I actually made it to an A’s game today, saw them beat the Rays 7-1 to take two of three in the series. A lot of good things happened for the A’s, including Orlando Cabrera getting a couple of hits to lead an offense that has awakened. I was never too worried about the A’s hitting. I figured it would be good enough.
To me, the big item of the day was that Dana Eveland finally had a good start, albeit only five innings. One of the big differences for Eveland was that he sped up his tempo. Eveland said manager Bob Geren had suggested to him before the game that he try to work a little quicker.
“It’s better not to think too much,” Eveland said. “I know when I’m at my best I try to do that, but it’s tough when you are struggling. It’s hard to stop from getting off the mound and taking a breath. It seems like a good idea, but sometimes that’s not a good thing.”
Eveland is the A’s most experienced starter. They’re going to need him to give them consistent outings if they are going to do anything.
After Barry Zito pitched so brilliantly against the Padres, he had some strong words for reporters asking him the same old questions about whether he’s finally ready to live up to that contract.
“It’s not about any of that,” Zito said, getting frustrated with the opening three questions posed Wednesday. “It’s about competition. For whatever reason, my focus strayed here and there for a little bit, but it’s about fighting and battling for the guys on your side and having a no-holds-barred attitude.”
This reminded me of an interview I did with Zito before spring training, when he described his new attitude. This new attitude, as you know, is not new. He’s had a lot of epiphanies and new attitudes over the first two-plus years he’s been with the Giants. Forgetting about all that, the stuff sure looked better on Wednesday. More velocity on the fastball. More break on the curve.
So, Giants fans, I ask you, are you ready to believe that Zito really has made a breakthrough?
“I think a little bit, as a human being, you can’t help but to think that if the Yankees are interested I would definitely consider it. I wouldn’t be looking around if I were under contract for four years, but I think I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be interested, especially with the Yankees being such a storied franchise.”
Whenever any big-time player is approaching free agency, it’s almost standard-operating procedure for reporters in other cities to ask him when he comes to town: “How would you like to play for the (fill in team here)?”
There are pretty much three ways a player can answer this question…
I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m wearing this uniform and I’m worried about this team.
Sure, I like this team, this city, blah blah.
No way. I’d never play here.
The only one you will almost never hear is No. 3, which is why that’s the only one that’s really newsworthy to me. The first two are pretty standard canned answers. In the case of the Yankees, No. 2 is obvious. Most players like winning, making a lot of money and playing in front of sellouts, so most players are going to think it would be nice to one day play for the Yankees. Holliday actually suggests that he wouldn’t be a “human being” if he didn’t want to play for the Yankees.
So this little Holliday note tells us … nothing. (Not that I blame the NY Post reporter for writing it.)
While I’ve got you here, A’s fans, I wanted to alert you to something that is coming up next week. Billy Beane has agreed to do a live chat on FanHouse. We’ll be setting up the exact time and date early next week, so keep checking back here to see when it’s going to be. I know I haven’t written as much about the A’s lately as you guys would like, so hopefully this starts to make up for that.
After tonight’s game the Giants sent down lefty Alex Hinshaw and brought up catcher Steve Holm, relieving Pablo Sandoval of duties as the backup catcher.
“It’s getting to that point,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “I need to give Bengie some days off. I’m getting concerned with wearing Bengie down, even this early.”
I think that’s a solid decision by the Giants. I was never much of a fan of the original decision to have Sandoval as the backup catcher. He’s got enough on his plate (no pun intended), trying to be a middle-of-the-order hitter in his first full season and also playing third. The Giants don’t need him trying to catch, or possibly hurting himself in the process.
Sandoval is still scheduled to catch this afternoon. Not sure why Sandoval is catching this game, but it probably has something to do with not wanting to throw Holm out there fresh from the airport. It’s a 12:45 p.m. game on Wednesday.
I’ll be doing another live chat today at noon at FanHouse. Come on over and fire a bunch of A’s and Giants questions at me. I feel I’ve been negligent in getting much A’s and Giants info to you here because of my other job, so this is your chance to bust down the walls of my other job and get your questions answered.
Perusing baseball-reference.com this morning. Here are some interesting tidbits gleaned about the Giants and A’s. Obviously these aren’t terribly relevant because the season is only two weeks old, but they are interesting nonetheless…
Giants pitchers have thrown first-pitch strikes 52 percent of the time, equaling the lowest percentage in the majors.
The seven toughest pitchers for hitters to make contact against this year are Rich Harden (60 percent of swings making contact), Johan Santana (63 percent), Ubaldo Jimenez (64 percent), Ronald Belisaro (67 percent), John Danks (68 percent), Zack Greinke (68 percent) and … Randy Johnson (68 percent). Who would have guessed that the Big Unit so far would be missing the most bats among Giants pitchers?
Either the A’s are playing very good defense or their pitchers are getting very lucky. Opponents are hitting .269 against A’s pitchers when putting the ball in play. The major league average is .297. Giants pitchers, by the way, are at .318.
The Giants have driven in just 33 percent of their runners with less than two outs, second worst in the majors. The ML average is 51 percent. (Bet you thought the ML average was higher, didn’t you? That’s one of those common misconceptions. People think those RBIs ought to be like kicking extra points, but they aren’t.)
The Giants are tied for the major league lead by hitting line drives in with 23 percent of their balls in play. So maybe it’s not so bad. The A’s are at 15 percent. The ML average is 19 percent.
The A’s are last in the majors in extra-base hit percentage, with 25 percent of their hits going for extra bases.
Pablo Sandoval is only third in the majors in percentage of pitches swung at, with 60 percent. He’s behind Josh Hamilton (66 percent) and teammate Bengie Molina (61 percent).
