One day Chicken Little was walking in the woods when ---KERPLUNK---an acorn fell on her head.

MULDER OUT

SF GATE is reporting that Mark Mulder is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his right hip.

We're trying to reach Will Carroll right now to get a time table via comparable injury, but the return might not be until Spring Training.

JUST WHAT THEY DIDN'T NEED

Pitchy Rich has thrown 29 pitches in the first innings and blown the one run lead he was spotted with in the top of the 1st. After Todd Walker singled and walking Manny Ramirez, Harden left a forball that didn't fork out over the plate that landed out in the cheap seats in rightfield.

Eric Byrnes is in the lineup tonight. It looks like Byrnes has become Macha's whipping boy since Adam Piatt went to Tampa Bay and they A's got zero, nada, nothing in return. Byrnes got a start last week against a knuckleballer and was set to start tonight against Pedro Martinez. Then Macha will complain Byrnes isn't producing. Sort of like Piatt didn't produce when Macha was giving out at bats to Piatt like a fat kid giving up Halloween candy.

Well, Byrnes just doubled with two outs and Scott Hatteberg on first, but Chris Singleton couldn't come through.

The A's are doing everything they can to stay in the ballgame. Harden is hurting the A's more than he's helping at this point, giving up four runs on 49 pitches through two innings. Another Mark Ellis double led to an RBI single by Eric Chavez. 4-2 Sawx in da thoyd.

OR NOT...

MLB.com is reporting that Pedro Martinez will not start - Casey Fossum will slide into the starting spot tonight. Doesn't make things any easier, but, it would be interesting to hear what the reason is/was. Pedro can be, oh what's the word? Difficult? Cantankerous? Crybaby? Cowardly? Soemthing in there. For a pitcher of his supposed magnitude he certainly does pick his own spots to shine.

What? We have to say that Pedro is a God?

Pedro is a great pitcher and one of the top 50 ever to throw the horsehide around.

But, there's an upper echelon of pitchers do things that make them great and don't rely on a wildly optimistic strike zone to get them out of jams.

Guys like Jack Morris, Dave Stewart and ugh...who else? Morris and Stewart were very good in the post-season and still somehow aren't Hall of Fame worthy because they had bumps in the regualr season. Stewart's career is a wild read.

Roger Clemens definitley doesn't fit the bill. Until recently his playoff and big game resume stunk.

Tim Wakefield and Steve Avery actually have good post-season/big game resumes.

Pedro is one of those stat monsters that skews eveything up. It's hard to analyze and defend unless you can show games like last week where he was dominant and still lost. But nobody wants to hear that their end all answer has more chinks in the armour than a cheese grater.

BEANTOWN BLITZ

One of the few weaknesses the Oakland A's show on a regular basis is the inability to finish off an opponent. See 2000 Game 5 ALDS, 2001 Game 5 ALDS, 2002 Game 5 ALDS. Last year, at about this time, the A's finished off a half dozen opponents and had themselves a 20 game winning streak.

Today the A's need to get at least six innings out of Pitchy Rich Harden and beat Pedro Martinez.

If they can manage to sweep the Red Sox, in Boston, the A's will control the AL Wild Card by three full games. With six weeks left in the seaosn, that's a pretty big lead for a team that has a lot of kick down the stretch.

WELL, IT'S HAPPENED

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have claimed Adam Piatt off of waivers. We'll see what we can dig up and if there is a trade possibility here. We're not sure if we are glad to see Adam get a chance, mad that the A's mishandled the roster this badly or anticipate the A's grabbing an Aubrey Huff or swoop down and raid the organization with a Jonny Gomes or two.

NOT TOO MUCH PRESSURE

Everyone and their brother seems to have an opinion on what Richy Pitch Harden (or Pitchy Rich, if you prefer) brings to the table. Well, we'll put it this way; if Ted Lilly would have pitched at a half run better than the league average, they would have been talking about Four Large (the Big Three was stupid- the Big Four is a stupider name) in May. But he hasn't. It has taken a peach fuzzed face 21 year old kid with a fastball clocked from anywhere from 85-98 mph to make Ted Lilly appear, well, like chump change.

Sean McAdam has a two penny opinion on Harden via ESPN.com.Baseball Prospectus takes the six penny approach with Mark Armour, Joe Sheehan and Keith Woolner all chipping in.

Bobby Crosby is beginning to take over the PCL. John Sickles, from Down on the Farm clears some of the doubt about Crosby.

Sometime around 2:30pm PST, yesterday.

That's when we started breathing, again. Tim Hudson will attempt to make his next start but it may end up being a game time decision. The ball that smacked off Hudson's pitching hand was the dot below the question mark. The A's have been rumored to be thinking about holding Pitchy Rich back a start or two. Not so much because Harden has performed unevenly in his last two starts, but, because Pitchy Rich is staring a heavy work load in the face.

This is part of the reason we questioned bringing Harden up so early. Yes, he was lights out for four starts. But, he's only been pitching for three shortened seasons and he has a few mechanical things (superficial, things at that) to work on. Harden was tipping his pitches and Rick Peterson has done some work with Harden on his pre-load and windup.

If Hudson can't go, the A's might have to make another roster move since they seem unwilling to use their bullpen as an asset.

NOTES

Baseball Prospectus is having a chat session featuring Gary Huckabay at 1:00 PST today. If you have A's questions, this would be a fantastic source to use.

Here's the link to the chat:

Chatty Chatty Bang bang

Get a Job

We sent an email in repsonse to a Sacramento Bee article in today's edition.

Ailene Voisin has a lot of nerve...

What a waste of a press pass.

Voisin paid little attention to the contest and apparently doesn't realize that Dave Hudgens, the A's new and, yet, still temporary, batting coach has monkeyed with Byrnes' batting stance and overhauled his approach at the plate since coming on board. Instead of a no-stride approach, Byrnes now lifts his front foot as a loading/timing mechanism. Concurrently, Byrnes has gone into the toilet.

Further, how about the fact that Byrnes had not played in five games and was suddenly facing a knucklballer? Tim Wakefield's name isn't anywhere in the article. Maybe that has something to do with the fact Byrnes failed at the plate, as did most of his teammates, save Eric Chavez. Frank Menechino didn't produce in the at-bat before Byrnes during the 8th inning, nor did Billy McMillon after Byrnes. Not to mention Byrnes was surprised to even be batting in the
situation since A's manager Ken Macha has routinely pinch hit for Byrnes late in contests recently.

Why does she point out that Byrnes was a "former River Cats regular"? At some point and time every MLB player is a regular at AAA...aren't they?

The worst is that she blames Byrnes, the Centerfielder – you know, the guy in charge, for colliding with Terrence Long in the 10th. Byrnes called it, Long should not have been there as Byrnes was setting up to throw to the plate. Also, Byrnes most likely WOULD have nailed Kapler at the plate as even with the bump Kapler got in just a step in ahead of the throw.

Why not write an article on Terrence Long who dropped a ball in the outfield earlier in the game and who went 0 for 5 with 5 runners left on base? Oh, and cost the A's the lead when he ran into Byrnes in the outfield. Long's been playing everyday, can you blame the 'slump' on a guy who hasn't played in five games?

Does Voisin understand that pointing out batting averages does little when mentioning the A's? Their focus is on-base percentage and slugging, not batting average. Especially in yesterday's contest. The A's had 7 baserunners due to walks and errors, not base hits. Maybe because it was a great pitching matchup the A's didn't get a slue of hits?

If Ken Macha had managed the bullpen better yesterday, Keith Foulke would have came into the game in the 9th, not the 8th, closing out the game and there would be no anti-Byrnes story.

A lot of Byrnes' struggles can be blamed on luck. In April, Byrnes was lucky to get an at-bat and usually, like most rusty hitters, was swinging at anything close. Byrnes got a start in late April to give Jermaine Dye a day off in right, Byrnes made a great catch in the field. That earned him another start. That led to a few base hits getting through. His confidence swelled and he started hitting like a blond Paul Molitor. Previously, Byrnes was getting on base via everything from being hit with pitches to infield singles in addition to clean hits. Now, he's getting infrequent at-bats and advice from everyone including idiots writing responses to crummy articles in the Sacramento Bee.

Byrnes really took off after injuring his ribs just before the New York Yankees series during a game in Chicago trying to break up a double play at second. As a result, Byrnes’ swing stayed close to his body as it hurt to reach out. By keeping his hands in and he drove everything this side of Miss Daisy.

To sum up; Voisin article bad, lay off Byrnes, start having your correspondents pay attention to the game and try reading Moneyball - if nothing else.

Elephants in Oakland Staff

An example of why we have been slow to update recently...

Auto Repair 101

It's a good car. I don't know why everyone keeps giving me a hard time about it. Sure, it has a dent and a scratch here and there. Big deal? At least I bought the car after the depreciation leveled.

At the price I paid I can ditch it by the side of I-80 in January and it will have paid for itself.

So it doesn't have the cute idle purring sound of a new car. I've heard cute idle purring new cars that chug along in traffic.

It's a good car. Sometimes it's hard to start.

Not because there's interanl trouble, but because you have to turn them all the way over. That happens in older ones. The ignition just isn't that firm any more...man, that sounds degrading to women.

Anyway.

I only had 30 minutes for lunch today.

In order to get out early tomorrow for the 7th row seats for the Oakland A's, I need to trim lunch hours and come in early a few times.

Whatever.

The A's could make up a few games in the AL West and AL Wild Card with this series.

It was hot out today, sure.

But not so hot that THAT would be the reason the reason the car wouldn't start.

It had gas.

The battery was fine.

The CD player that skips more than a pack of parochial school girls with a lifetime supply of bubblegum and jump ropes was working as fine as it should.

Why wouldn't the thing turn over?

There wasn't even that clickkkkkkity- clickkkkkkity-Click-CLICK sound when you have a dead battery.

I wasn't going to call the car names.

First, because it hasn't been named.

Second because I didn't have time.

So, sinc eI had just changed jobs wihtitn the organization I had to get a new ID. I went inside the building and got my picture taken for my new ID.

This is the haircut I chose to have for the next three years?

Hell, at least I know I'll have hair for the next three years.

I didn't have more than five more minutes to screw with the car on the way out of the building. The building I work in was only three blocks away on the site.
Three blocks and 457 degrees Fahrenheit.

After twenty minutes I couldn't stand it.

On top of all the other stupid things I had done this day I forgot the Roadside Assistance card recently sent in the mail.

When would I need that?

Pffft.

I grabbed my keys and sunglasses and headed back out the door.

The sweat had just dried toward the middle of my back from the original trek as I went out the door, again.

This car won't start.

I can offer it an Orange Dream machine from Jamba Juice and it won't start.

Thirty minutes back at the office.

That's not the limit of my patience; it's how long the sweat takes to dry.

A call to Parking & Transportation services began a jovial conversation regarding the differences between an employee with a parking pass or an employee without a parking pass. My car still won't start. "Can you swing by and give me a jump start?"

A brief explanation to the operator that I could simply hang up and call back and say that I was a visitor. This line of discussion would get us no nearer the transaction.

Another venture.

Another 30 minutes.

Maybe this time, whatever happened will have stopped happening or not stop not happening...ugh.

A gentleman parked next to me offered a jump start.

Humans are great sometimes.

Except when they throw down the cables at your feet as if saying "now, squeal like a pig!" and posturing as if it's your duty to hook the cables up.

That's fine.

That's not fine.

START!

The gentleman went though a checklist of items that sounded like automotive parts. Or it was the Krebs Cycle meets cold fusion. I don't know. I do know I should just keep nodding like I do know and make sure there are at least 5,000 people within shouting distance in case this is about to turn into Thunderdome or a prison rape scene.

There are.

I'm panicking over nothing.

I thank the man and he drives away.

That's it.

Suddenly I'm a visitor.

I panic.

I don't have an accent.

Which is okay, because I'm on hold for 15 minutes.

That's it.

I paid the extra $7 a month for Roadside Assistance, they are going to assistance me even if it's for something as trivial as a snowman with his hat off or an untied shoelace…whatever it is that makes cars work under these hood-thingies.

A 40 minute search of the ultra efficient insurance website turns up no information on how to contact their Roadside Assistance crew. Several hundred words on what it can do. But, no actual number to call them.

Some surfing on the internet unveiled that Yahoo! Actually has a series of automotive trouble shooting procedures you can read through.

Yah.

Cables.

Uh huh.

Voltage regulator.

Sure.

The Johnson Rod.

Wait.

I didn't care about the sweat this time.

The fact that I looked like I had just run a marathon inside an industrial sized clothes dryer didn't seem to matter.

Have you ever read one of those great stories where someone has an epiphany, revelation or suddenly the skies open up and the bleedin' world makes sense?

Yah, I think they're crap, too.

I didn't have the gearshift in park.

I am a fucking moron.

Turn.

Click.

Vroom.

Away I go.

Quandary

The A's would like to activate Jim Mecir from the DL. Jim Mecir would like the A's to activate him from the DL. The DL would like the A's to activate Jim Mecir.

The problem is; who loses a roster spot?

The A's have outfitted Mecir with a new knee brace. The knee under the brace is beyond issue. Any attempt to fix the knee would require advanced technology and Jim Mecir simply does not make $6 million a year. So that whole bionic thing is out.

Complicating matters further is the fact all of the A's pitchers are out of options. Hmmm. That leads to a question we've long pondered. We'll gather some stats and figures, prepare to have your thinking hat on.

Who moves off the 25 man roster among the fielders?

Frank Menechino?

The A's would not have a reserve infielder.

Well, that means the A's have too many outfielders on the 25 man roster.

Duh.

If the A's aren't going to put Eirc Byrnes in the lineup, send him back to Sacramento. There's no sense in having Dave Hudgens further destroying Byrnes' swing and confidence. Have him stew in the Capitol City (hey, there's Tony Bennett!). Let him feast of AAA pitching for a few dyas until Mecir breaks down, again - or the A's move someone via the waiver wire.

Chris Singleton should have been in L.A. or Chicago by now, instead, he's still in Oakland.

After hitting two homeruns in two games (the only time he reached base in those two games) Terrence Long could be ripe for dangling o'er the waiver wire. Hopefully, teams will forget the horrible mispaly in leftfield last night that cost the A's three runs and possibly damaged Barry Zito's shaken confidence.

Speaking of which, the A's have held the AL's best offense (hey, wasn't that New York at the beginning of the year and then Toronto a little later?) to a measly zero runs in 18 innings. Sure, you can count the three run double, but if Long doesn't jump and merely reaches, he squeezes the third out of the inning and we're not having this discussion. Not a big surprise. Boston hit a snag in Baltimore over the weekend and having to fly cross country for a Monday night game is a cruel trick even by Kaiser Selig's office standards.

Adam Piatt...who the hell knows what the A's are going to do with this guy or what they should do, at this point.

Dangling Jermaine Dye around might have been an option a few weeks ago, but we've heard precious little on his 'progress'.

He's Got Ground Balls, They've Got Ground Balls

What can you expect from a pitching matchup between Derek Lowe and Mark Mulder? Ground balls to beat the band (which, is a lot, since the band doesn't even show with such a violent precursor).

Lowe almost laps the AL with a ground ball/flyball ratio of 4.15 (340/82). Tim Hudson is next with a ratio of 2.33 (343/147), followed by Roy Halladay at 2.30 (343/149) and Mark Mulder at 1.99 (307/154).

After the Hudson perfromance on Monday and the Zito offering last night, Mulder has his work cut out for himself. Ramon Hernandez will most likely catch and have the day off Thursday.

CALENDAR GAMES

Looking at the calendar, it didn’t appear this was any April Fool’s joke. Derek Zumsteg and Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus are reporting the MLB is about to allow Pete Rose back into baseball.

Just when you thought Kaiser Selig couldn’t do anything stupider.

Rose has been given some sort of evangelical shroud since the new century dawned upon us. People seem to forget this man is a convicted felon…for gambling of all things.

Rose has been quoted as saying he has lost $30 million by being kept out of the Hall of Fame. Yah. Right. Nobody on the face of the earth has profited more from Pete Rose’s suspension than Pete Rose. Rose has made millions because of his persona non grata status. Much more than if he were simply another Hall of Famer.

A few million people just lost respect for MLB.

Dodger John has an interview with Will Carroll at John's Dodger Blog.

Does everyone forget that Rose was nailed by the Feds after getting booted from baseball or are we alone?

NO MORE RIDING AGAIN FOR HERB

Herb Brooks died in an automobile accident. He was 66.

Brooks was the coach of the U.S. Hockey Team for the 1980 Olympics.

If we were to cast the movie of the "Miracle on Ice" we'd supply Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, Newsradio) for the role of Herb Brooks.

FINGERING

The A’s can definitely point to the last week as a distinct period where they blew incredible chances. When the Mariner’s lost, the A’s lost. The A’s very well could be in the top spot for the Wild Card and only a single game out if they would have scored four runs a game instead of their usually two.

Barry Zito lost a 3-2 complete game on one swing of the bat and Mark Mulder lost a 3-2 complete game the following night, thought he had a few more mistakes squeezed in there.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox dropped 3 of 4 to the Orioles during the weekend series and 5 of 7 in a little over a week.

This week’s series with the A’s proves to be pivotable. The A’s could very well take the lead in the AL Wild Card race and gain some ground on Seattle as the M’s host the Blue Jays.

Richy Pitch Harden lost his first MLB game yesterday. Harden only got through five innings, though he did strike out 8. Doesn’t help that the only run of support the A’s got was an 8th inning solo homerun my Adam Milhouse. Harden had one tough inning and an underlying factor may have been that the A’s had done nothing on offense to that point. This was a day after Ted Lilly got yanked with a four run lead in the fourth inning Saturday. So, that whole rested bullpen thing kind of goes up in smoke.

The lone bright spot was Chad Bradford, who after several days off, looked fantastic. Bradford struck out Frank Thomas swinging with the bases loaded and got Magglio Ordonez to ground out to get out of Ted Lilly’s jam in the 4th. Bradford faced 8 batters and struck out 5 of them. Bradford’s not a K pitcher, but who the hell cares?

Terrence Long is absolutely stinking up the joint. Not that should surprise anyone. Meanwhile, Ken Macha allows Dave Hudgens to screw Eric Byrnes’ swing up so badly he can’t see straight and keep Adam Piatt on the pine for weeks at a time.

Also, the Reds called up Joe Valentine and Aaron Harang. THAT is how deep the A's organization is.

PAT GILLICK, REVOLUTIONARY

Seattle's GM has decided that he'd like to make things easy on the A's and gift wrap the AL West and make the playoffs that much harder on everyone else who faces the Yankees.

Gillick and Brian Cashman played a game of grab ass yesterday that culminated in a trade of Jeff Nelson from Seattle to the Yankees for Armando Benitez and CASH. Both players had been waived and each team claimed the other's soon-to-be former property, which allowed the trade to commence.

Gillick insists that the trade of Nelson had nothing to do with Nelson's criticism of the organization for failing to make a move prior to the trade deadline.

So why the hell did they wiave him?

Nelson requested a closed door meeting with upper management on Monday, said his apology for criticizing the team for not trying to make any moves (apparently Seattle was trying to do something-even with Pat Gillick in Toronto at the time of the trading deadline), left without shaking the hands of Mariners chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln and team president Chuck Armstrong and jumped on the team charter for Cleveland.

Strange.

The deal essentially means there will be more frequent blood-lettings from Seattle's bullpen. Benitez is a decent pitcher, but, you really don't want decent when you need to finish someone off. You'd prefer to have a guy like Nelson. Benitiez is prone to giving it up and not above making things very nasty for all those involved.

Oh, well.

It may not matter when the A's lose games to the freakin' Detroit Tigers.

WOW

Ted Lilly is pitching in a 7-2 ball game in Detroit. He came in the game in the 8th inning. Lilly has lost his spot in the rotation.

Sort of.

The A's have altered their rotation and officailly skipped Lilly in the rotation. He's basically the 5th man in the rotation and that could still change.

The Red Sox claimed David McCarty off of waivers.

It will be interesting to see if the A's and Sox try to work out a deal.

ROB NEYER'S TWO CENTS

Rob Neyer has his two cents on the Scott Hatteberg signing last week. It just so happens he had it with William Lamar Beane.

Lucky bastard.

Plus, Rob had two more pennies on Jose Guillen:

COMING OUT OF NOWHERE

July 30
"The story about the Jose Guillen trade says this has been "a breakout season" for Guillen, which is a little bit like saying Bull Durham is Kevin Costner's best movie. Entering this season, Guillen had played 614 games in the major leagues, and his OBP was barely above .300 while his slugging percentage was barely short of .400. When you're a 26-year-old right fielder in the 21st century, those numbers aren't nearly good enough.


And yet, here he is in late July with a .385 OBP and a .629 slugging percentage. Is Jose Guillen for real? The A's must think that the new Guillen is the real Guillen, which is interesting because they're also hoping that the new Miguel Tejada and the new Scott Hatteberg aren't the real things."

Peter Gammons also has some stuff on the A's that makes some feel vindicated:

"Somewhere, maybe in halls of the old guard, there is remaining resentment that a 29-year-old Yale graduate could be running the Boston Red Sox. But there is an old guard that seems to resent a lot these days. Wasn't Beane supposed to have trouble making a trade because of "Moneyball" (which some dopes still think he wrote)? Beane got Jose Guillen and was right on the cusp of several other deals. Weren't Cashman and ex-Reds GM Jim Bowden supposed to be too young when they took over, and didn't each turn out to be extremely creative and successful (Tampa Bay: take note)?...

All of a sudden, Barry Zito is Oakland's fourth starter. Consider these numbers from their most recent starts:

Mark Mulder touched every number on the radar gun from 69 to 95 mph.

Tim Hudson touched every number from 78 to 95.

Rich Harden touched every number from 82 to 99.

So how, as a hitter, do you time and square anything? Ask the pitchers and they give a great deal of credit to the game's most underrated catcher, Ramon Hernandez. When the all-star ballots were distributed, the A's pitchers asked the players to all vote for Hernandez because of the way he handles them.


How good? In his last two starts, Ted Lilly has been banned from shaking off Hernandez. Result? Two good starts...

After being traded for one another, Kevin Appier and Mo Vaughn will be paid a combined total of $43.7 million by the Angels and Mets not to play for them, $300,000 more than the entire 2003 payroll of the Oakland Athletics.

Yes, the A's actually saved money on the Guillen deal. And what does it say about Raul Mondesi that the Blue Jays and Yankees are paying a combined $12 million not to have him around?"

ARCHIVE

If you were looking for the Archive, so are we.

Chad Harville was called up to replace Jim Mecir who is headed to the DL. Chad has done a very good job of not pitching, either. Though, it was good to see Chad warming up Friday night next to Keith Foulke.

STICKSHIFTS AND SAFETYBELTS

Let’s chat defense.

Specifically double plays.

Jim Mecir was asked yesterday about his health and reoccuring lower half difficulties:

Mecir's recent soreness is the result of fielding bunts at Minnesota and Seattle, but he said if teams continue to try to take advantage of him, there's one way to stop it.
"If they want to hurt me there might have to be a little retaliation."- Jim Mecir

We mentioned this two weeks ago. Jim should just plunk the next guy so it will stop. Teams will know to not try to get a runner to first to start an inning on the cheap. The A's can turn two as well as any team in the league, but they'd rather not have to have any additional chances forced on them, if they do not have to, thanks so much for asking.

On Saturday the western hemisphere was aghast that the A’s had only turned 80 double plays after they got five, and nearly a sixth, In Rich Harden’s first Major League win against the Angels de Anaheim. As if, suddenly the number of double plays had become the end all defensive grading criteria for a team. Defensive statistics are the one area that Bill James and Saber-sleuths have been unable to nail down. There just is not enough raw data and enough massaging that works. Defensive ability is still something that you need to use the eyeball to judge. However, we can argue the numbers we do have until the moo cows head to the Kitty Cat Jack.
(EDITORS NOTE: there’s a Jack in the Box outside Vallejo next to the Sunnyside Dairy. It’s a surreal sight to see a few dozen cows next to a fast food restaurant. As is normal for any area with milk giving cows there are enough nearby cats to beat the band. Many a cow stands in a nearby field with a ton of feral cats running around the Jack in the Box parking lot, thus, the fast food restaurant is dubbed Kitty Cat Jack…no, you shut up.)

If we argue our point from the standpoint of the A’s, then we fall on deceptive reasoning. The A’s, for the most part, have good pitchers. They can strike guys out at a decent rate and several get ground balls when they need to. The starters usually pitch deep into games and the team does not allow many runs compared to the league average.

The bigger question is how many opportunities for double plays are converted less the number of times a double play was converted. Further