Daily Archives: April 21, 2009

Oakland Athletics

2008 Record: 75-86 (.466)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 76-85 (.472)

Manager: Billy Beane
General Manager: Bob Geren

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

Who’s Replaced Whom:

• Jason Giambi replaces Daric Barton (minors)
• Matt Holliday replaces Emil Brown and Frank Thomas
• Orlando Cabrera replaces Jack Hannahan (minors)
• Eric Chavez replaces as much of Bobby Crosby as his body will allow
• Travis Buck inherits Carlos Gonzalez’s playing time
• Nomar Garciaparra replaces Donnie Murphy, Cliff Pennington (minors), and Eric Patterson (minors)
• Landon Powell replaces Rob Bowen
• Trevor Cahill replaces Joe Blanton and Rich Harden
• Brett Anderson replaces Greg Smith
• Dallas Braden inherits the starts of Sean Gallagher (bullpen) and Gio Gonzalez (minors)
• Josh Outman is filling in for Justin Duchscherer (DL)
• Russ Springer replaces Huston Street
• Michael Wuertz replaces Chad Gaudin
• Drew Bailey replaces Jerry Blevins (minors) and Andrew Brown
• Sean Gallagher replaces Keith Foulke and Dan Meyer
• Dan Giese is filling in for Joey Devine (DL)

25-man Roster:
1B – Jason Giambi (L)
2B – Mark Elllis (R)
SS – Orlando Cabrera (R)
3B – Eric Chavez (L)
C – Kurt Suzuki (R)
RF – Travis Buck (L)
CF – Ryan Sweeney (L)
LF – Matt Holliday (R)
DH – Jack Cust (L)

Bench:

R – Nomar Garciaparra (IF)
R – Bobby Crosby (IF)
R – Rajai Davis (OF)
S – Landon Powell (C)

Rotation:

L – Dallas Braden
L – Dana Eveland
L – Brett Anderson
L – Josh Outman
R – Trevor Cahill

Bullpen:

R – Brad Ziegler
R – Russ Springer
R – Santiago Casilla
R – Michael Wuertz
R – Drew Bailey
R – Sean Gallagher
R – Dan Giese

15-day DL: RHP – Justin Duchscherer (elbow surgery); OF – Ben Copeland (shoulder sprain)
60-day DL: RHP – Joey Devine (elbow)

Typical Lineup:

L – Ryan Sweeney (CF)
R – Orlando Cabrera (SS)
L – Jason Giambi (1B)
R – Matt Holliday (LF)
L – Jack Cust (DH)
L – Eric Chavez (3B)
R – Kurt Suzuki (C)
L – Travis Buck (RF)
R – Mark Ellis (2B)

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The Original:

Flipped:

I just caught up with Howard Bryant’s recent ESPN story on Jackie Robinson Day, and this grabbed my attention:

Only one major league player — New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter — reinforces his words of praise for Robinson with the financial support the foundation seeks.

The foundation asks for real money — to sponsor a four-year scholarship for a select number of students at $15,000 per year, or $60,000 total — to reach its goal of creating leaders for today and tomorrow instead of reflecting only on the accomplishments of yesterday.

Jeter doesn’t just sponsor a Robinson scholar. He endows a scholarship in his name, in perpetuity, at the $250,000 level. Every four years, when steroids and police rap sheets overwhelm sports, Jeter, silently, has put another kid through college.

Silent hero, eh?

The ‘Stache formely known as the Giambino, speaks.

Meanwhile, over at It’s About the Money, Stupid, Jason Rosenberg has more unpleasantness about the new stadium:

A few weeks back, we went to a friends’ house for an afternoon. While watching the Masters with my friend (a Wall Streeter), we were discussing this and he made an interesting point. He said to me: “Jason, even if I had those great seats that cost $2500 a ticket, I can’t take a client there. It’s not worth the risk.” I asked him about what risk he was talking about and his answer surprised me as I hadn’t thought of that: “If someone recognizes me sitting behind the dugout and it comes out that I used my Firm’s resources for those seats, and we’ve taken TARP money from the government, I don’t want that sort of publicity or getting calls from The Post.” He’s not a famous guy at all, but there’s a fear that someone might see him and he’ll get “outted” for using Firm money to attend a game. He also told me that he’s not alone with this fear.

• Given the gloomy weather of late, today’s news is powered by some impromptu rain delay entertainment:

• Is the new Yankee Stadium the old Coors Field?:

Twenty (homers) were hit in the first four games alone as New York and Cleveland split the opening series that ended Sunday. That’s easily the high for the first four games at a major league park, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, topping the 18 when Cincinnati started the 2003 season at Great American Ball Park.

“There are a couple ballparks out there that the ball just travels well. This might be one of them,” New York’s Mark Teixeira, who hit two of those home runs, said after Monday night’s game against Oakland was rained out.

Fourteen of the home runs have been hit to right field, raising concern that there might be a wind tunnel in the $1.5 billion ballpark, which has wide, open concourses, as opposed to the narrow hallways in the original Yankee Stadium on the south side of 161st Street, which remains standing.

• In a similar vein, our man Alex Belth points us to this analysis:

Although the field dimensions of the new stadium are exactly that of the old stadium, the shell of the new stadium is shaped differently.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists also estimate that the angle of the seating in the new stadium could have an effect on wind speed across the field.

. . . The new Yankee stadium’s tiers are less stacked, making a less sharp slope from the top of the stadium to the field. This shape could enable winds to blow across the field with less restriction. In addition, the slope of the seating would also lead to a “downslope” effect in the field which, depending on wind direction, would tend to cause air to lift up in the right field. Fly balls going into right field during a gusty west wind would be given more of a lift thus carrying the ball farther out into right field.

If the stadium seating tier shape is indeed the issue, games will only be affected during times with the winds are from a westerly direction and above 10 mph. This typically occurs during the spring and the middle to late fall. The calmer weather during the summer should lead to a smaller number of home runs. In the meantime, the home run derby may continue.

[My take: The “calmer” weather in the summer is also when the temperatures increase, which seems to correlate with longer distances on flyballs.  So, there might NOT be a respite from the launching pad effect.]

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