Marty- It is time to draw some conclusions with respect to the Giants performance this season. This is a team which has gone wire to wire. Only good teams do that.

How good are the Giants, let Ed explain. [Read more →]

As one goes through the baseball season at times one forgets the most important rule when analyzing the current game.

Starting pitchers go seven innings at best, relievers decide the games.

The strength of a pitching staff is judged from the back end forward.

The A’s bullpen gets batters out with amazing regularity. The Red Sox bullpen is an adventure every night.

The Red Sox hit the ball with much more authority than the A’s, no doubt about it.

The A’s hit the ball when the game is on the line. The A’s work the pitchers the entire game. When Terrence Long is 1-5 which is often these days, that one hit may decide the game.

The Red Sox are a gritty bunch, my standard for postseason play, but that bullpen is going to be tough to overcome as they chase the Yankees this month.

Scott Williamson when with the Reds was a power closer. Today, as a Red Sock, he is 86-87 MPH and leaves the ball up.

If Scott Sauerbeck is only effective when tired, I suggest the Boston staff use him every day because what he is throwing out there now won’t make it. He blew the game against Oakland last week, walking two batters in a crucial situation and did the same gasoline on the fire job last night against the Blue Jays, who will hand you the game if you let them.

Today the A’s see Pat Hentgen who would welcome a trade to Oakland. The Red Sox see Roy Halladay who is vying for the Cy Young with Esteban Loiaza, Andy Pettitte, and Tim Hudson. The Mariners face a rookie with Tampa Bay.

Click below for more baseball! [Read more →]

My good friend Leonard Koppett, late Hall of Fame sports writer, always told me that as the teams head into September, no matter what has transpired before, whoever plays the best during the last thirty games, wins the race.

He was right as usual, as most of this year’s races will be determined over the last thirty games.

The A’s, Boston, and Seattle are all tied with 31 games to go at 76-55. I said in June when there were 100 games to go, that 96 wins would be the magic number to ensure a playoff spot. I’ll stick with it, these teams are all capable of running off 20-11 marks from today until the end of the season.

Seattle, not only has stopped hitting (Edgar Martinez and John Olerud are slowing from the physical strain of the summer too), but Joel Pineiro, Ryan Franklin, and Gil Meche have been getting blasted during their starts, fueling the Mariners slide more than anything.

The A’s are one gritty bunch down the stretch for the fourth consecutive season, mirroring the “give it your all, accept nothing less” attitude of GM Billy Beane, who keeps the team on edge, never taking a loss lightly or philosophically. I think his attitude is very helpful during the stretch run because these players refuse to lose.

However, they do need another starter.

Click below and I’ll tell you who it should be. [Read more →]

The Seattle Mariners and the
San Francisco Giants are two
of the oldest teams (player ages) in the Major
Leagues. For that matter
Felipe Alou of the Giants and
Jack McKeon of the Marlins
are the two oldest managers
in baseball and both have their
teams in great shape.
What does that says for the
gang over 40 ?
Good news !

By Amaury Pi-González
Seattle [Read more →]

It’s starting to look like 2002 for the Seattle Mariners. Last year the Mariners simply ran out of fuel during the dog days of August and faded behind the A’s and the Angels.

As I said three months ago, Seattle is a catchable team. They play great defense, have decent starting pitching, and a fairly nice bullpen.

So what’s wrong?

The core of the team is made up of aging players and that isn’t a good formula for summer success.

Ken Macha told me last year on August first that the A’s, Red Sox, and the Mariners would battle it out for the playoffs, and it was time to see if the youth of the A’s would carry them past the other two teams during the summer push.

It did and the Mariners and the Sox were left at home last fall watching the playoffs on television.

Deja vu all over again in 2003, except the Red Sox made significant improvements to their team which should carry them past the Mariners and into the playoffs.

Bret Boone, Edgar Martinez, and John Olerud are the 3-4-5 hitters for Seattle. Ichiro hits .333 with a high on base percentage. The big hitters are wearing down and there is no one there to pick up the slack.

Dan Wilson, Randy Winn, and Mike Cameron are complimentary players, but if the big guns can’t carry you, there is trouble in River City.

With 32 games to go, Seattle will have to pick up the slack immeasurably to beat Oakland and Boston.

Today, Pedro, coming back from his sore throat and fever, tries to complete the sweep against Seattle and keep the Sox hot at home.

Gil Meche, another good/bad pitcher tries to figure out where he stands today, but without more offense the Mariners are hurting right now.

Click below for more!

[Read more →]

The Angels have the rally monkey, now the Red Sox are inspiring the fans with a video from Kevin Millar’s high school days showing the first baseman “trying to dance” to a Bruce Springsteen song.

Another day at the park.

Jose Contreras comes off the DL for the Yankees today and will start against Eric Dubose and the Orioles.

The Yankees still hold out hope that Contreras will be their eighth inning righty in this years postseason. I think he is versatile enough to to do the job.

With two more homers (34 on the year) yesterday, Frank Thomas now is squarely in the MVP race if the White Sox win the Central.

And that’s the way it should be because it is crunch time and the big players stand up.

Scott Sullivan is a great bull pen pick up for the White Sox. He already threw two scoreless innings picking up lefty Neal Cotts, who has kept the Sox in his last two starts.

The A’s need to take some heat off the bullpen and could use another big league starter.

Click below and I’ll tell you my choice. [Read more →]

The baseball season is a marathon race with many twists and turns before reaching the finishing line in late September.

The A’s will run the last 34 games of the race without arguably their best pitcher.

Is the season over?

Not by a long shot.

Click below and I’ll tell you why not.

[Read more →]

Marty- After that road trip from hell, the Giants come back and sweep Atlanta. It says something about the character of the team. The heart of this club is Barry, a very strong bullpen, despite Worrell’s recent struggles, and two starters, Schmidt and Ponson, who are better than any other duo in the league. They remain ten losing games in front of the opposition with the season rapidly coming to a close. The team has problems, as do most teams at this stage of the season. Their injury list doesn’t seem to be diminishing.

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

Not since May 2002 have the A’s faced such uncertainty with their pitching staff. With Mark Mulder shut down for at least two weeks on the DL and Rich Harden showing growing pains, all of a sudden what looked like a big four starting pitching rotation has been reduced to Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and hope for the best.

The A’s do have the benefit of the schedule in their favor over the next two and one half weeks since they face Toronto this weekend (won’t be a cakewalk by any means), then come home for Baltimore and Tampa Bay before duplicating those two series right away on the East Coast the next week.

The offense will need to pick up the slack. The bullpen will have to be managed very carefully. The season has many twists and turns, no one can predict injuries, the A’s just got hit hard where they can least afford it.

Rich Harden presents another dilemma. What to do? As good as he looked earlier, that is how bad he looks now. He threw over two hundred pitches in his last nine innings coming into last night’s start, Thursday night he threw 78 more in 2 2/3 innings. He probably would benefit from bullpen work until he finds his mechanical groove once again.

The A’s probably will give him one more start against Baltimore next week, a low rent outfit, to see if he can dominate the Orioles. If he doesn’t do well in that start, it’s anyones guess what the next step will be.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

As the season turns into the home stretch the good teams are putting their best players on the field and they are responding.

The A’s bullpen, a hearty three man bunch all season has come alive in Boston as all the relievers, save Jim Mecir, have gotten into the act.

You just can’t say enough about quality pitches in crucial situations. Chad Bradford, now Ricardo Rincon, and as always Keith Foulke, teeter on the brink of disaster almost every time on the hill. Yet when the chips are on the line, they throw pitches which turn into routine outs, ending rallies.

How much longer they can do this without being effected from daily use is anyone’s guess. If Chad Harville and Michael Neu come through more often, then the big three can continue to get the big outs.

The A’s rallied last night with only one walk in the entire game. A good sign for the hitters. When Byung Hyun Kim needed to make big pitches he didn’t, grooving an 0-2 pitch to Scott Hatteberg who hit a laser to right putting the A’s in front to stay.

Previous night, Scott Sauerbeck needed to throw strikes to Erubiel Durazo and Eric Chavez and couldn’t, two walks resulted, then Scott Williamson grooved an 0-2 pitch to Ramon Hernandez, three run homer, end of game.

When the Sox needed big hits, they weren’t there. The A’s pitchers consistently made quality, in your face type of pitches which ended the scoring chances.

That my friends is the difference in this series. The A’s get the job done with a minimum of flair. The Sox look good on paper, but when the game is on the line, they don’t produce.

Baseball has turned into a game of bullpens because starters rarely go more than seven innings, the A’s bull pen is clutch right now, Boston’s isn’t and that is the way the ball is bouncing with 34 games to go.

Click below for more! [Read more →]