Your 2021 Oakland Athletics - Page 7

thehatfield · 08-16-2007, 07:42 AM

Sacramento Bee
Volquez Already Out the Door?
Volquez claims he was brought here under false pretense
by August West

Despite coming into the All Star break with the best record in baseball it’s clear that all is not well within the Oakland Athletics organization. From a pitching staff that through injury and other bungling somehow have just four right-handed arms to the story of their newly acquired second baseman Dan Volquez, a man acquired just a few weeks ago from the Chicago White Sox for his glove but finding himself on the trading block due to his lack of production at the plate. Sources close to the situation requested to remain anonymous but reported that Volquez was completely blindsided by the trade rumors that began to surface almost immediately after the A’s finished up the first half of the season against the Rangers. The source claims Minnesota, Florida, and Kansas City are all possible destinations for Volquez.

“As I was leaving the ballpark after the game I was asked by a couple of reporters about trade rumors,” Volquez said by phone from his summer home in Stone Ridge, NY. “I was like, ‘I’ve only been here for two weeks! No one from the organization has said a thing to me. Are you sure that’s right?’ But the more I’ve heard the more I’ve learned it’s true, which is a complete reversal of the pitch (General Manager Jim) Fillmore gave me when he was pursuing the trade for me.”

Volquez is off to a decent start at the plate hitting .260 with a .360 slugging percentage in 50 at-bats (off to a stronger start than former second baseman Artie Page who hit .202 and slugged .239 in 129 at-bats) but he claims he was told his lack of production (0 home runs and 6 RBI) just weren’t up to snuff.

“What really bothers me is that they knew what they were getting,” a clearly frustrated Volquez said with a sigh. “I only have one home run in my career, and that was five years ago in Colorado. We went through all of this…”

When you hear Volquez speak you have to turn your attention to Oakland General Manager Jim Fillmore. What could the man be thinking? Already with the best record in baseball is he determined to keep tinkering with the clubhouse chemistry in search of some unrealistic “perfect team” until it’s completely destroyed? How much better can a team get than the best record in the game?

In some respects you have to admire Jim Fillmore. Clearly he isn’t ignoring the real possibility that the team could falter in the second half of the season especially with a talented-but-underachieving Angels team likely to make a strong run at some point. But if this hardnose approach in the front office is meant to keep the players alert and help inspire more victories it’s clearly not working.

“We always sit around here when these sorts of things happen and say ‘baseball is a business’ and all this other (expletive) but there’s a right way and a wrong way to conduct your business,” said first baseman Jose Arce via phone while on vacation with his family in Brazil. “We like Danny, we liked Artie too. I think it’s messed up when you tell a guy you want him as your second baseman for the rest of the year and you give up a good prospect for him and then two weeks later you’re shopping the guy around. Makes it seem like you have no idea what you’re doing.”

Fillmore himself didn’t respond to our calls prior to the publication of this article.

thehatfield · 08-16-2007, 09:22 PM

Top 10 Selling Oakland Athletics Jerseys at the All Star Break
(previous ranking from 6/13/21 in parenthesis)

1. Fairfax von Schoening #25 (2)
2. Mumbles Yamasita #34 (1)
3. Rowley Dickson #10 (7)
4. Teddy Revelez #12 (5)
5. Francisco Quinenes #14 (9)
6. Bill Mathis #29 (8)
7. Travis Byers #8 (4)
8. Jose Arce #5 (-)
9. Larry Alison #6 (-)
10. Nori Nakamura #35 (3)

Fred Cake and the severely underappreciated Edgard Galdames fall off the list this time while the outspoken Jose Arce returns to the list (he was #4 back in the initial rankings in May) while new catcher Larry Alison makes his debut. Homegrown rookie Francisco Quinenes is getting a lot of support lately and gets huge cheers at the Coliseum from the home support. There expects to be even more support for Quinenes and Teddy Revelez in the immediate days after both were perceived to be All Star snubs. Fairfax von Schoening, Mumbles Yamasita, and Rowley Dickson have basically been the three most popular players on the club all season long. At the time of the last rankings Dickson was erratic and wasn’t showing the fantastic form he had been displaying at the beginning of the season and his jersey sales dropped accordingly. But he seems back on his game as he finished the first half of the season strong and was the only other pitcher seriously considered to be the starting pitcher for the AL in the All Star Game before legendary Zach Duke got the nod.

They Said It…

“It’s just frustrating when they know you’ve hit one home run in your career and they come to you and say, ‘hey, you’re not really giving us the power numbers we expected.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.”
~~Dan Volquez continues to echo his side of the story concerning All Star break trade rumors.

“Sources close to the situation say that Oakland General Manager Jim Fillmore is deep in negotiations with Milwaukee’s Leland Fitzsimons in a deal that might involve both Dan Volquez AND Jose Arce. One can only wonder if this is some sort of scare tactic toward Arce who has never been afraid to speak his mind or if there’s actually some big-time deal brewing with the crew.”
~~Radio personality Frank Goosealberto on the “Frank and the Water Buffalo Show” on KNBR radio.

“We’re very close to finalizing a deal with Atlanta for 22-year old right-handed reliever Jake Large. It’s going to be a big deal to trade Gib Glaus and Josh Frank who are both solid contributors in exchange for just one major league ready player but I kind of backed us into this situation with all the leftys, didn’t I? The players have already been informed I’d say the actual announcement is just a formality at this time. See you kids later, I have to go.”
~~An extremely candid and unaware he was being filmed Oakland General Manager Jim Fillmore makes off-the-record comments to an unknown fan who records it with his cell phone and posts it on the internet while the GM was walking to his car from his McAfee Coliseum office.

“The clubhouse is fine. Of course you never like to see a teammate go but we have faith in the organization to make decisions in the best interest of the team as a whole. Winning championships is the ultimate goal, after all.”
~~Veteran lefty J.D. Knisley comes short of a full defense of the man who handed him a 4-year, $28 million contract this past offseason in comments made to the East Bay Express.

“He’s going to get a bad reputation around the league, plain and simple.”
~~Jose Arce has no trouble saying what everyone is thinking about Jim Fillmore’s frequent ventures into the trade market.

Man On The Street…

We went back to the same people who we asked for pre-season comments to see what they’re thinking now at the All Star break as opposed to then. Their previous comments are highlighted above.

“I could care less. It won’t make a difference if he trades the whole friggin team they’re not going to do anything this year, next year, or any year. They’re the A’s, moron.”

“I have to say that it’s helped business. People actually have something to talk about other than damn politics. I’m surprised I thought Jim Fillmore was a complete flake.”
Ham Salad, 43, bar owner, Oakland

“No, we don’t really know, we’re just visiting from Houston, Texas.”

“No, sorry. We still aren’t really interested in baseball we just travel now.”
Enid Spenser, 70, retired baker, Houston (Texas)

“I think the A’s are doing a decent job, yeah. But we’re not going out to see them unless they keep this up into August.”

“Is it August yet?”
Wallingham FitzRandolph Williams IV, 38, personal investor, San Francisco

“Hey, he’s trying to get a starter that will keep that bum Fred Cake out of the rotation even when (Neifi) Villaluazo’s healthy so I say go for it.”

“I think Fillmore’s done a decent job but he’s got to calm down a little bit. It seems like if a guy does one thing he doesn’t like there’s suddenly trade rumors about him.”
Hidalgo Richard, 26, chef, Union City

“I could really care less about the Dodgers, I didn’t watch an inning.”

“My family have had A’s season tickets for years I was just embarrassed to admit that before now! I’m not convinced though about this season. The Angels have great players it’s going to be a fun rest of the summer.”
Rabbi Hershel Dinkle, 39, rabbi, Fremont

Hendu Style · 08-22-2007, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purple Cowboy

Man On The Street…

We went back to the same people who we asked for pre-season comments to see what they’re thinking now at the All Star break as opposed to then. Their previous comments are highlighted above.

“I could care less. It won’t make a difference if he trades the whole friggin team they’re not going to do anything this year, next year, or any year. They’re the A’s, moron.”

“I have to say that it’s helped business. People actually have something to talk about other than damn politics. I’m surprised I thought Jim Fillmore was a complete flake.”
Ham Salad, 43, bar owner, Oakland

“No, we don’t really know, we’re just visiting from Houston, Texas.”

“No, sorry. We still aren’t really interested in baseball we just travel now.”
Enid Spenser, 70, retired baker, Houston (Texas)

“I think the A’s are doing a decent job, yeah. But we’re not going out to see them unless they keep this up into August.”

“Is it August yet?”
Wallingham FitzRandolph Williams IV, 38, personal investor, San Francisco

“Hey, he’s trying to get a starter that will keep that bum Fred Cake out of the rotation even when (Neifi) Villaluazo’s healthy so I say go for it.”

“I think Fillmore’s done a decent job but he’s got to calm down a little bit. It seems like if a guy does one thing he doesn’t like there’s suddenly trade rumors about him.”
Hidalgo Richard, 26, chef, Union City

“I could really care less about the Dodgers, I didn’t watch an inning.”

“My family have had A’s season tickets for years I was just embarrassed to admit that before now! I’m not convinced though about this season. The Angels have great players it’s going to be a fun rest of the summer.”
Rabbi Hershel Dinkle, 39, rabbi, Fremont

I like this style... I used to do MOS (man on the street) interviews when I was an intern at a radio station in San Francisco... this just takes me back to those days.

It also reminds me of the movie Major League, when they had random fans talking about the Indians... Construction guys: "These guys don't look too (expletive) good."... Groundskeepers at Municipal Stadium: "They are still (expletive)." Hmmm... wheels are turning here... maybe somebody should do a fictional dynasty set in the realm of Major League! Willie Mays Hayes... Rick Vaughn... Jake Taylor... Roger Dorn... Pedro Cerrano... GM Charlie Donovan... manager Lou Brown... "Duke" Temple and Clue Haywood (NY Yankees)... can't remember the Canseco-clone for the A's who popped up (Rex something?)...

Back on track, Hendu! Love the MOS idea!

thehatfield · 08-27-2007, 12:47 AM

Thanks!

This is my first dynasty so I'm figuring out what I like and what I don't with this one but Man on the Street and They Said It will definitely be staying. I was thinking of a cross between Major League & "The Onion" when I started doing it... I think there's a reference to Lou Brown in there somewhere months and months ago. Maybe the next dynasty will be a little less strenuous, but maybe not!

Next Up: 4-game series on the road at Kansas City

There’s not much else to say about Kansas City that hasn’t been said in the All Star break wrap-up except that we were 6-0 against them thus far this season. I was pleased that we’d be coming out to start the second half of the season against one of the worst hitting ballclubs in the American League so that all of the momentum we’re carrying from the first half of the season has a good chance to continue despite the players being completely away from baseball for the last three days. We swept a three-game series from the Royals back in Oakland at the beginning of last week and with our pitching rotation rested and reset I like our chances in this series as well.

Perhaps the biggest news surrounding the club is that no All Star break trades were made. I sent Neifi Villaluazo to AAA Sacramento for a few rehab starts which means that for the immediate future both Fred Cake and Gib Glaus will remain in the starting rotation. In an effort to help reclaim some of my organization’s privacy I may have deliberately let some misinformation somehow make its to the press. I surely know it isn’t the gentlemanly thing to do but when you’re trying to figure out who’s passing along confidential information the tactics are necessary. And on that front, I just need one more bit of confirmation and I’ll know who it is; no speculating from me for now you’re on your own to decide what’s true and what isn’t. Despite widely conflicting reports in just about every newspaper and sports-talk radio station in the area we were starting out the second half of 2021 with the lineup that ended the first half:

Everyday Lineup
1. Yamasita, CF, L
2. Galdames, SS, R
3. Revelez, LF, S
4. Guevaro, 3B, R
5. Byers, RF, R
6. Arce, 1B, L
7. Alison, C, R
8. Quinenes, DH, R
9. Volquez, 2B, R

And here’s the official, starting rotation:

1. Dickson, L
2. Knisley, L
3. Glaus, L
4. Nakamura, L
5. Cake, R

Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Game 89 at Kansas City Royals
4-2 Win; 11,612 in attendance
W: Dickson (14-2) L: Hayashida (5-5) H: von Schoening (8) SV: Mathis (30)

Recap: Mumbles Yamasita started things off right in the top of the first, sprinting down the first base line and reaching on an infield single to deep second base. Yamasita then stole second and third base before coming in on a Teddy Revelez sac fly. But the Royals came right back in the bottom of the inning when rising young star Jose Funk, a 21-year old third baseman, lined a two out double to left field off of Rowley Dickson which plated 22-year old right fielder Javier Cabrera. After a scoreless second inning it was Yamasita again, this time drilling a line drive solo home run 410 feet to right center field off Royals starter Yoshinobu Hayashida that got out of the ballpark in a hurry, his 11th home run of the year. But Dickson, looking ever shaky in the bottom of the third, allowed three more hits which tied the game at 2-2 and gave him 7 hits allowed though the first three innings. At this point it seems he’s had two strikes on nearly every batter he’s faced yet he’s allowed all those hits while striking out just two. In the top of the 4th inning with two men in scoring position Larry Alison looped a soft single to right which was good enough to plate both runners for a 4-2 lead. In the bottom of the 4th Revelez prevented the Royals from answering right back for the third time in this game with a diving two-out catch near the line in left field with two men on base to end the inning. Both starters settled down after that and would pitch scoreless 5th, 6th, and 7th innings before being lifted for a reliever. K.C.’s 23-year old righty Bob Johnston came in and promptly set down the #3, #4, and #5 hitters in our lineup in order for an easy top of the 8th which energized the home crowd with hope of a late-inning comeback. That energy would be sapped when Fairfax von Schoening got the side out in order in the bottom half despite a couple of hard-hit baseballs. Bill Mathis came on and allowed a single in the 9th and struck out two for his 30th save of the year. Despite the 4-2 win we were outhit by the Royals 10-6. Jose Funk, 23-year old designated hitter Nobuatsu Saitoh, and 29-year old second baseman Geoff Goulder each had two hits for Kansas City.

Thursday, July 15, 2021
Game 90 at Kansas City Royals
13-4 Win; 10,713 in attendance
W: Knisley (10-7) L: Argelio (5-14) H: Basnett (6) H: von Schoening (9) SV: Frank (1)

Recap: Feeling fortunate to come away from Wednesday’s game with a victory the general feeling remained optimistic as we squared off against Kansas City’s 26-year old righty Salvador Argelio who came into the game with a 5-13 record and an ERA of 7.59 in 100 innings of work. The game remained scoreless until the top of the third when Travis Byers lashed a two-out, bases loaded single to right which scored two runners and staked us to an early lead. J.D. Knisley promptly worked himself into trouble in the bottom half of the inning when he allowed two singles and then hit Jose Funk with an errant knuckle-curve. After notching two huge strikeouts Knisley allowed a single to 23-year old catcher Richard Fortier which dropped in front of Mumbles Yamasita and scored Javier Cabrera from third but Nobuatsu Saitoh, attempting to score the tying run from second base with two outs, was thrown out in a close play at the plate on a perfect throw from Yamasita to end the threat. After a scoreless fourth inning this game was looking to be a replay of the day before, we were leading 2-1 but supposedly light-hitting K.C. held a 6-3 advantage in base knocks. In the top of the 5th we had a herky jerky sequence that yielded a third run: a double by Yamasita followed by a strikeout by Edgard Galdames, an intentional walk to Teddy Revelez, a single by Dome Guevaro, and a sac fly for Byers. In the bottom of the 5th though the Royals struck right back again as Fortier smacked one down the right field line for a 343-foot, three-run home run which put the Royals ahead 4-3. In the top of the 6th we finally got to Argelio, slapping five more hits and scoring three runs to chase him from the game. With men still on base K.C.’s 34-year old veteran righty Lewis MacLeay struck out the next two batters to end the inning and keep the game at 6-4. Gregg Basnett came on and pitched a perfect 7th before Fairfax von Schoening took over in the 8th. After walking the leadoff man and beaning the next hitter, von Schoening struck out the next man and got an easy popup to get to two outs but after the play he called catcher Larry Alison out to the mound and that would be all for the man the fans call the Baron. He was complaining of pain in his knee and he wasn’t able to get his full push-off the mound so we had to bring in a cold Josh Frank while we hastily tried to get closer Bill Mathis ready to go in the bullpen. Frank’s first pitched was lined straight at Byers to get us out of the 8th maintaining a 6-4 lead. Wouldn’t you know it, the Royals bullpen then simply imploded in the top of the 9th, allowing 7 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks (including one with the bases loaded). We let Josh Frank finish out the game to get the “save,” his first of the year. Dan Volquez went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Dome Guevaro led the hitting attack with a 3-for-6 night. Teddy Revelez was 2-for-2 with a triple and four walks. Revelez has now walked 102 times this season. Fortier was 2-for-3 with a walk and 4 RBI for the Royals. The victory was our 8th straight over Kansas City this season.

Injury Update
21-year old rookie reliever Fairfax von Schoening will be placed onto the 15-day disabled list with a knee injury. It has been diagnosed as damaged meniscus and while it isn’t considered to be career-threatening it is serious enough that we might have to put on the kid gloves when dealing with the Baron when he returns to the bullpen in two weeks. Dr. Rick Hartshorn recommended he be on the shelf for 1-2 weeks and so I want to do anything necessary to make sure he takes his time and comes back only when completely fit.

An injury to one of our precious few rightys seems like the cruelest version of Murphy’s Law. If we brought up recently reactivated righty Neifi Villaluazo we’d have to force the only other righty starter, Fred Cake, out of the rotation and into the bullpen. Not the ideal move at the moment. So we decided to call up 29-year old Stacy Renteria, who had been a horrible starter in Oakland for the last three years (including a 5-21 record and 7.51 ERA last year with 39 home runs allowed in 171 innings) until I took over and sent him straight to the minors to make him a reliever. He’s still been doing some spot starting for Sacramento in emergency situations but overall he’s 9-7 with 6 saves, 3.51 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 92 innings this year at AAA. This is basically a make-or-break two weeks for Renteria. Barring any trades of other players which would clear a spot for him he’ll probably be designated for assignment when von Schoening is ready to come back to the Majors.

Friday, July 16, 2021
Game 91 at Kansas City Royals
8-4 Win (12 innings); 11,230 in attendance
W: Basnett (1-2) L: Salazar (2-2) H: MacLeay (3) H: Johnston (7) BS: Hubbard (4)

Recap: Perhaps all of the trade rumors surrounding Gib Glaus had taken some sort of toll because he came out in the bottom of the 1st inning and was lit up for 2 runs on 5 hits including a Jose Funk RBI double. The score remained 2-0 until the top of the third when Teddy Revelez, hitting right-handed against the lefty Salvatore Lopez, pulled a 427-foot three-run blast to deep left field to give us a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the 4th inning Nobuatsu Saitoh clobbered a 68-m.p.h. Glaus changeup 436 feet to straightaway center field to knot the score at 3-3. Glaus allowed another run in the following inning when a controversial call at first base on the tail end of what looked like an inning-ending doubleplay went against us allowing the go-ahead runner to score from third. Glaus was lifted after 6 innings of work, 4 earned runs on 7 hits and an unusually high 4 walks against 7 strikeouts in favor of Terry Rogers who threw a scoreless bottom of the 7th. Jonathan Leverett pitched a perfect 8th in his first action since the All Star break. In the top of the 9th inning we couldn’t ask for anything more than the top of the lineup to face the Royals’ All Star closer Beacan Hubbard but Mumbles Yamasita struck out looking to lead off the inning. Edgard Galdames then smashed a single back up through the middle and into center field before Hubbard carefully pitched around Revelez and walked him on four pitches. After being so careful with Revelez, Hubbard had a tough time finding the plate with the next batter Dome Guevaro and walked him on five pitches to load the bases. Travis Byers then blooped one to left field to score Galdames and tie the game before Hubbard composed himself and struck out Jose Arce and Larry Alison to end the inning. Leverett pitched a scoreless bottom of the 9th, striking out Funk to end the inning with a runner stranded at second base. Hubbard threw a scoreless top of the 10th and Gregg Basnett did the same for us in the bottom of the frame. The score remained 4-4 until the top of the 12th inning when Volquez got a single with one out and went from first to third on Yamasita’s single in the next at-bat. After a Galdames single scored Volquez, Revelez, hitting from the left side of the plate against righty reliever Ramon Salazar, hit another tape-measure shot 466-feet to right field to give us an 8-4 lead. Josh Frank finished off the game for us with a scoreless bottom of the 12th. Jose Arce was hit with a pitch for the 10th time this season. Despite the two bombs from Revelez, one from each side of the plate, this was a brutal game to watch. I had an impending sense of doom which went strangely unfulfilled. After taking the first three games of the series it meant that bench players would get starts in the finale since we’re three games into an 11-games-in-11-days stretch and have the Angels up next.

Series Finale Lineup
1. Vazquez, DH, R
2. Galdames, SS, R
3. Revelez, LF, S
4. Quinenes, CF, R
5. MacFall, 3B, R
6. Raymundo, RF, L
7. Corliss, 1B, R
8. McInally, C, R
9. Volquez, 2B, R

Saturday, July 17, 2021
Game 92 at Kansas City Royals
10-6 Win; 11,246 in attendance
W: Nakamura (14-2) L: Gonzales (0-3)

Recap: Francisco Quinenes made manager Jeff Hance look like a genius when the 20-year old rookie, batting cleanup for the first time all season due to a lot of regular players resting, blasted a 428-foot, 3-run home run in the top of the first inning to help stake us to a 5-0 lead before many had even reached their seats. But once again the Royals fought back immediately, Jose Funk spanking a 3-run shot of his own 435 feet to left center field off Nori Nakamura in the bottom of the 1st that cut the lead to 5-3. In the bottom of the 3rd inning the Royals got another run on a walk, a groundout which moved the runner to second, and then a single to deep right field to make the score 5-4. Nakamura wasn’t getting hit hard aside from the big mistake pitch to Funk but K.C. was still clawing away regardless. Nakamura gave up the tying run in the bottom of the 4th inning on a walk, a hit batter, and two more soft singles. This recent All Star break must have really messed with the starting pitchers because all of our guys who are known control guys have struggled to find the plate all series. Nakamura settled down in the 5th and the 6th but the man who so often has been on the receiving end of bucketfuls of runs this season still found himself and his team deadlocked at 5-5 until the top of the 7th when Quinenes singled in another run to make it 6-5. But Nakamura coughed the lead right back up in the bottom of the inning and if not for an inning-ending outfield assist from Teddy Revelez on a play at the plate Nakamura would have been on the hook for a loss in this one. Of course the very next half inning, before Nakamura is officially lifted from the game, we rally for 4 runs in the top of the 8th to put Nakamura in line for the win. The cushion gave us a chance to let Stacy Renteria make his 2021 debut with a 10-6 lead in the bottom of the 8th and he looked good pitching a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Terry Rogers pitched the 9th and gave up a couple of hits but was bailed out by a nice double play started by Dan Volquez. Quinenes was named Player of the Game for his 2-for-4, 5 RBI performance. Javier Cabrera went 4-for-5 for and Bob Johnston threw three innings of scoreless relief for Kansas City. Javier Raymundo was the only one of our five non-regular starters not to get a hit but he did drive in a run with a sac fly.

Current Oakland Record: 63-29

Usually when you think of four game sweeps you think of overwhelming romps or one team simply dominating another or maybe one team having everything go their way and “the planets align.” But even though a couple of the scorelines looked crooked this was the toughest sweep I think I’ve ever been involved with at any level. Each game was a struggle and although we come out of it four games to the good we also lose our reliable setup man to the disabled list for two weeks. I also can’t remember a series where we walked so many batters (21 in four games) but I was just going to chalk this one up to the All Star break throwing off routines. It’s hard to explain and completely counterintuitive but I come out of this sweep feeling more worried about the team than any point this season.

thehatfield · 09-01-2007, 12:22 AM

Next Up: 3-game series at home against Los Angeles Angels

There is huge news surrounding the Angels – in Saturday’s game against Seattle they lost their 26-year old All Star third baseman Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez for the rest of the season with a ruptured ligament in his elbow. The second year man who won the American League Rookie of the Year award last year with 47 home runs and 151 RBI was a legitimate MVP candidate this year, leading the American League in both homers (35) and RBI (115) while hitting nearly 40 points higher (.308 this year vs. .269 last year). The man frequently called “the most exciting young player in baseball” was the everyday cleanup hitter in Los Angeles. One can only hope that this fantastic talent hasn’t permanently hampered his chances to be the all-time sort of player that he certainly seemed to be on his way to be becoming.

Tabarez made some general comments to the media through his team and said he was frustrated that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to help the club on the field for the rest of the year. While he acknowledged that he’ll be spending the entire off-season rehabbing he assured everyone that would listen that he wouldn’t be out a day longer than he has to be.

In some brighter news, the Tabaraz injury allows the Angels to showcase another talented youngster; 25-year old lefty first baseman Vito Tapias will fill Tabaraz’ spot on the 25-man roster. The Angels also announced a huge, 7-year, $54 million contract extention for 28-year old lefty starting pitcher Steve Collins. The extremely popular New Jersey native was an Oakland second round draft pick back in 2011 and was included as a player to be named later in a minor trade with the Angels after the 2012 season. He struggled with his control early in his career but the Angels stuck with him and he broke through to the Majors in 2016. In his 5½ years at the Major League level Collins is 73-43 with a 3.69 ERA in 1,145 innings and sports a 1.26 career WHIP.

The Angels just took 3-of-4 games from Seattle coming into this series but remain 11½ games out of first place with a 51-40 record. They presently lead the American League Wild Card race by three games over Detroit and Texas. We’d be back to our regular lineup for this entire series. The guys who didn’t get a day off yesterday will get a chance to rest on Wednesday in the first game of a 4-game set against Toronto. We come into the game leading the season series against the Angels 4-2.

Sunday, July 18, 2021
Game 93 vs. Los Angeles Angels
8-7 Win (walk-off); 30,326 in attendance
W: Frank (2-1) L: Anderson (0-1) H: Shiroi (12) H: Gaborde (3) BS: Anderson (3)

Recap: We picked up two quick runs in the bottom of the first off of Angels starter Daniel Jester as Mumbles Yamasita scored on an Edgard Galdames double and then Galdames came home on a couple of ground outs. Two more runs in the bottom of the second highlighted by a Dan Volquez double and a single from Galdames had us out in front early 4-0. In the top of the 4th inning Fred Cake got himself into trouble, loading the bases with no outs before escaping with only one run allowed on a sac fly. With six strikeouts and three walks through four innings Cake had already accumulated 76 pitches thrown. Two more walks and a single in the top of the 5th had the bases loaded again with no outs. A sixth walk on the day and third in the inning brought home a run to make it 4-2. A sac fly to center scored a run and Yamasita, trying foolishly to get the runner at home, threw the ball to the backstop allowing runners to advance to second and third with only one out. Another sac fly to deep center plated the tying run. In the top of the 6th inning Cake got two quick outs before walking a batter and then allowing a 436-foot blast to straightaway center to right fielder Montel Bojorguez which gave the Angels a 6-4 lead. Jonathan Leverett came in from the bullpen to finish off the 6th. Leading off the bottom of the 6th Jose Arce pulled one 406 feet down the right field line for his 12th home run of the year to cut the deficit to 6-5. Leverett gave the run right back in the top of the 7th on a couple of singles and a hit batter. In the bottom of the 8th Larry Alison homered for the second time since becoming an Athletic, just getting it over the left field wall to again make it a one-run game at 7-6. Josh Frank came on and got through the top of the 9th despite a walk and single allowed setting the stage for the bottom of the 9th. The Angels’ regular closer Abram O’Cahan was unavailable after pitching the last two days in Seattle so Los Angeles handed the ball to 26-year old rookie Chas Anderson. Anderson promptly got Galdames to ground out before intentionally walking Teddy Revelez to get to Dome Guevaro. But Guevaro sent the over 30,000 fans in attendance home in raptures as he smoked an opposite field home run to right to end the game, his 22nd home run of the year. A thrilling finish to yet another tense contest! More bad news for the Angels: Antoine Stirzacre, the man covering third base for the injured Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez, has been ruled out for at least the next 5 weeks with a strained Achilles tendon. 25-year old Edmund Dixon was called up from the AAA Salt Lake Bees to take Stirzacre’s spot on the roster.

Monday, July 19, 2021
Game 94 vs. Los Angeles Angels
2-1 loss (10 innings); 28,679 in attendance
W: Renteria (0-1) L: O’Cahan (1-1)

Recap: This was a fantastic lefty vs. lefty pitchers duel between our 14-game winner Rowley Dickson and Los Angeles’ Steve Collins, fresh off the high of his new 7-year, $54 million contract extention. Collins gave up a run in the bottom of the 1st inning on a walk and two singles and then shut us down after that, striking out 7 in 7.1 innings before handnding off to 32-year old carrer Angel Ed Ontiveroz who was able to finish off the 8th. Dickson did even better, allowing 6 hits and striking out 12 in 8.2 innings of work although one of those hits was a game-tying solo homer to 34-year old second baseman Kenneth Coeyman in the 5th inning. Dickson had to come out in the top of the 9th inning after loading the bases on a walk with two outs but Stacy Renteria induced a harmless popout to get out of the inning. After Angels closer Abram O’Cahan set us down in order in the bottom of the 9th the Angels were able to manufacture a run on a leadoff walk, a sacrifice bunt, a grounder that moved the runner to third with two outs and then a weak bloop single that fell in front of Travis Byers in right field. Certainly not a bad outing from Renteria as they could hardly touch his stuff and he got out of the tight spot in the 9th inning, but he did walk the eventual tying run. He seemed like maybe he lost his concentration for a moment in the top of the 10th and it’s just something he’ll need to be aware of if he wants to remain with the club. But again, we’re not counting this loss as a mark against him. In the bottom of the 10th and now down a run for the first time all game we couldn’t ask for much better than Mumbles Yamasita, Edgard Galdames, and Teddy Revelez but O’Cahan struck all three out, Yamasita and Revelez looking. Rowley Dickson was actually named Player of the Game for his strong performance.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Game 95 vs. Los Angeles Angels
11-2 Win; 29,050 in attendance
W: Knisley (11-7) L: MacChlerich (11-4)

Recap: The Angels’ 39-year old righty starter Andy MacChlerich was considered an All Star snub considering his 11-3 record and 3.96 ERA in 18 starts this year. MacChlerich has lost a lot of velocity in the last few seasons but has maintined pinpoint control (last season in 218 innings pitched he walked just 37 batters). But with that paltry walk total it means he has to be around the plate a lot and he’s prone to getting smacked around. And that’s what it looked like early as Mumbles Yamasita hit the first pitch of the game into the right field corner for a triple and Edgard Galdames followed with his fourth home run of the year to give us a 2-0 lead. The next batter Teddy Revelez demolished a fastball 447 feet to deep right field for his 27th shot of the year as we went back-to-back for the early 3-0 lead! We added two more runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning which knocked MacChlerich out of the game in favor of 26-year old righty reliever Kiyoshi Shiroi who was able to get the final out of the inning without any further damage. The Angels got one right back in the top of the 3rd when youngster Vito Tapias led off the inning by pulling a 93-m.p.h. J.D. Knisley fastball 372 feet down the right field line to make the score 5-1. Three more runs in the bottom of the 3rd staked us to an 8-1 advantage and chased Shiroi from the game as we had stroked 12 hits through the first three innings. We’d get four more hits the rest of the way in a good night and we tacked on 3 more runs in a bizarre, hitless 8th inning that saw three walks, Yamasita and Revelez both getting beaned, and a balk all from Angels reliever Steele Slee. Galdames was named Player of the Game for a 4-for-5 performance with three RBI and two runs scored. Angels reliever Tony Gaborde threw two solid innings of scoreless relief in the lone bright spot for Los Angeles. Our reliever Gregg Basnett allowed a solo shot to Montel Bojorguez in the top of the 9th inning for the final scoreline.

Current Oakland Record: 65-30

We’re rolling right now. 5-1 since the All Star break, taking 2-of-3 from the Angels to knock them 12½ back, a 4-game series at home against 46-48 Toronto up next, things were looking good. Jose Arce and Francisco Quinenes have been pretty cold since the break. In fact, the bottom of the lineup in general hasn’t really been doing much of anything lately and that includes not only Arce and Quinenes but also Dan Volquez and Larry Alison. On the other side of things, Mumbles Yamasita and Teddy Revelez are straight-up hitting machines. They hardly ever kill rallies by chasing bad pitches and even better they seem to have a knack for creating them. Revelez has struck out only 15 times this year in 314 at-bats. A strong 7 innings of work out of J.D. Knisley for his 11th win of the year in the blowout series finale was an encouraging sign for the veteran lefty. No new news on the trade front either…yet.

thehatfield · 09-03-2007, 03:56 PM

Next Up: 3-game series at home against Toronto Blue Jays

This series against Toronto kicked off a stretch of 16 straight games against the American League East. At 46-48 the Blue Jays were 12 games behind Boston in the division including a lackluster 4-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox just after the All Star break last week. But the Jays were only six games behind the 52-42 Angels in the very early days of the wild card picture. Toronto’s 24-year rookie old left fielder Ajax Churchman has been turning heads so far this year with a .313 average and 43 runs scored in 293 at-bats. Three key members of the everyday lineup, third baseman Ruben Gotay, shortstop Bobby Hartshorn, and right fielder Harry Pitzer are all on the disabled list so understandably the Jays have had a tough time finding consistency at the plate this season. 32-year old veteran starter Jin-song Hung, from China, leads the rotation with a 9-5 record and 4.00 ERA in 139.2 innings of work. Hung has struck out 180 batters so far this year which is tied with our Rowley Dickson for third overall in the American League.

Our manager Jeff Hance scrapped plans to rest any of our regular starters in the opening game of the series since everyone was chomping at the bit and seemed pretty well rested already. Jeff called me up to say “if anything we’ll sit a couple of folks near the end of the series since we have a day off built-in already on Sunday.” Translation: maybe we’ll give a couple of guys two consecutive days of rest. One other lineup move of note is that Hance said that in the last two games of the series we were going to move Francisco Quinenes up to the #6 slot in the batting order, and drop Jose Arce and Larry Alison one position each.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Game 96 vs. Toronto Blue Jays
11-0 Win; 28,709 in attendance
W: Glaus (4-3) L: Aguilar (7-8)

Recap: Dome Guevaro smacked his 23rd home run of the year, a three-run shot, in the bottom of the 1st inning as once again 1st inning scoring put us ahead early. Guevaro added another RBI in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 4-0 when he singled to right to plate Mumbles Yamasita. Making his manager Jeff Hance look like a genius, Francisco Quinenes responded to his impending move up the batting order with his 15th home run of the year, a monster 443-foot shot pulled to left field to give us a 5-0 advantage in the bottom of the 4th and chased Toronto starter Roberto Aguilar out of the game with a very poor line: five earned runs on seven hits including two home runs in just 3.1 innings. Four more runs in the bottom of the 5th inning meant the blowout was officially on; with a 9-0 lead we’d now start subbing out some regular starters. The pile-on continued though in the bottom of the 6th when Teddy Revelez took a Zack Stohlberg changeup 424 feet to deep right field for his 28th home run of the year. The two-run shot gave us an 11-0 advantage and gave Revelez 92 RBI on the season. Gib Glaus meanwhile was pitching his best game of his career: he had a three-hit shutout going with no walks and 10 strikeouts but had reached 92 pitches through 7 innings. With Gregg Basnett warming up since the beginning of the inning, Glaus promptly walked the leadoff man and then allowed a single for men on first and second and no outs in the top of the 8th. But a line out straight to Edgard Galdames caught the baserunner at second too far off the bag for a lucky doubleplay. Glaus had a lineout to end the inning, just three outs away from the 28-year old’s first ever Major League shutout. No troubles for Glaus in the 9th, even as Josh Frank warmed up Glaus mowed down the Blue Jays, picking up his 11th strikeout in the process for the 11-0 shutout. It is the first shutout for Glaus who has 135 career starts in 5½ seasons in the majors.

Trade Deadline: 11 Days:
On Wednesday night the Kansas City Royals completed a trade with the Cleveland Indians for a young second baseman that made laid-back 26-year old backup Ripley Johnson expendable. Johnson, a Los Angeles native and a regional rival of Nevada’s own Rowley Dickson, tore us up in a series earlier in the season and still has some time to develop into a quality player. Johnson can also play shortstop and I think he’s a better fit for us on our bench than shortstop Reydel Vazquez. While Vazquez might be a bit more versatile in that he can fill in at third base and while he has a little more pop in his bat than Johnson he’s also 30 years old and getting anxious for playing time and he can probably find some with the Royals whereas he’s just not going to play everyday here. Royals General Manager Aquilino Lopez wanted Vazquez and he and I agreed to the straight-up trade. Vazquez vacated his locker and his #55. Johnson wore #29 for Kansas City but closer Bill Mathis already wears that here so he decided to take #19. Even though the deal was completed on Thursday morning Johnson would be available for Thursday night’s game with the Blue Jays. Jeff Hance is going to give Johnson a couple of starts in the final two games of the series and has been told to use him liberally throughout September.

Thursday, July 22, 2021
Game 97 vs. Toronto Blue Jays
6-4 Win; 28,391 in attendance
W: Nakamura (15-2) L: Valent (4-7) H: Renteria (1) H: Frank (6) SV: Mathis (31)

Recap: Teddy Revelez jumped on Toronto starter Dion Valent in the first inning, sending an offering 417 feet and over the wall in right field to help give us an early 2-0 lead. We picked up another run in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a couple of walks and a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. In the bottom of the 4th Francisco Quinenes continued to snap out of his cold streak with a majestic 453-foot blast off of Valent to straightaway center field which made the score 5-0. In the top of the 6th the Blue Jays finally got to Nori Nakamura as a double and a long single scored Toronto’s first run of the game but Nakamura would finish the inning and exit the game after 110 pitches and 6 innings of work. Despite the 5-1 lead Toronto was outhitting us 8-4. Gregg Basnett got into the game this time but allowed a run for the second straight appearance, this time on two weak singles and a groundout – just bad bounces for him today really as the Jays clawed back to 5-2. Stacy Renteria started the 8th inning for us and promptly loaded the bases with no outs and allowed a run on a sac fly. After reloading the bases with a walk we yanked him and brought in Josh Frank to try and protect the 5-3 lead. The first batter Frank faced skied one to deep center which scored the runner from third base to make it 5-4 but he was able to get catcher Alex Dawson to ground out to end the inning. Dome Guevaro scored an insurance run on a Larry Alison sac fly in the bottom of the 8th inning before closer Bill Mathis induced three fly outs to Travis Byers in right field to end the game. Quinenes was named Player of the Game for his 2-for-4, 2 RBI performance. Mumbles Yamasita stole his 36th and 37th bases of the season but was also caught stealing for the 11th time this year. Toronto’s third baseman Adley Nicol went 3-for-5 for the Jays.

Game 98 Lineup
1. Yamasita, CF, L
2. Johnson, 2B, R (debut)
3. Guevaro, 3B, R
4. Byers, LF, R
5. Quinenes, RF, R
6. Arce, 1B, L
7. MacFall, SS, R
8. Raymundo, DH, L
9. McInally, C, R

Friday, July 23, 2021
Game 98 vs. Toronto Blue Jays
7-2 Loss; 29,050 in attendance
W: Salgardo (2-0) L: Cake (7-5)

Recap: This time it was Toronto jumping out to the 1st inning lead as they touched Fred Cake up for three runs on just two hits but three more walks from the man who has had no control of the strike zone since the All Star break and has become dangerously close to pitching himself straight out of the rotation. In the bottom of the 1st Ripley Johnson got a base hit in his first at-bat in an Oakland uniform and got a nice ovation from the home fans. But the big news in the inning was Dome Guevaro who had to come out of the game holding his sides after hitting a double. Initial medical reports received in-game from Dr. Rick Hartshorn were leaning towards a rib injury but ultimately inconclusive; Guevaro would have to go with Hartshorn tomorrow for further tests. Edgard Galdames entered the game in Dome’s slot in the batting order but would play shortstop as Jim MacFall moved to his natural position at third base. Cake settled down a bit until the 5th inning when, at exactly 100 pitches he was lifted for reliever Jonathan Leverett. With the bases already loaded Leverett walked in an inherited runner before striking out the next batter to end the inning but Toronto was all over us with a 7-1 lead. Francisco Quinenes continued his powersurge with his 17th home run of the season in the 6th inning against Emesto Salgardo to make the score 7-2 but that would be all we could manage off of Salgardo and Tadd Delancey in the final four innings of the game. Stacy Renteria pitched three scoreless innings of relief for us, giving up just one hit and striking out two. Cornelius McInally was 3-for-4 with a RBI in the contest. Toronto’s 31-year old designated hitter Antonio Guzma was named Player of the Game for a 3-for-5 performance including the game-winning RBI back in the 1st inning.

Injury Update
Quite possibly the worst sort of news coming from the medical team, in an updated medical report Dome Guevaro might be lost for the rest of the season with a torn abdominal muscle. It will be a huge blow to the club as Guevaro provided protection for Teddy Revelez in the lineup and was second in the club in both home runs (23) and RBI (90) while sporting a .309 batting average and .383 OBP in 369 at-bats. Guevaro has also in great shape all season long, and only needed four days off so far this season. We haven’t placed Guevaro on the disabled list just yet and we’re going to wait one more day to see if the situation changes at all. The only “good” thing is that it has happened roughly a week before the trade deadline and with us having one extra starting pitcher we might be able to deal for someone that can fill the gap the rest of the way. Backup Jim MacFall is a decent player but if we’re seriously going to think about a run to the playoffs we’ll need at least an established everyday player to man third base. With Guevaro out the lineup for the final game of the series we tweaked it a bit. All other healthy regular starters except Dan Volquez were back in the lineup following a loss.

Game 99 Lineup
1. Yamasita, CF, L
2. Galdames, SS, R
3. Tevelez, LF, S
4. Byers, LF, R
5. Quinenes, RF, R
6. Arce, 1B, L
7. Alison, C, R
8. MacFall, 3B, R
9. Johnson, 2B, R

Saturday, July 24, 2021
Game 99 vs. Toronto Blue Jays
2-0 Win; 30,323 in attendance
W: Dickson (15-2) L: Asbury (3-9)

Recap: Our first hit of the game off Blue Jays starter Malik Asbury didn’t come until the bottom of the 3rd inning but it was deposited by Mumbles Yamasita 428 feet to left/center field for his 12th home run of the year to give us a 1-0 lead. Rowley Dickson seemed to know how much this game meant to us with us about to lose Dome Guevaro for the rest of the season and he was throwing darts from the get-go, striking out seven Jays through the first four innings. We added another run in the bottom of the 5th off 25-year old Asbury to make it 2-0 but the Toronto righty in his first full season in the bigs pitched a pretty good game overall, going 6 innings and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 4 and walking 2. But the day belonged to Dickson, who dominated the Jays for 13 strikeouts and a 4-hit, complete game shutout. It was Dickson’s third shutout of the year which makes him the Major League leader this season but also the first shutout he’s thrown since May 3. Dickson’s 193 strikeouts on the year are third in the American League behind Boston’s Zach Duke (212) and Seattle’s Allen Swain (194).

Current Oakland Record: 68-31

Well despite the 3-games-to-1 series victory Dr. Rick Hartshorn confirmed our worst fears and ruled Dome Guevaro out of any action for the next 8 months. We immediately placed him on the 60-day disabled list. With the off day on Sunday we were able to finalize a contract with free agent third baseman Jamie Klee, who at 36-years old hasn’t played for anyone this year after being released last year by the Royals at the end of last season. In addition to picking up Klee we had a waiver claim accepted and executed for Cleveland’s 25-year old third baseman prospect “Grumpy” John Dodgson. Dodgson was hitting .267 with a .320 OBP in 409 at-bats for Cleveland’s AAA Buffalo Bisons affiliate. Dodgson’s 35 stolen bases currently place him second overall on the AAA leaderboard and he’ll report directly to AAA Sacramento as their new leadoff hitter. Dodgson is probably the best fielding third baseman we now have in our organization.

So over the weekend we gained at a lot of flexibility so that if we did decide to venture into the trade market we wouldn’t really be able to be held over a barrel by the opposing General Manager due to a lack of backup options. We could either platoon Klee with Jim MacFall, play either Klee or MacFall full-time, bring up Dodgson to give him a shot knowing he’d give us above average defense even if he couldn’t hit Major League pitching, or, the option that has been gaining favor in my mind, moving second baseman Dan Volquez over to third where he’s capable and playing Ripley Johnson as the everyday second baseman. With September just five weeks away anyway I think we now have decent enough cover that we wouldn’t need to make a trade, the very thing that makes a trade all the more appealing. Rumors instantly started to circulate on the internet and talk radio that Fred Cake was on the trading block.

bucketsndimes · 09-03-2007, 04:50 PM

That Fred Cake...

thehatfield · 09-04-2007, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bucketsndimes

That Fred Cake...

My master plan was to get both Fred Cake and his "brother" (who incidentally is an everyday third baseman) Bill Cake on the team this year but the Mets already traded for Bill from the Padres earlier this year. It would have been marketing gold!

Fred was just a stopgap free agent pickup and I'm thrilled he somehow got 7 wins. But I'm inclined to think the Guevaro injury is really going to start to expose the starting pitchers going forward and we can't have someone walking the ballpark every chance he gets. All of the trade options though are asking for too much in return right now so I don't think we're going to be able to swing anything else other than what we've already done.

Some other teams have been on the move, though:

TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE

A number of minor deals have been completed thus far and with just six days left until the embargo the biggest one has been between the Minnesota Twins who sent 31-year old 3-time All Star second baseman Mike Hoffmann to the Atlanta Braves for 29-year old left fielder Carl “Earthquake” Cleere (the San Rafael, California native is afraid of earthquakes, hence the nickname) and 32-year old right-handed reliever Bill Stewart. Hoffmann hit .278 with a .357 OBP and .507 SLG for Minnesota with 21 home runs, 65 RBI, and 59 runs scored but the Twins have been trying to make the switch to their 26-year old prospect Ken Watkins for the last 2½ years and can now play the young man everyday. Hoffmann is also signed for the next 2 years on an absurd contract that owes him $40 million over the next two seasons. New Twin Earthquake Cleere is also making $20 million a year but his contract is up at the end of the year. Cleere hit .276 with a .400 OBP and .579 SLG for Atlanta with 24 home runs, 65 RBI and 64 runs scored in 340 at-bats. 32-year old reliever Stewart was a throw-in and was 1-2 with 2 saves and a 4.86 ERA in 53 appearances and 66.2 innings pitched for the Braves. Stewart has allowed 13 home runs this year which is a career high however he’s never thrown more than 72 innings in a season before. He’s also already signed to a 3-year, $3 million contract extention which is reasonable these days if he’s actually near the end of the line. Both Cleere (2018) and Stewart (2017) have appeared in an All Star game.

thehatfield · 09-06-2007, 11:14 PM

Next Up: 3-game series on the road at New York Yankees

The disappointing 43-55 New York Yankees are 5-5 since the All Star break and took 2-of-3 games from the Indians just prior to this series. Despite being 12 games under .500 this is a team with enough talent (and a high enough payroll) to put together a big-time run if they can just get hot over a stretch of a few weeks. They’ve got some decent starting pitching which was strengthened by the recent acquisition of 32-year old former Seattle righty Pellegrin “Javelin” Lindeman, nicknamed such for his unusal pitching deleviry, but the bullpen is just horrible. 37-year old closer Andrew Sisco has blown one save in every five appearances with 20 saves and 5 blown to go along with an ERA of 4.46 in 39 innings pitched. He’s also allowed 43 hits and 17 walks for a WHIP over 1.50. 35-year old right fielder Stewart “Bug” Tingle is the longest-tenured Yankee, beginning his pinstripe career in 2008 after being claimed off waivers from San Francisco following the 2007 season. 13½ years, 6 All Star games and 453 career home runs later it just might be the best waiver claim of all-time and Tingle, while slowing his pace the last couple of years, is still a potent bat in the heart of the Yankee lineup. 29-year old left fielder George Harris made the All Star team in 2019 & 2020 and was in minor league MVP discussions during his brief two-year stay on the farm. Many in the vocal New York/New England media hub think he’s a year or two away from being in the same sort of space here in the big leagues, at least that’s what they keep telling us.

For us, Jamie Klee wasn’t going to start his first game in uniform. Manager Jeff Hance said he’ll probably give him a pinch hit at some point during Monday’s contest but no significant duties until after the trade deadline when we’ll have a clearer idea if he’s staying with the club for the rest of the year or not. Dan Volquez was going to move over to third base putting Ripley Johnson into the game as the second baseman. This is the first time we’re facing the Yankees this season.

Monday, July 26, 2021
Game 100 at New York Yankees
5-3 Loss; 28,514 in attendance
W: Gonzales (9-9) L: Knisley (11-8) SV: Eveland (1)

Recap: New York’s George Harris showed what all of the fuss was about with his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot to the short porch in right field, which gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning. In the top of the 3rd Edgard Galdames reached base on some confusion between the right fielder and center fielder as the ball dropped between them and eventually scored on a Luis Gonzales wild pitch. For Gonzales, the anchor of the Yankee rotation this year with a 8-9 record and 3.70 ERA in 136 innings pitched, it was his first wild pitch of the year. In the bottom of the 4th the Yankees would go back out on top by a 2-1 margin when 32-year old shortstop Pat Joseph crushed a 94-m.p.h. fastball from J.D. Knisley 427 feet to left/center for his 10th home run of the year. Other than the two solo home runs allowed Knisley was cruising into the bottom of the 7th inning and could probably consider himself unlucky to be behind as we had 11 hits to New York’s 4 but we had grounded into four rally-killing doubleplays (catcher Larry Alison had done the trick twice). In the 7th inning Knisley allowed three more runs on two walks and three straight singles to make the score 5-1. Teddy Revelez got one back with a solo shot of his own, his 30th home run of the year, in the top of the 8th to make it 5-2 but Gonzalez had enough left in the tank to finish off the inning. In the top of the 9th the Yankees brought in reliever Dana Eveland and with one out Larry Alison tried to make up for grounding into two doubleplays earlier with yet another solo home run, the fourth of the game, to cut the Yankee lead to 5-3. After Ripley Johnson struck out for the second out, pinch hitter Jamie Klee scorched a liner to center field for a hit in his first Oakland at-bat, but Mumbles Yamasita popped out to end the game. Despite allowing 12 hits Yanks starter Luis Gonzales was named Player of the Game for his 8 innings of work in the victory. Galdames was 3-for-5 for us in the loss. Even with all of the doubleplays we still left 10 men on base and we outhit the Yankees in the loss 14-to-8.

Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Game 101 at New York Yankees
5-4 Loss (walkoff); 29,212 in attendance
W: Isais (2-3) L: Rogers (1-1) H: Leverett (5) BS: Rogers (1)

Recap: We got out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning after two singles, a wild pitch, and two groundouts plated two runners. In the top of the 5th Ripley Johnson hit his first home run as an Athletic and just his second on the year when he smoked a Russ Edingtoun pitch 418 feet to deep left field making the score 3-0. In the bottom of the 5th inning Pat Joseph homered for the second straight game to cut our lead to 3-1 but Gib Glaus was able to bear down after the homer and strike out the next two batters to get out of the inning without further damage. In the top of the 8th inning Francisco Quinenes knocked in an insurance run with a single to right field which made the score 4-1. Glaus had to exit the game after 7 innings of work as his pitch count topped the century mark, he left with 4 hits allowed and 1 earned run, 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. Jonathan Leverett came on and instantly gave up a run and nearly gave up another but Travis Byers in right field gunned down Tommy “Cappy” Marquand attempting to advance from first to third on a powerful laser-like throw that stayed in the air the entire time. 4-2 after 8 innings and Yankee reliever Jorge Isais shut us down in the top of the 9th, walking Teddy Revelez with two outs and then striking out Travis Byers to end the inning. For some reason Manager Jeff Hance decided against bringing in closer Bill Mathis for the bottom of the 9th and instead handed the ball to Terry Rogers. Rogers struck out the first batter he saw before Pat Joseph, who has been killing us this series, singled to bring the tying run to the plate. After another single 26-year old first baseman Javier Juarhe from the Dominican Republic smacked a three-run home run 343 feet to right field to give the Yankees the improbable walk-off victory. We had now lost three of our last four games and were in danger of being swept in a series for the first time all year.

Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Game 102 at New York Yankees
7-0 Loss; 29,557 in attendance
W: St. John (5-7) L: Nakamura (15-3)

Recap: The Yankees came into this one absolutely grinding and had Nori Nakamura at 60 pitches and 4 walks after the first three innings, good enough for a 1-0 lead. New York added another run in the next inning on a fielder’s choice making it 2-0. Mumbles Yamasita, who was in danger of having his first hitless series since mid-April, got a single in the top of the 5th to keep that dubious mark at bay for yet another series. With the Dome Guevaro injury any poor run is certain to be magnified and Yamasita certainly knows it’s not the best of times to go ice cold. His batting average on the season has dropped below .370 for the first time in recent memory. In the bottom of the 5th Nakamura gave up a solo homer to Tommy Marquand who sent a 411-foot line-drive type shot straight into the left field seats. Marquand sprinted around the bases afterwards with the Yanks up 3-0. From my box I wondered if the manager and players were feeling the same thing I was – that 3-0 lead for New York looked like 300-0. Nakamura came out in the bottom of the 7th in favor of Gregg Basnett who let the first two men get on before George Harris emptied the bases with his 16th home run of the year to put us behind 6-0. Manager Jeff Hance essentially conceded the game by lifting Edgard Galdames for Jamie Klee and Teddy Revelez for Javier Raymundo in the top of the 8th. Jonathan Leverett couldn’t get through the bottom of the 8th unscathed as a walk and two hits brought in the Yankees’ 7th run. We couldn’t do anything in our half of the 9th and so it was a bitter end to the series. New York’s 29-year old journeyman starter Abe St. John shut us out for 7.2 innings in what was an ugly game all around – 6 combined errors.

Current Oakland Record: 68-34

Well we were feeling Dome Guevaro’s loss already. I knew we might be in some trouble if one of the Guevaro/Teddy Revelez duo were hurt for an extended period but it’s really too early to be making those sorts of statements or even having those sorts of thoughts. But they were there… getting swept for the first time all year will bring the paranoia straight out of you. There were still a few days before the trade deadline and with the strong performances put up by Gib Glaus lately the trade rumors have started to shift back to us getting rid of the “fourth lefty” in our present rotation.

thehatfield · 09-11-2007, 12:25 AM

Next Up: 3-game series on the road at Toronto

Maybe it was good that we had the Jays again so soon after taking 3-of-4 from them back in Oakland last week and with us holding a 5-2 record against them overall this season but the way I was reading omens lately my hunches didn’t really count for much. Both of us were coming into the series after having been swept (the Jays dropped 3 games at home to the Royals) but we were probably feeling worse after suffering a huge injury to our lineup and then the sweep (the first time we were swept all season). And figuring in the law of averages, the Jays were 3-11 since the All Star break, we were probably about to get steamrolled. Manager Jeff Hance has decided to swap Francisco Quinenes and Travis Byers in the everyday lineup, promoting the 20-year old rookie Quinenes to the cleanup spot and dropping Byers back down to his regular #5 slot. “Franny” already has more home runs (17) than Byers (14) and has significantly less at-bats to the tune of 150 less. Hance tried to play it safe with Quinenes before thrusting the 20-year old into the cleanup role but it looks like Quinenes is going to have to try and hold things down and provide protection for Teddy Revelez for the rest of the season so unfortunately we can’t really afford to bring him along slowly right now. Dan Volquez is going to continue playing third base for the rest of this series and Ripley Johnson will remain handling the duties at second base.

Current Lineup
1. Yamasita, CF, L
2. Galdames, SS, R
3. Revelez, LF, S
4. Quinenes, DH, R
5. Byers, RF, R
6. Arce, 1B, L
7. Alison, C, R
8. Johnson, 2B, R
9. Volquez, 3B, R

Thursday, July 29, 2021
Game 103 at Toronto Blue Jays
9-4 Loss; 19,019 in attendance
W: Veces (7-2) L: Cake (7-6)

Recap: Fred Cake, the only right-handed starter in our current pitching rotation, came into the game struggling lately and struggling overall with an ERA of 7.13 and he was touched up immediately before he even got an out in the bottom of the 1st inning, walking the leadoff man and then allowing two consecutive singles for an early 1-0 lead for Toronto. Larry Alison got the run right back in the top of the 2nd when he drilled a homer 384 feet to left field, his 6th on the year and 4th since coming to us to be the everyday catcher a little over a month ago from Cincinnati. A horrible throwing error into the stands by 30-year old Toronto shortstop Jake Salters on a play at first allowed Mumbles Yamasita to walk home from third base in the top of the 3rd inning to give us a 2-1 advantage. Two more hits and a walk by the Jays off Fred Cake in the bottom of the 3rd led to another run and we were right back where we had started with the game now knotted at 2-2. In the top of the 4th yet another run as Ripley Johnson slid in hard to break up a doubleplay and that allowed Jose Arce to score from third base on the Dan Volquez fielder’s choice. The 3-2 lead would be short lived as Cake continued the control problems we’ve seen in his last several starts, two more walks including one with the bases loaded to tie the game 3-3. But as usual Cake was able to slither away from a tough situation with just minimal damage. After the first scoreless inning of the game in the 5th, Toronto’s first baseman Gawain Quinney launched his 5th home run of the year, a 361-foot solo bomb to the opposite field in right in the bottom of the 6th to put the Jays up 4-3. With a relatively low pitch count at 75 pitches we had no one warming in the bullpen. But Cake changed that immediately when he walked his sixth batter of the night and then allowed five straight hits for a Toronto 7-3 lead which brought Josh Frank into the game. With inherited baserunners on second and third and one out Adley Nichol spanked the very first pitch from Frank to right field which plated both runners for a Toronto 9-3 advantage. Frank got next two hitters to finally end a 6-run, 6-hit inning for the Jays. In the top of the 7th inning Yamasita plated Ripley Johnson with a double off Toronto reliever Felipe Veces. With two outs in the top of the 7th Teddy Revelez had to come out of the game after running down to first base after a walk. He was replaced by Javier Raymundo and all of Athletics nation held their collective breath. There was no way we’d be able to survive long-term injuries to both Revelez and Dome Guevaro. In the top of the 9th Raymundo came up with two men on and two outs but he struck out to end the game.

Injury Update
Much to our collective relief, Teddy Revelez was day-to-day with a strained calf muscle. Since I hadn’t spoken with Dr. Rick or Jeff Hance directly it wasn’t clear to me whether or not he injured it jogging down to first base after an intentional walk in the 7th inning or if he tweaked it earlier in the game. Regardless, he’d probably only have to sit out the last two games of the series since we had another off day coming up this Sunday. Fairfax von Schoening had started to throw again and he’d be ready to return to the bullpen and be activated from the disabled list on Sunday so between Revelez and the Baron we’d have a nice boost to kick off the month of August. Right-hander Fred Cake simply wasn’t looking like a Major League starter in the past month and he was the only righty in our rotation. We’ve been attempting to address this problem recently but there aren’t a lot of options with salary considerations and a lack of quality chips in the farm system. We might have to recall Neifi Villaluazo since Stacy Renteria has done okay out of the bullpen in his limited appearances and deal Gib Glaus for a Major League-ready righty over the next couple of days if we can.

TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE: 48 Hours
The Minnesota Twins signaled their true intentions on why they traded away 3-time All Star second baseman Mike Hoffmann to the Braves for 29-year old center fielder Carl “Earthquake” Cleere by announcing a 5-year, $104,250,000 extension for Cleere in a press conference that led the baseball news on Thursday evening. The announcement didn’t exactly thrill fans of the Twins as they complained that Cleere was already vastly overpaid while with the Braves (where he pulled in $20 million-per-season) and now it seemed as if the Braves would be stuck with Cleere for better or for worse locked into that salary.

The Angels made news too by trading their 34-year old, 3-time All Star left fielder Javier Mejines to the wheeling-and-dealing Atlanta Braves for 36-year old starter Manny Casteano, and promising 26-year old reliever Mitsuoki Nozaki who was the cornerstone of the deal. A year after hitting .283 with 56 homers and 168 RBI for the Angels, Mejines was hitting just .216 with 17 homers and 57 RBI in 380 at-bats this season in Los Angeles, on pace for the lowest numbers of his career. He’s owed $15.5 million next season which the Braves will now have to fork out so this looks like a really smart move for the Angels to dump salary, strengthen the bullpen, and get an upgrade for the #5 starter slot in one swoop. With the addition of Casteano to their rotation the Angels immediately placed their Fred Cake clone Martin Thompson on waivers and we, sadly, sniffed around the 28-year old righty for a few moments before smashing our fingers with a hammer to break the trance and avoid making any silly roster moves. Unless they make any last-minute deals the Angels will split duties in left field between 34-year old journeyman Al Eliason and 21-year old Chinese rookie Yi Yan. New Angel reliever Nozaki was an Oakland 7th round draft choice, 184th overall, in 2013.

In Tampa Bay their General Manager, Manuel Silva, the guy who I replaced here in Oakland, is feeling from Rays fans exactly what I felt here from the A’s faithful when I first started and traded away Rich Harden – a lot of hate. Silva traded away 36-year old Scott Kazmir who has spent his entire 16½-year career in Tampa to Milwaukee for a 28-year old All Star caliber catcher Auggie Compton. Kazmir is 249-145 in his career as a starter, with an excellent 3.22 career ERA in 3,565.2 career innings. If his career ended right now he’s probably not Hall of Fame material since there are only four pitchers in the Hall but there would be an argument as he’s 15th all-time in wins, 21st in ERA, and one of only five pitchers with over 4,000 career strikeouts.

We still hadn’t done anything on the trade front. Anyone interested in Gib Glaus didn’t want to give up a starter in return and no one was going to take Fred Cake for anything more than a low minor leaguer. Times were tough. We were facing our first 5-game losing streak of the season if we couldn’t get things together.

Friday, July 30, 2021
Game 104 at Toronto Blue Jays
3-2 Loss (walk off); 10,628 in attendance
W: Candelas (2-2) L: Basnett (1-3)

Recap: Despite loading the bases in the bottom of the 4th inning on a hit batter and two walks, Rowley Dickson was tossing a no-hitter through 4.2 innings before second baseman David Goss cracked a single in the bottom of the 5th inning. Another infield single, another hit batter, and a single to center field and the Jays had somehow crept ahead 1-0. Dickson finished the 5th inning down 1-0 but already at the 92 pitch mark. Toronto’s Roberto Candelas, a 25-year old spot starter that mainly operates out of the Jays’ bullpen, was mowing down our very ordinary looking lineup inning after inning. Candelas opened the top of the 6th inning by beaning Edgard Galdames in what seemed fair retaliation for Dickson’s two hit batters earlier, but of course a bit silly to do to the leadoff hitter in an inning. But the next batter Javier Raymundo grounded into an easy doubleplay to erase the threat and help Candelas get through the inning. Toronto’s Adley Nicol led off the bottom of the 6th with a double off Dickson and came in to score the Jays’ second run of the game on an Ajax Churchman infield single. We were able to come back in the top of the 7th with two runs to tie the game on a couple of hits but the key plays of the inning were two errors committed by Ajax Churchman in right field. Normally a left fielder with 73 starts in left, Churchman was starting just his fifth game of the season in right for Toronto. The score remained 2-2 until the bottom of the 9th inning when reliever Gregg Basnett allowed a leadoff double to pinch hitter Jose Rojasacusta. After a groundout to Dan Volquez at third base which couldn’t advance the runner Rojasacusta was greenlighted to steal and he grabbed third base with one out. Basnett induced another ground ball to third base which forced Volquez to throw home but the throw was too late. Toronto wins 3-2 and our losing streak extends to five games. Candelas threw a complete game against us, allowing 8 hits while only walking 1 against 5 strikeouts. Dickson finished the game with 7 hits and 4 walks allowed through 8 innings, striking out 8 Blue Jays in the process. Basnett is credited only with a third of an inning. His ERA is now an embarrassing 7.32.

Saturday, July 31, 2021
Game 105 at Toronto Blue Jays
7-2 Win; 21,639 in attendance
W: Knisley (12-8) L: Aguilar (7-10)

Recap: The Jays had improved to just 49-54 with their victories in the previous two games and they seemed to have a bit of a swagger in their step that was undeserved as they took the field which went noticed by our players prepping for the game in the dugout. And leave it to the most outspoken member of the A’s this season Jose Arce to deliver a big three-run, 418-foot homer in the top of the 1st inning off Toronto starter Roberto Aguilar to give us the early 3-0 lead. It was Arce’s 13th home run of the year. J.D. Knisley was looking pretty sharp until two hanging sliders in a row in the bottom of the 4th inning were pounded for back-to-back doubles leading to Toronto’s first run of the game. In the top of the 5th inning Mumbles Yamasita cracked his own 418-foot shot, also his 13th of the year, but this one a solo shot to make it 4-1. It was the first time all season two players on the same team both reached 13 home runs on 418-foot homers. Later in the same inning Travis Byers connected for his 15th home run of the season on a 392-foot liner down the line in left field to make the score 5-1. Blue Jays reliever Felipe Veces took over in the top of the 6th inning but Larry Alison blasted Veces’ second pitch 419 feet to left field to extend the lead to 6-1. Once the distance was posted on the JumboTron Alison seemed to mock the “feeble” 418-foot homers of Yamasita and Arce in the dugout as everyone had a fun moment and looked pretty loose despite all of my worry and five straight losses. Closer Bill Mathis came into the game with the 6-1 lead in the top of the 8th after 7 strong innings from Knisley just to get some work in since he hadn’t been used in recent memory. Mathis wasn’t great, giving up a run on three hits over 2 innings, but he certainly seemed to knock the rust off near the end as he struck out the last two batters he faced. We added our final run in the top of the 9th after a double, two walks and a sac fly.

Current Oakland Record: 69-36

We had gone 1-5 in our last 6 games and we’d be limping back to Oakland to kick off 6 games at home against Baltimore and Tampa Bay. After those two series the Angels would be waiting in the wings and if we were still playing poorly a week from now Los Angeles might be able to get themselves back into the divisional race. Of course the good news was that Fairfax von Schoening would be returning to the bullpen and Teddy Revelez to the lineup for the first game against the Orioles.

With the trade deadline upon us I discovered after the game a number of emails, texts, and voicemails from teams that were now in a position to deal.

thehatfield · 09-28-2007, 08:24 AM

Code:

 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STANDINGS - JULY 31, 2021

   AMERICAN LEAGUE           NATIONAL LEAGUE
   Eastern Division          Eastern Division
 Boston      63-41  -      New York     68-37  -  
 Baltimore   55-50  8½     Philadelphia 62-43  6 
 New York    49-55 14      Florida      48-57 20  
 Toronto     49-55 14      Washington   45-59 22½
 Tampa Bay   46-60 18      Atlanta      35-71 33½

   Central Division          Central Division
 Chicago     66-40  -      Chicago    66-39  -       
 Detroit     53-51 12      Cincinnati 54-51 12
 Cleveland   48-57 17½     St. Louis  45-59 20½ 
 Minnesota   47-57 18      Pittsburgh 43-63 23½
 Kansas City 47-57 18      Houston    40-65 26
                           Milwaukee  34-71 32
   Western Division
 Oakland     69-36  -        Western Division
 Los Angeles 56-48 12½     Arizona       68-38  -
 Texas       55-49 13½     Los Angeles   67-38  ½
 Seattle     44-61 25      Colorado      59-45  8
                           San Diego     46-59 21½ 
                           San Francisco 46-61 22½

Standings Analysis: In the few weeks since the All Star break the New York Yankees had pulled themselves out of the AL East cellar and had gone from 12 to 6 games under .500 with a stretch of good play. The Toronto Blue Jays have had the exact opposite experience (until their last series against us) and have dropped from second place down to tied with the Yanks for third. Baltimore remains steady in second place while the Devil Rays’ 6-11 string since the break has dropped them into the basement. It’s shaping up to be a wild month of August in the AL East with the Yanks catching fire and the Orioles playing solid ball. All eyes are on the Boston Red Sox starting rotation as 37-year old future Hall of Famer Zach Duke leads an aging starting staff (4 of the 5 starters are at least 35 years old). The Sox have had a long stretch of dominance with 13 playoff appearances and 3 World Series Championships in 15 years and most of those were built on Duke and a strong, young rotation around him. Some experts are predicting a “last chance” sort of season for Boston and could see them coming back to the pack next year.

In the Central division the White Sox stayed on top and gained three games on us for the best record in American League. Second-place Detroit fell back from 5½ games to 12 games behind Chicago with a 6-11 mark. At the All Star break various pundits speculated that while the Tigers had enjoyed an unusually long period of good play in the first half of the season they simply weren’t talented enough to hang onto second place for the remainder of the year. The Cleveland, Minnesota, Kansas City swamp at the bottom of the Central has room for one more member and if Detroit isn’t careful that’s exactly where they’re going to end up. Kansas City has looked very lively of late among the bottom-feeders as they continue to inject their 25-man roster with members from the AAA Omaha Royals.

Despite the fact that we were 1-5 in our last 6 games we had added two games onto our lead over the Angels in the AL West. Los Angeles are just playing dreadful, uninspired baseball at the moment but even so if the season ended today the Angels would be in the playoffs as the American League Wild Card. But they have to be careful, though. The Texas Rangers aren’t doing well because of luck or above-their-head play they are doing well because they are a talented young club on the rise. These are the very earliest days of looking at the Wild Card but everyone is saying the Rangers probably have what it takes to be there at the end. Seattle has consistently been at or near the bottom of the American League all year in terms of record but they’re going to have to work if they want to challenge the Atlanta Braves or Milwaukee Brewers for the worst in baseball. As has been mentioned previously, Seattle doesn’t seem to have much of a direction at the moment as they trade away prospects for established players in one deal and then do the exact opposite in the next.

The only real change in the National League East is that the Mets have increased their lead over the Phillies from one to six games. The defending World Series champ Metropolitans have been in first place all year and Philly’s mini-swoon just after the All Star break have raised questions about the Fightnin’s pitching staff. An injury to their star center fielder Seiichi Takahashi hasn’t helped. Atlanta has been absolutely atrocious this season. They are the only ones who are willing to bite on a trade for Gib Glaus but all we’d get back would be a middle reliever and a prospect and a starter for a reliever just doesn’t make good baseball sense. Sandwiched in between are Florida and Washington… Washington has been playing better baseball of late but both teams are considered non-factors for the long haul.

The Senior Circuit's Central Division is also holding form and the Cubs have recently extended their lead over the Reds to double-digits. The two times the Cubs have made it to the World Series (2009 & 2013) they’ve won it all and optimism abounds once again at Wrigley Field as they look to get back to the playoffs for the second straight year. The Reds have been playing a hair above .500 baseball for the last month straight while St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Milwaukee just drift off away out of the picture more than 20 games out of first place. There hasn’t been any drama in the division for the last two months as the Cubs have coasted.

The top of the National League West has been superior all season long – the third place Colorado Rockies would be the Wild Card leaders if they were in the American League – while the bottom two have been near or over the 20 games out of first place mark for over a month. The Dodgers have the third-highest payroll in baseball while Arizona is fifth (Colorado, by contrast, is 25th) so it’s likely going to be a dogfight between the two down the stretch as it has been for about the last month and a half. This is the only division in Major League Baseball where the experts think it’s a toss up for the division title but with a lack of faith in Philadelphia they consistently agree that whomever finishes second will win the Wild Card. San Francisco and San Diego have been whipping boys for the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Rockies all season long.

thehatfield · 09-29-2007, 12:13 PM

Code:

Name              G  GS  W  L HLD SV BS   IP   HA HR   R  ER  BB   K   ERA  OAVG. CG SHO Name 
Dickson SP       23  23 15  2  0   0  0 166.1 132  9  43  43  26 201  2.33  .213   5  3  Dickson SP
Knisley SP       22  22 12  8  0   0  0 161.2 141 27  75  71  51 192  3.95  .230   6  0  Knisley SP
Nakamura SP      20  20 15  3  0   0  0 133.2 153 14  76  65  52 130  4.38  .284   1  1  Nakamura SP
Cake SP          17  17  7  6  0   0  0  93.0 111 22  81  79  62  94  7.59  .288   0  0  Cake SP
Glaus SP         10  10  4  3  0   0  0  72.0  56 10  27  24  18  76  3.00  .211   2  1  Glaus SP
Villaluazo SP     9   9  4  2  0   0  0  56.0  55  7  26  26  21  67  4.18  .255   0  0  Villaluazo SP
Mathis CL        39   0  4  1  0  31  4  44.2  34  1   8   8   5  47  1.61  .206   0  0  Mathis CL
Leverett MR      26   0  2  2  5   1  1  39.1  50  3  23  23   9  39  5.26  .303   0  0  Leverett MR
von Schoening MR 26   0  2  0  9   3  1  38.0  21  2   9   9  11  40  2.13  .160   0  0  von Schoening MR
Basnett MR       28   0  1  3  6   1  0  35.2  49  6  31  29  18  27  7.32  .318   0  0  Basnett MR
Frank MR         25   0  2  1  6   1  1  35.1  34  4  15  14   9  35  3.57  .254   0  0  Frank MR
Rogers MR        26   0  1  1  6   1  1  34.2  55  4  20  20   5  26  5.19  .353   0  0  Rogers MR
Stanely SP        5   4  0  3  0   0  0  26.1  37  5  24  24  18  14  8.20  .327   0  0  Stanely SP
Renteria MR       5   0  0  1  1   0  0   6.2   6  0   3   3   2   5  4.05  .240   0  0  Renteria MR 
Name              G  GS  W  L HLD SV BS   IP   HA HR   R  ER  BB   K   ERA  OAVG. CG SHO Name

What's Going On?
The stats include everyone that has pitched for the A’s this season. The following players are currently not on the 25-man roster:

Rick Stanely (AAA)
Fairfax von Schoening (disabled list)
Neifi Villaluazo (AAA)

It’s pretty clear that Fred Cake shouldn’t be at the Major League level, at least not with us. I don’t know how in the world we were able to extract 7 wins from him as he has just seemed completely shot as of late. We need someone with more control holding down the #5 slot in the rotation and so it looks like our only option will be to recall Neifi Villaluazo from AAA Sacramento where he’s gone 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in four rehab starts since coming back from the disabled list from a back injury. We’ll probably end up designating him for assignment although Royals officials have strangely stated that they are agreeable to a one-for-one deadline deal where they would give up a low minor leaguer. They seem very coy about the situation but for the life of me I can’t imagine why especially when no other team we’ve asked will even agree to come out and look at him. When you see the stats for 23-year old reliever Gregg Basnett you might be inclined to think we have another pitcher that doesn’t belong in the Majors with his 7.32 ERA and 1.88 WHIP but pitching coach Calvino Sanchez loves Basnett’s stuff and thinks he’s just a year or two away from being a superior reliever. We’re probably going to send him down to Sacramento for a couple of weeks to get some confidence back against AAA hitters. His ERA is over two runs-per-game higher than it was last year in Seattle and his spot on the roster will be claimed by Fairfax von Schoening returning from the disabled list. Hopefully Baron von Schoening will be fully recovered from his knee injury… that one can always be tricky for a pitcher, especially one that relies on velocity like von Schoening. Our 27-year old hippie closer Bill “Crunchy” Mathis has been incredible this season with a WHIP of 0.87 and just five walks and one home run allowed in 44.2 innings pitched. Mathis leads the majors with 31 saves (Philadelphia’s 24-year old closer Jose Martinez is second with 30 saves, the only other pitcher right now with at least 30 saves this season). Rowley Dickson is near the top of a lot of pitching categories including wins (his 15 ties him for the Major League lead with teammate Nori Nakamura and the White Sox’s Bowie van Ingen) but his 2.33 ERA is fair amount behind Boston Red Sox legend Zach Duke’s MLB-best 2.03 and Dickson’s 201 strikeouts are second to Duke’s 222 if you’re wondering about the early days of the Cy Young Award picture.

thehatfield · 10-01-2007, 08:35 AM

Code:

Name           G   AB   R   H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB   K  SB CS  AVG.  OBP.  SLG.  Name
Byers RF     101  422  57 131  20  1  15  79  20  43   2  3  .310  .339  .469  Byers RF
Yamasita CF   99  392 102 143  27  4  13  44  77  47  37 11  .365  .471  .554  Yamasita CF
Galdames SS   94  391  73 124  21  1   4  47  36  50   5  4  .317  .381  .407  Galdames SS
Arce 1B      103  377  47  99  16  0  13  58  49  66   3  3  .263  .361  .408  Arce 1B
Guevaro 3B*   94  369  62 114  16  0  23  90  44  46   1  1  .309  .383  .539  Guevaro 3B*
Revelez LF    98  334  91 121  21  3  30  94 116  15   1  4  .362  .526  .713  Revelez LF
Quinenes CF   68  255  33  71  10  1  17  52  14  56   1  4  .278  .322  .525  Quinenes CF
McInally C    70  249  23  57   7  2   5  27  19  82   0  1  .229  .286  .333  McInally C
Page 2B*      34  129  10  26   4  0   0   5   4  41   1  1  .202  .235  .233  Page 2B*
O'Bryant 2B*  30  112  14  30   8  0   1  17  16  18   0  0  .268  .374  .366  O'Bryant 2B*
Corliss 1B    37  110  18  28   6  0   1   9   8  20   0  1  .255  .308  .336  Corliss 1B
Alison C      29  108  21  35   8  0   5  14  12  23   1  0  .324  .388  .537  Alison C 
Volquez 2B    29  105  13  25   7  1   0  12  10  19   0  0  .238  .310  .324  Volquez 2B
Vazquez SS*   28   80  14  19   3  0   0   4  13  26   1  0  .237  .344  .275  Vazquez SS*
Meagher C*    23   66   9  17   4  0   0  12   5  14   0  0  .258  .324  .318  Meagher C*
MacFall 3B    25   52   7  13   3  1   0   1   5   7   0  0  .250  .316  .346  MacFall 3B
Raymundo LF   25   51   6  15   5  0   1  12   5   9   0  1  .294  .351  .451  Raymundo LF
Johnson 2B     8   30   2   6   0  0   1   3   2   8   0  0  .200  .250  .300  Johnson 2B 
Holsinger CF* 12   23   2   2   1  0   0   1   1   9   0  0  .087  .125  .130  Holsinger CF*
Dickson SP     3   10   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   4   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Dickson SP
Knisley SP     3    9   1   2   1  0   0   0   0   2   0  0  .222  .222  .333  Knisley SP
Nakamura SP    1    4   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Nakamura SP 
Cake SP        1    3   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   2   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Cake SP
Glaus SP       1    2   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   1   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Glaus SP
Klee SS        2    2   0   1   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .500  .500  .500  Klee SS
Basnett RP     2    1   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Basnett RP    
Leverett MR    2    1   0   1   0  0   0   1   0   0   0  0 1.000 1.000 1.000  Leverett MR
Mathis CL      5    1   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Mathis CL
Villaluazo SP* 1    1   0   0   0  0   0   0   0   1   0  0  .000  .000  .000  Villaluazo SP*
Name           G   AB   R   H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB   K  SB CS  AVG.  OBP.  SLG.  Name

What’s Going On?
The stats include everyone that has hit for the A’s this season. The following players are currently not on the 25-man roster and are marked with an asterisk above:

Ken O’Bryant 2B (disabled list [season])
Dome Guevaro 3B (disabled list [season])
Tanyon Meagher C (AA)
Neifi Villaluazo SP (AAA)
Bertram Holsinger CF (AAA)
Artie Page 2B (traded to Cincinnati Reds 6/23)
Reydel Vazquez SS (traded to Kansas City 7/22)

Look at the obscene OBP that a few of our players carry and then try to get your head around the idea that our team OBP of .374 isn’t even the best in our own division (the Angels are at .375), nevermind the rest of the American League or the National League and MLB-leading Arizona Diamondbacks who are at .390! Losing Dome Guevaro for the rest of the season has already sent a ripple down our spine as evidenced by our 1-5 record in our last 6 games. Guevaro hasn’t been the flashiest of players and certainly had some troubles from time to time at third base (9 errors) but he was able to provide ample cover for Teddy Revelez in the lineup with his timely hitting with men in scoring position. 20-year old rookie Francisco Quinenes was called up to the big club in May and has forced his way into the everyday lineup as the regular designated hitter. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on him to perform now as he and 24-year old Travis Byers attempt to give Revelez some relief in the heart of the lineup. Speaking of young and talented, despite his recent “cold streak” Mumbles Yamasita leads the American League in batting with his .365 average (Revelez is second at .362; Arizona’s Jose Selgado leads MLB at .374). He also leads the AL in stolen bases with 37 despite being thrown out 11 times (San Francisco’s Adriel Holder leads MLB with 49 steals) and is tied with Chicago’s Michael O’Toole for the AL lead in runs scored. New second baseman Ripley Johnson hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts since coming over from the Royals but it has only been eight games thus far. Larry Alison has settled in well behind the plate and is seeing the ball well too with a .324 batting average since coming over from the Reds (where he hit .256 with a .286 OBP and just 2 home runs in 121 at-bats). Alison only ever said he wanted to play everyday and he’s been a fantastic upgrade over fan-favorite Cornelius McInally. Teddy Revelez leads MLB in walks, OBP, and OBPS and with the season-ending injury to Los Angeles’ Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez the door may be open for him to get back into MVP consideration. Teddy now has the perfect opportunity to show his worth with Guevaro out for the year but it remains to be seen if Revelez can carry the team on his own… since he is walked so often by opposition managers in tight situations many fans seem to think he compiles his stats when games have already been decided.

thehatfield · 10-06-2007, 01:32 PM

TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE: Last-Second Deals

Midnight came… and went. Nothing happened. No deals at all on Saturday. The way deals had been coming down the pike fast and furious this was a bit of a letdown to say the least. We thought we had the deal of the century lined up - Fred Cake for Kansas City’s 23-year old prospect Dale Ham, but at the last moment we just couldn’t complete the Cake-for-Ham exchange. Instead we did designate that Fred Cake for assignment as was the fallback plan and immediately replaced him on the roster with Neifi Villaluazo. We also decided to send Gregg Basnett down to AAA where he’ll be the closer for the River Cats. Basnett’s spot in the bullpen was filled by Fairfax von Schoening coming back off the disabled list.

In some nice news, Francisco Quinenes was named American League Rookie of the Month for the month for July. Quinenes batted .298 with a .342 OBP, 8 home runs, and 23 RBI in 104 at-bats. Should be a nice boost to his confidence as he attempts to help fill the void in the lineup left by Dome Guevaro’s season-ending injury.

Next Up: 3-game series at home against Baltimore

Teddy Revelez is back in the lineup from his calf tweak. Nothing much else really to say; Baltimore have been playing good ball and are of course the home of 25-year old Chinese sensation Ming Chew who is probably the favorite for AL Rookie of the Year with his .306 batting average, .399 on-base percentage, .468 slugging, 17 homers, 76 runs scored, and 53 RBI.

There’s a chance that one game of this series is going to be a bit awkward from my standpoint as it marks the return to Oakland of starting pitcher Rich Harden for the first time since I traded him for Travis Byers in the off-season. If anyone was going to be on an emotional roller coaster it was probably Harden but I’m sure he’s going to get a great ovation from the A’s faithful regardless of performance. He just threw 66 pitches yesterday and I wager that if we see him it probably wouldn’t be until Wednesday. I don’t know if he asked not to pitch while they were out here or if the management worked the rotation to keep him out of this series or if it was just how the natural rotation fell but it certainly would be interesting to see Harden back out on the Coliseum hill as he sits on 199 career victories.

Current Lineup
1. Yamasita, CF, L
2. Galdames, SS, R
3. Revelez, LF, S
4. Quinenes, DH, R
5. Byers, RF, R
6. Arce, 1B, L
7. Alison, C, R
8. Johnson, 2B, R
9. Volquez, 3B, R

Monday, August 2, 2021
Game 106 vs. Baltimore Orioles
5-1 Loss; 30,895 in attendance
W: Roark (5-1) L: Glaus (4-4)

Recap: If you could have a “trap game” in the middle of a 162-game baseball season this one might have been it for Gib Glaus. He’s certainly been a decent left-handed arm since joining the rotation as six of his 11 starts have been deemed “quality” but he’s also been at the heart of trade rumors for as long as I can remember. Some of this had to do with the mole inside our organization leaking false rumors to the press but some of the talks for Gibby were on the level and naturally you have to wonder whether he was relieved or disappointed to still be in an A’s jersey after the trade deadline. After getting though the first two innings with just 10 pitches thrown total, the Orioles sat back and worked two walks in the top of the third. Baltimore’s 30-year old catcher Tormey Hager doubled in both runners to give the O’s the initial 2-0 advantage. That advantage would end up holding up all game thanks in large part to Baltimore’s 19-year old rookie left-hander Carl Roark who improved his career and season record to 5-1 with a 4 hit, 2 walk, 5 strikeout performance. This was probably the most dominant pitching performance against us since the Dodgers’ Rio Basurto threw a no-hitter against us in L.A. back on May 21 during interleague play. There was a lot of high praise thrown at the 19-year old as this game was definitely the best performance at the Coliseum by a visiting starter all year. Baltimore’s other rookie sensation, right fielder Ming Chew, went 2-for-4 with an RBI as did center fielder and #9 hitter Chad Becker. Roark was named Player of the Game. Edgard Galdames had two hits for us in the loss. Returning from injury, Fairfax von Schoening pitched in his first game since July 15 and went 1.1 scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Josh Frank threw 1.2 innings of relief and struck out four but he also allowed a run. Glaus went 6 innings, giving up 10 hits and a walk while striking out six. Baltimore outhit us for the game 12-to-4.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Game 107 vs. Baltimore Orioles
3-2 Win; 30,887 in attendance
W: Nakamura (16-3) L: Tucker (12-8) H: Leverett (6) SV: Mathis (32)

Recap: It looked like things were going to get ugly early as Ming Chew and Tormey Hager both walked in the top of the first against Nori Nakamura and then came home on a long double by 24-year old third baseman Tomas “Franchise” Sanchez who was playing as the DH. Teddy Revelez tried to throw Hager out from the left field corner but there was no chance to get him. Nakamura settled down though and it remained 2-0 until the bottom of the 3rd inning when Dan Volquez doubled off Baltimore’s 26-year old righty starter Oscar Tucker and then was driven home on a Revelez double. After Francisco Quinenes walked, Travis Byers doubled to right field to score Revelez but Quinenes was thrown out at the plate on the play by a strong throw from the Chinese sensation Chew to end the inning with the score 2-2. In the bottom of the 6th inning light-hitting second baseman Ripley Johnson hit a 369-foot solo shot down the left field line to put us ahead by what would be the final margin of 3-2. The Orioles really helped Nakamura out in this one by swinging at bad pitches to keep his pitch count relatively low and to let him off the hook for his 5 walks in 6 innings of work. In his last four starts Nakamura has walked 17 batters yet he is 3-1 in those starts and by notching his 16th victory of the year he is tied with Chicago’s Bowie van Ingen for the most wins in the American League. With manager Jeff Hance afraid to use Fairfax von Schoening in back-to-back games so soon after coming back from injury he went with last year’s closer Jonathan Leverett who gave up two hits and struck out two in two scoreless innings of relief. Bill Mathis pitched in his first save situation since July 22 and looked pretty sharp in a 10-pitch 9th inning to secure his 32nd save of the year. Even though it was a close game there wasn’t much tension in the building which was a bit disappointing. The crowd was definitely flat, almost as if they expected us to lose.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Game 108 vs. Baltimore Orioles
4-3 Loss; 31,500 in attendance
W: Min (8-5) L: Villaluazo (4-3) H: DeLeslie (4) H:Swindle (11) H: Sanchez (2) SV: Bash (2)

Recap: Neifi Villaluazo made his first Major League start since May 22 and was halfway decent – 6 innings, 7 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts – but it wasn’t enough to match the tough-dealing 36-year old Taiwanese veteran Ki-tong Min who gave up just 4 hits and 1 run in his six innings as Baltimore built a 4-1 lead. Both key blows for the O’s were delivered by 19-year old second baseman John Benavides who knocked in three runs on a two out, bases loaded double in the 3rd inning and then capped Baltimore’s scoring with a solo home run in the 5th inning. Min’s only run allowed was a 422-foot bomb by Travis Byers, his 16th of the season, in the bottom of the 6th inning. With us trailing 4-1 manager Jeff Hance went with Stacy Renteria for two scoreless innings of relief before Terry Rogers somehow managed to wriggle out of trouble in the top of the 9th after hitting a batter and walking another with no outs. Baltimore’s 24-year old right-handed closer Jose Sanchez came on to start the bottom of the 9th and immediately gave up back-to-back singles to Larry Alison and Ripley Johnson. Hance then pinch hit the lefty Javier Raymundo for Dan Volquez and Raymundo managed to earn a walk to load the bases with no outs. For the first time this series the crowd came to life only to be a bit deflated by a Mumbles Yamasita strikeout. Edgard Galdames then singled home both Alison and Johnson to cut the Baltimore lead to 4-3 and in one of the strangest managerial moves I’ve ever seen, Baltimore pulled their closer in favor of 30-year old lefty veteran Abraham Bash who would have to face the switch-hitting Revelez and then two righties in Francisco Quinenes and Travis Byers. Bash promptly walked Revelez to re-load the bases but in a horrible moment Raymundo was picked off of third base by the left-handed Bash, making this inning even stranger. Bash then induced a game-ending groundout from Quinenes to lock down just his second save of the year. Baltimore played this game like a playoff game and despite the strange moves coming from their dugout I think they deserved the win as we again looked like the players were just taking a vacation out there

Current Oakland Record: 70-38

Not seeing Rich Harden in this series was a big letdown for the fans. We were now 2-7 in our last 9 games and with us unable to do anything at the trade deadline this would pretty much have to be the team to take us the rest of the way this year. We all know the situation that we’re in and no one is panicked but certainly a bad slide after losing a regular lineup member could turn into something much worse if it wasn’t stemmed quickly. With the 48-61 Devil Rays coming to town next for a 3-game set we might be catching the right team to help us turn things back around even though they’re playing better baseball than us of late (5-5 in their last 10). What has been worrying since the Dome Guevaro injury though is my perception that the team is starting to lack the confidence needed to overcome deficits. There’s going to be a lot more pressure than ever now on our bullpen but I think both Fairfax von Schoening and Bill Mathis are ready to handle the load in close games. All indications are that von Schoening has recovered fully from his injury but I don’t blame Jeff Hance for being cautious with him in his first series back from the disabled list. I thought we got a decent effort out of Neifi Villaluazo in the last game of the series especially when you consider that he hadn’t seen Major League hitters in over two months. Baltimore had actually brought up 19-year old second baseman John Benavides last year for 223 at-bats and you can see why by the way he swings his bat. The kid seems to have a great future, already hitting .261 with 11 home runs and 69 RBI on the year.

Elsewhere, the Twins’ big new acquisition Carl “Earthquake” Cleere has gone onto the disabled list for at least the next 5 weeks with a dislocated shoulder just 4 days after signing a 5-year, $104.3 million contract extension to stay in Minnesota. That sort of blow to the lineup will probably prevent the 51-57 Twins from making a run into Wild Card contention (where they currently sit 8 games behind the Angels).

Nervous Philadelphia Phillies fans can finally breathe again now that 26-year old 6-time All Star first baseman Vincent Bresnan has signed a 2-year, $21.7 million contract extension to stay in the City of Brotherly Love.

thehatfield · 10-10-2007, 03:46 PM

Next Up: 3-game series at home against Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay has won four of their last five games and overall have been hitting more consistently as a team since the All Star break but they are still wracked with injuries – six players are presently on the disabled list including their starting catcher, starting second baseman, and starting third baseman. The injury to catcher Ryan Garnet was what prompted Tampa to trade away Scott Kazmir, who had spent his entire career in a Rays uniform, for catcher Auggie Compton in a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. 35-year old injured third baseman Tadasu Kamihara will see a string of three straight 40-home run seasons come to an end this year as he only managed 12 before his season-ending Achilles injury. Not only has Kamihara’s injury left a huge void in the middle of the Tampa lineup but since he’s sitting on 415 career home runs the injury probably makes 500 career home runs unreachable for the 4-time All Star and 5-time Gold Glove Award winner. The Rays have been spending money in the last couple of years to try and compete with the Yankees and Red Sox but the injuries have essentially negated that. On the bright side the injuries are allowing the organization to bring up and give a lot of playing time to just about all of their promising young players.

Our slumping lineup comes into this series salivating at the prospect of getting their hands on Tampa’s 24-year old rookie starter Claudio Rosatorres who is 0-3 with a 9.42 ERA in 5 starts since being called up from AAA and could be the needed tonic to get the bats back on track. 23-year old second year man Ricardo Colon, another lefty, is considered to be a big-time prospect. The #9 overall draft choice of the Cleveland Indians in 2016 was targeted by the Rays in the off-season and acquired back on July 9 for two solid prospects from Cleveland. Since coming to Tampa he’s 1-0 with a 3.50 ERA in three starts including 7.1 shutout innings against Seattle in his last start. 32-year old first baseman Shunen Nagao is trying to step up his game with all of the injuries and he currently leads the club with a .297 average, 22 home runs, and 75 RBI.

Thursday, August 5, 2021
Game 109 vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
5-4 Win; 31,205 in attendance
W: Dickson (16-2) L: Okasawa (5-8) H: von Schoening (10) SV: Mathis (33)

Recap: It wasn’t your typical beginning for Rowley Dickson as he plunked leadoff hitter Gregory Shoemaker and then surrendered a 401-foot laser beam shot to left-center field off the bat of 23-year old third baseman Milo Colburn to give Tampa Bay the early 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the first Teddy Revelez cut the lead to 2-1 with his 31st home run of the year off of So****su Okasawa. In the bottom of the 3rd inning Francisco Quinenes smacked a three-run shot 416 feet to deep left field to put us out in front 4-2. Revelez added another RBI with a double that plated a hustling Mumbles Yamasita from first base in the 4th inning to make the score 5-2. Tampa had worn Dickson out with over 100 pitches thrown through 6 innings so manager Jeff Hance brought Fairfax von Schoening into the game in the 7th inning for his second appearance since coming back from injury. After a shaky 7th where he walked a batter and threw a wild pitch, von Schoening surrendered a solo home run in the 8th to Shunen Nagao and then after getting two outs he loaded the bases and walked in a run to make the score 5-4. Hance then brought a virtually cold Bill Mathis into the game with two outs and the bases still loaded and Mathis struck out Shoemaker as we escaped the inning with the 5-4 lead. Mathis had a little trouble in the 9th as he gave up a double (he seems to do that a lot in the 9th) but after a couple of easy popouts we had once again had worked around a tough situation. Good game all around even though I have to admit there wasn’t complete confidence that Mathis would be able to get through the 8th inning without the game becoming tied.

Friday, August 6, 2021
Game 110 vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
9-0 Win; 31,481 in attendance
W: Knisley (13-8) L: Rosatorres (0-4)

Recap: While the bats did indeed come alive against rookie Rays starter Claudio Rosatorres the story of the game was the absolutely dominating performance of J.D. Knisley. The 34-year old lefty who can still consistently hit 96 m.p.h. on the radar gun had his best outing in an A’s uniform, dealing a 12 strikeout, one-hit shutout against the young Devil Rays. Auggie Compton’s single in the 3rd inning was the only hit but Knisley did allow three walks on an otherwise unbelievable evening. Edgard Galdames and Teddy Revelez both went 3-for-5, combining for 4 RBI and 3 runs scored. Ripley Johnson was 3-for-3 with an RBI and Francisco Quinenes was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Dan Volquez and Jose Arce also had 2 hits apiece while Larry Alison and Travis Byers went a combined 0-for-9. Tampa’s Rosatorres ended the game with 5.1 innings pitched, 10 hits allowed, 7 earned runs, and 2 walks. After the first three innings it didn’t look like Knisley would be able to finish the game as Tampa was working nearly every count full and J.D. was up over 60 pitches but he just started rolling and getting easy outs from the 4th inning on; it was really a fantastic, free-and-easy pitching performance from then on out. What was really nice about this game was that the young players on the bench and in the bullpen were genuinely excited for Knisley and it really showed in their smiling faces after the game.

Saturday, August 7, 2021
Game 111 vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
9-3 Win; 32,388 in attendance
W: Glaus (5-4) L: Vargas (5-10)

Recap: Edgard Galdames broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 6th inning with a bases loaded double that scored two runs to give us a 3-1 lead. After Teddy Revelez was intentionally walked to load the bases again Francisco Quinenes came through with an RBI single to stretch the lead to 4-1. Tampa starter Jason Vargas was yanked in favor of reliever Hector Anzuatequi and Hector promptly uncorked a wild pitch to plate our 5th run of the game. After striking out Travis Byers, Anzuatequi gave up a 423-foot three-run blast to Jose Arce who deposited his 14th home run of the year into the left field seats. With the 8-1 lead manager Jeff Hance let Gib Glaus start the 7th inning and after a few base hits which led to two Devil Rays runs Hance visited the mound but stuck to his guns and let Glaus finish the 7th. Josh Frank came on and pitched a perfect 8th inning while striking out two batters and I think we’re just about ready to reach a consensus that Frank is going to be our “7th inning guy,” leading up to Fairfax von Schoening and Bill Mathis. Stacy Renteria pitched a scoreless 9th inning but he did issue a walk. Gib Glaus went 7 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. Player of the Game Edgard Galdames and second baseman Ripley Johnson again had 3 hits against the Devil Rays, as did Mumbles Yamasita who had an otherwise uneventful series. Galdames and Arce each had 3 RBI. Tampa’s Jason Vargas fell to 5-10 on the season.

Current Oakland Record: 73-38

We’re getting into August and we’ve lost 38 games – that’s just absurd. We came into this series looking like we were ready for a nice long slump but we just ran into some really bad Tampa Bay pitching that made us look really good. Each game we had a couple of guys looking helpless at the plate but still we weren’t lacking for runs. It left us feeling pretty good going into an off day on Sunday before a 3-game series on the road against the Angels.

In other news, Rich Harden threw 8 strong innings to pick up the 200th victory of his career in Baltimore’s 5-1 victory at home against the Seattle Mariners. Harden gave up just four hits and walked one while striking out 10 in his best outing of the year. After the game Harden admitted that he was relieved to finally reach the milestone and now he’ll be able to “relax and enjoy it.” But he bristled and ignored questions about not making a start while Baltimore was in Oakland earlier in the week, instead paying tribute to the Orioles fans that came out to the ballpark to support him on his historic day.

thehatfield · 10-13-2007, 03:06 PM

Next Up: 3-game series on the road against Los Angeles Angels

This series against the Angels begins a stretch of 13 games in 13 days against good teams (Texas, New York Yankees, and Boston being the other clubs). If ever our mettle was going to be tested it was right here in this critical stretch as we have the opportunity to put the division out of reach heading into September especially if we beat up on our divisional opponents. The problem is that these guys aren’t the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Aside from the Angels, everyone has been playing very good baseball for the last month. Los Angeles though are now 11 games over .500 at 61-50 and they’ve allowed the Rangers to sneak past them into second place (and into the Wild Card lead) by a game. Losing the leading American League MVP candidate (Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez) to injury for the rest of the season has easily caused L.A.’s recent woes and they serve as a constant reminder to our players to avoid getting down on ourselves since the loss of Dome Guevaro.

The Angels’ struggles this year have been magnified by their $126.3 million payroll which is the fourth highest in all of baseball. General Manager Cass Evans and manager Andy Simmons are squarely on the hotseat as nothing less than a playoff berth will likely save their jobs. On the field, the Angels have a lot riding on two 39-year old starting pitchers, Spike Burkill (219 career wins) and junkballer Andy MacChlerich (218 career wins). Their 38-year old closer Abram O’Cahan has also been under a tremendous amount of fire from Angels fans who want either 33-year old New Jersian Tony Gaborde or 23-year old youngster Steele Slee closing out games for them. 40-year old Mark Teixeira is still hitting .288 but has just 8 home runs in 375 at-bats, on pace for the worst power totals of his first ballot Hall of Fame career. This will probably be the first season in his 19-year career Major League career where Teixeira doesn’t hit at least 23 home runs. His 707 home runs currently has him 21 homers behind Barry Bonds for the all-time lead. Third baseman Kenneth Coeyman and center fielder Phillips Wortman are the current leaders in the clubhouse and on the field for the former California Angels.

No changes to our lineup and no one was getting a rest until we got back home for the Yankees next week so everyone was prepared to play for at least the next six consecutive nights. There was a chance Travis Byers was going to move up to the #4 slot in the batting order. Francisco Quinenes seems to have a little more pop in his bat than Byers but Quinenes also seems to strikeout a bit too much in what could be a rally-killing spot. We were going to keep an eye on the situation over the next couple of series.

Current Lineup
1. Yamasita, CF, L (3-for-12 vs. right handed pitchers so far this month)
2. Galdames, SS, R (7-for-13 vs. Tampa in last series)
3. Revelez, LF, S (hitting .417 in 6 games this month)
4. Quinenes, DH, R (hitting below .200 since Guevaro injury)
5. Byers, RF, R (1-for-14 vs. Tampa in last series)
6. Arce, 1B, L (3-for-20 with 1 home run during recent rough stretch)
7. Alison, C, R (15-for-63 [.238] with men in scoring position this season)
8. Johnson, 2B, R (7-for-11 vs. Tampa Bay in last series)
9. Volquez, 3B, R (hitting .190 over his last 6 games)

Monday, August 9, 2021
Game 112 at Los Angeles Angels
3-0 Loss; 36,846 in attendance
W: Collins (8-8) L: Nakamura (16-4)

Recap: Phillips Wortman put the Angels out in front 1-0 in the 1st inning with a 405-foot solo blast to left field off Nori Nakamura. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the 4th inning when left fielder Paul Cantrell blooped a single to center field which scored Kenneth Coeyman from second base. On the other side of the hill lefty Steve Collins was causing us all sorts of problems with excellent control as he allowed 3 hits and struck out 5 without issuing a walk through the first 5 innings. L.A. stretched the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the 5th on a sacrifice fly but it could have been much worse as Nakamura had loaded the bases with no outs but he asked manager Jeff Hance to stay in the game during a visit to the mound and he proceeded to work out of trouble with just the one run allowed in the inning. In the top of the 6th inning Steve Collins was saying he already had all the run support he needed with big strikeouts of Mumbles Yamasita and Edgard Galdames, two men who are fairly tough to strike out. Terry Rogers came on in relief of Nakamura and threw two scoreless innings for us but the night belonged to Collins. The 28-year old Player of the Game finished up allowing 6 hits and 1 walk on just 103 pitches while striking out 8 and picking off a baserunner in his first complete game and first shutout of the season.

Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Game 113 at Los Angeles Angels
2-0 Win; 37,103 in attendance
W: Villaluazo (5-3) L: Burkill (14-10)

Recap: What a difference a day makes as today the bounces all went our way in a 3-hit shutout for 25-year old Neifi Villaluazo as he outdueled one of the best starting pitchers and certainly one of the most intense competitors in the league over the last 15 years in L.A.’s Spike “Barbwire” Burkill. Villaluazo walked four and struck out seven but was never really in serious danger all night as he cruised through the Angels on 112 pitches for his first complete game and first shutout of the season. Mumbles Yamasita and Teddy Revelez both had two hits and each drove in a run with a solo homer. Burkill gave up both runs on 6 hits total with 2 walks while striking out 9 in 7 innings of work. Larry Alison also had two hits for us.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Game 114 at Los Angeles Angels
6-0 Win; 30,224 in attendance
W: Dickson (17-2) L: MacChlerich (12-6)

Recap: A 4 o’clock start to this game featured a great pitching matchup with 26-year old rising star Rowley Dickson butting heads with 218-game winner Andy MacChlerich but in the bottom of the 2nd inning back-to-back homers by Larry Alison and Ripley Johnson put us out in front 3-0. In the top of the 5th inning we chased MacChlerich with three more runs including Teddy Revelez’s 100th RBI of the season on a bases loaded single. Daniel Jester came on in relief and would not only get out of the inning but go on to throw 4 innings of scoreless relief in a great performance to save the bullpen for the Angels. But Rowley Dickson would go on to fire his way to his 4th shutout of the season (tops in MLB) in a 5 hit, 1 walk, 9 strikeout performance that of course saw him named Player of the Game. Dickson lowered his season ERA to 2.23 with the victory. After the game Dickson commented in a rather low-key way that he did a good job of keeping the ball down and that was the key to his success on the afternoon.

Current Oakland Record: 75-39

Pretty wild to see three shutouts in a series; our crack research team is frantically attempting to see when the last time this happened was. A good result in the finale and now we were facing a very big series with the Rangers who sit 11½ games behind us in the division in sole possession of second place.

thehatfield · 10-14-2007, 02:53 PM

Slight Amendment: Due to a crash to desktop I lost the result of the final game of the Angels series. After replaying it Rowley Dickson did get his 17th win of the year but it wasn't a shutout; he allowed both Angel runs during a comprehensive 10-2 victory.

Loeffle · 10-17-2007, 12:53 PM

The Noble Prize should have been yours this year!

Breathtaking story ...

I'm reading mostly at work, as I'm going through a boring and stressy period. So your story is a great distraction ... Yesterday I burst out laughing loudly when I read the "error man from Atlanta" episode. What happened to him?

Keep it up and don't trade Mumbles. Arce should stay too, because his comments are the best

thehatfield · 10-18-2007, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loeffle

The Noble Prize should have been yours this year!

Breathtaking story ...

I'm reading mostly at work, as I'm going through a boring and stressy period. So your story is a great distraction ... Yesterday I burst out laughing loudly when I read the "error man from Atlanta" episode. What happened to him?

Keep it up and don't trade Mumbles. Arce should stay too, because his comments are the best

Thank you for the kind words.

Navarro was designated for assignment and placed on waivers back on June 26.

After clearing waivers he was demoted to Atlanta's AA affiliate Mississippi Braves. I guess after 54 errors in 74 games the Braves finally got the picture that he wasn't really cut out for the majors. I was waiting to see if he would get recalled before I commented on him again but who knows what the organization will do!

His MLB stats were: 49 hits in 249 at-bats (.197 batting), 1 home run, 22 RBI, 25 runs scored, 42 walks, 25 strikeouts, .311 OBP, .241 SLG, 54 errors in 193 chances for a .720 fielding percentage.

Since going down to AA he's only played in 9 games in a month and a half: 6 at catcher, 1 at first base, and 2 at third base. His only error at AA has come while behind the plate. He's hitting .268 at AA in his limited at-bats (0 homers). It will be interesting to see what Atlanta does with him as he is making $680k this season and next season.

thehatfield · 10-31-2007, 01:47 PM

Work has been an absolute bear lately and won't let up for the next few weeks.

I've painted myself into a bit of a corner with the format of this dynasty but would like to know: should I continue with the same style and have this stretch through the (RL) 07/08 winter to finish off this season? Or should I play out the games through the end of the season, do an in-depth overview of what happened, and resume game-by-game recaps for the playoffs (if any)?

I'm only bringing this up because of the time constraints I've had lately (which will only get much worse in March when our first little one arrives). In my opinion I would continue the way it's been going, but that road will be a long one (but not longer than the one real life year it's taken to get to August in-game

)!

08-16-2007, 07:42 AM	#121
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Sacramento Bee Volquez Already Out the Door? Volquez claims he was brought here under false pretense by August West Despite coming into the All Star break with the best record in baseball it’s clear that all is not well within the Oakland Athletics organization. From a pitching staff that through injury and other bungling somehow have just four right-handed arms to the story of their newly acquired second baseman Dan Volquez, a man acquired just a few weeks ago from the Chicago White Sox for his glove but finding himself on the trading block due to his lack of production at the plate. Sources close to the situation requested to remain anonymous but reported that Volquez was completely blindsided by the trade rumors that began to surface almost immediately after the A’s finished up the first half of the season against the Rangers. The source claims Minnesota, Florida, and Kansas City are all possible destinations for Volquez. “As I was leaving the ballpark after the game I was asked by a couple of reporters about trade rumors,” Volquez said by phone from his summer home in Stone Ridge, NY. “I was like, ‘I’ve only been here for two weeks! No one from the organization has said a thing to me. Are you sure that’s right?’ But the more I’ve heard the more I’ve learned it’s true, which is a complete reversal of the pitch (General Manager Jim) Fillmore gave me when he was pursuing the trade for me.” Volquez is off to a decent start at the plate hitting .260 with a .360 slugging percentage in 50 at-bats (off to a stronger start than former second baseman Artie Page who hit .202 and slugged .239 in 129 at-bats) but he claims he was told his lack of production (0 home runs and 6 RBI) just weren’t up to snuff. “What really bothers me is that they knew what they were getting,” a clearly frustrated Volquez said with a sigh. “I only have one home run in my career, and that was five years ago in Colorado. We went through all of this…” When you hear Volquez speak you have to turn your attention to Oakland General Manager Jim Fillmore. What could the man be thinking? Already with the best record in baseball is he determined to keep tinkering with the clubhouse chemistry in search of some unrealistic “perfect team” until it’s completely destroyed? How much better can a team get than the best record in the game? In some respects you have to admire Jim Fillmore. Clearly he isn’t ignoring the real possibility that the team could falter in the second half of the season especially with a talented-but-underachieving Angels team likely to make a strong run at some point. But if this hardnose approach in the front office is meant to keep the players alert and help inspire more victories it’s clearly not working. “We always sit around here when these sorts of things happen and say ‘baseball is a business’ and all this other (expletive) but there’s a right way and a wrong way to conduct your business,” said first baseman Jose Arce via phone while on vacation with his family in Brazil. “We like Danny, we liked Artie too. I think it’s messed up when you tell a guy you want him as your second baseman for the rest of the year and you give up a good prospect for him and then two weeks later you’re shopping the guy around. Makes it seem like you have no idea what you’re doing.” Fillmore himself didn’t respond to our calls prior to the publication of this article. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 08-16-2007 at 08:11 AM.

08-16-2007, 09:22 PM	#122
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Top 10 Selling Oakland Athletics Jerseys at the All Star Break (previous ranking from 6/13/21 in parenthesis) 1. Fairfax von Schoening #25 (2) 2. Mumbles Yamasita #34 (1) 3. Rowley Dickson #10 (7) 4. Teddy Revelez #12 (5) 5. Francisco Quinenes #14 (9) 6. Bill Mathis #29 (8) 7. Travis Byers #8 (4) 8. Jose Arce #5 (-) 9. Larry Alison #6 (-) 10. Nori Nakamura #35 (3) Fred Cake and the severely underappreciated Edgard Galdames fall off the list this time while the outspoken Jose Arce returns to the list (he was #4 back in the initial rankings in May) while new catcher Larry Alison makes his debut. Homegrown rookie Francisco Quinenes is getting a lot of support lately and gets huge cheers at the Coliseum from the home support. There expects to be even more support for Quinenes and Teddy Revelez in the immediate days after both were perceived to be All Star snubs. Fairfax von Schoening, Mumbles Yamasita, and Rowley Dickson have basically been the three most popular players on the club all season long. At the time of the last rankings Dickson was erratic and wasn’t showing the fantastic form he had been displaying at the beginning of the season and his jersey sales dropped accordingly. But he seems back on his game as he finished the first half of the season strong and was the only other pitcher seriously considered to be the starting pitcher for the AL in the All Star Game before legendary Zach Duke got the nod. They Said It… “It’s just frustrating when they know you’ve hit one home run in your career and they come to you and say, ‘hey, you’re not really giving us the power numbers we expected.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.” ~~Dan Volquez* continues to echo his side of the story concerning All Star break trade rumors.* “Sources close to the situation say that Oakland General Manager Jim Fillmore is deep in negotiations with Milwaukee’s Leland Fitzsimons in a deal that might involve both Dan Volquez AND Jose Arce. One can only wonder if this is some sort of scare tactic toward Arce who has never been afraid to speak his mind or if there’s actually some big-time deal brewing with the crew.” ~~Radio personality Frank Goosealberto* on the “Frank and the Water Buffalo Show” on KNBR radio.* “We’re very close to finalizing a deal with Atlanta for 22-year old right-handed reliever Jake Large. It’s going to be a big deal to trade Gib Glaus and Josh Frank who are both solid contributors in exchange for just one major league ready player but I kind of backed us into this situation with all the leftys, didn’t I? The players have already been informed I’d say the actual announcement is just a formality at this time. See you kids later, I have to go.” ~~An extremely candid and unaware he was being filmed Oakland General Manager Jim Fillmore makes off-the-record comments to an unknown fan who records it with his cell phone and posts it on the internet while the GM was walking to his car from his McAfee Coliseum office. “The clubhouse is fine. Of course you never like to see a teammate go but we have faith in the organization to make decisions in the best interest of the team as a whole. Winning championships is the ultimate goal, after all.” ~~Veteran lefty J.D. Knisley* comes short of a full defense of the man who handed him a 4-year, $28 million contract this past offseason in comments made to the East Bay Express.* “He’s going to get a bad reputation around the league, plain and simple.” ~~Jose Arce* has no trouble saying what everyone is thinking about Jim Fillmore’s frequent ventures into the trade market.* Man On The Street… We went back to the same people who we asked for pre-season comments to see what they’re thinking now at the All Star break as opposed to then. Their previous comments are highlighted above. “I could care less. It won’t make a difference if he trades the whole friggin team they’re not going to do anything this year, next year, or any year. They’re the A’s, moron.” “I have to say that it’s helped business. People actually have something to talk about other than damn politics. I’m surprised I thought Jim Fillmore was a complete flake.” Ham Salad, 43, bar owner, Oakland “No, we don’t really know, we’re just visiting from Houston, Texas.” “No, sorry. We still aren’t really interested in baseball we just travel now.” Enid Spenser, 70, retired baker, Houston (Texas) “I think the A’s are doing a decent job, yeah. But we’re not going out to see them unless they keep this up into August.” “Is it August yet?” Wallingham FitzRandolph Williams IV, 38, personal investor, San Francisco “Hey, he’s trying to get a starter that will keep that bum Fred Cake out of the rotation even when (Neifi) Villaluazo’s healthy so I say go for it.” “I think Fillmore’s done a decent job but he’s got to calm down a little bit. It seems like if a guy does one thing he doesn’t like there’s suddenly trade rumors about him.” Hidalgo Richard, 26, chef, Union City “I could really care less about the Dodgers, I didn’t watch an inning.” “My family have had A’s season tickets for years I was just embarrassed to admit that before now! I’m not convinced though about this season. The Angels have great players it’s going to be a fun rest of the summer.” Rabbi Hershel Dinkle, 39, rabbi, Fremont __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 08-28-2007 at 04:12 PM.

08-27-2007, 12:47 AM	#124
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Thanks! This is my first dynasty so I'm figuring out what I like and what I don't with this one but Man on the Street and They Said It will definitely be staying. I was thinking of a cross between Major League & "The Onion" when I started doing it... I think there's a reference to Lou Brown in there somewhere months and months ago. Maybe the next dynasty will be a little less strenuous, but maybe not! Next Up: 4-game series on the road at Kansas City There’s not much else to say about Kansas City that hasn’t been said in the All Star break wrap-up except that we were 6-0 against them thus far this season. I was pleased that we’d be coming out to start the second half of the season against one of the worst hitting ballclubs in the American League so that all of the momentum we’re carrying from the first half of the season has a good chance to continue despite the players being completely away from baseball for the last three days. We swept a three-game series from the Royals back in Oakland at the beginning of last week and with our pitching rotation rested and reset I like our chances in this series as well. Perhaps the biggest news surrounding the club is that no All Star break trades were made. I sent Neifi Villaluazo to AAA Sacramento for a few rehab starts which means that for the immediate future both Fred Cake and Gib Glaus will remain in the starting rotation. In an effort to help reclaim some of my organization’s privacy I may have deliberately let some misinformation somehow make its to the press. I surely know it isn’t the gentlemanly thing to do but when you’re trying to figure out who’s passing along confidential information the tactics are necessary. And on that front, I just need one more bit of confirmation and I’ll know who it is; no speculating from me for now you’re on your own to decide what’s true and what isn’t. Despite widely conflicting reports in just about every newspaper and sports-talk radio station in the area we were starting out the second half of 2021 with the lineup that ended the first half: Everyday Lineup 1. Yamasita, CF, L 2. Galdames, SS, R 3. Revelez, LF, S 4. Guevaro, 3B, R 5. Byers, RF, R 6. Arce, 1B, L 7. Alison, C, R 8. Quinenes, DH, R 9. Volquez, 2B, R And here’s the official, starting rotation: 1. Dickson, L 2. Knisley, L 3. Glaus, L 4. Nakamura, L 5. Cake, R Wednesday, July 14, 2021 Game 89 at Kansas City Royals 4-2 Win; 11,612 in attendance W: Dickson (14-2) L: Hayashida (5-5) H: von Schoening (8) SV: Mathis (30) Recap: Mumbles Yamasita started things off right in the top of the first, sprinting down the first base line and reaching on an infield single to deep second base. Yamasita then stole second and third base before coming in on a Teddy Revelez sac fly. But the Royals came right back in the bottom of the inning when rising young star Jose Funk, a 21-year old third baseman, lined a two out double to left field off of Rowley Dickson which plated 22-year old right fielder Javier Cabrera. After a scoreless second inning it was Yamasita again, this time drilling a line drive solo home run 410 feet to right center field off Royals starter Yoshinobu Hayashida that got out of the ballpark in a hurry, his 11th home run of the year. But Dickson, looking ever shaky in the bottom of the third, allowed three more hits which tied the game at 2-2 and gave him 7 hits allowed though the first three innings. At this point it seems he’s had two strikes on nearly every batter he’s faced yet he’s allowed all those hits while striking out just two. In the top of the 4th inning with two men in scoring position Larry Alison looped a soft single to right which was good enough to plate both runners for a 4-2 lead. In the bottom of the 4th Revelez prevented the Royals from answering right back for the third time in this game with a diving two-out catch near the line in left field with two men on base to end the inning. Both starters settled down after that and would pitch scoreless 5th, 6th, and 7th innings before being lifted for a reliever. K.C.’s 23-year old righty Bob Johnston came in and promptly set down the #3, #4, and #5 hitters in our lineup in order for an easy top of the 8th which energized the home crowd with hope of a late-inning comeback. That energy would be sapped when Fairfax von Schoening got the side out in order in the bottom half despite a couple of hard-hit baseballs. Bill Mathis came on and allowed a single in the 9th and struck out two for his 30th save of the year. Despite the 4-2 win we were outhit by the Royals 10-6. Jose Funk, 23-year old designated hitter Nobuatsu Saitoh, and 29-year old second baseman Geoff Goulder each had two hits for Kansas City. Thursday, July 15, 2021 Game 90 at Kansas City Royals 13-4 Win; 10,713 in attendance W: Knisley (10-7) L: Argelio (5-14) H: Basnett (6) H: von Schoening (9) SV: Frank (1) Recap: Feeling fortunate to come away from Wednesday’s game with a victory the general feeling remained optimistic as we squared off against Kansas City’s 26-year old righty Salvador Argelio who came into the game with a 5-13 record and an ERA of 7.59 in 100 innings of work. The game remained scoreless until the top of the third when Travis Byers lashed a two-out, bases loaded single to right which scored two runners and staked us to an early lead. J.D. Knisley promptly worked himself into trouble in the bottom half of the inning when he allowed two singles and then hit Jose Funk with an errant knuckle-curve. After notching two huge strikeouts Knisley allowed a single to 23-year old catcher Richard Fortier which dropped in front of Mumbles Yamasita and scored Javier Cabrera from third but Nobuatsu Saitoh, attempting to score the tying run from second base with two outs, was thrown out in a close play at the plate on a perfect throw from Yamasita to end the threat. After a scoreless fourth inning this game was looking to be a replay of the day before, we were leading 2-1 but supposedly light-hitting K.C. held a 6-3 advantage in base knocks. In the top of the 5th we had a herky jerky sequence that yielded a third run: a double by Yamasita followed by a strikeout by Edgard Galdames, an intentional walk to Teddy Revelez, a single by Dome Guevaro, and a sac fly for Byers. In the bottom of the 5th though the Royals struck right back again as Fortier smacked one down the right field line for a 343-foot, three-run home run which put the Royals ahead 4-3. In the top of the 6th we finally got to Argelio, slapping five more hits and scoring three runs to chase him from the game. With men still on base K.C.’s 34-year old veteran righty Lewis MacLeay struck out the next two batters to end the inning and keep the game at 6-4. Gregg Basnett came on and pitched a perfect 7th before Fairfax von Schoening took over in the 8th. After walking the leadoff man and beaning the next hitter, von Schoening struck out the next man and got an easy popup to get to two outs but after the play he called catcher Larry Alison out to the mound and that would be all for the man the fans call the Baron. He was complaining of pain in his knee and he wasn’t able to get his full push-off the mound so we had to bring in a cold Josh Frank while we hastily tried to get closer Bill Mathis ready to go in the bullpen. Frank’s first pitched was lined straight at Byers to get us out of the 8th maintaining a 6-4 lead. Wouldn’t you know it, the Royals bullpen then simply imploded in the top of the 9th, allowing 7 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks (including one with the bases loaded). We let Josh Frank finish out the game to get the “save,” his first of the year. Dan Volquez went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Dome Guevaro led the hitting attack with a 3-for-6 night. Teddy Revelez was 2-for-2 with a triple and four walks. Revelez has now walked 102 times this season. Fortier was 2-for-3 with a walk and 4 RBI for the Royals. The victory was our 8th straight over Kansas City this season. Injury Update 21-year old rookie reliever Fairfax von Schoening will be placed onto the 15-day disabled list with a knee injury. It has been diagnosed as damaged meniscus and while it isn’t considered to be career-threatening it is serious enough that we might have to put on the kid gloves when dealing with the Baron when he returns to the bullpen in two weeks. Dr. Rick Hartshorn recommended he be on the shelf for 1-2 weeks and so I want to do anything necessary to make sure he takes his time and comes back only when completely fit. An injury to one of our precious few rightys seems like the cruelest version of Murphy’s Law. If we brought up recently reactivated righty Neifi Villaluazo we’d have to force the only other righty starter, Fred Cake, out of the rotation and into the bullpen. Not the ideal move at the moment. So we decided to call up 29-year old Stacy Renteria, who had been a horrible starter in Oakland for the last three years (including a 5-21 record and 7.51 ERA last year with 39 home runs allowed in 171 innings) until I took over and sent him straight to the minors to make him a reliever. He’s still been doing some spot starting for Sacramento in emergency situations but overall he’s 9-7 with 6 saves, 3.51 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 92 innings this year at AAA. This is basically a make-or-break two weeks for Renteria. Barring any trades of other players which would clear a spot for him he’ll probably be designated for assignment when von Schoening is ready to come back to the Majors. Friday, July 16, 2021 Game 91 at Kansas City Royals 8-4 Win (12 innings); 11,230 in attendance W: Basnett (1-2) L: Salazar (2-2) H: MacLeay (3) H: Johnston (7) BS: Hubbard (4) Recap: Perhaps all of the trade rumors surrounding Gib Glaus had taken some sort of toll because he came out in the bottom of the 1st inning and was lit up for 2 runs on 5 hits including a Jose Funk RBI double. The score remained 2-0 until the top of the third when Teddy Revelez, hitting right-handed against the lefty Salvatore Lopez, pulled a 427-foot three-run blast to deep left field to give us a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the 4th inning Nobuatsu Saitoh clobbered a 68-m.p.h. Glaus changeup 436 feet to straightaway center field to knot the score at 3-3. Glaus allowed another run in the following inning when a controversial call at first base on the tail end of what looked like an inning-ending doubleplay went against us allowing the go-ahead runner to score from third. Glaus was lifted after 6 innings of work, 4 earned runs on 7 hits and an unusually high 4 walks against 7 strikeouts in favor of Terry Rogers who threw a scoreless bottom of the 7th. Jonathan Leverett pitched a perfect 8th in his first action since the All Star break. In the top of the 9th inning we couldn’t ask for anything more than the top of the lineup to face the Royals’ All Star closer Beacan Hubbard but Mumbles Yamasita struck out looking to lead off the inning. Edgard Galdames then smashed a single back up through the middle and into center field before Hubbard carefully pitched around Revelez and walked him on four pitches. After being so careful with Revelez, Hubbard had a tough time finding the plate with the next batter Dome Guevaro and walked him on five pitches to load the bases. Travis Byers then blooped one to left field to score Galdames and tie the game before Hubbard composed himself and struck out Jose Arce and Larry Alison to end the inning. Leverett pitched a scoreless bottom of the 9th, striking out Funk to end the inning with a runner stranded at second base. Hubbard threw a scoreless top of the 10th and Gregg Basnett did the same for us in the bottom of the frame. The score remained 4-4 until the top of the 12th inning when Volquez got a single with one out and went from first to third on Yamasita’s single in the next at-bat. After a Galdames single scored Volquez, Revelez, hitting from the left side of the plate against righty reliever Ramon Salazar, hit another tape-measure shot 466-feet to right field to give us an 8-4 lead. Josh Frank finished off the game for us with a scoreless bottom of the 12th. Jose Arce was hit with a pitch for the 10th time this season. Despite the two bombs from Revelez, one from each side of the plate, this was a brutal game to watch. I had an impending sense of doom which went strangely unfulfilled. After taking the first three games of the series it meant that bench players would get starts in the finale since we’re three games into an 11-games-in-11-days stretch and have the Angels up next. Series Finale Lineup 1. Vazquez, DH, R 2. Galdames, SS, R 3. Revelez, LF, S 4. Quinenes, CF, R 5. MacFall, 3B, R 6. Raymundo, RF, L 7. Corliss, 1B, R 8. McInally, C, R 9. Volquez, 2B, R Saturday, July 17, 2021 Game 92 at Kansas City Royals 10-6 Win; 11,246 in attendance W: Nakamura (14-2) L: Gonzales (0-3) Recap: Francisco Quinenes made manager Jeff Hance look like a genius when the 20-year old rookie, batting cleanup for the first time all season due to a lot of regular players resting, blasted a 428-foot, 3-run home run in the top of the first inning to help stake us to a 5-0 lead before many had even reached their seats. But once again the Royals fought back immediately, Jose Funk spanking a 3-run shot of his own 435 feet to left center field off Nori Nakamura in the bottom of the 1st that cut the lead to 5-3. In the bottom of the 3rd inning the Royals got another run on a walk, a groundout which moved the runner to second, and then a single to deep right field to make the score 5-4. Nakamura wasn’t getting hit hard aside from the big mistake pitch to Funk but K.C. was still clawing away regardless. Nakamura gave up the tying run in the bottom of the 4th inning on a walk, a hit batter, and two more soft singles. This recent All Star break must have really messed with the starting pitchers because all of our guys who are known control guys have struggled to find the plate all series. Nakamura settled down in the 5th and the 6th but the man who so often has been on the receiving end of bucketfuls of runs this season still found himself and his team deadlocked at 5-5 until the top of the 7th when Quinenes singled in another run to make it 6-5. But Nakamura coughed the lead right back up in the bottom of the inning and if not for an inning-ending outfield assist from Teddy Revelez on a play at the plate Nakamura would have been on the hook for a loss in this one. Of course the very next half inning, before Nakamura is officially lifted from the game, we rally for 4 runs in the top of the 8th to put Nakamura in line for the win. The cushion gave us a chance to let Stacy Renteria make his 2021 debut with a 10-6 lead in the bottom of the 8th and he looked good pitching a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Terry Rogers pitched the 9th and gave up a couple of hits but was bailed out by a nice double play started by Dan Volquez. Quinenes was named Player of the Game for his 2-for-4, 5 RBI performance. Javier Cabrera went 4-for-5 for and Bob Johnston threw three innings of scoreless relief for Kansas City. Javier Raymundo was the only one of our five non-regular starters not to get a hit but he did drive in a run with a sac fly. Current Oakland Record: 63-29 Usually when you think of four game sweeps you think of overwhelming romps or one team simply dominating another or maybe one team having everything go their way and “the planets align.” But even though a couple of the scorelines looked crooked this was the toughest sweep I think I’ve ever been involved with at any level. Each game was a struggle and although we come out of it four games to the good we also lose our reliable setup man to the disabled list for two weeks. I also can’t remember a series where we walked so many batters (21 in four games) but I was just going to chalk this one up to the All Star break throwing off routines. It’s hard to explain and completely counterintuitive but I come out of this sweep feeling more worried about the team than any point this season. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 08-27-2007 at 12:13 PM.

09-01-2007, 12:22 AM	#125
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	3-game series at home against Los Angeles Angels Next Up: 3-game series at home against Los Angeles Angels There is huge news surrounding the Angels – in Saturday’s game against Seattle they lost their 26-year old All Star third baseman Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez for the rest of the season with a ruptured ligament in his elbow. The second year man who won the American League Rookie of the Year award last year with 47 home runs and 151 RBI was a legitimate MVP candidate this year, leading the American League in both homers (35) and RBI (115) while hitting nearly 40 points higher (.308 this year vs. .269 last year). The man frequently called “the most exciting young player in baseball” was the everyday cleanup hitter in Los Angeles. One can only hope that this fantastic talent hasn’t permanently hampered his chances to be the all-time sort of player that he certainly seemed to be on his way to be becoming. Tabarez made some general comments to the media through his team and said he was frustrated that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to help the club on the field for the rest of the year. While he acknowledged that he’ll be spending the entire off-season rehabbing he assured everyone that would listen that he wouldn’t be out a day longer than he has to be. In some brighter news, the Tabaraz injury allows the Angels to showcase another talented youngster; 25-year old lefty first baseman Vito Tapias will fill Tabaraz’ spot on the 25-man roster. The Angels also announced a huge, 7-year, $54 million contract extention for 28-year old lefty starting pitcher Steve Collins. The extremely popular New Jersey native was an Oakland second round draft pick back in 2011 and was included as a player to be named later in a minor trade with the Angels after the 2012 season. He struggled with his control early in his career but the Angels stuck with him and he broke through to the Majors in 2016. In his 5½ years at the Major League level Collins is 73-43 with a 3.69 ERA in 1,145 innings and sports a 1.26 career WHIP. The Angels just took 3-of-4 games from Seattle coming into this series but remain 11½ games out of first place with a 51-40 record. They presently lead the American League Wild Card race by three games over Detroit and Texas. We’d be back to our regular lineup for this entire series. The guys who didn’t get a day off yesterday will get a chance to rest on Wednesday in the first game of a 4-game set against Toronto. We come into the game leading the season series against the Angels 4-2. Sunday, July 18, 2021 Game 93 vs. Los Angeles Angels 8-7 Win (walk-off); 30,326 in attendance W: Frank (2-1) L: Anderson (0-1) H: Shiroi (12) H: Gaborde (3) BS: Anderson (3) Recap: We picked up two quick runs in the bottom of the first off of Angels starter Daniel Jester as Mumbles Yamasita scored on an Edgard Galdames double and then Galdames came home on a couple of ground outs. Two more runs in the bottom of the second highlighted by a Dan Volquez double and a single from Galdames had us out in front early 4-0. In the top of the 4th inning Fred Cake got himself into trouble, loading the bases with no outs before escaping with only one run allowed on a sac fly. With six strikeouts and three walks through four innings Cake had already accumulated 76 pitches thrown. Two more walks and a single in the top of the 5th had the bases loaded again with no outs. A sixth walk on the day and third in the inning brought home a run to make it 4-2. A sac fly to center scored a run and Yamasita, trying foolishly to get the runner at home, threw the ball to the backstop allowing runners to advance to second and third with only one out. Another sac fly to deep center plated the tying run. In the top of the 6th inning Cake got two quick outs before walking a batter and then allowing a 436-foot blast to straightaway center to right fielder Montel Bojorguez which gave the Angels a 6-4 lead. Jonathan Leverett came in from the bullpen to finish off the 6th. Leading off the bottom of the 6th Jose Arce pulled one 406 feet down the right field line for his 12th home run of the year to cut the deficit to 6-5. Leverett gave the run right back in the top of the 7th on a couple of singles and a hit batter. In the bottom of the 8th Larry Alison homered for the second time since becoming an Athletic, just getting it over the left field wall to again make it a one-run game at 7-6. Josh Frank came on and got through the top of the 9th despite a walk and single allowed setting the stage for the bottom of the 9th. The Angels’ regular closer Abram O’Cahan was unavailable after pitching the last two days in Seattle so Los Angeles handed the ball to 26-year old rookie Chas Anderson. Anderson promptly got Galdames to ground out before intentionally walking Teddy Revelez to get to Dome Guevaro. But Guevaro sent the over 30,000 fans in attendance home in raptures as he smoked an opposite field home run to right to end the game, his 22nd home run of the year. A thrilling finish to yet another tense contest! More bad news for the Angels: Antoine Stirzacre, the man covering third base for the injured Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez, has been ruled out for at least the next 5 weeks with a strained Achilles tendon. 25-year old Edmund Dixon was called up from the AAA Salt Lake Bees to take Stirzacre’s spot on the roster. Monday, July 19, 2021 Game 94 vs. Los Angeles Angels 2-1 loss (10 innings); 28,679 in attendance W: Renteria (0-1) L: O’Cahan (1-1) Recap: This was a fantastic lefty vs. lefty pitchers duel between our 14-game winner Rowley Dickson and Los Angeles’ Steve Collins, fresh off the high of his new 7-year, $54 million contract extention. Collins gave up a run in the bottom of the 1st inning on a walk and two singles and then shut us down after that, striking out 7 in 7.1 innings before handnding off to 32-year old carrer Angel Ed Ontiveroz who was able to finish off the 8th. Dickson did even better, allowing 6 hits and striking out 12 in 8.2 innings of work although one of those hits was a game-tying solo homer to 34-year old second baseman Kenneth Coeyman in the 5th inning. Dickson had to come out in the top of the 9th inning after loading the bases on a walk with two outs but Stacy Renteria induced a harmless popout to get out of the inning. After Angels closer Abram O’Cahan set us down in order in the bottom of the 9th the Angels were able to manufacture a run on a leadoff walk, a sacrifice bunt, a grounder that moved the runner to third with two outs and then a weak bloop single that fell in front of Travis Byers in right field. Certainly not a bad outing from Renteria as they could hardly touch his stuff and he got out of the tight spot in the 9th inning, but he did walk the eventual tying run. He seemed like maybe he lost his concentration for a moment in the top of the 10th and it’s just something he’ll need to be aware of if he wants to remain with the club. But again, we’re not counting this loss as a mark against him. In the bottom of the 10th and now down a run for the first time all game we couldn’t ask for much better than Mumbles Yamasita, Edgard Galdames, and Teddy Revelez but O’Cahan struck all three out, Yamasita and Revelez looking. Rowley Dickson was actually named Player of the Game for his strong performance. Tuesday, July 20, 2021 Game 95 vs. Los Angeles Angels 11-2 Win; 29,050 in attendance W: Knisley (11-7) L: MacChlerich (11-4) Recap: The Angels’ 39-year old righty starter Andy MacChlerich was considered an All Star snub considering his 11-3 record and 3.96 ERA in 18 starts this year. MacChlerich has lost a lot of velocity in the last few seasons but has maintined pinpoint control (last season in 218 innings pitched he walked just 37 batters). But with that paltry walk total it means he has to be around the plate a lot and he’s prone to getting smacked around. And that’s what it looked like early as Mumbles Yamasita hit the first pitch of the game into the right field corner for a triple and Edgard Galdames followed with his fourth home run of the year to give us a 2-0 lead. The next batter Teddy Revelez demolished a fastball 447 feet to deep right field for his 27th shot of the year as we went back-to-back for the early 3-0 lead! We added two more runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning which knocked MacChlerich out of the game in favor of 26-year old righty reliever Kiyoshi Shiroi who was able to get the final out of the inning without any further damage. The Angels got one right back in the top of the 3rd when youngster Vito Tapias led off the inning by pulling a 93-m.p.h. J.D. Knisley fastball 372 feet down the right field line to make the score 5-1. Three more runs in the bottom of the 3rd staked us to an 8-1 advantage and chased Shiroi from the game as we had stroked 12 hits through the first three innings. We’d get four more hits the rest of the way in a good night and we tacked on 3 more runs in a bizarre, hitless 8th inning that saw three walks, Yamasita and Revelez both getting beaned, and a balk all from Angels reliever Steele Slee. Galdames was named Player of the Game for a 4-for-5 performance with three RBI and two runs scored. Angels reliever Tony Gaborde threw two solid innings of scoreless relief in the lone bright spot for Los Angeles. Our reliever Gregg Basnett allowed a solo shot to Montel Bojorguez in the top of the 9th inning for the final scoreline. Current Oakland Record: 65-30 We’re rolling right now. 5-1 since the All Star break, taking 2-of-3 from the Angels to knock them 12½ back, a 4-game series at home against 46-48 Toronto up next, things were looking good. Jose Arce and Francisco Quinenes have been pretty cold since the break. In fact, the bottom of the lineup in general hasn’t really been doing much of anything lately and that includes not only Arce and Quinenes but also Dan Volquez and Larry Alison. On the other side of things, Mumbles Yamasita and Teddy Revelez are straight-up hitting machines. They hardly ever kill rallies by chasing bad pitches and even better they seem to have a knack for creating them. Revelez has struck out only 15 times this year in 314 at-bats. A strong 7 innings of work out of J.D. Knisley for his 11th win of the year in the blowout series finale was an encouraging sign for the veteran lefty. No new news on the trade front either…yet. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 09-01-2007 at 10:59 AM.

09-03-2007, 03:56 PM	#126
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	A major disruption to the heart of the lineup. Next Up: 3-game series at home against Toronto Blue Jays This series against Toronto kicked off a stretch of 16 straight games against the American League East. At 46-48 the Blue Jays were 12 games behind Boston in the division including a lackluster 4-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox just after the All Star break last week. But the Jays were only six games behind the 52-42 Angels in the very early days of the wild card picture. Toronto’s 24-year rookie old left fielder Ajax Churchman has been turning heads so far this year with a .313 average and 43 runs scored in 293 at-bats. Three key members of the everyday lineup, third baseman Ruben Gotay, shortstop Bobby Hartshorn, and right fielder Harry Pitzer are all on the disabled list so understandably the Jays have had a tough time finding consistency at the plate this season. 32-year old veteran starter Jin-song Hung, from China, leads the rotation with a 9-5 record and 4.00 ERA in 139.2 innings of work. Hung has struck out 180 batters so far this year which is tied with our Rowley Dickson for third overall in the American League. Our manager Jeff Hance scrapped plans to rest any of our regular starters in the opening game of the series since everyone was chomping at the bit and seemed pretty well rested already. Jeff called me up to say “if anything we’ll sit a couple of folks near the end of the series since we have a day off built-in already on Sunday.” Translation: maybe we’ll give a couple of guys two consecutive days of rest. One other lineup move of note is that Hance said that in the last two games of the series we were going to move Francisco Quinenes up to the #6 slot in the batting order, and drop Jose Arce and Larry Alison one position each. Wednesday, July 21, 2021 Game 96 vs. Toronto Blue Jays 11-0 Win; 28,709 in attendance W: Glaus (4-3) L: Aguilar (7-8) Recap: Dome Guevaro smacked his 23rd home run of the year, a three-run shot, in the bottom of the 1st inning as once again 1st inning scoring put us ahead early. Guevaro added another RBI in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 4-0 when he singled to right to plate Mumbles Yamasita. Making his manager Jeff Hance look like a genius, Francisco Quinenes responded to his impending move up the batting order with his 15th home run of the year, a monster 443-foot shot pulled to left field to give us a 5-0 advantage in the bottom of the 4th and chased Toronto starter Roberto Aguilar out of the game with a very poor line: five earned runs on seven hits including two home runs in just 3.1 innings. Four more runs in the bottom of the 5th inning meant the blowout was officially on; with a 9-0 lead we’d now start subbing out some regular starters. The pile-on continued though in the bottom of the 6th when Teddy Revelez took a Zack Stohlberg changeup 424 feet to deep right field for his 28th home run of the year. The two-run shot gave us an 11-0 advantage and gave Revelez 92 RBI on the season. Gib Glaus meanwhile was pitching his best game of his career: he had a three-hit shutout going with no walks and 10 strikeouts but had reached 92 pitches through 7 innings. With Gregg Basnett warming up since the beginning of the inning, Glaus promptly walked the leadoff man and then allowed a single for men on first and second and no outs in the top of the 8th. But a line out straight to Edgard Galdames caught the baserunner at second too far off the bag for a lucky doubleplay. Glaus had a lineout to end the inning, just three outs away from the 28-year old’s first ever Major League shutout. No troubles for Glaus in the 9th, even as Josh Frank warmed up Glaus mowed down the Blue Jays, picking up his 11th strikeout in the process for the 11-0 shutout. It is the first shutout for Glaus who has 135 career starts in 5½ seasons in the majors. Trade Deadline: 11 Days: On Wednesday night the Kansas City Royals completed a trade with the Cleveland Indians for a young second baseman that made laid-back 26-year old backup Ripley Johnson expendable. Johnson, a Los Angeles native and a regional rival of Nevada’s own Rowley Dickson, tore us up in a series earlier in the season and still has some time to develop into a quality player. Johnson can also play shortstop and I think he’s a better fit for us on our bench than shortstop Reydel Vazquez. While Vazquez might be a bit more versatile in that he can fill in at third base and while he has a little more pop in his bat than Johnson he’s also 30 years old and getting anxious for playing time and he can probably find some with the Royals whereas he’s just not going to play everyday here. Royals General Manager Aquilino Lopez wanted Vazquez and he and I agreed to the straight-up trade. Vazquez vacated his locker and his #55. Johnson wore #29 for Kansas City but closer Bill Mathis already wears that here so he decided to take #19. Even though the deal was completed on Thursday morning Johnson would be available for Thursday night’s game with the Blue Jays. Jeff Hance is going to give Johnson a couple of starts in the final two games of the series and has been told to use him liberally throughout September. Thursday, July 22, 2021 Game 97 vs. Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 Win; 28,391 in attendance W: Nakamura (15-2) L: Valent (4-7) H: Renteria (1) H: Frank (6) SV: Mathis (31) Recap: Teddy Revelez jumped on Toronto starter Dion Valent in the first inning, sending an offering 417 feet and over the wall in right field to help give us an early 2-0 lead. We picked up another run in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a couple of walks and a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. In the bottom of the 4th Francisco Quinenes continued to snap out of his cold streak with a majestic 453-foot blast off of Valent to straightaway center field which made the score 5-0. In the top of the 6th the Blue Jays finally got to Nori Nakamura as a double and a long single scored Toronto’s first run of the game but Nakamura would finish the inning and exit the game after 110 pitches and 6 innings of work. Despite the 5-1 lead Toronto was outhitting us 8-4. Gregg Basnett got into the game this time but allowed a run for the second straight appearance, this time on two weak singles and a groundout – just bad bounces for him today really as the Jays clawed back to 5-2. Stacy Renteria started the 8th inning for us and promptly loaded the bases with no outs and allowed a run on a sac fly. After reloading the bases with a walk we yanked him and brought in Josh Frank to try and protect the 5-3 lead. The first batter Frank faced skied one to deep center which scored the runner from third base to make it 5-4 but he was able to get catcher Alex Dawson to ground out to end the inning. Dome Guevaro scored an insurance run on a Larry Alison sac fly in the bottom of the 8th inning before closer Bill Mathis induced three fly outs to Travis Byers in right field to end the game. Quinenes was named Player of the Game for his 2-for-4, 2 RBI performance. Mumbles Yamasita stole his 36th and 37th bases of the season but was also caught stealing for the 11th time this year. Toronto’s third baseman Adley Nicol went 3-for-5 for the Jays. Game 98 Lineup 1. Yamasita, CF, L 2. Johnson, 2B, R (debut) 3. Guevaro, 3B, R 4. Byers, LF, R 5. Quinenes, RF, R 6. Arce, 1B, L 7. MacFall, SS, R 8. Raymundo, DH, L 9. McInally, C, R Friday, July 23, 2021 Game 98 vs. Toronto Blue Jays 7-2 Loss; 29,050 in attendance W: Salgardo (2-0) L: Cake (7-5) Recap: This time it was Toronto jumping out to the 1st inning lead as they touched Fred Cake up for three runs on just two hits but three more walks from the man who has had no control of the strike zone since the All Star break and has become dangerously close to pitching himself straight out of the rotation. In the bottom of the 1st Ripley Johnson got a base hit in his first at-bat in an Oakland uniform and got a nice ovation from the home fans. But the big news in the inning was Dome Guevaro who had to come out of the game holding his sides after hitting a double. Initial medical reports received in-game from Dr. Rick Hartshorn were leaning towards a rib injury but ultimately inconclusive; Guevaro would have to go with Hartshorn tomorrow for further tests. Edgard Galdames entered the game in Dome’s slot in the batting order but would play shortstop as Jim MacFall moved to his natural position at third base. Cake settled down a bit until the 5th inning when, at exactly 100 pitches he was lifted for reliever Jonathan Leverett. With the bases already loaded Leverett walked in an inherited runner before striking out the next batter to end the inning but Toronto was all over us with a 7-1 lead. Francisco Quinenes continued his powersurge with his 17th home run of the season in the 6th inning against Emesto Salgardo to make the score 7-2 but that would be all we could manage off of Salgardo and Tadd Delancey in the final four innings of the game. Stacy Renteria pitched three scoreless innings of relief for us, giving up just one hit and striking out two. Cornelius McInally was 3-for-4 with a RBI in the contest. Toronto’s 31-year old designated hitter Antonio Guzma was named Player of the Game for a 3-for-5 performance including the game-winning RBI back in the 1st inning. Injury Update Quite possibly the worst sort of news coming from the medical team, in an updated medical report Dome Guevaro might be lost for the rest of the season with a torn abdominal muscle. It will be a huge blow to the club as Guevaro provided protection for Teddy Revelez in the lineup and was second in the club in both home runs (23) and RBI (90) while sporting a .309 batting average and .383 OBP in 369 at-bats. Guevaro has also in great shape all season long, and only needed four days off so far this season. We haven’t placed Guevaro on the disabled list just yet and we’re going to wait one more day to see if the situation changes at all. The only “good” thing is that it has happened roughly a week before the trade deadline and with us having one extra starting pitcher we might be able to deal for someone that can fill the gap the rest of the way. Backup Jim MacFall is a decent player but if we’re seriously going to think about a run to the playoffs we’ll need at least an established everyday player to man third base. With Guevaro out the lineup for the final game of the series we tweaked it a bit. All other healthy regular starters except Dan Volquez were back in the lineup following a loss. Game 99 Lineup 1. Yamasita, CF, L 2. Galdames, SS, R 3. Tevelez, LF, S 4. Byers, LF, R 5. Quinenes, RF, R 6. Arce, 1B, L 7. Alison, C, R 8. MacFall, 3B, R 9. Johnson, 2B, R Saturday, July 24, 2021 Game 99 vs. Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 Win; 30,323 in attendance W: Dickson (15-2) L: Asbury (3-9) Recap: Our first hit of the game off Blue Jays starter Malik Asbury didn’t come until the bottom of the 3rd inning but it was deposited by Mumbles Yamasita 428 feet to left/center field for his 12th home run of the year to give us a 1-0 lead. Rowley Dickson seemed to know how much this game meant to us with us about to lose Dome Guevaro for the rest of the season and he was throwing darts from the get-go, striking out seven Jays through the first four innings. We added another run in the bottom of the 5th off 25-year old Asbury to make it 2-0 but the Toronto righty in his first full season in the bigs pitched a pretty good game overall, going 6 innings and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 4 and walking 2. But the day belonged to Dickson, who dominated the Jays for 13 strikeouts and a 4-hit, complete game shutout. It was Dickson’s third shutout of the year which makes him the Major League leader this season but also the first shutout he’s thrown since May 3. Dickson’s 193 strikeouts on the year are third in the American League behind Boston’s Zach Duke (212) and Seattle’s Allen Swain (194). Current Oakland Record: 68-31 Well despite the 3-games-to-1 series victory Dr. Rick Hartshorn confirmed our worst fears and ruled Dome Guevaro out of any action for the next 8 months. We immediately placed him on the 60-day disabled list. With the off day on Sunday we were able to finalize a contract with free agent third baseman Jamie Klee, who at 36-years old hasn’t played for anyone this year after being released last year by the Royals at the end of last season. In addition to picking up Klee we had a waiver claim accepted and executed for Cleveland’s 25-year old third baseman prospect “Grumpy” John Dodgson. Dodgson was hitting .267 with a .320 OBP in 409 at-bats for Cleveland’s AAA Buffalo Bisons affiliate. Dodgson’s 35 stolen bases currently place him second overall on the AAA leaderboard and he’ll report directly to AAA Sacramento as their new leadoff hitter. Dodgson is probably the best fielding third baseman we now have in our organization. So over the weekend we gained at a lot of flexibility so that if we did decide to venture into the trade market we wouldn’t really be able to be held over a barrel by the opposing General Manager due to a lack of backup options. We could either platoon Klee with Jim MacFall, play either Klee or MacFall full-time, bring up Dodgson to give him a shot knowing he’d give us above average defense even if he couldn’t hit Major League pitching, or, the option that has been gaining favor in my mind, moving second baseman Dan Volquez over to third where he’s capable and playing Ripley Johnson as the everyday second baseman. With September just five weeks away anyway I think we now have decent enough cover that we wouldn’t need to make a trade, the very thing that makes a trade all the more appealing. Rumors instantly started to circulate on the internet and talk radio that Fred Cake was on the trading block. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem

09-03-2007, 04:50 PM	#127
bucketsndimes Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: The States Posts: 409	That Fred Cake... __________________

09-06-2007, 11:14 PM	#129
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Caution: Iceberg Ahead Next Up: 3-game series on the road at New York Yankees The disappointing 43-55 New York Yankees are 5-5 since the All Star break and took 2-of-3 games from the Indians just prior to this series. Despite being 12 games under .500 this is a team with enough talent (and a high enough payroll) to put together a big-time run if they can just get hot over a stretch of a few weeks. They’ve got some decent starting pitching which was strengthened by the recent acquisition of 32-year old former Seattle righty Pellegrin “Javelin” Lindeman, nicknamed such for his unusal pitching deleviry, but the bullpen is just horrible. 37-year old closer Andrew Sisco has blown one save in every five appearances with 20 saves and 5 blown to go along with an ERA of 4.46 in 39 innings pitched. He’s also allowed 43 hits and 17 walks for a WHIP over 1.50. 35-year old right fielder Stewart “Bug” Tingle is the longest-tenured Yankee, beginning his pinstripe career in 2008 after being claimed off waivers from San Francisco following the 2007 season. 13½ years, 6 All Star games and 453 career home runs later it just might be the best waiver claim of all-time and Tingle, while slowing his pace the last couple of years, is still a potent bat in the heart of the Yankee lineup. 29-year old left fielder George Harris made the All Star team in 2019 & 2020 and was in minor league MVP discussions during his brief two-year stay on the farm. Many in the vocal New York/New England media hub think he’s a year or two away from being in the same sort of space here in the big leagues, at least that’s what they keep telling us. For us, Jamie Klee wasn’t going to start his first game in uniform. Manager Jeff Hance said he’ll probably give him a pinch hit at some point during Monday’s contest but no significant duties until after the trade deadline when we’ll have a clearer idea if he’s staying with the club for the rest of the year or not. Dan Volquez was going to move over to third base putting Ripley Johnson into the game as the second baseman. This is the first time we’re facing the Yankees this season. Monday, July 26, 2021 Game 100 at New York Yankees 5-3 Loss; 28,514 in attendance W: Gonzales (9-9) L: Knisley (11-8) SV: Eveland (1) Recap: New York’s George Harris showed what all of the fuss was about with his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot to the short porch in right field, which gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning. In the top of the 3rd Edgard Galdames reached base on some confusion between the right fielder and center fielder as the ball dropped between them and eventually scored on a Luis Gonzales wild pitch. For Gonzales, the anchor of the Yankee rotation this year with a 8-9 record and 3.70 ERA in 136 innings pitched, it was his first wild pitch of the year. In the bottom of the 4th the Yankees would go back out on top by a 2-1 margin when 32-year old shortstop Pat Joseph crushed a 94-m.p.h. fastball from J.D. Knisley 427 feet to left/center for his 10th home run of the year. Other than the two solo home runs allowed Knisley was cruising into the bottom of the 7th inning and could probably consider himself unlucky to be behind as we had 11 hits to New York’s 4 but we had grounded into four rally-killing doubleplays (catcher Larry Alison had done the trick twice). In the 7th inning Knisley allowed three more runs on two walks and three straight singles to make the score 5-1. Teddy Revelez got one back with a solo shot of his own, his 30th home run of the year, in the top of the 8th to make it 5-2 but Gonzalez had enough left in the tank to finish off the inning. In the top of the 9th the Yankees brought in reliever Dana Eveland and with one out Larry Alison tried to make up for grounding into two doubleplays earlier with yet another solo home run, the fourth of the game, to cut the Yankee lead to 5-3. After Ripley Johnson struck out for the second out, pinch hitter Jamie Klee scorched a liner to center field for a hit in his first Oakland at-bat, but Mumbles Yamasita popped out to end the game. Despite allowing 12 hits Yanks starter Luis Gonzales was named Player of the Game for his 8 innings of work in the victory. Galdames was 3-for-5 for us in the loss. Even with all of the doubleplays we still left 10 men on base and we outhit the Yankees in the loss 14-to-8. Tuesday, July 27, 2021 Game 101 at New York Yankees 5-4 Loss (walkoff); 29,212 in attendance W: Isais (2-3) L: Rogers (1-1) H: Leverett (5) BS: Rogers (1) Recap: We got out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning after two singles, a wild pitch, and two groundouts plated two runners. In the top of the 5th Ripley Johnson hit his first home run as an Athletic and just his second on the year when he smoked a Russ Edingtoun pitch 418 feet to deep left field making the score 3-0. In the bottom of the 5th inning Pat Joseph homered for the second straight game to cut our lead to 3-1 but Gib Glaus was able to bear down after the homer and strike out the next two batters to get out of the inning without further damage. In the top of the 8th inning Francisco Quinenes knocked in an insurance run with a single to right field which made the score 4-1. Glaus had to exit the game after 7 innings of work as his pitch count topped the century mark, he left with 4 hits allowed and 1 earned run, 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. Jonathan Leverett came on and instantly gave up a run and nearly gave up another but Travis Byers in right field gunned down Tommy “Cappy” Marquand attempting to advance from first to third on a powerful laser-like throw that stayed in the air the entire time. 4-2 after 8 innings and Yankee reliever Jorge Isais shut us down in the top of the 9th, walking Teddy Revelez with two outs and then striking out Travis Byers to end the inning. For some reason Manager Jeff Hance decided against bringing in closer Bill Mathis for the bottom of the 9th and instead handed the ball to Terry Rogers. Rogers struck out the first batter he saw before Pat Joseph, who has been killing us this series, singled to bring the tying run to the plate. After another single 26-year old first baseman Javier Juarhe from the Dominican Republic smacked a three-run home run 343 feet to right field to give the Yankees the improbable walk-off victory. We had now lost three of our last four games and were in danger of being swept in a series for the first time all year. Wednesday, July 28, 2021 Game 102 at New York Yankees 7-0 Loss; 29,557 in attendance W: St. John (5-7) L: Nakamura (15-3) Recap: The Yankees came into this one absolutely grinding and had Nori Nakamura at 60 pitches and 4 walks after the first three innings, good enough for a 1-0 lead. New York added another run in the next inning on a fielder’s choice making it 2-0. Mumbles Yamasita, who was in danger of having his first hitless series since mid-April, got a single in the top of the 5th to keep that dubious mark at bay for yet another series. With the Dome Guevaro injury any poor run is certain to be magnified and Yamasita certainly knows it’s not the best of times to go ice cold. His batting average on the season has dropped below .370 for the first time in recent memory. In the bottom of the 5th Nakamura gave up a solo homer to Tommy Marquand who sent a 411-foot line-drive type shot straight into the left field seats. Marquand sprinted around the bases afterwards with the Yanks up 3-0. From my box I wondered if the manager and players were feeling the same thing I was – that 3-0 lead for New York looked like 300-0. Nakamura came out in the bottom of the 7th in favor of Gregg Basnett who let the first two men get on before George Harris emptied the bases with his 16th home run of the year to put us behind 6-0. Manager Jeff Hance essentially conceded the game by lifting Edgard Galdames for Jamie Klee and Teddy Revelez for Javier Raymundo in the top of the 8th. Jonathan Leverett couldn’t get through the bottom of the 8th unscathed as a walk and two hits brought in the Yankees’ 7th run. We couldn’t do anything in our half of the 9th and so it was a bitter end to the series. New York’s 29-year old journeyman starter Abe St. John shut us out for 7.2 innings in what was an ugly game all around – 6 combined errors. Current Oakland Record: 68-34 Well we were feeling Dome Guevaro’s loss already. I knew we might be in some trouble if one of the Guevaro/Teddy Revelez duo were hurt for an extended period but it’s really too early to be making those sorts of statements or even having those sorts of thoughts. But they were there… getting swept for the first time all year will bring the paranoia straight out of you. There were still a few days before the trade deadline and with the strong performances put up by Gib Glaus lately the trade rumors have started to shift back to us getting rid of the “fourth lefty” in our present rotation. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 09-07-2007 at 04:27 PM.

09-11-2007, 12:25 AM	#130
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Next Up: 3-game series on the road at Toronto Maybe it was good that we had the Jays again so soon after taking 3-of-4 from them back in Oakland last week and with us holding a 5-2 record against them overall this season but the way I was reading omens lately my hunches didn’t really count for much. Both of us were coming into the series after having been swept (the Jays dropped 3 games at home to the Royals) but we were probably feeling worse after suffering a huge injury to our lineup and then the sweep (the first time we were swept all season). And figuring in the law of averages, the Jays were 3-11 since the All Star break, we were probably about to get steamrolled. Manager Jeff Hance has decided to swap Francisco Quinenes and Travis Byers in the everyday lineup, promoting the 20-year old rookie Quinenes to the cleanup spot and dropping Byers back down to his regular #5 slot. “Franny” already has more home runs (17) than Byers (14) and has significantly less at-bats to the tune of 150 less. Hance tried to play it safe with Quinenes before thrusting the 20-year old into the cleanup role but it looks like Quinenes is going to have to try and hold things down and provide protection for Teddy Revelez for the rest of the season so unfortunately we can’t really afford to bring him along slowly right now. Dan Volquez is going to continue playing third base for the rest of this series and Ripley Johnson will remain handling the duties at second base. Current Lineup 1. Yamasita, CF, L 2. Galdames, SS, R 3. Revelez, LF, S 4. Quinenes, DH, R 5. Byers, RF, R 6. Arce, 1B, L 7. Alison, C, R 8. Johnson, 2B, R 9. Volquez, 3B, R Thursday, July 29, 2021 Game 103 at Toronto Blue Jays 9-4 Loss; 19,019 in attendance W: Veces (7-2) L: Cake (7-6) Recap: Fred Cake, the only right-handed starter in our current pitching rotation, came into the game struggling lately and struggling overall with an ERA of 7.13 and he was touched up immediately before he even got an out in the bottom of the 1st inning, walking the leadoff man and then allowing two consecutive singles for an early 1-0 lead for Toronto. Larry Alison got the run right back in the top of the 2nd when he drilled a homer 384 feet to left field, his 6th on the year and 4th since coming to us to be the everyday catcher a little over a month ago from Cincinnati. A horrible throwing error into the stands by 30-year old Toronto shortstop Jake Salters on a play at first allowed Mumbles Yamasita to walk home from third base in the top of the 3rd inning to give us a 2-1 advantage. Two more hits and a walk by the Jays off Fred Cake in the bottom of the 3rd led to another run and we were right back where we had started with the game now knotted at 2-2. In the top of the 4th yet another run as Ripley Johnson slid in hard to break up a doubleplay and that allowed Jose Arce to score from third base on the Dan Volquez fielder’s choice. The 3-2 lead would be short lived as Cake continued the control problems we’ve seen in his last several starts, two more walks including one with the bases loaded to tie the game 3-3. But as usual Cake was able to slither away from a tough situation with just minimal damage. After the first scoreless inning of the game in the 5th, Toronto’s first baseman Gawain Quinney launched his 5th home run of the year, a 361-foot solo bomb to the opposite field in right in the bottom of the 6th to put the Jays up 4-3. With a relatively low pitch count at 75 pitches we had no one warming in the bullpen. But Cake changed that immediately when he walked his sixth batter of the night and then allowed five straight hits for a Toronto 7-3 lead which brought Josh Frank into the game. With inherited baserunners on second and third and one out Adley Nichol spanked the very first pitch from Frank to right field which plated both runners for a Toronto 9-3 advantage. Frank got next two hitters to finally end a 6-run, 6-hit inning for the Jays. In the top of the 7th inning Yamasita plated Ripley Johnson with a double off Toronto reliever Felipe Veces. With two outs in the top of the 7th Teddy Revelez had to come out of the game after running down to first base after a walk. He was replaced by Javier Raymundo and all of Athletics nation held their collective breath. There was no way we’d be able to survive long-term injuries to both Revelez and Dome Guevaro. In the top of the 9th Raymundo came up with two men on and two outs but he struck out to end the game. Injury Update Much to our collective relief, Teddy Revelez was day-to-day with a strained calf muscle. Since I hadn’t spoken with Dr. Rick or Jeff Hance directly it wasn’t clear to me whether or not he injured it jogging down to first base after an intentional walk in the 7th inning or if he tweaked it earlier in the game. Regardless, he’d probably only have to sit out the last two games of the series since we had another off day coming up this Sunday. Fairfax von Schoening had started to throw again and he’d be ready to return to the bullpen and be activated from the disabled list on Sunday so between Revelez and the Baron we’d have a nice boost to kick off the month of August. Right-hander Fred Cake simply wasn’t looking like a Major League starter in the past month and he was the only righty in our rotation. We’ve been attempting to address this problem recently but there aren’t a lot of options with salary considerations and a lack of quality chips in the farm system. We might have to recall Neifi Villaluazo since Stacy Renteria has done okay out of the bullpen in his limited appearances and deal Gib Glaus for a Major League-ready righty over the next couple of days if we can. TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE: 48 Hours The Minnesota Twins signaled their true intentions on why they traded away 3-time All Star second baseman Mike Hoffmann to the Braves for 29-year old center fielder Carl “Earthquake” Cleere by announcing a 5-year, $104,250,000 extension for Cleere in a press conference that led the baseball news on Thursday evening. The announcement didn’t exactly thrill fans of the Twins as they complained that Cleere was already vastly overpaid while with the Braves (where he pulled in $20 million-per-season) and now it seemed as if the Braves would be stuck with Cleere for better or for worse locked into that salary. The Angels made news too by trading their 34-year old, 3-time All Star left fielder Javier Mejines to the wheeling-and-dealing Atlanta Braves for 36-year old starter Manny Casteano, and promising 26-year old reliever Mitsuoki Nozaki who was the cornerstone of the deal. A year after hitting .283 with 56 homers and 168 RBI for the Angels, Mejines was hitting just .216 with 17 homers and 57 RBI in 380 at-bats this season in Los Angeles, on pace for the lowest numbers of his career. He’s owed $15.5 million next season which the Braves will now have to fork out so this looks like a really smart move for the Angels to dump salary, strengthen the bullpen, and get an upgrade for the #5 starter slot in one swoop. With the addition of Casteano to their rotation the Angels immediately placed their Fred Cake clone Martin Thompson on waivers and we, sadly, sniffed around the 28-year old righty for a few moments before smashing our fingers with a hammer to break the trance and avoid making any silly roster moves. Unless they make any last-minute deals the Angels will split duties in left field between 34-year old journeyman Al Eliason and 21-year old Chinese rookie Yi Yan. New Angel reliever Nozaki was an Oakland 7th round draft choice, 184th overall, in 2013. In Tampa Bay their General Manager, Manuel Silva, the guy who I replaced here in Oakland, is feeling from Rays fans exactly what I felt here from the A’s faithful when I first started and traded away Rich Harden – a lot of hate. Silva traded away 36-year old Scott Kazmir who has spent his entire 16½-year career in Tampa to Milwaukee for a 28-year old All Star caliber catcher Auggie Compton. Kazmir is 249-145 in his career as a starter, with an excellent 3.22 career ERA in 3,565.2 career innings. If his career ended right now he’s probably not Hall of Fame material since there are only four pitchers in the Hall but there would be an argument as he’s 15th all-time in wins, 21st in ERA, and one of only five pitchers with over 4,000 career strikeouts. We still hadn’t done anything on the trade front. Anyone interested in Gib Glaus didn’t want to give up a starter in return and no one was going to take Fred Cake for anything more than a low minor leaguer. Times were tough. We were facing our first 5-game losing streak of the season if we couldn’t get things together. Friday, July 30, 2021 Game 104 at Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 Loss (walk off); 10,628 in attendance W: Candelas (2-2) L: Basnett (1-3) Recap: Despite loading the bases in the bottom of the 4th inning on a hit batter and two walks, Rowley Dickson was tossing a no-hitter through 4.2 innings before second baseman David Goss cracked a single in the bottom of the 5th inning. Another infield single, another hit batter, and a single to center field and the Jays had somehow crept ahead 1-0. Dickson finished the 5th inning down 1-0 but already at the 92 pitch mark. Toronto’s Roberto Candelas, a 25-year old spot starter that mainly operates out of the Jays’ bullpen, was mowing down our very ordinary looking lineup inning after inning. Candelas opened the top of the 6th inning by beaning Edgard Galdames in what seemed fair retaliation for Dickson’s two hit batters earlier, but of course a bit silly to do to the leadoff hitter in an inning. But the next batter Javier Raymundo grounded into an easy doubleplay to erase the threat and help Candelas get through the inning. Toronto’s Adley Nicol led off the bottom of the 6th with a double off Dickson and came in to score the Jays’ second run of the game on an Ajax Churchman infield single. We were able to come back in the top of the 7th with two runs to tie the game on a couple of hits but the key plays of the inning were two errors committed by Ajax Churchman in right field. Normally a left fielder with 73 starts in left, Churchman was starting just his fifth game of the season in right for Toronto. The score remained 2-2 until the bottom of the 9th inning when reliever Gregg Basnett allowed a leadoff double to pinch hitter Jose Rojasacusta. After a groundout to Dan Volquez at third base which couldn’t advance the runner Rojasacusta was greenlighted to steal and he grabbed third base with one out. Basnett induced another ground ball to third base which forced Volquez to throw home but the throw was too late. Toronto wins 3-2 and our losing streak extends to five games. Candelas threw a complete game against us, allowing 8 hits while only walking 1 against 5 strikeouts. Dickson finished the game with 7 hits and 4 walks allowed through 8 innings, striking out 8 Blue Jays in the process. Basnett is credited only with a third of an inning. His ERA is now an embarrassing 7.32. Saturday, July 31, 2021 Game 105 at Toronto Blue Jays 7-2 Win; 21,639 in attendance W: Knisley (12-8) L: Aguilar (7-10) Recap: The Jays had improved to just 49-54 with their victories in the previous two games and they seemed to have a bit of a swagger in their step that was undeserved as they took the field which went noticed by our players prepping for the game in the dugout. And leave it to the most outspoken member of the A’s this season Jose Arce to deliver a big three-run, 418-foot homer in the top of the 1st inning off Toronto starter Roberto Aguilar to give us the early 3-0 lead. It was Arce’s 13th home run of the year. J.D. Knisley was looking pretty sharp until two hanging sliders in a row in the bottom of the 4th inning were pounded for back-to-back doubles leading to Toronto’s first run of the game. In the top of the 5th inning Mumbles Yamasita cracked his own 418-foot shot, also his 13th of the year, but this one a solo shot to make it 4-1. It was the first time all season two players on the same team both reached 13 home runs on 418-foot homers. Later in the same inning Travis Byers connected for his 15th home run of the season on a 392-foot liner down the line in left field to make the score 5-1. Blue Jays reliever Felipe Veces took over in the top of the 6th inning but Larry Alison blasted Veces’ second pitch 419 feet to left field to extend the lead to 6-1. Once the distance was posted on the JumboTron Alison seemed to mock the “feeble” 418-foot homers of Yamasita and Arce in the dugout as everyone had a fun moment and looked pretty loose despite all of my worry and five straight losses. Closer Bill Mathis came into the game with the 6-1 lead in the top of the 8th after 7 strong innings from Knisley just to get some work in since he hadn’t been used in recent memory. Mathis wasn’t great, giving up a run on three hits over 2 innings, but he certainly seemed to knock the rust off near the end as he struck out the last two batters he faced. We added our final run in the top of the 9th after a double, two walks and a sac fly. Current Oakland Record: 69-36 We had gone 1-5 in our last 6 games and we’d be limping back to Oakland to kick off 6 games at home against Baltimore and Tampa Bay. After those two series the Angels would be waiting in the wings and if we were still playing poorly a week from now Los Angeles might be able to get themselves back into the divisional race. Of course the good news was that Fairfax von Schoening would be returning to the bullpen and Teddy Revelez to the lineup for the first game against the Orioles. With the trade deadline upon us I discovered after the game a number of emails, texts, and voicemails from teams that were now in a position to deal. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 09-21-2007 at 08:39 PM.

09-28-2007, 08:24 AM	#131
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Code: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STANDINGS - JULY 31, 2021 AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE Eastern Division Eastern Division Boston 63-41 - New York 68-37 - Baltimore 55-50 8½ Philadelphia 62-43 6 New York 49-55 14 Florida 48-57 20 Toronto 49-55 14 Washington 45-59 22½ Tampa Bay 46-60 18 Atlanta 35-71 33½ Central Division Central Division Chicago 66-40 - Chicago 66-39 - Detroit 53-51 12 Cincinnati 54-51 12 Cleveland 48-57 17½ St. Louis 45-59 20½ Minnesota 47-57 18 Pittsburgh 43-63 23½ Kansas City 47-57 18 Houston 40-65 26 Milwaukee 34-71 32 Western Division Oakland 69-36 - Western Division Los Angeles 56-48 12½ Arizona 68-38 - Texas 55-49 13½ Los Angeles 67-38 ½ Seattle 44-61 25 Colorado 59-45 8 San Diego 46-59 21½ San Francisco 46-61 22½ Standings Analysis: In the few weeks since the All Star break the New York Yankees had pulled themselves out of the AL East cellar and had gone from 12 to 6 games under .500 with a stretch of good play. The Toronto Blue Jays have had the exact opposite experience (until their last series against us) and have dropped from second place down to tied with the Yanks for third. Baltimore remains steady in second place while the Devil Rays’ 6-11 string since the break has dropped them into the basement. It’s shaping up to be a wild month of August in the AL East with the Yanks catching fire and the Orioles playing solid ball. All eyes are on the Boston Red Sox starting rotation as 37-year old future Hall of Famer Zach Duke leads an aging starting staff (4 of the 5 starters are at least 35 years old). The Sox have had a long stretch of dominance with 13 playoff appearances and 3 World Series Championships in 15 years and most of those were built on Duke and a strong, young rotation around him. Some experts are predicting a “last chance” sort of season for Boston and could see them coming back to the pack next year. In the Central division the White Sox stayed on top and gained three games on us for the best record in American League. Second-place Detroit fell back from 5½ games to 12 games behind Chicago with a 6-11 mark. At the All Star break various pundits speculated that while the Tigers had enjoyed an unusually long period of good play in the first half of the season they simply weren’t talented enough to hang onto second place for the remainder of the year. The Cleveland, Minnesota, Kansas City swamp at the bottom of the Central has room for one more member and if Detroit isn’t careful that’s exactly where they’re going to end up. Kansas City has looked very lively of late among the bottom-feeders as they continue to inject their 25-man roster with members from the AAA Omaha Royals. Despite the fact that we were 1-5 in our last 6 games we had added two games onto our lead over the Angels in the AL West. Los Angeles are just playing dreadful, uninspired baseball at the moment but even so if the season ended today the Angels would be in the playoffs as the American League Wild Card. But they have to be careful, though. The Texas Rangers aren’t doing well because of luck or above-their-head play they are doing well because they are a talented young club on the rise. These are the very earliest days of looking at the Wild Card but everyone is saying the Rangers probably have what it takes to be there at the end. Seattle has consistently been at or near the bottom of the American League all year in terms of record but they’re going to have to work if they want to challenge the Atlanta Braves or Milwaukee Brewers for the worst in baseball. As has been mentioned previously, Seattle doesn’t seem to have much of a direction at the moment as they trade away prospects for established players in one deal and then do the exact opposite in the next. The only real change in the National League East is that the Mets have increased their lead over the Phillies from one to six games. The defending World Series champ Metropolitans have been in first place all year and Philly’s mini-swoon just after the All Star break have raised questions about the Fightnin’s pitching staff. An injury to their star center fielder Seiichi Takahashi hasn’t helped. Atlanta has been absolutely atrocious this season. They are the only ones who are willing to bite on a trade for Gib Glaus but all we’d get back would be a middle reliever and a prospect and a starter for a reliever just doesn’t make good baseball sense. Sandwiched in between are Florida and Washington… Washington has been playing better baseball of late but both teams are considered non-factors for the long haul. The Senior Circuit's Central Division is also holding form and the Cubs have recently extended their lead over the Reds to double-digits. The two times the Cubs have made it to the World Series (2009 & 2013) they’ve won it all and optimism abounds once again at Wrigley Field as they look to get back to the playoffs for the second straight year. The Reds have been playing a hair above .500 baseball for the last month straight while St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Milwaukee just drift off away out of the picture more than 20 games out of first place. There hasn’t been any drama in the division for the last two months as the Cubs have coasted. The top of the National League West has been superior all season long – the third place Colorado Rockies would be the Wild Card leaders if they were in the American League – while the bottom two have been near or over the 20 games out of first place mark for over a month. The Dodgers have the third-highest payroll in baseball while Arizona is fifth (Colorado, by contrast, is 25th) so it’s likely going to be a dogfight between the two down the stretch as it has been for about the last month and a half. This is the only division in Major League Baseball where the experts think it’s a toss up for the division title but with a lack of faith in Philadelphia they consistently agree that whomever finishes second will win the Wild Card. San Francisco and San Diego have been whipping boys for the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Rockies all season long. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 10-07-2007 at 02:02 PM.

09-29-2007, 12:13 PM	#132
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Pitching Stats at the Trading Deadline Code: Name G GS W L HLD SV BS IP HA HR R ER BB K ERA OAVG. CG SHO Name Dickson SP 23 23 15 2 0 0 0 166.1 132 9 43 43 26 201 2.33 .213 5 3 Dickson SP Knisley SP 22 22 12 8 0 0 0 161.2 141 27 75 71 51 192 3.95 .230 6 0 Knisley SP Nakamura SP 20 20 15 3 0 0 0 133.2 153 14 76 65 52 130 4.38 .284 1 1 Nakamura SP Cake SP 17 17 7 6 0 0 0 93.0 111 22 81 79 62 94 7.59 .288 0 0 Cake SP Glaus SP 10 10 4 3 0 0 0 72.0 56 10 27 24 18 76 3.00 .211 2 1 Glaus SP Villaluazo SP 9 9 4 2 0 0 0 56.0 55 7 26 26 21 67 4.18 .255 0 0 Villaluazo SP Mathis CL 39 0 4 1 0 31 4 44.2 34 1 8 8 5 47 1.61 .206 0 0 Mathis CL Leverett MR 26 0 2 2 5 1 1 39.1 50 3 23 23 9 39 5.26 .303 0 0 Leverett MR von Schoening MR 26 0 2 0 9 3 1 38.0 21 2 9 9 11 40 2.13 .160 0 0 von Schoening MR Basnett MR 28 0 1 3 6 1 0 35.2 49 6 31 29 18 27 7.32 .318 0 0 Basnett MR Frank MR 25 0 2 1 6 1 1 35.1 34 4 15 14 9 35 3.57 .254 0 0 Frank MR Rogers MR 26 0 1 1 6 1 1 34.2 55 4 20 20 5 26 5.19 .353 0 0 Rogers MR Stanely SP 5 4 0 3 0 0 0 26.1 37 5 24 24 18 14 8.20 .327 0 0 Stanely SP Renteria MR 5 0 0 1 1 0 0 6.2 6 0 3 3 2 5 4.05 .240 0 0 Renteria MR Name G GS W L HLD SV BS IP HA HR R ER BB K ERA OAVG. CG SHO Name What's Going On? The stats include everyone that has pitched for the A’s this season. The following players are currently not on the 25-man roster: Rick Stanely (AAA) Fairfax von Schoening (disabled list) Neifi Villaluazo (AAA) It’s pretty clear that Fred Cake shouldn’t be at the Major League level, at least not with us. I don’t know how in the world we were able to extract 7 wins from him as he has just seemed completely shot as of late. We need someone with more control holding down the #5 slot in the rotation and so it looks like our only option will be to recall Neifi Villaluazo from AAA Sacramento where he’s gone 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in four rehab starts since coming back from the disabled list from a back injury. We’ll probably end up designating him for assignment although Royals officials have strangely stated that they are agreeable to a one-for-one deadline deal where they would give up a low minor leaguer. They seem very coy about the situation but for the life of me I can’t imagine why especially when no other team we’ve asked will even agree to come out and look at him. When you see the stats for 23-year old reliever Gregg Basnett you might be inclined to think we have another pitcher that doesn’t belong in the Majors with his 7.32 ERA and 1.88 WHIP but pitching coach Calvino Sanchez loves Basnett’s stuff and thinks he’s just a year or two away from being a superior reliever. We’re probably going to send him down to Sacramento for a couple of weeks to get some confidence back against AAA hitters. His ERA is over two runs-per-game higher than it was last year in Seattle and his spot on the roster will be claimed by Fairfax von Schoening returning from the disabled list. Hopefully Baron von Schoening will be fully recovered from his knee injury… that one can always be tricky for a pitcher, especially one that relies on velocity like von Schoening. Our 27-year old hippie closer Bill “Crunchy” Mathis has been incredible this season with a WHIP of 0.87 and just five walks and one home run allowed in 44.2 innings pitched. Mathis leads the majors with 31 saves (Philadelphia’s 24-year old closer Jose Martinez is second with 30 saves, the only other pitcher right now with at least 30 saves this season). Rowley Dickson is near the top of a lot of pitching categories including wins (his 15 ties him for the Major League lead with teammate Nori Nakamura and the White Sox’s Bowie van Ingen) but his 2.33 ERA is fair amount behind Boston Red Sox legend Zach Duke’s MLB-best 2.03 and Dickson’s 201 strikeouts are second to Duke’s 222 if you’re wondering about the early days of the Cy Young Award picture. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 10-07-2007 at 02:04 PM.

10-01-2007, 08:35 AM	#133
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Batting Stats at the Trading Deadline Code: Name G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG. OBP. SLG. Name Byers RF 101 422 57 131 20 1 15 79 20 43 2 3 .310 .339 .469 Byers RF Yamasita CF 99 392 102 143 27 4 13 44 77 47 37 11 .365 .471 .554 Yamasita CF Galdames SS 94 391 73 124 21 1 4 47 36 50 5 4 .317 .381 .407 Galdames SS Arce 1B 103 377 47 99 16 0 13 58 49 66 3 3 .263 .361 .408 Arce 1B Guevaro 3B* 94 369 62 114 16 0 23 90 44 46 1 1 .309 .383 .539 Guevaro 3B* Revelez LF 98 334 91 121 21 3 30 94 116 15 1 4 .362 .526 .713 Revelez LF Quinenes CF 68 255 33 71 10 1 17 52 14 56 1 4 .278 .322 .525 Quinenes CF McInally C 70 249 23 57 7 2 5 27 19 82 0 1 .229 .286 .333 McInally C Page 2B* 34 129 10 26 4 0 0 5 4 41 1 1 .202 .235 .233 Page 2B* O'Bryant 2B* 30 112 14 30 8 0 1 17 16 18 0 0 .268 .374 .366 O'Bryant 2B* Corliss 1B 37 110 18 28 6 0 1 9 8 20 0 1 .255 .308 .336 Corliss 1B Alison C 29 108 21 35 8 0 5 14 12 23 1 0 .324 .388 .537 Alison C Volquez 2B 29 105 13 25 7 1 0 12 10 19 0 0 .238 .310 .324 Volquez 2B Vazquez SS* 28 80 14 19 3 0 0 4 13 26 1 0 .237 .344 .275 Vazquez SS* Meagher C* 23 66 9 17 4 0 0 12 5 14 0 0 .258 .324 .318 Meagher C* MacFall 3B 25 52 7 13 3 1 0 1 5 7 0 0 .250 .316 .346 MacFall 3B Raymundo LF 25 51 6 15 5 0 1 12 5 9 0 1 .294 .351 .451 Raymundo LF Johnson 2B 8 30 2 6 0 0 1 3 2 8 0 0 .200 .250 .300 Johnson 2B Holsinger CF* 12 23 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 9 0 0 .087 .125 .130 Holsinger CF* Dickson SP 3 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Dickson SP Knisley SP 3 9 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .222 .222 .333 Knisley SP Nakamura SP 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Nakamura SP Cake SP 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Cake SP Glaus SP 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Glaus SP Klee SS 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 Klee SS Basnett RP 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Basnett RP Leverett MR 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 Leverett MR Mathis CL 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Mathis CL Villaluazo SP* 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Villaluazo SP* Name G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG. OBP. SLG. Name What’s Going On? The stats include everyone that has hit for the A’s this season. The following players are currently not on the 25-man roster and are marked with an asterisk above: Ken O’Bryant 2B (disabled list [season]) Dome Guevaro 3B (disabled list [season]) Tanyon Meagher C (AA) Neifi Villaluazo SP (AAA) Bertram Holsinger CF (AAA) Artie Page 2B (traded to Cincinnati Reds 6/23) Reydel Vazquez SS (traded to Kansas City 7/22) Look at the obscene OBP that a few of our players carry and then try to get your head around the idea that our team OBP of .374 isn’t even the best in our own division (the Angels are at .375), nevermind the rest of the American League or the National League and MLB-leading Arizona Diamondbacks who are at .390! Losing Dome Guevaro for the rest of the season has already sent a ripple down our spine as evidenced by our 1-5 record in our last 6 games. Guevaro hasn’t been the flashiest of players and certainly had some troubles from time to time at third base (9 errors) but he was able to provide ample cover for Teddy Revelez in the lineup with his timely hitting with men in scoring position. 20-year old rookie Francisco Quinenes was called up to the big club in May and has forced his way into the everyday lineup as the regular designated hitter. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on him to perform now as he and 24-year old Travis Byers attempt to give Revelez some relief in the heart of the lineup. Speaking of young and talented, despite his recent “cold streak” Mumbles Yamasita leads the American League in batting with his .365 average (Revelez is second at .362; Arizona’s Jose Selgado leads MLB at .374). He also leads the AL in stolen bases with 37 despite being thrown out 11 times (San Francisco’s Adriel Holder leads MLB with 49 steals) and is tied with Chicago’s Michael O’Toole for the AL lead in runs scored. New second baseman Ripley Johnson hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts since coming over from the Royals but it has only been eight games thus far. Larry Alison has settled in well behind the plate and is seeing the ball well too with a .324 batting average since coming over from the Reds (where he hit .256 with a .286 OBP and just 2 home runs in 121 at-bats). Alison only ever said he wanted to play everyday and he’s been a fantastic upgrade over fan-favorite Cornelius McInally. Teddy Revelez leads MLB in walks, OBP, and OBPS and with the season-ending injury to Los Angeles’ Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez the door may be open for him to get back into MVP consideration. Teddy now has the perfect opportunity to show his worth with Guevaro out for the year but it remains to be seen if Revelez can carry the team on his own… since he is walked so often by opposition managers in tight situations many fans seem to think he compiles his stats when games have already been decided. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem

10-06-2007, 01:32 PM	#134
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	TRADE DEADLINE UPDATE: Last-Second Deals Midnight came… and went. Nothing happened. No deals at all on Saturday. The way deals had been coming down the pike fast and furious this was a bit of a letdown to say the least. We thought we had the deal of the century lined up - Fred Cake for Kansas City’s 23-year old prospect Dale Ham, but at the last moment we just couldn’t complete the Cake-for-Ham exchange. Instead we did designate that Fred Cake for assignment as was the fallback plan and immediately replaced him on the roster with Neifi Villaluazo. We also decided to send Gregg Basnett down to AAA where he’ll be the closer for the River Cats. Basnett’s spot in the bullpen was filled by Fairfax von Schoening coming back off the disabled list. In some nice news, Francisco Quinenes was named American League Rookie of the Month for the month for July. Quinenes batted .298 with a .342 OBP, 8 home runs, and 23 RBI in 104 at-bats. Should be a nice boost to his confidence as he attempts to help fill the void in the lineup left by Dome Guevaro’s season-ending injury. Next Up: 3-game series at home against Baltimore Teddy Revelez is back in the lineup from his calf tweak. Nothing much else really to say; Baltimore have been playing good ball and are of course the home of 25-year old Chinese sensation Ming Chew who is probably the favorite for AL Rookie of the Year with his .306 batting average, .399 on-base percentage, .468 slugging, 17 homers, 76 runs scored, and 53 RBI. There’s a chance that one game of this series is going to be a bit awkward from my standpoint as it marks the return to Oakland of starting pitcher Rich Harden for the first time since I traded him for Travis Byers in the off-season. If anyone was going to be on an emotional roller coaster it was probably Harden but I’m sure he’s going to get a great ovation from the A’s faithful regardless of performance. He just threw 66 pitches yesterday and I wager that if we see him it probably wouldn’t be until Wednesday. I don’t know if he asked not to pitch while they were out here or if the management worked the rotation to keep him out of this series or if it was just how the natural rotation fell but it certainly would be interesting to see Harden back out on the Coliseum hill as he sits on 199 career victories. Current Lineup 1. Yamasita, CF, L 2. Galdames, SS, R 3. Revelez, LF, S 4. Quinenes, DH, R 5. Byers, RF, R 6. Arce, 1B, L 7. Alison, C, R 8. Johnson, 2B, R 9. Volquez, 3B, R Monday, August 2, 2021 Game 106 vs. Baltimore Orioles 5-1 Loss; 30,895 in attendance W: Roark (5-1) L: Glaus (4-4) Recap: If you could have a “trap game” in the middle of a 162-game baseball season this one might have been it for Gib Glaus. He’s certainly been a decent left-handed arm since joining the rotation as six of his 11 starts have been deemed “quality” but he’s also been at the heart of trade rumors for as long as I can remember. Some of this had to do with the mole inside our organization leaking false rumors to the press but some of the talks for Gibby were on the level and naturally you have to wonder whether he was relieved or disappointed to still be in an A’s jersey after the trade deadline. After getting though the first two innings with just 10 pitches thrown total, the Orioles sat back and worked two walks in the top of the third. Baltimore’s 30-year old catcher Tormey Hager doubled in both runners to give the O’s the initial 2-0 advantage. That advantage would end up holding up all game thanks in large part to Baltimore’s 19-year old rookie left-hander Carl Roark who improved his career and season record to 5-1 with a 4 hit, 2 walk, 5 strikeout performance. This was probably the most dominant pitching performance against us since the Dodgers’ Rio Basurto threw a no-hitter against us in L.A. back on May 21 during interleague play. There was a lot of high praise thrown at the 19-year old as this game was definitely the best performance at the Coliseum by a visiting starter all year. Baltimore’s other rookie sensation, right fielder Ming Chew, went 2-for-4 with an RBI as did center fielder and #9 hitter Chad Becker. Roark was named Player of the Game. Edgard Galdames had two hits for us in the loss. Returning from injury, Fairfax von Schoening pitched in his first game since July 15 and went 1.1 scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Josh Frank threw 1.2 innings of relief and struck out four but he also allowed a run. Glaus went 6 innings, giving up 10 hits and a walk while striking out six. Baltimore outhit us for the game 12-to-4. Tuesday, August 3, 2021 Game 107 vs. Baltimore Orioles 3-2 Win; 30,887 in attendance W: Nakamura (16-3) L: Tucker (12-8) H: Leverett (6) SV: Mathis (32) Recap: It looked like things were going to get ugly early as Ming Chew and Tormey Hager both walked in the top of the first against Nori Nakamura and then came home on a long double by 24-year old third baseman Tomas “Franchise” Sanchez who was playing as the DH. Teddy Revelez tried to throw Hager out from the left field corner but there was no chance to get him. Nakamura settled down though and it remained 2-0 until the bottom of the 3rd inning when Dan Volquez doubled off Baltimore’s 26-year old righty starter Oscar Tucker and then was driven home on a Revelez double. After Francisco Quinenes walked, Travis Byers doubled to right field to score Revelez but Quinenes was thrown out at the plate on the play by a strong throw from the Chinese sensation Chew to end the inning with the score 2-2. In the bottom of the 6th inning light-hitting second baseman Ripley Johnson hit a 369-foot solo shot down the left field line to put us ahead by what would be the final margin of 3-2. The Orioles really helped Nakamura out in this one by swinging at bad pitches to keep his pitch count relatively low and to let him off the hook for his 5 walks in 6 innings of work. In his last four starts Nakamura has walked 17 batters yet he is 3-1 in those starts and by notching his 16th victory of the year he is tied with Chicago’s Bowie van Ingen for the most wins in the American League. With manager Jeff Hance afraid to use Fairfax von Schoening in back-to-back games so soon after coming back from injury he went with last year’s closer Jonathan Leverett who gave up two hits and struck out two in two scoreless innings of relief. Bill Mathis pitched in his first save situation since July 22 and looked pretty sharp in a 10-pitch 9th inning to secure his 32nd save of the year. Even though it was a close game there wasn’t much tension in the building which was a bit disappointing. The crowd was definitely flat, almost as if they expected us to lose. Wednesday, August 4, 2021 Game 108 vs. Baltimore Orioles 4-3 Loss; 31,500 in attendance W: Min (8-5) L: Villaluazo (4-3) H: DeLeslie (4) H:Swindle (11) H: Sanchez (2) SV: Bash (2) Recap: Neifi Villaluazo made his first Major League start since May 22 and was halfway decent – 6 innings, 7 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts – but it wasn’t enough to match the tough-dealing 36-year old Taiwanese veteran Ki-tong Min who gave up just 4 hits and 1 run in his six innings as Baltimore built a 4-1 lead. Both key blows for the O’s were delivered by 19-year old second baseman John Benavides who knocked in three runs on a two out, bases loaded double in the 3rd inning and then capped Baltimore’s scoring with a solo home run in the 5th inning. Min’s only run allowed was a 422-foot bomb by Travis Byers, his 16th of the season, in the bottom of the 6th inning. With us trailing 4-1 manager Jeff Hance went with Stacy Renteria for two scoreless innings of relief before Terry Rogers somehow managed to wriggle out of trouble in the top of the 9th after hitting a batter and walking another with no outs. Baltimore’s 24-year old right-handed closer Jose Sanchez came on to start the bottom of the 9th and immediately gave up back-to-back singles to Larry Alison and Ripley Johnson. Hance then pinch hit the lefty Javier Raymundo for Dan Volquez and Raymundo managed to earn a walk to load the bases with no outs. For the first time this series the crowd came to life only to be a bit deflated by a Mumbles Yamasita strikeout. Edgard Galdames then singled home both Alison and Johnson to cut the Baltimore lead to 4-3 and in one of the strangest managerial moves I’ve ever seen, Baltimore pulled their closer in favor of 30-year old lefty veteran Abraham Bash who would have to face the switch-hitting Revelez and then two righties in Francisco Quinenes and Travis Byers. Bash promptly walked Revelez to re-load the bases but in a horrible moment Raymundo was picked off of third base by the left-handed Bash, making this inning even stranger. Bash then induced a game-ending groundout from Quinenes to lock down just his second save of the year. Baltimore played this game like a playoff game and despite the strange moves coming from their dugout I think they deserved the win as we again looked like the players were just taking a vacation out there Current Oakland Record: 70-38 Not seeing Rich Harden in this series was a big letdown for the fans. We were now 2-7 in our last 9 games and with us unable to do anything at the trade deadline this would pretty much have to be the team to take us the rest of the way this year. We all know the situation that we’re in and no one is panicked but certainly a bad slide after losing a regular lineup member could turn into something much worse if it wasn’t stemmed quickly. With the 48-61 Devil Rays coming to town next for a 3-game set we might be catching the right team to help us turn things back around even though they’re playing better baseball than us of late (5-5 in their last 10). What has been worrying since the Dome Guevaro injury though is my perception that the team is starting to lack the confidence needed to overcome deficits. There’s going to be a lot more pressure than ever now on our bullpen but I think both Fairfax von Schoening and Bill Mathis are ready to handle the load in close games. All indications are that von Schoening has recovered fully from his injury but I don’t blame Jeff Hance for being cautious with him in his first series back from the disabled list. I thought we got a decent effort out of Neifi Villaluazo in the last game of the series especially when you consider that he hadn’t seen Major League hitters in over two months. Baltimore had actually brought up 19-year old second baseman John Benavides last year for 223 at-bats and you can see why by the way he swings his bat. The kid seems to have a great future, already hitting .261 with 11 home runs and 69 RBI on the year. Elsewhere, the Twins’ big new acquisition Carl “Earthquake” Cleere has gone onto the disabled list for at least the next 5 weeks with a dislocated shoulder just 4 days after signing a 5-year, $104.3 million contract extension to stay in Minnesota. That sort of blow to the lineup will probably prevent the 51-57 Twins from making a run into Wild Card contention (where they currently sit 8 games behind the Angels). Nervous Philadelphia Phillies fans can finally breathe again now that 26-year old 6-time All Star first baseman Vincent Bresnan has signed a 2-year, $21.7 million contract extension to stay in the City of Brotherly Love. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 10-06-2007 at 01:42 PM.

10-10-2007, 03:46 PM	#135
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Next Up: 3-game series at home against Tampa Bay Tampa Bay has won four of their last five games and overall have been hitting more consistently as a team since the All Star break but they are still wracked with injuries – six players are presently on the disabled list including their starting catcher, starting second baseman, and starting third baseman. The injury to catcher Ryan Garnet was what prompted Tampa to trade away Scott Kazmir, who had spent his entire career in a Rays uniform, for catcher Auggie Compton in a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. 35-year old injured third baseman Tadasu Kamihara will see a string of three straight 40-home run seasons come to an end this year as he only managed 12 before his season-ending Achilles injury. Not only has Kamihara’s injury left a huge void in the middle of the Tampa lineup but since he’s sitting on 415 career home runs the injury probably makes 500 career home runs unreachable for the 4-time All Star and 5-time Gold Glove Award winner. The Rays have been spending money in the last couple of years to try and compete with the Yankees and Red Sox but the injuries have essentially negated that. On the bright side the injuries are allowing the organization to bring up and give a lot of playing time to just about all of their promising young players. Our slumping lineup comes into this series salivating at the prospect of getting their hands on Tampa’s 24-year old rookie starter Claudio Rosatorres who is 0-3 with a 9.42 ERA in 5 starts since being called up from AAA and could be the needed tonic to get the bats back on track. 23-year old second year man Ricardo Colon, another lefty, is considered to be a big-time prospect. The #9 overall draft choice of the Cleveland Indians in 2016 was targeted by the Rays in the off-season and acquired back on July 9 for two solid prospects from Cleveland. Since coming to Tampa he’s 1-0 with a 3.50 ERA in three starts including 7.1 shutout innings against Seattle in his last start. 32-year old first baseman Shunen Nagao is trying to step up his game with all of the injuries and he currently leads the club with a .297 average, 22 home runs, and 75 RBI. Thursday, August 5, 2021 Game 109 vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-4 Win; 31,205 in attendance W: Dickson (16-2) L: Okasawa (5-8) H: von Schoening (10) SV: Mathis (33) Recap: It wasn’t your typical beginning for Rowley Dickson as he plunked leadoff hitter Gregory Shoemaker and then surrendered a 401-foot laser beam shot to left-center field off the bat of 23-year old third baseman Milo Colburn to give Tampa Bay the early 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the first Teddy Revelez cut the lead to 2-1 with his 31st home run of the year off of Sosu Okasawa. In the bottom of the 3rd inning Francisco Quinenes smacked a three-run shot 416 feet to deep left field to put us out in front 4-2. Revelez added another RBI with a double that plated a hustling Mumbles Yamasita from first base in the 4th inning to make the score 5-2. Tampa had worn Dickson out with over 100 pitches thrown through 6 innings so manager Jeff Hance brought Fairfax von Schoening into the game in the 7th inning for his second appearance since coming back from injury. After a shaky 7th where he walked a batter and threw a wild pitch, von Schoening surrendered a solo home run in the 8th to Shunen Nagao and then after getting two outs he loaded the bases and walked in a run to make the score 5-4. Hance then brought a virtually cold Bill Mathis into the game with two outs and the bases still loaded and Mathis struck out Shoemaker as we escaped the inning with the 5-4 lead. Mathis had a little trouble in the 9th as he gave up a double (he seems to do that a lot in the 9th) but after a couple of easy popouts we had once again had worked around a tough situation. Good game all around even though I have to admit there wasn’t complete confidence that Mathis would be able to get through the 8th inning without the game becoming tied. Friday, August 6, 2021 Game 110 vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays 9-0 Win; 31,481 in attendance W: Knisley (13-8) L: Rosatorres (0-4) Recap: While the bats did indeed come alive against rookie Rays starter Claudio Rosatorres the story of the game was the absolutely dominating performance of J.D. Knisley. The 34-year old lefty who can still consistently hit 96 m.p.h. on the radar gun had his best outing in an A’s uniform, dealing a 12 strikeout, one-hit shutout against the young Devil Rays. Auggie Compton’s single in the 3rd inning was the only hit but Knisley did allow three walks on an otherwise unbelievable evening. Edgard Galdames and Teddy Revelez both went 3-for-5, combining for 4 RBI and 3 runs scored. Ripley Johnson was 3-for-3 with an RBI and Francisco Quinenes was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Dan Volquez and Jose Arce also had 2 hits apiece while Larry Alison and Travis Byers went a combined 0-for-9. Tampa’s Rosatorres ended the game with 5.1 innings pitched, 10 hits allowed, 7 earned runs, and 2 walks. After the first three innings it didn’t look like Knisley would be able to finish the game as Tampa was working nearly every count full and J.D. was up over 60 pitches but he just started rolling and getting easy outs from the 4th inning on; it was really a fantastic, free-and-easy pitching performance from then on out. What was really nice about this game was that the young players on the bench and in the bullpen were genuinely excited for Knisley and it really showed in their smiling faces after the game. Saturday, August 7, 2021 Game 111 vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays 9-3 Win; 32,388 in attendance W: Glaus (5-4) L: Vargas (5-10) Recap: Edgard Galdames broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 6th inning with a bases loaded double that scored two runs to give us a 3-1 lead. After Teddy Revelez was intentionally walked to load the bases again Francisco Quinenes came through with an RBI single to stretch the lead to 4-1. Tampa starter Jason Vargas was yanked in favor of reliever Hector Anzuatequi and Hector promptly uncorked a wild pitch to plate our 5th run of the game. After striking out Travis Byers, Anzuatequi gave up a 423-foot three-run blast to Jose Arce who deposited his 14th home run of the year into the left field seats. With the 8-1 lead manager Jeff Hance let Gib Glaus start the 7th inning and after a few base hits which led to two Devil Rays runs Hance visited the mound but stuck to his guns and let Glaus finish the 7th. Josh Frank came on and pitched a perfect 8th inning while striking out two batters and I think we’re just about ready to reach a consensus that Frank is going to be our “7th inning guy,” leading up to Fairfax von Schoening and Bill Mathis. Stacy Renteria pitched a scoreless 9th inning but he did issue a walk. Gib Glaus went 7 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. Player of the Game Edgard Galdames and second baseman Ripley Johnson again had 3 hits against the Devil Rays, as did Mumbles Yamasita who had an otherwise uneventful series. Galdames and Arce each had 3 RBI. Tampa’s Jason Vargas fell to 5-10 on the season. Current Oakland Record: 73-38 We’re getting into August and we’ve lost 38 games – that’s just absurd. We came into this series looking like we were ready for a nice long slump but we just ran into some really bad Tampa Bay pitching that made us look really good. Each game we had a couple of guys looking helpless at the plate but still we weren’t lacking for runs. It left us feeling pretty good going into an off day on Sunday before a 3-game series on the road against the Angels. In other news, Rich Harden threw 8 strong innings to pick up the 200th victory of his career in Baltimore’s 5-1 victory at home against the Seattle Mariners. Harden gave up just four hits and walked one while striking out 10 in his best outing of the year. After the game Harden admitted that he was relieved to finally reach the milestone and now he’ll be able to “relax and enjoy it.” But he bristled and ignored questions about not making a start while Baltimore was in Oakland earlier in the week, instead paying tribute to the Orioles fans that came out to the ballpark to support him on his historic day. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem

10-13-2007, 03:06 PM	#136
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Next Up: 3-game series on the road against Los Angeles Angels This series against the Angels begins a stretch of 13 games in 13 days against good teams (Texas, New York Yankees, and Boston being the other clubs). If ever our mettle was going to be tested it was right here in this critical stretch as we have the opportunity to put the division out of reach heading into September especially if we beat up on our divisional opponents. The problem is that these guys aren’t the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Aside from the Angels, everyone has been playing very good baseball for the last month. Los Angeles though are now 11 games over .500 at 61-50 and they’ve allowed the Rangers to sneak past them into second place (and into the Wild Card lead) by a game. Losing the leading American League MVP candidate (Danilo “Silencer” Tabarez) to injury for the rest of the season has easily caused L.A.’s recent woes and they serve as a constant reminder to our players to avoid getting down on ourselves since the loss of Dome Guevaro. The Angels’ struggles this year have been magnified by their $126.3 million payroll which is the fourth highest in all of baseball. General Manager Cass Evans and manager Andy Simmons are squarely on the hotseat as nothing less than a playoff berth will likely save their jobs. On the field, the Angels have a lot riding on two 39-year old starting pitchers, Spike Burkill (219 career wins) and junkballer Andy MacChlerich (218 career wins). Their 38-year old closer Abram O’Cahan has also been under a tremendous amount of fire from Angels fans who want either 33-year old New Jersian Tony Gaborde or 23-year old youngster Steele Slee closing out games for them. 40-year old Mark Teixeira is still hitting .288 but has just 8 home runs in 375 at-bats, on pace for the worst power totals of his first ballot Hall of Fame career. This will probably be the first season in his 19-year career Major League career where Teixeira doesn’t hit at least 23 home runs. His 707 home runs currently has him 21 homers behind Barry Bonds for the all-time lead. Third baseman Kenneth Coeyman and center fielder Phillips Wortman are the current leaders in the clubhouse and on the field for the former California Angels. No changes to our lineup and no one was getting a rest until we got back home for the Yankees next week so everyone was prepared to play for at least the next six consecutive nights. There was a chance Travis Byers was going to move up to the #4 slot in the batting order. Francisco Quinenes seems to have a little more pop in his bat than Byers but Quinenes also seems to strikeout a bit too much in what could be a rally-killing spot. We were going to keep an eye on the situation over the next couple of series. Current Lineup 1. Yamasita, CF, L (3-for-12 vs. right handed pitchers so far this month) 2. Galdames, SS, R (7-for-13 vs. Tampa in last series) 3. Revelez, LF, S (hitting .417 in 6 games this month) 4. Quinenes, DH, R (hitting below .200 since Guevaro injury) 5. Byers, RF, R (1-for-14 vs. Tampa in last series) 6. Arce, 1B, L (3-for-20 with 1 home run during recent rough stretch) 7. Alison, C, R (15-for-63 [.238] with men in scoring position this season) 8. Johnson, 2B, R (7-for-11 vs. Tampa Bay in last series) 9. Volquez, 3B, R (hitting .190 over his last 6 games) Monday, August 9, 2021 Game 112 at Los Angeles Angels 3-0 Loss; 36,846 in attendance W: Collins (8-8) L: Nakamura (16-4) Recap: Phillips Wortman put the Angels out in front 1-0 in the 1st inning with a 405-foot solo blast to left field off Nori Nakamura. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the 4th inning when left fielder Paul Cantrell blooped a single to center field which scored Kenneth Coeyman from second base. On the other side of the hill lefty Steve Collins was causing us all sorts of problems with excellent control as he allowed 3 hits and struck out 5 without issuing a walk through the first 5 innings. L.A. stretched the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the 5th on a sacrifice fly but it could have been much worse as Nakamura had loaded the bases with no outs but he asked manager Jeff Hance to stay in the game during a visit to the mound and he proceeded to work out of trouble with just the one run allowed in the inning. In the top of the 6th inning Steve Collins was saying he already had all the run support he needed with big strikeouts of Mumbles Yamasita and Edgard Galdames, two men who are fairly tough to strike out. Terry Rogers came on in relief of Nakamura and threw two scoreless innings for us but the night belonged to Collins. The 28-year old Player of the Game finished up allowing 6 hits and 1 walk on just 103 pitches while striking out 8 and picking off a baserunner in his first complete game and first shutout of the season. Tuesday, August 10, 2021 Game 113 at Los Angeles Angels 2-0 Win; 37,103 in attendance W: Villaluazo (5-3) L: Burkill (14-10) Recap: What a difference a day makes as today the bounces all went our way in a 3-hit shutout for 25-year old Neifi Villaluazo as he outdueled one of the best starting pitchers and certainly one of the most intense competitors in the league over the last 15 years in L.A.’s Spike “Barbwire” Burkill. Villaluazo walked four and struck out seven but was never really in serious danger all night as he cruised through the Angels on 112 pitches for his first complete game and first shutout of the season. Mumbles Yamasita and Teddy Revelez both had two hits and each drove in a run with a solo homer. Burkill gave up both runs on 6 hits total with 2 walks while striking out 9 in 7 innings of work. Larry Alison also had two hits for us. Wednesday, August 11, 2021 Game 114 at Los Angeles Angels 6-0 Win; 30,224 in attendance W: Dickson (17-2) L: MacChlerich (12-6) Recap: A 4 o’clock start to this game featured a great pitching matchup with 26-year old rising star Rowley Dickson butting heads with 218-game winner Andy MacChlerich but in the bottom of the 2nd inning back-to-back homers by Larry Alison and Ripley Johnson put us out in front 3-0. In the top of the 5th inning we chased MacChlerich with three more runs including Teddy Revelez’s 100th RBI of the season on a bases loaded single. Daniel Jester came on in relief and would not only get out of the inning but go on to throw 4 innings of scoreless relief in a great performance to save the bullpen for the Angels. But Rowley Dickson would go on to fire his way to his 4th shutout of the season (tops in MLB) in a 5 hit, 1 walk, 9 strikeout performance that of course saw him named Player of the Game. Dickson lowered his season ERA to 2.23 with the victory. After the game Dickson commented in a rather low-key way that he did a good job of keeping the ball down and that was the key to his success on the afternoon. Current Oakland Record: 75-39 Pretty wild to see three shutouts in a series; our crack research team is frantically attempting to see when the last time this happened was. A good result in the finale and now we were facing a very big series with the Rangers who sit 11½ games behind us in the division in sole possession of second place. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem Last edited by thehatfield; 10-13-2007 at 03:16 PM.

10-14-2007, 02:53 PM	#137
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Slight Amendment: Due to a crash to desktop I lost the result of the final game of the Angels series. After replaying it Rowley Dickson did get his 17th win of the year but it wasn't a shutout; he allowed both Angel runs during a comprehensive 10-2 victory. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem

10-17-2007, 12:53 PM	#138
Loeffle Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Grand Duchy of Baden Posts: 2,043	The Noble Prize should have been yours this year! Breathtaking story ... I'm reading mostly at work, as I'm going through a boring and stressy period. So your story is a great distraction ... Yesterday I burst out laughing loudly when I read the "error man from Atlanta" episode. What happened to him? Keep it up and don't trade Mumbles. Arce should stay too, because his comments are the best

10-31-2007, 01:47 PM	#140
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	Work has been an absolute bear lately and won't let up for the next few weeks. I've painted myself into a bit of a corner with the format of this dynasty but would like to know: should I continue with the same style and have this stretch through the (RL) 07/08 winter to finish off this season? Or should I play out the games through the end of the season, do an in-depth overview of what happened, and resume game-by-game recaps for the playoffs (if any)? I'm only bringing this up because of the time constraints I've had lately (which will only get much worse in March when our first little one arrives). In my opinion I would continue the way it's been going, but that road will be a long one (but not longer than the one real life year it's taken to get to August in-game )! __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem