Catfish Stew

Baseball Toaster : Catfish Stew : May Day!

"I am grateful the A's finished April with a 12-12 record and only one game out of first despite the injustice of Those Who Play Dice With The Universe." - Ken Arneson

I finally figured out how to get the RSS feeds from Baseball Toaster, and thank god. Ken's post today reminds us how badly the A's offense has underperformed so far in '05. Considering the meager offense and the craptastic performance from Zito (other than today and tax day), we really are lucky to be 12-12.

Dr. Barry Zizmor

If you're a New Yorker, you've probably seen this guy's ads on the subway. Whenever I see his ads, I think of Barry Zito, and whenever I see Zito pitch, I think of Dr Zizmor. Consequently, I now think of Barry as Dr. Barry Zizmor, Board Certified Dermatologist. And, interestingly enough, he's pitching about as well as the dermatologist might, if insterted into the A's rotation.

Zito's given up 22 earned runs in only 30 innings - that's an ERA of 6.60. But overall, the A's have only allowed 81 earned runs total, meaning that Zito's given up 27% of the A's total earned runs so far this year. Is that a lot? I had no idea, so I looked at all pitchers with over 22 IP to determine the percent of their team's earned runs allowed.

Turns out, Zito's number 1, or uh, dead f-ing last. Here are the pitchers that have allowed the highest percent of their team's ER:

Barry Zito - 27%
Jake Westbrook - 24%
Jeff Weaver - 23%
Brad Radke - 23%
Mark Buehrle - 22%

And the five lowest:

Rich Harden - 7%
Joe Blanton - 6%
Roger Clemens - 5%
Brett Myers - 4%
John Patterson - 3%

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but as an A's fan, I certainly don't like seeing our supposed ace allowing 27% of the team's earned runs. The good news here, if you can stretch far enough, is that the team is 12-12 after April without any real meaningful contribution from their no. 1 starter. If Zito pitches even a little better, The A's have to be able to play better than .500 ball, right?

Google History

How long until Yahoo copies this? Google's My Search History

An Investigation of Area 51

Thanks to GMSV for this: So tonight I spied on Area 51

Mildly amusing.

Snail Mail

Yahoo! News - Postal Service Seeks 2-Cent Stamp Increase

"The Postal Service filed a request Friday seeking higher rates. The agency wants a 2-cent increase in first-class mail, and similar increases for other types of mail, to take effect early next year. It would increase the rate for regular mail to 39 cents from 37 cents."

I can't remember the last time I even put a stamp on something. I think this has the potential to cost me about $0.10 over its first 12 months.

More Good News

ESPN.com - MLB - Rich man: A's give Harden four-year deal

"The Oakland Athletics signed Harden to a four-year contract with a club option for 2009 on Saturday."

Happy to have Harden around for the next few years - He's going to be our ace very soon, if not this year.

Hip Hip Hooray!

New Regime in Oakland Is Counting on Beane

"The A's are expected to announce today that Beane has agreed to a contract extension through 2012 and has been granted a share of ownership, a distinction without recent precedent among major league general managers."

That is just FABULOUS news for A's fans. I couldn't be more ecstatic.

But "Bill Shaikin, Times Staff Writer" misunderstands - "...might fans not prefer that popular players finish their careers with the team, not just the general manager?"

I'd rather have Billy Beane assembling my team than have just one player. If the choice was between Tejada or Beane, I'll take Beane. Giambi or Beane - I'll take Beane. There is no single player that's more valuable than a General Manager that can assemble the entire 25-man roster better than anyone else.

(Thanks to Blez for the link.)