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.

(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.

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”

Yesterday I said that the A’s had an off day today and that their next scheduled day wasn’t until Sunday. It turns out that today IS Sunday so a game was played (Imagine how surprised I was when I woke up this morning and saw the lineup card posted on Twitter for today’s game). For the second day in a row the A’s defeated the Colorado Rockies, today’s final score was 7-2.

AJ Griffin started today’s game and went three innings, allowed three hits, one run (on a solo home run from Nolan Arenado), walked none and struck out one. Griffin has allowed four hits over five innings this spring, while allowing one run, no walks and striking out four.  Pat Neshek relieved Griffin in the fourth inning and pitched one clean inning, striking out one. Lefties Pedro Figueroa and Hideki Okajima both pitched an inning a piece; Figueroa allowed a hit and struck out one, while Okajima did not allow a baserunner and struck out one. The other run allowed was off of Justin Thomas, who pitched two innings today, allowed three hits and struck out one.

Most of the runs scored today did not come off of hits, the first run scored was off of a bases loaded hit by pitch in the first inning. The second run scored in the third after Daric Barton was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded,  then two batters later, Adam Rosales walked with the bases loaded to score the third run of the game and Scott Sizemore followed up with a bases loaded hit by pitch to score the fourth run. That’s five batters hit by pitches in the last two innings for those counting.

• Scott Sizemore did start at second base today, but had to be pulled for precautionary reasons in the fifth because of a bruised hand due to the hit by pitch. Before he left the game he was 2-2 with an RBI. He is now 3-12 this spring with three walks and two RBI. Grant Green replaced Scott Sizemore and went 2-2 with a run scored.
• Chris Young started in center field today and went 1-4 with an RBI and two strikeouts.
• Josh Donaldson was the starting third baseman for the team today and he went 0-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
• Michael Choice started in right field today (he replaced Chris Young in center in the sixth) he went 1-3 with an RBI, a run scored and a HBP.
• Hiro Nakajima started at shortstop today and went 1-3 with a run scored and a strikeout. He is now 3-14 this spring with eight strikeouts.
• Daric Barton started at first base today and went 0-1 with a HBP and walk.
• Addison Russell was the designated hitter today and he went 1-5 with an RBI and a strikeout. In four games this spring Russell is 4-11 with two RBI and one walk.

The A’s WILL play a game tomorrow against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Dan Straily will be making his second start for team.

We are now finishing up the first week of spring training and the A’s finish the week with a 2-5 record. Today’s loss came against the San Francisco Giants and the final score was 13-9. The good news is real baseball begins a month from today and that there is plenty of games for the A’s to play before then.

A lot of runs were allowed today, but ten of the thirteen were allowed by only two pitchers. Jerry Blevins pitched 2/3 of an inning and allowed four hits, three runs (only two allowed) and struck out one. The error that caused the unearned run to score was committed by Jemile Weeks. Travis Blackley was hit the hardest today, allowing five hits (two singles, one double, one triple and a home run), seven earned runs and two walks over a third of an inning.

Despite the thirteen runs allowed, the pitching wasn’t all bad today. Jarrod Parker started today’s game and pitched two innings in his spring debut. Parker allowed one hit, no runs and struck out two while walking none. Ryan Cook also made his spring debut and pitched an inning while only allowing a walk. Sean Doolittle also pitched for the first time this spring and only allowed a hit over an inning of work.

The offense was not a problem today, as the team combined for nine runs on fourteen hits and four walks, while going 6-21 with runners in scoring position. Here are some of the lines from the team’s hitters today:

• Jemile Weeks started at second today and went 1-3 with an RBI. He is now 6-11 this spring with five RBI.
• Chris Young returned to the lineup today and started in center field. He went 2-3 with a strikeout.
• Jed Lowrie started at shortstop today and went 0-2 with a walk and run.
• Derek Norris started behind the plate and went 1-1 before he was replaced by John Jaso. Jaso finished the day going 0-2.
• Seth Smith started in right field today and went 1-2 with a triple, a walk and a run.
• Daric Barton was at first again today and went 1-2 with a RBI.
• Michael Choice continues to hit this spring, going 2-2 with an RBI. He is now 9-16 this spring with six RBI.

Tomorrow the A’s will face the Colorado Rockies and Tom Milone will be making his spring debut for the A’s.

The funny thing about Spring Training, or baseball in general, is how quickly things turn around for a team. Yesterday my biggest concern was the lack of offense from the A’s and today that’s exactly what won them the game. The A’s defeated the San Diego Padres by a final score of 11-6, combing for fourteen hits, eight walks, four doubles and two home runs. Maybe the A’s weren’t facing the Padres best lineup or pitching, but a win is a win and the overreacting fans really needed it.

The pitching was not great again for the team, but keep in mind, most of the runs allowed today were not from pitchers we should expect to be on the opening day roster. Dan Straily, who may or may not be in the rotation, started today’s game and only lasted 1.1 innings. He allowed two hits, two runs, walked one and struck out one. The other four runs allowed came from Bruce Billings and Justin Thomas, each allowing two runs a piece.

On a side note, Chris Young was scheduled to play today, but was scratched from the lineup because Melvin wanted to give him an extra day off. Here’s what some of the players who did play did today:

• Bullpen hopeful, Pat Neshek, pitched one inning today. He allowed no hits, no runs and walked none. Also hoping to get into the bullpen is Chris Resop, who also pitched one inning and allowed one hit, no runs and no walks.
• Jemile Weeks started at second base today and went 2-2 with a home run (his first of spring), with a walk and 2 RBI.
• Seth Smith also hit his first home run of spring today, he went 2-3 with 2 RBI.
• Jed Lowrie made his debut at third base today and went 2-3 with a double and 2 RBI.
• John Jaso went 1-1 with a walk.
• Daric Barton started at first base today and went 1-3 with a double. He is now 4-7 this spring with two walks.
• Everyone’s favorite pitcher they love to hate, Jesse Chavez, pitched two clean innings; allowed no hits, no walks and struck out two.

Tomorrow the A’s will face the Chicago Cubs and Brett Anderson will be the starting pitcher. Along with Anderson, Bartolo Colon will also be making his spring debut.

You’ll have to forgive me, I am an hour behind from almost everyone else. I decided today that I would give up social media for the day and watch the game on TV (which was obviously an hour behind real life), so I am just now processing what I watched. The A’s beat the Angels with a final score of 7-5, securing their first Cactus League win of the season.

The offense came from multiple players today, combining as a team for 11 hits, 7 doubles and going 5-11 with runners in scoring position today. The umpires also helped with the win by calling a 2-run home run from Bill Hall a double, so a shout out to them too! Here’s some numbers from players that you should care about:

• Travis Blackley started today he went one inning, allowed three hits and struck out one.
• Daric Barton made his spring debut today starting at first and had a good day going 2-2 with a walk.
• Jed Lowrie also made his debut today at shortstop, he went 0-2 with a walk and committed his first error.
• Yoenis Cespedes also started his first game of spring, he also went 0-2 with a walk.
• Chris Young started in right field today and went 1-1 before he had to leave the game with a quad cramp. There is no word whether or not he will miss any time, but according to every single A’s beat writer he was just taking out for precautionary reasons. Michael Taylor replaced Young and went 0-4 with two strikeouts.
• Top prospect, Addison Russell, came in as the designated hitter in the sixth and he went 1-2 with a double. Prospect Michael Choice replaced Yoenis Cespedes in the 4th and he went 2-2 with a double and RBI.
• Pat Neshek was credited with the win today and he threw one inning, allowed one hit, one walk and no runs.

The A’s play their first home game of the spring tomorrow and will be facing off against the Cleveland Indians. Andrew Werner will be making his spring debut for the A’s and you can see the starting lineup here.

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”

The A’s closed out the month by making a few moves today, nothing too significant, but definitely noteworthy.

Two days ago I referred to Daric Barton as a non-tender candidate and the A’s proved me wrong by signing him to a one-year contract today. The $1.1 million contract (with $250,000 in incentives) is not guaranteed and he could still be cut before the season starts. Barton played in 46 games for the A’s last season and over 136 plate appearances he had a .204/.338/.292 slash line with a .294 wOBA and 86 wRC+.

The A’s also agreed on a one-year deal with non-tender candidate Adam Rosales. Rosales played in 42 games for the A’s last season and over 111 plate appearances hit .222/.297/.333 with a .278 wOBA and 75 wRC+. This actually comes to a surprise to me, especially with the acquisition of Andy Parrino and Scott Moore (more on moore later…see what I did there?).

The A’s also non-tendered outfielder Jermaine Mitchell today, who was DFA’d on Tuesday.

Yesterday the A’s also signed infielder Scott Moore to a minor league contract. Moore played in 72 games for the Astros last season and over 228 plate appearances had a .259/.330/.448 slash line with a .335 wOBA and 110 wRC+. He also hit 9 HR and took 16 walks while striking out 56 times. Scott Moore was a first round pick in 2002, eighth overall, by the Detroit Tigers.

In other A’s related news, the New York Yankees claimed relief pitcher Jim Miller off of waivers. Miller pitched in 33 games for the A’s last season and over 48.2 innings he had a 2.59 ERA, 4.74 FIP and .252 BABIP. He also had a 8.14 SO/9, 4.99 BB/9 and 1.11 HR/9 rate.