2005 Random A's Ramblings

[Providence A's]

One run losses costly

If the A's don't wind up catching the Angels in the American League West, one place they'll be able to point by way of explanation is to their one-run losses.
Having dropped 3-2 and 2-1 decisions on Friday and Saturday at Fenway Park, Oakland now has 22 one-run losses, its most since 1997.

"When this season's over, I might look back and say all we needed was a little bit here or a little bit there," Athletics manager Ken Macha said. "It's such a fine line in between winning and losing ... perhaps one guy in the lineup, just one hit.

"You look at one game we lost against Baltimore early in the year. We had a missed call at first base," Macha added. "We lost the game by one run and there was three runs there. It should have been closed out of the inning, so everything's crucial."

In that Aug. 16 game, with two outs in the top of the seventh, the score tied at one and Brian Roberts on second, Melvin Mora hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Eric Chavez, who pulled first baseman Dan Johnson off the bag with his throw. But Johnson stepped back on the base before Mora reached it, yet Mora was ruled safe while Roberts scored. The Orioles added two more runs before Oakland got out of the inning; the A's wound up losing 4-3.

Regardless, Oakland has a winning record in one-run games at 23-22.

45 one run games is a lot...or at least it seems to be. The games we've won and lost by one run could have gone either way, but imagine if we won more than 23 of those...

[Providence A's]

Not counting the rookie league, all of the A's minor league teams made the playoffs except low class A Kane County.

A advanced long season Stockton, A short season Vancouver, AAA Sacramento, and AA Midland all made the playoffs with Midland winning the Texas League Championship.

[Providence A's]

Still no word on when / if Harden will be back this year.

[Providence A's]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...PGVLETF3I1.DTL

The annual exodus from Oakland might be put on hold for once. The A's, so used to losing big-timers winter after winter, will head into the season's final week knowing their biggest free agent is their manager.

Their second-biggest free agent? Their third-base coach.

No offense to reliever Ricardo Rincon, the most significant active player who could contractually walk away after the season, no options attached.

But one of the benefits for a team that pulled its head from the ground four months ago -- and only now seems to have re-submerged -- is that virtually everyone on the roster is either under contract for 2006 (Eric Chavez, Mark Kotsay, Barry Zito), arbitration-eligible (Mark Ellis, Bobby Kielty, Kiko Calero) or too inexperienced to have any negotiating say at all (Joe Blanton, Huston Street, Nick Swisher).

That wasn't considered good news for A's fans in May, when their team was 15 games below .500 and sorely missing Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Jermaine Dye. But as the season developed, so did the young players, and now the future is hardly dismal.

"I came here because I wanted to win," said catcher Jason Kendall, who's in his 10th year in the big leagues but first on a winning team, having gone 0-for-9 in Pittsburgh. "This team has won for a lot of years, and I want to be a part of that. I hope I can stay here a long, long time. That being said, we've got (nine) games left in this season."

Oh, that. The A's, 3-1 losers to Texas Friday night, appear to be done now that they're four games behind the first-place Angels, who have won seven in a row. No matter what happens in the final week, the 2005 A's will go down as overachievers. Manager Ken Macha was asked to step back from what's left of the division race and explain it all.

"I'll look back at this season with a lot of enjoyment and no regrets," Macha said. "On Sept. 1, we were in first place (tied with the Angels) and led the wild card (tied with the Yankees), and when you're in that position, you hope you could play well enough to finish it off. Injuries happen. You don't want to ever make that your excuse, but we know how we've played without (Bobby) Crosby, and not having Harden was a big hole to fill."

Harden strained the lat muscle in is right side Aug. 19. Crosby broke his left ankle Aug. 27. The A's are 9-12 in September.

"Taking it all into account, I have a lot of admiration for two areas," said Macha, crediting (1) his immediate staff, particularly pitching coach Curt Young, for overseeing the young players' development and (2) the players for not giving up on a season that went astray in May.

What about Macha? His contract is up, and he'd likely get multiple interviews elsewhere, including Pittsburgh, if he's not re-signed shortly after the season, even though it seems apparent Oakland is the right fit.

"He's learned so much since he was a rookie manager three years ago. He's a veteran now," Zito said. "We love playing for Macha."

Asked about his future, Macha said only, "What I want to do is put together a seven-game winning streak, and I'll take my chances."

His third-base coach, Ron Washington, is due a managerial interview or three. While his first postseason chore is resettling his family in the New Orleans area, he'll keep his cell phone handy in case a team expresses interest. Washington, one of the game's more popular coaches, isn't discussing possibilities, but a perfect situation would be Tampa Bay, where grizzled Lou Piniella is being bought out. The Devil Rays have youth and speed, and those are Washington's specialties.

As for the roster itself, the '06 A's are virtually set. The catcher, the infield, the outfield, the rotation and the closer are under the team's control, and the contracts for injured Octavio Dotel and Erubiel Durazo will be off the books.

Even though some players have built-in raises -- about $1 million each for Chavez and Kendall and about $2.5 million for Zito -- there should be funds available to add a right-handed slugger and bullpen depth.

In fact, there were supposed to be funds available for the final month, as new owner Lewis Wolff promised, but the A's did nothing after the Crosby and Harden injuries, partly because of the difficulty of making late-August deals.

"The price for whichever that player was, wasn't right," assistant general manager David Forst said. "There was money to be spent, but we didn't find the right guy to spend the money on."

There's always the offseason, when the A's might be in a rare position to buy rather than sell.

E-mail John Shea at jshea@sfchronicle.com.

Page D - 1

Ahhh, to be buyers for once

[Providence A's]

Haren signs extension

Haren's 2005 stats are 13-12 with a 3.81 ERA. He's tied for second in the American League in starts (33), tied for fourth in complete games (three), sixth in strikeouts (157) and eighth in innings pitched (210). That last number is a source of pride for Haren -- and a factor in Oakland's motivation to lock him up through his arbitration years.

"He's been a horse for us," A's manager Ken Macha said. "He's got the frame [6-foot-5, 220 pounds] and the arm to pitch a lot of innings."

"It's a huge part of why we sign these guys," said assistant general manager Dave Forst. "We try to project on quantity as much as quality."

So, apparently, did Haren and his agent, Greg Landry. The option for 2010 is based on Haren's health, in terms of innings pitched, over the life of the deal.

"It's almost exactly like Barry's," Haren said of his mentor, Barry Zito, whose $8.5 million option for 2006 vested when he reached the 180-inning mark this year.

Forst said the extension was "something we've worked on for a while" and added that he and GM Billy Beane "didn't think it would taker this long." For one thing, Haren's status regarding arbitration -- his service time after next season might put him in the "Super Two" category that gets him to arbitration a year earlier -- required the crafting of two sets of contract numbers. And it didn't help that Houston-based Landry has been dealing with hurricane issues in recent weeks.

Good, Haren, Blanton, and Harden are ours for a while

[Providence A's]

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NAS...ives&fext=.jsp

sums up the season

[A'sDiehard]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...PGVLETF3I1.DTL



Ahhh, to be buyers for once

We MUST get somebody to protect Chavez in the middle of that lineup and he needs to be a right handed power hitter. The double play machine Hatteberg and the one-homerun-per-month-let-me-fluff-my-hair Kielty are not the answers. We'll have to see who's available but I hope they get a legit slugger.

[Providence A's]

We'll have to wait and see what happens...

A's lost 4 - 1 last night.

[Providence A's]

A's won 4 - 3 with Blanton getting his 12th win and Street his 23rd save...Harden got his 1st hold

[A's Baby Girl]

Great rookie campaign for Blanton. I'm glad he didn't let all those tough-luck losses get to him and he kept doing his thing. A mid 3 era for a rookie is just excellent. I love how the future is looking for this rotation. Another Big 3 is definitely on the horizon.

[Providence A's]

A's won today to finish 88 - 74. Not too bad considering we were left for dead heading into June. And with all the injuries. I'm pleased, you?

[A's Baby Girl]

Yes pleased and impressed