Month: August 2008
Perspectives
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-11 10:17

I’m glad Huston Street has some perspective on his recent slump:

"I know I’ve been in the league 23 months, and the first 22 were pretty solid. The last month was the first time I’ve experienced prolonged poor results and it will turn around. … I’m probably not going to see late innings when we’ve got a guy who’s thrown 37 scoreless innings, I understand that. At the same time, I expect that within a month from now, Sept. 10, I will have righted my ship."

There are a lot of clueless athletes with a sense of entitlement who would be outraged by a demotion.  At least Street knows he’s been awful this month, and recognizes Brad Ziegler’s accomplishments.

* * *

Meanwhile, the A’s front office apparently expected the A’s to be terrible like this all year long, and were a bit surprised they didn’t.   A’s assistant GM David Forst:

"It’s great we got off to a good start and played that well, but, unfortunately, it created some unrealistic expectations outside the organization."

 

Oops, sorry fans, see those standings, where we’re 9 games over .500?  Ignore that.  We actually suck.  Watch, we’ll prove it to you!

* * *

Reminder: we’ve started running short snippets on the Catfish Stew homepage that don’t show up in the "Hot for the Toaster" list.  So check back often, y’hear?

 

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-11 10:16

Breaking news from the San Francisco Chronicle:  Going 3-21 is "no fun".

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-10 22:26

Don’t ignore the Never-Heard-Of Guy: I didn’t like the Rich Harden trade at first glance, because in return for Harden and Chad Gaudin, the A’s got three players I’m not too excited about, and another guy I had never heard of.

That "guy" is single A catcher Josh Donaldson. Donaldson had a triple and a home run for Stockton on Sunday, and is now hitting .394/.466/.712 in 114 plate appearances since the trade.

Matt Spencer, the Never-Heard-Of Guy in the Joe Blanton trade, is hitting .353/.411/.576, even after an 0-for-4 yesterday.

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-09 18:00

This experiment of short blog entries reminds me (via Rodcorp) of the Brian Eno interview discussing the little tune he wrote ("The Microsoft Sound") that played when Windows 95 booted up :

The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,” this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.”

Perhaps, like Eno, after switching from long to short forms, I will find "at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work".

Is the correct term for a blogging logjam a "blogjam"?

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-09 12:09

The Heavyweight Championship standings have been updated on the sidebar.  The Milwaukee Brewers are the current champions.  The Mets have a large lead in the standings, thanks to a six-week streak from mid-June to the end of July when they won the final game of every series they played.  The streak included a 3-1 victory on June 29 over the Yankees that eliminated the American League from any further championship bouts for the rest of the regular season.

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-09 11:45

Some things never change, ex-Athletic department:  Joe Blanton pitched a seven-inning one-hitter last night, but his team still lost.

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-08 19:59

The A’s break their 10-game losing streak.  Dallas Braden pitches seven effective innings.  Brad Ziegler throws two more scoreless innings, giving him 37 consecutive shutout innings to start his career, and picks up his first career save.  

Braden’s ERA is 4.62.  Since he’s essentially replacing Joe Blanton (4.96 ERA) in the rotation, that’s pretty good.  Blanton is easily replaced, and the A’s both save money, and get three prospects.  That deal has worked out well so far.

Ziegler’s ERA is 0.00, obviously.  If Ziegler went out in his next appearance and gave up 19 runs without recording an out, his ERA would be…(drumroll please)…4.62.

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-08 15:17

A’s prospects Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson are both possibilities to start the Olympic opener against South Korea.  But apparently, the starting pitcher is kept a secret in international competition, so US manager Davey Johnson is keeping mum.  We won’t know for sure until game time.

The opener for the US is scheduled 6pm Beijing time on Wednesday.  That’s 3am ET, midnight PT.  The game is scheduled to be shown on MSNBC on tape delay between 10am and 2pm PT.

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-08 15:12

The A’s have lost 10 in a row, and are now eight games under .500, but they have still outscored their opponents, 4.04 runs/game to 3.93 runs/game.

Take A Guess
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-08 14:51

Which player has the highest 2008 Win Probability Added among A’s batters?

First, a little hint: the player that leads the team in Win Shares (14) is dead last on the team in WPA (-10.45).

Made your guess?   OK, now you can peek.

Bet you were wrong.

* * *

Also, be sure to check out our little experiment on the Catfish Stew home page.  Explanation here.

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-08 13:16

Lenny DiNardo likes sad songs.  Is a losing streak like a sad song?  Is Lenny DiNardo enjoying himself?

QuickLink
by Ken Arneson
2008-08-08 13:12

Sure, Rob, it’s easy to boycott watching the Olympics for two weeks in protest over the Chinese government.   But can you go two weeks without using any product made in China?  That would be a much more impressive feat.

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This is Ken Arneson's blog about baseball, brains, art, science, technology, philosophy, poetry, politics and whatever else Ken Arneson feels like writing about
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