A's SPLITS vs RIGHT-HANDED PITCHING

	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	BB	SO
Mark Kotsay	.304	.357	.444	.801	115	358	42	109	24	1	8	159	36	30	41
Jermaine Dye	.253	.300	.446	.746	118	332	57	84	18	2	14	148	47	19	95
Eric Byrnes	.264	.319	.438	.757	107	322	45	85	18	1	12	141	44	18	71
Bobby Crosby	.266	.334	.442	.776	118	319	36	85	23	0	11	141	39	28	87
Scott Hatteberg	.308	.402	.482	.883	120	299	58	92	19	0	11	144	56	51	19
Erubiel Durazo	.341	.415	.582	.997	113	287	56	98	21	0	16	167	49	33	47
Marco Scutaro	.274	.287	.348	.635	103	270	26	74	17	0	1	94	20	5	38
Damian Miller	.283	.347	.447	.795	88	219	22	62	15	0	7	98	39	21	49
Eric Chavez	.251	.385	.548	.933	93	219	46	55	11	0	18	120	38	49	36
Mark McLemore	.268	.364	.335	.699	60	179	21	48	9	0	1	60	13	26	22
Adam Melhuse	.270	.316	.473	.789	49	148	13	40	9	0	7	70	19	10	33
Bobby Kielty	.165	.292	.235	.527	66	115	10	19	3	1	1	27	10	19	29
Billy McMillon	.196	.281	.304	.585	36	56	7	11	3	0	1	17	5	7	9

A few things come to mind when reviewing these numbers...why the hell can't the A's produce against right-handed pitching? Some of the numbers put up by Skootch, McLemore and Dye are just staggering. Some of the expanded numbers help a bit.

A's SPLITS vs RIGHT-HANDED PITCHING

	G	AB	RC	RC27	BB/PA	BB/K	IsoP	SecA	P/PA	XBH	TPA	AB/HR
E. Durazo	114	288	65.2	8.93	.101	.700	.240	.351	3.7	37	326	18.0
S. Hatteberg	121	300	59.1	7.19	.142	2.68	.173	.343	4.1	30	358	27.3
Eric Chavez	94	220	45.5	6.86	.184	1.39	.300	.541	4.0	30	272	12.2
Mark Kotsay	115	358	57.7	6.01	.076	.730	.140	.232	3.6	33	393	44.8
Damian Miller	89	221	31.2	4.92	.086	.430	.163	.258	3.7	22	245	31.6
Adam Melhuse	49	148	20.6	4.88	.063	.300	.203	.264	3.6	16	159	21.1
Eric Byrnes	108	323	44.6	4.76	.053	.270	.173	.254	3.9	31	356	26.9
Bobby Crosby	119	321	44.8	4.73	.078	.320	.174	.271	4.1	34	361	29.2
Mark McLemore	60	179	23.0	4.53	.126	1.18	.067	.201	3.7	10	207	179.0
Jermaine Dye	119	332	41.4	4.29	.053	.200	.193	.247	4.2	34	357	23.7
Marco Scutaro	104	272	25.6	3.39	.018	.130	.074	.092	3.6	18	279	272.0
B. McMillon	37	58	5.90	3.24	.106	.780	.155	.259	4.1	5	66	29.0
Bobby Kielty	67	116	9.00	2.4	.143	.670	.069	.250	4.1	5	140	116.0

So, let's get down to business. How shold the A's stack their batting order against right-handed starters? If cloning Erubiel Durazo, Eric Chavez and Scott Hatteberg is not an option...or, if it is...

Let's end the Jermaine Dye batting clean-up argument once and for all - bat Eric Chavez in the clean-up spot against right-handed starters.

End of argument.

Oh, and the injury. That adds to the argument.

RANKINGS vs HANDED PITCHING

	OBP	OPS	P/PA	IsoP	BA	BR	TOTAL
Mark Kotsay	5	4	11	10	3	B	33
Jermaine Dye	10	9	1	4	11	B	35
Eric Byrnes	8	8	7	6	9	A	38
Bobby Crosby	7	7	4	5	8	A	31
S. Hatteberg	2	3	2	7	2	B	16
E. Durazo	1	1	8	2	1	B	13
Marco Scutaro	12	12	13	11	5	A	53
Damian Miller	6	6	10	8	4	C	34
Eric Chavez	3	2	6	1	10	A	22
Mark McLemore	4	10	12	13	7	C	46
Adam Melhuse	9	5	11	3	6	C	34
Bobby Kielty	11	13	5	12	13	B	54

1	Kotsay	CF
2	Hatteberg	1B
3	Durazo	DH
4	Chavez	3B
5	Miller	CF
6	Crosby	SS
7	Dye	RF
8	Byrnes	LF
9	McLemore	2B

Therefore, use these assessments for comparison, to find out what the conditions are. That is to say, which political leadership has the way? Which general has ability? Who has the better climate and terrain? Whose discipline is effective? Whose troops are the stronger? Whose officers and soldiers are the better trained? Whose system of rewards and punishments is clearer? This is how you can know who will win.
The Art of War

The MLB.com Tampa Bay version of Sunday's events. Hilarity:

And designated hitter B.J. Upton, a 20-year-old rookie, was ejected from the game in the fifth inning for arguing a strike call by home plate umpire Jim Reynolds.


Upton said it was the first time he had been tossed from a game since earlier this season with Double-A Montgomery.

Really, first time since earlier this season? Isn't that similar to, 'all both of them' or 'the exact same, but different' or 'he literally (not figuratively) chewed my head off'.

This is just chock full or ridiculousness.

Jermaine Dye, the team's biggest power threat from the right-hand side of the plate, had to leave the game in the fourth inning because of his chronically sore left thumb.

Eric Byrnes is the teams biggest threat from the right side of the plate and Bobby Crosby's numbers are just a little off of Dye's.

But, wait, there's more.

Judging by the numbers, McMillon was the unlikeliest of heroes. He began the day hitting just .200.

Yes, because Batting Average is such an accurate assessment tool when judging a player who has 68 At Bats in 38 games and spent a considerable amount of time on the bench or the Disabled List.

Don't these MLB.com writers have to take a sanity or relevancy test or at least know something about the team they are covering?

Susan Slusser leads the Chronicle coverage.

The crap that the A's are shoveling about Mark Mulder's 'rhythm' and 'too much movement with his hands' just doesn't work. You don't lose 6-7 miles per hour off of your fastball due to rhythm or jazz hands. Mulder was not driving off the mound and his arm was lagging behind. He may or may not be hurting. But by the way he was flinging the ball around yesterday he's either got some issues or he is playing things close to the vest with September on the horizon.

Think about how many time Mulder got groundballs when he needed them? How many of the hits the Devil Rays got were groundballs that got through the infield?

The walk total for Mulder this year is just astounding for a guy who is allergic to getting a 3-anything count. Is he just working things out as he goes or is there a method to this madness?



Scott Carter has a short but very good description of what he read about the game. Apparently the only runs the A's got were on the Billy McMillon homerun.

Who hires these people? Who edits their work and slashes it to the bone?

Space must have been expensive this week as nobody seems to want to write more than a hundred and a half words on the game Sunday.

Anytime a sports writer uses 'Thus', head attention forthwith.

It seemed Mulder wanted to get out of town. Michigan is home, so he may have just wanted an early start to see his family prior to rejoining the team in Chi-cag-O.

Tampa Bay 6 - Oakland 9

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
TAMPA BAY	0	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	6	12	2
OAKLAND	3		0	3	0	0	0	0	3	9	12	0

Tampa Bay	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB		Oakland	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB
J. Lugo ss	4	0	2	1	1	1	1		E. Byrnes cf	3	3	2	0	2	0	0
B.J. Upton dh	3	0	0	0	0	2	2		B. Kielty lf-rf	3	1	1	1	1	1	3
T. Martinez ph-dh	2	0	0	0	0	0	1		E. Chavez 3b	4	2	2	3	1	0	2
A. Huff 1b	4	1	3	1	1	0	0		J. Dye rf	2	0	0	0	0	2	1
J. Cruz rf	5	1	1	1	0	2	3		B. McMillon ph-lf	3	1	1	3	0	0	0
J. Cantu 3b	5	1	3	0	0	1	0		S. Hatteberg 1b	4	0	2	0	0	1	1
G. Blum lf	0	2	0	0	4	0	0		E. Durazo dh	4	0	1	0	0	1	1
T. Hall c	3	0	1	0	0	0	3		D. Miller c	4	0	0	0	0	0	3
C. Crawford ph-cf	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		B. Crosby ss	4	1	1	0	0	1
R. Sanchez 2b	3	0	1	2	1	0	2		M. Scutaro 2b	4	1	2	1	0	0	0
D. Rolls cf	4	1	1	1	0	0	5		Totals	35	9	12	8	4	6	11
B. Fordyce c	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	34	6	12	6	7	6	17

Batting							Batting
2B - J Cantu (12, M Mulder);							2B - M Scutaro (28, S Kazmir); E Chavez (17, T Harper).
D Rolls (4, M Mulder); T Hall (15, M Mulder).							HR - B Mcmillon (2, 9th inning off D Baez 2 on, 1 Out).
HR - A Huff (23, 9th inning off O Dotel 0 on, 2 Out),							S - B Kielty.
J Cruz (19, 9th inning off O Dotel 0 on, 2 Out).							RBI - B Kielty (25), E Chavez 3 (63),
RBI - R Sanchez 2 (25), D Rolls (7),							M Scutaro (37), B McMillon 3 (8).
J Lugo (64), A Huff (83), J Cruz (63).							Runners left in scoring position, 2 out -
2-out RBI - D Rolls, J Lugo, A Huff, J Cruz.							D Miller 2, S Hatteberg 1.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - D Rolls 2.							GIDP - E Chavez.
GIDP - T Hall, J Lugo, D Rolls, T Martinez.							Team LOB - 6
Team LOB - 8.							Base Running
Fielding							SB - E Byrnes (12, 2nd base off S Kazmir/T Hall).
E - G Blum (6, bobble); S Kazmir (1, throw).							Fielding
PB - T Hall.							DP - 5 (S Hatteberg, B Crosby-M Scutaro-S Hatteberg 3,
DP - 1 (T Miller-J Lugo-A Huff).							M Scutaro-S Hatteberg).

Tampa Bay	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
S. Kazmir	3	9	6	5	1	2	0
T. Harper	2.1	2	0	0	1	1	0
T. Miller	1.2	0	0	0	0	2	0
D. Baez (L, 3-3)	1.1	1	3	3	2	1	1
Oakland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
M. Mulder	6	7	4	4	6	3	0
C. Hammond	0.2	2	0	0	0	0	0
J. Mecir	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	0
C. Bradford	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
R. Rincon	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
O. Dotel (W, 4-5)	1	2	2	2	0	2	2

WP - S Kazmir.

IBB - E Chavez (by D Baez).

Pitches-strikes - S Kazmir 71-48; T Harper 56-38; T Miller 16-12; D Baez 31-14; M Mulder 104-59; C Hammond 15-9; J Mecir 4-3; C Bradford 8-3; R Rincon 8-6; O Dotel 20-12.

Ground balls-fly balls - S Kazmir 5-2; T Harper 3-3; T Miller 3-0; D Baez 2-1; M Mulder 9-5; C Hammond 2-0; J Mecir 0-0; C Bradford 0-0; R Rincon 2-1; O Dotel 0-1.

Batters faced - S Kazmir 19; T Harper 10; T Miller 4; D Baez 7; M Mulder 27; C Hammond 3; J Mecir 1; C Bradford 2; R Rincon 3; O Dotel 5.

Game Details

Umpires: HP--Jim Reynolds. 1B--Andy Fletcher. 2B--Tim Welke. 3B--Gary Cederstrom.

Ejections: TAMPA BAY's Upton by Reynolds (5th).

Time: 3:12.

Attendance: 30,538.

Weather: 75 degrees, sunny.

Wind: 13 mph, in from left