The Oakland A’s have had an up-and-down season so far.
They were in first place in the American League West at the beginning of June.
At the All-Star Break the A’s are now 43-46 and seven-and-a-half games out of first place and three games out of second.
Now is time to take a look at the grades for each player the A’s have had at the break. I’ll start with the infield, then outfielders, relievers, and then the starters for the A’s.
Jonathan Papelbon should be looking over his shoulder. At first considered the rock of the Red Sox bullpen, Papelbon is quickly eroding his own reputation and opening the door for the more consistent, if still more raw, Daniel Bard.
Still, despite certain trade rumors to the contrary, this writer is confident that Papelbon won’t be dealt this season.
That’s not to preclude a move as early as this offseason, particularly if Papelbon continues to struggle shutting the door. Indeed, rather than shortening games, Papelbon’s 2010 performances have begun shortening his career in Boston.
Yet, as nail-biting have been his appearances this year, Papelbon remains one of the elite closers in the game, and he and Bard have emerged as the only solid pieces in a fatigued and aging pen.
Hideki Okajima renders a shadow of his Championship self when he toes the rubber. Since his magical Rookie year as Daisuke Matsuzaka’s tag along, when Okajima posted a 2.22 ERA, Red Sox fans have watched with growing unease as that unexpectedly effective number has risen to an appalling 5.47 in 2010.
Manny Delcarmen, long more dominant early in the season than later, has already started to show his post-May colors. While his 2010 season ERA rests at a tidy 3.03, in June Delcarmen has been knocked around to a 7.36 mark. Over his career, Delcarmen has indeed become increasingly less effective as his innings mount, and if he follows that track, he could post a post-All-Star-break ERA in the neighborhood of 8.00.
After achieving a shocking level of excellence with his 2.84 ERA during the 2009 Red Sox campaign, former Rule 5 Draft pick Ramon Ramirez has regressed to his earlier, more disastrous days with the Rockies and now sadly owns a 4.88 ERA in 2010. Like Delcarmen, innings and late summer months are no friends of Ramirez, and he should only prove less effective as the many, many games roll by.
Thus, regardless of Jonathan Papelbon’s future as a major trade chip and Daniel Bard’s potential as the Sox’ next closer, the 2010 Red Sox are in serious need of relief if they are to contend down the stretch in the suddenly thickly contested American League East.
Now, according to MLBTradeRumors.com, Red Sox Assistant General Manager Ben Cherington commented on Sirius XM Radio that Boston will in fact be looking to upgrade its bullpen before the trade deadline.
Through a combination of team record, individual performance, franchise finances, and individual contract, these 20 relievers are the most attractive candidates to fill Boston’s currently Zombie-filled pen.
Bob Geren’s continued misuse of the Oakland A’s bullpen is getting very tiresome. Another game for the A’s where the decisions made by Geren were headscratching to say the least.
Although, there was one decision that Geren made right was taking Gio Gonzalez out after pitching seven solid innings and bringing in Craig Breslow. This because Breslow has been the most consistent reliever out of the bullpen this year for the A’s. Every other decision after that has cost the A’s runs and the game.
After Breslow pitched an inning, he was relieved by Andrew Bailey the A’s closer for the ninth inning. Most managers know the only reason to bring a closer into a game is in a save situation, unfortunately Geren doesn’t realize this.
With the way Breslow had pitched in the eighth inning there was no reason not to bring him out for the ninth. Bailey came in and got the first out with a strikeout, got the second batter to fly out to shallow centerfield, but Bailey was not able to get the third out.
He gave up a walk and then Bailey who was not paying attention to the runner allowed an easy stolen base. Jay Bruce was at the plate pinch hitting and even though Bailey got ahead of him and had him with two strikes, he left a pitch on the inside corner that was way too good of a pitch in that situation, and Bruce smacked the ball easily into right field for a single. Ryan Sweeney had no chance at throwing the runner out who scored from second.
Bailey got out of the inning without incurring any more damage. Now, Bailey has also shown he can go more than an inning and at this point would have been left in. He didn’t take the loss because Kevin Kouzmanoff hit the first pitch he saw from Fracisco Cordero out of the ballpark tying the game up at 2-2.
Into the game came the struggling Michael Wuertz. First pitch Ramon Hernandez sees he hits a rocket out to left field hitting the foul pole for a homerun. The next batter was Brandon Phillips who hit a single to right center.
Wuertz was actually lucky that Phillips didn’t hustle down the line because he could have easily been at second base. Paul Janish was the next batter and he sacrificed Phillips to second.
Joey Votto was the next batter for the Reds. Instead of bringing in a more experience left handed reliever in Jerry Blevins, Geren brought in Cedric Bowers to face Votto. Bowers didn’t help himself by falling behind to Votto with a 3-1 count.
Instead of just letting Votto go to first, he tried to groove a pitch into Votto who was sitting dead red and hit the ball out for a two-run homerun. A game that was tied at 2-2 to start the inning was now a 5-2 Reds lead.
Bowers should have been taken out right after he gave up the homerun, instead he was left in to face the dangerous Scott Rolen who promptly hit a solo shot off of Bowers to add to the Reds lead, 6-2.
The A’s in the bottom of the inning put some pressure on the Reds who actually showed Geren what you do in those situations. Cordero walked the first two batters of the inning.
Baker then replaced Cordero with Daniel Ray Herrera who gave up a single to Kurt Suzuki but no runner was able to score. The A’s had the bases loaded with nobody out.
Ryan Sweeney was the next batter up for the A’s and Herrera induced a ground ball to the right side that allowed a run to score, but now the A’s had runners on second and third with one out.
Jordan Smith then relieved Herrera for the Reds. He got Kouzmanoff, the A’s hottest hitter, to ground out to third that allowed another A’s runner to score cutting the Red lead to 6-4.
Jack Cust with a runner at second and the ability to tie the game just missed tying the game. He ran the count full, but ended up striking out that ended the game.
Baker shows he’s been around for a while and he’s not going to leave a pitcher who is struggling in very long. In this case Cordero started the inning with back to back walks.
Geren on the other hand, after Bowers allowed the two-run homerun to Votto, left Bowers in to face a dangerous hitter in Rolen.
Not too mention the fact that Geren went in the top of the 10th inning with a reliever coming into the game with a 6.35 ERA and the pitcher replacing him had a decent ERA of 3.24 but didn’t have experience in a situation he was put into.
It has come to the point for Geren to use Wuertz only in blowouts. It is clear that Wuertz’s confidence is not 100 percent and the only way for him to build into games where he isn’t going to blow a win.
Yet, that’s too hard for Geren to realize. He still believes that Wuertz is the same guy from 2009 when Wuertz hasn’t even been remotely close to pitching like he did last year.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Today continues the legacy of Bob Geren’s incompetency as the Oakland Athletics manager. How he got invited to be one of the managers in the all-star game by Joe Girardi is beyond me.
There’s no manager in baseball as clueless as Geren is! Today’s game is just another fine example of just how clueless Geren is on the bench.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Oakland A’s took a 2-1 lead against the Chicago Cubs. Dallas Braden had his groove going and the Cubs were off balance against him. After throwing 27 pitches in the first inning Braden settled down.
He was only at 83 pitches after six innings. There’s was no reason at the time to take Braden out of the game; he wasn’t struggling and he wasn’t being hit hard. Braden probably could have gone two more innings, allowing for Andrew Bailey to get a save opportunity.
Unfortunately for Bailey, he had the opportunity for a save, but was put in a situation where he was going to most likely fail. Michael Wuertz got one out in the eighth inning, but gave up back to back singles before walking the next batter.
This left the bases loaded for Bailey to come into the game. Bailey gave up a sacrifice fly, but was able to get out of the inning with only one run scoring. That tied the game up at 2-2.
Instead of leaving Bailey in the game, another pinch hitter was used, leaving Jerry Blevins to pitch the bottom of the ninth. What manager brings in a reliever who’s specialty is getting left handed hitters out, to face right handed hitting batters?
Secondly, what manager in the ninth inning intentionally walks a hitter to put runners at first and second with one out? The answer is no competent manager would do that, because you don’t put runners on with the game on the line.
Blevins ended up walking Ryan Theriot to load the bases. This meant the infield was in and the outfield was in as well. Kosuke Fukodome came up and hit a hard grounder through the infield which won the game.
If the A’s had been playing their defensive normally, that’s a double play ball. It wasn’t like the A’s needed to bring the infield in either, because Geovany Soto was the runner at third base.
Again another game, another loss at the hands of Bob Geren. When is Geren going to be shown the door? It’s obvious that Geren does not have what it takes to field a winning team!
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Written by Max Lush and Hunter McDowell
Give us credit. If you followed Man Cave Sports on Facebook or Twitter, you would have already known about Dallas Braden.
We wrote a feature article this week on Braden and how he could break out at any moment. I suggest you get on the ball if you haven’t heard about Man Cave Sports yet.
For just the nineteenth time in MLB history, a perfect game was thrown Sunday, or better known as Mother’s Day.
Dallas Braden , you know that pitcher on the A’s with a handful of wins ? Well, he just threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the team with the best record, not bad for just his eighteenth win in the majors.
If you’re like me, and the rest of Man Cave Sports , Braden became a hero after his run-in with Alex Rodriguez , who as far as I can tell, isn’t liked by anyone outside of the Pin Stripe faithful.
When A-Rod was notified about the feat he said, ”I’ve learned in my career, it is much better to be recognized for all the great things you do on the field,” Rodriguez said. “Good for him, he threw a perfect game. And better yet, he beat the Rays, but no more about him, please.”
No more about him, please? It sounds like Rodriguez may soon have nightmares about Braden.
It was impressive that a guy with just “a handful of wins” believes in himself, and the unwritten rules of baseball enough to exchange words with one of the game’s best.
Braden’s grandmother was quoted as saying “Stick it, A-Rod.” Happy Mother’s Day to her too!
If his continued rants about the issue have showed us anything, it is that Braden is an extremely confident pitcher, but he’s confident not the same way that A-rod is, where it comes off as smug. He believes in himself, and more than anything wants to see his team succeed before he does.
While some may find his confidence annoying, and ask why he continues to talk about the A-rod fiasco, maybe it will make more sense when you see that ESPN doesn’t mention his chance at a perfect game until the 8th inning had rolled around. If that was a pitcher on the Yankees or Red Sox, ESPN would have that as front page news after the 5th inning.
What’s more surprising is that Braden still hasn’t earned recognition amongst the media. Fox Sports’ website ran this headline “A-Rod’s nemesis has perfect game through seven-innings.” It just shows that a small-market team like the A’s doesn’t get as much respect as the Yankees or Sox do.
And the poor Rays, perfect gamed twice in less than a year’s time . They really do not like left-handed pitchers who work fast. What’s more surprising is that both Buehrle’s and Braden’s perfect games happened with back-up catchers, as Kurt Suzuki is on the DL for the A’s.
Although, Landon Powell and Braden have a strong history together. “We were drafted the same year, he was one of the first guys I caught in pro-ball,” Powell said after the game.
In order for a perfect game to be even remotely possible, the pitcher and catcher must be working in unison, and both players need to completely believe in each other. “He was putting the right fingers down every time, ” Braden said of Powell. “It’s not like we’re strangers.”
Still, what is so surprising is that this happened to the Rays, again. The Rays have scored 174 runs this season, the second-best mark in the majors. Their line-up comes at opposing pitchers with speed and power throughout, putting a lot of pressure on opposing defenses. “None of those guys over there are easy outs,” Braden said of the Rays.
After a long hug with his grandmother by the dug-out, Braden did an interview with the A’s television broadcasters saying, “You ain’t got nothing to say, it was perfect,” while smiling. Those that follow the A’s love Braden’s personality and the fire he brings to the clubhouse.
Most importantly, in a moment that is mostly about Braden, he put the spot light on those around him. “It feels pretty cool, this is without a doubt a team effort,” Braden said. “This is ours, not mine, this ours.”
This sums up everything there is to love about Braden. This is about you Braden, whether you know it or not. You are the 19th person in Major League history to accomplish what you just accomplished. Not even Nolan Ryan threw a perfect game. You’re the first A’s player since the great Catfish Hunter in 1968. These things do not happen often.
This was his first promotion of “209″ day for his hometown of Stockton, Calif., it was mother’s day, it was Braden’s day. He worked inside with his fastball, he worked outside with his change-up, and he never let a single Rays’ player get on base.
It’s weird how rare feats like this work out, where people often say that “the stars aligned,” because there is no feasible explanation as to why something so unfeasible could occur.
This is a moment that I will remember watching for the rest of my life. And I can imagine that it’s a moment A-Rod may wish never happened, because he will forever be linked to Dallas Braden. Maybe next time, A-Rod will think before stepping into Bradenia.
Braden may go on to have just an average season, maybe even a career, but the legend that is Dallas Braden will become a hero to many children in the Bay Area, and to the many “Davids” of the world who want to find the strength to slay Goliath.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Grade: A
Andrew Bailey (Athletics)
Bailey is one of only three closers (Broxton and Rivera) who have not given up a run yet.
He has just four saves on the year however, two of which came last week. Oakland’s closer gave up just one hit in 3.2 IP last week.
Heath Bell (Padres)
Bell has enjoyed the Padres success this year just as much as anyone else on the team.
To date the closer has a 1.64 ERA and is seven-for-eight in SVO (save opportunities). Last week he recorded two saves while striking out six in just three IP.
Joba Chamberlain (Yankees)
Whether it is due to a slow week for closers, or just giving one of my pre-season sleepers some love, Joba gets an A for his work last week (two-for-two in SVO, three K’s.) Mariano Rivera should be back soon so don’t expect Chamberlain to make it on this list again unless Mo goes down for a lengthy period of time.
Kevin Gregg (Blue Jays)
Gregg had a beautiful week with five K’s and two saves.
The Jays closer allowed just one hit in three IP, he has a 0.69 ERA on the year.
Grade: B
Neftali Feliz (Rangers)
Feliz had his best week this year recording a save in all four chances while striking out four.
No doubt this young-gun still gets a bit rattled (gave up two-earned during the week) but he should continue to gain knowledge and confidence as the Rangers closer.
Joakim Soria (Royals)
Joakim fanned five in 2.2 IP while making good on both SVO.
Soria added another run to his season total (three ER) and raised his ERA to 2.31. The Royals closer is on pace for 52 saves this year.
Rafael Soriano (Rays)
The Rays have the best record in baseball and today have one of the best closers in the game it seems.
Soriano looks like he will probably have his best season as professional this year. With help from one of the best lineups in baseball Soriano has been perfect in SVO (seven-for-seven) this year and has a very good 2.25 ERA.
Grade: C
Carlos Marmol (Cubs)
Marmol didn’t allow a run and struck out six but just didn’t have the chances.
He closed the door on his only SVO but walked three during the week. With that said, the Cubs should have no questions about their closer who has 25 K’s in just 12.2 IP.
What’s more, he has an ERA below one (0.71) after 12 appearances.
Grade: D
Trevor Hoffman (Brewers)
As I have mentioned before, this is the not the guy you want on your fantasy team . The same could be said for the Brewers bullpen. Last week Hoffman blew another save and currently has an ERA of 11.70 on the year.
He will not last much longer as the closer in Milwaukee!
Bobby Jenks (White Sox)
It seems to me Jenks tries to make every save chance an interesting one.
If he comes in with no one on-base, rest assured there will be one soon. Jenks recorded one save in his only chance but gave up two-earned and four hits in just two IP. Still, he is five-for-five on the year in SVO.
Grade: F
Brian Wilson (Giants)
The normally reliable Wilson had a down week giving up two-earned and walking two in just two IP. He blew his only save chance and struck out just one. I DO NOT see this as being a norm, he should revert back to his normal-self and continue working on his 1.93 ERA.
Frank Francisco (Rangers)
I know there are two Rangers closers on this list and it doesn’t make much sense, but neither does the Rangers having two closers!
Francisco gave up four hits, four walks, and two earned runs on his path to a 7.71 ERA. I would keep Francisco as far away as possible from a save chance and even further from my fantasy team.
Originally posted on www.FantasyBaseballSportal .com
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com