Salon's Kaufman accuses Kindred of 'ignorance'

Because...why?

I'm pretty sure you don't actually believe this...you're presumably not pissed off when Ryan Howard takes a conservative lead, right?

 

Don't you wonder about almost everybody at this point?

 

In reference to something else. No, of course I don't. What does piss me off is Sit On My Ass and Wait Around for the Three-Run Homerball.

 

Ummm ... He was referring to this green light.

 

It took me about four tries to finally get that post right.

 

Oakland was in the top half of MLB in stolen bases bases last season with 88, with just under the American league average of 94.

They were second in the league in stolen base percentage, at 81%. That kind of efficiency, as I'm sure you know, is actually seen as a good thing.

 

Apologies, LJB. I thought it seemed out of character.

 

No worries.

I'm not trying to be closed-minded about this, I really am not, but I watched an A's interleague game last season that was lost almost singularly because they couldn't get a bunt down when they had to have one. And it's because they just don't work on those things in Oakland.

 

And they're thinking is that it's a fair tradeoff for the value they get out of the rest of the skills they invest in. The '85 Cardinals couldn't get a three-run homer out of anyone but Jack Clark. It's not how their team was constructed. But they did quite well.

I guess it can be frustrating to watch a team not get the little things done we've always been taught, from the time we picked up a bat, are so important. But I woud argue that working counts and making pitchers throw a lot of pitches is a little thing, too, that a lot of today's hitters don't do.

When I covered MLB, pitchers always talked about what "tough outs" the A's were, and how frustrating it was to pitch to them. And I promise you that those guys didn't know their VORP from their IRS from their STD.

 

Yeah, and when Clark went down to injury, and signed elsewhere, and a bullfrog like Bob Horner was put in his place, the 10-Singles-and-One-HR-a-Game approach was screwed.

Sometimes you need the contact hitter to hit one out of the ballpark. Even if it happens on a 1-0 count instead of the bloated eight-pitch at bats that have led the A's to all these World Series titles.

Other times you need Dana Eveland or Donnie Murphy to get down a bunt. And they should be expected to handle it.

Some of this is as fucktarded as hiring a reporter who doesn't know how to type, or who can only write in heroic couplets.

 

I would read that guy day in and day out. That sounds awesome. I'm going to start writing in sonnet form.

 

No, it's about having a plan and a philosophy and carrying it through as best you can.

The Twins are an organization on a tight budget, as well, and they have a different philosophy - fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. They have it drilled into them from rookie ball up that you play as mistake-free as possible, and they win on a low budget, as well, even as they lose big names to free agency and/or trade.

All Beane is doing is trying to find the best value for the money he has to spend by spotting inefficiencies in the current market. I'm sure he'd love to have a bopper who could take someone out first-pitch fastball. But they can't afford those guys.

(On a sidenote, I've never understood what makes the A's a "small market" team. Isn't the Bay the fourth largest market in America?)