A's Take Cactus League Opener

The A's are 1-0 this spring after taking a 7-5 win over the Brewers yesterday in a cold (for Arizona) and wet (for not being dry) 10 inning contest.

We had an email question read on the air. Guess what it was about? Go on, guess.


Yup, we asked what it would take for Terrence Long and Chris Singleton to be dethroned and for Adam Piatt and Eric Byrnes to be re-seated. Basically the answer was; for both to hit .500 in the spring and for Long and Singleton to be perpetually lost in the parking lot looking for their keys. So, no chance in hell to overturn the lineup by spring.


A later question had a similar tone and things we summed up by declaring that A's fans have been spoiled. That somehow with the success of several younger players over the years we get our panties in a bunch if someone has a "down year".


Well, there's no such thing as a "down year". Especially for a developing player. Did you get bad grades in the 9th grade? Did you just have a down year? Or were you a bad student and didn't apply yourself very well?


Bad analogy?


YES..


But you get the point.


Further, the question of Long and Ramon Hernandez are not "down years" but continual trends. Both had two bad years in a row. That means they are regressing or three years ago they performed over their heads. What's the answer? Get someone else in the lineup if you don't know for sure.


This is the kind of stuff that you need BASEBALL PROSPECTUS; for. You need PECOTA numbers and projected stats to figure out what might the next move be, what should be the next move be and what other options there are out there.


BP.com is going subscription. It claims it's actually offering a PREMIUM service but what does that say about the free stuff? They are out to make a buck as well they should. They have the best resource available that combines words and numbers that involve baseball. We can't live without Quotes of the Week or the Transaction Analysis. Adding Will Carroll to the mix makes the cost almost reasonable.


As much as we hate to spend money we plunked down our $39.95 earlier this week. These are not starving artists. But it is very close. They deserve to be comfrtable enough to continue to rain down on Kenny Williams and the Tampa Bay franchise without fearing a blacklisting or being shut out of consultation possibilities. Plus, it means they can hire a few more hands and possibly pay interns from UC Davis more than a free shirt and possibly pay for the eye strain, carpal tunnel injuries and blister relief of their writers.


As long as we are schilling you should hurry up and get over to MLB.COM and get their Total Ticket while it's still cheap. You get to listen to all the spring games and all of the radio broadcasts your ears can handle, plus video and highlight packages. So when we go and tell you to look at the ctach T Long made in Boston last year you can watch it a few times and utter, "hey, Dye would have gotten to that, anyway, it wasn't going out and that looks like a fairly routine play for a centerfielder".