Daily Archives: June 10, 2008

Oakland Athletics

2007 Record: 76-86 (.469)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 79-83 (.489)

2008 Record: 34-29 (.540)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 37-26 (.588)

Manager: Bob Geren
General Manager: Billy Beane

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Oakland Coliseum (93/93)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

Daric Barton inherits Dan Johnson’s playing time
Kurt Suzuki inherits Jason Kendall’s playing time
Emil Brown replaces Shannon Stewart
Travis Buck inherits Mark Kotsay’s playing time
Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeney (DL) replace Nick Swisher
Mike Sweeney and Frank Thomas replace Mike Piazza
Rajai Davis is filling in for Mike Sweeney (DL) and Frank Thomas (DL)
Donnie Murphy and Jack Hannahan inherit Marco Scutaro’s playing time
Gregorio Petit is filling in for Donnie Murphy (DL)
Dana Eveland replaces Dan Haren
Greg Smith replaces Joe Kennedy and Dallas Braden (minors)
Rich Harden replaces Lenny DiNardo (minors) in the rotation
Justin Duchscherer replaces Chad Gaudin in the rotation
Chad Gaudin replaces Colby Lewis and Ruddy Lugo in the bullpen
Huston Street reclaims half of his save opportunities from Alan Embree
Embree replaces those save opportunities with innings reclaimed from Ron Flores
Keith Foulke replaces Jay Marshall
Brad Zielger is filling in for Santiago Casilla (DL)

25-man Roster:

1B – Daric Barton (L)
2B – Mark Ellis (R)
SS – Bobby Crosby (R)
3B – Eric Chavez (L)
C – Kurt Suzuki (R)
RF – Travis Buck (L)
CF – Carlos Gonzalez (L)
LF – Emil Brown (R)
DH – Jack Cust (L)

Bench:

L – Jack Hannahan (3B/IF)
R – Rajai Davis (OF)
R – Gregorio Petit (IF)
S – Rob Bowen (C)

Rotation:

R – Rich Harden
L – Dana Eveland
R – Justin Duchscherer
R – Joe Blanton
L – Greg Smith

Bullpen:

R – Huston Street
R – Kiko Calero
L – Alan Embree
R – Keith Foulke
R – Andrew Brown
R – Chad Gaudin
R – Brad Ziegler

15-day DL: R – Frank Thomas (DH), R – Mike Sweeney (1B), L – Ryan Sweeney (OF), R – Donnie Murphy (IF), R – Santiago Casilla, R – Joey Devine

Typical Lineup:

R – Mark Ellis (2B)
R – Bobby Crosby (SS)
L – Jack Cust (DH)
L – Eric Chavez (3B)
R – Emil Brown (LF)
L – Travis Buck (RF)
L – Daric Barton (1B)
L – Carlos Gonzalez (CF)
R – Kurt Suzuki (C)

(more…)

New York Sun columnist Tim Marchman is interviewed by Maury Brown:

Marchman: The Yankees are entertaining as usual; this is a transition year for them and I’m mainly surprised that they seem to be sticking with the idea of developing the young talent while trying to squeeze a last run out of the older players, rather than visibly panicking. I do have the sense that Hank Steinbrenner could become a really serious problem for them, just because you never want an owner expressing opinions on which players should be in the rotation or the lineup, especially when those opinions are different from those of people with actual professional qualifications, but for right now he’s a harmless diversion. The Yankees may not be good, but there’s never any sense of abject hopelessness about them, and that puts them up on the Mets.

…Bizball: We’re about to see the end of two very different stadiums in New York in Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. As they get ready to dance off into the sunset, what are your thoughts on the two?

Marchman: I’m utterly appalled by both of them. Yankee Stadium is on the merits one of the worst places in the country to watch a ballgame, and there’s really little that’s more hilarious in baseball than the pretense that this giant concrete bowl is some magnificent cathedral and monument to the glories of the game. It just drips with pompousness and fake old-timiness, and I won’t miss it at all. Shea Stadium has immense sentimental value to me, but while I consider the giant neon ballplayer on the side, the apple in the hat, the swamp gas rising from the field and so on to be really charming, in essence it’s the physical representation of the whole failed idea of Queens as the locus of the future and as such is somewhat depressing. Mainly I think it’s too bad that the new Yankees park is displacing public parks, that the Mets park is displacing the really vibrant chop shop district at Willets Point, and that both seem to be simultaneously titanic monuments to a really bombastic idea of New York and utterly divorced from the life of the city. At least one of them should have been built in Brooklyn.

Congrats to Junior Griffey for hitting home run #600.

Last Friday I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I didn’t expect much even though I like Jason Segel. The thought of another comedy about a self-loathing/pitying sensitive meathead turned me off, and I thought the trailers were shaky. But Segel is ideally suited for the role, he was shrewd enough not to over-play it (his woe-is-me rendition of "The Muppet Show" had me in stiches) and I enjoyed the movie a good deal. Russell Brand and Kristen Bell were both winning and Mila Kunis was fine as the down-to-earth wild child. But there was something missing in Kunis’ performance. Like I said, she was fine, but not inspired.

The part was limiting–it was more of a fantasy than a real-life character–but she didn’t add anything to it. If anything, it showed her limitations as an actress–she’s all big eyes and pursed lips, like a young girl, not woman. Which is a shame because there was an opportunity for something more. At first her character seems innocent, later it turns out that she’s had a volatile past. But the movie doesn’t turn–like it did when Ray Liotta showed up in Something Wild and the movie really became threatening, wild. Which is also fine.

But it got me to thinking about actors who go beyond the limitations of the script, who bring more to the table. I’m thinking of Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy or Officer and a Gentleman. Maybe there should be a VORS (Value Above Replacement Script) award. For me, no actor has consistently been better than his material than Gene Hackman. Some great actors can be miscast, but that never seems to be the case with Hackman. But he’s been in some lousy movies. Still, he is always credible, authentic, and has the ability to make magic out of bad material. Not every great actor can do that.

Who are some others? Spencer Tracy. Who else?

Wish I was there…

How do you beat the heat?