Game #111: A's 5, Mariners 2
August 5, 2006 | A's @ Seattle
We got a win streak going!Yeah, I know it's only three games, but that's something. And the score is the same as yesterday (5-2) and, more importantly, it's not another freaking one-run game.
I'm actually able to relax a bit during this series.
And my boy Haren gets his 9th win.
(Game experience: Tried to listen to the radio while working on my Internet access issues, but I got very aggravated — and not with the game. I want to slander AT&T Yahoo DSL. I hope their eponymously-named ballpark burns down. And I swear I'm switching over to Gmail before the month of August is over.)
A's record: 59-51 | streak: W-3 | well-A-meter: 3
posted by blank book at 4:36 PM
7 Comments:
Don't worry about "slandering" SBC/Yahoo. The definition: "Slander is an untruthful oral (spoken) statement about a person that harms the person's reputation or standing in the community." So all you need yto do is tell the truth ... i.e. SBC/Yahoo is approximately as reliable your local weather person. I feel your pain, since I share it. My SBC/Yahoo stories would take a blog of its own. Our distaste for Comcast keeps us with SBC. Sure am glad the government "encouraged competition." I can get Evil1 or Evil2. Wow!
On the baseball front, the one thing BB had successfully accomlished this year is to divorce the fate of the team from the state of Crosby's health. Last year, the A's tanked when he was out. This year, they seem to be ever-so-slightly better when he sits. He's not an exceptional fielder, so he needs to hit to contribute.
To clarify, major league shortstops, in general, are among the best defensive players. Crosby is good, but he's not heads-and-shoulders above other SS, so he needs to hit to distinguish himself.
Now I'll go back to resetting my router twice a day. :)
Very astute observation about how Billy Beane addressed The Crosby Issue of 2005. I also appreciate learning what's expected from Crosby at SS. Thanks!
Al, what about all the other positions? Sometimes it seems to me that seasoned baseball fans have expectations of each position player. Is there some conventional wisdom about this? Like the 1B should be a .300 batter or the 2B doesn't have to be a strong hitter, but he must be strong defensively, etc.
Regarding expected offensive at every position, there is no hard, fast rule regarding this. Growing up in the 70's, I always assumed that a SS only had to hit .240 as long as he played great defense (Don Kissenger, Mark Belanger, Dave Concepcion, Ozzie Smith). Then came Cal Ripken Jr. who had good hands, average range but hit like an MVP. Following Cal came Nomar, Jeter, Miggy and A-Rod. This taught me that there is no reason to expect a SS or 2B to be a light hitter.
On the flip side, first base used to be a position where you put a big hitter with a big contract (George Scott, Steve Garvey, Eddie Murray). A great deal of offensive was expected out of a first baseman in the 70's and 80's. But with the advent of the big hitting middle infielder, came the era of the reasonably priced, first baseman (Kevin Millar, JT Snow, Scott Hatteberg). Money that use to be spent on firstbase now was being spent on middle infielders who could hit.
In summation, offensive expectation should be based on where you spend your money, not based on position.
Wonderful stuff! Thank you!
In general, the traditional method of building a team is to be "strong up the middle." This means that your catcher, shortstop, second baseman and center fielder are the foundations of a good team. (We're excluding pitching for the moment.) Why those 4 positions? Because they are involved in more fielding plays than the other four players (note a minor exception for first basemen, who get a lot of fielding chances catching throws but are not that involved in fielding batted balls).
The catcher is involved in every play. He needs to know his pitchers, the other team's hitters and how his pitcher's strengths mesh with a given hitter's weaknesses. No amount of offense will offset a poor defensive catcher. There have been lots of poor-to-mediocre catchers who were good hitters, but they never played on chamnpionship teams. Mike Piazza may be the best hitting catcher ever, but his receiving skills have doomed every team he's played for. (Look out, Padres!)
The shortstop and second baseman are the double play combination. There's nothing that takes the steam out of the other team more than getting the first batter on base in an inning and then seeing him erased on a double play. It is also true, in these days of splitters as a main pitch, that there are many more ground balls as a percentage of struck balls than there were 50 years ago, when "the high hard one" induced either strike outs or fly outs. So if your middle infielders don't have range and sure hands, your ground ball pitchers are doomed. This year's Toronto Blue Jays are exhibit 1. Last year they had the best infield defense in the league and their pitchers propsered. They just didn't score enough runs. So this year, they dumped their double play combination to get better hitting and their pitching has suffered as last year's outs become this year's ground singles.
The center fielder obviously has to cover the most ground and needs to be defensively superior.
So these four positions, traditionally, have sacrificed hitting for defense. There are always exceptions. Center field: Jim Edmonds of the Cardinals (formerly of the Angels) is way above average as a hitter and one of the best fly catchers ever. Shortstops (see below). But mostly, when you look at offensive threats at these four positions, you'll see players who cost their pitchers' runs. Miggy is the fourth best hitter in the American League, but he's lost more than a step in the field and that offsets a lot of his offensive production. Jeff Kent has become the most prolific power-hitting second baseman of all time, but his lack of range on defense is one reason why his offensive contributions have not led to more World Series appearances.
With the emphasis on defense at these four positions, that leaves the "corner" positions as the home of the big hitters. Historically, you'll find the big hitters here. Babe Ruth (RF), Ted Williams (LF), Lou Gehrig (1B), Ty Cobb (LF), Barry Bonds (LF), Ricky Henderson (LF), Scott Rolen (3B) are all big hitters at corner positions. Also, Hank Aaron and Roger Maris (both RF). Here you find the exceptions to be the good fielders as well as good hitters. The early Barry Bonds, Roberto Clemente (RF), Brooks Robinson (3B) and Justin Morneau (1B), although Morneau hasn't had a long enough career yet to know how good he'll be.
When the A's had Miggy, they could sacrifice offense at some position because he was one of the top hitters at his position. And that's the tradeoff: In the center of the diamond, if you aren't a great fielder, you'd better be a great hitter (Rogers Hornsby comes to mind). And at the corners, if you aren't a great hitter, you'd better be a great fielder. J.T. Snow comes to mind.
And GeneralChiang is on target in noting that multi-talented players are migrating toward positions like shortstop, so a couple of years ago in the American League, you had Tejada, Alex Rodriguez, Omar Vizquel and Derek Jeter. And now that A-Rod has been banished to 3B, Michael Young joins the crowd. Those are players (with the exception of Young), who are (or have been) better than average defensively and outstanding offensively.
But the priciples of building a team remain the same: "Be strong up the middle and you'll be OK."
Whew! That was too mcuh!
Wow! I never knew this stuff before. Thanks for taking the time to teach me about this, Al. I really appreciate it. Gosh, I love baseball...
So why has Kotsay been playing first lately?
I have two theories whay Kotsay's been playing at first base. First, Milton Bradley is back and Macha wants to make sure he's in the lineup everyday. Second is Swisher's has been cold the past few months. So by playing Kotsay at first, he can motivate Swisher into hitting by cutting his playing time while giving Kotsay some experience at first base which may be useful if the A's continue on to the post season and they need some flexibility in the lineup.
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