Aaron Harang was the loser last night. Of course all anyone will say is that he made one mistake and it cost the A's. Well, he gave up a single to Chris Woodward before the Josh Phelps launch to deep left center. I'd call that a mistake.
What about the walk to Eric Hinske? Without the Miguel Tejada snare, flip and Mark Ellis turn for a double play in the 6th, the game could have been blown wide open.
This isn't a knock against Aaron (some have started calling him Boom). Aaron did a good job of establishing his fastball and mixing in his curve. But facing a Toronto line up without Jose Cruz, Raul Mondesi and Carlos Delgado you kind of expect to walk away with a win. Of course, Boom doesn't get to bat.
What is it about the leadoff triples and doubles? In the bottom of the 9th the A's failed to bring in T-Long with nobody out. Which shouldn't be surprising. The A's left 9 on-base. They left 5 runners in scoring position on with two outs.
The A's are dead last in the American league in hitting with runners in scoring position and 25th in all of baseball. That's right, behind National league teams where the pitcher hits.
If it weren't so late in the season, people might be talking about Art Howe losing his job, yet again.
The A's performance over the last few weeks has been horrible. The Yankee Marathon on Friday was as a 16 inning affair. It shouldn't have been. The Yankees committed 5 freakin' errors. 3 in one inning!
In August the A's pitchers have given up 2.64 runs a game. That includes two shutouts. The A's have only scored 4.45 runs a game and have not scored more than 9. That's only eleven games, but it shows that there is a razor thin margin of error for the A's if their pitching is not fantastic.
The A's were 0 for 9 last night with runners in scoring position. That makes it 8 for 112 (.161) for the month of hitting with runners in scoring position.
Earlier in the year the A's were having a hard time doing the 'little things' to win games. Moving runners over. Taking pitches. Fouling off to protect with two strikes. Failing to get runners in from third on simple ground outs with less than two outs. Now, it seems, The A's have forgotten how to do any of the 'things' to score runs.
The only positive of the night was Jermaine Dye's homerun in the 2nd. That got erased when Dye struck out on three pitches in the 8th with runners on 1st and 3rd.
Remember when I said Mark Ellis needed a day off? Well, he hasn't been on base to lead off a game this month.
Terrence Long: Not a Good Interview
Last night on the radio Ray Fosse interviewed T Long on the pre-game show. Long seemed surprised that he was being asked questions about his defense. Long has been so below average for so long that people shot up and took notice when he made several routine catches.
It's the lull of complacency that makes average look spectacular.
He defended his swing, his less than par play in the outfield and stressed he has been, "trying to work harder." That's a good oxymoron to put to work. That presupposes T Long has been working hard already.
I was waiting for him to mention he still isn't a natural center fielder. Guess what, T? You singed an extension for big bucks (by A's terms) and you've been playing the position for two and a half years in the big leagues. I'd say that makes you a centerfielder. You can't use the excuse when you sign a contract extension.
Long has little room for error at the plate. He either hits a ball foul hard or he hits it about ten feet fair down thr right field line, hard. Everything else is weakly-to-lightly hit, mostly to the right of short and on the ground. Outside his cone of efficiency.
Imagine a cone. The tip of the cone would be where the batter is and the space occupying the open end of the cone would be the expected area a batter would hit the ball. T Long's cone has a bulk of its area in foul ground. Whereas David Justice opens his cone to all fields as a left handed hitter. Chavy to a lesser extent, too allows himself to flatten and go the other way. T Long just keeps trying to pull everything.
You can try this on all hitters. Watch their swing and see if the hitter adapts to different pitchers as well as different pitches and locations. Miggi has been excellent (until recently) at adjusting his cone to the gaps and then to the opposite field when pitched away. Some just, 'see ball, swing at ball' and don't make adjustments
The better the hitter, the wider the cone and the ability to adjust and change the focus or expectancy of the cone. Anything weakly hit is outside the cone of efficiency.
Wheras some cones are deep, with the ability to drive the ball, others are limited as to how far their cone stretches.
It's not a bad analogy and it makes sense if you're eating ice cream. It doesn't work well with raw data or stats. You can't look at Manny Ramirez's stats and know that he waits a long time on pitches and drives most of them to the opposite field. But if you chart teams or players over a few days you can get an idea of how their cone is shaped.
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