Edgy MD

The Mets individual record for RBI in a game is nine by Carlos Delgado. Lindor is two short of that. I'm not sure what their team record is for walks in a game, but it looks like a night we might find out.

Maybe, but he still gets to go bed with the name "Hogan Harris," which is pretty cool. Daniel Vogelbach just beat out a doubleplay grounder for an RBI. This game has everything.

I bet packing seven ribbies onto his total is pretty scintillating for Lindor.

[crossout]Nine[/crossout] Ten walks, three to Guillorme.

https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781508218593-us.jpg>

McNeil has to get in the act here. Even Nido has reached base and scored.

No sponsor on the Athletics' sleeves?

Take that, 1973!!

Just like the KTE thread suggested. Wait these guys out.

=ashie62 post_id=122330 time=1681510616 user_id=90] Maybe they should have brought up Michael Perez and let Alvarez play at Syracuse, just sayin

I'm not getting the picture, mlb.tv is just giving me a radio feed. How disappointing.

=Centerfield post_id=122322 time=1681500774 user_id=65]Time Machine: They'd stand no chance. They'd get lit up every outing and eventually quit.

Álvarez ain't DH'd yet. I think Buck is reluctant to take plate appearances away from Pham because Narváez got hurt.

Tonight, the phenomenon that is Kodai Senga matches up against James Kaprielian, a rare MLB-er of Armenian-American descent. Kaprelian, like many Oakland players, came to town as part of a big trade from years prior. In his case he was bouncing back from Tommy John surgery in the Yankee system when he was exchanged (with two others) for Sonny Gray. It's his second season holding down a spot in the Oakland rotation. He's a legit big-league starter, but he's lost the luster of first-roundiness that got him here. He's got mid-nineties heat that he can dial up to 97 in a key spot, but his secondary stuff is meh, so he has to hit his spots. I guess that might suggest he's got a little Pelfrey in him, but with his strong upper body, Roman nose, and receding hairline, in an Oakland uniform, he kind of looks like a young Art Howe. [FIMG=500]https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/BNG-L-AS-0908-4.jpg?w=525[/FIMG] Carlos Carrasco works tomorrow against Shintaro Fujinami. Like Senga, Fujinami is in his first MLB season after coming over mid-career from the NPB. Like Carrasco, he's looked pretty lost his first two starts. giving up eight in 2 1/3 his first time out, and five in 4 1/3 his second. But hey! Those are good trend lines, so watch out!! Eleven years ago, drafted at 18, he was actually the higher rated prospect over Shohei Ohtani, so, um, yeah, that's what 11 years will get you. He's a hard thrower, a mix between a drop-and-driver (getting down really low like Tom Seaver) and a slinger (whipping his arm way out there at a straight 3/4 angle like Randy Johnson). He's been effectively wild through a lot of his career, but sometimes he's just wild-wild. With seven walks in 6 2/3 innings so far, the play against him seems to be to wait him out and let him beat himself. Fujinami was one of the few guys the strapped A's brought in this offseason who didn't get the MLB minimum, so they're kinda behind the 8-Ball if he can't find himself. Too bad he and Senga couldn't match up with each other, but the Japanese media will get two stories out of their visit. Ten Cranebucks says he hits Mark Canha. [FIMG=500]https://www.si.com/.image/ar_16:9%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_xy_center%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_1200%2Cx_1351%2Cy_419/MTk2NDAzNTA1MzMyNzU4MDAy/fuji-2.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=500]https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3554dfe/2147483647/strip/false/crop/5095x3396+0+0/resize/1486x990!/quality/80/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2Fc5%2F3af10352453f98624c9fe8aa40af%2Fbrewers-athletics-baseball-02450.jpg[/FIMG] Closing out the series, we'll see Max Scherzer lock horns with the one and only JP Sears. Sears is at least the third former Yankee farmhand in this thread, having come over in the YO FRANKIE! Montas trade. He's a flyball pitcher who is (keyboard-shortcut)susceptible to the longball(/keyboard-shortcut), but Oakland sees as a guy who can get a lot of outs in the copious foul territory of Oakland-Alameda RingWorm Coliseum or whatever it's called. Pretty sly to be begging for a new ballpark while building your team around the current place. The bullpen has been mostly a punching bag so far, despite featuring good buddies like Jeurys Familia and Trevor May. The former has started pretty well and the latter has had a foul smell. But as a unit, the pen is probably better than they've played so far. OLD FRIENDS ON THE OAKLAND PAYROLL Apart from May and Familia, the A's brag of former Mets farmhand Adam "Makes Me Wanna" Oller, currently bouncing back and forth from AAA, and their longtime GM/president Billy Beane came up with the Mets back when James Watt was the secretary of the interior. OLD OAKLAND GUYS WE ARE NOW FRIENDS WITH Mets leftfielder Mark Canha had his name mis-spelt and mis-pronounced for seven years in Oakland before joining our noble cause. Opposite him in right for the last two months of 2021 was Starling Marte, who donned the white shoes for the stretch run that season before becoming Metly in 2022. Get your rest, enjoy the series, and between innings, remember that Danny Mendick is hitting .341 for Syracuse.

That's why you need to drag your feet on your KTE essays. You hate write about a guy just as he leaves. Seth Brown had been staffing Left Field for the Oaklanders, but he's hit the Injured List in one of those misfortunes with a silver lining, because his replacement has been Brent Rooker, one of those AAA sluggers who tends to get called up, but never gets enough playing time to show what he can do. But now, with the leftfielder hurt on a last-place team, he's getting his swings in, and in a few short games (since the start of this thread in fact) he's taken over the team lead in homers with three. He's a righthanded hitter who seems to have gone from the bench to the cleanup spot in a week. He may be still looking to stick at 28, but the dude slugged .649 in AAA last year, and a former SEC superstar, so he deserves this. Big dude. [FIMG=500]https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2023/04/13/5d1bde05-67a0-4f9f-9784-1d2412c9db53/thumbnail/1200x630/2ce85f709e2b32669ddfdea9222c2f1e/ap23102831779788.jpg[/FIMG] Center Field appears to be where the fun is, because that's the province Esteury Ruíz. Esteury is a swift and slender young Dominican with a lot of Mickey Rivers in his game. His 169-lb frame has clearly left him with his share of doubters, because he's already on his fourth organization, but the A's saw him as the big get in the 50-player offseason three-way trade that sent Sean Murphy to Atlanta, so clearly Billy Beane believes a bit more than most in his 2022 minor league season that saw him hit .332 / .447 / .526 // .974 with 16 homers and 85 steals in 114 games across AA and AAA. Apparently, he doesn't get big exit-velocity scores, but who wouldn't want to take a chance on a minor league line like that, especially when the speed plays on defense also? [media=youtube]fQWfFUsW7UQ[/media] The emergence of Ruíz has bumped longtime centerfielder Ramón Laureano to Right Field. Ramón is sort of the Steve Henderson of the team in that he looked like a real run producer coming up, and has been a fixture with the team in the middle of their lineup for several years, but his power can disappear for months at a time. Still a solid big leaguer who hits free agency this offseason with a pretty smokin' sizzle reel with which to market himself. [media=youtube]voAAXD5jt5Q[/media] Veteran journeyman Jesús Aguilar takes the David Justice turns at Designated Hitter. He's 33, zoning out with his headphones on the team flight, and reminding the GM that all that talk is fine, but it's for everybody else and not for him. That's just speculation on my part, and a single All-Star season back in 2018 doesn't make anybody David Justice, but you've got to work with you've got. You may remember him from recent seasons with the Marlins where he followed two solid seasons in 2020-2021 by kinda playing himself out of town in 2022. He carries a LOT of extra weight, and if you have any notion that new rules and closer bases will lead to him increasing his steals, please note that he has a career total of one in 771 games, so his next stolen base will increase his total by 100%. His first one came last year, but I think it only happened because the catcher fell down a well or something. He's probably the slowest offensive player in the game, almost certainly the slowest non-catcher, and is probably more Mo Vaughn than David Justice in that regard. He's probably not that big now, as he usually starts seasons around 260 and finishes them around 290, but his legs are older than his 33 years. [FIMG=500]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/t_2x1/t_w1536/mlb/rrxzwopd87upo3djjemy.jpg[/FIMG]

The only Fosse card from '73 has him in Indian garb. As for Hunter, I just liked the custom card a lot better than his actual 1973 card, and thought it felt authentic, even though I knew it wasn't. I never realized until just yesterday that Gardner's card was a paint job. Ray Fosse, by the way, got honored with a uniform patch last year, with a design that nicely mashed up his catching career and his broadcasting career. [fimg=500]https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/25/20/22/22348980/13/rawImage.jpg[/fimg]

It's a nice array of 1973 cards, featuring both the terrific and the terrible. I'm sure it's mostly the unusual angle of the shot, but Dave Hamilton's form makes him look like somebody who has never seen anybody throw a ball in his life, but read about it in a book and decided to give it a try.

Some managers can have a little bit too much of a soft spot for players that remind them of themselves. With Mark Kotsay, that could be any number of these guys. Hey look, the white shoes of the Athletics is so brand-critical that they're included in some versions of the logo. https://cdn.ssref.net/req/202303071/tlogo/br/OAK-1973.png> This is as good a time as any to give individual shoutouts to the golden anniversary-celebrating members of the 1973 Oakland Athletics. Cool! Vern Hoescheit! [FIMG=325]https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/2097/f03f/f27e_11240182389/img001012.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=170]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bj2JHgl2-1I/W8cJqPWSfOI/AAAAAAAAO3g/Kj8zTv049Tg2mRFMongi8vTMnqSwDBDYgCLcBGAs/s1600/1973-TRADED-RAY-FOSSE.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/2596/7660/92/483b2e6f6d3cf_66095b.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/THT-Green-1973.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GN+CJ1lHL._AC_SY445_SX342_.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://site.unbeatablesale.com/ATGPW211418.JPG[/FIMG] [FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/iJcAAOSwiC9icwxg/s-l500.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Il0AAOSwnkFgndW8/s-l500.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1562/5775/products/IMG_20230101_234411062.jpg?v=1672635831[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://www.historyforsale.com/productimages/jpeg/21119.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~GoAAOSwSYdkB7kx/s-l1600.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/fJMAAOSwStdkIeW7/s-l1600.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nYSKXlm_7Pg/TQe-JjGM7yI/AAAAAAAABEQ/kSmh80kRvpI/s1600/73topps430.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/916FwYOToAL._AC_SL1500_.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/sgAAAOSwFwZjUDV4/s-l500.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/BkIAAOSwrcBitsph/s-l500.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=170]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91kPLTiwrsL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/51efPIEVgSL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Vq0AAOSw54pgn0es/s-l1600.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/51mTFowMwsL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg[/FIMG][FIMG=170]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/31YAAOxy63FS-DpC/s-l1600.jpg[/FIMG] Not just Vern Hoescheit! Deron Johnson! Glenn Abbott! it's a Mets coaching convention!! The 1973 A's were all just a pretext for a future Mets coaches recruitment event! I'm not sure who should be more pissed — Dick Green after Topps immortalized him making an error, or Deron Johnson after Topps froze him in time, forever staring meekly at his own popup. Perhaps it should be Horacio Piña, for never getting a card at all showing him as a 1973 Athletic, despite joining them way back on November 30, 1972. That Rob Gardner card is him in a Mets uniform with an Earl Scheib paint job, right?

I don't want to tell you that the A's are starting career utility guys all over the infield, but then I couldn't tell you that their current Shortstop is longtime Astro reserve Aledmys Díaz. Aleddy made the All-Star team as a rookie, when he was the first player in MLB history to sustain a .500 batting average through his first 50 at-bats, but that's the sort of sustaining that is unsustainable, and he was OPS-ing at .384 when last seen, so I don't see him lasting long. The 32-year-old from Cuba has three things going for him: (1) he's probably the best Aledmys in baseball history; (2) he can plausibly blame Carlos Correa for the lack of opportunities in his career; and (3) if it helps, he can probably get you José Altuve's autograph. Alemdy's grew up on the same block and was friends with José Fernandez, is well liked throughout baseball, and got a game-winning RBI in his first game as an A. Maybe I'm wrong and he lasts with this team. He's got a two-year deal and stuff, but damn, do these guys have a lot of filler. [FIMG=500]https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/styles/article_video_thumbnail/public/short_form_video/hero/030823_A_s_Kotsay_on_Aledmys_Diaz.jpg[/FIMG] There you go. He's a professional hitter.

Another guy who is good to have but probably not so good to play every day is Jace Peterson, currently playing every day at Third Base for Oakland, on the back end of a long career as a utility man that you've seen in Atlanta and Milwaukee. Space-Face Jace is a high-percentage base-stealer in recent years, so he may be a good bet for somebody trying to take advantage of the nu rools. He's got four appearances on the mound in his career, so if you see a game get out of hand, you may see him get the call one more time. He and Dansby Swanson are married to a pair of sisters — not their own sisters, but two women who are sisters to each other, and both professional soccer players. Swanson's wife is the better soccer player (Olympian and World Cup champ Mallory Swanson), but that's only fair, because Dansby is the better baseball player. Jace wears a merkin beard and was a college football player and kind of brings that sort of footbally intensity despite his mostly lightweight stat line. He also bring post-season 'sperience, so there's that. [FIMG=500]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/w_270,h_154/mlb/peevzea0kfif49jsdi32[/FIMG]

Staffing Second Base is longtime Houston part-timer, who has been a fulltimer in recent years with Oakland, Tony Kemp. One may associate the Kemp name with outfielding (Steve, Matt), and Tony occasionally fills in in left as well. He's 31 and probably never going to be a star, but he has enough secondary skills to hold down a temporary job at the keystone, a la Bob Bailor or Joe McEwing. But this is his third year on the gig for the undersized (5'6") lefty hitter. He's a smart, energetic player that you like your team to have but hate your team to need — or to start every day. He really stunk it up in the first half last year, but came back for a strong finish. He and his wife are totally the cutest. [FIMG=500]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/t_16x9/t_w1024/mlb/ndogr9ajuhjyqvfwoaog[/FIMG] [FIMG=285]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6b/88/79/6b8879db3bab040a3ff5c242318a24a3.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=225]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FH-ho0uUUAQS2L5.jpg[/FIMG]

The 2023 Oakland Athletics are a team in flux. Their reports say they lost $9 million last year, while Forbes says they mad $29 million. While the difference in these figures may represent a bar bill for Steve Cohen, it's an existential matter for the team, claiming they need a public-financed stadium to compete, while maintaining the venerable Oakland-Alameda Coliseum (known for the moment as RingCentral Coliseum) at a level that can best be described as "habitable." Gary reported second-hand information last night of opossa in the pressbox, and while I believe it, I love the place. Their once-standard-ish generous acreage of foul territory could now be described as "massive" compared to contemporary parks, they have bullpens down the left- and right-field lines, and there's a nice cutaway behind home plate, giving even the catcher beaucoups room to chase down popups. A football-stadium shaped grandstand looms over centerfield, giving the mid-century modern ballpark a feel of pre-modern antiquity. The A's uniforms are the whitest of home-whites, with the Orioles, who they just played, coming in second. I don't know if that's scientifically true, but it feels true. This effect is augmented by the team's tradition of wearing white shoes, though they don't always polish them, so even nu shoes look less white than the unis they accessorize. [FIMG=500]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71epPLLdyLL.jpg[/FIMG] After copious research, I haven't been able to find any sponsor patches yet staining the 2023 Oakland uniform, and so the gorgeous elephant-on-the-baseball remains undesecrated by bad company. You'd figure there would be a 50th-anniversary-of-the-1973 team patch, but maybe that doesn't get debuted until Sunday. I really don't know. [FIMG=500]https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/32/23/64/23674131/3/1200x0.jpg[/fimg] A's president Billy Beane continues his quixotic goal of winning with the worst payroll in the game, and after losing 102 games in 2022 and nine of their first 12 this year, surely somebody is going to say that he's following in Connie Mack's white shoes and damaging his legacy by sticking around too long. That won't be me saying that necessarily, but somebody will. Young talent and middle-aged vagabonds fill their roster, with three hitters sharing their homerun lead at two. Billy's A's rarely take long to re-load, but with the team possibly half-packed for Las Vegas, this re-build may be harder than most. Catching for the A's is 25-year-old born-to-be-a-Met Shea Langeliers. The second-year receiver has your standard righthanded-hitting catcher profile of decent puncher's power but low batting average and sub-.300 OBPs. He's athletic enough to fake in left, though he hasn't yet as a big leaguer. He's a former first round pick and Braves minor league player of the year (he came over in the Garret Olson deal) so he probably has some growth yet to come. He tends to bat seventh or eighth right now but he shares the team's lead with two homers. [FIMG=500]https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/article/hero/shea-langeliers-GettyImages-1422041960.jpg[/FIMG] Currently holding down First Base is a 27-year-old rookie Ryan Noda. With lots of walks and strikeouts, and a loopy lefthanded swing and (so far) a low batting average, he's like a really poor man's John Olerud, and that makes sense, as the A's are the franchise equivalent of a really poor man. The more-or-less-OK placeholder the Athletics had gone with in the post-Olson era had been Seth Brown, but Brown is on the injured list right now and had been seeing more time in the outfield, so for now, you get a 27-year-old rookie, finally debuting after joining his third organization. [FIMG=500]https://www.si.com/.image/ar_1:1%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_xy_center%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_1200%2Cx_2566%2Cy_579/MTk2ODQyNDI3MzY4MDg4NjM4/noda-2.jpg[/FIMG] What's that? The dogs need a walk? We'll be right back!

Yeah, I was going to mention that they don't get to enjoy the travel day the Mets have gotten.

The New York Mets return to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, or whatever they're calling it now, to face the 2023 Oakland Athletics, managed by Mark Kotsay. Touch me in the morning on the road to Shambala as you chase the possums out of the press box while former Yankees top pick James Kaprielian takes the mound against Kodai Senga. It's Treehouse Happy Hour Night at the ballpark. With the Mets not managing to put together an Alltimer's Day (that's what I'm callin' it until it sticks) for 2023, we're looking at a lost (and possibly last) opportunity to honor the 1973 Mets, but the A's are putting together a shindig for the Championship team on Friday, and with Seaver and Staub and Berra gone, that might have made a good time to gather together any available Mets pennant winners. If Willie Mays was ever going to appear in a Mets cap again, that would be it. But that's all a matter for Sunday. Friday night's game starts at 9:40 ET. Get your rest, and remember to text Francisco Lindor and tell him to keep his fingers away from doors.

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