The A’s are finally starting to make some moves this offseason. Patience is a virtue I’m told, but I wanted to see waves crashing in the free agent pool early and often with the money they had available to spend. We barely missed out on the Crawford and Lee sweepstakes, and according to my insider information, they were in the running for both players, until someone else put in their first offer that we couldn’t quite match. Oh well, today we got a Japanese guy, but not the one I originally thought we would. Initially it looked like Hisashi Iwakuma would be joining the A’s pitching rotation next year, but the talks hit a stalemate, and he decided to stay in Japan or maybe the A’s were just blocking their division opponents from getting him. Today we found our DH for the upcoming season though in Hideki Matsui or as most know him Godzilla. We paid Matsui just under $5M for the up coming season, which is about double what Cust was making last year as our DH. I can tell you for sure that I’d much rather see Godzilla striking out with runners on base than Cust. Maybe the Asian bias comes in a little, but he is a big upgrade over Cust, which MCeezy already expressed. Who knows since the A’s never say anything that was said behind closed doors. It already feels like a much better buy than last year’s acquisition of Ben Sheets who never really saw the mound that much. Matsui at least has a better health track record, and since DH isn’t exactly a strenuous spot I’m not worried. Am I super excited about this signing? Not to the point of writing 1,000 words, but it’s a step in a direction filling a spot that we really needed filled. If he hits 21 homers again like he did last year, he will easily lead the team in that department. Also, I’ve been reading about his signing a lot today, and found out that Matsui has been a longtime A’s fan, and even had their cap back in the 80’s while he was living in Japan. He was really into the Bash Brothers growing up, and that alone just gave me a million extra reasons to like him. Nihon Gambare Godzilla! (Long live Godzilla in Japanese)
Monthly Archives: December 2010
A’s Make a Ripple in the Free Agent Pool
Once Upon a Time, In a Land Favre, Favre Away
Forgive me for the cheesy title, but it does seem like ancient times when Brett Favre last didn’t start a game. Many will compare Favre’s streak to Cal Ripken’s, but I think it’s more impressive. Sure, Ripken played more games, but they were baseball games. Favre’s streak lasted 18 years to Ripken’s 16. Favre went from hero to villain, while Ripken’s image never changed. We’re obviously not big fans of Brett Favre here at Doin Work – Dyslecix’s wife was even rumored to be working on a guest post about her dislike for Favre as a follow up to her Erin Andrew’s piece. Believe it or not, though, there was once a time was Favre was universally liked. It got me thinking what else has changed since the streak began in 1992. I’m sure it’s been done on other sites, but here’s a look at the world in 1992, when Favre succeeded the great Don Majkowski in Green Bay…..
- In his debut as a starter, he threw TD passes to Sterling Sharpe and Robert Brooks (remember those guys?) en route to a victory over the Neil O’Donnell, Barry Foster, Greg Lloyd, and Rod Woodson-led Steelers.
- The Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl – the Bills third of four consecutive SB losses, and the Cowboys first of two in a row over Buffalo
- The Raiders and Rams played in the LA, the Cardinals carried the Phoenix name, the Oilers existed in Houston, and the Browns played in Cleveland before leaving for Baltimore and being replaced by the Cleveland Browns.
- Steve Young was the NFL MVP
- Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr led the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup over Chappy and I’s favorite video game team of all-time, the Chicago Blackhawks.
- The Toronto Blue Jays, who look like an all-star team on paper, beat the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. (After they defeated the A’s in the ALCS)
- Dennis Eckersley was named AL MVP and Barry Bonds won his 2nd of 7 NL MVP awards
- Shaquille O’Neal was drafted #1 overall by the Orlando Magic. (Fun Fact: O’Neal is the only remaining active player from that draft)
- The Washington Wizards were the Washington Bullets, the Hornets played in Charlotte, and the Dallas Mavericks spent most of the season looking like a lock to break the record for fewest wins in a season. They had losing streaks of 12, 15, and 19; were 4-57 at one point, but won three of their last six to finish 11-71.
- The Dream Team. Nuff Said.
Sterling Should Taunt Himself
It’s impossible not to enjoy a good heckler at any kind of game. Whether it’s a realalistic fan spouting off about why someone is or isn’t good or it’s the idiot that doesn’t know anything about the game and 90% of the time is spitting out drunk babble. I have no problem with either as long as they are good at it, and are entertaining. Today it’s been reported that Donald Sterling the owner of the super successful Los Angeles Clippers, has been heckling his players for the last couple of years. All of the heckling reported seemed fairly un-imaginative. Nobody has received it worse than our former Bay Area hero, Baron Davis. I had mixed feelings about it when I first read it, since BD hasn’t lived up to his contract at all, I can see why Sterling might feel that some of his comments/frustrations were warranted, but how many bad contracts have there been in the NBA? 5,000?
10,000? Way too many for me to count (I can count at least five on the Warriors right now). In this information age, you had to know what you were getting yourself into when you signed Baron. Maybe Sterling wasn’t paying attention to the way Baron left New Orleans or Golden State. Whatever the case for the bad blood between the two just remember Sterling holds the record for largest payout ($300M) in a trial that concluded that he was racist against who he was renting his apartments to.
I feel bad for Baron as he’s fighting against his injuries, a new coach, and even the owner. I guess it is possible that Sterling might have found the single weirdest way to motivate his highest paid player. I doubt that’s what he’s doing, but if you were Baron wouldn’t you want to prove him wrong a little? The weirdest part about all this is I couldn’t see any owner doing this in any sport. Not Dan Gilbert who wrote that ugly letter to Lebron. I can’t see Jerry Jones on the sidelines heckling Roy Williams, with a “get off my billion dollar field comment”. At least Bud Adams flips off the opposing team instead of his own. Even Al Davis loves his players too much to throw them under the bus during a game.
The fallout from this will probably be nothing much from the Baron front, because he’ll get paid whether he performs or not. He might pick up his game a little bit, but looking at it from the bigger perspective they have two amazing stars of the future there in Eric Gordon, and the eventual Rookie of the Year, Blake Griffin that nearly every franchise would kill to have as building blocks. I’ve never been in their locker room or around any of their players, but do know that Baron is a very likeable guy.
I’m positive that he’s had some influence on Gordon and Griffin in one way or another, and I feel like they’d feel Sterling is in the wrong. My theory is if Sterling continues to heckle Baron (and he most likely will), does he really expect either of his two young stars to stay when they have a choice of exploring their options? If I were either of them, my first option would either be to switch to purple and gold, or get the hell out of LA. Also how do you build with these guys? Would any free agent in their right mind want to go to the Clippers unless they were going to make an extra $2-3M? Enjoy Griffin and Gordon while you can Clippers fans, because the Sterling and Baron saga just sealed your future of staying in the lottery for years to come, and confirmed why I put you as the worst NBA franchise over a year ago.
Doin Lines Week 14
A 2-4 week has me thinking I will never crack the .500 mark this season. Luckily I hit a parlay to break even money wise, but I’m sure you all could care less about that. I think everyone has found this season a little strange in that there aren’t a ton of contenders that cover the spread every week, and looking through the lines I was shocked to see that there wasn’t one double digit favorite. What does this mean? Even the odds makers are a little befuddled by this season! The highest spread is New Orleans -9 at home. Speaking of NO, is it just me or are they the least hyped defending champs ever? I don’t hear the morning FOX, CBS, or ESPN gangs raving about anything the Saints are doing, and aren’t they the champs until someone knocks them off? I guess not in this Twitter age. The Patriots and Jets must be the only teams worthy of our attention, so the networks have led me to believe. I just can’t get over how many people were on their bandwagon last year and now, no love at all. What gives?!?
What gives is right! As in, what gives with a 2-3 record last week!? Well I am a firm believer in karma, or getting your “just dues”, and the way I was approaching my picks last week, like it was some sort of guaranteed 5-0 event, let’s just say I got what I deserved with those results. Time to get myself back on the positive side this week. On a side note, the Bo Sox just signed Carl Crawford!? Looks like Bean Town’s the new “Evil Empire” in baseball …
Week 13 (By 2-3, Chap 2-4) Overall (By 32-29-4, Chap 33-38-3)
Indianapolis @ Tennessee (+3)
By picks Indy (-3). I will beat this horse dead, but I’m not going to stop riding it. Wait, does that even make sense? I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m not jumping off the Peyton Manning ship just yet, especially in a must win scenario at a division rival. As horrible as Manning has been these past three weeks, he’s still one of the greatest QB’s to ever play the game, which in my book, means something. He will right the ship this week and trust his guys more. On the other side of the ball, Tennessee is a mess. Vince Young, Randy Moss, need I say more?
Oakland @ Jacksonville (-4) Continue reading
End Of An Error
We’re still waiting for our first big free agent signing of the offseason out here in Oakland. Though the biggest move to date may be addition by subtraction, as another MLB club has finally taken Jack Cust of our hands. The A’s have been seemingly trying to get rid of Cust for a few seasons now, and today the Seattle Mariners took a chance on the slugger/walker/striker-outer. At the beginning of last season, the A’s designated Cust for assignment, hoping another team would claim him. After he cleared waivers, he reported to AAA-Sacramento until injuries on the big league roster would force him up. He played uninspired ball the rest of the season and helped the A’s to another underwhelming offensive campaign. Cust made popular the “three true outcome player.” Each of his at-bats would surely end in one of three outcomes: a home run, walk, or strikeout. Problem is, two out of every three ended in a strikeout. His homers never seem to come when they counted, and his walks were mostly the result of resting the bat on his shoulders for 6 or 7 pitches. Throw a breaking ball, and you’ll surely strike him out. I know what the Mariners were thinking, he’s a guaranteed 20 HRs a year, but does this mean they’ve been sitting there for the last three years thinking, “where can we find a left-handed Richie Sexson?” Seriously, Mariner fans, that’s what you should be thinking right now.
Cust has got to be my most loathed player on the A’s in the last decade. There aren’t many, since the A’s have a knack for having blue-collar hustle guys. Pitching, defense, and basically fundamentals reigned supreme. Cust is none of these. Instead, he occupied the fat, lazy designated hitter spot and led the league in strikeouts three consecutive years. His 197 in 2008 
were particularly impressive. I won’t even get into his defensive shortcomings. The good news is this opens up a spot for a power hitter the A’s so desperately need. I share Chappy’s sentiment in that I don’t want them to break the bank on an older player who’s best days are behind them, but that may be our only option. And, if you give me a choice, I’ll take anybody over Cust. Right now it’s looking like Hideki Matsui, but I’d be happy with Doris Matsui at this point. Alright, so Cust isn’t that bad; I’m just happy for a change.
“You want to go where you’re wanted,” Cust said. “In Oakland, even though I always did pretty well there…I’m sure they’d say I struggled in spring and what I did the three years before wasn’t good enough to make that team, I guess…..When I talk about Oakland last year especially, it’s definitely not a very positive experience for me. So I’m trying to block that out a little.”
Aren’t we all, Jack. Aren’t we all…..
Mike Tyson Gets His Due
Yes, Mike Tyson was inducted today into Boxing’s HOF. For better or worse Mike Tyson was a force in the sport. He was a crazy ear biter, but I think that’s what made him good like most fighters. It’s rare you meet boxers like Pacquiao or Forman, and it’s much more common to come across bastards with Tyson or Mayweather like attitudes. While I was growing up Tyson WAS boxing even more so than Sylvester Stallone, err, I mean Rocky. He was the most feared man alive, and I barely could beat him in Nintendo’s original Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. Luckily for him he’s stayed away from being broke jumping in a few movies lately, and seems to have a new perspective on life making him look a little sane. Anyways, after hearing he got inducted to the HOF, I had to jump on youtube to relive some of his clips to kill a little of the afternoon, and thought I’d post some for for you to remember just how awesome he was…
MLB Winter Meetings
Probably the most exciting time of the MLB offseason is seeing the hundreds of millions of dollars flying around. The winter meetings always produce plenty of rumors, and usually end with at least a few big names traded or signed to new teams. I was especially excited about this year, since I wrote a while back that the A’s actually have some money to spend on some free agents this year. It has just made me follow the winter meetings all that much closer! Here’s a few thoughts on the things I thought that were interesting that have taken place so far.
Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox seems like a solid deal for both sides. The Padres lost their best player and fan favorite, but got prospects that they are very familiar with since Jed Hoyer (Padres GM) used to work in Boston’s front office. We won’t know if the trade was all that even until the prospects hit the majors for a couple of years, but if they somehow pulled a Hanley Ramierez type player out of the deal it might not be as lopsided as everyone thinks right now. The Padres knew they couldn’t afford him next year, and I thought that they would give it a run this year after last year’s solid season. I thought they’d wait and see where they were at the All-Star break, but it’s probably better to trade a healthy Gonzalez now, instead of risking that he’ll be injured with diminished value later. Adrian just shot up my draft board for fantasy baseball. Just look how good Beltre did last year moving from the unfriendly hitting confines of Seattle to the playing pepper with the Green Monster.
Jayson Werth’s megadeal of 7 years and $126M seems like a horrible signing to me. Boras gets money for his clients though, and his clients are always happy with the deal. Does Werth have Carlos Beltran written all over it? Don’t get me wrong, I love the way Jayson plays, but for this much money after only two productive years in a hitters park is a head scratcher to me. Why are the Nats bogging down their payroll when they suck? It feels like the same kind of deal Gary Matthews got with the Angels. Just ask them how much they like that guy! Doesn’t signing Adam Dunn seem like a more reasonable option? I’d rather keep Dunn with less years, and maybe struggle for a year or two. When Bryce Harper and Steven Strasburg are playing at the level we all think they will, then would be the time to figure out what you need most and spend all your money. Not now, when you aren’t positive of what your team needs really are. I guess they might have a real plan if they really do throw “huge” money at Cliff Lee, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Tiger, Frank, and Jaime can all get a good laugh about this divorce stuff!
McCourt Vs. McCourt in court. Jaime and Frank finished up their first trial as they were competing for the rights to own the Dodgers in what has been a very messy divorce. The court ruled that Frank’s document stating he was the sole owner of the team will be thrown out because it was illegally made after the original prenup, so the team is still 50% hers and 50% his. If one of the two can’t buy the team outright, it’s been assumed that they will sell the team, which would make a lot of Dodger fans happy. Unfortunately though that won’t happen soon, and there will be another trial trying to prove that Frank’s original company was the reason they were able to purchase the Dodgers, so he will try to prove that he should have sole ownership. Looks like the Dodgers are going to be battling with Arizona for last place in the division this year.
The A’s offseason started with a bang as they made a couple trades and pickups with David Dejesus and Edwin Encarnacion. They won the rights to talk to Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma as well. We already dumped Encarnacion, and never really came close to signing Iwakuma, so I guess all that was smoke and mirrors. We may have just been blocking the Rangers and Mariners from Iwakuma since they were the two teams we outbid to have the rights to negotiate with him. It never really felt like a deal was getting done for him, especially for the money he was asking for to be our 5th starter.
I do want the A’s to spend this year, and they have the money to do so, but I think I’m more encouraged on what they haven’t spent their money on! They were rumored to be talking to Lance Berkman, which sounded like bringing back Giambi, Sweeney, or Piazza type in. I’m not a fan of that method anymore, because we’ve only gotten one Frank Thomas, and the rest looked washed up like they were. Now Berkman’s the Cardinals problem, and I still don’t understand why they got him when he has to play in the outfield, unless they want to slot him in instead of Pujols. Another guy they were rumored going after was Adrian Beltre. I was just as happy to see that they withdrew their contract offer to him, because he only plays good in contract years. I hope the Angels end up with him, and he turns into Seattle Beltre that didn’t care. I’d much rather go for a guy like Josh Willingham at a highly discounted price…
NCAA Bowl Schedule Isn’t THAT Bad…
Since I don’t work in professional sports anymore, I find it harder to keep espn.com open on my browser at work. Therefore, I’ve had to find alternate means of keeping up with my sports news. Recently, I’ve channeled my inner-old guy and have started tuning into sports talk radio on my way to and from work. This morning it was Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio griping about the bowl schedule. In the afternoon it was local sports clown Grant Napear ranting (what else is new?) about the horrible matchups. Now I’m not usually a glass-half-full guy, but I don’t see what the problem is. Yes, there are plenty of boring games and terrible matchups, but I wouldn’t call this one of the worst lineups in recent memory. Nevermind that none of my BCS predictions panned out, there’s still plenty of intrigue as far as I’m concerned. Here’s my Top Three and my Bottom Three for the upcoming bowl season….
#1 – BCS National Championship – Oregon vs. Auburn: It’s the national championship game, what else needs to be said? It’s tough to argue the only two major unbeaten teams – with apologies to TCU – being in the big game. It features two of the four Heisman finalists in Cam Newton and LaMichael James and two historically great programs. The only downside is we have to wait until January 10 to see it.
#2 – Rose Bowl – Wisconsin vs. TCU: Sure, a Pac-10-Big Ten matchup of Stanford-Wisconsin would have been the logical choice here, but Wisconsin is widely considered to be the next best team outside of the two unbeatens. Either they’ll solidify that spot, or TCU will make a good case for a share of the national championship – though they won’t get it.
#3 – Las Vegas Bowl – Utah vs. Boise State: I know, the Las Vegas Bowl isn’t exactly the pinnacle of postseason college football, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this will be a great game. I picked both of these teams to earn BCS berths, but a couple of late season losses killed those hopes. Nonetheless, it will feature two teams that have both put together undefeated seasons recently.
RAIDERS!!!!
I don’t really have any analysis on the game, since I was busy putting up Christmas lights at my parents’ house, but what a win for the Silver and Black today! I really didn’t see much hope for the Raiders to sweep the season series against a San Diego team that hadn’t lost in December since Philip Rivers became the most maligned player in the NFL, so I didn’t go out of my 
way to catch. I’ve wasted too many Sundays watching games like the ones against Miami and Pittsburgh. A December showdown AT San Diego didn’t really seem like one worth catching. But alas, the GOOD Raiders showed up once again and dominated the Chargers en route to a 4-0 division record – for the first time since 1990, which could prove huge with Kansas City leading the way just two games ahead. The two teams still have a matchup looming on the schedule. All I know is, being in the hunt at 6-6 this late in the season may be the best thing going for an Oakland fan these days. Even if they end 6-10, you can’t take away the fact that they won both games against the team that had won the division for the last I-don’t-know-how-many years.
Doin Lines Week 13
Another 4-1 week for me? My confidence is so high though, that I dare call that average. Chappy and I have had a pretty busy week with *gasp* work (can you believe it?) so we threw around the idea of “Doin One Liners” for the weekly edition of “Doin Lines”. Basically, we state our reason for taking a team in one or two brief sentences. I’m actually going to try this …
3-3 wasn’t too bad last week since I was sure I’d have a losing week, either way I’d say it was a better day than the guy pictured up top here. Like By said it was a rough week of work, so sometimes the blogging time suffers. Oh well, gotta make that paper to have some money to bet on these games.
Week 12 (By 4-1, Chap 3-3) Overall (By 30-26, Chap 31-34-3)
Buffalo @ Minnesota (-5.5)
By picks Buffalo (+5.5). Minnesota got their new coach a nice win in his debut, but now it’s back to mediocre football for the Vikes. The Bills will win so Steve Johnson can start thanking the man upstairs again, instead of blaming him.
Washington @ NY Giants (-7)
Chappy picks NYG (-7). They lost to Philly and Dallas, so I think they are due to put a hurting on a division foe, if they really are a good team that is. Too bad this stadium is not much of a home field advantage…
Denver @ Kansas City (-8.5) Continue reading
Kings-Pacers Observations
I made my Arco Arena debut last night – a week and a half after my Oracle Arena debut – and caught the Kings and Pacers. Yes, it was as bad as advertised. Indiana fans will argue that their team is 9-7, and I even picked them to make the playoffs this year. But trust me, they’re not very fun to watch. Danny Granger is one of the league’s great players, but along with Mike Dunleavy and James Posey, they stand around and jack up a lot of threes. Roy Hibbert is surprisingly polished for someone I never thought would be a solid NBA player. I really thought he was going to be the beta version of Hasheem Thabeet. On the Kings side, Tyreke Evans had a few highlight moves, but seems to have taken a step backward from last year’s Rookie of the Year campaign. There were only two players on the court that impressed me…..
Demarcus Cousins – After an impressive summer league that had many predicting back to back ROYs for Sacramento, Cousins has struggled out of the regular season gate. He’s been mired in foul trouble and proved the knocks on him to be true with his whiny demeanor on the court. Hell, he even got kicked out of practice on Monday. Last night, though, he looked like a future all-star. Cousins is ridiculously quick off the dribble, blowing by post defenders for some strong finishes inside. He fought hard on the glass and even showed a smooth stroke from the perimeter, knocking down some shots from 18 feet. He finished with 20 pts and 8 rebounds, and was +6 during his 23 minutes on the floor – pretty good for a guy who’s team lost by nine.
Josh McRoberts – Here’s a guy who wasn’t that dominant at Duke, and played in just 8 games in his rookie season with Portland. He started only three contests through his first two seasons in Indiana since. This year, he’s started all 16 games for the Pacers, and last night, he looked particularly impressive. His line of 7 pts, 3 reb, an 4 ast isn’t 
overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination, but he made some great plays on the court. He was somewhat limited due to foul trouble, but along with some sweet dimes, he had two amazing highlight plays. One was a thundering alley-oop dunk from Darren Collison that could be seen on NBA.com’s Top 10 Plays of the Night. The other was a blocked dunk attempt on Jason Thompson that should’ve been on there, but the video is nowhere to be found. I’m pretty excited to have this guy on my fantasy team, since I just added him to replace the injured Reggie Evans. (Yes, my team is that bad, despite my 3rd place standing). If McRoberts gets the minutes, he’ll be a breakout player this year.
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