The prized prospect in the Matt Holliday deal made his Raley Field debut tonight in his new hometown of Sacramento. The River Cats wasted no time pencilling him into the cleanup spot. He also got the start at third base, where many question whether he will stick, or eventually make the move to first base or designated hitter. While he didn’t do anything extraordinary in the field, he didn’t make any mistakes either. The Salt Lake Bees wasted little time testing his glove, as leadoff hitter Brad Coon hit a sharp grounder to the left of Wallace. Wallace made a diving effort to no avail. It wasn’t a play he should’ve made, but he didn’t exactly make a gold glove attempt. The other balls hit to him were routine, and he fielded them cleanly and threw perfect strikes to first. So far, so good.
At the plate, Wallace has that hitter’s presence about him. He showed good plate discipline, while still remaining aggresive. His first at bat resulted in a sharply hit groundout to first that would’ve been a double, say, if a runner were on first. Problem is, the River Cats only had one runner on the entire game. Angels’ prospect Sean O’Sullivan stole the show, throwing the first no hitter in Raley Field’s ten year history. In his second at bat, Wallace put up a good fight, but ultimately chopped an excuse-me check swing groundout to short. In his third and final at bat, he had shortstop Cliff Pennington on first, who drew the only walk from O’Sullivan. Wallace, though, popped out to short center field.
All in all, it’d be foolish to draw any conclusions from one game. Wallace was hitless, but so was the rest of the team. As I said, though, he has a promising presence at the plate. There’s no doubt that Wallace will hit at the big league level, and his glove was dependable enough to raise no questions at this point.
In other River Cats / A’s news, Justin Duchscherer will make a rehab appearance on Friday in Sacramento.
ry are long behind them. And the Raiders, well, they’ve become the subject of ridicule to the say the least, and quite possibly have earned the reputation as the most dysfunctional franchise in all of pro sports. Outsiders will often question Oakland fans’ blind faith, but the fact that there is hope is always enough to keep us coming back. These teams don’t exactly lay dormant during the offseason like some I can think of. I couldn’t imagine being a Royals fan, or a Pirates fan, or a Grizzlies fan. Almost every offseason, these three teams give reason for optimism. Hope, if you will. The Raiders bring in guys like Randy Moss and Deangelo Hall. The A’s bring in guys like Matt Holliday and Jason Giambi. It may be all there is to cling to, but I’ll take that over just going through the motions any day. True, the lows have far outweighed the highs, but, at the end of the day, we’ve still seen a Super Bowl berth, an American League Championship Series, and one of this decades greatest NBA Playoff runs of all time.
e like Joe Smith, Todd Fuller, Brandan Wright, Jordan Hill maybe. Instead, they got a shooter that is so desperately needed. Not only that, they got a player who has never been regarded as a “project” or having “potential.” Someone that HAS been labeled as such is last year’s lottery pick, Anthony Randolph. Those who have seen him play know he could be a one of a kind superstar in this league if he hones his game to match his potential. It seemed to be a big IF last season, as the first few games I saw him play left me declaring him one of the most clueless off-ball defenders I’ve ever seen in the NBA. However, a few blocks and dunks later and it’s all forgotten. This summer, Randolph has vowed to take his game to the next level, and he’s backed it up in the Las Vegas Summer League. It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that he’ll win the MVP award, and he’s opened many eyes across the nation, including those of Team USA, who has extended an invitation to the team’s camp.
point record. Donte Greene even managed to score 40 last year, and he looked, in 08-09, like one of the worst players in the league at times. However, this was no fluke. This was not Morrow beating helpless D-league players off the dribble and taking it to the rack over 6’8″ stiffs. Morrow is a spot up shooter, both from the pass and off the dribble. He has a quick release that renders whoever is guarding him insignificant. After all, the guy led the NBA in 3 point shooting last year – hardly a fluke. Chappy and I were also in attendence last November for what we’ll forever refer to as “The Anthony Morrow Game,” when he torched the juggernaut that is the Clippers defense for 37 points in the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (You can see us in the second row just to the right of the basket)
Rickey Henderson is getting honored for his services in Oakland as the Athletics will retire his 
I even bought those ridiculous neon green Mizuno batting gloves, and practiced the snatch catch in my little league days. He played 14 of his 25 seasons in Oakland wearing green and gold for most of his prime including his lone MVP season. It’s only fitting that they retire his number, as he was arguably the greatest leadoff hitter of all time and always an Athletic at heart. It will be a long time until we ever see a player that can steal bases and hit for power (81 leadoff homers the MLB record) from the top spot in the order.
His stats speak for themselves as he is on top of some of the all time lists:
be our big bat in the middle of the order. Observing him closely through the first month of the year (probably even a little more because he was on my fantasy team) I noticed one main theme. He looked like Pedro Serrano from Major League, as he constantly swung at bad pitches that weren’t even hittable. I wonder if he ever watched video of himself, because if they kept a stat for swings at a bad pitch out of the strike zone, Holliday would have one per at bat! Holliday’s thought process when he goes to the plate must be something to the extent of, “Cmon Matt, hit a bomb! Swing as hard as you can at the next pitch no matter where he throws it! Then grimace and tap the bat barrel on your head.” It really makes me wonder how he could have ever won two out of three triple-crown categories in one season. I guess Coors is truly the ultimate hitters’ park, I am a believer! I can’t say I’ve been impressed with anything he’s done this year! Ok, Ok he has turned it around lately, and I truly hope he proves me completely wrong! I hope I praise him and he inspires me to write up an MVP ballot for him, but he’s got to prove that to me. The whole “not mind being traded thing”, nope, not getting into it today…
never stroll to the plate again, unless he starts taking some PED’s again! During this A’s offensive struggles, he was slumping as bad as Holliday, I found myself wishing that he had never signed on again and we just had Cust hitting in his spot with whoever at first. My opinion has been swayed lately with his power coming alive a little bit. Part of his problem was the way his swing has looked this year. I guess I didn’t watch him much while he was on the Yankees (seeing him only on SC highlights). At times I’d say he looks about as good as David Ortiz this first third of the season, but at least Giambi has 800% more homers than Ortiz! Bottom Line, his bat speed must be slowing, if not, it must be his reflexes…
root for him watching him play for the Angels and Red Sox, but I’m slowly adjusting. One thing is for sure, he has been playing like an unhappy guy (.225 BA). It’s probably like when I was answering customer calls for Oakley (I really hated the job), but I needed to work, so you just do what you gotta do. I just hope something snaps him out of his funk. I’ve watched way too much Angels baseball over the past few years living in Southern California, and when he was in Anaheim he always looked like he was having fun. In Oakland he’s had the someone just told me a relative died look on his face for nearly every game. If I was playing as bad as him, I’d probably have that look on my face too. I’ll tell you what O-Cab, we’re unhappy with your play so far this year, you need to step it up!
couple! Oh yeah, have to mention Mazzaro’s first gem in his first career start going 6 1/3 shutout innings only giving up two hits on Tuesday. Anderson and Cahill, the other two of the “big three” young guys, have pitched well on and off. Our bullpen has a lot of “live arms”. I really do like our pen, we’re full of guys with closer stuff. Between Bailey, Ziegler, Casilla, and Wuertz (even Breslow) we should be able to hold a lot of leads, if we can actually get them!
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cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 