If you saw Ted Lilly pitch last night you saw a very inconsistent young major league pitcher.

Keep in mind that Ted Lilly’s delivery had been reworked by A’s pitching coach Rick Peterson, just this past winter and spring.

At times, Lilly has the correct release point which propels his pitches to the exact point of the strike zone intended. At other times, Lilly can’t find his release point causing his breaking stuff to hang directly over the hitting zone (5 homers versus Atlanta).

Lilly has been tagged for many critical homers, then he turns around and strikes out five in a row. A frustrating pattern for all involved.

What to do?

The first option is that Lilly should work out of the bullpen until he can throw with the consistency necessary to be a major factor on this pitching staff. It is no disgrace to work out of the pen when one is struggling.

The second option, the A’s send Lilly to AAA to give him a chance to really learn his new delivery without the pressure of a pennant chase.

Rick Peterson is a very technical pitching coach, insisting on sessions in the videoroom, countless discussions about pitching, and studying computer enhanced images of ones delivery. Perhaps Lilly isn’t suited for Peterson’s methods. A trade in his future?

In any case when Lilly gets in trouble his mechanics are out of whack because he isn’t comfortable with his new delivery, baseball is muscle memory, acts repeated countless times, Lilly’s muscle memory only goes back to March, not a very long time in baseball.

He needs to work it out somewhere before his confidence is completely shot.

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The White Sox believe. They believe they can catch the Twins and the Royals and have put their money where their mouth is to bring back an old expression.

With the acquisitions of Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett, the Sox now have two things. One, some speed on the bases and two, lefthanded hitting to go with those big slow righthanded batters, Frank Thomas, Magglio Ordonez, and Carlos Lee.

More importantly they didn’t give up anything from their major league roster and now can chase the division leaders with Bartolo Colon, Esteban Loaiza, Mark Buehrle, Dan Wright, and Jon Garland.

If you follow the Daily Dish, I’ve opined that Chicago has had great potential in this race because of its starting rotation. Now, let’s see if they can get it done with Sox catcher Sandy Alomar’s little brother, Robby and Carl Everett, a handful to deal with, but a very talented player.

I like the moves.

Terrence Long adds to the A’s bench. Funny but one scribe called the following move Ken Macha’s finest of the season, the A’s manager called upon Terrence Long to pinch hit for Adam Piatt when Jeff Nelson came into the game in the eleventh inning. It was a basic move that every manager in the game makes, lifting a platoon right handed hitter for a platoon lefthanded hitter to face a tough righty pitcher. Long came through and tied the score with his single. This is the way the game is played and Long is an excellent player off the bench. Key word is bench.

More on the game below.

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Marty: You mention Yankees bench. They picked up Sierra and have him hitting cleanup with his .300 average and big hits. Wouldn’t the Giants like to have him, even with his personality problems? The word is that he is much better these days in that department. As you point out, tonight is a tough one for the Giants, with Brower going. The bullpen is rested and they will undoubtedly need all of them. The Moss fallout! I am looking forward to the next few starts by Williams. Is it possible that this kid is the Giants pitching saviour? They sure need someone to go along with Schmidt. The present rotation inspires small confidence. Other than Schmidt, and, it is to be hoped, Williams, there is no one on the team who can be counted on to give them six good innings. Where is Ortiz, now that we need him? Did someone say Atlanta? I read this morning that Aurilia is getting healthy and due back in the lineup, possibly tonight. I don’t know if that is good news. I like the looks of the Giants, with Perez playing shortstop and hitting second. far more than any lineup with Aurilia. Ed

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It came as no surprise when Jason Schmidt knocked off the Cardinals Monday night 5-1 with another complete game victory. The guy is good, great right now. I had him as a guest on Right Off The Bat last Friday night and he couldn’t have been more gracious.

Tonight things get dicier for the Giants as Jim Brower, a seldom used reliever gets the start with his predecessor in the rotation Damian Moss slated for long relief.

St. Louis counters with Woody Williams one of the better seven inning pitchers in the league. What this means of course is the game will be in the hands of Felix Rodriguez, Jeff Fassero, Cal Eldred, Tim Worrell, and Jason Isringhausen when Albert Pujols or Barry Bonds decide things late in the game.

Arizona keeps plugging along. Luis Gonzalez is quietly putting together another fabulous season. He too is one of the most generous players with the media, what is this good guy week in baseball?

The scary thing for the Giants and the punchless Dodgers is Curt and Randy aren’t around, but they will be back shortly.

Seattle beat the A’s 3-1 and the game had many subplots which I will touch on below. [Read more →]

Attention A’s fans.

If the A’s comeback in the

second part of the season

and win the West by 2

games over the Mariners

please invite the Padres

to your party.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

With interleague play finally out of the way, the Mariners show up to play the A’s in Oakland while the Giants send Jason Schmidt, the National league’s best pitcher against the Cardinals.

The A’s are 28-11 at home and the Mariners are 28-11 on the road. Seattle is 5-5 in its last ten games. The key is six of those ten games were against the Padres and Seattle lost four of them, two on ninth inning meltdowns by their Sasaki-less bullpen.

Seattle is due for a slide. Gil Meche hasn’t pitched more than 65 innings in his last two seasons. I thought he was very hittable in his last start against the Angels Thursday, his pitches didn’t have the snap like they did earlier in the year. Meche has already thrown over 96 innings. How do you think he will feel in September, or in July for that matter?

Eric Chavez will find a way to take Jamie Moyer deep tonight, count on it.

Aaron Harang most likely will be gone by the end of the sixth inning, that is the bad news for the A’s. Moyer will also not finish this game and that may be the good news for the A’s. In fact, with Seattle’s bullpen overworked the key to this series may be how the A’s deal with Arthur Rhodes, Jeff Nelson, and Shigetoshi Hasegawa. Normally, this crowd gives the A’s fits, if they are not in top form due to overwork, the A’s have a distinct advantage.

Bob Melvin didn’t bring Nelson into the game to face Rondell White in the ninth inning Sunday with the bases loaded and let Rhodes face the righty instead. Not only was Nelson upset that he didn’t get the call, but lost his composure when he was brought into the game because White hit a grand slam off Rhodes to tie up the Mariners 6-6. Nelson then blew the game and the stunned Mariners lost 8-6.

I sense a little trouble in Mariner paradise.

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Marty: Out of state this past week and therefore no opportunity to see any of the interesting games. Pieced together what happened by reading the box scores. It is now 80 games into the season and time to take a close look at beginning of the season thoughts respecting Giants’ prospects and how they have panned out. [Read more →]

Don’t be fooled by the recent struggles of Chad Bradford and Ricardo Rincon into thinking the A’s primary need is bullpen help. They could use another arm to replace Mike Neu (who can’t really be effective until he adds a pitch to go with his awesome changeup), but otherwise their pitching is fine. Bradford had a bad run of games against Texas, but look at his numbers. He’s been steady for three seasons now. He’ll be fine. Mecir is also doing fine — as long as he can stay healthy.

What the A’s really need is a right-handed bat who can play outfield or second base. I think Rondell White would be a good addition with a salary that’s not too out of hand. Plus, the A’s might be able to get the Padres to pay his salary if they throw in a good prospect (like Justin Duchscherer).

Don’t count the A’s out of the Carlos Beltran Chase either. The Royals need a second baseman who can play in the big leagues now, and Esteban German might be the guy.

As for bullpen help, the A’s ought to give Jeremy Fikac another shot. He’s had great numbers at AAA since they sent him down. [Read more →]

Why is baseball such a great unpredictable game?

Barry Zito has a 6-0 lead in the fourth and the A’s lose the game 8-7 in ten scintillating innings.

The Red Sox score 25 runs Friday night, have a 9-2 lead in the eighth inning against the same Marlins the next day, then proceed to lose 10-9 in regulation.

The Yankees have the Mets down 9-0 in the sixth inning of game two (they already won game one 7-1 behind The Rocket) and barely hang on winning 9-8 with Mariano Rivera closing the game.

The Phillies who are charging in the East play 17 innings Friday finally winning 4-2 with three runs in the 17th, then get out to a 7-0 lead after four on Saturday, and barely hang on winning 8-5 over the Orioles.

The White Sox (yes, I told you to watch them) are down 6-4 to the Cubs in the eighth and rally to win 7-6.

The Diamondbacks, given up for dead in May, are within 2 games of LA for the Wild card in the NL.

The Padres (27-55), behind Tim Hudson clone Jake Peavy, knock off the Mariners (52-27) for the third time in four interleague games.

You never know what to expect and think about it, it’s just June 29th, we still have over half the season to play.

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The Giants beat the A’s 6-0 and when you see the score you will probably think the Giants had the game all the way.

Ted Lilly did just enough to lose the game, but he had his moments, let me explain.

Lilly is still a very young starting pitcher in terms of his major league experience. His plan Friday night was to go away from the big hitters, trying to keep them in the park.

Jose Cruz, Jr. homered for the Giants first run on a pitch low and on the outside of the plate. Chalk one up for Cruz.

Then the fun started for the A’s lefty. With a runner on first, the first base umpire called a delayed balk on Lilly for not stopping long enough (he should have counted one Mississippi) in his delivery on a pitch that Barry Bonds lifted harmlessly to centerfield.

Bonds returned to the plate, where Lilly who seemed unnerved by the call, walked Bonds. Next Santiago flied to medium deep center field. Both Grissom and Bonds tagged, Byrnes without much of a chance threw to third to try to cut Grissom down. Too late, Grissom slid around Chavez and Bonds took second on the throw.

Now, here’s where Lilly learned a valuable lesson which may help him later on this season. After working very hard and staying with breaking stuff, Lilly struck out Andres Galarraga. Now, with Pedro Feliz at the plate, a batter who is notorious for chasing pitches out of the strike zone, Lilly threw a weak breaking ball over the plate on the first pitch, boom! single two runs scored and the Giants were on their way home with a 3-0 lead.

Why Lilly didn’t bounce one to Feliz only he can answer, but his mistake effectively ended his night on the mound.

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