(MORE) CATCHING UP WITH...(SF GATE)

CATCHING UP WITH (REPRISE)...

Any day with a reference to Depeche Mode is a pretty good day. Even if they were overrated because of a huge fan base that worshipped them and made them out to more than they were...Joy Division (and New Order) over 'Fast Fashion' every day of the week and twice on Sunday.


...and away we go...

SF Gate - the San Francisco Chronicle

YES, BLANTON IS THE ACE, SO PLEASE PASS THE SUSHI; Ray Ratto

Ratto is an average columnist. He bats about .250 as far as hitting the mark. And his On Base Percentage is directly tied to his Batting Average.


Ratto is trying to make a case that Blanton is not a number one starter but the A's really don't have a choice. A recurring topic with Ratto is lambasting trades by Beane. Who else, in Ratto's eyes might be the number one starter?

[quote]

"That someone else? Probably Rich Harden, although Billy Beane's Blackberry also will have some input."

[/quote]


What the hell is that supposed to mean.? It is tiresome. The assertion that somehow technology is a crime in the baseball world. Every professional, college and high school program uses technology of some kind. The data is still compiled by hand though intelligently via scripts and other hack and work arounds. It isn't limited to baseball, either. Is there a sport that does not gauge performance and log it into a computer or database?


Note, Ratto's column was more than likely written and submitted to the online site for the Chronicle via a nasty old computer and their network.


Ratto tries to make implication that the A's roster turn over is somehow higher than other teams in baseball. It isn't. It's on par with any other team.


Ratto really draws ire in his closing;
[quote]

"And though his numbers suggest more a No. 3 starter than a No. 1 (and his Baseball Prospectus projection for 2008 - 12-11 with a 4.40 ERA - pretends to confirm this)..."

[/quote]


Bite our collective ass, Ratto. Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projections time and again have proven near dead accurate in most cases and each year is graded the best among all of the other tools used for player projections. When there is time EiO will compare Ron Shandler, Bill James and PECOTA to see how the three match up.


[quote]

"So Blanton prepares for the opener in Tokyo as though he will be an Athletic for a decade to come - even though we all know better."

[/quote]


In the words of Bill Maher; 'Be more cynical'. What the bloody hell is Ratto talking about? How many players actually stay with the team that drafted and developed them any more? Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera. There are two. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in Boston came from other organizations. Barry Bonds came from Pittsburgh. Johan Santana is with the Mets. As is Moises Alou and Carlos Beltran. Miguel Cabrera, Miguel Tejada...it can be ventured that a majority of the top 100 players in MLB as of 2008 came from another organization that drafted them.


Ratto need a hit because he went down on three strikes on three pitches in this piece.


CROSBY ARRIVES AT ATHLETICS' CAMP WITH NEW BATTING STROKE

[quote]

"Working in conjunction with a video tape, Crosby identified a couple of sore spots in his approach and thinks he'll see a difference once games start. He had too much movement into pitches, creating holes in his swing."

[/quote]



Crosby's swing has not been the problem. It's his approach. He tries to pull everything he swings at rather than driving the ball to the gaps and taking advantage of the opposite field. In 1143 plate appearances in the last three years Crosby has seen a three ball count just 179 times. He has a grand total of 94 walks in those 1143 plate appearances.


THE HARDEN STUFF; We went over this in the MLB Catch Up yesterday. But here's another Bobo quote; "Even his warm-up pitches were hard. The ball was really coming out of his hand well."



Bobo said the same thing about Henry Rodriguez. And probably half a dozen other pitchers he was asked about.


AROUND THE BASES; Blah, blah, blah. Who has reported to camp.



SPRING TRAINING;
FOR NOW, A'S JOHNSON IS STEP AHEAD OF DOCTORS


Dan Johnson is the new Adam Piatt. A serious of weird health problems and is left to twist in the wind by the A's brass.


[quote]

"A recent bout of sinusitis turned so severe, Johnson revealed Monday, that he had to spend eight days in the hospital late last month - and he nearly had to have a hole drilled into his forehead."

[/quote]


Add that to the torn hip cartilage (how many A's players have had hip injuries the last several years?), the sunscreen sprayed into his eyes (that was misdiagnosed - the semantics involved 'not being correctly diagnosed'), vertigo and Ken Macha.


All seems to be well as reports have Johnson raking the ball.


Good. It is tiresome to watch DJ get the shaft.


The A's have manipulated the guy and jacked up his swing to serve their own purposes as trade bait and not toward winning. They insisted he pull the ball more in an effort to run up his HR totals. What John does so well is wear out left-centerfield and not pull the ball - he's a gap hitter. And he was a damn good hitter prior to being tarnished by the string of A's hitting coaches.




A'S OWNER LEW WOLFF SAYS NEW STADIUM IS ON TRACK TO BE BUILT

Blah, blah, blah. An AP article that reads like a press release. Probably because it is. The real estate scam Wolff is trying to pull over should surprise nobody in professional sports. Wolff used the A's as a front to buy land from an ailing Cisco and its management. If Fremont will stop the process by just asking the question - 'What do we get out of this besides window dressing?' this will all be over.


The Keebler Elf is a prick. Stating that the A's just won't stay in Oakland provides us the opportunity to label him the douche bag he is. His son Keith, who is heading the scam, then would be the douche nozzle.


Drive along the freeways in Oakland and near Emeryville and you can spot a half dozen sites that would house a ballpark. Abandoned warehouses. Rusted train yard. It can all be had for a tenth of the price the A's paid Cisco.


The long and short of it is that Wolff is going to be 79 years old this year. How much money does a dying man need? The stadium would only profit ownership and not do a single thing as far as the product the A's put on the field. A legacy would be keeping the A's in Oakland and building a jewel out of a tarnished landscape doomed by changes in the business world. Sheer greed would to build a shopping mall and condos surrounding a half-baked ballpark.




A'S GOLD GLOVER CHAVEZ HEALTHY BUT CAUTIOUS AFTER THREE SURGERIES

[quote]

"It will be normal for Chavez to be a step or two behind the rest of the Athletics this spring training following three operations in three months..."

.[/quote]


Yah, it's normal since Chavez is a streaky hitter and the downsides of his streaks usually begin in April, last through May and winds up hitting his stride in August. In his career Chavez' line before the All Star Break (by the way - he has never been an All Star; begging the question what the fuss is all about) .256/.336/.462 after the All Star Break .286/.360/.516. He is a different player.


Chavez had a batting cage installed at his home. So did Bobby Crosby. You have to wonder if there is going to be a boom in companies specializing in batting cages. Maybe a makeover reality show.


[quote]

"With as many new faces as ever in this franchise, Chavez offers stability. He is the longest-tenured member of a team that is accustomed to seeing its big-name players leave for big money elsewhere."

[/quote]


Well, that simply isn't true. The A's turnover, again, is not more than they have had in the past and Chavez is so damn streaky - how can it be said he offers stability. Chavez might be a big name to A's fans as they have bought the hype. The rest of MLB sees him for what he is an underachiever who consistently shrinks when faced with a challenge.




BRADEN RETURNS TO CAMP WITH A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

A puff piece on Dallas Braden.


[quote]

"If his numbers as a starter are questionable, his numbers as a reliever are solid evidence of future success. He held opponents to a .200 average as a reliever, as opposed to .303 as a starter, with an ERA of 2.16 in six relief appearances."

[/quote]


Repeat: 'SMALL SAMPLE SIZE'. Braden won his debut against the Orioles as he was named the starting pitcher only hours before the game. The Orioles had never faced him before let alone seen him. He lost his next 8 decisions.


Braden is more than likely going to be a mid-reliever. Before the 4th inning last year as a starter hitters hit under .260. After the 4th they hit .360. Yikes. He doesn't have the stuff to face batters the third time around.


EMBREE'S READY:


And EiO says, who cares? Embree was given the veteran soft treatment by the media in 2007. He blew four saves and helped the A's to have the worst save percentage in the American League. His groundball to flyball ratio dipped below 1.0 and his K rate has also dropped. He is a LOOGY by trade and the A's are paying him nearly $3 Million to do what Braden can do for a 1/6th of that total.


AROUND THE BASES:


Blah, blah, blah. This that, nothing of importance or interest.


MEYER SADDLED WITH 4TH OPTION



Dan Meyer has another option due to all the time he lost in 2006 with his injury. The article suggests that Dana Eveland has a better chance at the 5th starter spot because he was involved in a trade in the off season. How about because he is the more effective pitcher? The article states that Meyer couldn't get his breaking ball across for strikes in a warm-up session.


Briefly:


Noting you haven't already read.


EVELAND, DINARDO AMONG CANDIDATES FOR STARTING JOBS WITH A'S



[quote]

"Welcome to the A's youth movement, in which nine of the 30 pitchers in camp have a year or more of big league experience."

[/quote]


Will they please stop? Teams carry only 12 pitchers or fewer on the 25 Man Roster. Obviously the rest in the major league camp are going to be minor leaguers. Damn. This is starting to make EiO wonder if analysis is needed of rosters the last few years to stop this ridiculous trend.


[quote]"Eveland was the cornerstone of a trade that sent ace Dan Haren to the Arizona Diamondbacks. "[/quote]


Pretty sure he wasn't. Damn sure it was one of the best outfield prospects in baseball - Carlos Gonzalez. Aaron Cunningham might be the A's starting centerfielder in 2008 and Brett Anderson is a huge sleeper.


There's some blather about Lenny DiNardo. EiO doesn't understand the de facto DiNardo appeal.


NOTES: Keith Foulke strained his calf and visa issues continue for Santiago Casilla.


A'S CHAVEZ EITHER WILL ICE THIS SEASON OR HE'LL MELT



Ah, Ray Ratto. Let's see what his next attempt garners.
[quote]

"He now acknowledges that he should have at least consented to the surgery on his right shoulder a year earlier. "I was just afraid of surgery, that's all," he said."

[/quote]


There's a word for that. Ends in 'ussy'.
[quote]

"Over the years, Chavez has been knocked for being an injury magnet, but also for not absorbing the leadership mantle on an increasingly callow team. This part will drive Billy Beane nuts, because he regards chemistry as being slightly less important to baseball than trigonometry, but though chemistry is trumped by numbers, numbers create leaders, and Chavez as the longest-serving and best-paid Athletic is past due to reassemble the numbers that make a leader."

[/quote]


Trigonometry? Beane has often brought in veterans to smooth the clubhouse as Art Howe and Ken Macha were not trusted by Beane. What did Bill James say what was the most important factor in the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004? Team chemistry. Beane was a player. He knows a big factor in chemistry is winning and the A's have been sporadic in that sense over the years. Bad starts, late finishes.


[quote]

"...if the A's are serious about not being the 95-loss clown car many people think they will be, he had better deliver it."

[/quote]


Only Ratto thinks this. The 'many people' must be the people he doesn't bother to ask. Or they are bitter Giants fans. Though bitter and Giants fan does seem synonymous.


So, Ratto is a glaring 0-for-2 in the last week. And he's struck out embarrassingly.


CRISP PREFERS TRADE TO BENCH



Jacoby Ellsbury has the centerfield job all but locked up in Boston. Crisp is the better glove man but Crisp is such an offense liability he is regressing to near Neifi Perez territory. Crisp might be a great Hacking Mass player but he doesn't need to come anywhere near the A's roster. The A's have already suffered through Terrence Long and Mark Kotsay (save one good, but not great year). The A's have oft been rumored to be coveting Crisp. Then again, any centerfielder who can play great defense and make A's pitchers better are always coveted.



A'S SPRING TRAINING;
STARTING IS A RELIEF FOR DUCHSCHERER




This is not a knock on Susan Slusser but the Justin Duchscherer as a starter angle has been played to a seven lives death.


[quote]

" I'm excited as hell," he said. "I wanted to start the whole time I've been here; it's what I expected to do. The whole time I was in the bullpen, I was like, 'When are you going to give me a chance?' But I did pretty well out there, so they said, 'We can't move you.'"

[/quote]


Again, failure by the A's to have decent arms from their minor league system fill the bullpen. Brad Ziegler should take that role in 2008.



LINDEN LIKES BLUE-COLLAR TEAM



Ah, it's not a season until we hear from sage Todd Linden.


BRIEFLY: Foulke's calf injury, Jared Lansford was at the A's ST Facility and Santiago Casilla still has not shown up in camp.



COMMENTARY;
ASSESSING THE 'MONEYBALL' PAYOFF




Kevin Goldstein had a nice two cents on Moneyball a few days ago:
[quote]

"I'm done talking about Moneyball - and so should you be."

[/quote]


Heaven.


Murray Chass is damn good writer who happens to write about sports. In this case he wanders a bit and takes the Beane Rhetoric:


[quote]

"You'd like to be 50 for 50, but that's the imperfection of the draft," he said. "That was the point of the process for us. The complete randomness is why we did what we did. I think the draft up to this point has been pretty random. The average number of players teams get to the big leagues is two. The idea was to try to do something objectively to compare decisions down the road."

[/quote]


Beane has been dishing this line for years. The A's had 7 picks before the second round. How many teams have more than two? A majority of teams have fewer than two. First round picks generally have a better chance to become big league regulars. With that in mind the A's should have nailed at least 5 or 6 major league regulars in the first round and with their sandwich picks. They got three. Really two. Blanton and Swisher hit Oakland, Mark Teahen is in Kansas City (for a less than consistent closer). The players that scouts and front offices and even stat heads scoffed at; McCurdy, Obenchain, Fritz and Brown didn't make it.


Take it for what it is worth. EiO considers the 2002 draft a wasted opportunity and a near debacle.




Tomorrow we'll hit the rest of the newspapers and online sites.