Bored

This is hardly original. Nobodies do this every year as a joke. Back in 1996 while I was a Junior in high school, a guy at our school officially declared for the NBA Draft (filled out all the paper work) as a stunt to get elected as student body president and he wasn't even on the school team. The local NBC affiliate even came out and interviewed him.

A's actually take advantage of a bases loaded situation, Eric Chavez gets three hits, and Octavio Dotel doesn't blow a save (although he tried really hard) against the Red Sox. Truly a night of miracles!

Now that I think of it Garciaparra probably will be voted the starter, because most fans are idiots. In that case Barmes might actually get to start as his replacement but it's still early. Cardinals fans vote in big numbers so don't be surprised if David Eckstein could win it as well. The All-Star Game is in Detroit this year so Tiger fans will vote in big numbers. I see absolutely no way Rodriguez doesn't get voted the starter. Lopez didn't come within a million votes of I-Rod last year. Alfonso Soriano was the leading vote getter for the A.L. despite having an off year last season. He bested the field at second base by 1.5 million votes. Roberts has no shot.

Losing streak now at eight. I have doubts that it will be over by the time interleague play begins with the Red Sox coming in next. I'm going to the game next Saturday in San Francisco, my first A's game ever as a visiting fan, so maybe I'll watch them break the losing streak at 12! What a memorable day that will be! Welcome to the Losingball era.

Okay it's time for my weekly All-Star picks. For the starters these are not who I think should start but who I think will be voted starters and fan voting is pretty easy to predict. The only real tough one was N.L. shortstop so I went with the most recognizable name in Vizquel. Immediately people will laugh when they see Griffey's name but I remind you he was voted a starter last year and the other two top voting N.L. outfielders were Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa. Griffey is a lock to be voted a starter. Also the last two years with the player voting the rosters have been set at 20 position players and 12 pitchers, with at least four of them being relievers so that's how I'm putting them together. These aren't predictions this is just based on how these players have played so far this season. AMERICAN LEAGUE C: IVAN RODRIGUEZ, Detroit; Jason Varitek, Boston; Joe Mauer, Minnesota 1B: TINO MARTINEZ, New York; Mike Sweeney, Kansas City 2B: ALFONSO SORIANO, Texas; Brian Roberts, Baltimore 3B: ALEX RODRIGUEZ, New York; Brandon Inge, Detroit SS: DEREK JETER, New York; Miguel Tejada, Baltimore OF: ICHIRO SUZUKI, Seattle; VLADIMIR GUERRERO, Anaheim; MANNY RAMRIEZ, Boston; Johnny Damon, Boston; Gary Sheffield, New York; Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay DH: DAVID ORTIZ, Boston; Shea Hillenbrand, Toronto; David Dellucci, Texas SP: KENNY ROGERS, Texas; Jon Garland, Chicago; Roy Halladay, Toronto; Johan Santana, Minnesota; Erik Bedard, Baltimore; Jeremy Bonderman, Detroit; Rich Harden, Oakland; Kevin Millwood, Cleveland RP: Dustin Hermanson, Chicago; B.J. Ryan, Baltimore; Francisco Rodriguez, Anaheim; Joe Nathan, Minnesota NATIONAL LEAGUE C: MIKE PIAZZA, New York; Ramon Hernandez, San Diego 1B: ALBERT PUJOLS, St. Louis; Derrek Lee, Chicago; Lyle Overbay, Milwaukee; Todd Helton, Colorado 2B: JEFF KENT, Los Angeles; Craig Biggio, Houston 3B: SCOTT ROLEN, St. Louis; Chipper Jones, Atlanta; Troy Glaus, Arizona SS: OMAR VIZQUEL, San Francisco; Clint Barmes, Colorado OF: KEN GRIFFEY JR, Cincinnati; JIM EDMONDS, St. Louis; CARLOS BELTRAN, New York; Bobby Abreu, Philadelphia; Adam Dunn, Cincinnati; Miguel Cabrera, Florida; Milton Bradley, Los Angeles SP: ROGER CLEMENS, Houston; Dontrelle Willis, Florida; Brett Myers, Philadelphia; Mike Hampton, Atlanta; Mark Redman, Pittsburgh; Jake Peavy, San Diego; A.J. Burnett, Florida; Josh Beckett, Florida RP: Billy Wagner, Philadelphia; Chad Cordero, Washington; Yhency Brazoban, Los Angeles; Brandon Lyon, Arizona

Rich Harden is officially placed on the DL, Seth Etherton called up. Eric Chavez has been benched for today's game. Good god Bobby Kielty might be the A's All-Star rep this year. They really need to eliminate the one player per team rule.

Speaking of losing faith, A's down 9-1 in the 3rd inning. This looks like a 100 loss team right now and it's time to start blowing it up, which I suppose they started this past offseason. Scott Hatteberg for one needs to be dumped when they have a better option in Dan Johnson at Triple A right now.

Giambi gets a hit for a second straight night. The A's are the official slump busters for the Yankees. Already down 4-0. God this team fucking sucks. Edit: From what I've heard the Yankee announcers said Rich Harden was placed on the DL but that isn't true. Harden will miss his next start but that might be it.

Very rarely does a team reach a worst case scenerio in terms of expectations. Unfortunently the A's are rapidly heading towards that. Rich Harden gets hammered tonight and leaves with an injury. This is a nightmare.

In Oakland they charge $14 for parking. That's more than what upper deck and bleacher seats cost.

A's are DONE. Dotel gives up another walk off today. 90+ loss season is on it's way.

As long as we're pulling up old boxscores here's a good one http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B07010CHA1990.htm Andy Hawkins throws a no-hitter for the Yankees, loses 4-0. White Sox score four in the 8th on two walks and three errors.

And the A's season continues to spiral out of control. Dotel blows it on a homerun to Kevin Millar. 14-19 now. The Beane bashers are loving it. It could be much, much worse as they've won about five games this year on late inning defensive blunders by the opposition. I doubt they'll be with in single digits of .500 by the end of the month.

Podsednik is on pace for 80-85 steals so he's no where close. He'll never get on base enough to make a serious run. That's a big reason why Rickey was able to steal so many because he was on base so much. Vince Coleman conceivably could have stole more than 130 in a season but the guy just wasn't a good hitter so he just didn't have nearly as many opportunities.

Jerry Rice's 22 touchdown receptions in 12 games in 1987. No receiver in history has had more than 18 in a 16 game season and Rice did it in only 12 games due to the scab games of '87.

The A's are three innings from me about to throw in the towel on the season. If you get shutout by the current incarnations of Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown, you have no hope. This offense could end up being historically bad in the current slugger's era.

They're an embarassment. If Beane doesn't make a move soon to improve this offense they are officially punting the season.

Click the link for local news recreation of his accident! http://www.newsnet5.com/sports/4460612/detail.html

The A's were shutout three times all of last season. They've now been shutout five times in 30 games to start this year. Pathetic.

Pffft, The Jeter likes to show he's occasionally mortal to appeal to the common man. I'm happy the A's are winning (and I hope hold on) but god damn this has been an ugly last couple of innings of baseball. It's really painful to watch these two once great teams play so ugly.

Awww tonight could have been so much fun with Barry Zito vs. Carl Pavano in the battle of the Alyssa Milano's current boyfriend vs. the ex but apparantly Zito and Milano broke up. I wonder what starting pitcher she'll be banging next?

Link

Just move them to the N.L. West and make it a six team division and move the Pirates to the East where they should already be.

A's down 5-0 in the 6th, a completely insurmountable lead for this offense. They are just getting worse and worse.

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.