Bored

Speaking of team's that need a shake up, or at least one part of the team, I don't know how much longer Billy Beane is going to sit pat wit this offense. It's beyond terrible. Even when Eric Chavez finally starts hitting, although my patience is starting to wear slightly, I don't know if that will be enough. Small ball is a bullshit strategy that relies on the useless sacrafice bunt but I think it's time the A's at least attempted to steal a little bit more. They aren't scoring runs at all and having just two stolen bases all season they could stand but a little more agressive especially since they are basically a team of singles hitters now. Another problem today is Nick Swisher went on the DL. He has struggled but now Eric Byrnes and Bobby Kielty will have to play reguarly against right handers. Both are complete black holes against righties and should be strictly platooned against lefties. Beane really puzzled me with calling up light hitting, "veteran utility man" Jermaine Clark to replace him.

Well Rincon is at least a player who has an important role on his team.

Damon: .365/.404/.479 Hunter: .241/.337/.446 Really no contest.

What the hell, here are your April All-Stars. AMERICAN LEAGUE C: Javy Lopez, Baltimore 1B: Richie Sexson, Seattle 2B: Brian Roberts, Baltimore 3B: Alex Rodriguez, New York SS: Miguel Tejeda, Baltimore LF: Manny Ramirez, Boston CF: Johnny Damon, Boston RF: Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles DH: Shea Hillenbrand, Toronto SP: Jon Garland, Chicago CL: Joe Nathan, Minnesota NATIONAL LEAGUE C: Paul Lo Duca, Florida 1B: Derrek Lee, Chicago 2B: Jeff Kent, Los Angeles 3B: Chipper Jones, Atlanta SS: Clint Barnes, Colorado LF: Adam Dunn, Cincinnati CF: Brad Wilkerson, Washington RF: Jose Guillen, Washington SP: Roger Clemens, Houston CL: Billy Wagner, Philadelphia I thought about picking an entire All-Star roster with the one rep per team rule but wasn't Bored enough.

Forget Hudson vs. Mulder tonight, the pitching match-up of the night will be in the Blue Jays/Yankees game: Bush vs. Wang. I am easily amused. Edit: Errrr guess it's this weekend, not tonight.

Wow I'm shocked Damaramu managed to make the focus of this thread to be about Jason White. Shocked. Really. Didn't see it coming.

If he would pump his fist it'd add to his clutch ability.

I'd think about going on a hunger strike until the A's score another run but I might starve to death. I jumped the gun a little over a week ago thinking they couldn't get any worse. Wasting another good outing this time by 5th starter Barry Zito. Update: Lose 6-0. Scoreless streak at 23 innings. Chavez just looks awful on offense and defense. So much for my MVP pick.

Helps that the A's couldn't hit beachballs right now. This is just a horrific offensive slump to start the season as a team. Until Chavez and Durazo start doing something they aren't going to score with any consistency. Has Sam Ryan ever done television before this job? She just seems completely unsure about every word coming out of her mouth. Oh boy, Sunday Night check is next!

I love how ESPN always schedules a Sunday Night game every year between the A's and Angels so Morgan can gush for three hours about how the Angels play and rant about how the way the A's play. Poor senial Joe still thinks the Angels won the 2002 World Series because they "manufactured runs."

Another thing to take into account with the Yankees early pitching problems is they also have atrocious defense. Right now they rank dead last in all of baseball in Defensive Efficiency.

Hmmm he would be great trade bait.

If the Redskins don't draft Mike Williams and the Cowboys do, Dan Snyder will be murdered before the end of the day.

Yup K-Rod did blow it and lost it when Scott Hatteberg singled in two runs on an 0-2 pitch. I await the 10 minute debate on Baseball Tonight talking about K-Rod's lack of closer experience.

Maybe it's just me but whenever I hear Mike Patrick calling a game it sounds like he's overdubbing a game he already watched.

Rich Harden throws seven shutout innings tonight. Now pitched 20 1/3 innings and has allowed one run for a 0.44 ERA.

Hey kids, Bowling for Soup! ESPN continues to be to sports what MTV is to music (or what KFC is to chicken to quote Lewis Black). And if Harold Reynolds already going on about "old school" way of handling pitchers and really trying hard to get a Moneyball jab in there in the opening segment wasn't enough. Oh goodie next segment Chris Berman gets to use his tradmarked serious, hushed voice as he talks about Carl Pavano taking one off the melon.

Might I add that ESPN Classic has completely gone down the shitter in the last couple of months. Classic games have suddenly almost completely disappeared from the channel and when they do show them it's usually in the condensed one hour "Drive Thru" show. They are now showing on a regular basis those awful "Who's #1?" countdown shows from last year. Also I actually like Cheap Seats but does there have to be a marathon every weekend? Other than that it's the same SportsCenturies and NFL Yearbooks over and over again. They are just pissing that channel away.

No they should trade him while there is a lot of hype around him for a good pitching prospect. His complete lack of plate patience will catch up to him. Come on 34 walks in 545 career at bats and .306 OBP? Bleh.

Wow why even bother to keep it going? It's just going to feel like a glorified Sunday Night Football broadcast.

Thanks to XM, I listened to the radio call featuring Dave Campbell and some PBP guy. Campbell is wasted on ESPN radio. He is really damned good, describes things without insulting the viewers' intelligence. Morgan was fully aroused during the 10th. I was expecting him to start dry humping Jon Miller as he was so hot for that bunting action.

Collective Soul? Hey ESPN sure knows how to bring in that teenage audience! Or at lease those of us who were teenagers in 1993.

A's win 1-0 in the 10th due to a Scot Shields throw going by Darin Erstad and down the line on a Marco Scutaro bunt, Nick Swisher scores from 1st. Three of the A's five wins in part have been due to huge defensive miscues by the opponent. Oh well need to get by on luck for now until the offense starts doing something.

The A's offense is horrendous. A .334 team SLG% coming into today. I had to sit through live their two-hit effort last night and there are following it up with a big zero runs thru eight today to spoil a gem by Rich Harden. 0-0 going to the 9th.

Brewers sign Ben Sheets to 4-year, $38 million deal