May 10
28
baseball manufacture
(05-27) 04:00 PDT Baltimore –
In all the big leagues, the best example of combined power and speed might be an Adam Rosales home run.
The A’s ultra-utilityman beat out another outside-the-park home run Wednesday night. He hit a two-out, three-run homer in the first inning of the A’s 6-1 win over the Orioles and threatened to sprint past the baserunners ahead of him, Kurt Suzuki and Ryan Sweeney.
It was all the help needed by starting pitcher Trevor Cahill, who threw six innings of two-hit ball, helping the A’s bust their six-game road losing streak.
Rosales also had two singles. He was the A’s fill-in at second base until Mark Ellis returned from an injury, and the last three games, Rosales has been in left field, with Rajai Davis moving to center to sub for injured-again Coco Crisp.
Crisp went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday, retroactive to Sunday. He was/is supposed to be the A’s answer at leadoff, but Crisp has played only two games of 47, and who knows when he’ll be healthy? Until then …
Anyone want to be the leadoff man?
It’s a vital spot for the A’s, who don’t have an overpowering offense. Rosales’ home run ended a seven-game homer-free drought. Clearly the A’s are going to have to manufacture runs.
With Crisp out, leadoff has been an ongoing audition.
Davis filled the bill spectacularly Wednesday: three singles, three stolen bases, two runs scored. But in his previous 20 games at leadoff, Davis hit .220, with five walks and an on-base percentage of .264.
“Our leadoff spot hasn’t been real solidified since Opening Day,” manager Bob Geren said before the game. “We’ve given a few guys a try and had some sparks there, but it hasn’t been consistent.”
Geren said his most logical leadoff candidates are Davis, Cliff Pennington and Ellis, but Ellis hasn’t regained his hitting stroke and Pennington is slumping and was moved to the 9-hole Wednesday.
“Yeah, that’s a good call,” Geren said after the game, somewhat facetiously. “He really could play anywhere, and he could bat anywhere. That’s a really good idea. Want me to do that tomorrow?”
Geren was kidding, but he did add, “He’ll definitely be in the lineup tomorrow.”
Davis would love the leadoff job, but doesn’t get on base enough. Rosales has an on-base percentage of .344, and has zero steals.
Before the game, some wise guy threw out the name of Jack Cust for leadoff. Cust has a team-leading .438 on-base percentage. Very unlikely, but Geren said, “I like his at-bats, I really do. He’s been very disciplined and if you make a mistake, he’s right on it.”
Cust works the count better than anyone on the team. Not exactly your classic speed guy for leadoff, but Geren said, “He’s not as slow as people think. He’s not. He runs OK.”
What about Daric Barton, second-best on-base man on the team at .390, with easily the most walks, 31? Barton batted second Wednesday and contributed an RBI single.
There’s no classic guy for the spot, except maybe Crisp. But Geren’s trying.
E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
A'S 6, ORIOLES 1 – Rosales' HR sparks Oakland's solid win
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18 Responses to “NCS Baseball/Softball brackets”
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May 23rd, 2010 at 12:41 pm
potential championship rematch early for odowd and Albany. I’m sure that one will be full of spit and vineger.
May 23rd, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Looking at D3, it seems to me that the Marin teams and Analy got dissed – O’Dowd, Alhambra, and Moreau’s quarterfinal games will NOT at all be gimmes.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Arroyo gets the #13 seed behind #12 Irvington(Who lost to Arroyo 1-0)and #11 Castro Valley(who finished third behind Arroyo in League)! Once again the seeding is a joke. How does Cal get a #6 seed when they barely made the playoffs with their last game win against a weak DLS? The Committee should have to show their reasons for their Botched seeding attempt in D1.
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Cal beat number 1 Amador. Arroyo is garbage
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:56 pm
As a Sonoma County guy, I agree Analy got railroaded.The worst SCL team, El Molino (6-15 record) got into the DIII field and Analy didnt. Go figure, and go ‘Hounds
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
How did the Marin teams and Analy get dissed? Yes, they are capable of beating the teams ahead of them but the seeding was right.
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Arroyo and Castro Valley tied for 2nd. Castro Valley has better wins over Clayton Valley, O’Dowd and Monte Vista. Arroyo should have been ahead of Irvington based on head-head. However, if Arroyo was 12 and Irvington 13 then both teams would have played league opponents in round 1. Maybe the committee actually did a decent job. Nobody wants to play a league opponent in round 1.
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Cal was in the EBAL and that’s why they are a high seed….srv beat arroyo 24-1, enough said for EBAL
May 23rd, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Well,(Botched Seeding aside) after seeing that Arroyo plays at Logan in both Baseball and Softball on wednesday(Boys 5pm,Girls 7pm) from a fans perspective it doesn’t get much better. Also, Congrats to SLZ! You get to battle #1 Clayton Valley. Go HAAL!!!
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:31 pm
The seeding committee must have put a lot of weight in the CalPreps ratings. Calpreps places a lot of weight in strength of schedule and the EBAL had no week teams this season. Sure DLS had an off year coming in last place, but they were over .500 out of league and if they had just been able to go 6-8 in the rugged EBAL instead of 3-11 they would have been in the field as well.
http://calpreps.com/2009-2010-boysbaseball/ratings/North_Coast_division.htm
May 25th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Hey Ben, thanks for the breakdown on the playoffs in todays paper. Can you tell us what baseball or softball games will you be covering? Also, could you post brief updates during the games. It looks like todays games are gonna be rained out.
May 25th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
No problemo. My games are kind of up in the air at the moment. Hopefully I’ll figure that out later tonight. In terms of updates during the games, I’ll try to remember to post a few to Twitter during each game I’m at.
Yeah, almost everything is washed out today. Mostly everything is set for tomorrow now, which is going to make for a long night around here tomorrow night.
May 25th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
How come the Bishop O’Dowd boys are division 1 for baseball and their girls are division 3 for softball? Are baseball teams able to petition up? I know you can’t petition up in most other sports.
May 26th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Prep Fan,
O’Dowd baseball petitioned up. Teams can petition up in baseball and football also. It’s just not allowed in basketball where the season continues on into state playoffs.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Mckbooth .. O’Dowd is as strong as ever and should win this softball matchup – if it occurs. However, if the game is a pitchers duel, then I would take Albany – due to their defense. Before you argue, look back at the 2006 and 2008 playoff/championship games Albany had with Concord. Concord was an extremely talented hitting machine both years, yet got beat in both games by defense.
May 26th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Sporty–I won’t argue ) Odow’d has beat Albany the last two years in a row. The year that Albany lost one game it was to BOD. Last year BOD had a much more powerful line up and it didn’t really matter who they went up against. This year is a manufacture speedy type team with great defense. In a pitchers dual Odowd has the same girl on the mound who only gave up one run in last years playoff series.
Concord barely got past odowd in 2007 9 innings 5-4 2006 odowd lost 1-0 against Piedmont and the 65 mile an hour flame thrower in a very controversial game.
I’m going with odowd. There young , but talented.
Hope to see this one Sporty!
May 26th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Mckbooth ….. I agree .. I’m impressed with O’Dowd. However, the team I saw lose to CV 19-11 looked very shaky defense wise.
This game will happen. You will get to see BOD vs Albany II.
It all depends on the pitching between these two teams. Rachael is a great pitcher/hitter; I like her grit. She will however, fall to Albany’s defense in a pitchers duel. If Sara Muse is throwing heat . the BODs may get burned.
Remember Albany had to face the flame-thrower three times in 2006. They only needed to beat her once for the championship.
May 27th, 2010 at 6:48 am
Sporty– I saw the 5-1 BOD victory over CV the week before and the defense was off the hook. I couldn’t imagine the Dragons giving up 19 runs. 10 in the seventh??? Which means that it was a competitive game. The one thing that is a positive from that game is that they were in the game and did score 11 runs. I don’t see them backing down at the plate. Same pitching dual as the last two meetings. Rachael 2 Sara 0. Last years game 9-0 BOD. They’ve always hit her well and it had little to do with defense.
It seems as though both Odow’d and Albany have tough 2nd round games so we’ll see.
Moreau is also playing well. It would be tough to beat them three times in one year if it becomes a HAAL final.