We had our first warm weather of the year this week in the Bay Area, but I missed it. I was spending my days in front of the computer, getting this site off the ground.

My lawn, however, did take in the sunny weather. I looked out my window yesterday and my lawn was suddenly two inches higher than I remembered it. Man, I gotta get out of the house.

So what a better thing to do than spend Saturday afternoon outside, doing yardwork while listening to the A’s-White Sox game?

Some clippings from the mower:

• Rich Harden started the game, and was awesome. Struck out the side in the first. Gave up a solo homer to Carl Everett in the fourth, but that the only trouble he had.

  I think Harden’s ready to have a big year. He seems to be improving as a pitcher every time I see him. For some reason, PECOTA does not agree with me. PECOTA predicts a 4.46 ERA for Harden this year, a regression to the same ERA he had as a rookie. The other projection systems: Marcel predicts 4.02, while ZiPS is the only one that actually predicts Harden to improve over last year’s 3.99 ERA, at 3.89. I’ll take the under on all of them.

• Eric Chavez launched his first homer of the spring, a three-run shot off Jose Contreras. He’s also leading the cactus league in walks, after leading the AL in walks last year despite missing six weeks with a broke hand.
• Octavio Dotel had a bad outing. Ray Fosse said his slider looked flat.
• Daric Barton, in first spring training AB after having his appendix removed, worked a walk. Did you expect anything else? He ended up scoring the winning run.
• Kurt Suzuki has impressed behind the plate. He’s thrown out four runners trying to steal this spring.
• Keiichi Yabu, 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, then allowed just a single in the ninth to close out a 7-6 A’s win.

I recently wrote this about a potential new stadium for the A’s:

I don’t want some moneygrubbing shopping mall of a stadium. I want a green cathedral, crafted by a passion for excellence, and sculpted for the souls of the faithful.

And now this news: the A’s flagship radio station, KFRC 610, is being sold, and will convert from an oldies format to religious programming.

Um, guys? I’m glad you responded so promptly to my request. But when I said I wanted a ballpark that was a cathedral, please understand. That was a metaphor.

Welcome to Catfish Stew, where we finally put a stop to all of the porosity casting that plagues society.

If you’re an Oakland A’s fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

If not, here’s an explanation:

For years, there was a huge sign by the freeway just south of the Coliseum that said “Stop Casting Porosity”. What did it mean? Was it a protest sign? An ad? Nobody seems to know.

To me, that mysterious sign functioned as a symbol for all the things I still don’t know. Sadly, the sign disappeared a few years ago. If I had my choice, I would have declared it a historical landmark.

Anyway, so now that the worst of my big programming project is done, I can finally get back to writing about baseball and my favorite team again. Feels good.

So how about them A’s?

Glenn Dickey had a status report on the stadium plans in the Chronicle this morning.

It seems a special task force has been formed to move the project forward. I like what I’ve heard. First of all, this group doesn’t seem to harbor any fantasies about public financing. They’re talking retail and housing development around the BART station to help fund the plan, using private money and urban development funds, not new taxes.

The part I like best is that they seem to have some sense of aesthetics:

• They shot down the parking garage idea previously discussed. I don’t know how a parking garage would have worked, and apparently they don’t either. Have you ever seen a parking garage that wasn’t an eyesore?
• They talk about building on the south side, but not in the existing lot.I guess that would mean building on the site of the abandoned Home Base store, right along Hegenberger. Building along a street instead of in the middle of a sea of parked cars would probably look nicer, too.
• One of the task force members, Glenn Isaacson, is working on the Oakland Catholic Cathedral project.

The original design for the Church of Christ the Light in Oakland was done by Santiago Calatrava, one of the world’s leading architects. Calatrava designed the acclaimed wing to the Milwaukee Art Museum, as well as the Turning Torso, an unusual twisting skyscraper, the tallest building in Sweden, being built a mile from where my brother lives.

Calatrava has apparently left the Cathedral project, but his original design is moving forward. Check out the pictures in this article. The building, which will overlook Lake Merritt, looks fabulous. Oakland may soon get the signature building it so sorely lacks.

The idea that someone involved in the Cathedral project is also involved in the A’s stadium project gives me hope. It shows a commitment to Oakland, to great architecture, and to the idea that human spirituality is worth something.

I don’t want some moneygrubbing shopping mall of a stadium. I want a green cathedral, crafted by a passion for excellence, and sculpted for the souls of the faithful.

Jay Jaffe reviews The Rebels of Oakland, an HBO documentary. I haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must-see for me. I grew up on those Oakland teams of the 70’s. Unfortunately, I don’t get HBO, so I guess I’ll have to ask a friend to tape it for me next time it’s on.

Jay then proceeds to compare and contrast Charlie Finley with George Steinbrenner:

The difference, in a nutshell, is that Finley was a man who knew baseball talent himself; he served as his own GM and oversaw the development of that homegrown talent. But he was a miser who refused to reward his players for their successes on the field, and his breach of Catfish Hunter’s contract ushered in a new era of upwardly spiraling salaries. At the other end was Steinbrenner, unflinchingly willing to pay top dollar for talent, but lacking — to this day, some would say — any real understanding of how to evaluate it.

30 years later, the Yankees still have Steinbrenner, and the A’s still pinch pennies while expertly evaluating baseball talent with the smallest of staffs. The more things change…

I often wonder how Finley managed to find all that talent. Was he just lucky? He certainly didn’t have much of a staff supporting him. On the other hand, he did make his fortune selling insurance. The insurance business is all about risk management, understanding how to beat the odds in the long run. Could Finley have been a closet sabermetrician?

I’d like to uphold Jon Weisman’s pledge to avoid making rash judgements about spring training stats. But when your team starts out 0-4 after a massive winter overhaul, it’s hard to keep the negative thoughts from creeping in.

It’s been a while since the A’s were a really bad team, so I started imagining what it would be like if they start out 0-4 during the regular season, and display the kind of pitching they showed yesterday in their 17-4 loss to the Angels. What if none of the rookies are ready? Could be a long year…

Well, thank goodness for Rich Harden. He went three shutout innings today, and a host of relievers followed him with shutout innings of their own, as the A’s won, 5-0.

Ahhhh, now that’s more like it.

It’s a win, and now all those doubts can go back into their winter burrows until the regular season calls them back out. Meanwhile, I have a month’s worth of spring training optimism to enjoy.

Chad Bradford’s bad back will require surgery. The A’s said they don’t expect him back until July.

This may be good news for Rule 5 pick Tyler Johnson. He’s less likely now to get squeezed out in a numbers game and being returned to St. Louis.

With a good spring, Johnson just might stick around now.

You know, I hear other people complaining about their team’s newspaper coverage, but I feel pretty fortunate in that respect.

I get the San Francisco Chronicle on my doorstep every morning, and A’s beat writer Susan Slusser is a damn good reporter. This story about Eric Byrnes in the Dominican Republic is another example of her fine work.

She deserves some props.

By the way, this picture of Byrnes from Slusser’s article is the perfect example of why Billy Beane may swap him for Mike Cameron. How often do you make a catch like that in the outfield if you haven’t misjudged the ball to begin with?

More fun with rumors:

Jayson Stark of ESPN reports that the A’s could be interested in signing Carlos Delgado, if they could clear some salary and/or roster space.

Yeah, right. And I’m the tooth fairy.

Continue…

It appears that Matt Keough, the A’s scout responsible for Asia the last few years, has finally reeled in an Asian player. USS Mariner is reporting that the A’s are closing in on signing Keiichi Yabu, a 36-year-old starting pitcher from the Hanshin Tigers of Japan.

Apparently, it’s a one-year deal with a team option for 2006. He’ll get $750,000, with incentives that could raise it to $1.25 million.

Yabu has a career ERA of 3.57, striking out 5.6 batters/9ip, while walking 2.5. In other words, he’s more the crafty right-hander type than an overpowering pitcher.

It looks like a good move. If he pans out, he could let the A’s keep Dan Meyer and/or Joe Blanton down in Sacramento for a few months to get some more seasoning, and to push back their arbitration eligibility another year.

It adds to the depth of the starting pitcher corps, too. The A’s list of potential starters for 2005 now goes eight deep:

Barry Zito
Rich Harden
Danny Haren
Seth Etherton
Justin Duchscherer
Keiichi Yabu
Joe Blanton
Dan Meyer

with John Rheinecker, Tim Harikkala, and Juan Cruz also as possibilities, I suppose.

Adding Yabu’s $1M salary probably means that someone else’s $1M salary is headed elsewhere. Chad Bradford and Eric Byrnes fit that bill most closely. The acquisition of Cruz, Calero and Thomas make that pair more replaceable.

Carlos Beltran‘s signing with the Mets probably eliminates one rumored suitor for Byrnes, but rumors are hot and heavy out of Arizona that the Diamondbacks are in pursuit.

If the A’s can finagle Carlos Quentin or Conor Jackson out of the D-Backs, that would be ideal. The Arizona Republic is suggesting an infielder, though, either Matt Kata, Alex Cintron, or Scott Hairston. Hairston is the most attractive of that trio, and the only one I’d give up Byrnes for. But after the acquisition of Keith Ginter, I’m not so sure why the A’s would do that.

UPDATE: There are also rumors that the Cubs are chasing Octavio Dotel.

I share a set of season tickets with a group of others. One of the group members is leaving, so we have an opening. We have five seats in section 115, Row 20. If you’re interested in joining our group for 5-20 games, send me an email at seasontix @ zombia.com, and let me know your level of interest.

Having had time to absorb the shock of the big trades, I’m starting to come around to liking them. I really didn’t like the 2004 Athletics much as a team. It was very frustrating to see guys who had performed well in the past, like Mulder, Zito, Mecir, Rhodes, Redman, Bradford, and Dye all give less-than-peak performances. Except for Zito, those guys are all on the wrong side of 27.

It was time for an overhaul. That generation had run its course. I’m really going to miss Tim Hudson, who was my favorite player. But I think I’ll like the 2005 team more.

For some reason, I think I enjoy baseball more with lowered expectations. Each close failure by the 1999-2004 generation to win a pennant built up my desire and expectations even more. It made each successive failure even more agonizing to watch. In the end, I think I hardly enjoyed it at all.

I need a fresh slate. I’m ready to turn the page. I want to relax, take my time, and get to know these new players. I’m looking forward to the spring. Care to join me?

Boy, after reading all those stories about going to the Winter Meetings, it sure sounded like an exciting thing to do.

But I, Ken Arneson, have come out of my blogging hibernation to give you this very important message: All those stories about the Winter Meetings ARE LIES!

The Winter Meetings are not exciting at all! Hanging around a hotel lobby for hours and hours waiting for some trade or other to happen is just about the most torturously boring thing you can possibly imagine. In fact, it’s so bad, it’s actually hazardous to your health!

I secretly recorded my whole experience on videotape. To prove my point, I put together a small excerpt. Be warned, it’s pretty gruesome. But if you must, watch the film and see for yourself. (Flash required, 1 MB). But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you were considering going to Dallas for next year’s Winter Meetings, think again! Stay home! Trust me on this.

My friends

A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.

–Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809

Eisner has plans to leave Mickey
In 2006, which is tricky.
Some have chosen that year
To let go their career
But found that their job is too sticky.

Erubiel Durazo has the hardest name to type in MLB history. I think the correct spelling actually contains backspaces.

Susan Slusser has an interesting article about him in today’s SF Chronicle. Last year, he was the perfect example of taking the walks-are-good philosophy too far. He was

drawing a tremendous number of walks, but doing little else and leading A’s statistics expert David Feldman to coin the terms “good on-base percentage and bad good on-base percentage.”

This year Dra^H^Hurza^H^Hazo is actually doing what Billy Beane expected when he traded for him. He’s hitting. Money quote:

“It kind of works together,” A’s hitting coach Dave Hudgens said. “Sometimes last year, guys were working for a walk, when what you want to do is work for your pitch (to hit). You want to be aggressive, and walks come as a byproduct. That’s why I think Ruby’s walk total will be up next year, because on-base percentage comes from respect.”

It’s an amazingly fine line that batters have to balance between aggression and patience, isn’t it?

The same goes for typists.

NOTE: the first two versions of this sucked. So,
[Cntl-X]*n (where 5<n<30), and thereby
text-- == postmodern++;

Baseball Prospectus threw me into postmodernism

without flaws
I lacked
  meaning

aggressive reactions have relied on
devolvement into incremental deconstruction

   twisting baseball around

often so weird
   that no one in their right mind

can make a n y sen
se o
f i
t

please
let’s skip

to whatever comes next

Last year, the A’s went into Florida for three games in June. In the first game, the Marlins blasted Mark Mulder, 13-2. The A’s managed to win the second game, but only after Florida had knocked Tim Hudson around first. In the third game, the A’s couldn’t touch Dontrelle Willis, and were shut out.

The A’s weren’t swept, but Florida made a statement. It seemed so bizarre, because the Marlins were under .500 at the time, but the impression I got out of that series was that Florida had kicked Oakland’s butt, and they were clearly the better team.

So this year, I’ve been watching for that type of butt-whippin’, where just watching the opposition it felt like the A’s were clearly inferior. Where you know that even if you play well, you’re still at a disadvantage. I got that feeling against two teams this year: the Cardinals and the Red Sox.

The Yankees have beaten the A’s pretty good this year, too, but their wins felt more like a function of the A’s playing poorly than the Yankees being superior. I feel like the A’s can stay with the Yankees. Perhaps if the A’s had played well and still lost, I’d be more impressed with the Bronx Bombers.

Last night, the A’s and Red Sox played a great, tense ballgame. Then the third base umpire made a horrible call in the eighth inning, ruling Manny Ramirez had caught a ball he clearly trapped, and the A’s were toast. One break went against them, and the A’s fell apart. The Red Sox got their break, and they stomped all over Oakland with a kind of killer instinct I’ve never, ever seen in the Red Sox before. A close game ended up 8-3.

Color me impressed. Traditionally, Boston falls apart at the slightest provocation. This post-Nomar team is different. I think this is their year, and the only thing that can stop them is Albert Pujols, star of the equally impressive Cardinals, shooting bullets through the Green Monster. Either that, or some weird ghost showing up.

I’d love to see the A’s win it all, but if justice is served, we’ll see St. Louis and Boston face off in the World Series this year.

Ken Arneson will miss 2-4 weeks of the soccer season, after suffering a sprained ankle three minutes into Friday’s game.

Owowowowowow. My foot got stepped on, my ankle turned over, and I could hear the ligaments rip. That hurt. So this old fart is now stuck sitting in front of the TV, practicing RICE, and there’s nothing on TV to watch except this godawful Diamondbacks-Giants game.

I’m a fair-weather Giants fan, but I find this year’s Giants team darn near unwatchable, except for Jason Schmidt and Barry Bonds. How good is Bonds? The Giants are right in the middle of the playoff hunt, and they have Deivi Cruz batting third tonight. Deivi Cruz!

Dave Burba entered the game in the fourth inning. My sister-in-law walked into the room and said, “Oh my God, is that Dave Burba? Are you watching ESPN Classic?”

I wish. I don’t get ESPN Classic. This game is almost three hours old now, it’s 18-5 Giants, and we’re still in the sixth inning. It won’t be good enough to be a classic, but by the time this game is over, it will have aged enough to qualify. And I might be ready for my AARP card.

As Bryan Smith points out on Wait Til Next Year, the A’s knocked Scott Kazmir around in his second major league start on Sunday.

I was at the game, so I decided to give Kazmir a close look to see what all the fuss was about. I watched him warm up in the bullpen. From the side, his delivery reminded me of Ted Lilly. But when I saw him from behind the plate, it looked different. From that angle, I could see why so many people are worried about his delivery. I’m no expert or anything, but it looked very effortful, not smooth at all.

Kazmir is the second heralded rookie I’ve seen this year. I’ve seen Zack Greinke twice. Greinke is much more impressive, changing speeds like he’s been pitching in the majors for fifteen years. Kazmir throws harder, of course, but it didn’t look like he changed speeds very well at all. Everything was hard: hard fastball, hard slider.

The A’s spat on the slider, sat fastball and, being the patient team that they are, eventually got it. If Kazmir doesn’t want to end up as just a LOOGY, I think he has some learning to do.