So much will be decided over the next two weeks of the season.

Post season awards. Playoff teams.

The most significant of all the postseason awards is Most Valuable Player.

Why is the MVP more important than the outstanding pitching award?

A position player contributes to his team’s success on a daily basis. A starting pitcher works every five days, a reliever every two to three days at best over the course of the 162 game season.

The MVP is the player who if removed from the team changes the squad from a championship team to an also ran.

My MVP must be a carrier, a difference maker, not just a contributor to the cause.

In the American League certain players stand out. Here are the contenders:

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Forget the A’S or the Twins,
the Marlins are the ultimate low budget
kings of baseball.
With a total payroll of $15 million they
might even make it to the Postseason.
If you like to get the most bang for your buck,
like tax cuts, like management that can
get the most for the least, do not believe
throwing money at things to make them better is the correct philosophy, or you don’t think minimun wage should be raised, then you have to
like the 2006 Florida Marlins.
Under the circumstances nobody does it better.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez [Read more →]

Rick Kaplan

OAKLAND (September 12) – Anonymity and unpredictability often trump celebrity and previous success in the post-season. That’s what makes fall baseball so hard to handicap (predict).

The outcome is a roll of the dice as often as not.

You don’t think so? You said MVP Pat Borders would carry the Blue Jays to victory in the 1992 World Series? And that a virtually unknown Marlin hurler, Josh Beckett, would totally dominate the Yankees in 2003 and win the award for Most Valuable Player?

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Notice of Event at the Coliseum!

Invite you, your kids, and your friends to the “Keep the A’s in Oakland” Tailgate Party #3,FRIDAY September 15 from 5pm to 7pm at the ‘B’ parking lot tailgate area on the Hegenberger side of the Coliseum. This is the final tailgate of the season, your last chance to step for the A’s this season.

We will have free food and beer (for the first 200), bands, djs, CITY LEADERS will speak, very kid friendly environment, and it is part of a community activation project to show our city’s fathers (and mothers) that the community CHOOSES to keep the A’s in Oakland and we want some creative and courageous action to begin to build a new ballpark/development NOW.

Do you want the A’s to stay in Oakland? Then express yourself, take a stand, and voice your opinion that you want the A’s to stay in Oakland.
We hope to see you there! [Read more →]

The 2006 playoffs will be here shortly.

Usually this time of year playoff teams are lining up their 20 game winners and other top starting pitchers as they set their rotations for the upcoming games.

Not so in ’06.

Minnesota’s Johan Santana is the only starting pitcher in the AL who strikes fear into the heart of the opposition. Guess what? His team might not get into the playoffs.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Inside Baseball with Marty Lurie, Bruce Magowan & Shooty Babitt – Huston Street is back: Everybody’s hurting this time of the year, A’s Pitching has to step up, Best hitting team since the break: LA Angels? Detriot Tigers: Is the ship sinking?

Segment one : Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Mario Impemba.
Segment two : Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Tyler Bleszinski.
Segment three: Marty, Shooty, Bruce, & Tyler.
Segment four : Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Mark Saxon. [Read more →]

Inside Baseball with Marty Lurie, Bruce Magowan & Shooty Babitt – Better Centerfielder: Payton or Bradley?, Possible Post-season match up: A’s vs. Tigers, Comeback player of the Year: Thomas or Thome?

Segment one : Marty, Shooty & Bruce.
Segment two : Marty, Shooty, Bruce & Robert Buan.
Segment three: Marty, Shooty, Bruce, Robert Buan & Lavell Neal.
Segment four : Marty, Shooty & Bruce. [Read more →]

Weekend Schedule for Right Off The Bat and Inside Baseball Saturday Night is coming together.

Friday at 2:30 PM I’ll be broadcasting from Crogan’s Montclair.

Saturday, big day! Inside Baseball and Right Off The Bat will air from the Warehouse at 4th and Webster in Oakland.

Show will begin at 1:30 PM and run until 3:40 PM.

Marlene Vogelsang and Margie Kahn, both active participants in Athleticsnation.com, are promoting this weeks show on that site. I expect Tyler Blezinski, founder of the site, will join us either in person or by phone.

Shooty Babitt and Bruce Magowan will join me at The Warehouse.

Sunday morning I’ll be at Crogans for a morning show at 8:30 AM.

Monday it’s over to Fenton’s for the A’s and Minnesota beginning at 3:30 PM.

Tuesday I’m broadcasting from Raley Field in Sacramento at 3:30 PM.

Remember it is wise to bring a transistor radio to all the venues if you want to hear the show in its complete form.

Thanks,
Marty [Read more →]

Rick Kaplan

OAKLAND (Sept. 5) – I’m not a baseball insider.

I don’t have access to the locker room or the up-to-the-minute injury reports. All I know is what I see on the TV or, occasionally, from the stands.

So, when the KICU speed gun tops out at 85 yesterday against Texas, that’s as much as I know about how hard Barry Zito is throwing. Especially since the Coliseum gun was mysteriously “broken” last Wednesday when I watched Barry coast against a very hittable Curt Schilling, as the A’s raked the Bosox, 7-2.

As a matter of fact, even 85 MPH was rare yesterday. It was usually more like 82 or 83 in fastball counts.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

The jobs of General Manager Bill Bavasi, field manager Mike Hardgrove and most of his coaches
could be in serious jeopardy as the Seattle Mariners a franchise who only five years ago won 116 games and a Western Divison title is on the way to a last place finish for the third year in a row.
The month of September could decide the fate of some people in decision making positions.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Underachieving is the key word again in Seattle
this season. A team with a player payroll almost twice of the first place Oakland Athletics has no
chance in this Division. We can see it again. It is not how much you spend, but how you spend it and what kind of talent evaluation you get from your top people on how your organization performs.
If it was left to the total amount you spend, then the
Yankees should have won the World Series every year since George Steinbrenner bought the team.

The 2006 Mariners season can be summarized in
one sentence: “They (Mariners)beat everybody, including the National League but nobody in their own division”.

Click below for more of Amaury’s analysis. [Read more →]