 7 |
| Total | 66 | 41 |
The ability to minimize the damage in a rally is, I believe, a learnable skill. It’s what made Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder such great pitchers. Turn a couple of five-run rallies into two-run rallies, a three-run rally into a one-run rally, and suddenly you’re an All-Star with a 3.50 ERA instead of an Average Joe with a 4.34.
I think Dan Haren has the talent to be such an All-Star pitcher. But nine smooth innings against Tampa Bay doesn’t really show me anything. He never had more than one baserunner on base at a time all night. When we start to see him get out of jams with some consistency, then we’ll know that Haren has truly arrived.
1. I agree with you BIG TIME when it comes to playing the youth on a losing team. Before, I was kind of annoyed waiting till 10 o'clock to more-than-likely watch the A's compete with guys who are only temporary. Now it's kind of exciting to stay up to see guys like Swisher, Crosby, Johnson and even Haren play. The young guys are where it's at.
Well, except Thomas anyway.
2. Harden once had a problem with that "one big" multi run inning. Haren will turn it around, I jumped on the Haren bandwagon the day he was traded to Oakland.