FullCountPitch - The Full Count: Susan Slusser

Susan Slusser talks about the stumbling A's

Susan Slusser has been on the Oakland A’s beat for 13 years for the San Francisco Chronicle. Who better to talk to about Bob Geren’s firing, Brett Anderson’s clipped wing, and more? You can also follow Susan and the A’s on Twitter.

FCP: With Bob Geren fired, are there any names being mentioned to take over in 2012 and does Bob Melvin have a legitimate shot to get the full time job?

Susan Slusser: I believe the A’s would give Melvin every opportunity to show he’s the man for the job; indications were that this was the guy they wanted and the front office believes Melvin to be a good fit. He’d probably have to really fall flat on his face not to come back, especially considering how well the players speak of him. Player relations and communications seemed to drive some of the managerial switch, and Melvin’s reputatution as a players’ manager was mentioned numerous times.

Don Wakamatsu was very highly regarded when he was Oakland’s bench coach, so I’d have to think in the unlikely chance that the A’s don’t retain Melvin that he’d be among those considered. Like Melvin, he’s a former Seattle manager and a Bay Area native; Wakamatsu is from Hayward and Melvin from Menlo Park. But I’m fairly certain the A’s have their man.

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David DeJesus Brett Anderson Trevor Cahill Andrew Bailey Hideki Matsui Cliff Pennington Kurt Suzuki

Kings, Princes, and Other Road Obstacles

The Yankees open a tough, nine game road trip tonight in pitcher friendly Safeco Field in Seattle. While most people point at Saturday's quest against Felix "The King" Hernandez as the toughest game on the road trip, things won't be much easier tonight for the Yankees when they face rookie Michael Pineda.

The native of the Dominican Republic, given the moniker "Prince", made the Mariners out of spring training this season after going 11-4, 3.36 (with 154 strikeouts in 139.1 innings pitched) between Double-A and Triple-A last season.

At 6'7", 255 lbs, Pineda is an opposing figure to deal with as is his mid to upper 90's fastball. Through nine starts, Pineda has compiled a 6-2 record, a 2.16 ERA (1.65 at home) and has struck out better than nine batters per nine innings (9.4). He's allowed just 41 hits hits and issued a mere 14 walks in 58.1 innings pitched, has allowed just three home runs, and limited opponents to a .194 average. For more on Pineda's outstanding control, check out this piece by ESPN's Lee Singer.

A.J. Burnett has the task of out dueling Pineda, while Ivan Nova must take on Hernandez tomorrow. The Yankees do, however, have several players with pretty good numbers against Hernandez.

Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Russell Martin, Brett Gardner, and Jorge Posada are all near or over .300 against the reigning AL CY Young winner. On the flip side, Nick Swisher, struggling already this year, is just 8-34 against Hernandez and could very well have a seat on the pines come Saturday night.

The Yankees most favorable match up comes on Sunday when CC Sabathia squares off with Jason Vargas. After the Seattle series, the Yankees move on to Oakland to face a pitching staff that leads the Major Leagues with a 2.87 ERA. The series opens Monday with Bartolo Colon facing Trevor Cahill and his 2.02 ERA. Tuesday's Yankees starter has not yet been announced, but the A's go with sharp left-hander Brett Anderson (2.84). No starters have been announced for Wednesday's finale as of yet, but's likely Freddy Garcia will get one of the two games. Remarkably, the weak hitting A's have scored just one less run than the Yankees (413-412), though NY does have three games in hand.

The trip concludes in Anaheim, the site of many of the Yankees in-season and post-season horrors. Who'll take a 6-3 road trip right now? A lot of hands.

Yankes Polish Off A's Again

Here's my recap from game I covered for BaseballDigest.com.

A.J. Burnett may not have been pitching for his rotation spot, as Joe Girardi stated during his pre-game press conference, but a winless August had to have the tall right-hander concerned. Wednesday night he gave his manager six solid innings as the Yankees won their fifth straight, 4-3 over the Oakland A’s.

People talk about the great A.J., the good A.J., and the bad A.J.; tonight each made an appearance. But unlike that winless August, Burnett hung tough, finishing strong in his final inning and, in the process, gave the Yankees some length from their starter. Had it not been for a rested bullpen, Girardi said he most likely would have sent Burnett out for the 7th inning. Burnett said afterwards he can’t worry about “What the manager is saying/doing concerning the rotation. I just need to go out and do my job.”

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Stellar Joba as Yankees Win 8th Straight

Filed Under: Yankees

Tags: Brett Anderson • Derek Jeter • joba chamberlain • Jorge Posada • Matt Holliday • melky cabrera • Oakland A's • phil coke • Ted Williams • Yankees 7/24 recap • Yankees vs. A's

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Oakland	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2		3	4	1
NY Yankees	0	0	2	0	1	1	0	4	X		8	12	1

WP - Chamberlain (6-2) LP - Anderson (5-8)

Pitching and defense wins champions. Right now it’s win baseball games for the New York Yankees. Joba Chamberlain pitched into the 8th inning and the Yankees took advantage of sloppy Oakland A’s defense to win their eighth straight ball game, 8-3.

Chamberlain won consecutive starts for just the second time in his career and came out for the 8th inning after throwing 93 pitches through 7 innings. But leading just 4-1 at the time, Joe Girardi was forced to go to the bullpen when his starter gave up a walk and hit a batter to open the inning. Phil Coke came on and stranded the A’s runners and the Yankees broke open the game in the bottom half of the inning, enabling Mariano Rivera to enjoy a night off.

Read the rest of my recap on Baseball Digest Online.

My recap of yesterday's game for Baseball Digest.

The Melkman Always Homers Twice

April 23rd, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: Yankees

Tags: Brett Anderson • cc sabathia • Dan Giese • Derek Jeter • Jason Giambi • Jeter's 2000th game • Jose Veras • melky cabrera • Yankees recap - 4/22 • Yankees vs. Athletics

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14		R	H	E
Oakland	0	3	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		7	9	1
NY Yankees	0	2	2	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2		9	17	1

With apologies to James Cain, Melky Cabrera homered twice Wednesday afternoon, including the game winning 2-run shot in the bottom half of the 14th inning to give the Yankees a 9-7 win. The Melkman’s heroics came against former teammate Dan Giese and saved the Yankees from a possible heart breaking loss in the final game of the six-game homestand. Instead, they head to Boston with a 3-game winning streak.

The Yankees pitching, defense, and offense all contributed to blown leads as well as missed opportunities to take control of the game. Starter CC Sabathia had moments of brilliance interspersed with a lack of command, but retired 10 of 11 A’s before allowing a run in the sixth. The Yankees $161 million man ran out of gas in the seventh inning when Joe Girardi stuck with him too long.

A lead off single by Bobby Crosby was followed by a walk to Ryan Sweeney, the fourth free pass issued by Sabathia on the day. A sac bunt by Orlando Cabrera and an RBI ground out by Jason Giambi cut the Yankees lead to 7-6 and put the tieing run 90 feet away.

With Jonathan Albaladejo and Phil Coke up in the pen, Girardi made a trip to the mound, but left his ace in the game. The Yankees skipper had barely returned to the dugout when Matt Holliday ripped a game tieing single to center field.

The Yankees had a chance to go back ahead in the home half of the seventh when they loaded the bases with no one out. But former Yankee Russ Springer struck out Cabrera and Cody Ransom, and retired Derek Jeter on a pop up to get out of the jam.

The game would remain tied until the 14th when Nick Swisher drew a lead off walk, and one batter later Cabrera hammered a Giese offering into the right-center field seats for his fourth home run of the season.

Game Notes

It was record setting day for Derek Jeter, who became the sixth player in Yankees history to play in 2,000 games. (Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, Babe Ruth, and Bernie Williams are the others.) He celebrated with his fourth home run and an RBI double. It’s the fastest Jeter has reached four home runs in 10 years. The Yankees captain also passed Jason Giambi for sole possession of 10th place on the franchise home run list with his 210th.

Jose Veras had his best outing of the season, picking up the win after tossing 3.1 hitless innings. The Yankees bullpen did not allow a run and limited the A’s to three hits over 7.1 innings.

A’s top prospect Brett Anderson started for Oakland and was charged with five runs in 5.1 innings.

The Yankees have Thursday off and then begin a three game series with the Boston Red Sox on Friday. Joba Chamberlain will face off against Jon Lester.

Yankees look to beat the rain and the A's

The Yankees and Oakland A's are about to get underway in the Bronx. It's just starting to drizzle a bit so hopefully the game will be completed.

CC Sabathia makes his second start in front of the home fans. He'll be opposed by A's top pitching prospect Brett Anderson.

Big win for Andy Pettitte last night. The lefty kept the A's at bay through seven innings with the help of some big defensive plays. Brett Gardner made a spectacular running, leaping catch on a deep drive by Jason Giambi. Mark Teixeira turned a 1st and 3rd, no one out situation into a double play when he fielded a grounder, stepped on first and threw home in one motion.

Mariano Rivera saved a Pettitte win for the 57th time, tieing the major league record set by the A's Dennis Eckersley and Bob Welch.

Johnny Damon celebrated his 2,000th career game with a solo home run into the upper deck in right field. Derek Jeter plays his 2,000th game today.

Today's starting lineups:

A's
CF R. Sweeney
SS O. Cabrera
DH Giambi
LF Holliday
RF Cust
C K. Suzuki
2B Ellis
1B Powell
3B Crosby

Yankees
SS Jeter
LF Damon
1B Teixeira
C Posada
2B Cano
RF Swisher
DH Matsui
CF M. Cabrera
3B Ransom

2009 AL West Preview

The division was a joke last season with the Los Angeles Angels cruising (21 games ahead of second place Texas) to their fourth AL West title in five years.

Even with the Angels rash of injuries, we don't see much evidence that 2009 will be any different than 2008.



AL WEST

Angels
Rangers
Mariners
A's

Don't get us wrong, the Angels definitely have to be concerned with injuries to their starting rotation. John Lackey (April return) and Ervin Santana (May return) are DL'ed with elbow injuries, while Kelvim Escobar rehabs from off-season shoulder surgery. But the team still has Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders. (The Jake Peavy trade rumors have already started as well.)

They lost Mark Teixeira and Francisco Rodriguez to free agency, but we still think the Angels are the best team in the division. For one thing, they have the best manager in the division in Mike Scioscia. He'll mix and match and move things around until it all fits. If Brian Fuentes struggles at closer, he'll turn to Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields. On offense, Bobby Abreu and Kendry Morales should pick up some of the slack left by Teixeira's departure.

The Rangers finished four games under .500 last season and should be back in that neighborhood thanks to an offense that's still potent even without Milton Bradley, who left for the Cubs. The problem with this team is the same year in and year out - starting pitching. Kevin Millwood, Vincente Padilla, Kris Benson, Brandon McCarthy and Matt Harrison aren't going to scare anyone. The Rangers should win a lot of 9-8 games.

The Mariners have to better than last season's 61 win campaign. Don't they? New manager Don Wakamatsu certainly hopes so. Erik Bedard is feeling good. Kenji Johjima swung a hot bat in the WBC and spring training. And Ken Griffey Jr. is back!

But WAIT...Ichiro is out with bleeding stomach ulcers, Jarrod Washburn and Ryan Rowland-Smith are in the rotation. Brandon Morrow is being used as closer and...Ken Griffey Jr. is back.

While the team is improved from last year, big run producer Raul Ibanez is gone. Adrian Beltre is suffering from a bad toe and is a lame duck. .500 is a long shot, but the team should see at a 10 game improvement.

The A's are a mix of wet behind the ears kids and banged up, over the hill stars. The A's can be very good in 2-3 years because of the talent they always produce at pitcher. They're basically starting over again this year with a rotation of Dallas Braden, Sean Gallagher, Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, and Dana Eveland (Justin Duchscherer will take a spot when he returns from the DL.) Brad Ziegler will close, but the team suffered a big blow when would be closer Joey Devine went on the 60-day DL with a sprained elbow.

Eric Chavez's back feels better, but will he ever resemble his early seasons again? Can a team really win with Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra, and Orlando Cabrera at this stage of their careers? Nah. This team is starting to look like a squad KC would put together (except their pitching would stink).

AL '09 Rookie Preview - AL West

It's hump day, which means it's the first Spring Training game for the Yankees. Unfortunately it's neither on radio nor TV (not sure about MLBTV). It also means we continue our look at the American League rookie of the year candidates, this time focusing on the AL West.

Angels

Another team filled with the veterans, the Angels don't have too many openings on their roster. But they have been a team that isn't afraid to give a youngster a chance (just look at how they turned K-Rod loose on the AL).

Kendry Morales and Brandon Wood no longer have rookie status, but have a shot to win the corner infield spots. The number 5 spot in the rotation is the only area that a rookie has a real shot of staking a claim to. Nick Adenhart was up for a cup of coffee last season and looked over matched, but he'll get a chance this spring to be in the rotation. He struggled at Triple-A as well in '08, but put up solid numbers in the past, and at just 22 years of age, is still considered a prized prospect.

Athletics

The team traded away outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, first baseman Daric Barton is injured at the moment, brought in veterans Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday, and although Billy Beane will always play kids, there are just no openings in the lineup this season.

That could change though if a starting pitcher struggles, and left-hander Brett Anderson (ranked as the 7th best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America) continues to emerge. For now, Anderson will start the season at Triple-A Sacramento after going 11-5 last season with 118 strikeouts in 105 innings pitched.

Rangers

Texas moved Michael Young to third base in order to give the starting shortstop job to Elvis Andrus. The 20-yr old has been in the organization since he was 16 years old and has never played above Double-A. But the numbers he put up in 118 games - .295 average, 65 RBI, and 53 steals - for the Frisco Rough Riders, caught the organization's attention. They also brought in veteran Omar Vizquel to tutor him.

Andrus will have a legitimate shot to win the AL Rookie of the Year. He won't be alone though. With the departure of Gerald Laird, Taylor Teagarden will battle Jarrod Saltalamacchia for the starting catching position.

Teagarden wow the Rangers front office last season, when he hit 6 home runs and drove in 17 runs in just 47 at-bats. (Can you imagine if Teagarden, Saltalamacchia, Chris Davis, and Nelson Cruz all lived up to their power potential?).

Mariners

The Mariners are another team loaded with veterans (and looking very mediocre). They're also a team that doesn't have any rookies ready to step in to a starting position on the near horizon.


Ranking the AL Central ROY Prospects

1. Elvis Andrus
2. Taylor Teagarden
3. Brett Anderson
4. Nick Adenhart