Hello baseball fans

I am here to introduce myself as a new Blogger to Athleticshomeplate.com. My name is Kevin and I will be a voice here for the upcoming 2009 season; however I will begin with spring training. A little something about myself: (Skip it if you’d like) I first began writing about baseball through message boards like most, but became infatuated and then infuriated with baseball writers who cover your local team, yet have favorable ties to the opposition. So now I will begin and thanks for visiting my blog.

The first official scrimmage begins Wednesday, February 25th, in Phoenix at Maryvale Baseball Park. For those of you who are attending, drop a line here to inform me about any worthwhile moments or experiences.

To more relevant news: SS Oakland Athletics

The most compelling story of the off season (and spring for that matter) for me is Bobby Crosby’s status as the starting short stop for the A’s. The pitching rotation is all but set with the fifth starter likely to go to Gio Gonzalez or will it be the other Gonzalez, Edgar? The non-roster invitee looked impressive in a sample intrasquad game today, who knows? I digress.

Crosby and the Short-Stop position gets my attention. Word’s out that Crosby has a vendetta!

Crosby-who has yet to fullfil his potential- is hard at work, attempting to put to good use the former “Bash Brother” Mark MCgwire’s  batting instruction.  From what I’ve seen in the media reports, naysayers-especially GM Billy Bean- have lost all faith in the former ROY. This alone has sparked Crosby and so far, he’s shown a significant change in his stance, swing, and approach. From camp, many are saying he looks good. For Crosby though, is this what has hampered his success, his swing, or has it been his frequent pine riding on the disabled list? I guess we’ll know sooner rather than later, or A’s fans wont have to worry if Orlando Cabrera agrees to a lesser contract, one or the other.

I’d like to here why anyone would appose a swap of Cabrera for Crosby. Say Cabrera agrees to a $4MM and the A’s pass Crosby’s service’s to another team, and cover half of his salary around $2.5MM. Sure the home runs might not be there but the average and OBP will. What is there to dislike?

Since this is my first post here, I assume there should be some feedback???

Well chomp on that for a while and I’ll be back for more.

The Oakland Athletics had 16 hits and scored six runs in the first two innings of the game and then held on to beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-5 on Wednesday evening. With the one run victory, the A’s and Angels split the four game series.

Six differen’t A’s pitchers pitched in the game as Gio Gonzalez only lasted three inning. Gonzalez gave up three hits and four runs and then the bullpen was called into action. Huston Street ended up picking up the win as he pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief. Brad Ziegler recorded his sixth save of the season as well in the game as he shut the door on the Angels in the ninth inning.

Emil Brown led the way at the plate with three rbi. Brown had a rbi single in the first inning and then a two run home run in the second inning. Bobby Crosby was right behind Brown in the rbi column as he had a two run double for two rbi’s. Eric Patterson added a rbi single to finish up the scoring for the A’s.

The A’s will now begin a four game series with the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night. A’s Blog

The Oakland Athletics lost to the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on 11 innings on Wednesday afternoon.  The loss finished up a very dissappointing series with the Royals as the A’s lost all three games and are now 53-54 on the season.  Losing Blanton and Harden is really going to show in the next three weeks I’m afraid.

Huston Street took the loss for the A’s as he gave up a rbi sac fly to Jose Guillen in the 11th inning.  Street pitched 1 2/3 innings and was possibly left in the game just a little bit too long in my opinion.  Starting pitcher Sean Gallagher was charged with five hits and three runs over five innings.

The A’s first got on the scoreboard in the second inning when Bobby Crosby had a rbi single to score Mark Ellis.  Ryan Sweeney then added a rbi single that scored Jack Hannahan to make it 2-0 A’s.  The Athletics would not score again until the seventh inning when Crosby had another rbi single that scored Emil Brown.

Tough series for the A’s and I don’t see things turning around to be honest.  I should also mention that I will not be around until August 12th as I will be at a conference out of town.  If there is an A’s fan out there that would like to cover the games and do some blogging please use the contact us link and email me for details.

Thanks – Cliff

The Oakland Athletics lost to the Kansas City Royals for the second straight game on Tuesday night.  The A’s just couldn’t get much going at the plate against Gil Meche and they will now have to win on Wednesday to avoid the embarrasing three game sweep at home against the Royals.

Athletics starting pitcher Greg Smtih served up two home runs including a three run shot in the seventh inning to John Buck as he took the loss.  Smith is now a terrible 5-10 on the year.  He did only give four hits in his seven innings of action, but two of those hits were home runs and he just can’t do that if he wants to keep the team in a position to win.

Mark Ellis got the A’s scoring started with a rbi single in the fourth inning.  Jack Cust scored on the Ellis single.  In the seventh inning, Bobby Crosby grounded out to the pitcher and Ellis scored the second and final run for the A’s.  The Athletics struckout 10 times and left 11 runners on base in the game.

Hopefully the team can atleast win on Wednesday to avoid the sweep.  Oakland Athletics Baseball

The Oakland Athletics picked up a nice 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night to even their series at one game each.  The A’s used a a three run 4th inning and a four run 8th inning to score all seven of their runs.  It was nice to see the team score seven runs on nine hits as that means the offense was productive and knocked in the runs when they needed too.

Jack Hannahan clubbed a three run home run in the 4th inning and then added a rbi single in the 8th inning to lead the team with four rbi.  Kurt Suzuki and Bobby Crosby both added on a rbi each in the game as well.  Ryan Sweeney also scored on a error in the ninth inning for the A’s eight and final run of the game.

Dallas Braden picked up the win after throwing five innings.  Jerry Blevins tossed a scorless inning before Brad Ziegler threw the 7th and 8th innings without allow a run.  Closer Huston Street tossed the final inning of the game.

Awesome win for the A’s who even up the series at one game each.  Hopefully they can win again on Wednesday.  What do you think of their chances?

Athletics Blog

The Oakland Athletics dropped the final game of a three game series to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday afternoon by the score of 7-4.  They A’s were doing alright until the bottom of the six inning when the Angels scored three runs, and then they tacked on single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to expand their lead to three.  The A’s ended up dropping two of three against the Angels in the series.

Starting pitcher Dana Eveland pitched 5 2/3 innings before being pulled.  Eveland gave up four hit and three runs in his five plus innings of action.  Keith Foulke was the losing pitcher in the game as he gave up two run home run to Juan Rivera that proved to be the winning run.  Santiago Casilla also gave up one run in relief.

Mark Ellis went 2-4 with two rbi to lead the A’s at the plate.  The other two runs for the A’s were unearned.  Bobby Crosby and Carlos Gonzalez scored the unearned runs.

Now the Athletics will start a four game series with the Chicago White Sox over the fourth of July weekend.

Athletics Blog

The Oakland Athletics were ahead 3-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning but they allowed the Angels to score three runs in the bottom of the inning and pull away for the 5-3 victory.  Alan Embree was charged with all three runs in the eighth inning for the A’s and took the loss and is now 1-3 on the season.  Embree gave up a rbi single to Vladimir Guerrero and then a two run home run to Garret Anderson.

A’s starting pitcher Rich Harden only pitched five innings as he was pulled after giving up five hits and two runs.  Brad Ziegler did a good job as he pitched two innings of scoreless relief after Harden left the game.

The A’s had three seperate plates with one rbi each in the game.  Mark Ellis hit a solo home run in the eighth inning while Bobby Crosby and Ryan Sweeney both had rbi singles early in the game.  A’s just needed a little bit more offense to pull out the victory.

Athletics Blog

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Greg Smith was at the top of his game Monday night as the pitched a complete game four hitter and the Athletics defeated the Los Angeles Angles 4-1.  That was a great performance out of Smith as he limited the great offense of the Angels to only four hits and one run.

Smith is now 5-6 on the season with a 3.44 era.  The only run that Smith gave up came in the fifth inning with Mike Napoli hit a solo home run off him.  Other then that, Smith never really made any mistakes and just let his defense take care of him.

Eric Chavez led the A’s with two rbi which came in the seventh inning a two run single.  Mark Ellis had a rbi groundout in the second inning before Daric Barton singled in another run.  Bobby Crosby scored an unearned run in the ninth inning on an Angels error as well.

Great win for the A’s who are now 45-37 on the season.  Athletics Blog

This time it was Rich Harden and the Oakland Athletics shutting out the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0.  Last night the Phillies shut out the A’s, so this time it was just a little pay back as the A’s took two out of three games in the series.

Harden was absolutely marvelous as he gave two hits and pitched eight innings before turning things over to Alan Embree in the ninth.  Embree did give up a triple to Pat Burrell but then got Ryan Howard out for the final out of the game.  Harden improved his record to 5-0 with the victory.  Be prepared to hear more trade rumors considering Harden after this outing.

Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust, Bobby Crosby, and Jack Hannahan all had one rbi in the game for the A’s.  The A’s scored one unearned run in the ninth inning as well in the game.

The A’s are now 43-35 on the season as the head into a weekend series with the San Francisco Giants.  Are you a A’s fan that enjoys talking and writing about the A’s?  We are currently looking for a new contributer that would like to write some game recaps similiar to this.  If you are interested, please use the contact us link at the top of the site or leave us a comment in this post and we will get back to you!

A’s Blog

The Oakland Athletics hit six home runs as they went on to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 15-1 on Tuesday evening.  Little second basemen Mark Ellis hit two of the home runs and had four rbi out of the lead off spot.  Great job for Ellis who as struggled at the plate this season.  He is now hitting .265 on the season with 28 rbi.

Eric Chavez, Kurt Suzuki, Bobby Crosby, and Rajai Davis all hit home runs in the game as well.  Talk about making the long ball work for you in a game.  Anytime you hit six home runs like the A’s did, you should crush your opponent just like they did.

Justin Duchscherer was the winning pitcher and is now 7-4 on the season.  Duchscherer pitched eight inning while only giving up five hits and one run.  The one run came in the fifth inning on a fielder choice to third base.  Andrew Brown came in to the game in the ninth inning to finish things up with out any problems.

Athletics Blog