Earlier this week I posted my thoughts on A’s FanFest, if you missed that you can see that here. As part of FanFest I was lucky enough to be invited to be a part of the BlogFest portion of the day. Myself and 14 other bloggers got to sit down with Manager Bob Melvin, GM Assistant David Forst and Third base Coach Mike Gallego in a press conference style interview. The first 15-minute interview was with Bob Melvin and he touched on Scott Sizemore, Daric Barton and Hiro Nakajima. (For those of you wondering I did not get in my own question since I shied up)

He was first asked about what he would be looking for from Jemile Weeks and Scott Sizemore in Spring Training this year and he had this to say:

Well, first and foremost,  I like that we have some competition here. And I think that for both those guys in Spring Training it’s important because they’re playing for their job right there and you really see what kind of shape some body comes in, what kind of desire, the attitude they’re gonna take towards that. Now they’re not the only two guys. Certainly, Adam Rosales can play everywhere. It almost works against Rosey some that he is so versatile and can play other positions. And you know Grant Green is going to get some at-bats over there as well, Eric Sogard. So we have some options over there. As we sit here right now, probably the two most prominent options are Weeks and Sizemore. I think it’s nice that we have some competition and the versatility plays in to our club as well and that Scotty can play third and we can move some guys around to try and get our best line up on a particular day. But both those guys will be in a competition type mode in Spring Training. 

And in regards to Sizemore’s injury and Weeks’ struggles:

In the case of Scotty who played a full year at third, got hurt and now he’s going back to second base you want to make he gets comfortable over their first. And you don’t start evaluating right away on him because you know it’s going to take some time for him to be comfortable. It’s not uncommon for a guy who had a rookie year like Jemile had to not have as good a year as next year. And I think even though it was difficult for him certainly last year he’ll probably benefit from that going forward. With his mind set each and every day coming into second base. It’s easy to read your press clippings and “I’m the untouchable guy”, I’m the guy that’s the lead off guy”, “And I have second base as my job”. For a younger guy, that can be… and it’s not his fault. A lot of younger players have to go through that, that can be dangerous. But, I know, and I’ve talked to him recently, he is really looking forward and knowing that he still has an opportunity and grateful for that. I think you’ll see a different Jemile Weeks this spring.

When he was asked whether or not they will change their strategy this year from last year, Melvin had this to say:

We put together our coaching staff because they are good instructors, they teach very well and we knew with the influx as many young players as we had last year we were going to have to do some coaching. That doesn’t change. The mindset for myself, my coaches in our rhetoric to the players is we have to even work harder this year. Certainly we want to bring the success and the confidence that we gained in 2012 forward. But knowing just because you did that doesn’t mean you throw your glove out there and just play and that things are going to work out for you. So, we’re going to work just as hard, we’re going to try to remain, as far as our Spring Training concept, pretty much the same. We add and subtract each and every day depending on what we accomplish on a particular day. But they’re going to know that that remains the same and during the season as well. We did an awfully lot of early work, guys that didn’t play on a particular day, were real flexible and guys who might not be playing 8, 10, 12 days in a row and therefor gives us some time to combat some things, some ruts you can get into a little bit. As a staff they’re going to know we’re just as committed this year as we were last year. But also try to ride the momentum from last year, the experience that we gained.

» Continue reading “A’s BlogFest: Q&A With Manager Bob Melvin”

On Sunday I had the chance to be a part of the A’s BlogFest portion of FanFest, but because I have not had time to transcribe any of the interviews yet, I am just going to throw out some of my (belated) thoughts on the event as a whole.

I did want to do more than just BlogFest so I arrived at the stadium around 9:30 AM and by that time the line was backed up all the way to the BART ramp. I was not able to get an autograph “coupon” so the first thing I did was line up for a picture with a player. I missed the video highlights because I was in line, but my friends were nice enough to hold my spot so I could watch the player introductions.  The energy inside the arena was amazing, actually very similar to how I left the coliseum in 2012.

I was given a season ticket autograph session, which was with Ty Waller, but had to leave the line so I could make it to BlogFest on time. Missing out on the coupon and the season ticket autograph meant no autographs for me this year. I was, however, able to get photos with Sean Doolittle, Seth Smith, Michael Taylor and AJ Griffin so it wasn’t a complete loss.

I won’t get into too much detail about the interviews since I will be doing a separate post for those, but as expected we got to sit down with Manager Bob Melvin, assistant GM David Forst and third base coach Mike Gallego. Jarrod Parker was supposed to be there as well, but had to skip FanFest this year because he was sick. Anyway, as before, really enjoyed the experience and it was nice meeting other A’s bloggers I have been tweeting with since this blog started.

Overall, I would say it’s a vast improvement over last year’s FanFest. Even though 3,000 more people showed up this year than last, the crowds seemed to be a lot more controlled and I had a better idea where to go. I don’t know if it’s because they moved part of the autograph session outside or because they were a bit more organized this year, but whatever it was it seemed to help. That being said, I do miss the days when it was at the Coliseum and we could choose whose autograph and photo we wanted (have I ever mentioned how much I despise surprises??).  For the second year in a row I did miss out on most of the Q&A because most of my time was spent standing in line, but even with spending an hour at BlogFest, I was able to accomplish a lot more than last time.

It had it’s flaws, but I would have to give the day an A+. It was great escaping “Giants Country” for a few hours and having a day focused on the A’s and only the A’s. It’s been too long since we had something to look forward to and you could feel the optimism coming from all around. The excitement for baseball in Oakland may be at an all-time high and I think all of us (fans, players and managers/coaches) are looking forward to repeating the magic from the 2012 season.

(Photo: Keith Allison/Flickr)

It has been a year full of surprises for A’s fans and today was no different, as Bob Melvin was named the 2012 AL Manager of the Year, beating out Buck Showalter by just 4 votes.  This is the second time in his career he has been named Manager of the Year, the first time was with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007.

In his first full season with the A’s, Melvin lead the team to a 94-68 record and on the last day of the regular season brought them their first AL West title since 2006.  Not only did the A’s have the second lowest payroll in baseball, they also used 17 rookies throughout the season (including an all-rookie starting rotation at one point).

So a big congratulations to Bob Melvin, this award was very well-deserved.

The A’s are still without shortstop, but they’re nominated for awards.

It’s still been pretty quiet for the A’s thus far, but here’s a couple of quick notes:

• Billy Beane was named the Sporting News’ Executive of the Year today and you can read more about it here.
• Yesterday it was announced that Bob Melvin was named a finalist for the BBWAA AL Manager of the Year, he is up against Buck Showalter and Robin Ventura. Yoenis Cespedes is also a finalist for the AL Rookie of the Year along with Mike Trout and Yu Darvish.
• Billy Beane addressed the short stop issue yesterday in the Manager meetings, saying he will not be trading a pitcher for a shortstop.  Over at Athletics Nation, Alan makes a plea to Billy Beane to sign Stephen Drew.  And over on Swingin’ A’s Devin suggests the A’s trade for Asdrubal Cabrera.
• Speaking of shortstops, the team signed Dominican shortstop Eric Marinez today.  He’s described as a 17-year old switch hitter who has solid arm strength, but lacks both power and speed.  You can read more about the signing over here.

This season I was lucky enough to represent Aerys Sports at A’s Blog Day.  Myself and 10 (or so) other A’s bloggers got to sit down with with Bob Melvin, Farhan Zaidi, A.J. Griffin and Brett Anderson in a “blogger” press conference.

The interviews began around 4:00 when Bob Melvin entered the room for the first interview of the day. Bob Melvin was my favorite of the three, he was very professional and treated each question as if we were the media.  I, unfortunately, did not get in my question for him, but there were plenty of other great questions for Melvin.  (I actually didn’t get any questions in that day). Ultimately, I found the question answered regarding Jemile Weeks to be the most interesting from Melvin:

“As far as Jemile, you know I think it’s not unlike, you talk about Sophmore slumps and so forth and you know he’s a tough kid who can be hard on himself, but I think he just got into a little bit of a slump where he couldn’t quite get out of it.  You know you look up there and you have some pride and you look at your average after hitting .300 for basically a full season and then not being able to repeat that, you try a little bit too hard some times as opposed to trying a little easier and letting your ability take over and I think it was just a little bit of change of scenery he went down there and instantly hit and I don’t think this is going to affect where his career is going forward.”

And regarding any adjustments Weeks needs to make:

“I think maybe just keep the ball out of the air a little bit.  I mean this year he probably… I think he hit a couple of home runs early on and he will tell you that that has nothing to do with, you know, swinging a little bigger.  I think he just felt more comfortable with his swing and that he can drive some balls and last year he just wasn’t trying to do too much, he was just putting it in play, putting it in play on the ground and so it’s a matter of finding a happy medium for him and he will do that.”

The question I had for Melvin was regarding the difference between working with veterans and rookies and Frank from The Bay Area Sports Report asked him a similar question in which Melvin had this to say:

“Well I think, you know,  based where we are in the season we try to keep the distractions to a minimum and just, I know it’s very cliche, but keep it to all our efforts and focus on a particular day.  I think we are playing some match ups in the second half, you know whether it’s a Moss/Carter type of thing. And I think keeping them aware of when they’re playing is important so they know and can visualize and do some homework on some potential pitchers that they’re going to face.  You know, whether it’s Kottaras and Norris and we’ve run a little platoon Pennington/Rosales at second, so I think they benefit by knowing which and what days they’re playing.  And then I think with younger players you try to be consistent in giving them good feedback. Because you know one thing about being a younger player coming to the big league level that you always have to get over is that ‘awe factor’ and ‘do I belong here in the big leagues?’.  And we’ve not only as an organization put a lot of stock in our younger players and getting them to the big leagues, we put them in prominent roles and I think we have done that across the board this year, whether it’s the pitching end of it, whether it’s position player end of it and we’ve been rewarded with good performances.”

» Continue reading “Oakland A’s 2012 Blog Day: Part 1″

There is not a lot coming out of Spring Training the past couple of days, but here’s the latest:

On Tuesday we learned that Billy Beane thinks there is a “less than 50/50 chance” the A’s make any more roster moves.  Which leads me to believe the asking price for Koji Uehara was a bit too steep for Billy’s liking.

Beane also addressed the Manny Ramirez signing and his answer, when asked, why he signed Manny? “Why not?”.  Speaking of Manny, he should arrive to camp on Friday, according to Bob Melvin.

On Wednesday Bob Melvin addressed the closer situation and we don’t know a lot more than we did 4 days ago.  Melvin states that Brian Fuentes and Grant Balfour look great and he expects “big things” out of De Los Santos this upcoming season.  As I had pointed out before, Melvin also has a concern over how many walks the right-hander issues and not being able to hold runners.

Bob Melvin says the team may decide to transition Jordan Norberto into a starter if he doesn’t make the team out of Spring Training, Norberto spent his first three years as a starter in the minors before being converted into a relief pitcher in 2009.

In case you missed it: Brandon McCarthy and his wife, Amanda, are gracing the cover of ESPN magazine this week and you can check it out here.

Thanks to Twitter, Susan Slusser, Jane Lee and Joe Stiglich we have a few notes coming out of Spring Training already:

Bartolo Colon says he is healthy and is ready to take on the leadership role in the Oakland clubhouse.  He Also says he is excited to play for Oakland and thinks they are going to be a “good team” this season.

After having Tommy John surgery last July, Brett Anderson is ahead of schedule and they expect him to return to the A’s rotation as early as August and he will be throwing from the mound on Monday for the first time since his surgery.  Anderson has also lost 25 pounds since starting rehab.

Catching prospect, Max Stassi, who had shoulder surgery back in May, says he is now back at full strength.  He also has lost 13 pounds through dieting.

Dallas Braden is now aiming to return to the rotation on April 16th.  He will be throwing with the other A’s pitchers, but not as often.  He, too, had shoulder surgery back in May and Monday will be his fourth bullpen session since he has started throwing again.

Bob Melvin says he thinks that the A’s will be adding more pitching and offense to the team by the time full camp opens, although he did not state any specifics.

We also learned today that the A’s are allowed to bring 30 players to Japan, only 25 are able to be active for the games, but they will have some flexibility.

Jane Lee also confirms the A’s are still very much interested in Manny Ramirez so this seems to confirm it’s just a matter of time before they sign him.

I started with the lowlights of the 2011 season, now I would like to take a look at the highlights of the season.  It may have not felt like it at the time, but there was a lot of good that came out of Oakland last season and I have my personal favorite highlights:

8. Coco Crisp’s Hair: I will just let the pictures speak for itself:

7. Hideki Matsui:  I know offensively he turned out to be pretty mediocre or even less than, but he did enough in Oakland to make my list.  We didn’t get Matsui in his prime, but there is still something about being able to see someone of his caliber play for your team.

Not only did Matsui collect his 2,500th career hit as an Athletic, but he also hit his 500th career home run wearing green and gold.  There was Matsuiland in the right field bleachers and Japanese Heritage Day in Oakland which brought Matsui fans all the way from Japan to see him and Ichiro play.

Sometimes players can do more for a team than just hit home runs and I believe Matsui did that for Oakland.

6. Guillermo Moscosco: Not a lot of people know who Moscosco is outside of A’s fans, but he quietly made himself one of the more reliable starting pitchers for the A’s in 2011.

Moscosco came up in May to replace an injured Tyson Ross, he started in 21 games and, although his record was only 8-10, he had a 3.38 ERA with a 1.09 WHIP and 74 strikeouts. He doesn’t have excellent “stuff”, but he did more than was expected from him and has definitely made a case for himself as a starter in the rotation next season.

 5. Jemile Weeks: I’ve discussed a few posts ago the impact Weeks had in Oakland, so I won’t get into too many details about him.  There’s not much I can say that I haven’t said about Jemile, he’s great to the fans, he’s got the perfect attitude,  he’s fun to watch and he’ll definitely be on the team in 2012.

4. “Moneyball”: Regardless how you feel about the theory, the “Moneyball” movie finally brought some much needed positive coverage of Oakland.

3. The Firing Of Bob Geren:  That’s right our favorite skipper makes both lists!  I know it’s a terrible thing to be happy about, but this was long overdue for A’s fans. Geren was fired in June, shortly after the Fuentes/Street debacle and replaced by Bob Melvin.  Melvin lead the team to a 47-52 record for the remainder of the season and Beane rewarded him with a 3-year contract.

2. Brandon McCarthy: Not only is Brandon McCarthy really good at tweeting, it also turns out he’s pretty good at pitching too.

I don’t think many people expected much out of McCarthy this past season, with his history of injuries and his mediocre career numbers it wasn’t easy to get excited about the signing.  Brandon proved all of us wrong; he started in 25 games and ended the season with a 9-9 record, a 3.32 ERA with 123 strike outs, a 1.3 BB/9 and a 4.92 SO/BB, not too bad for a 5th starter.

With Cahill and Gonzalez out of the picture don’t be shocked if he doesn’t get the nod to start on opening day in Tokyo.

1. Josh Willingham:  It was hard to decided who would get the number one spot on this list for me, but Josh Willingham receives the honor this season.  It’s been a long time (5 years to be exact) since A’s fans have had a player who could hit like Josh Willingham.  Josh Willingham hit .246/.332/.477 along with 29 HR and 98 RBI.  While power doesn’t mean everything in a player, it was a nice change from the usual Oakland hitter.

Honorable Mentions: 80′s Day at the park, sweep of the Giants at home, Brandon Allen’s monster home run to third deck at Yankee Stadium, playing day games, and breaking a 10-game losing streak in dramatic fashion.