VRD2CS973ABB

VRD2CS973ABB

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Braden's Role

I have concern about Oakland Athletics' pitcher Dallas Braden since his perfect game on May 9. Since then he does not win a game and his performance is less than average. Over this period his earned run average is 4.75. This is only slightly worse than his lifetime ERA of 4.52. Yahoo Sports supplies Situational Statistics for pitchers and Braden's are eye opening. With the bases empty his ERA is 2.13, which is excellent. With runners on it soars to 6.89 and from here it gets worse. With Runners in Scoring Position (RISP) it is 9.87 and with RISP and two outs it is an abysmal 23.32. Yahoo also breaks down a pitcher's performance according to the number of pitches thrown. He starts out poorly with an 8.18 ERA for pitches one through fifteen. He settles down though pitch sixty and then starts yielding runs again. His ERA through sixty pitches is 3.57, which is OK, but not great.

I think Dallas Braden can be an effective pitcher for the A's, but Manager Bob Geren must understand the role he is able to fill. He has the makings of a fifth starter, not to be pitch more than five innings or so. He is occasionally brilliant, most notably his perfect game. Overall, he does not show enough for consideration as a top three stud. This is the story of his career so far, one great game and then mediocrity. It is up to Geren to adjust his thinking about Braden and his role as a starter for the Oakland Athletics.

Perfection Denied

It is disappointing to see umpire Jim Joyce's blown call deprive Detroit Tigers' pitcher, Armando Galaraga, of a perfect game. It is also disappointing to hear the media cries for remedy. A perfect game must be that. Perfection is a demand everywhere on the field, including the officials. One may loose a perfect game due to a fielding error or a great play not made as well as a bad call. Luck has a substantial role. The worst suggestion I hear is that Commissioner Bud “Bud Lite” Selig should over rule the call by Joyce and manufacture perfection. This is a horrible idea and denigrates the twenty instances of faultlessness in baseball history.

I hear the hue and cry amongst some of the media for expanded instant replay. I may be old school, but I think mistakes are part of the game and over the course of 162 games they tend to even out. The exception today is that the Yankees and Red Sox get too many calls which they should not. Oakland Athletics post game radio buffoon, Chris Townsend, advocates for instant replay because of horrible officiating. Townsend goes further, suggesting a computerized system be used to call balls and strikes. Once again, blown calls even out and MLB still has the ability to adjust the system to benefit “special” teams.

No one likes blown calls, but instant replay would also eliminate many eminently entertaining moments. One is the blown call at first base in the 1985 World Series between the Cardinals and Royals by Don Denkinger. The Cardinals loose their cool and surrender a late Game 6 lead and then loose Game 7. Since I am a fan of neither team, this is completely entertaining and a good lesson in consequences of not maintaining one's composure. In the case of yesterday's game, instant replay would deprive us of the display of class by Galaraga, Joyce and eventually Tigers' manager, Jim Leyland.

Andrew Bailey = Houston Street?

Last year I would have said Bailey = Eckersley, who is the gold standard by which all A's closers are judged. Street is more like the aluminum standard. Last year Bailey was Eck-like in the way he just got batters out and let few runners get on base. After his rookie of the year performance, he seems to be a little off. He has two blown saves and lately his saves have approached Streetian, i.e. he comes in with a multiple run lead and gets a one run save or gets out of the inning, but puts the issue in doubt by allowing base runners. Maybe it is a sophomore slump and I hope he gets back to Eckersley like pitching.

Volcker Receives Honor from Stanford

Former Federal Reserve Chief, Paul Volcker, received an honor from the Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research last Tuesday for his efforts to stamp out inflation in the 1980's. He chided Americans for their consumption and lack of investment that creates good jobs. Frankly, Volcker has no one to blame but himself. The Fed's actions under his reign put the economy into a tailspin from which it has not recovered. The good jobs kept leaving since then to be replaced by poorly paying service jobs at the low end and financial services jobs at the high end. Volcker blamed those who took the latter jobs for the current mess. Although inflation was tough, it was the banks who were really under its yoke. Where there was about twelve percent inflation, many homeowners had six percent loans. While their wages probably did not keep up with inflation, the home payments became less and less of a monthly burden. The banks saw this as paying negative interest and this was the reason Volcker was tasked to stamp out inflation and destroy many small businesses and put many out of their homes through the loss of jobs.

Paul Volcker is an adviser to the Obama administration and along with Timothy Geithner, former head of the New York Fed, we now have a bunch of foxes patrolling the hen house.

Coco County: Beware the Falahat.

Recently commercials for Elle Falahat, who is running for District Attorney for Contra Costa County, show on cable TV. Mark Klass appears and supports Falahat as a member of the prosecution team of Richard Allen Davis, murderer of his daughter, Polly. I still have questions about this prosecution, although Davis is where he belongs on Death Row. I suspect that others should be there with him and the prosecution settles for the traditional, “Lone nut gunman.” In his 1995 book, WHO KILLED POLLY?, Frank Spiering reports that on the night of Polly's kidnapping there is another man talking to Davis on her back porch. Davis confesses to the crime and does not implicate anyone else. Some question why he takes the rap by himself. This may have been a prison gang operation where no snitching rules apply and if the prosecution decides that one person is taking the rap and offers no deal to Davis, he admits to another crime, conspiracy, by volunteering this information.

Spiering also discusses a possible motive for this and other kidnappings of young girls. Some are made sex slaves and sent to Saudi Arabia, where young, white virgins are in demand. In 2008 Liam Neeson makes a film, TAKEN, which tells the story of a former intelligence operative whose daughter and friend are the victims of such a kidnapping. Neeson's character finds the friend dead of an overdose. It happens that she is not a virgin and the kidnappers can not sell her. The daughter maintains her virtue and is sold to a wealthy Saudi. As in many movies, Neeson arrives in the nick of time to kill the rich Saudi and rescue his daughter after shooting up Paris. A thoroughly entertaining film. I suspect that Polly may be cast as the friend, not a virgin and not of use to the kidnappers.

The Forces of Darkness use the Polly Klass murder and conviction of Richard Allen Davis as a manipulation to help pass the, “Three Strikes Law.” Contra Costa County voters must carefully think about Elle Falahat and the depths to which she sinks in order to satisfy her ambition.

And the DH?

Late in yesterday's 7-6 win over Texas, Oakland Athletics Manager Bob Geren made an interesting move. He pinch hit for his left fielder and then pinch ran for designated hitter, Eric Chavez. When the team took the field in the bottom of the inning, Gabe Gross, who had pinch run for Chavez, entered in left field. This terminated the A's use of the DH for the remainder of the game. This was an interesting fine point to the game and I was looking forward to San Francisco Chronicle writer Susan Slusser's analysis of the situation and Geren's thinking. She barely mentioned the move and the strategy remained a mystery to me. Once again, I was disappointed by the efforts of the local media.