Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  Time for me to hand out my half year grades for our Oakland Athletics.  I'm going to do it a little differently this year.  In past seasons, I'd give it out to individuals, but I'm going to give it to the different portions of the team.  I'm going to break it out into starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, managing and front office.  I'll give my grade and my thinking as to why that grade applies and then standouts and disappointments.

As always, this is not scientific by any means.  Much of it has to do with the expectations that I had for that aspect of the A's I mentioned.

Starting pitching - A:  The A's started the season with a lot of question marks in their rotation.  I honestly thought that the rotation would include Lenny DiNardo and Kirk Saarloos right about now.  I figured Harden and Duchscherer would not have lasted and the emergency plan of DiNardo and Saarloos would be in full motion while we were waiting for Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill to make it to the pros.  Granted, both have missed time with injuries in the first half, but they've also pitched a lot more than I thought they were.  As a matter of fact, the A's starting pitching team ERA is 3.48, the best in the entire majors.  The starting pitching has been absolutely, positively stellar and probably the biggest reason the A's are still within shouting distance of the division-leading Angels.  They've also been able to do it with two rookies in Greg Smith and Dana Eveland.  It'll be interesting to see how those two guys hold up over the second half.  The irony of all this is that the pitcher who the A's tagged with the "ace" tag before the season started happens to be their worst starter statistically right now.

Starting pitching standouts:  Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland, Greg Smith

Starting pitching disappointments:  Joe Blanton

Relief pitching - A- :  If the major reason the A's have been winning is their starters, the relief pitching is the minor reason.  The A's have the sixth best ERA out of their relievers in all of baseball.  They've also done it with a cast of largely no names and folks that people didn't expect to be as good as they have been.  Santiago Casilla had a Dennis Eckersley-like start to his year.  Andrew Brown was fantastic.  Joey Devine was spectacular.  Brad Ziegler came from Sacramento to become integral.  The known quantities like Embree, Foulke and Street suddenly seemed to be the ones that made me more nervous than the less proven guys.  Still, the pen has been relatively solid.  Huston Street hasn't been as good as I'd like but I do suspect that he's been pitching through various injuries this year.

Relief pitching standouts:  Joey Devine, Brad Ziegler, Andrew Brown, Santiago Casilla, Chad Gaudin (he also could've made the starting pitcher portion too), Keith Foulke (yes, he's been good even though he scares me to death at times),

Relief pitching disappointments:  Huston Street

Offense - D+ :  The A's have the 25th best batting average in all of baseball.  A team that prides itself on having patience at the plate is 16th in all of baseball in on-base percentage.  And let's not talk about power.  The team is 26th in all of baseball in slugging percentage.  Not surprisingly, the team is 10th in the AL in runs scored.  If this team had just average hitting and the starting pitching continues to prove its might, the A's could truly be a contending team this year.  Now I suspected we'd have this issue, especially with a lot of very young guys getting their first true extended major league experience.  Carlos Gonzalez, Daric Barton, Kurt Suzuki and Travis Buck were all likely going to be a foundation of the A's offense.  I expected them to have ups and downs, but for Barton and Buck, it's mostly been downs.  Jack Hannahan was getting his first extended experience.  Jack Cust really only had last season in the pros.  So a lot of the offense was built on wild cards.  One major known entity was Frank Thomas who the A's picked up for a piece of Hubba Bubba and a used Hyundai when the Blue Jays dumped him.  Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays are one of the teams who has scored fewer runs than the A's in the AL.  Still, I suspected the A's hitting was going to be mediocre, but it's been downright bad at points.  There are a few guys who've been right about where I expected them to be, such as Mark Ellis and even Bobby Crosby (although he has been a bit better than I expected).

Offensive standouts:  Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust (he does have an .823 OPS even if his BA isn't impressive), Frank Thomas

Offensive disappointments:  Travis Buck (possibly my personal biggest disappointment), Daric Barton (yeah he's really young, but he raised hopes of something special at the end of the year last year), Emil Brown (I expected him to at least hit left-handed pitching), Chris Denorfia (I thought he was going to be the regular guy in center field)

Managing - B :  I still hadn't made up my mind about Geren before this season started.  He hasn't done anything patently stupid and he's more flexible with his lineup card than Macha could've ever dreamed of being.  The problem is that when he's filling out that lineup card, he's often dealing with many of his best hitters not being there.  Ryan Sweeney has been arguably the A's best hitter this year and yet, he's been in and out of the lineup due to injury issues.  Mike Sweeney was hitting well and now he has injured knees.  Frank Thomas was getting in a groove and then he went down.  Eric Chavez has just recently become a regular in the A's lineup and he doesn't look 100 percent yet.  Still the starting pitching has made Geren look good.  He's made smart decisions for the most part with the bullpen.  Although I would really like to see him start to trust some of the younger guys a little more.  Foulke always looks like he's about to give up a bomb.  And Embree is always all about the heat, it's just a matter of whether someone gets geared up enough for it. One thing that I'm sure is a popular topic of discussion these days among the A's front office and Geren is what to do about Joe Blanton.  After yesterday's performance, I really think the A's have to think about replacing him as a starter, at least temporarily, with Chad Gaudin.  Still, given what the A's have had to deal with this year in terms of the injection of youth, unexpectedly bad struggles of guys like Buck and Barton, the myriad of injuries in the bullpen and to key offensive pieces, Geren has done a nice job of keeping a team that wasn't expected to compete in the running.  Much of that has to do with the starting pitching, mind you, but Geren has also done a pretty damn good job of handling the bullpen.

Front office - A- :  I know a lot of folks are going to automatically charge me with just giving Beane some undeserved praise here, but I honestly think that this could be the best job Beane has done in his time with the A's.  Yes, the team is still offensively deficient.  But it also has the best starting pitching in baseball right now and that's WITH the "ace" being the worst statistically on staff.  Danny Haren was awesome.  No one can dispute that.  But the A's have three significant chips already contributing at the major league level.  They also have a ton of talent in their minor league system now.  I'm not sure there are too many other front office groups in baseball who could simultaneously rebuild a farm system while keeping the major league team competitive for a division crown.  The biggest thing Beane has done is to build a team with depth.  So when an Eric Chavez can't play for months at a time, Jack Hannahan is waiting to take over.  Earlier in the season when Barton was struggling at first, Mike Sweeney saw some time there.  Greg Smith stepped into the rotation when Harden and Duchscherer went down.  Gaudin would probably be a top three starter for most rotations.  Yet he's sixth on the A's depth chart.  Brad Ziegler is there when the A's have bullpen issues.  Beane is nothing if not adaptive.  Yes, Emil Brown is seeming like a mistake right now, but he also had a ton of key RBIs at the beginning of the season when seemingly no one was batting in runs.  And Beane deserves a ton of credit for getting Frank Thomas for nothing.  Is the offense still a gong show?  Yes.  But Beane has done enough to cover up for the shortcomings by building the best rotation in baseball and a very steady bullpen to back it up.

Overall - A- : Honestly I wrestled with this one for a while.  I wavered between a B, B+, A- and an A.  But ultimately for me it came down to expectations.  I did not expect this team to be here halfway through the season.  I expected them to be in a distant third or even last place in the division.  But the starting pitching has kept this team afloat and right in the thick of the AL West despite low to no expectations from most folks. And my expectations were pretty low heading into 2008.  I thought I'd just enjoy watching some young kids come into their own.  Instead the team has fought and scrapped its way into second place in the division.

So there you have it.  My first half grades for our Oakland Athletics in 2008.  What grades would you give and why?  Who has been a disppointment so far and who has been a standout?

Better yet, give me some predictions for the second half of 2008.  Will the A's hang with the Angels or will they fade?  Will Harden and/or Duchscherer be sent to a contender for a truckload of quality prospects?  And maybe you even want to throw in the win total for 2008.  If I had to guess, I think the A's wind up around 86 wins and I do think either Harden or Duke will be dealt.

You know, I'm predisposed to loving everything Oakland Athletics.  No duh you're saying.  But there is always differences in the love for each particular version of our beloved A's. I imagine it's kind of like having a new child every year.  You love them all, you just love them differently.

This year, the A's are just a lovable bunch and it's kind of a shame that the fans in the Bay Area aren't coming out to see this team more frequently.  It's probably something along the lines of what Beane always says about clubhouse chemistry.  The chemistry is there as long as you're winning.  The love blossoms the more winning that happens.  But it's not just about that for me.  It's a huge part, don't get me wrong, and the 2008 team is already a lot more lovable than the 2007 bunch.  There's just something about having that "no expectations" mentality and have everyone on the planet disrespecting the team and succeeding in the face of that that makes our muppets even more lovable.

I mean, I could go down a list of these guys and explain why I find each of them appealing...OK, actually, I'll do just that.

Rich Harden:  I love a guy who can be so very dominant throwing essentially two pitches for the majority of the time.  He's thrown the splitter a bit more lately, but he's doing what he's been doing largely with just a fastball and a changeup.  Remarkable.  Oh and that smirk is frigging brilliant.

Justin Duchscherer and Greg Smith:  I'm looping these two together because they largely accomplish great things despite the doubters and people who don't believe a guy who can throw more than 89 mph can be dominant.  Duke for being amongst the pitching elite and Smith for doing what he's doing as a rookie.  Oh and they both look more like they should be teaching third grade math rather than pitching in the big leagues.  Like Harden and Blanton both look like big league pitchers.  Duke and Smith?  Not so much.  I love that.

Joe Blanton:  Blanton has been good this year and he's assumed a larger role that he probably wasn't equipped to handle.  So he's often been matched up against the number one guy on the other team.  He's also pitched a ton already this year given that the A's started earlier in Japan.  Still, do still love Cupcakes.

Dana Eveland:  From his demeanor to his body he reminds me of a combination of C.C. Sabathia and younger David Wells.  Let's just hope that he doesn't need to have a hangover to throw a no hitter.  I love the fact that, according to things I'd seen written about Eveland, teams didn't think he could make it because of his body and lack of commitment to his craft.  It's always nice to give guys that are nice and motivated.

Mark Ellis:  How can I not start with Ellis?  The guy plays defense in an understated, yet spectacular fashion.  It's odd to believe that this guy has never won a gold glove.  He also never seems to have an at bat where I'm saying, wow, that was just a terrible AB.

Eric Chavez:  Everyone has jumped on Chavez for years for not being clutch and being the master of the meaningless home run, but there's something about him this year that seems different.  Maybe I'm the only one who feels that way, but that home run he hit off Webb last night was remarkable.  It was a nearly perfect pitch sinking away to the outside corner and he still hit it out to the opposite field.  I don't remember Chavez doing that since maybe 2002.  So perhaps he's just feeling much better having had all of his various ailments repaired this past offseason.

Bobby Crosby:  He's been public enemy number one around here for a while but I think he's looked a lot better and more consistent than he's been in his still young career.  Plus, you've got to love a guy who is laying out to keep a ball in the infield to preserve a shutout when the A's are up 8-0 like they were last night. 

Kurt Suzuki:  Zook has been up and down this year, but he's calling the game game like he's been in the league 10 years.  Our pitchers are trusting him and he can show very occasional flashes of power unlike the A's previous catcher.  Plus he seems to be willing to block the plate unlike the A's previous catcher before the previous catcher.

Carlos Gonzalez:  That catch he made last night was just amazing.  And he seems like the real deal to me at the plate.  Yeah he's going to need time to mature, but he's so young that I fully expect to see him as an all star in the future.

Jack Cust:  Yeah he sometimes looks like the Keystone Cops in left field, but I will always pull for a guy who finally gets a shot to succeed after languishing in purgatory.  Cust is doing just that.  Yes, he frustrates me with the strikeouts, but much like a curious kid who takes apart the new toy you bought him to see how it works, you realize that with the bad is going to come the good.

Frank Thomas:  Even though I said that signing Frank might've been a mistake, I gotta admit that I love seeing rebar man waiting in the on deck circle.  2006 was such a fun season as an A's fan and Thomas feels like he should've always been an A.

Daric Barton:  I'm going to start calling Barton Martin Brodeur because he does the splits to get a ball at first base nearly once a game.  Yes, he hasn't been producing the way we want offensively, but he's also very young and has such an advanced knowledge of the strike zone that I do believe he's going to mature into a really good hitter.  We just have to be patient with him now.

Jack Hannahan:  OK so he isn't Marco Scutaro, but Hannahan is an excellent defensive sub that the A's have now.  And he plays a very solid defense at third when Chavez needs the inevitable rest this year.  These kinds of moves are what make Beane so special.  That and getting two ML pitchers and a ML outfielder who are already contributing for Dan Haren (and I love Haren).

Ryan Sweeney:  Would you trade for Nick Swisher straight up for Ryan Sweeney at this point?  I don't think I would and I really loved Swisher's attitude when he was here.  But Sweeney is maturing into a great ballplayer right in front of our very eyes.  Yeah, he's not very patient at the plate, but he's a very good hitter.  Maybe he'll come back down to earth a bit, but I really like him both offensively and defensively.

Chad Gaudin:  So he doesn't squawk a bit when he's relegated to bullpen status (at least not that I saw) despite the fact that he did absolutely nothing to deserve the demotion.  He's been a part of one of the best bullpens in baseball and probably had every right to complain when put there.  Yet he just remained professional and did what he needed to.  You've got to love him for it.  That and he's been just nails out of the pen.

Brad Ziegler:  A 28-year-old rookie who agreed to switch his delivery because he believed the A's organization when they told him that it would likely lead to his shot at the majors.  He's someone that inspires me every time I see him pitch because he seems like one of those guys who could've given up.  But he didn't.  He did everything that was asked of him and he's finally getting his chance.

Are there other guys to love?  Hell yes.  I'm coming around on my bitterness surrounding Keith Foulke's departure to the Red Sox a few years ago.  Santiago Casilla, or the Artist Formerly Known as Jairo as I like to call him, has been brilliant now that he's finally stuck at the big league level.

Any way, I'm probably getting swept away in a good spell for the A's as I am a fan first and foremost, but I can't help it.  This is a fun team to watch on a nightly basis.  You almost always know you're going to see good pitching and a competitive game.  How many teams can you say that about on a consistent basis?

I love you, 2008 Oakland A's.

Man, you know Bobby Crosby should really no longer be public enemy number one around AN.  All right, I know he isn't.  That's fallen into Emil Brown's lap.  But Crosby did something he needs to do more often if he's going to continue to evolve into the MVP-type player that all the experts were once predicting for the A's shortstop.  He drove a pitch to right field to plate Kurt Suzuki for a dramatic, bottom-of-the-ninth walk off win against the Detroit Tigers.

The A's had made a decision right before the hit to actually have Jack Hannahan bunt to move Suzuki to second and put him in scoring position.  I personally would've liked to see Hannahan have an AB right there simply because Hannahan is such a high OBP guy, he likely could've moved Suzuki into scoring position any way.  But that's water under the bridge because the A's won.  And heck, an Oakland Athletic besides Mark Ellis proved that he could actually execute a bunt effectively.

The game looked grim to me going in.  Rogers was so dominant at the Coliseum.  Harden had been hit hard by several Tigers in the past.  But Harden was simply amazing.  He worked in a lot more splitters than I've seen him use in quite a while.  He worked it effectively, racking up nine strikeouts.  The Tigers hitters looked perplexed by Harden up until the sixth inning where, maybe as Harden was wearing down a bit, Curtis Granderson hit a bomb, Carlos Guillen whacked a double and the A's walked Miguel Cabrera to pitch to rookie Jeff Larish.  I thought it was a smart move at the time, but it backfired as Larish took a Harden fastball to left field to help the Tigers take a 2-1 lead.  Harden also threw a whopping 115 pitches.  I was getting more and more nervous as his pitch count went up.  I kept expecting his arm to come flying off with one of those last pitches, but alas, it didn't.

The thing about Harden that might be frustrating both to us and to him is that he's simply not the kind of pitcher who can pitch to contact like say, Justin Duchscherer.  Harden's stuff is simply too baffling and has too much movement for him to count on opponents being able to get contact.  That means that he's going to have high pitch counts often early in the game.  Harden is simple in that the only pitches anyone ever seems to hit off him are his fastballs and occasionally the hanging changeup or splitter (that's rare).  He is the kind of guy who makes you ooooh and ahhhhh when he pitches, but that remarkable stuff will make it hard for him to ever get a complete game.  I forgot this because it had been so long since I'd seen him string a few starts together.

The A's came back and tied it when Daric Barton hit a long bomb off of Kenny Rogers and Rogers, finding out that A's fans aren't very fond of him, eventually left to a chorus of boos in the Coliseum.  Someone brought this up in one of the threads that the A's go up to the plate looking to walk.  Well, that happened in the eighth when Barton came back up with the bases loaded.  Barton got the count to 3-0 in his favor and let the 3-1 pitch go by.  He also then let a fairly hittable 3-1 pitch go by as well until he actually flew out to the Tigers' centerfielder.  I actually liked the approach simply because you had to believe that the pitcher, Bobby Seay, was going to have to come with the fastball on 3-2, so force him to throw three straight strikes.  It was a good approach because Seay looked like he was simply all over the zone.

So the A's again ride some great pitching from Harden, Keith Foulke out of the pen and Huston Street in the ninth (his fastball was once again hitting 95 and the slider had bite) to win.  I personally love the great pitching.  It had vacated the team for a few days there, but then again, Arlington does that to the best of pitchers.  The lack of hitting will probably give me a coronary eventually, but the great pitching gives this team a good chance to win every night.  Even against a team as good as the Tigers (yes, I still believe that team is really good).  And that's all you can ask for.  Right?

You've already read Part I .  Yesterday you read Part II .  Now, comes the conclusion of one of the longest interviews with Billy Beane I've ever conducted.

One note.  I meant to ask Billy about AN favorite and contributor Brad Ziegler but I forgot, so I sent him an email to ask him and his reply was, "On Ziegler we have definitely noticed how well he has performed and at some point, if he continues,  deserves an opportunity"  So keep up the great work, Brad and hopefully we'll see you with the big club sooner rather than later. 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I do conducting it.  I feel extremely lucky that I get the opportunity to do this and I take the responsibility very, very seriously.

Enjoy the conclusion. 

Blez:  Back to the big league club for a moment.  Bobby Crosby had one of the best months he’s had in a long time in April.  What do you think he’s doing differently in the box to make him so much more effective?

Beane:  Well he’s staying in the box.  I mean he’s healthy and that’s helpful.  I’ve said this many times with you but he’s missed so much development time and people tend to get frustrated with injuries.  People expect him to come back and play like a veteran of four or five years and that’s really not the case.  One of the things Bobby is doing much better this year is that he’s going to right field much better.  He’s shortening up with two strikes.  He still opens up a little bit, but he’s had streaks this year where he’s really cut down on his strikeouts and done a great job with two strikes.  He did it just the other day with a double down the line.  When he goes to right field and he thinks that way with two strikes, he’s a dangerous hitter.  To me that’s the biggest thing.  He’ll still fall back a little and it’s something he’s aware of.  It’s something he knew he had an adjustment to make and at times he’s done a good job of making that adjustment.

Blez:  It’s funny because this past weekend, I heard a couple of Atlanta broadcasts and both times they were praising what a great player Crosby could be.  They said it twice how well-rounded a player Crosby was.  They mentioned it several times and I just thought it was funny how the people on AN and people who see him everyday just don’t have that same perception.  There seems to be nothing but frustration with Bobby.

Beane:  The first of it came with his injuries.  What comes hand-in-hand with those injuries was missing that development time and the frustration level also comes from the fact that at times, he’s very good.  People see him put it together.

Blez:  A’s fans have had that same frustration with Eric Chavez for quite a while.

Beane:  Exactly. The frustration comes from everyone realizing the ability is there and wondering when the consistency might come with the performance.  We’re not even two months into the season and this year I think he’s been pretty consistent.  I’ve said it to you many times but I’m a big Bobby Crosby fan because it’s hard to find that kind of talent.  You know someone who plays good defense, can run and have power and speed.  Especially in the middle of the diamond.  The one thing I’m privy to is how much he cares.  All those guys care, but some of them care a lot.  And Bobby is one of those guys that takes every game to heart.  Whether or not people are frustrated with him, if they saw the kid on a day-to-day basis like I do and knew how much he cared, I think he’d quickly become one of their favorites.  For me it hurts when we lose physically and when I see Bobby, I see how I feel in his face if he doesn’t perform well.  And he’s a competitor.  You talk about a god awful mood and a guy you don’t want to speak to if he doesn’t perform well, he’s one of them.  And I like that.  He wears his performance on his sleeve.  If he’s not playing well and the team isn’t playing well, you don’t want to be around him which is good because you want guys to care.  I know how much Bobby cares.

Blez:   How concerned were you with Jack Cust’s early season slump?  He seems to have gotten out of it.

Beane:  Yeah, he became player of the week and given where he started and where he is now, he’s made amazing progress.  He was still getting on base and was a little behind home run-wise.  But that’s the thing that has happened to Jack over his career.  People have pulled the plug on him when he’s struggled.  They’ve never allowed him to struggle and the guy hit 26 home runs last year when he came to us at the end of May.  He deserves the opportunity to struggle.  So to answer your question about how concerned I was, I believed he would get it going.  He was still taking some of his walks and Jack has been hitting since he was 18 years old.  I didn’t think that all of a sudden the bubble had burst.  That was why we kept him out there.

Blez:  Did you think it might’ve been one of those situations where people might’ve gotten a better book on him?  It seemed like they were throwing him nothing but offspeed, offspeed, offspeed.

Beane:  When you’re struggling, every guy looks bad on offspeed stuff.  Jack’s going to strike out there.  We know that.

Blez:  Do you mind all those strike outs from him?

Beane:  Well, we don’t like them (laughing).  But that’s who he is.  But the idea that Jack is going to turn into (former Pirate and A) Manny Sanguillen or a guy that makes a lot of contact just isn’t going to happen.  He does have a great strike zone and walks a lot and he has a lot of power.  That’s just part of the deal with Jack.

Blez:  Were you fascinated by Jack’s season last year in which he seemed to have three true outcomes any time Jack came up last year and that was a walk, home run or strike out?  Had you ever seen anything like that before?

Beane:  When (Mark) McGwire was here, it was kind of like that.  He actually had a tough year in 89 or 90, but you saw a little bit of it there.  But listen if you had nine Jack Custs in your lineup, you’d have a lot of home runs and a lot of guys on base. 

Blez:  You’d win a lot of games.

Beane:  Exactly, you’d win a lot of games. 

Blez:  Kind of like the concept of having nine Scott Hattebergs.

Beane:  But that was the beauty of Hatte, that he would take a walk or likely be able to make contact. 

Blez:  What I was saying was a reference to the concept of the winning team from Moneyball with nine Scott Hattebergs.

Beane:  Yeah, if you had nine Jack Custs, you’d have a pretty good offensive club.  That’s a lot of walks and home runs.

Blez:  I know Eric Chavez has been rehabbing in Sacramento.  Do you think we’ll see him on the field in 2008?  Mark Kotsay had a similar back surgery and he had stated that he never felt good all year long last year. Kotsay has been better since he’s been in Atlanta, but do you think it’s realistic that we’ll see Chavez this year?

Beane:  Oh yeah, I’d be surprised if we didn’t.  He’s felt great up until this point.  Given what Eric has gone through, everyone is going to be cautious and even cautiously optimistic.  He’s eligible to come off on May 27th.  That doesn’t mean we’re going to pull him off but I think the fact that he’s playing games in Sacramento is the best indicator. 

Blez:  Is he playing full games down there?

Beane:  He had four at bats and went two for four last night.  He’s DHed and done some field work.  It’s a very detailed plan on how to get him back out there.  It’s a long program.  The 60-day DL was the best thing for him because early on he was trying so hard to get out there as soon as possible.  When we pushed it so far out into May, I think it forced him to take a deep breath and say, well I can’t come back until the 27th of May any way.  He had to come out the other night but not because it had anything to do with his back or anything but his shoulder and leg was just dead.  He hasn’t been out in the field a lot so his legs were just crushed.  But so far so good, he hit a home run yesterday.

Blez:  I meant to ask this earlier when we were talking about him, but how does the situation work with his contract?  Do you have a chance to pick up the option on him that the Jays had?

Beane:  He was released so the option is wiped clean and we don’t have a chance to pick it up.

Blez:  We’ve talked a lot about the starting pitching and surprises like Dana Eveland and Greg Smith, but did you expect the bullpen to be as good as it has been so far?  Casilla in particular up until his arm injury the other day.  He was having an Eckersley-like season..  Andrew Brown was also great up until his recent struggles.

Beane:  Yeah, Casilla looked great.  I actually thought we were pretty good.  But the guy who has come up and been pretty good as a surprise has been Joey Devine.  We wanted him to get his feet wet with the organization and we knew we were going to call him up at some point but we didn’t expect it this early.  But he’s really taken off since he’s been here.  In Andrew and Casilla’s case, I don’t think we were really surprised.  Santiago’s always had that ability.

Blez:  He’s throwing 96 and 97 miles per hour.

Beane:  He’s had times, depending on his workload in the minor leagues, where he’s hit 95, 97 at times and depending on workload he’ll drop down to 90, 92.  And Andrew has been the same way.  I thought we had the makings of a pretty deep bullpen.  Keith (Foulke) has been a pretty nice addition too.  He’s pitched really well.  So to answer your question, I thought we’d have a shot at pretty good bullpen quite frankly.

Blez:  I’ll raise my hand and say I was down on the Emil Brown signing at the beginning just because I thought he was going to take some playing time away from the younger guys like Travis Buck and maybe even blocking Carlos Gonzalez had he broken with the team.  But Brown has proven to do something well that the A’s haven’t had the last few years and that’s hitting with runners in scoring position, although he has hit a little slump recently. 

Beane:  He’s not the only one, we had a tough offensive road trip.

Blez:  What exactly made him an appealing signing for you and does it make sense that a guy who may not be as patient as the rest of the lineup to force opposition pitchers to approach them differently.  Someone like Jay Payton comes to mind because I thought he was a nice fit for the lineup because everyone else would see a lot of pitchers and…

Beane:  He’d jump on the first pitch or something?

Blez:  Yeah, exactly.

Beane:  That’s a very good comparison actually.  Jay and Emil are a very good comparison.  They’re both aggressive in the strike zone.

Blez:  And they’ll lay off on occasion too.

Beane:  Yeah and that’s a pretty interesting comparison.  In Emil’s case, he’s played a lot too.  The last week you mentioned, he struggled a little bit.  But the thought was that he was going to give some of the young left handers a break against some left-handed pitching.  He’s swung the bat well though so he’s been in there every day.  I do think he could use a couple days off as well at some point.  With Emil, we drafted him so we had a background with him.  And originally when the season ended we thought there was a chance we were going to bring Shannon (Stewart) back.  Then Shannon wanted a longer contract than we wanted to give at the time.  It then looked like he was going to get it and Emil became available.  We didn’t have a right-handed bat so we needed a right-handed bat to offset all those young left-handed hitters.  And Emil’s always been a good RBI guy.  So we thought at the time we should jump on him because it was good value for us similar to what Shannon was the previous year.  We got him to replace Shannon, bring a veteran presence to the team and a guy who could hit left-handers. 

Blez:  He could also play center field.

Beane:  Yeah, in a pinch he could play center and all three outfield positions.  So far we’ve been happy and he’s a good guy too.  But we knew that since we had some background on him since he started in the organization.

Blez:  Talking about Emil leads to an interesting discussion that we always have on AN and many other places online.  It’s the notion of clutch hitting.  I don’t know if I ever asked you about it and I wanted to see where you come down on the fence on this one.  Do you believe in clutch hitting?

Beane:  Do I believe in clutch hitting?

Blez:  Yeah, is there such a thing as a guy who can be called a clutch hitter?

Beane:  I think there’s a better way to answer that.  I think ultimately most guys are going to, given if they have enough at bats, will probably hit close to what they hit for their career. 

Blez:  In other words, guys who are usually good hitters are going to excel in each situation regardless?

Beane:  Yeah, I think people have a tendency to define a guy as a clutch hitter because of a couple of at bats.  But I’m not sure that a couple of at bats are defining enough.  You need a lot of events or at bats and usually their stats will be what they normally are.

Blez:  Is there a way to quantify it?

Beane:  I know people are trying to.

Blez:  Emil seems to be one of those guys who has had good at bats when he has runners in scoring position. 

Beane:  His RBIs reflect that, but I still think that from a macro standpoint we’re still looking at a small sample size.  ‘Course every time I say this I think of those years where the Angels were incredible with runners in scoring position.  The Twins were always historically good.  I do think there is a certain style that lends itself to being good in those situations.  Obviously contact hitters are going to be good.  And those two teams because they had a lot of contact hitters were very good.  I remember when Ichiro, one the first years he was over here, he hit something ridiculous with runners in scoring position.  Now for a whole season it was remarkable what he did, but I think the next year he came down closer to what his career average was.  Every once in a while you have an aberration where an individual or team will keep it up for a whole year.  But by and large, I think a team or the individual are going to return to their level.

Blez:  You don’t sound like you’re a believer in clutch hitting then.

Beane:  I’ll tell you what, I used to rib my assistants more than anything whenever Marco (Scutaro) would come through.  I would tell them that we’d need to put Marco in for any of those situations. 

Blez:  He’s a really good example of a lot of A’s fans believing in clutch hitting because he seemed to prove himself a better hitter in those situations.

Beane:  I think his style of hitting worked well in those situations.  He was a good high fastball hitter and usually at the end of the game you have guys who have good arms and aren’t afraid to challenge guys.  That fit Marco as a hitter because he was a good high fastball hitter with a nice short stroke.  I think after a while you do start to believe in yourself in that situation, so yeah, he actually was a guy that I wanted up at the end of the game.

Blez:  This is my last question, but it’s a big one.  I know you probably don’t want to jinx yourself, but if this team somehow wins the AL West or even remains in contention for the AL West crown down to the final days of the season, is this your Sistine Chapel or Ninth Symphony?

Beane:  (laughing)  Oh God you can’t ask me that.  You’re probably right in that I don’t want to answer that in that we have so far to go. 

Blez:  I’m just saying hypothetically that if you guys are right there at the end of the season would you stand back and say, “This is my masterpiece.” 

Beane:  No, no, no.  I think a few people would be laughing at that comparison.  There is nothing in sports that can compare. 

Blez:  I’ve actually been there and it is breathtaking. 

Beane:  You were the guy flashing pictures, weren’t you?  (laughing)

Blez:  No but my wife’s aunt was trying to sneak some pictures and a small Italian lady came over and yelled at her.  (laughing)

Beane:  If I see a photo appear on AN, I’m going to know that you were the guy.  (laughing)  It’s been a balance.  We started out well, we have to respect that.  And we’re a major league franchise.  If there are opportunities, you have to seize them.  You mentioned the signing of Frank.  I have a responsibility to grab those opportunities but we’re really trying to build something that has legs and is long-term. 

Blez:  So let’s say you get closer to the July 31st trading deadline and you realize this team has hung with the Angels and even the Rangers as they suddenly appear to be making a climb, but you’ve hung right in there with those two teams and you’re right in the thick of things.  Do you make a decision to go for it?

Beane:  If we have a chance to win, we always have to take that opportunity.  But if it’s there you’re foolish not to do that.  Getting back to your original question, Tyler, it’s a ridiculous comparison (laughs).  We’ve accomplished nothing.  We’ve had a nice start and we’ve put some really nice players in the system.  We’ve had a positive start to the beginning of the season.  People who might not have been optimistic about the franchise or at least seen the situation we’re trying to create when we started this whole thing…

Blez:  Maybe are having their eyes opened?

Beane:  Yeah, exactly.  And that’s all that we’ve really accomplished.  We have so far to go.  We have so many things to go through and such a difficult road ahead of us that that’s the farthest thing from my mind.  I should say that I’ve very happy where we’re headed and the direction that we’re going in.  And there’s going to be some changes along the way and if somewhere along the way there’s an opportunity to win now or next year, it’s my personality to go ahead and grab that opportunity.  But we have a long way to go.

Blez:  I’ll just say this.  If the A’s wind up winning the AL West this year, my only post the day they win it will be a photo of the Sistine Chapel and an embedded MP3 of the Ode to Joy. 

Beane:  We do have a long way to go and I did say at the beginning that we didn’t have any expectations, but we also don’t have any limitations.  And that still stands now.  Our debate and you guys have it as well, is that we say that we’re going with young players and if we sign some veterans it throws everyone for a loop.  But if there’s a gap there we want to fill it up.  We’re trying to create an organization that gets back to having a group of young players who come through.  But if that group of young players comes along and there’s an opportunity out there tomorrow, you know what, you put yourself in a position to trade some young guys if you think you can win.  Then you have tough decisions to make.

Blez:  Good tough decisions though.

Beane:  Yeah because that means your team is playing well and the decision on whether to move a young player or not isn’t always easy, because we’ve moved some really good ones.  But in looking back and viewing those opportunities that it created for us, it’s something we’d do again. 

Blez:  I appreciate your time as always.

Beane:  Always my pleasure, Tyler.  And never compare anything I do to the Sistine Chapel.  (laughs)


[EDITOR'S NOTE:  I didn't do a good job of phrasing that last question to Beane.  What I meant when I asked him the question was more along the lines of, "If the A's win the the West, would this be the biggest accomplishment in your professional career?"  I essentially was making the comparison that the Sistine Chapel was Michelangelo's masterpiece of his life's work as was the Ninth Symphony for Beethoven (although music historians would argue the Fifth or possibly the Seventh as being better).  I explained what I meant to Beane after I'd shut the recorder off.  Bad phrasing on my part. Hope you enjoyed regardless of my poor phrasing.  - Blez]