Oakland Park Baseball

Remember the Bash Brothers and the forearm bash after homers back in the late 80s early 90's ? Well we now have the Milton Bradley-Nick Swisher celebratory hillbilly sqaure dance go dumb, stupid retarded mosh pit jig in the dugout after homers. It's only a matter of time before the kids out in the left field bleachers (yeah- them) start doing the jig after homers. I can hardly wait.

Besides the Yankees, can anyone name a more potentially dangerous 3,4,5, and 6 and7 spots in the lineup ? Wait 'till Crosby heats up... I would not want to have to face Swish, Crosby, Chavy, Thomas, Milty and Scutaro back to back to back etc... GEE WHIZ...

Here are a couple of astoundingly more dangerous 3-7s:

Beltran, Delgado, Wright, Floyd, Nady

Ortiz, Ramirez, Nixon/Pena, Lowell, Varitek

Rowand, Abreu, Burrell, Utley, Howard, (this is 2-6 but what's the difference)

Young, Tex, Nevin, Blalock, Mench/Wilkerson (again 2-6)

Thome, Konerko, Dye, Pierzynski, Crede

Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, who cares at this point who bats after those 3

Cantu, Huff, Gomes, Lee, Lugo/Baldelli (when matured and healthy this lineup, with Crawford and Lugo/Baldelli at the top, Upton and Delmon Young at the bottom is going to be one of the most well balanced and dangerous lineups in baseball)

That enough?

I don't understand the love affair with Crosby, Swisher and Scutaro but I'm glad I don't have to. What about Dan Johnson over Scutaro? I know Scutaro is a cult figure but c'mon. I loved Sojo for all his clutch hits as well but I knew the dude blew.

I would have liked to include Dan Johnson... but he's kinda cold right now... Those guys mentioned are'nt the sexy big names you mentioned in your lists... good ones I might add, but they have the POTENTIAL to be a formidable land mine to have to get through. I'll take the A's 3-7 against any in your lists with the exceptionof BOSTON and the YANKEES who have superior and VERY scary 3-7's

Except for the Yankees, Red Sox, and mets, our hitting group is better. Even though Mike Lowell isn't very good any more, with manny and david the red sox are better hitters. But I don't think the white sox are any better. Ok, the cards are also better than the a's hitting. phil nevin and kevin mench aren't that good for texas. tb ain't there yet. But fortunately, hitting isn't even as important as pitching, and ours is one of the top few in the majors.

Professor Diamond

Besides being A's fans, what makes your 3-7 any scarier than the Phillies or Texas lineup I mentioned? The numbers don't lie and there is no way the A's 3-7 can out produce the numbers those other 2 put up. Look up Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and you'll know what I mean. Check Mench's stats with platoon playing time last year and allow Wilkerson a chance to get accustomed to his new team and then look out. Nevin is going to have 35 and 110 in that lineup by accident. Granted, the White Sox bottom 2 aren't that scary but Thome (the man is a machine again), Konerko and Dye alone can outproduce your squad.

Tampa Bay, ok let's do some matching up:

Cantu/Chavez-well believe or not fellas, unless Chavez finally has that HUGE breakout year we've all been waiting for, based on last year's numbers they're the same player.

Gomes/Thomas-right now Gomes is hotter and again based on age and potential, it would not be surprising to see Gomes with better numbers at the end of the year.

Lee/whoever is playing first for you-I'll give this to Swish because he looks like he's going to be a masher, albeit with poor ratios, but Lee has yet to hit like he was projected to. One thing though, Lee finally started hitting at the end of last year and it seems like he's come out of the gate right where he left off as he has 4 bombs already.

Huff/whoever is in left for you-Huff is better. Period. Over Swish, Payton, Kielty, Doesn't matter. Huff's a beast.

Crosby/Lugo-This one's tough but here are the facts based on lineup positioning: Lugo scores more runs and steals more bases while Crosby hits more bombs and has slightly more rbi's. The deciding factor is avergae and Lugo has historically been the better hitter for average.

Again, I am not not an A's hater by any stretch. Now, that I am here I enjoy watching A's games and I will root for them against everyone but my beloved Bronx Bombers. That being said, I am foremost a baseball fan who loves to debate and compare stats and this was the perfect topic. That is the beauty of baseball, if I am wrong it will all play out and the facts will be there for you to shove in my face at the end of the year.

PS: Chris, Mike Lowell looks pretty damn good so far in that lineup.

I must say, Finley, Bonds, Alou, Niekro, Feliz: That's 5 20-HR people right there by seasons end. Not the most scarry (people over the hump and young, unproven talent) but they are slowly gelling, and are a deep punch.

I think my original post stated the POTENTIAL of the A's 3-7. There are of course others out there who rate higher statistically... but I could ride with the A's 3-7 with head held high against others (including the big boys) and know that opposing pitchers will tread lightly through that minefield.

I can't agree at all with seeing Aubry Huff over Nick Swisher.

Baseball=Life wrote:I can't agree at all with seeing Aubry Huff over Nick Swisher.

Without an explanation why, I'm going to attribute that to just A's blind faith. Except for last year's first-half issues, Huff is basically settling in at .300, 90, 30, 100 and that's before Tampa started developing this new lineup.

Blancito21 wrote:

Baseball=Life wrote:I can't agree at all with seeing Aubry Huff over Nick Swisher.

Without an explanation why, I'm going to attribute that to just A's blind faith. Except for last year's first-half issues, Huff is basically settling in at .300, 90, 30, 100 and that's before Tampa started developing this new lineup.

I agree. If Huff played for NY or another big market, he would be carted around as the next great hitter. I would take Huff over most other hitters in the league.

dude, i hate to pull your heads outta the clouds (and i know i can't anyway), but the A's lineup aint exactly top of the line. oh, sure, it's pretty durn good (or at least good enough), and it's the best they've had in a while, but this is not a bashing bunch. outside of the NY teams, i don't see a group out there yet who has one of these hyper modern offenses, so comparatively they do look pretty good this year, but i don't see a single guy in that lineup that can make pitchers tremble. maybe thomas will (he sure used to) and maybe chavez or bradley could, but not as is. again, i'm not knockin' this group. they're more than adequate considering the pitching and general depth, but don't get too used to comparisons with the bash bros. there is enough potential for this to be a killer group, but potential is a dirty word in baseball. you'll be lucky if a couple of guys play up to their potential, much less the whole group.

"Huff is basically settling in at .300, 90, 30, 100"


.300/90/30/100 That stat line is not a very good way to gauge a players productivity. In fact it can be misleading. How about career OPS .817 going into 7th season. Swisher not far behind with career OPS .787 starting third season. Huff will be 30 this year, Swish 26. Figure 2-3 more years before the decline. Swishs has some time to improve, hell including this year he has only played in 163 games (Huff 744). I am not going to say Swish is better than Huff, but you said "A's blind faith" was involved. I just opened my eyes beyond those basic stats you used, and went a little deeper. DO NOT SAY avg. is worth more than obp. RBIs and Runs, that is out of the hitters control for the most part. They cannot accuratly be used to compare batters.

That is all for now, please reply with your disagreement.

onion wrote:but i don't see a single guy in that lineup that can make pitchers tremble. maybe thomas will (he sure used to) and maybe chavez or bradley could, but not as is.

I'll give you that- maybe not tremble... but if I were an opposing pitcher... I'd sure be making sure my stuff was tight when facing those guys. Ask Texas's Padilla (no one is calling him Pedro)- but The A's drove dude to laughing at himself Saturday as he got lax with his pitching.


Signed,

As always optimistic Oakland A's fan

Pat K wrote:"Huff is basically settling in at .300, 90, 30, 100"
DO NOT SAY avg. is worth more than obp. RBIs and Runs, that is out of the hitters control for the most part. They cannot accuratly be used to compare batters.

I agree with you, Pat, that a team has a lot to with those stats. However, Huff has raked up those stats with Tampa, not, say, the Yankees, making it all the more impressive.

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AL Worst
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