Marty Lurie announces that he and former Oakland Athletic second baseman and current Arizona Diamondbacks major league scout Shooty Babitt will cohost a new one hour unique baseball show each Saturday night on KFRC 610 AM Radio immediately follwing the conclusion of the Oakland Athletics Extra Innings call in show.

The show will premiere on July 19th, 2003 originating each week from Crogan’s Montclair, popular sports restaurant/bar located in the Montclair section of Oakland. [Read more →]

Dontrelle Willis faces fellow youngster Brett Myers tonight in Miami as the Marlins seek to close the five game gap between themselves and the wild card leading Phillies.

This is the biggest start of Willises career, the first game of any series sets the tone and he gets the ball.

The Phillies hit the ball in Wrigley against Kerry Wood and a host of inadequate relievers. Interesting with all the runs the Phils scored yesterday, Pat Burrell their 50 million dollar player wasn’t in the lineup.

Arizona limps into LA behind Randy Johnson, four games behind the Phils. Barry Bonds made the throw he should have made in 1991 when Sid Bream scored from second on Francisco Cabrera’s single putting the Braves into the World Series, yesterday’s throw was from almost the identical spot on the field, but this time Bonds threw Craig Counsell out at the plate with a laser from left field cutting down the potential lead run in the ninth.

Click below for more on the A’s and the AL! [Read more →]

Marty; Before the series with Arizona started this week the thought was that one should await the outcome of the four games before drawing any conclusions respecting their significance. However, after watching the first three games, one doesn’t feel the need to await today’s result ( just FYI, the Giants swept Arizona behind an amazing day by Barry Bonds) to draw conclusions. From the beginning of the year the question was asked, why does this Giant ballclub keep on winning, why are they ten games in front of Arizona and eleven and a half ahead of LA with sixty games left to play? We received an answer, finally, this week, from an authoritative source, Curt Schilling.

Click Below for the Answer, story by Ed Stern. [Read more →]

The Houston Astro bull pen continues to amaze me as they get the ball virtually every night as manager Jimy Williams tries to nail down a victory.

Williams burnt out the Red Sox bull pen numerous times during his stay in Boston. He can’t seem to wear these guys in Houston down.

Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel, and Billy Wagner rarely fail to hold the lead, thus bringing home the win.

In contrast, the Cardinals have trouble getting the ball to their closer and the Cubs disappeared as serious contenders when its bull pen went south in June.

The Giants continue to use all the pitchers on their staff effectively, similar to what Houston does and what St. Louis tries to do.

In today’s game the bull pen is critical to a teams success, but what I am realizing now is it is just not the three relievers who are used to nail the win down from the eighth inning on, but the good teams use the entire pen to hold a game in check from the sixth inning forward.

Check how many times Ken Macha uses Chad Bradford in the sixth inning, if he feels the game will turn in that inning. The problem for the A’s pen is other than Bradford and Keith Foulke you can’t rely on anyone else in the pen if a critical moment should arise. I mean RELY not just hope they have it that night.

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Baseball is heating up all over the US and in Canada today.

First of all, the A’s are expected to pick up Kelvim Escobar from their favorite trading partner, the Blue Jays for Ted Lilly. If that deal goes through, Billy Beane will have the one missing piece of his bull pen that he has sought for two years. Escobar throws in the mid nineties and will be the eighth inning man unless the A’s get nervous about Rich Harden and want Escobar to be their fourth starter. To me, he would be more valuable in the pen.

Once Peter Gammons reports something about the A’s it happens because it is well known that Beane uses Gammons as his own personal pipeline for information and must give Gammons the inside scoop about the A’s when it is available.

Gammons claims the deal is on.

So, stay tuned something is sure to happen shortly.

The Mariners throw Ryan Franklin to open the series. The righty has given up too many home runs to please his manager this year. Many scouts say Franklin is the most consistent pitcher the M’s have right now, and that is a scary thought for Seattle.

More importantly Arthur Rhodes and Jeff Nelson have been getting tagged lately and these two are usually very tough on the A’s. As usual the Mariners bull pen will have an impact on this two game series.

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You can say good bye to Aaron Harang, Eric Hiljus, Justin Duchsherer, and probably Ted Lilly. Rich Harden is here to stay and will get every shot to be the A’s fourth starter.

Like Dontrelle Willis, Claudio Vargas, Jeriome Roberstson, Jerome Williams, and Jesse Foppert, Harden looks like a young pitcher who can win right away in the big leagues.

The A’s took their patient approach with them in the ninth inning, walking four times in a row to completely unnerve the KC team, giving the A’s another ninth inning win against the Royals.

No Jose Lima today for KC as the righty will miss today’s game with a sore groin.

The Diamondbacks can keep positive because they only trail the Phillies by two in the wild card. The Giants won a key game last night with some little ball, clutch pitching, and some nice big time pitching from the rookie Williams who worked out of some major jams.

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Marty; You mentioned today that good pitching requires the throwing of strikes. In that respect, I call your attention to the recent publication of Roger Angell’s collection of articles from the New Yorker, going back twenty five or more years. The most perceptive writing about the great game that I have read.

Fans Click Below for Another Excellent Analysis By Ed Stern

Thanks Ed! [Read more →]

With 65 games to go in the 2003 season the Mariners lead the A’s by 5 and the Angels by 9 and 1/2.

So, big deal. There is so much baseball left to play that it is ridiculous for anyone to feel like their pennant hopes are fading away after a bad weekend in the East or Midwest.

The Mariners have a tight defense, good pitching and a solid bull pen. The A’s have the best three starters in baseball and perhaps one of the top three closers as well. The Angels have true grit and will not go away easily.

It is only July the 21st. So much can happen over the next ten weeks, that you will think you are trapped inside a grade B Hollywood movie.

One solid week of baseball brings anyone over .500 into the chase. You just need a little cooperation from the teams ahead of you in the standings.

And every year it happens somewhere along the way.

Now, the A’s and the Mariners should stop pining for reinforcements. If Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada, and Erubiel Durazo do what they should be doing everything will be fine. If Bret Boone, Freddy Garcia, Mike Cameron and John Olerud do what they are capable of doing, Seattle will be OK.

To put all your hopes on some mystical trade that a GM may or may not make is erroneous reasoning. No matter who Billy Beane brings in, the big three hitters in the lineup better do their job. Now, a new hitter may give them confidence to play better and if that is what they need to excel, then they have big problems as championship ballplayers anyway.

Ken Macha finally said the right words yesterday. These guys better dig down deep and play baseball and not look to the GM to save their season.

It is time for somebody on the A’s to get dirty, break up a double play, hit a three run homer, lay down a surprise bunt, get a clutch hit, and play some interesting baseball.

The whole team has the look of a deer in headlights.

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Dontrelle Willis pitches today for the Marlins against Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs. The way the Cubs hit Willis should be overpowering when facing this listless lineup.

I would expect close to 35,000 for this game. The Marlins are 5 games behind the Phillies in the wild card chase and are playing nice and loose right now.

The Cubs ought to go out and pull the trigger on a trade with Pittsburgh and grab Kenny Lofton for the rest of the season.

John Olerud is hitting around .130 in July and making Seattle very nervous at first base.

Kaz Sasaki threw without pain yesterday and gave Bob Melvin some reason to hope that he will be back sometime before Melvin retires.

Seattle is faltering, but you knew that already. Trouble is the A’s and the Angels are not showing any signs of consistent play and Seattle’s losing won’t go on forever.

The Angles starting rotation is not doing the job, but their bull pen is fantastic. Until the starters pick up the slack the Seraphs will win three, lose two, win two, lose two, and end up playing .550 ball which won’t be enough to get into the playoffs.

Now if Troy Glaus ever got out of his funk and the Angels offense reappeared, then they might have something to build on.

The A’s can bury the Angels next weekend when they meet Anaheim for four games in Disneyland.

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Anyone who thinks the Arizona Diamondbacks are being carried by rookies and only youngsters better take a look at last night’s Arizona box score.

Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, and Shea Hillenbrand hitting in the middle of the order, went 7-12, with 6 runs scored, and 4 rbi’s in the win over San Diego. All experienced players.

Couple that hitting with Miguel Batista’s dominating pitching, and you can see why the NL West will be a terrific baseball race to watch for the rest of the season.

Randy Johnson comes back tomorrow from a serious knee injury. He loves to pitch in San Diego and that is why the Arizonans don’t want his debut to be in Pac Bell Monday night. Today is the anniversary of the day Johnson struck out 16 Padres in the completion of a suspended game in 2001 in San Diego.

The Unit flat out can pitch in that park and with Brandon Webb all set to go today, the series with the Giants will be one to watch.

Shawn Chacon comes off the DL to face SF this afternoon. Chacon has handled the Giants quite easily in the past, so Felipe Alou will send out his ace Jason Schmidt to further destroy the Rockies season.

The middle of the A’s batting order continues to struggle.

Click below I have some thoughts on what may ail them. [Read more →]