Gm 1: Colon vs Cahill Gm 2: Garcia vs Anderson Gm 3: Burnett vs Gonzalez Complete game for Colon today. He continues to pitch well, stem cell surgery at it's finest. Very disappointing losing 2/3 to the shitty Mariners, hopefully we have better luck this week. EDIT: Anybody know why every time I start a thread with all capital letters, ex: NYY @ OAK, it shows up as the opposite? Not a big deal, just curious.
I missed a lot of the past few days. I can't stand west coast trips. Colon is something else. I just hope he didn't use HGH. That will ruin a great story and one hell of a scientific breakthrough in stem cell therapy! I saw an unnerving stat yesterday for any A's fan. Not a single starter for Oakland has a higher OBP than Nick Swisher. That's got to hurt. So much for Moneyball. :wink: I also saw Hughes has been throwing without any problems and from what I gather, isn't finding the same loss of strength he was earlier. I'm just wondering how a cortisone shot fixed that and I'm worried I won't like the answer. He's still being seen as a July target, which right now seems just fine. The lineup is starting to produce and the pitching has been great.
We know the reason behind Colon's resurgence, but I don't think anyone can explain Freddy Garcia's good pitching to this point. It's great to see in the wake of another Cliff Lee shelling.
Granderson putting himself in the early MVP discussion. And there were people that thought it was a bad trade.
I liked the Grando trade, but I never saw this performance coming. If Long can fix Grando, why can't he fix the rest of the hitters, lol.
Austin Jackson's line this year: .225/.289/.335/.624, 3 HR, 14 RBI Ouch. Kennedy seems legit, though... and Coke's nothing special, but adequate. I still make that trade in a heartbeat.
Garcia's been good for a #5 guy, but like I said coming out of spring training, Colon was the better of the two. I'm never confident when Garcia is on the mound, whereas Colon is my second favorite starter on the team right now. Garcia has appeared effective, but he's gotten quite a few good defensive out to save him. I've been saying he's making a run at MVP for weeks. Yes it was, and one of my first (if not the first) posts I made when I came back was saying just how wrong I was about Granderson. I don't honestly believe I've ever been this far off on a guy. I owned up to it. I think anyone who says they thought he'd be anything like this is a liar. Good? Sure, there were people who believed he'd be good (and better than Jackson). Great? Like MVP-level? No way. In hindsight, I agree. Kennedy would be our #3 right now, but I'm not unhappy with Nova, Colon, Garcia. Coke would be a significant upgrade over Logan and the never-pitch-again Marte. Obviously Jackson was overrated, though I think we could reasonably assume that he'd be better with Teixeira and ARod hitting behind him. But yeah, this was an A+ trade for Cashman. Credit where due. Now let's see how he follows it up when he trades either Montero or Romine closer to the deadline. I'm wondering if he's sent out a feeler to San Francisco yet. I doubt the Giants would make a deal for a good prospect rather than a fill-in vet, but you never know. The other question is how they feel about Martin. His average is the lowest of his career, but his slugging and OPS are around his career best. And he's been very good behind the plate. I was actually saying last night that I think Martin (crossing fingers that he stays healthy) makes one or both of Montero and Romine expendable while Sanchez develops. Martin was another guy I was wrong about, but I wasn't nearly as adamant as I was with Granderson. The big test is obviously the stretch we're coming up on. Another 16 games/days stretch, but this time it's Boston, Cleveland, Texas then at the Cubs and Reds. As for this series, did anyone else laugh when they walked Teixeira to pitch to ARod last night? When are teams going to learn that loading the bases for him is just asking for trouble? Yeah, he's really overrated.
I love Granderson, but I do expect a little "regression towards the mean" at the plate. I also expect A-Rod to start putting dents in the sky any time now.
