This week Milton Bradley (15 day DL), justin Duchscherer (15 DL), and Mark Kotsay (60 day DL) are due to be off the list this week. This is great news as the Oakland Athletics have suffered an enormous amount of players on the DL (19 out of 40).

Hopefully this trend will continue until very few players are on the DL. It’s hard to keep a winning team when a lot of your players are on the DL even if they are replaced, because often they are replaced by not as good of players.

A’s lost last game 4 to 1 in the Giants series in Oakland’s McCafee ballpark. Oakland Athletics currently overall have the highest winning percentage in interleague play since it started in 1997. That means the Giants have suffered more from their american league counterparts then any other baseball team in the majors. It was a great series where the A’s outhit the Giants by far.

Oakland Athletics will not get a usual monday off and will be playing 5:11 Pacific Time in the Chicago White Sox Stadium.

Barry zito of the Giants gave up multiple walks in a row in the first inning which led to a 4 run 1st inning for the Oakland Athletics at McCafee park. Giants never recovered and eventually led to a blowout that only the most hardcore Fans would bother watching to the bitter end.

One of the hardest things for a starting pitcher when moving to a different team after playing for many years on the old is the day they have to meet their old team in a game.

No doubt the adrenaline and emotions running through his mind were effecting his accuracy. A pitcher starts “aiming” the ball in these events and it just makes matters worse. Barry zito prides himself on learning how to keep “cool” and mentally tough during these situations, but it’s hard to go against the body.

Ironically coming into the game A’s and Giants both had a 20-20 record. I expect the next 2 games to be more competitive.

On one hand I hate to speculate, because part of the fun of watching a professional sport is you don’t really want to know what the odds are they will win. If they’re lead is too large in the standings its not exciting anymore. And on the flipside if they are at the bottom more then halfway through the season with hardly any chance of getting to the top to 1st place you still have that small hope they will do the unbelievable.

My honest thoughts are I would say it’s a coin toss. A’s as the usual decided that when the players got to expensive they would get rid of them (barry zito and Frank Thomas). Now that Zito, but moreso with Frank Thomas gone I would say they’re chances are a lot lower to make the playoffs. Frank Thomas is the ONLY reason why they were able to make it through september and get through the playoffs with his good clutch hitting. Now that him and zito are gone, who are the heroes to make sure they get to the top?

I guess we will have to find out later in the season if the A’s have another “Thomas” to save the day towards the end of the season, or strong pitching that can weather the entire season and shut down the opposing teams offense.

Let’s hope they beat the odds and come through to another playoff year!

Athletics win 17 to 3 against the royals. They homered 6 times which is the most home runs they had in one game since July 2003. Poor royals, I wish the royals would start doing better for the sake of the fans who have been waiting since the 80’s with Bo Jackson for a good team again.

I’m amazed though how the A’s seem to do so well offensively at times with the absence of a superstar power hitters like the Mcgwires, jose canseco’s, and Giambi’s of the past.

Yankees now have banned alchohol in the clubhouses of both home and visiting teams. They are only the second team after the Athletics did it last year. A’s did it in response to when pitcher Esteban Loaiza’s was arrested on driving under the influence last season. Due to some liability they banned it at that time.

I’m all for freedom of people and to be allowed to do what they want however I think it’s not good for a baseball team’s reputation and for even liability reasons to be supplying alchohol in clubhouses.

OK here’s my rant, if baseball is gonna get tough on steroids they should get tough on the REAL problem, which is Alchohol and other dangerous drugs. Steroids don’t kill you. Alchohol has killed baseball players including one just last week. The media just wants to demonize something they don’t understand or do.
So baseball should take a proactive approach and as a whole Bud Selig should ban alchohol from all clubhouses in the major leagues if they want to be so high and mighty for the “children’s” sake as one of the over abused points made in the steroid scandals.

On a lighter note, one question I’m wondering though is what will they be using instead of champagne at the celebrations?