Andrew Bailey was named the American League Rookie of the Year this morning.  Hallelujah!  The right guy won.  No big market bias could override what Boom Boom did during the 2009 season. He was flat-out awesome!

He got the call this morning but had to keep it mum, but he figured he it was okay to tell his parents.   Many baseball fans, including his dad--and Bailey himself--thought Elvis Andrus of the Rangers had the inside edge.  The Rangers' 21-year-old shortstop came in second in the voting.  Brett Anderson, the A's best rookie starting pitcher came in 6th.  Not bad to have 2 out of the top 6!

Bailey who is 25 years old, notched 26 saves this season, beating Huston Street's previous record of 24.  No other rookie reliever this year posted more than 2.  He also had a 1.84 ERA, a 6-3 record, and 91 strikeouts with only 24 walks.  Opponents batted a mere .167 against him.  He surrendered only 47 hits in 83 1/3 innings.

Bailey is the second A's closer to receive ROY honors.  Huston Street was similarly rewarded in 2005.  Andrew is the 3rd A's rookie to win the award in the last 6 seasons (Bobby Crosby in 2004), and the 8th Athletic in history to win, tied with the Yankees for the American League.  The Dodgers hold the all-time record with 16.

For you fellow stat geeks, here's how the ROY is chosen:  selected members of the Baseball Writers Association of America--2 sports writers from each Major League team's home area--cast votes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  Bailey had 13 1st-place votes, 6 2nd-place votes and 5 3rd-place votes.  1st-place votes are worth 5 points, 2nd-place are worth 3 points and 3rd-place votes are worth 1 point.  That gives Bailey 88 points.  Andrus received 65 points, Rick Porcello 64, Jeff Niemann 21, Gordon Beckham 10 and Brett Anderson 4 votes (1 2nd-place and 1 3rd-place vote). 

"There were so many rookies who had great years, it's an amazing honor," Bailey said, on his way to the airport from his Connecticut home.  "It's kind of hard to believe.  It's crazy.  I really tried not to think too much about it after the season because it was out of my hands.  All you can do is put up your numbers and hope that's good enough.  I guess this means it was.  It's incredible.  I'm still shaking."

The A's will hold a press conference with Bailey in Oakland tomorrow at 10 am PT to honor his achievement. 

Every team that played in the postseason this year, had former A's players or coaches on their rosters.  Most of them will get some kind of share of the postseason bonuses.

World Series:The Yankees have 3 active players on their postseason roster who used to play for the A's:  Johnny Damon (2001), Nick Swisher (2004-07) and Chad Gaudin (2006-08).  The Phillies have two active former A's, Joe Blanton (2004-08) and Matt Stairs (1996-99).  The Phils' Bench Coach, Davey Lopes played for the A's in 1982-84.  Therefore, there are 6 possible World Series Shares that will go to former A's.  The will also receive winning shares of the League Championship Series (LCS) and their Division Series (LDS).  I will explain all this later.

League Championship Series ("The Pennant"):  On the 2 teams who lost their LCS, the Angel's first base coach, Alfredo Griffin, played for the A's in 1985-87.  Andre Ethier of the Dodgers spent 2003-05 in the A's farm system and was a top A's prospect before he was part of the trade to the Dodgers for Milton Bradley.  Bob Schaefer, the Dodger's Bench Coach, held the same position with the 2007 A's and their Pitching Coach, Rick Honeycutt, pitched for the Green and Gold in 1987-93 and 1995.  So 4 former A's should get LCS  losing and LDS winning shares this year.

On the other 4 teams who lost in the LDS, there were quite a few guys who were formerly affiliated with the A's:

 In the National League, Matt Holiday of the St. Louis Cardinals played for the A's during the first half of 2009.  The Cards' Coaching staff is also full of ex-A's.  Tony LaRussa, the Cards manager, managed the A's from 1986-95, and his pitching coach, Dave Duncan was the A's Pitching Coach from 1985-95 and played for the KC/Oakland A's from 1964-72.  Dave McKay, The Cards'  First Base Coach, was the A's Bullpen and Bench Coach from 1984-89, and the A's1st Base Coach from 1989-95. And Jason Giambi (1995-2001, 2009), Carlos Gonzalez (2008), Huston Street (2005-08), and Matt Murton (pt. of 2008) are all on the active roster of the Rockies.  They should all get losing LDS shares.

In the American League, Manager Terry Francona (2003 A's Bench Coach) and Dave Magadan (1997-98 player) of the Boston Red Sox, and Orlando Cabrera (2009) and Ron Mahay (1999-2000) of the Minnesota Twins should all get losing LDS shares.

Postseason Bonuses:  There are three factors that determine what a player who plays in the post season will receive as bonuses:  1) The size of the  bonus pool for each level of post season play, 2) how far the player's team gets in the postseason, and the share of the team's bonus pool that the player will receive

The Bonus Pool:  There is a separate pool for each level of the postseason.  Each bonus pool receives 60% of the gate receipts for that series.  There is a complicated formula to determine the value of the gate that takes into account the size of the venues, the amount of high-priced premium seating in the venues, the number of games played in the series and whether or not the games sell out.  The actual ticket prices are set by MLB, not the home teams as they are during the season.

Winners vs. Losers:  The winning team's share of the World Series gate receipts is 36% and the loser's share is 24%.  The LCS losing teams each get 12% and the LDS losers get 3% each, and the 4 2nd-place teams that do not win the wild-card receive 1%.

A Player's Share of the Team's Pool:  Here's where things can get sticky.  the 25 roster players vote right after the trade deadline (July 31st) at a meeting chaired by their union representative.  At this meeting the 25 players decide whether players who have not been with the club for the whole season get a full share,a partial share or no share at all.  Non-players, such as trainers, may be granted full or partial shares.  The pool of money is divided by the number of shares granted at the meeting.  There is no llimit on the number of shares, but a player will receive less money if there are more shares granted.

In 2006, members of the St. Louis Cardinals received over $362,000 each for winning the World Series.  For players who have not become elligle for arbitration (less than 3 years experience in the Majors), their share may be more than their regular season salary.  For the players with valuable contracts, their share may be less than 5%.

So that's how postseason bonuses are calculated.  And in all 18 former A's may be ellible to receive postseason money, depending upon what their respective teams voted in their August meeting.

It all may be decided tonight if the Yanikees win, or maybe the Phillies will grit their way to another win to say alive.  It should be a good game.

With the World Series approaching this week, and at the suggestion of my friend, Eric Edward, I thought I'd take a look at whether we can predict which teams make it to the World Series, and why others do not.  A huge topic, I know, but I have found some statistics that might shed some light on the subject.

We now know that the New York Yankees will play the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series , which will begin Wednesday night in New York.  The Phillies are looking to 2-peat, having won the Series last year.  The Yankees, who have won more World Series than any other franchise (26), are really pumped, if last night's game against the Angels is any indication.   It should be a very good series.

So were these two teams the likely candidates to play in the World Series?  Let's look at some numbers in various categories:  salaries, market size, attendance, team value, and prior World Series appearances, to see if we could have predicted this year's Series contenders.

Salaries/Payroll:  It is no surprise that the Yankees have the highest team payroll in the Majors at $201,449,289 for 2009, as of opening day.  The teams ranked 2 through 10 have payrolls between $135,773,988 (Mets) down to $98,904,167 (Mariners).  Of the top 10, only 5 made it into the post season at all, and 4 of the 5 made it to the Championship Series.  If only half of the top ten teams in payroll get into the post season, the correlation between Payroll and getting into the world series is pretty significant, but not over whelming, especially since the 13^th, 16^th and 24^th teams in this category also made it.  So maybe it's not only about paying players more money.

Market Size:  4 of the top 5 teams in market size--Yanks(1), Dodgers (3), Angels (4) and Phillies (5) made it to the 2009 postseason and the same 4 won their respective divisions. The Mets (#2) didn't make it to the postseason, but their #2 position is due largely to the fact that they are in a very densely populated metropolitan area and they moved into a very nice new stadium this season.  The other 4 teams in the playoffs were #6 (Red Sox-Wild Card), #21 (Twins), #23 (Cards) and #24 (Rockies-Wild Card).  Thus it appears that market size helps your chances because there is a larger pool of fans to draw from, but it is not determinative in making it to the postseason.

Attendance:  6 of the 8 top teams in attendance made it to the playoffs in 2009, as well as nos. 11 and 14, all in the top 50% of teams.  The top 5 teams in this category won their respective divisions.  So it looks like Attendance seems to track closely with appearance in the postseason.  But what does this mean?  Are the teams doing well because they have more people coming to the games, or do more people come because the team is doing well?  My guess is it is the latter, which means that attendance alone is a good indicator but not a deciding factor.

Team Value:  By far the most valuable MLB franchise is the New York Yankees ($1.5 billion).  The Mets ($912M, 2nd), the Red Sox ($833M, 3rd), the Dodgers ($722M, 4th), and the Cubs ($700M, 5th) make up the rest of the top 5.  23 of the other teams are worth between $509 million (Angels, ranked 6^th) down to $314 million (Royals, ranked 28th).  The Pirates ($288M, 29th) and the Marlins ($277M, 30th) and are "in the bottom two," a la Dancing With The Stars.

But let's look at the most valuable teams and how they have fared in the World Series.  #1 and #7 will compete in the Fall Classic; both are division and, obviously, the pennant winners.  The 2 other teams that played in the Championship Series are the Dodgers (# 4) and the Angels (#6).  When we go back to the Division Series, the results are mixed.  The Red Sox (3rd) and the Cardinals (8th) are in the top 10, but the Rockies (20th) and Twins (22nd) are way back in the value pack, and show that much less valuable teams can at least make it to the Division Series, though not very likely.  Since 7 of the top 10 in this category made it to the postseason, the team value category seems to have the highest correlation with getting beyond the end of the season.

World Series Experience: The Yankees by far have played in most World Series (39).  Of the rest of the top 10 -- Dodgers (18), Cardinals and Giants (17 each), Athletics (14), Red Sox (11), Tigers and Cubs (10 each), and the Reds and Braves (9 each)--only the Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals and Red Sox made it to the post season in 2009.  So World Series experience certainly helps, but it didn't help the Yankees in 2001-2007 when they got eliminated in the ALDS 5 times, and in the ALCS once and lost the World series twice.  The Bronx Bombers haven't made an appearance in the Series since 2003 and haven't won it since 2000.   They also didn't play in the post season at all in 2008, the first time in 14 years.  Because a lot of ancient baseball history skews these results, I didn't include World Series experience in my statistical analysis.

So what do we make of all this?  I determined the rank of each team in each category and then averaged the 4 ranks for each team.  The top teams, from 1 to 10, are, : Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Angels, Phillies, Giants, Astros, Tigers, and Cards.  6 of them made it to the post season, and #1 and #5 are playing in the World Series.  The 1st 6 teams are bunched together in averaged ranks; teams 7-10 (including the Cards) are ranked considerably lower.  So I guess this ranking system is pretty good in predicting who will make it to the post season, but beyond that it's anybody's guess and involves a lot of luck.

The aberrations in the top 10 are interesting:  the Mets, Giants, Astro's and Tigers.  None of them made it to the post season but all have circumstances leading to unusually high ranks: a new stadium, attendance and large market size (Mets), a reasonably new stadium, attendance and long history (Giants), high payroll and market size (Tigers), and then there's the Houston Astros (T#5 in Payroll, #7 in Market Size, and #12 in attendance account for their high rank), go figure.

That's a lot to digest, but if you are a numbers geek like me and want to see my Excel spreadsheet, email me at beebee723@comcast.net and I'll email it to you.  It has some very interesting and surprising statistics.

So sit back and enjoy the World Series.  If my ranking system is correct, the Yankees should win it easily.  But this is the Fall Classic and anything can happen.  As is often said, the team that wants it most will find a way to win it.  We should have a great series to watch.

Data Spources:

Payroll Data: www.cbssports.com/mlb/salaries

Market Size Data: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/baseball_markets.shtml  N.B. For New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore/Washington and the SF Bay Area, all metropolitan areas with 2 teams, the Census data was allocated according to attendance info.

Attendance Data: www.baseball-reference.com

Team Value Data:    http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/33/baseball-values-09_The-Business-Of-Baseball_Value.html

World Series Experience: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series     

Date: October 23, 2009

Lewis N Wolff, CEO

Wolff-Di Napoli Development Co.

11828 La Grange Avenue

Los Angeles, CA  90025-5212 

          RE:  Some Solutions to the Woes of the Oakland Athletics

Dear Mr. Wolff,

          I have been a fan of the Athletics since they moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955 when I was a child.  I have a deep love for the game of baseball and the Athletics in particular.  I am writing to you to urge you to use your influence to make some changes in the team and the Coliseum for the 2010 season and beyond. 

          As a season ticket holder, I am concerned that the attendance at the Oakland Coliseum has been declining over the last three years (along with the teams record), but it dropped precipitously during the last half of the 2009 season, when the team was playing over .500 ball.  I attended several mid-week night games when there were not more than 4-5000 people in the stands.  The paid attendance was always 3-4000 more than that, which says to me that the other season ticket holders stayed away in droves.  This is not good for A's or your considerable investment in the team.

          I realize that low gate revenue hampers management's efforts to make any significant moves that result in increasing the cost of running the team, but there are some things that can be done to improve the fan's experiences which will result in increased attendance, better press coverage, increased TV advertizing revenues, and improved player morale.  These things can be accomplished without large outlays of capital.  Some may take some time, but others can be implemented in the 2010 season.

          By far the most important change that needs to be made is to fire (or transfer) Bob Geren  from the job of Field Manager.  It is obvious to any of us who study the game and the A's that he does not have a clue how to manage a team or inspire the players to play at their top potential.  Contrast Bob Geren, with his reserved demeanor and flat affect, to Tony La Russa, who kept his cool but could inspire mediocre players to achieve greatness.  We need a manager who can do that.  Bob Geren is definitely a liability to you and the team.

          You have the power to see that Bob Geren is no longer the manager of the A's.  I know that Bob and Billy Beane are best of friends, but you need to do what is best for the organization and the team, not what's best for Beane and/or Geren.  In any other franchise, three sub-.500 seasons in a row would have resulted in a management change.  Please consider exerting your power as Managing Partner to make this happen.  Hopefully you can get this done in 2010.  If not, then please don't exercise the club's option for 2011.

          Other things that could be done to make the fan experience more enjoyable, and which would get more people in the seats, are:

1)   In these bad economic times, have some more midweek nights with reduced prices on tickets and/or food items to encourage more people to come to a game.  People look for bargains when times are tough.

2)   Do away with the All-You-Can-Eat seats which are rarely occupied (especially for mid-week games), take the tarp off 2 more sections (5 sections total) in the third deck behind home plate, and charge the same price or a few dollars more than bleacher seats.  That would get more people in the stands.  Again it's the economy.

3)   If you don't like No. 2) (or in addition), put outfield plaza-level and field-level seats on sale for half price starting 30 minutes before game time or at game time.  You'd need a little more crowd control around the box office, but it could be done without costing much.  People who want to see the whole game will still buy tickets at full price, and the additional people in the stands would buy lots more food, drink and souvenirs.

4)   Put some color in the bathrooms to jazz them up.  They are so bland and dingy now.  For example, the River Cats' restrooms have inspiring quotes from famous players or managers stenciled above the sinks.  That doesn't sound very important but it does improve the ambience in the stadium.  Some quotes from baseball and football would make sense.

          The primary goal of anything you do must be to get more people to come to A's games.  Having a team on the field that is exciting to watch is the key.  We have great young players and they will be much better in 2010 than they were in 2009 when they were getting their feet wet in the Majors.  But to get the most out of them, we desperately need a new manager.  How about Carney Lansford?  He's available, I hear.  Or make Ty Waller Manager and Carney the bench coach.

          Thanks for considering the points I raised.  As a long-time A's fan, I only want what is best for the team, as I am sure you do too.

                                                          Sincerely,

                                                          Belinda Laird Hylinski

Feel free to pirate any language from the above and write your own letter to Lew.  Maybe we can get this done.  Go A's!!!

I have written about this subject before:  Bob Geren hasn't a clue how to manager a team.  Were you as deflated as I was when the A's announced last week that the coaching staff for 2010 will be the same as in 2009?  As I wrote in my last blog, the attendance for games other than the "Premium Games" (Giants, Red Sox, Yankees, etc.) has been dropping dramatically since July.  Midweek night games drew somewhere around 7-8000 fans on average.  That's terrible.

Billy Beane won't get rid of Geren because they are BFF's.  So we have Bob at least until the end of the 2010 season.  The team has an option for 2011, which I hope they don't exercize.  Here they are, 2 smiles and what almost looks like a sneer, at the presser when  they announced Jason Giambi's signing in January. 

Billy, how'd that work out for you, as Dr. Phil would ask? 

I don't fault Giambi.  Geren asked him to do something he wasn't capable of doing:  playing in the field almost everyday.  Jason, being a good sport, did it, but he played in pain a lot and his hitting suffered.  Look what he did at Colorado after BB+G let him go (and did it badly!) where he was used largely as a pinch hitter! 

So what can we do about Geren?  As I have suggested before,  we fans need to start a letter-writing campaign asking Lew Wolff to force Billy Beane to fire Bob Geren as manager, or at least not rehire him in 2011 .  Maybe BB can give him a job in the front office, but let's get him out of the dugout.

I tried to find an email address for Lew Wolff, and was unsuccessful.  But here's Lew Wolff's snail mail address:

Lewis N. Wolff, CEO

Wolff-Di Napoli Development Co.

11828 La Grange Ave.

Los Angeles, CA  90025-5212

Let's flood his inbox with letters.  Be respectful and don't use profanity, threats or ad hominem attacks.  Just tell him why you think Bob Geren has to go.  Who knows?  He might just listen to us if enough of us write.  My letter will be in the mail tomorrow.  

Idea!  Carney Lansford is available.  Maybe we could get him!  Make Ty Waller the manager and Carney the bench coach for 2010!  Wouldn't that be neat?  Certainly a lot better than what we had this year.  Oh well, it's wishful thinking, I'm afraid.  But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Upcoming Topics:  "Some Last Thoughts on the 2009 Season", "Is it Dangerous to be a Fan?" and more.  Check back periodically.  I won't be blogging as often as I do during the season.  I have to concentrate on the final rewrite of my novel.  I plan to start looking for an agent and/or publisher after the first of the year.  Wish me luck.

I went to the A's game on Thursday, Sept. 17^th, and although the announced attendance was 10,873, there were no more than five or six thousand people in the stands.  What's going on here? 

Ticket holders are staying home:  The only explanation for the disparity between the paid attendance and the butts in the seats is that people are buying tickets but staying home in droves.  In this economy, I would think they wouldn't buy the tickets in the first place.  A friend suggested that the season ticket holders may have given up on the team.  That also surprises me as season ticket holders are usually the most loyal fans, since they have to cough up large amounts of money before the season has even started.  All I know is that it is a shame that the team is being sent a message that the fans don't care, especially when they are playing well.

The A's Are Playing Great:  The A's have won their last 6 games, and 11 of the last 13, most games against teams contending for their division.  So it got me thinking about the A's team and player statistics, to see if that might explain why the A's seem to be in such disfavor with the fans.

Won-Loss Record:  As of the end of play yesterday (Sept. 19^th), the A's have won 70 and lost 78 games, for a winning percentage of .473, ranked last place in the AL West, and 18 games behind the Angels.  But with that won-loss record, if the A's were in the AL East, they'd be in 3^rd place ahead of both the Blue Jays and the Orioles, and if they were in the AL Central, they'd be in 4^th place ahead of the Kansas City Royals.   We could talk about the relative strengths of the divisions, but you get my point.  It's not good, but it's not all that bad.

After the All Star Break:  The picture is much rosier for the 2^nd half of the season.  The A's have won 33 and lost 29, for a winning percentage of .532.  In fact, since May, the A's have won 51 and lost 49, for a winning percentage of .510.  Folks, that's playing over .500 ball!  If the A's keep playing like they have over the last 2 weeks, they could even finish the season over .500, which everyone has said all year would be a great achievement, given the team's youth and the team's dismal first two months. 

  But let's look at the statistics more closely:

Runs Scored vs. Runs Allowed:  During the first half of the season, the A's won 37 and lost 49 (.430).  They scored 361 runs (4.2 runs/game) but allowed 401 runs to score (5.3 r/g).  That tells you all you need to know about the first half of the season. 

During the second half of the season so far, the team has scored 320 runs (6.2 r/g), but have allowed 285 runs (5.5 r/g).  They young pitchers have learned how to avoid the big inning for the most part, some have added new pitches to their arsenal, and the walks are way down.  Brett Anderson has emerged as the Ace of the rotation, and Cahill and Gonzalez have been strong of late.   But the hitting and scoring has picked up considerably as shown by the runs scored stat for the 2nd half.

Team Stats of Note:  Notwithstanding the A's fans' apathy, the team is by no means at the bottom of the 14 teams in the AL in most categories.  If you want to talk about a bad team, I suffered through the A's first year in Kansas City as a child when they won 63 and lost 91 games (154-game season back then).  One especially ugly game took place on April 23^rd of that year in which the A's lost to the White Sox by the score of 29-6.  They stank, yet the fans came out to the games.  But I digress.

Here are some bright spots from this season: 

Hitting:   The A's typically rank 8^th, 9^th, or 10^th in most hitting categories, meaning that 4-6 teams were worse than the A's in most hitting categories.  The do rank high in at least 1 statistic:  5^th in sacrifice flies!  The only hitting category they rank last in is in home runs--no big surprise there. 

Fielding:  In most categories the A's rank in the middle of the pack.  They have had the fewest passed balls (chalk that up to Kurt Suzuki!)   They rank 4^th in put-outs, innings played on the field, and caught stealing percentage (Suzuki again).

Pitching:  The A's pitching staff are the youngest in average age (25.8 years), 4^th in team shutouts and 12^th in wild pitches made.  They have the 5^th lowest team ERA (4.28) ahead of the Yankees (6^th) and the Angels (10^th), and 5^th in intentional walks, as well as 7^th in strike outs, 8^th in saves, 9^th in runs allowed, and tied with Boston for the fewest home runs allowed.

Player Stats of Note:  On Friday night when the League Leaders were up on the Diamond Vision Screen, I expected not to see any A's player's mentioned.  But I was wrong.  Here are some top-ten player achievements and some not so great records this year:

Walks:  5^th - Jack Cust (88)

Strikeouts:  1^st - Jack Cust (167)

 Stolen Bases:  4^th - Rajai Davis (40)

Caught Stealing:  4^th - Rajai Davis (11)

At Bats/Strikeout:  7^th - Kurt Suzuki (9.943)

Batting Average with Runners in Scoring Position (both in the top 10):

                Adam Kennedy  - .349

                Rajai Davis - .337

So why don't the fans come to the Coliseum?  We have an exciting team right now, so we can't lay the blame on the players.  They are playing their hearts out and the games are fun to watch, especially lately.  Some possible culprits that I have mentioned before and some new ones are, in no particular order:

1. The media paint a gloomy picture.  Remember, their unofficial motto is "If it bleeds, it leads!"  Translation:  bad news gets more ink than good news, which encourages the sports writer to look for the negatives.
2. The Coliseum is old, low tech,  and not particularly fan friendly.  The A's will be there for the foreseeable future, so fans, GET OVER IT!  It's not that bad and the food and drink are plentiful and good, if expensive.  Lew Wolff, you could spend a little money on the Coliseum which would help the fan experience.  I have some ideas on that.  Email me at:  beebee723@comcast.net.
3. The Manager hasn't a clue.  I've discoursed on that subject before.  See my earlier blogs.
4. The team has no marquee players.  Are the A's fans so shallow that they have to have a star to get them out to a game?  If so, they aren't true fans of the game of baseball.  Get excited about Kurt Suzuki, Mark Ellis, Raj Davis, Adam Kennedy, Ryan Sweeney, and the young pitchers.   Get off your butts and out to the Coliseum!  I'm doing my part.
5. You freeze your butt off at night games.  So bundle up!  It's an easy fix. 

It's a shame that the stands are so empty at game time.  I am sure there are more reasons than I have listed.  Perhaps you'd like to share yours.  Go A's!!!

P.S.  They won again today 11-4, sweeping the Indians!  Gotta love this team.

Next Article:  Being a Fan Can Be Dangerous.

As the baseball season begins its fall from summer into winter, and as I embark on a major rewrite of my novel "Contract Year,"  I will be posting a bit less frequently on this blog.  This is also a natural occurance as the season comes to an end and many people's focus shifts to football (not mine, however.)  There just simply will be less and less news on baseball during the offseason to write about.  I will still try to post once a week, but don't desert me if I miss one or two.

Cliff Pennington and Landon Powell Contribute Big:  Cliff had a great game on Saturday, making 2 amazing plays at shortstop, and hitting his first homer from the right side, going 3 for 3 with 2 RBI's and a walk.  He has a cannon for an arm and Sunday threw out Ichiro when everyone including Ichiro thought he had a hit. 

Landon Powell has caught 3 games in the last 8 days and muscled his 1st career grandslam home run to right-center in the 2nd inning on Wednesday against the Royals, and a solo shot high up in the right field bleachers on Sunday.  Here's his trot to homeplate on Wednesday.  Apparently, Landon left the locker room before the press could get to him to ask him about his grand salame, and a conference call had to be set up so that the press could get their statement.  Rookie mistake!

Scott Hairston and Gio Gonzalez:  Scott Hairston was both goat and hero on Sunday. In the 5th inning with Seattle ahead 2-1, Scott came up with the bases loaded and 1 out, the best opportunity for the A's so far against Seattle's Doug Fister from Merced, CA,  and popped up to Jose Lopez in foul territory, stranding the 3 runners.  Unfortunately, Landon Powell couldn't get the runners home either.

However, in the bottom of the 7th, Hairston came up with exactly the same situation as in the 5th, but this time he delivered, blasting a grandslam into the left bleachers, putting the A's ahead for good, 5-2.  He was grinning as he met the huddle around home plate.  I bet he called big brother Jerry who plays for the Yankees as soon as possible to tell him the good news.

Gio Gonzalez had undoubtedly his best outing of the season, pitching 7 innings, allowing 2 runs and only 2 walks and throwing 3 strikeouts.  The best part of the outing was his effective use of the new 4-seam changeup that he has been working on for the last few months, giving him a credible third pitch to go with his breaking fastball and nasty curve.  After giving up a run in the 1st, he settled down and allowed only one more run in the next 6 innings.  In the bottom of the 7th when Gio's day was done, Hairston's slam got him the win, the second time the A's gave him a victory in that fashion this year.  In July, the A's scored 6 runs to give Gio a win after pitching his final inning in Yankee Stadium.

Brad Zieger came in and pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning and Andrew ("Boom Boom") Bailey closed it out for his 23rd save, tying Huston Street's Oakland record for most rookie saves.  Bailey was named American League Rookie of the Month for August.  He also is considered one of the front runners for AL Rookie of the Year.  Go get'em Boom Boom!

All for now.  Upcoming topics include:  Being a Fan Can Be Dangerous, Interesting Statistics, and anthing else that I get curious about.

I wrote a couple of days ago about Bobby Crosby going on the disabled list and his father's rant in the media about how badly his son has been treated by Billy Beane and the A's.  In Doug Krikorian's article, the elder Crosby stated:  "Right now Bobby's on the disbled list, and he's not even hurt."  That got me to thinking about the DL and how it is used.

Was he hurt when he was placed on the DL?  I watched the game in which he strained his calf, so I know he had an injury.  Was it enough of an injury to put him on the DL?  Obviously, Ed Crosby doesn't think so.  So is the DL used by clubs to inactivate a player, maybe one who isn't performing well, so they don't have to send him down to the minors?  Officially, they will say they don't do that, but unofficially I think it's done and may have been used by the A's at least twice this year.  But first, let's look at the rules for placing a player on the DL.

Standard Form of Diagnosis:  If a team wants to place a player on the DL (either 15 or 60 day DL), the team must file a Standard Form of Diagnosis (SFD) with the Commisioners Office.     

The SFD requires outlining the exact type of injury or ailment the player is afflicted with, what the estimated time of recovery will be, and it must be signed by a licensed doctor.  Notice there is no requirement for the doctor to state the severity of the injury.  Apparently, most teams' front office fills out the form and the doctor just reads it and signs it.  Lots of wiggle room there.

The 15-Day DL:  Once the Commissioner receives the SFD, the player is not permitted to participate in MLB games for a minimum of 15 days, but the SFD can be backdated to the day after his last game appearance, but no more than 10 days.  Thus a player may actually be on the DL for as few as 5 days.  Once on the DL, the player is removed from the 25-man active roster so that another player can be called up to take his place.  He is not removed from the 40-man roster, so the club cannot add another player to the reserve list (more on this later.)

Continued DL or Rehab Assigment:  When the stint on the DL expires, the player may or may not be activated.  If he is still injured an SFD must be recertified to stay on the 15-day DL until he is no longer symptomatic, which may be less than an additional 15 days.  Once a player is deemed to be "healthy enough for baseball activities", he is usually sent to Double A or Triple A for a "Rehab Assignment" for a maximum of 20 days (30 days for a pitcher).  After being on the DL and inactive for as many as 15 days, most players happily take the rehab assignment.  If they injure or  reinjure themselves during rehab, they are "returned from Rehab" to the DL until they are sufficiently recovered to resume baseball activities.  This would have to be recertified by a doctor on a new SFD.

The 60-Day DL:  Placing a player on the 60-day DL requres the same initial steps:  filing an SFD with the commisioners office giving the type of injury and estimating the time for recovery to be 60 days or longer.  At such time the player is removed from both the 25- and 40-man rosters, but is still protected on the reserve list (meaning the player is not available for the Rule 5 Draft.)  That way a team may have more that 40 players on the reserve list at the same time and the team can also add a player to the 25-man roster to take the place of the injured player who is on the 60-day DL.  If the injury persists past the 60 days, no recertification (SFD) is required to keep him on the DL.

The "Phantom DL":  So Ed Crosby said that Bobby isn't hurt enough to be placed on the DL.  Could Bobby have played through the injury?  Perhaps.  But Bobby is elligible for free agency at the end of the season so he doesn't figure in to the A's future plans.  Cliff Pennington does, so he was brought up to play shortstop for the rest of the season and Bobby was put on the DL.  Smells fishy to me.

But an even more obvious example is the handling of Jason Giambi.  He was placed on the DL with no discernable injury at all (a "phantom" injury?), other than the ongoing problems of advancing age (not a valid diagnosis) and his sore knees, which he played on most of the season.  It is well known that he retreated to his house in Las Vegas and was reportedly seen working out and taking batting practice after he had only been there a day or so.  Doesn't sound like he was injured to me.

So why would a team use the DL to hold a player off the 25-man roster?  Former player FP Santangelo said on a recent A's postgame show that there is something called the  "Phantom DL" where a team can "park" a player on the 15-day DL while the team decides what roster moves to make.  He said that when that happens, "a player sucks it up and doesn't play for 15 days--he takes it for the team."  That sorta sounds like what happened to Crosby and Giambi to me.  But you can be the judge of that. 

The "Spread" :  I will leave you with this anecdote:  One of the things an MLB player always does when he is sent to the minors on a rehab assigment is to purchase the "Spread."  Tradition dictates that while he is there he must provide at his expense at least one meal for the minor league team he is assigned to.  A player with a big contract might choose an upscale restaurant to cater the meal.  A player with a minimum MLB contract ($400,000 in 2009) might provide ribs and chicken. 

Woe is the player who forgets to provide the Spread.   His MLB teammates will find out and make his life miserable.  An affluent Jays player forgot and his teammates gave him such grief that he sent a check to the minor league clubhouse manager to procure a meal for the team.  Bet it bought chicken and ribs.

(Many thanks to Bart Given, former Asst. GM of the Blue Jays, whose blog provided a glimpse into the workings of the disabled list and the Spread anecdote.  Check out the blog at www.insidethemajors.com.  He gives insights into the game of baseball from a front office perspective.)

I feel sorry for Bobby Crosby, not because the A's took away his shortstop position this year, but because he can't hit.  Even in his Rookie of the Year season, he hit only .239.  In 2005, his best year, he hit .276, but he's hovered between .223 (2009) and .237 since then.  

The A's, as any team, have to do what is best for the team, and when they had the chance to get Orlando Cabrera, a proven hitter and very good shortstop, they took it, and rightly so.  Bobby's response was to pout unprofessionally to the media. 

Then when it was obvious that the A's would finish in last place in the AL West and Cabrera was traded, the A's decided to look to the future and called up Cliff Pennington to play shortstop for the rest of the season.  Bobby again opened his mouth and spouted off, calling the move "a joke."  Not a very good way to ingratiate yourself to potential teams who might need a shortstop.  It screams loud and clear:  "NOT A TEAM PLAYER!," which certainly won't help him in the free agent market. 

This week in an article by Doug Krikorian in the Long Beach Press Telegram, Bobby's father, former MLB player Ed Crosby, took Billy Beane to task for not treating his son fairly.  "My feelings are that...Billy Beane has done a number on him," complaining that Bobby is on the disabled list when "he's not even hurt." (More on this use of the DL in my next post.)  He even went off on the Moneyball philosophy and criticized the A's for not letting their players swing at the first pitch in an at bat, complaining that the A's have "taken the bat out of the hands of their players." 

Statistically the chance of making an out by swinging at the first pitch is overwhelming, so Billy Beane presumably told the organization not to swing at first pitches.  So opposing pitchers poured strikes in on the first pitch, getting ahead in the count most of the time.  That didn't work so the A's have adjusted and we see many more first pitch swings this year.  But I digress.

Ed Crosby has a right to vent his feelings, but his rant didn't help his son's future prospects.   Ed is a former MLB infielder and he should know that teams will look at this and think twice about going after Bobby this offseason. 

A .223 hitter needs to be a team player, keep his mouth shut and play his best when he's put in the lineup if he wants to get a good contract when he becomes a free agent at the end of the year.  Bobby will certainly not command a salary anywhere close to the $5.3 million that the A's are paying him this year and a utility role is most likely all he will be able to get.  Too bad really.  He could have positioned himself so much better by sucking it up and keeping his mouth shut.

A good comparison might be to Jack Hannahan, who bounced around the Detroit Organization before being traded to the A's where he's played third base during Eric Chavez' various stints on the DL over the last few years.   Bobby is very much like Jack:  great fielder but can't hit.  The difference is that Jack Hannahan is a gentleman and a true team player, and will always be able to find a job.  I saw him play Monday night in Seattle as a Mariner and he made some great plays.  It was a pleasure to watch, even though the gems were at the A's expense.

So all this hoopla about how badly Billy Beane has treated Bobby is way overblown, in my opinion.  The A's organization hung with him through multiple serious injuries, and years when he averaged less than one hit per game, and kept him as the everyday shortstop.  They could afford to do that when other guys were hitting the long ball and the team was having a winning season.  But the team has been on a slide since 2006, and without power hitters the entire lineup has to be able to get on base and drive in runs to make small ball work.  And Bobby can't get it done.  He should go at the end of the season, but he should have gone more quietly for his own good.

Ellie:  Mark Ellis is on fire!  What a great walk-off homer which skimmed the left field fence yesterday!  He's batting something like .460 since the All Star Break.  Welcome back Ellie.

Is it just me?  Or is it fun to watch the young kids play ball?  Yes, it's painful when one of the young pitchers gives up "the big inning." but by and large the kids are playing their hearts out and it's just plain fun to watch.  The A's will probably finish in last place, but if they can get to .500 that will be a huge victory.

Duke:  Something strange is going on with Justin Duchscherer.  He missed a recent rehab start in Sacramento and he was penciled in to start for the A's on Tuesday against the Yankees.  That too has been scratched.   Brett Tomko, who was released by the Yankees on July 21st and has been conspicuously mediocre at Triple A Sacramento, has been called up to pitch tonight against his former team, pushing Gio Gonzales to Tuesday's game giving him an extra day between starts.

The reason for the Duke scratchings were said to be for "non-baseball reasons."  The last time we heard that explanation, Dallas Braden's beloved grandmother was seriously ill.  If is it a reason like that, why can't they just come out and say it was a family emergency or just say what it is?.  This cloak and dagger secrecy doesn't make the organization or Duke look particularly good. 

This secrecy is not unlike when the A's placed Jason Giambo on the DL only to find out later he went to Las Vegas to work on his hitting.  Two weeks later the A's released him.  All very strange.

Geren:  Has anyone else but me noticed that when Geren gets tossed from a game, the A's come back and win the game with Ty Waller managing?  That's happened 2 out of the 3 times Geren's been thrown out this year. Will anyone ever forget that game in Boston when he was tossed in the 3rd inning and Waller guided the A's to a 9-8 victory in 11 innings?   

Now there could be all sorts of reasons the guys get psyched up after their manager gets tossed, but one of them could be that Bob Geren is a lousy manager.  He certainly has made some bonehead decisions this year.  And when asked about Giambi going on the DL or Duke being scratched, he just hems and haws, and haws and hems, as Mychael Urban so succinctly put it.

As you probably know, Geren and Billy Beane are tight, Geren having served as BB's best man at his wedding (or was it the other way around?), so the likelhood of BB firing him is nil.  But Lew Wolff as managing partner could order it done.  Come on, Lew, put us out of our misery and let Geren go at the end of the season.

Geren's track record stinks for a reason.  He has no leadership skills.  He can't motivate the team.  He hasn't created a culture of success in the clubhouse or on the field.  You can have the latter and still not win, but he needs to fire these guys up and expect them to win.  If he would do that, they will win.  His deadpan affect does not instill confidence in the players except when he argues balls and strikes and gets himself tossed, and I think it is instructive that the team wins when he is not in the dugout.

So not the A's take on the hottest team in baseball:  the Bronx Bombers.  I think Brett Tomko will have his hands full, as will the other young starters, but we have beaten them bepore and can do it again.  It will be fun to watch, no matter the outcome.