Jeff Fletcher | April 25, 2010

Since I don’t cover the A’s and Giants on a daily basis anymore, sometimes it takes me a while to get around to talking to people. Believe it or not, today was the first time I talked to Kevin Kouzmanoff, and he’s already earned my vote for this year’s A’s Good Guy Award.

I approached Kouzmanoff this morning and he said he couldn’t talk because he had to go up to the cage to hit. Fair enough. I said I’d get him later, and I walked away. Happens all the time.

What was unusual about this was that after Kouzmanoff got done hitting, he actually sought me out at the other side of the clubhouse for the interview, which he already knew was going to be on a delicate topic that some players wouldn’t want to discuss. Impressive, especially considering I’d never talked to him before in my life.

Anyway, a point for Kouzmanoff.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 23, 2010

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post following-up on the Dallas Braden-Alex Rodriguez incident, a reader tweeted to me that it was probably wrong of someone like Braden (read: a nobody) to be publicly calling out a guy like A-Rod (read: a superstar).

So I ran that notion past Jason Turbow, co-author of the definitive book on baseball’s unwritten rules, and here’s his take on that particular piece of the story.
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Jeff Fletcher | April 22, 2010

Quite the exciting day at the Coliseum today. Not only did we see the Yankees turn their first triple play in 42 years and complete a game in just 2 hours 7 minutes (which was more unbelievable?), but we saw an example of one of baseball’s unwritten rules, one that I didn’t even know existed.

Apparently Alex Rodriguez ran across the mound on his way back to first following a foul ball, which irritated Dallas Braden. (If you missed it, there is video here, although the announcers at the time had no idea what was going on. None of us in the press box did until we got to the A’s clubhouse.) There is more to the story, though.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 22, 2010

I don’t get all the hand-wringing in Giants Nation over Todd Wellemeyer’s recent rough starts. You know, he’s the No. 5 starter. That means he’s the worst starter on the team. There isn’t a team in baseball that has a No. 5 starter who is consistently dependable. Even Phil Hughes, who nearly pitched a no-hitter for the Yankees on Wednesday night, has a career ERA of 4.20. Heck, last year the Yankees won the World Series without dependable pitchers in the No. 4 or No. 5 spot.

Yes, the Giants have lost all three of the games that Wellemeyer has started, but that’s OK. It’s only three games. Give him eight or nine starts before you start calling for his head.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 21, 2010

Wanted to alert you this FanHouse story on Bruce Bochy, even though I didn’t write it. Believe it or not, there’s a baseball writer at FanHouse even more qualified to write about Bochy than me, and it’s Tom Krasovic. Kras covered the Padres for a long time, including all (or most, not sure) of Bochy’s tenure down there. The San Diego Union-Tribune’s loss is FanHouse’s gain, so we now have Kras working for us.

Check out his stories here and follow him on Twitter here.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 20, 2010

I hope that you had a chance to read the comments from Giants GM Brian Sabean that Andy Baggarly published today. Pretty revealing stuff about the Prospect Formerly Known As Madison Bumgarner.

“It’s this simple: He was preoccupied this winter and it cost him,” Sabean said. “He had personal stuff to straighten out, getting married, and he was ill-prepared to come into spring training. I don’t know how much he threw to get ready.

“Some of it is our fault because we didn’t track him as well as maybe we should. We’ve got to do a better job eyeballing that.”

Sabean went on to say that Bumgarner’s mechanics got out of whack, and the combination of poor conditioning and poor mechanics are what are responsible for his decrease in velocity and effectiveness. The story also says that there is reason to believe he’s getting it back. Dick Tidrow helped him work on his mechanics over the weekend, and on Monday night Bumgarner was back in the low 90s, according Fresno radio broadcaster Doug Greenwald.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 19, 2010

Both of our Bay Area teams are sitting in first place today, which is encouraging for the local baseball scene. The baseball world outside the Bay Area is certainly more surprised with the A’s than the Giants.

My take is that neither team will be in first place when the season is over, and the A’s may not even be .500. I know that’s not really a bold prediction, since that’s pretty much what most people thought before the season started. Thing is, why change an opinion we spent all offseason considering based on two weeks?

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