A's all F's

After Saturday's game with the Twins, Oakland has gone nine straight games scoring three runs or fewer. That hasn't happened in nearly 30 years.

That pretty much says it all. It's been hard to watch bay area baseball lately. There isn't much hope for the A's this season, but I will try to find some. Two names that will be key to the rest of the season; Mike Piazza and Daric Barton. Piazza should be back in a week or two and should bring a much needed boost to the lineup. Barton should be called up soon enough. Heres an expert prediction for ya. Dan Johnson will be traded sometime before the trade deadline to make room for Barton. Im hoping it happens ASAP. Barton is batting .321 for the RiverCats with a decent amount of homers. He should make an immediate impact once he is called up. This will probably be the only move the A's make at the deadline and should put them in position for a big second half run. With Loiaza and Street coming back soon the pitching staff is solid.

Also, the Angels and Mariners have been playing better then they are, Mariners especially. They will come back down to earth. I got the A's winning the division on the final weekend of the season against the Angels...

I hope

AL All Stars

Here is who should be on the AL all star team. Screw the NL, I dont give a shit about them and they are gonna lose anyways.

The Starters

1B- Justin More-No
The guy is following up his undeserved MVP season (Frankie was clearly the most valuable player on any team) with an awesome first half. 20 homers and 63 rbis. Might as well call him Justin More?YES ROFLLFLL. David Ortiz was a close second here.

2B- Ty Wiggington
I dont even care how crazy this seems. This guy is awesome. 13 homers is alot more then any other second baseman out there and he has a decent 270 average. He has cooled down a bit the past few weeks but the numbers are still there. The whole second base class is weak this year. Plus every team needs a player and it would be nice and erie to see a Devil Ray start an All Star game for once. Or any non yankee, red sock or tiger. And when did Detroit fans start voting so much for all stars? Seems like they always got a few guys startin. WHY DO YOU CARE!!

SS- Carlos Guillen
Just as I rip Tiger fans for gettin to many Tigers starting, I put in the one Tiger not starting the game. But hey, this guy deserves it no doubt. Battin .328 with 13 homers and 65 rbis. All that while missing 10 games due to injuries I guess. I dont know. I DONT fuckin follow the TIGERS.
But yeah, someone should trade this guy to my fantasy team.

3B- A-Rod
Captain Obvious picked this one for me. Moving on...

OF- OOWEEEOOOMAGGLIOOO, Vlad, and Suzuki
I call Ordonez that because thats the name of some douches team in my fantasy league. And looking back now, trading him Ordonez for Damon was a pretty shitty move on my part. That guy has been unbelievably good. Vlad has been his usual self. The man can just hit a pitch wherever you throw it. And Suzuki. Thats right, i'm calling him Suzuki. Im tired of this Ichiro shit. You are in AMERICA! Fuckin go by your last name like everyone else faggot. And stop swinging like a girl while your at it.

C- Victor Martinez
This guy, who even the biggest of baseball fans would not be able to recognize if they saw him on the street, is just awesome. .326, 15 homers, 66 rbis. Amazing stats for anyone let alone a catcher. I hear he sucks at defense though? Maybe. Who cares, he is the man

SP- DAN MOTHERFUCKIN HAREN!
Finally, I can put up an A. Haren has been the man all season long. Leadin the league in ERA, WHIP, and BAA. The guy has just been dominant. The only thing missing from his stellar stats is a complete game, for whatever reason. Previous to his latest start he had'nt given up more then 3 runs in a game. At all. Talk about giving your team a chance to win every single game. Its really a shame the A's haven't. If Haren doesnt start this game I'm not watching. PERIOD. Shits boring anyways.

RESERVES

Lets see. I'll stick to the 12 hitters, 12 pitchers and that every team needs one player, which by the way is a pussy rule that only the MLB would have.

Jorge Posada
David Ortiz
Carlos Pena
Brian Roberts
Orlando Cabrera
Mike Lowell
Torii Hunter
Gary Sheffield
Shannon Stewart
Alex Rios
Manny Ramirez
Grady Sizemore

Pitchers

Josh Beckett
Jon Lackey
C.C. Sabathia
Johan Santana
Gil Meche
Javier Vazquez
Chad Gaudin
K-Rod
J J Putz
Gagne
Jonathon Papelbon
Borowski?

Some notes

• David Ortiz has started 7 games at first first this season.
• Shannon Stewart is awesome! He has been hitting the ball crazy well lately and I dont care what anyone says. Its my fucking list!
• Derek Jeter is not on this list. That is NOT a mistake. That guy sucks. He is batting .200 against Oakland. Note to the rest of the league, figure this guy out. Pitch him inside. Its not hard.
• It disgusted me to write Gil Meche on this list, but there had to be one Royal. And to be fair, the guy is pitching some good ball this year. His ERA is around 3.2.
• Javier Vazquez was the most deserved White Sox player. He really was. The guy strikes out a ton of guys and has an era of about 3.4 or somethin. The Whitesox pitching is pretty good actually. Too bad there offense is pathetic.
• My boy, Chad Gaudin. This guy has been awesome this year. He got a little roughed up after they started having Suzuki catch for him, but his numbers are still great. Near the top of most pitching categories besides wins and strikeouts. In fact, if it werent for the off-June this guy would actually be an All Star. Nothin but love for him here. Delicious, man love.
• Gagne is 11 for 11 in saves and rocks. I dont care if he was hurt. He was the best Ranger out there.
• Borowski leads the AL in saves with an ERA around 5. He only has 3 loses too. I dont know how he does it, but its kind of impressive.

Mulders sister was abducted by aliens and he has not been the same since.

The Cards managed to deal the A's there first series loss in almost 3 weeks this weekend. Real ugly series with alot of crappy pitching on both sides. Its pretty embarrasing losing a series at home to a club like St Louis, but the usual sharp A's staff just wasnt there this weekend. But this series against the Cards make me think back on the trade that sent Mulder to St Louis for Danny Haren, Kiko Calero, and Daric Barton. At the time me and most of the A's faithful were pretty upset to see him go, but looking back now I doubt there is anyone complaining in Oakland.

While Mulder has never really gotten back to pitching like he did back in his glory days in Oakland, and is currently on the DL for likely the rest of the season, Dan Haren is pitching like the ace everyone thought he would become. He is leading the league in ERA, BAA, and WHIP and is the front runner to start the All Star game this year. Since coming to Oakland, Haren has pitched 34 more games the Mulder and has an ERA of 3.49, compared to Mulder, who has been injured the past 2 seasons and in that same time has an ERA of right around 5.

While Haren has clearly been much better then Mulder since the trade, he wasnt the only big part of the trade. Kiko Calero has been solid the past 3 seasons in the A's bullpen and uber prospect Daric Barton is expecting a call to the big show by September at the latest. Compared to the likes of Albert Pujols at the time of the trade, Barton has been slowed down by a couple injuries but is finally healthy and swinging the bat well for the Sacramento RiverCats.

When its all said and done, this may be looked back on as Beanes best trade, but thats just what we in the Bay have come to expect from him.

Sweeeeeeep!

After an extra innings 5-3 victory on Friday night in San Fran, the A's roll out two shutouts over the weekend to conclude the excellent sweep of the Giants.
Every time the A's take a bite out of Barry Zito, I can't help but think we dodged a huge bullet. Oh, don't get me wrong, his curves and cute left hand will sorely be missed, but I can't help but thank god that we didn't have 125Mil to drop on that sweet son of a yum. Now he can basque in his true mediocrity across the bay for those Giant guys.

Let's just stop here and give a round of applause to the A's pitching this past week. After shutting down one of the best offensive teams in baseball (The Red Sox), they go on to hold the Giants to 3 runs over the weekend. And while, sure, that's a much easier feat, I think that if you're an A's fan, you're just amazed at how these cats have been performing over the course of the season. Talk about keeping us in the race. With the injuries we've suffered, I'm honestly amazed that we're only 5 games back at this point in the season. It makes me happy to see that there's life after Zito.

Tomorrow, our beloved A's take on the the Houston Astrocities. Yeah, that's right bitches. I'm that lame. Eat it up.

A little Introduction

I thought i'd start out my first entry here with a brief introduction . I have been a life long bay area sports fan, but mostly in theory only. My only real fan history was on those lucky occasions growing up when I happend to be with my Dad on a Sunday and we would watch Steve Young and the 49ers dominate the league. But I really didnt become a sports nut untill 1999 when a young man by the name of Tim Hudson was called up for an A's team that hadnt seen the playoffs since that whole grunge thing wore off. He was this unassuming righty who looked about the size of that scrawny kid in high school the jocks used to beat up, but on that mound he was a giant. His command

From that first start in June me and the rest of the A's faithful knew he was something special. It was when I saw Huddy pitch that I became a true A's fanatic and i havent looked back since. He dominated the rest of the season going 11-2 and the A's finished with there most wins since '92 when they last made the playoffs. The following season, the rest of the Big 3 arrived in Mulder and finally Zito, leading the A's to the playoffs for what would be the beggining of 5 straight appearances.

Since that first pitch from Huddy I became a true A's fanatic andI havent looked back since. My passion for baseball and all sports in general was ignited. I began watching every 49ers game, which wasnt always easy after Young left, I went to as many A's games as I could, and yes, I even rooted constantly for the oft-dissapointing Warriors. Year after year my passion for sports grew. From every free 2-liter pepsi at A's games, to each first round loss in the playoffs. It all brought me to the point I am at today, a beloved bay area sports fan writing a blog because I am god damn tired of hearing about New York every day.

So here I am, one die-hard bay area sports fan trying to get some love for my favorite teams that get ignored daily in the current sports media. There wont be any features on Roger Clemens here. You will get no man love for Tom Brady from me. Alls you will get is a pure, unadulterated WestCoastBiased.

Sox 1, A's 0 (A's win series 3-1).

So today Mr. BloodySox came within an out of no-no ville against our beloved A's. And while I couldn't watch the damn game because it wasn't televised (for god knows why), I couldn't help but get to thinking. I thought to myself, "what would make me feel like those last 3 wins against Boston were meaningless?"

That's right. Atop that list was "Getting No hit by Curt Schilling." And I thought, why would such a thing make me feel this way? I think it's mostly because I think Curt Schilling is overrated as all hell. The man pitches a solid game in a bloody damn sock and the entire world schmoozes like he was Bill Gates at a fundraiser. Give me a break.

Whatever that's not the point. The point is, that I would have lost respect for the A's if they got no-hit after winning 3 in a row. Thankfully my man Super Shannon came through with a Stewartesque blip single with two outs left in the ninth, and I sighed a great sigh of relief. I mean, as relieved you can be reading a box score and a recap an hour after a game has been finished.

Oh, and the A's drafted some kid named James Simmons. He's a RHP out of UC Riverside and apparently he beat the "perennial powerhouse" Cal State Fullerton. And that's my who gives a shit fact of the day. Have a good one.