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?

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...

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"

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

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.

What Happened?

So, I come home from dinner to catch the end of Friday night's A's game. And I wish I hadn't seen it. Turning a 4-2 lead into a 7-4 deficit in the 8th inning just stinks.

And frankly, I was unimpressed with Damian Miller covering the plate in that 8th inning. They teach catchers, “don't reach for the pitch when a runner's stealing.” It's much quicker to let the pitch come to you before trying to throw him out.

Isn't that same thing true when a throw is coming in from the outfield?

If a throw coming in from the outfield is going to beat the runner, shouldn't you just get in the middle of the baseline and totally block the plate? So, why was Miller left diving back to the plate on both Nix' and Young's basehits?

Dave Delluci did make a hell of a slide to beat the tag and score the go-ahead run, but Miller simply should have blocked him off.

Or maybe we just need a better bullpen...

Blast from the past

Stone: Super Addictive Racquetball Type Space Game From the Future

Good times. I wasted many an hour horsing around with that game.