Friday, August 27, 2004

Dr. Arneson

Baysball

"Today, Zito didn't throw a curveball for a strike until the fourth inning. In the third inning, he yielded four runs. After that first good curveball, the Orioles got nothing else. The only thing stopping Zito after that was his pitch count."

-Ken Arneson, filling in at Baysball, making a great point about Zito. So, how do we/Curt Young make sure he's throwing his curve for strikes?

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Playoff Chase

Between the AL West and the AL Wildcard there are four teams fighting for two playoff spots. Here's how their schedules look over the last month+ of the season. (ranked by opponents' winning pct)

Oakland - .493
Anaheim - .500
Boston - .503
Texas - .511

And the key series between these four teams:

Ana at Bos, 8/31 - 9/2
Tex at Bos, 9/3 - 9/5
Bos at Oak, 9/6 - 9/8
Tex at Oak, 9/13 - 9/16
Tex at Ana, 9/17 - 9/19
Oak at Tex, 9/21 - 9/23
Oak at Ana, 9/24 - 9/26
Ana at Tex, 9/27 - 9/30
Ana at Oak, 10/1 - 10/3

And some of those old-school, back-east rivalry games:

Bos at NYY, 9/17 - 9/19
NYY at Bos, 9/24 - 9/26

That gives us a game with HUGE playoff implications every day between 8/31 - 9/8 and 9/13 - 10/3. I give a slight edge to the A's here for two reasons: (1) Their games against the Red Sox are at home instead of at Fenway and (2) They have a slightly easier schedule.

Regardless, there's going to be an aweful lot of good baseball to watch down the stretch, so thank goodness for MLB Extra Innings! Now, if I could only get around that annoying Fox roadblock on Saturday afternoons...

Thursday, August 19, 2004

If It Wasn't For The Internet...

...We'd probably never learn about the booze hound bears.

CNN.com - Bear guzzles 36 beers, passes out at campground - Aug 19, 2004

"A black bear was found passed out at a campground in Washington state recently after guzzling down three dozen cans of a local beer"

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Lowell McAdam Continues to Frustrate

Stone: Oh, Those Verizon Guys! Lowell McAdam is a Bad Executive, Part III

"That sad part is the coverage and the phone plans are so nice, it's tough to leave them. But their customer-facing practices are S-L-I-M-Y."

Marc hits the nail right on the head. Have a Verizon experience (good or bad) that you'd like to share? Post a comment or email Marc over at Stone

Monday, August 9, 2004

Promotion of Jairo

Yahoo! Sports - MLB - A's place reliever Chad Bradford on DL

"The A's filled Bradford's roster spot with right-hander Jairo Garcia from Triple-A Sacramento."

He's been nasty in the minors. Here's hoping he can stabilize the A's bullpen.