Athletics

Total news: 966
Last news: December 31, 1969 19:00:00

STOP CASTING POROSITY! An Oakland Athletics blog.

Total news: 36
Last news: December 31, 1969 19:00:00

Total news: 10
Last news: December 31, 1969 19:00:00

Ken Arneson confronts his white whale in the final blog entry on BaseballToaster.com. "Load the harpoons, gentlemen, it is showdown time. Today, my adventure as a baseball blogger ends. I'm going down, and I'm taking Moby Dick with me." - [Read more]

I've told Wuertz jokes than this one. Fear not, there's only one blog post left on Catfish Stew. - [Read more]

The setup is to see Rickey sized up by the choir invisible hand have really worried. Walks off the teams, get the best hitter, Rickey stole second straight Outta Town. - [Read more]

Ken Rosenthal says the deal is done, pending a physical. Buster Olney says it's for $4 million in 2009, with an option for $6.5M in 2010, or a $1.25M buyout. - [Read more]

Rickey Henderson reaches another milestone today. Next milestone: election to the Hall of Fame. - [Read more]

First, I confess I am writing this post mostly to tease Jon for his wishy-washy-ness. - [Read more]

Actor Jeff Bridges has the story. - [Read more]

Today, Billy Beane officially traded three lemons for an overripe, spotted banana. - [Read more]

So Matt Holliday may or may not be an Athletic. - [Read more]

Mark Ellis will be back, according to ESPN. It's a 2-year deal, with a team option for a third, at about 5 to 6 million/year. That sounds fair to me. It doesn't block their best 2B prospects, Jemile Weeks and Adrian Cardenas, who are both a couple years from being ready. With the youth movement, the vast majority of the team will hold pre-arbitration salaries, so there's plenty of room in the budget for this modest salary. Assuming Ellis fully recovers from his minor shoulder surgery and stays somewhat healthy, this is a good deal. - [Read more]

Confession time: Your correspondent did not expect the A's to be very good this year. In those heady days of spring training, when all teams start out 0-0 and everyone is mathematically alive, I looked at the 2008 handiwork of Billy Beane and saw 95 losses, a last-place finish, and 1979-sized crowds dotting the Coliseum's many available seats. - [Read more]

There's something funny about these two consecutive pictures I took today, one minute apart. There's a setup and a punchline, but I can't figure out the middle. - [Read more]

Your single-season saves record-holder Francisco Rodriguez -- and hey, that distinction worked out well for Bobby Thigpen, didn't it? -- likes to celebrate each of his saves with an elaborate dance as if he's never closed out a game before. I may have mentioned my dislike of this practice once or twice or possibly every time he does it, which would be roughly a jillion times. I am not alone in my disdain. This item from the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that the Athletics, while respectful of K-Rod's accomplishments, find his theatrical prancing to be... let us say "distasteful." I would not go so far as to suggest that they wouldn't be the least bit sad to see Francisco Rodriguez get run over by a stray AC Transit bus mid-celebration. That is my wish, not theirs. - [Read more]

All the players I like are now gone. Rich Harden was traded. Justin Duchscherer is probably lost for the year. Eric Chavez is out for the season, and may never grace the hot corner again. Frank Thomas is out for the season, and may never play again. Mark Ellis is out for the season, and may never return to Oakland. - [Read more]

When your team is in the process of completing a 10-20 August run, you look for entertainment wherever you can find it, since it's certainly not located on the field of play. So it was with some relief that I spotted the following in the Chronicle's write-up of the A's 10th and final win in the month of August over the weekend: - [Read more]

One of the nice things about living where I do is that I can step outside my front door, walk approximately a half-mile to the southwest, hang a sharp left, and I've got an excellent view of the Coliseum from across the San Leandro Bay. This view comes in particularly handy when the A's decide to shoot off some fireworks. So that's four nights of free entertainment for each of team's in-season Pyro-Spectaculars... at least until the A's perfect the Molecular Disruption Ray that only lets paying customers watch the fireworks. Really, it's the next logical step after you've tarped off the upper deck. - [Read more]

The A's had two of the biggest coups in the draft, according to Jim Callis at Baseball America. - [Read more]

I witnessed an end of an era today: Brad Ziegler's consecutive scoreless innings streak ended at 39 and whatever innings. Ziegler didn't have good stuff today: the Rays hit several balls hard in the previous inning, but they were caught at the warning track. - [Read more]

I had plenty more important things to do, but when my brother-in-law called this afternoon and said he had seats he couldn't use right behind home plate, I thought, hmm...Gio's Oakland debut, Pennington's first game, could be interesting. OK, I'll go. Here's the wide angle view of the seats I had: - [Read more]

Cliff Pennington has been called up to be the A's new third baseman, replacing the severly slumping Jack Hannahan at 3B. Pennington doesn't have much power--he profiles more as a shortstop offensively--but anything would be better than Hannahan at this point. - [Read more]