Bored

Bradley was DFA'd because the A's are overloaded with outfielders, or at least that's the line we'll hear for now. There was reportedly an incident yesterday where Bradley left the clubhouse upset after a meeting with Beane but I'd assume that's when he was told they were going to dump him. I suppose one reason for choosing to DFA Bradley rather than someone else, like Shannon Stewart, is that they should be able to make a deal for him even if it's just for a PTBNL. I'm not completely thrilled with the move as much baggage as he's had, there's been zero problems with him since coming to Oakland on or off the field except for that he can't stay healthy.

This is a week old and no one was probably wondering what Byron Houston has been up to but I can't resist posting a former professional athlete, masturbation story. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/bask...d.ap/index.html I had my picture taken with him at Warriors fan fest event in 1994. Can't wait to tell my grandkids.

I think we've heard that before... Anyways I don't see why he'd want to comeback in the first place. If he does he has to be kept out of the college football threads. Even when he wasn't talking about Oklahoma he'd derail it with other crap.

And the A.L. is pretty much set although Magglio Ordonez is making a late push on Ichiro which one would hope that doesn't happen as a Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero, Ordonez outfield would be mighty ugly defensively.

Link Prince Fielder has passed Albert Pujols in the All-Star vote lead with a small 23,000+ lead. Pretty much every other race is decided in the N.L. as Barry Bonds is now over 100,000 votes behind Alfonso Soriano for the final outfield spot. Nice to see Giants fans didn't get the memo about stuffing the ballot box when your team hosts the All-Star Game.

ESPN & FOX Games to Poison Our Youth MONDAY White Sox (Javier Vazquez) at Phillies (Adam Eaton), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Diamondbacks (Livan Hernandez) at Yankees (Mike Mussina), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY Giants at Red Sox, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Braves at Indians, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Angels at Dodgers, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Mets at Yankees, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

This is a couple of days old and Father's Day is almost over but in honor of this day EDSBS came up with the Top 5 Legends of Football Parenting. #1 should come as no surprise.

After giving up 17 runs to the Royals on Thursday, Cardinals have given up 14 runs to the A's thru seven tonight. Scott Spiezio is now in the game at pitcher. And he pitches a scoreless inning although if he threw a little harder Jack Cust probably would hit one out. He looked better than Kelvin Jimenez.

Seriously all sports leagues need to stop doing these on the court/field trophy presentations when the visiting team wins.

MLB 1. Go back to a balanced schedule. The idea of having teams play more of their division "rivals" is nice in theory but doesn't help establish who are the best teams in each league. And for my own selfish reasons it will eliminate some Yankee/Red Sox games clogging up national television. 2. Eliminate interleague all together or make it a special event that only happens every four years. 3. Don't have the All-Star Game decide the homefield advantage in the World Series. The players still don't care and the ratings aren't going to get any better because of it. Either go back to having the World Series homefield alternate between the leagues or have the team with the better record get homefield. Add to that a Wild Card team should never have homefield in the World Series. Also with the All-Star Game get rid of the archaic one player per team rule. It was created back when there was only eight teams in each league, now all it does is guarentee that undeserving players will get in the game. The only team that should be guarenteed a rep is the one hosting the game. Okay there were multiple things in item 3 but they all sort of related.

Its still 79 days away but here is your almost official opening week t.v. schedule. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30TH Tulsa at Louisana-Monroe, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 Murray State at Louisville, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPNU LSU at Mississippi State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN FRIDAY, AUGUST 31ST Navy at Temple, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPNU Washington at Syracuse, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST East Carolina at Virginia Tech, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN UAB at Michigan State, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN2 Marshall at Miami, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPNU Colorado vs. Colorado State, Noon/9:00 AM, FSN Virginia at Wyoming, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, Versus Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, 3:30/12:30 PM, NBC Nevada at Nebraska, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Wake Forest at Boston College, 3:30/12:30 PM ABC* Washington State at Wisconsin, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Illinois vs. Missouri, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPN2 UCLA at Stanford, 3:30/12:30 PM, FSN Iowa vs. Northern Illinois, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPNU Arizona at BYU, 5:30/2:30 PM, Versus Baylor at TCU, 6:00/3:00 PM, CSTV Oklahoma State at Georgia, 6:45/3:45 PM, ESPN2 North Texas at Okahoma, 7:00/4:00 PM, FSN Purdue at Toledo, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPNU Kansas State at Auburn, 7:45/4:45 PM, ESPN Tennessee at California, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC New Mexico at UTEP, 10:00/7:00 PM, CSTV Idaho at USC, 10:15/7:15 PM, FSN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD Texas Tech at SMU, 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN Florida State at Clemson, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

So I flip by ESPN and Steve Phillips is debating Steve Phillips on Baseball Tonight. Um ya. Going back to this contest or whetever they are doing on SportsCenter it's just a classic example of ESPN simply becoming a network full of starfuckers now. They'll do anything to make sure these athletes keep coming to Bristol to do ESPN commercials. I'll just go waaaaaay out on a limb and say the final four will be Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Derek Jeter, and Tom Brady.

College World Series is set: Friday Rice vs. Louisville North Carolina vs. Mississippi State Saturday Oregon State vs. Cal State Fullerton Arizona State vs. UC Irvine

Just in case you actually needed another reason to never watch SportsCenter again, ESPN is giving you one: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/sport...2mike11.art.htm

It was season 1 and Tony killed one of them so it couldn't have been both of the guys who tried to kill him.

ESPN & FOX Games to Poison Our Youth MONDAY Yankees (Matt DeSalvo) at White Sox (Jon Garland), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Phillies (Adam Eaton) at Mets (Orlando Hernandez), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY Mets at Tigers, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Astros at White Sox, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX A's at Giants, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Cubs at Braves, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

One thing about the last scene, Tony walks into the diner with a jacket on, looks in and sees himself sitting at a table already. I'm going to watch the west coast feed just to see if he's wearing the same shirt at the table that he walked in with. Is it possible that whole scene was a dream? Is it possible Tony really was killed by the guy in the Member's Only jacket? Or is it possible Chris' soul was inside the cat and clawed Tony to death?

Aww they should have done another season to continue to the Paulie vs. Cat feud. As for the ending...I dunno. It seems to me Chase couldn't bring himself to kill off Tony.

Lenny DiNardo has not given up a run in his last two starts, both ending in shutout wins for the A's. This is the same team that has Chad Gaudin pitching like an All-Star at the moment.

Well Jose Reyes will not repeat Albert Pujols' feat last season of leading the race wire to wire, then losing the real MVP, but he's not far from the now much fatter top spot. To no surprise at all J.J Hardy's fast start has come crashing down to earth and he is no where to be seen this time around after competing for the top spot last time. Barry Bonds has also cooled off but his rate stats are still way too good to leave out of the Top 10. Russell Martin might be this year's Joe Mauer and I can only hope all around spaz Eric Byrnes' numbers fall off a cliff like they normally do. Also of note the Marlins lead the way in both leagues with three players in the Top 10 but mediocre pitching from both their rotation and bullpen have done them in so far. 10. Josh Willingham, Marlins .267/.373/.475, 52 RC, 131 OPS+, .305 EQA, 15.6 VORP, 12.2 Win Shares 9. Barry Bonds, Giants .282/.488/.564, 43 RC, 181 OPS+, .365 EQA, 24.5 VORP, 10.3 Win Shares 8. Eric Byrnes, Diamondbacks .313/.375/.512, 40 RC, 129 OPS+, .302 EQA, 21.8 VORP, 12.1 Win Shares 7. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins .321/.391/.496, 45 RC, 141 OPS+, .312 EQA, 27.9. VORP, 10.5 Win Shares 6. Chase Utley, Phillies .302/.383/.551, 41 RC, 144 OPS+, .314 EQA, 25.3 VORP, 11.3 Win Shares 5. Adrian Gonzalez, Padres .296/.358/.514, 51 RC, 138 OPS+, .308 EQA, 17.6 VORP, 12.6 Win Shares 4. Russell Martin, Dodgers .297/.367/.474, 40 RC, 122 OPS+, .299 EQA, 20.6 VORP, 12.9 Win Shares 3. Miguel Cabrera, Marlins .330/.398/.590, 49 RC, 167 OPS+, .329 EQA, 27.6 VORP, 12.0 Win Shares 2. Jose Reyes, Mets .308/.394/.453, 50 RC, 132 OPS+, .304 EQA, 27.1 VORP, 14.0 Win Shares 1. Prince Fielder, Brewers .294/.381/.645, 52 RC, 169 OPS+, .332 EQA, 29.4 VORP, 13.5 Win Shares Magglio Ordonez still holds down the top spot in the A.L. but Vladimir Guerrero is right on his tail and A-Rod isn't too behind as well. There's a big drop off those three with the rest of the pack featuring Ichiro Suzuki making a potential MVP run just in time for free agency. Only thing else of note is that I will have all of Dan Haren's babies if he continues to pitch this way all season. 10. Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox .338/.426/.529, 48 RC, 151 OPS+, .314 EQA, 27.0 VORP, 10.9 Win Shares 9. David Ortiz, Red Sox .330/.444/.599, 50 RC, 173 OPS+, .336 EQA, 34.0 VORP, 11.0 Win Shares 8. Victor Martinez, Indians .322/.382/.551, 48 RC, 148 OPS+. .308 EQA, 24.4 VORP, 13.6 Win Shares 7. Dan Haren, A's 272 ERA+, 3.62 K/BB, 0.86 WHIP, 36.0 VORP, 12.0 Win Shares 6. Orlando Cabrera, Angels .333/.379/.449, 43 RC, 125 OPS+, .286 EQA, 23.0 VORP, 14.6 Win Shares 5. Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners .336/.388/.449, 52 RC, 128 OPS+, .298 EQA, 25.9 VORP, 13.2 Win Shares 4. Grady Sizemore, Indians .283/.400/.485, 52 RC, 138 OPS+, .302 EQA, 25.2 VORP, 13.8 Win Shares 3. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees .300/.400/.648, 58 RC, 179 OPS+, .330 EQA, 35.2 VORP, 13.2 Win Shares 2. Vladimir Guerrero, Angels .341/.444/.589, 57 RC, 178 OPS+, .342 EQA, 37.2 VORP, 16.0 Win Shares 1. Magglio Ordonez, Tigers .367/.439/.668, 61 RC, 191 OPS+, .349 EQA, 41.9 VORP, 14.4 Win Shares

With Baseball-Reference.com now adding an extensive amateur draft database I thought for a quicky entry it might be mildly interesting to take a look back at who were the best picks for each round by the A's since the draft started in 1965. I originally thought of going through every round but settled on the first 20 rounds as you get later into the draft you have some rounds where they have zero players ever making it to the Majors. 1. Reggie Jackson, OF, Arizona State, 1966 Hard to go wrong with Reggie or Mark McGwire (1984). The year before taking Reggie #2 overall they had the #1 pick overall in the first ever draft taking Rick Monday. Other A's first round picks include Chet Lemon (1976), Walt Weiss (1988), Eric Chavez (1996), Mark Mulder (1998), Barry Zito (1999), and Nick Swisher (2002). 2. Jason Giambi, 3B, Long Beach State, 1992 Next best pick was Vida Blue in 1967. After those two you get Kevin Tapani (1986) and then drop to Mark Bellhorn (1995) and Mike Gallego (1981). 3. Mike Davis, OF, Hoover High School, 1979 Almost no success at all in this round for the A's as the only other player with an extended career in the Majors was Floyd Bannister in 1973 but he didn't sign. 4. Rickey Henderson, P, Technical High School, 1976 Yup RICKEY~ was a pitcher but obviously he went on to other things. Curt Young is the next best pick from this round but who cares when you have RICKEY~? 5. Mickey Tettleton, C, Oklahoma State, 1981 Tettleton did nothing for the A's but he's the easy pick here. Only middle reliever Dave Hamilton (1966) really contributed anything of signifcance for the A's form this round. 6. Sal Bando, 3B, Arizona State, 1965 The captain of the 70's championship teams is the pick here. They drafted Jim Sundberg (1969) and Alvin Davis (1981) in the 6th round but neither signed. Tim Hudson also drafted here in 1997. 7. Matt Keough, 3B, Corona del Mar High School, 1973 Slim pickings in the 7th, Keough became a pitcher for the A's with one good year in 1980. Todd Burns and Dan Johnson are the only other players to do anything with the A's. 8. Eric Byrnes, OF, UCLA, 1998 Glenn Abbott (1969) and Craig Paquette (1989) the only other "legit" Major Leaguers. 9. Terry Steinbach, 3B, Minnesota, 1983 A's regular catcher for a decade is an easy choice here. Another long time starter Wayne Gross was picked in 1973. 10. Lance Blankenship, 3B, California, 1986 Nothing of note here so I'll go with the only professional athlete I ever had a brief conversation with. Probably because I was one of about five people on line at a autograph signing appearance at a grocery store in 1990 but as a 12 year old kid it was pretty cool. 11. Greg Caderet, P, Grand Valley State, 1983 They drafted Eric Soderholm, third baseman with some pop who played with the Twins and White Sox, in 1967 but he didn't sign and Caderet is the only player from this round that had more than a cup of coffee in the Majors. 12. Chris Michalak, P, Notre Dame, 1993 Fewer than 200 innings in the Majors, and none with the A's, but there was literally no one better. 13. Rod Beck, P, Grant High School, 1986 A's traded him to the Giants for some nobody in a minor league deal in 1988. 14. Ron Coomer, 3B, Taft Junior College, 1987 Former "All-Star" was released by the A's in 1990. No A's 14th Round pick made it the Majors before him. 15. Jose Canseco, 3B, Carol City High School, 1982 Besides this piece of shit the A's also drafted defensive wizard Dwayne Murphy (1973) and fat power hitter Bob Horner (1975) although he didn't sign. 16. Doug Johns, P, Virginia, 1990 Only three 16th round picks made it the Majors and this is the best. 17. Rich Harden, P, Central Arizona College, 2000 Hall of Fame stuff but looks like the A.L. Mark Prior right about now. David Newhan (1995) the only other the Major Leaguer from this round. 18. Darren Lewis, OF, California, 1988 Just one of two 18th round picks from this franchise to make it the Majors but at least he did have an extended career and was a superb defensive center fielder. 19. Rick Lysander, P, Cal State-Los Angeles, 1974 See why I stopped at 20 rounds? 20. Gene Tenace, SS, Valley High School, 1965 Getting a guy who played 15 years in the Majors with .388 OBP is pretty good value here I'd say. Also picked Scott Brosius in 1987 in the 20th.

A's made an interesting move today as they sold off useless back up catcher Adam Melhuse to the Rangers and called up catcher of the future Kurt Suzuki. Suzuki definately has the defensive chops but I don't think he's ready to hit Major League pitching and since Jason Kendall is the "clubhouse leader" and "backbone of the team" I don't think he'll be playing everyday. They're playing it up as Kendall will be mentoring Suzuki but Kendall is a bit of hard ass so I don't know how much "mentoring" he'll be willing to do before being sent to the glue factory after this season. Also this effectively kills any talk of Mike Piazza catching when he comes off the DL.

I'd say it's not surprising ratings have been down in the ESABCPN era. Their coverage is awful.

In the A's/Giants game right now the Giants have run out of position players and their back up catcher Eliezer Alfonzo has just be forced out of the game with a knee injury after a collision at the plate. Third baseman Pedro Feliz is now in at catcher, Randy Winn is playing 3rd, and pitcher Noah Lowry is going to right field.

Aww on a Saturday no less when ESPN can't pick up the game because of FOX's exclusive rights.