27 JULY 2006

Before the media round up of yesterday's game, the Rangers and Brewers have completed a trade. It's surprising as the A's have had a long and lingering interest in Kevin Mench.

BREWERS	RANGERS
FRANCISCO CORDERO	CARLOS LEE
KEVIN MENCH	NELSON CRUZ
LAYNCE NIX
JULIAN CORDERO

Carlos Lee, I thought, might be something the A's could go after. He is a free agent at the end of the year, too. But looking at the splits, Mench is one of those Eric Byrnes players; kills left-handed pitching but struggles against right-handed hitting. Lee crushes right-handed hitting more so that left-handed pitching with nearly 100 points difference in OPS. Lee doesn't exactly suck against lefties, and this year he has improved a lot.


Still, this may end up being the year that the A's do a whole lot of nothing at the trade deadline. But, they might consider doing something at the waiver wire when darn near everyone is floated out on waivers.


Here's a run down on what some of the media outlets had on yesterday's game; and A's win, 5-2 over the Blue Jays.

• The SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Slusser has a convoluted recap that references occurrences without a particular inning. Not a whole lot on the Ted Lilly experience, either.




• The OAKLAND TRIBUNE: Suchon seems preoccupied with Johnny Cash and Frank Thomas running.




• The CONTRA COSTA TIMES: Joe Roderick writes one of the worst three paragraph lead-ins to a game recap in a long time. At one point he references something that should have been part of the first two sentences.




• The PRESS DEMOCRAT: Nothing available online.




• The MERCURY NEWS: Sybdicated Roderick recap.




• The SACRAMENTO BEE: I'm not certain why the Sacramento Bee bothers; AP on the A's and then a 'special to the Bee' for the RiverCats from someone that missed the game. Tadano blew it in the 9th. Again.




• MLB.com: Who the hell is Chawy?

SYNOPSIS:


"Fat Joe" Blanton was effective and once he got into the Blue Jays batting order a third time, his change-up and breaking ball were even better as the Blue Jays were coming out of their shoes. Many were curious why Blanton was yanked after 7 innings and fewer than 90 pitches. One; he had gone through the Blue Jays line up three times - that's enough. Two; the bullpen is not as rundown as Ken Macha like to think it is and a recent closed door meeting with David Forst and Billy Beane may have involved smacking Macha around re: bullpen usage. Three; Blanton has been inconsistent and any time a pitcher throws seven innings and fewer than three runs, leaving with the lead, you want to secure a positive outing and build upon that.


The A's worked Ted Lilly over, waiting out his flights of fancy and poor pitch selection by Benji Molina. Lilly got himself in trouble by hitting Frank Thomas after Blanton had hit Troy Glaus. The A's blew several scoring opportunities and left 9 men on base. Defensively the A's turned two double plays. The A's are second in the American league in hitting into and inducing double plays. They are also 6th in leaving mean on base.


CRITICAL SEQUENCE:

OAKLAND - BOTTOM OF 2ND	Score
Ted Lilly pitching for Toronto	TOR	OAK
F Thomas hit by pitch.	0	0
J Payton walked, F Thomas to second.	0	0
N Swisher flied out to left.	0	0
E Chavez grounded into double play, second to shortstop to first, J Payton out at second.	0	0
0 Runs, 0 Hits, 0 Errors

The A's had runners on 1st and 2nd without the benefit of a hit. Jay Payton walked for crying out loud. With nobody out and Nick Swisher with a 3-1 count, the A's blew a golden scoring opportunity within seven pitches. A Swisher pop-up and a Chavez GIDP. One of the curious mentions by the media is how 'clutch' Chavez was. In point of fact, it was Chavez' third groundball and this one had eyes making it to the outfield. Chavez has not 'turned a corner'.


NOTES:


The A's 6-7-8 batters of Swisher, Chavez and Crosby are all homegrown A's and supposed to be superstars. That is a bad thing.


The Hawaiian Punch-Out, Shane Komine, makes his major league debut on Sunday. Expect a similar style to Jason Windsor. A lot of pitches to set-up batters. Not a ton of K's but can get overly aggressive hitters to chase. Komine throws half dozen pitches from two dozen different arm angles and this might be an issue with Jason Kendall. I would not be surprised to see Adam Melhuse catching. Perhaps showcasing him for a trade at the same time?