Results tagged ‘ Injury ’

The Official Site of The Oakland Athletics: News: A’s place reliever Brown on 15-day DL

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080520&content_id=2737982&vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak


The Athletics have used the Disabled List 11 times so far this season.  Who else is worried of a repeat of last year? They are already halfway to last years total with lots of baseball still to come.  I am hoping and praying that no one else important gets injured.    

Baseball at breaking point over maple bats – MLB – Yahoo! Sports

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-maplebats050808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns


I had no idea how deadly Maple baseball bats were until I read this article.  Thank you Barry Bonds for another great addition to the game.  Bonds is the one that started using them in 2001 and of course everyone wanted to hit like him so now they are more prevalent around baseball. I had no idea the bats could chatter and the pieces could fly the way they do.  This is scary especially the story about the coach that had a piece fly and gouge him in the face.  Now he cannot move the left side of his face.  I recommend reading this article if you have the time.  

Report: Worker tries to jinx Yanks with buried Red Sox shirt – MLB – Yahoo! Sports

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-reportworkertriestojinxyanksw&prov=ap&type=lgns

This little tidbit is super funny.  I love that a construction worker would want to put a curse on the new Yankee Stadium.  I hope it works.  Then maybe the Athletics would have more of a chance in the post season.  The past two game were insane and I will blog abut them later.  The Athletics have won 4 in a row.  They are playing on a scale right now.  Good and bad things keep happening and tipping the scale up and down.  More on all the madness.  

PS: Harden is now on the DL.  I called it. But then what Athletics fan didn’t.  

A Crazy Series Unfolds

With
the Athletics one is never bored. 
Today saw the removal of Dan Johnson from the team, which makes me very
sad, and Harden looking like he will not be ready for his next start.  Room had to be made on the roster to
bring up a pitcher to start the game today and Dan Johnson was designated for
assignment as a result.  He was
drafted seven years ago with the Athletics and was a big part of the team the
past few years.  Johnson was always
a fan favorite nicknamed DJ, and was an extremely nice guy. But as my father
said earlier today “Its business”. 
I wish that were not the case. 
Harden is still experiencing soreness in his right shoulder blade ans
was quoted today saying” I don’t know if it’s too likely that I’ll be starting
Saturday, but we’ll see.  It’s the
one spot on my body that I don’t take any chances with.” That is enough however
on the negatives and now on to the past two games.  This has been a crazy series and both teams will be
glad to see it end. 

Tuesday’s
game was won on an RBI triple from rookie Ryan Sweeney for a final of 9-8. The
game was a rollercoaster with the Athletics ahead 8-6 in the 8th
inning.  Embree walked Wells and
then former Athletics player Thomas hit the long ball for a two run shot.  Thus the game was tied.  Luckily the Athletics had a powerful
top of the 9th.  It all
began in the second for the Athletics with a five run 2nd inning
that saw Buck hit an RBI double. 
He finally was able to break his 0 for 22 streak becoming the hitter he
was last year.  Street cam in fir
the 9th doing what he does best aside from one walk.  All in all it was a positive game much
better than the negative injury reports coming out of the Athletics camp. 

Today’s
game again was crazy.  Ellis
recorded four hits, which included a game tying triple in the 9th.  He is having a fantastic start to the
season and so are the guys being brought in with the disabled list announcements.  Today was Greg Smiths first major
league game and he was the starting pitcher.  He seemed nervous in the first giving surrendering three
runs but after the 1st inning he was able to rally within himself
and settle down.  Smith had five
shutout innings after the first and I was impressed that he was able to stabilize
and get the job done.  When he left
the game it was 3-2 and at one point he got eight men out in a row.  Very impressive stuff for a rookie in
the beginning of the season.  Smith
looks very promising if he is able to repeat today’s performance .  Today was the day for rookies with
Fernando Hernandez also making his debut, pitching a scoreless 8th and
receiving the win.  The final was
6-3 and boy was I glad to see the game end.  What I take away from this is that the Athletics have
talented rookies and are able to rally back after falling behind.  All positives.  

This is Not Good


 

This
is not good.  There is hardly any
good news coming out of the Athletics camp right now.  The only positives I see are that our catcher Suzuki is on
fire in the batters box, and Buck broke out of his funk. He finally found that
oh so elusive first hit.  Other
than these two bright spots things look bleak and here is why.  The DISABLED LIST is back and in full
force so it seems. Today Duscherer was placed on the fifteen day disabled list
retroactive to April 5th.   He will most likely miss two starts but it seems the
way things go for the Athletics is that it begins as two and turns into five
missed starts.  Harden was also
scratched from his start today and Gaudin was brought up from Triple A to make
the start.  Harden has been
extremely injury prone and while he was not placed on the disabled list I feel
that is in his future.  Apparently
Harden has a mild subscapularis strain
in his right throwing shoulder and felt it the first day back from the Japan
trip, which leads one to believe that the disabled list will be immanent for
him.  Gaudin is himself coming off
of two surgeries so fingers crossed he doesn’t get hurt or the Athletics will really
be in a pickle.  The Athletics
website when listing the starters for tomorrows game has a TBD and blank
picture while the Blue Jays are throwing McGowan.  This is not a good sign! Click link below to see the picture! 

As grab .tiff

The First Home Stand

It is time to recap the Athletics
first home stand of the season. 
There were numerous positives to take away from all the games and the
number one in my book was the pitching. 
All the starters for the Athletics looked strong and there were some
surprise performances that I was really happy to see.  Harden and Duscherer were question marks for me going in to
the season but they both looked really strong.  Eveland was another extremely pleasant surprise coming out
of spring training and Saturday he did not disappoint.  I would like to issue Eveland a warm
hearty welcome to the Athletics because he rocked on Saturday! Trading Haren,
banking on a constantly hurt pitcher, and moving a bullpen member to the
rotation all worried me but Eveland calmed my pitching nerves with his first
performance.  He allowed one run
over seven innings and the Athletics ended up winning six to one.  Eveland shut the Indians down for six
straight innings and this was only his seventh start in the majors! (Holy Cow
sports fans!)   Blanton whom I
will now refer to as “Bad Luck Blanton” has honestly the worst luck of any
current pitcher I know.  He could
easily be a 20 game winner per year but he gets the least amount of run support
out of all the Athletics starters. 
Today he was the unfortunate recipient of a botched play at first by
Daric Barton who could not turn the double play and of a lack of runs.  The Athletics gave Blanton just one run
in today’s game and all of last year he went something in the ballpark of 30
starts with three or fewer runs. He stands at 0-2 currently but has pitched far
better than his numbers would suggest.  

 

However there are concerns
currently plaguing the Athletics and I am getting nervous of a repeat from last
year.  Duke (as he is
affectionately known) left the game early Friday with a shoulder problem and
had a scheduled MRI for the next day. 
This made me nervous given the Athletics injury prone season last year
(we do not need a repeat of the agony of injuries) and Donnie Murphy had to
leave the game early the day after Duke. 
Murphy is the third baseman that is currently filling in for an injured
Chavez (On the DL. Disabled List not Down Low), and he collided with Cust
Saturday resulting in Murphy leaving the game early.  He received a sprained middle finger from the collision
which makes me say “Marco Scuttaro anyone?” (Yes Beane this is directed at
you.  Don’t trade guys we need and
fans love.) So slowly I fear the injury curse is seeping back onto the team. 

 

It turns out Duke has a strained
right bicep tendeon.  OH NO! He
will most likely miss one start (lets hope that’s all) and DiNardo or Gaudin
will fill in for Duke. The story can be found here: http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080406&content_id=2499504&vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak

 

The catcher Suzuki has the longest
hitting streak in baseball right now and is looking extremely good.  He has big  shoes to fill (Jason Kendall’s shoes) but I really like what
I see from him so far in the season. 
He is a bright spot in the lineup however Buck is a dark spot. He has
had trouble at the plate lately and his first hit of the season has been rather
elusive.  I thought Buck did a
great job last year and am reminded of Eric Byrnse when I see him.  I hope he is able to find the elusive
first few hits and have a good first half.  We’ll see. For now I am off to pry to the Baseball Gods that
the injuries go away and stay away.  

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