Series Preview: Oakland Athletics

by Jesse on Apr 22, 2008 6:38 PM EDT in Series Previews Comment 9 comments

Going In, In Brief

The Twins (9-10), winners of two in a row, sport the 26th best slugging percentage in all of baseball (.356) and 28th best on-base percentage (.302). Runs have been hard to come by, scoring a total of eight runs in their last four games.

Oakland (12-8) is off to a pretty good start, considering that like the Twins their eyes are on the future. While they equal Minnesota in team batting average (.257), they've taken nearly twice as many walks. Their pitching staff is also striking out more hitters, and allowing fewer hits.

Probable Pitchers

Livan Hernandez VS Joe Blanton
Francisco Liriano VS Chad Gaudein
Nick Blackburn VS Greg Smith

Opposition Focus

Jack Cust: Cust is batting a miserable .157, but has taken an amazing 16 walks to reach base to the tune of a .367 OBP. He's already making A's fans restless though, with his inability to hit and his 22 strikeouts.

Bobby Crosby: Off to a hot start this year, hitting .313/.368/.475 with two home runs and seven doubles.

Kurt Suzuki: Oakland's 24-year old catcher isn't hitting for any power, but his balls have eyes. 21 hits and five walks in 18 games has allowed him to pick up right where he left off in the minor leagues, where he posted a .283/.380/.419 line while rocketing through the system.

Mike Sweeney: An old nemesis, Sweeney is primed to hit his first home run of the season against the Twins. So far this season he's hitting .275/.356/.333 in 51 at-bats.

Huston Street: Oakland's closer has notched five saves, but his numbers are still having trouble shaking his first three appearances of the year, where he allowed five earned runs and three homers in 3.2 innings. He's been much more effective since.

Andrew Brown: A 27-year old right handed reliever, Brown has yet to allow an earned run. In nine appearances (12 innings), he's allowed five hits and struck out eight while walking four.

Santiago Casilla: Another 27-year old right handed reliever, Casilla has allowed only six hits and a walk through 9.2 innings, allowing no runs and notching 11 strikeouts.

Stats

Batting

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
Jeff Fiorentino	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000
Rob Bowen	2	9	2	3	0	0	0	2	0	5	0	0	.333	.333	.333
Kurt Suzuki	18	64	9	21	3	0	0	4	5	8	1	1	.328	.394	.375
Ryan Sweeney	16	44	5	14	2	1	0	6	2	9	0	0	.318	.348	.409
Bobby Crosby	20	80	13	25	7	0	2	15	7	9	0	0	.313	.368	.475
Emil Brown	18	65	9	19	3	1	1	14	2	7	1	0	.292	.309	.415
Mike Sweeney	15	51	7	14	3	0	0	3	6	1	0	0	.275	.356	.333
Chris Denorfia	15	33	4	9	1	0	0	4	3	9	0	0	.273	.333	.303
Daric Barton	20	75	12	20	5	2	0	6	15	21	0	0	.267	.385	.387
Mark Ellis	20	82	9	20	4	2	2	11	10	7	3	1	.244	.323	.415
Jack Hannahan	17	51	6	10	2	0	1	7	12	18	0	0	.196	.344	.294
Jack Cust	17	51	9	8	2	0	1	6	16	22	0	0	.157	.368	.255
Travis Buck	15	65	5	10	6	1	0	6	2	20	0	0	.154	.197	.277
Donnie Murphy	6	13	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	5	0	0	.154	.267	.154

Pitching

	W-L	G	GS	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Andrew Brown	0-0	9	0	0	0	12.0	5	1	0	0	4	8	0.00	.75
Santiago Casilla	0-0	11	0	0	0	9.2	6	0	0	0	1	11	0.00	.72
Joey Devine	2-0	5	0	0	0	7.1	4	0	0	0	3	5	0.00	.95
Rich Harden	1-0	2	2	0	0	11.0	7	1	1	1	7	15	0.82	1.27
Justin Duchscherer	1-0	1	1	0	0	5.0	4	1	1	0	2	6	1.80	1.20
Dana Eveland	2-1	4	4	0	0	23.2	17	6	5	1	11	18	1.90	1.18
Kirk Saarloos	0-0	2	0	0	0	7.2	4	3	2	0	2	1	2.35	.78
Keith Foulke	0-0	7	0	1	0	7.0	5	2	2	1	1	6	2.57	.86
Greg Smith	1-0	3	3	0	0	18.0	14	8	6	2	7	13	3.00	1.17
Joe Blanton	1-3	5	5	0	0	34.0	41	16	16	1	7	11	4.24	1.41
Alan Embree	1-1	10	0	0	2	9.2	9	5	5	2	2	10	4.66	1.14
Chad Gaudin	1-1	3	3	0	0	17.0	16	11	9	2	6	15	4.76	1.29
Huston Street	0-1	8	0	5	1	9.1	9	6	6	3	3	8	5.79	1.29
Lenny DiNardo	1-1	4	2	0	0	7.2	15	9	9	0	5	5	10.57	2.61

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Comments

He should get that checked out

but his balls have eyes

I don’t think that’s normal, and may require special medical supervision.

by ubelmann on Apr 22, 2008 7:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

+1

I thought the same thing, but found that ubelmann’s beat me to it.

by serq on Apr 22, 2008 7:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Frank Quilicism

Frank Qulici had a similar comment when he was doing color way back when. He said, “That last ground ball was a seeing eye dog.” I nearly fell off the couch I was laughing so hard.

"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. See, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it . . ."

by Skippy tastes better than Jiff on Apr 22, 2008 9:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Halsey Hall's all time best line

“Ya know Herb, I’ve been watching these two love birds in front of the booth all game, and I think I’ve noticed a pattern.”

“What’s that Halsey?”

“He kisses her on the strikes and she kisses him on the balls.”

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Apr 23, 2008 1:21 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

heeeeeeeeehehehe

That’s pretty brilliant.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 23, 2008 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Y'know...

...I actually laughed as I wrote it, but went with it anyway.

Good times.

by Jesse on Apr 23, 2008 8:00 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Let there be lefties

I say go after Blanton tonight and Gaudin tomorrow because you know Smith will probably eat up our continued weakness against lefties on Wednesday.
Suggested lineup for tonight:
Gomez CF
Kubel RF
Mauer C
Morneau 1B
Harris 2B
Buscher 3B
Tolbert SS
Lamb 3B
Span LF

Gardenhire's major league career: Banjo hitting, futility infielder who couldn't lick it.
Rick Anderson's major league career: Strikethrower who never made it happen his sub 90's fastball.
Really gives a new definition to living vicariously through other people, don't it?

by caseintheface on Apr 22, 2008 8:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't think you can have 2 third basemen...

There’s a rule against that or something.

You suggest the Twins should sit Delmon tonight?

-Flip

by Flip27 on Apr 23, 2008 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Further...

Give Young some pine time. I know he’s an asset in the field but I can’t watch him hit anymore. It’s too painful. Plus, somebody has got to protect Morneau. He got lucky on Sunday, he was hacking at everything against the lefty Perez. Perez and other relievers are taking their shots against Morneau with fringe pitches because they know most of the time he’ll get himself out because he knows he’s the only one who’s capable of manning up in big situations. Part of me wanted him to walk in the final at bat to see if Young could actually step it up in that situation.

Also are you sure Boofer’s being skipped in the rotation, I didn’t read that anywhere. I was thinking this was going to be a good test for him to see if he could bounce back against a patient Oakland club.

Finally, any bets for the over/under on Liriano’s walks in this start?

by caseintheface on Apr 22, 2008 8:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs