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.

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.

With today’s 6-3 win over the Astros, the A’s are now on a four game winning streak, two games over .500 and hold sole possession of first place in the American League West. I know, I know…it’s only the first week of the season, but it always feels good to say that.

I am not going to lie, this win came as a surprise to me. Outside of a solo home run by Coco Crisp in the fourth inning, the A’s really struggled against Bud Norris. It wasn’t until the lead off home run by Jed Lowrie in the sixth, that they really got the bats going. Following the home run, Josh Reddick reached on a fielding error by Ronny Cedeno and two outs later, Brandon Moss walked. With Josh Donaldson batting, Josh Reddick stole his third base of the season and Donaldson following with a single, which scored Reddick.  Derek Norris then followed up with a single of his own, scoring Brandon Moss. The last run scored on an RBI single by Eric Sogard. That inning was really the difference maker in the game.

Today was Bartolo Colon’s first Major League start since August 18th, and while he was wasn’t stellar, he was efficient. He pitched six innings, allowed eight hits, three earned runs, walked none and struck out two. (This is the first game this season that the Astros hadn’t struck out ten times or more by the way). He threw 83 pitches, 58 were for strikes and his one mistake was allowing a 3-run home run to Jason Castro. So like I said, not fantastic, but exactly what the A’s need him to do for the team.

The bullpen did their job; Sean Doolittle pitched a clean seventh, not allowing a base runner. Ryan Cook also pitched a clean inning in the eighth, he did not allow a base runner and struck out one. Grant Balfour collected his first save of the season, retiring all three batters he faced, while striking out one.

Lines of the Day:

• Jed Lowrie had another good day for the team, going 3-5 with a home run (his first of the season) and one RBI.  He is now 10-21 on the season with four RBI and four walks.
• Coco Crisp has continued to stay hot, going 2-5 with a home run, a double and one RBI.

Ugly Lines of the Day:

• Josh Reddick had a 0-5 day, but did reach base in the sixth on an error. He did, however, hit into an inning ending double play in the ninth.
• Yoenis Cespedes continued to struggle at the plate today, going 0-4 and striking out three times.

I had posted a regular recap, but computers do things like delete posts before they can be published. So here’s the short version of today’s game:

The A’s beat the Arizona Diamondbacks by the final score of 7-5. They are back at .500 this spring.

Brett Anderson threw 8 pitches today before he was pulled from the game because he strained his trapezius, which is a fancy way of saying upper back. He allowed one hit and was tagged with two runs (one earned) without recording an out. He says he should be okay to make his next scheduled start and he was only taken out for precautionary reasons. Bob Melvin agrees that it’s not too serious.

Mike Ekstrom pitched today after Anderson was pulled. He was responsible for the runs that crossed the plate in the first, but after the wild pitch and hit, he threw two shut out innings without allowing a hit, a walk and struck out two. Sean Doolittle pitched the third inning and retired all three batters he faced, he even struck one out. Bartolo Colon had his best outing of the spring so far; he threw three innings, allowed four hits, one run, walked one and struck out four. Hideki Okajima allowed his first run(s) this spring, he pitched 1.1 innings allowed two hits, two runs, one walk and struck out one.

Jed Lowrie had the biggest day offensively, going 2-3 with a double, a home run (his first of the season) and three RBI. He is 8-21 this spring now, and has two doubles, five RBI and five walks.

Tomorrow the A’s face the San Diego Padres and Jarrod Parker is making his second start of the spring. Former Athletic, Tyson Ross, is starting for the Padres.

The A’s also announced that they optioned pitchers Jesse Chavez and Andrew Werner to Sacramento. They also reassigned Miles Head, Jefry Marte, Addison Russell, Beau Taylor, Ryan Ortiz and Kyler Newby to minor league camp.

I will get the bad news over with first: the A’s lost a game today. Along with everyone else in the Cactus League, the A’s were not able to beat the Kansas City Royals. The Royals scored four runs in the first inning, which turned out enough to defeat the A’s, who only score two runs over nine innings. The final score of the game was 8-2.

Bartolo Colon did not impress in his second spring outing. He allowed seven hits and five runs over only two innings. He threw forty-eight pitches, thirty-two for strikes, did not walk a batter and struck out two. In two appearances this spring he has allowed twelve hits and eight runs over four innings while walking none and striking out six. I still think it’s entirely too early to be in any sort of panic mode with these players, but he has definitely not been enjoyable to watch so far.  Right-handed pitcher, Evan Scribner, also pitched in today’s game and went one inning while allowing two hits, no runs or walks and struck out one. Travis Blackley also pitched two innings; he did not allow a hit or a walk and struck out one. James Simmons was the only other pitcher to allow runs in today’s game, he pitched one inning and allowed four hits and three runs.

The offense wasn’t really there today, as the team only combined for two runs on nine hits and two walks. Grant Green was the only true stand-out player of the game, going 2-4 with two doubles.

• Daric Barton started at first base in this game and went 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Chris Young started in center field today and went 0-4. He is now 4-16 this spring with no walks and four strikeouts.
• Josh Donaldson played third and went 0-3 with a walk.
• Hiro Nakajima collected another hit today, going 1-3 with a double and strikeout. He is 4-17 with 9 strikeouts this spring.
• Michael Choice played right field and went 1-4 with a strikeout.
• Shane Peterson was in left field and went 2-4 with a strikeout.

» Continue reading “A’s Spring Training Games 11 & 11 1/2: One Loss, One Win”

There really isn’t a lot to say about today’s game. I don’t think the A’s necessarily played terrible today, but they didn’t play well enough (to state the obvious). The A’s lost to the Chicago Cubs today to a final score of 5-3, dropping their spring record to 2-4.

Brett Anderson started today’s game and went two innings, allowed one hit, no runs, walked none and struck out one. Bartolo Colon relieved Anderson in the third inning and was the one pitcher who was hit the hardest today, having allowed five hits and three runs (only one earned) while walking none and striking out four. The two unearned runs were caused by an error by shortstop Hiro Nakajima.

As far as the offense goes, the team combined for nine hits, three walks and went 1-7 with runners in scoring position. Derek Norris hit his second home run of the spring (and second in two days) and Michael Choice hit his second double. Here’s some more stats from today:

• Both Hideki Okajima and Jordan Norberto pitched in today’s game. Okajima pitched one inning, allowed one hit, no runs, walked one and struck out two. Norberto pitched one inning as well, allowed two hits (a single and a double), one earned run, walked none and struck out three.
• Fellow lefty, Pedro Figueroa, also pitched one inning today, allowed two hits, one run and walked one.
• Hiro Nakajima started at shortstop today and went 1-3 with one strike out. Nakajima is 2-10 this spring with six strikeouts and one walk.
• Josh Reddick started in right field today and went 0-2 with a walk.
• Josh Donaldson started at third base today and went 0-3 with a strike out. Donaldson is 1-10 this spring with no walks and four strikeouts.
• Michael Choice continued his hot streak this spring, going 2-4 with a double and an RBI. He is now 7-14 with two doubles, one home run and five RBI.

In other A’s news, Bob Melvin announced that Brett Anderson was named the Opening Day starter earlier today. Anderson returned from Tommy John surgery last August and went 4-2 over six starts. In 35 innings he had a 2.57 ERA, 2.72 FIP, .272 BABIP and a 1 fWAR. There was really no question, as far as I am concerned, that he would get the Opening Day nod, so it’s no big surprise. The rest of the rotation will be; Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone, A.J. Griffin and Dan Straily until Bartolo Colon returns from his suspension.

Tomorrow the A’s face the San Francisco Giants, Jarrod Parker will be the starter and will be making his spring debut. Along with Parker, Jerry Blevins, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle will also be pitching for the first time this spring.

Our second interview of the day was with A’s assistant GM, David Forst. (If you missed the interview with Bob Melvin you can read that here). He spoke to us about Hiro Nakajima and veteran pitcher, Bartolo Colon.

The first question asked was regarding newly acquired shortstop, Hiro Nakajima and how they knew his numbers from Japan could transfer over well to the majors:

I did not actually see him myself. We have a number of guys who’ve seen him back through the WBC in 2009.  A lot of our pro scouts, our international guys, the last couple of years. Part of it is based on numbers. His offensive numbers do translate well based on what other Japanese players have done here. But the reports, not only scouting reports, but from other players who’ve played with him. I think we mentioned somewhere Bob had talked to Ichiro and to Hideki about him. The guys who’ve done well over here, the guys who have some leadership over there, who have the personality, who aren’t as effected by the off-the-field thing they have to adjust to, which are huge. We saw it with Yoenis too, there’s so much that foreign players have to deal with aside from just baseball. So we felt like he’d be able to handle that stuff so his talent would play. Defensively, that’s the hardest thing for us to predict. Because we don’t have the same metrics we have on the offensive side. But our reports are good, the hands, the arm strength, all the things you look for from a scouting perspective. We feel pretty good about it.

If he’s more curious to see his glove than his bat:

For sure. Yeah, like I said, it’s a little more unknown, but we do think he can play the position.

» Continue reading “A’s BlogFest: Q&A With Assistant GM David Forst”

The A’s announced today that they have re-signed RHP Bartolo Colon to a one-year, $3-million (plus intensives) contract.

Colon pitched in 24 games for the A’s in 2012 and posted a 10-9 record with a 3.43 ERA.  Over 152.1 innings Colon posted a .286 BABIP, a 3.43 FIP and a 2.4 fWAR. Most impressive was his control, only allowing 23 walks (1.36 BB/9 rate) and a 3.96 SO/BB ratio.

Colon missed the last month of the season after he was suspended for violating the MLB drug policy.  He is currently pitching in the Dominican Winter League and was taken to the hospital last week after getting hit in the jaw with a line drive, but according to his agent he is “fine”.

I don’t necessarily think this is a bad signing, as we learned earlier this season, you can never have “too much” pitching.  I am not sure what effect this will have on the resigning of Brandon McCarthy, but I am thinking very little at this point.

Oops.

Starting pitcher Bartolo Colon has been suspended for 50 games after he tested positive for testosterone, which essentially means he will miss the rest of the season.

The 39-year old has had a good season, starting in 24 games for the A’s and going 10-9 with a 3.43 ERA.  Over 152.1 innings this season he has posted a .286 BABIP and 3.83 FIP and a 3.96 SO/BB ratio which has landed him the nickname the “strikeout machine”.

Sure, this is a loss for the A’s and it disappoints me that we had someone on our team who was cheating to win, but this does not mean the season is over for them.  The A’s have pitching depth; they still have players like Travis Blackley, Dan Straily and A.J. Griffin waiting in the wings and Brett Anderson just returned last night.

Bartolo Colon did issue a statement after the news was released and is not denying his use of performance enhancing drugs.

“I apologize to the fans, to my teammates and to the Oakland A’s,” he said in a statement released by the players’ association. “I accept responsibility for my actions and I will serve my suspension as required by the Joint Drug Program.”

If you had any questions about the possibility of  Bartolo Colon being resigned next season, this all but guarantees he will not be an Athletic next year.  In fact, this may even be the end of his career.