The A’s announced Tuesday that Daric Barton had cleared waivers and had been outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento.  Barton played in 8 games for Oakland this season and over 23 plate appearances he had a .143/.217/.286 slash line with 1 home run, 1 walk and 3 RBI.  It’s not really surprising that he cleared waivers, as he cleared waivers when the A’s DFA’d him earlier this season.

Anyway, all of this got me thinking about his 2010 season with the A’s when he combined for a .273/.393/.405 slash line over 686 plate appearances. He finished the season with a 4.8 fWAR, which was fifth best out of qualifying first basemen.  His 2010 season was mostly remembered for the plate discipline he showed, leading the American League in walks (second in MLB) with 110.

Now, the past is the past and Barton has not been the same player he was going back three years ago, as injuries have plagued him and he has spent a significant amount of time in Sacramento.  What this really had me wondering was, could Derek Norris of this season, be like the Daric Barton of 2010?  Now before you all freak out on me,  I mostly am saying this because of the current praise of Derek Norris’ OBP, which currently sits at .339.  After having an 0-5 game Monday, it did dip from .353.  So let’s say he won’t go 0-5 every game he plays in, could he have the same success Barton had in 2010, by walking a lot?

Now bear with me, I am doing all of this off the top of my head and research is being done as I am typing along.

Derek Norris has played in 34 games this season and over 121 plate appearances he has a .204/.339/.296 slash line with a .295 wOBA.  He has taken 19 walks, which is good for 15.7% of his plate appearances (which is above league average). Up to this point in the season, it seems that the only thing he is succeeding at is his plate discipline.

Now going back to 2010, Daric Barton saw 149 plate appearances in his first 34 games, he had a .297/.414/.432 slash line and had taken 24 walks, good for 16.1% of his plate appearances. So Barton was not only walking a lot, he also hitting.

This season Norris is almost striking out 26% of the time, which for the record, is not good. In 2010, Barton was striking out about 15% of the time through 34 games, which is not a lot. In fact, it is little bit better than league average.

So it’s clear, as of right now, that the only thing these two have in common is that their first names are pronounced the same and that they both get/got on base by walking a lot.  Derek Norris can be productive if he continues to get on base, but, not to state the obvious, I would like to see him start hitting more and striking out a little bit less.  Daric Barton was never able to repeat what he did in 2010, but I think Derek Norris has the room to grow and to learn to be a better hitter.

Just when we all thought the A’s were never going to win another game this season, they prove us wrong, defeating the Mariners by a final scored of 4-3.  With this win, the A’s are now back at .500 and they avoided falling into third place.

The A’s scored three of their four runs on solo home runs; the first by Josh Donaldson in the second inning, the second by Daric Barton in the fourth and the third by Brandon Moss in the sixth.  The A’s also scored in the fifth inning when Seth Smith doubled and Jed Lowrie singled him in.

The offense was a bit deceiving today because of the three home runs, as they scored four runs on on eight hits and two walks, with Lowrie being responsible for three of those hits, going 3-4 today.  Josh Donaldson was the only other player to have a multi-hit day, going 2-4, which included his fifth home run of the season.

Jarrod Parker had a decent game, going 6.1 innings while only allowing three hits, three runs, striking out five and walking four. His biggest mistake was allowing a two-run home run to Kelly Shoppach in the fourth inning, which happened to also be the first hit of the game he allowed.  The seventh inning was where he seemed to run out of gas, allowing back-to-back singles with one out.  Sean Doolittle replaced Parker and allowed a single to the first batter he faced, which scored a run, but he retired the following two batters he faced.

Ryan Cook tried to make it interesting in the eighth inning, allowing a lead off single to Michael Saunders, but then striking out Kyle Seager.  He then allowed a single to Kendrys Morales, and followed with striking out Michael Morse. With two outs he loaded the bases by walking Justin Smoak, but ended the inning by getting Endy Chavez to srike out.

The ninth inning was not much easier than the eighth, Grant Balfour came in to close the game and struck out Dustin Ackley to lead off the inning. He then walked Kelly Shoppach and followed up by striking out Robert Andino. Michael Sanders singled, but Balfour recorded the last out by getting Kyle Seager to ground out.

It’s barely the sixth inning and here I am, giving in to the fact that the A’s are getting swept by the Cleveland Indians, and by the time you read this they will be swept by the Indians over four games.  I didn’t really expect this, to be honest, I thought that Justin Masterson could have been tough, but I thought the other three games could be up for grabs and as it turns out, the Masterson game was the only game they came close to winning.

Today’s game was just plain ugly.  By the second inning, when the A’s were down 5-0, you knew it was over.  Normally I am one of those, “The A’s have six more innings to play catch up” kind of people, but with the way the A’s have been hitting in this series, I knew there was no way they the team was digging themselves out of that hole.

Bartolo Colon was bad today.  He only lasted four innings, allowing eight hits, six runs, two home runs and striking out four.  He did, however, manage to stay consistent in the strike zone, throwing 57 of his 83 pitches for strikes and he did not issue a walk.  Evan Scribner did his part in the fifth, by allowing three hits and three runs, including a two-run home run. He did pitch a clean sixth and seventh inning, only walking one of the seven batters he faced.  Pat Neshek pitched a clean eighth inning, allowing just a single to Drew Stubbs.

The offense was about the same it has been the entire series. The A’s could not do a whole lot against Scott Kazmir, scoring just one run on five hits, while taking zero walks and striking out ten times. The only run he allowed was on a solo home run by Josh Donaldson. The A’s “threatened” in the eighth; Adam Rosales led the inning off with a walk, Jed Lowrie followed with a single and Eric Sogard singled in the second run for the A’s. Josh Donaldson then drew a walk to load the bases, and with no outs the next three batters were retired in order and not another run scored. The A’s finished today’s game by going 1-6 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine on base.

I can take away a few things from this series, starting with the fact that the injuries could really be hurting the team. I honestly don’t know how much of an impact it would have made having both Coco Crisp and Chris Young in the lineup these past four games, but you have to think missing the two of them is not helping this anemic offense. Seeing Evan Scribner pitch in today’s game is another reminder that the team does not have a “true” long reliever, but I am not sure there is much they can do about that. And lastly, when a pitcher performs poorly the fans are always going to call for the player to be “cut” or “sent down”. Cutting Bartolo Colon would be, for the lack of a better term, stupid, and the team simply can’t afford to lose another starting pitcher.

I am going to close with some good news; the A’s are off to Seattle and they have fared well against the AL West this season, so it’s quite possible they won’t get swept in the next series. The A’s also do not have to face Felix Hernandez this time, so more good news! Josh Donaldson is still hitting pretty well, going 4-13 in this series with a home run, two RBI and taking two walks. And the most important piece of good news… this series is finally over.

(Photo: Dinur/Flickr)

I really can’t say much more than what has already been said by my fellow A’s bloggers, so I will make this quick.

I actually didn’t get to watch today’s game because of adult responsibilities and stuff, but I did keep a pretty close eye on it through my phone. I will admit I was pretty annoyed with the offense, yet again, going into the ninth inning. Unlike yesterday, the A’s did score three runs, but only had five hits and they had stranded five baserunners up that point. But, thanks to a botched call by umpire Angel Hernandez, I was able to direct my frustrations in an entirely different direction.

Yes, the A’s probably should have hit more or scored more and Adam Rosales should have not made a throwing error that caused 2 runs to score, and then maybe one bad call would have not been the difference maker in tonight’s game, but unfortunately it was.  There is plenty of evidence and screen shots to show that the so-called “double” was a home run, so why wasn’t the right called made by the “professionals”?  It’s absolutely asinine that the umpiring got it wrong, given that they have instant replay now and the equipment to make the right calls. I am not one to blame umpires for losses, especially over something like a poor strike zone, but this is all on Angel Hernandez tonight.

The A’s continued to rally, even after the call was made, with two outs and Rosales on second, Eric Sogard was hit by a pitch and John Jaso walked to load the bases. Seth Smith then came up to bat and grounded out to closer, Chris Perez, to end the game.

AJ Griffin wasn’t bad today, he allowed six hits, four runs (three earned), walked two and struck out four. Two of the four runs that scored were on solo home runs, one by Nick Swisher and one by Carlos Santana.  Sean Doolittle finished the sixth inning, getting the one batter he faced to line out. Ryan Cook pitched a clean eighth inning, retiring all three batters he faced, striking out two.

The three runs the A’s scored all came in the fourth inning, Brandon Moss singled in the first run and Daric Barton followed two batters later with a single of his own, which scored two more.  Speaking of Daric Barton, he made his 2013 debut by going 1-3 with a walk and two RBI.

Instead of looking for a possible split tomorrow, the A’s are just hoping to avoid a sweep. Bartolo Colon will take the mound for the A’s and let’s all hope the umpires aren’t in a rush to get home tomorrow.

There is not a lot to say about today’s loss against the Cleveland Indians. Seriously, not a lot happened today. The team combined for six hits and one walk over nine innings and not one baserunner made it past first base. John Jaso was the only player to collect multiple hits tonight, going 2-4. The team “threatened” in the ninth inning when Yoenis Cespedes singled with one out, but that was quickly erased when he was caught stealing while Brandon Moss was batting.

Tom Milone was the one bright spot in today’s game, lasting seven innings and allowing only five hits, one unearned run, no walks and striking out five. I was impressed with Milone today, who normally struggles on the road, so maybe this a sign of things to come? Or maybe I am looking too much into one game. Either way, Milone will next face the Mariners in Seattle and hopefully by then, the team will have located their bats.

The one run that scored in tonight’s game was on an error, actually two errors, Carlos Santana reached first on a fielding error by Brandon Moss, he then advanced to second on a throwing error by Eric Sogard. He then reached third on a one-out single by Mike Aviles and crossed home on a sacrifice fly by Yan Gomes.

Josh Reddick did not play in tonight’s game due to wrist soreness, which may or may not have to do with him crashing into the wall in Houston, way back in April. It is believed that Reddick will land on the DL and no word on who will replace him if he does need to miss an extensive amount of time. Reddick has performed pretty poorly this season, posting a .152/.266/.250 slash line with a .241 wOBA and 48 wRC+ over 109 plate appearances. It’s possible this wrist injury explains his struggles, but I think we can all agree we hope to see the old Reddick return if he does, indeed, land on the disabled list.

Update: Susan Slusser reports that the A’s will place Josh Reddick on the DL and will call up Daric Barton in his place. Barton has played in 28 games for the Sacramento Rivercats this season and over 125 plate appearances has posted a .296/.432/.480 slash line with a .411 wOBA and a 142 wRC+. I may be in the minority here, but I don’t think this is a terrible move for the team to make. I assume this means Brandon Moss moves to right field, while Barton covers first. Defensively, he is good, and offensively, he could match (if not exceed) Reddick’s numbers this season.

After watching the A’s take two out of three from the Yankees, in New York, I was feeling pretty good about the team and the upcoming series against the Indians.  Don’t get me wrong, I still feel good about the series in New York, I just didn’t enjoy today’s game as much as I expected to.

There is not a lot to say about Jarrod Parker today, except he was just not good.  He allowed four home runs today, but the good news is that they were only solo home runs.  Over five innings he allowed seven hits, four runs, walked two and struck out seven (which is also good news, if you’re still looking for it).  He threw 95 pitches, 56 for strikes and hit one batter in the first.  I am not a professional by any means, so I cannot say exactly what is going on with Parker, but I do know the A’s do not exactly have the depth to send Parker down to “work on things.”  He’s here to stay, at least until Brett Anderson returns from the disabled list.  Parker’s next start will be against the Mariners on Saturday, who he faced last month and over five innings he allowed five hits, four runs, walked three and struck out one.

Chris Resop replaced Parker in the sixth, pitching a clean inning by getting Ryan Rayburn to pop up and then striking out Drew Stubbs and Michael Brantley.  In the seventh, he struck out Jason Kipnis to lead off the inning, and then followed with back-to-back walks.  He then got Mark Reynolds to ground out to record the second out of the inning, before intentionally walking Carlos Santana to load the bases for Jason Giambi, who singled in two runs.  Those two runs are what really sealed the loss.  Evan Scribner replaced Chris Resop, allowing a double to the first batter he faced and another run crossed the plate, putting the A’s down 7-2.  Drew Stubbs grounded out to record the final out of the inning.

Scribner pitched a “clean” eighth inning, allowing a lead off single to Michael Brantley who reached third on a wild pitch and a stolen base.  No damage was done, as Scribner was able to retire the next three batters he faced on a line out, strike out and a ground out.

The team went down pretty easily in the ninth, Adam Rosales hit a one-out double, but was stranded after Luke Montz grounded out and Seth Smith flew out to end the game.

Lines of the Day:

• Brandon Moss was the only player to have a multi-hit game tonight, going 2-4 with a double and one run scored.
• Yoenis Cespedes hit a home run tonight, and I like it when he hits home runs. It was his only hit of the night, going 1-3 with a sacrifice fly and two RBI.  He now has six home runs on the season, which leads the team and he is good at baseball. That’s my expert analysis.
• John Jaso was 0-1 today before he was replaced by Luke Montz, but he took two walks and that accounted for more than half the walks the A’s took today.

Ugly Lines of the Day:

• The A’s offense was pretty offensive tonight (ha..ha.. get it?!), combining for only eight hits and three walks while striking out eleven times.  The team left eight on base and went 1-9 with runners in scoring position tonight.

• Chris Resop had another poor outing, allowing one hit, three earned runs, three walks over 1.1 inning.  He did strike out three, so that was nice.  If you follow me on Twitter you know that I was a big supporter of Resop coming into the season, no reason why, just thought he had the chance to be an effective righty coming out of the bullpen. So far he has proved me very wrong, allowing 19 hits, 10 earned runs and walking 10 over 14.2 innings this season.

Hey everyone, remember me?

I wish I was returning to this blog with good news, the kind of news where the A’s are on a hot winning streak and mowing down everyone in baseball. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

If you have been sleeping under a rock, you should know that the A’s are on a four-game losing streak and have dropped eight of their last nine games. Ouch. Here’s the part where I explain that it’s only April, that the A’s are still one game over .500 and that they are a second half team anyway.

While all these things are true, it is extremely frustrating watching this team right now. I know many people are calling for [insert pitcher's name here] to be sent down and call up Dan Straily, I honestly do not think that will solve anything. The biggest concern for me right now is the A’s streaky hitting, take today for instance, they left ten base runners on and were 2-14 with runners in scoring position. I know that it’s hard to come back from a poor outing where the starting pitcher coughs up six-plus runs, but there is no reason why the team could have not won with Griffin only allowing four earned runs over seven innings. It’s easy to blame the starting pitching or the bullpen, but the team will probably not win many games if they are only collecting three hits in a game, which has happened six times already this season.

That being said, it IS still very early, there is plenty of baseball to play and I do think the team will snap out of their funk, but for now we are going to have to endure more games like today’s until the team figures it out. For now, I would like to focus more on the positive side of things because, believe it or not, there are plenty of those too.

If the All-Star game were happening tomorrow, I would guess that Coco Crisp or Jed Lowrie would be the representative for the team. Coming into today’s game Coco Crisp had a .294/.394/.588 slash line with a .418 wOBA and a 170 wRC+ which is good for a 1.2 fWAR. Jed Lowrie has also put up strong numbers this season, coming into today’s game he posted a .360/.436/.573 slash line over 101 plate appearances, with a .436 wOBA (seventh highest in the league) and 183 wRC+ (eighth highest in the league). These are still very small sample sizes from these players, but if both stay healthy, this could be an indication on how well these two players may impact the team this year.

Sean Doolittle has probably been the most consistent player coming out of the bullpen so far. He has pitched in nine games this season and over 8.2 innings, has a 1.04 ERA, 3.45 FIP and a .105 BABIP. The BABIP and FIP do indicate some luck there, but I always feel most confident when he comes in for relief. With a very small sample size of eight and two-thirds innings, he has a 9.35 K/9 and 3.12 BB/9 rate.

Bartolo Colon, surprisingly to some and not surprisingly to others, has been the ace of the pitching staff. He has pitched in four games this season and over 26 innings pitched, has posted a 2.42 ERA, 2.80 FIP and a .266 BABIP. He continues to be a strike-throwing machine, having only walked one batter this season and has a 17.00 K/BB ratio thus far. His strikeouts are still not exceptionally high, only posting a 5.88 K/9 and a 17.2% strikeout rate. Again, small sample size, but a little consistency up to this point is nice to see.

Speaking of Bartolo Colon, the A’s turn to him tomorrow to prevent a four-game series sweep. As I said, he’s been pretty consistent up to this point and, right now, he may be the very thing the A’s need to stop this losing streak. He last pitched against the Boston Red Sox where he allowed zero runs over seven innings, three hits and stuck out seven, the last time the A’s won.

It’s a new season, but the A’s still remember how to hit a walk-off!

Max Scherzer held the A’s to only five hits and two runs over six innings, while striking out eleven. Luckily for the A’s, they got to face the bullpen “early”, which wasn’t much easier for the team as they only were able to muster three hits and two runs over 5.1 innings. Thankfully, those two runs not only tied the game, but also brought the team to their ninth win of the season.

The A’s scored their first run in the third inning, Eric Sogard doubled to lead off the inning and with one out he stole third and scored on a throwing error by Max Scherzer. They scored their second run in the sixth, when Jed Lowrie led off the inning with a double and Josh Reddick followed with a single to drive him in. They tied it in the seventh when Josh Donaldson hit a one out double and Coco Crisp singled him in with two outs. Their most important run of the game was in the twelfth inning, when Josh Donaldson hit a solo home run with one out to win the game for the team.

Bartolo Colon had another effective start, again I can’t say he was stellar tonight, but he kept the A’s in the game. Colon lasted seven innings tonight, allowing eight hits, three runs, while walking none and striking out five. He threw 86 pitches tonight, 60 of which were for strikes. Just like his last game, his only mistake was allowing a three-run home run, this time to Prince Fielder, in the third inning. Sean Doolittle took over for Colon in the eighth inning and retired all three batters he faced. Grant Balfour pitched the ninth, allowed a hit and struck out one.

Ryan Cook pitched the tenth inning, he allowed one hit, but allowed nothing more. Jerry Blevins pitched the eleventh inning, allowed a single to Prince Fielder, but got Victor Martinez to ground out into a double-play and recorded the last out by getting Alex Avila to strike out. Blevins also pitched in the twelfth inning, he recorded the first two outs of the inning before allowing a triple to Ramon Santiago. Blevins was then replaced by Chris Resop who got Austin Jackson to fly out to end the inning.

Unfortunately, it was not all great for the team tonight, both Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes left the game with injuries and it is unclear when either player will return to the lineup. The team announced that Coco Crisp had strained his groin and is now listed as day-to-day. Yoenis Cespedes seemed to have injured his hand while trying to steal in the eighth, and according to the team his X-rays came out negative.  The good news is, Josh Reddick did return to the lineup tonight, he finished the night going 1-4 with an RBI, a walk and two strikeouts. If both players were to miss a significant amount of time, it could really hurt the team.

Hey, the A’s won again! And it was a drama-free win! I like it when the the A’s win and when they win easily. It was also nice to see them hand Jason Vargas a loss, which they never seem to do.

It was the A’s who struck first again, scoring their first run in the third after Andy Parrino doubled and Jed Lowrie drove him in with a single. Their biggest inning was in the sixth, when they scored four runs, sealing the fate of the series. With one out Derek Norris doubled, Josh Donaldson followed with a home run and put the A’s up 3-1. Seth Smith doubled and Jason Vargas intentionally walked Coco Crisp to get to Chris Young. Vargas was then replaced by Kevin Jepsen, who coughed up a double to Young, which scored Crisp.

The offense was nice, but AJ Griffin was the true hero of the night. Griffin lasted eight innings tonight, the longest for any of the starting pitchers this season, and only allowed one run. The only trouble he really had was in the fourth inning, when he allowed back-to-back singles with one out to both Josh Hamilton and Mark Trumbo. Howard Kendrick followed up with a double, scoring Hamilton and with runners on second and third with only one out, he struck out Chris Iannetta and got Peter Bourjos to ground out to third base to end the inning.

After the first two nights of the series, this game was pretty uneventful for the team, besides the monster home run Yoenis Cespedes hit to center field to lead off the seventh inning. The A’s scored their final two runs in the ninth of off a two-run double by Seth Smith. Evan Scribner finished the game, retiring all three batters he faced on two fly outs and a pop up to to second base.

Lines of the Day:

• The team really needed AJ Griffin to go deep into this game and that’s what he did, he pitched eight innings, allowed five hits, one run, walked one and stuck out two.
• Seth Smith had another big night for the team, going 4-5 with two more doubles and an RBI.
• Josh Donaldson, who has struggled a bit at the plate this year, had a 2-4 night with a walk,  he also hit his first home run of the season and drove in two runs.

Ugly Lines of the Day:

• It was a clean win and every player collected at least one hit tonight, so I will spare the players an “ugly line” tonight.

Another day, and another win for the A’s. Tonight they defeated the Angels by a final score of 11-5. It was slightly less ugly than the night before, but it still didn’t come easy for the team…well, not until the sixth inning at least.

The A’s were the first to score again tonight, this time it was on an RBI ground out by Jed Lowrie in the first inning. The Angels immediately tied up the game in the bottom of the same inning on a Josh Hamilton sacrifice fly. The A’s took the lead again in the third inning, scoring three runs off of an RBI single by John Jaso and a 2-run triple by Brandon Moss.

Tom Milone was about as sharp as Jarrod Parker was the night before, he lasted through five innings, but struggled the entire time. He needed 106 pitches to get through five and allowed at least one base runner in every inning. His cleanest was in the fourth, when he walked Chris Iannetta to lead off the inning, but got Peter Bourjos to ground into a double play and struck out Mike Trout to end the inning. The last inning he would see, was also his ugliest. He walked Alberto Callaspo to start the inning, then Albert Pujols hit a ground-rule double, putting both runners on second and third with no outs. He then struck out the next two batters he faced, but allowed a single to Howard Kendrick, which scored both Callaspo and Pujols.

Only up by one in the sixth, the A’s rallied to score five in that inning. Eric Sogard led off the inning with a single and with one out, John Jaso also singled, putting runners at first and third. Jed Lowrie walked and with the bases loaded  Yoenis Cespedes walked and Eric Sogard scored. With the bases still loaded Brandon Moss walked, scoring Jaso. With two outs Seth Smith singled, scoring Lowrie and Cespedes and Josh Donaldson followed with a single of his own, driving in Moss.

Chris Resop relieved Milone in the sixth, he allowed one hit, but no runs. Jerry Blevins pitched the seventh and got into a bit of trouble, allowing runners on first and third with only one out, but recorded the last two outs by getting Howard Kendrick to strike out and Brendon Harris to ground out. Pat Neshek replaced Belvins in the eighth inning, and he had another shaky outing, allowing two hits, one run and a walk. Evan Scribner finished the game, he allowed two singles, but no runs.

Lines of the Day:

• Brandon Moss had another big day for the team, going 3-4 with a home run, a triple, two walks and five RBI.
• Seth Smith also went 3-4 with two doubles and two RBI. Smith is now 7-17 on the season with four doubles, five RBI and three walks.

Ugly Lines of the Day:

• Tom Milone made his second start of the season, and just like last year, he seemed to struggle outside the confines of the Coliseum. He lasted just five innings and allowed seven hits, four earned runs, three walks and struck out five.
• Every player had a hit tonight, but Chris Young was the only player to not reach base at least twice going 1-6 with two strike outs.

A’s Extras:

•  The team announced earlier that Scott Sizemore has torn his ACL and will miss the rest of the season. Andy Parrino was recalled from Sacramento and saw one at-bat today, in which he flew out to center in the ninth inning.
• Coco Crisp did not hit a home run today, but he did go 1-4 with two walks and a stolen base.