D/evolution of the game

NPR has a story about Vintage Baseball leagues, groups who get together and play ol' timey baseball complete with pantaloons, gloveless fielders, underhand pitching, and great team names like The Bridgeport Orators and Bonneyville Millers.

On the flip-side, Darren Everson writes in the WSJ about the crazy shenanigans MLB managers are pulling off in an attempt to remain relevant win games. Example: "the Brewers this season began to hit their pitchers eighth, in front of catcher Jason Kendall on the days he plays," which they calculate could bring in 30 more runs this year.

Big Hurt’s Back

Frank Thomas was one of the best free agent signings Oakland has made in the Billy Beane era. He was simply a monster in 2006 – a main reason the A’s made the playoffs and advanced to the ALCS – and at such a cheap price tag. How will Big Hurt 2.0 shake out?

The biggest storyline of this signing is that the A’s front office truly believes it can win this season. Every move the club has made over the past few weeks has indicated that, but this is shouting out loud for the whole AL West to hear. I hope it’s not premature (the A’s hover around first, but they were about the same at this point last season).

The next best thing about this is the price tag: $337,000, which could be worth it if Thomas produces just one good month.

So here’s the bad news: To make room for the Big Hurt, the A’s showed their big hurts. Travis Buck was sent to the 15-day DL. Maybe he’ll emerge from the list and from his slump in a week or two. Eric Chavez was put on the 60-day DL – upsetting but not surprising.

Then there’s the jumble Thomas creates. He’s a right-handed DH. So is Mike Sweeney, arguably the A’s best hitter so far. If you can wrap your head around this, Sweeney is this year’s Frank Thomas of 2006 (aging hitter, coming off injury-prone seasons, signed by the A’s after a nice career for one team, given a small, incentive-based salary with hopes that he can stay healthy enough to provide some punch). So what does that make the Frank Thomas of 2008?

So the lefty, sometime DH, Jack Cust is going to have to play more outfield (yikes!),and Sweeney will have to play a bit of first base, not a bad proposition, though it will limit the at bats of regular first baseman Daric Barton, who is a candidate for rookie of the year.

Either this all works like a charm, or Thomas doesn’t get the plate appearances he demands and gets grumpy, Cust looks like a fool on defense, and Sweeney and Barton spend too much time platooning. Oh, and the rest of the team spends at least 30 days on the DL; don’t count that out.

Joba belongs...

In the rotation!

Not to win now (as some will argue) but to win long-term. Hank Steinbrenner is right on.

If you have a potential ace, do you let him pitch 80 innings a year or 200+ innings a year? Simple as that.

P.S. 100 posts! [cue confetti and marching band]

Can Someone Give the Rays Some Eggs for Their Basket

After 6 games in bigs, 22-year old Evan Longoria gets 6-year, 17.5 million deal, which could balloon to 9 years, $44 million.

"As a player, you have to look out for what's best for you. For me, the security of a long-term contract and knowing that now I'm pretty much set for life, it's just very assuring to me."

Yup.

Encarnacion To Brantley: Who's Not Clutch??

There are few professional classes I loath more than idiot sports journalists, so I love it when stuff like this happens. Brantley gets served some righteous crow by Encarnacion:

Oakland A’s Season Preview

It’s hard being an A’s fan sometimes. As soon as you fall in love with a player, he gets traded for a crop of prospects. But I suppose I don’t really have anything to complain about until the team moves south to Fremont. I’m not expecting big things for the Green & Gold in 2008, but I think they will be entertaining as always.

For the A’s to be competitive this season:

Like last season, the front of the rotation is good, and the bullpen is strong. Harden and Blanton are a solid 1-2 punch, but Harden only pitched 16 times in the past two years. Justin Duchscherer is one of the better setup pitchers in baseball, but he isn’t proven as a starter. If these three make lots of quality starts, the A’s will be in decent shape.

The young guys need to keep hitting. Daric Barton came up at the end of last season and smashed his way to a 1.067 OPS. Travis Buck played half a season as a rookie and had an OPS of .850. Jack Hannahan filled in as a very respectable infield replacement for part of the year. Jack Cust, though he’s not a youngster, was a huge success when he finally got regular at bats, and he might not need to keep up his Ruthian home run pace, but he can’t slip too much. Kurt Suzuki will be an offensive improvement over Jason Kendall, though not behind the plate.

Bobby Crosby and Eric Chavez need solid years. Crosby hasn’t played in 100 games any season since he was a rookie in 2004. Chavez played hurt as much as he could the past two seasons, and his production suffered tremendously. If they can each play something like 120 to 140 pain-free games, it will be the equivalent of the A’s signing two good free agents.

The A’s won’t be very good because:

The back end of the starting rotation could be a problem like it was last year. Lenny DiNardo, fourth in the rotation, looks like he could be ok, but then things get shaky. Dana Eveland made the rotation out of spring training though he has a flimsy resume. Last year the A’s experimented with a lot of fifth starters with little success, and if the same happens this year, the team will have a losing record again. At least Danny Haren was around last season.

With Oakland, it will all come down to injuries. Chavez is hurt. Crosby and Harden usually get hurt. Chad Gaudin and Kiko Calero, two of the better pitchers, are starting the season on the disabled list. If the A’s use the DL anywhere close to the 22 times they did last year, there’s no way they will be good.

My prediction is that injuries will be a problem, the young team will go through growing pains and spurts, and they will be competitive in any given game but not for a division title. A winning record is possible but something of a best-case scenario. Last year’s win total of 76 seems like a realistic prediction.