I want some dap (baseball related)

Cafe Society
21

I confess, I picked it up from Wilbon. I’m so easily influenced.

The point about teams on the rise is, the very reason I had that relatively sunny forecast for the A’s back in June is because, before the season started, I went and compared the then-projected Oakland starting lineup with the lineup from their last playoff game (in 2003 against Boston), and in my estimation the lineup was either the same or better in all but two positions (the losses of Tejada and Dye, and Tejada was replaced by Crosby, who is better now than Tejada was at the same point in his career). The pitching was a question mark, but showed promise. I felt that the A’s needed to do pretty much what they have done this year–finish with a winning record, get as close to 90 wins as possible–to demonstrate to the league and themselves that the losses of Mulder and Hudson did not doom them. They did so, and now they’ve got a positive vibe for themselves going into next season, along with a ton of young talent which will get better and better.

So yeah, I definitely see the A’s contending for the rest of this decade. If they’d flopped this year, the whole thing might have sunk and the Angels would have a walk for about the next three years. Not going to happen. Oakland will be there. And Texas has a truly dynamite lineup, mostly home grown. (I pray every day that Billy Beane can sucker the Rangers into a one-for-one, Eric Chavez for Hank Blalock deal!) They were erratic this year because of the pitching (as usual), but if they develop a couple of real arms, that will be a scary team.

Conversely, I disagree that the Angels will continue to be a top notch team. They’ve been working young talent into the lineup for several years now, and I haven’t seen players like Kotchman and DaVanon make significant contributions (as opposed to guys like Crosby and Swisher, guys who have come up and taken over day-to-day positions on the field). Plus, I think Moreno’s got the itch; he may try to buy a championship with free agent signings instead of developing the talent from within, and teams like that never scare me, because it just doesn’t jell so frequently. Throughout their history, the Mets have been a classic example of that sort of team. Only the Yankess–and only in the last decade–have demonstrated a proven track record of buying a championship with big signings.

And yeah, Cleveland should scare the hell out of the AL for the next five or so years.

In sum, I think that what Oakland accomplished this year has a lot of ramifications for the future of the AL West, and probably the rest of the league. And I kinda-sorta predicted it. I think that’s “dap worthy”!

And one more thing: Marley23, remember, the only reason the World Series (MLB’s only postseason for about seven decades) came about in the first place was because there were two separate leagues, each had a champion, and they didn’t play during the regular season–it was the only way to determine who really had the best team. That is the point of a championship, isn’t it? To figure out who’s the best? If you set up a postseason that consistently negates the results of the regular season, that’s kind of illogical. It defeats the purpose of having the regular season, in my eyes at least.

22

You mean the Hank Blalock that hits .233/.279/.339 outside of Arlington? The Rangers’ offense isn’t nearly as good as everyone thinks it is - only Coors is more of a hitter’s park than Ameriquest. They aren’t going anywhere until they realize their offense isn’t as good as they think it is and if they want to bash other teams into submission, they’re going to have to find players that can do it on the road if they’re going to contend.

Um, what? Could you please name some of this young talent that they’ve been working into the lineup? There’s pretty much only Chone Figgins and he only cracked the lineup out of necessity due to injuries. There was McPherson this year, but he had a back impingement that required surgery - he’ll be back next year.

DaVanon’s been a fourth outfielder his entire major league career. He was never supposed to be anything else. There’s a reason he never got 300 ABs in a season until last year at age 29. Kotchman spent the majority of his time this year in AAA and last year in AA. When he was called up he hit .259/.331/.474 in a little over 100 ABs. Oh yeah, he’s only 22.

Well his itch will likely be sated this year when the Angels go deep in the playoffs. The only team that can hang with them in the AL are the Indians. The Angels are committed to developing within. They let Glaus go in favor of McPherson. They’ll likely let Molina go in favor of Mathis in a year or two. Erstad’s role will be changed to make room for Erstad. And Kendry Morales will likely be the team’s DH by 2007. Brandon Wood will cause a shift in the Angels infield within a year or two.

Oakland will be contenders, but the Angels ought to be the favorites for the rest of the decade, at least.

23

Depends on what you think the purpose of the regular season is. You don’t know who the best teams might be without the regular season, and I think that’s the primary purpose. The system they had in place with a much smaller league would not be as interesting now.

24

I’ll take Blalock over Chavez because he playes third base, bats left, hits for almost comparable average and power, is a little younger, plays a more hard-nosed game than Chavez…and (crucial point) I’ve had an assful of watching Chavez swing at the first pitch and meekly pop the ball up to left field in crucial situations, and hit all of his home runs when the A’s are either way ahead or well behind–when it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. Chavez is kind of the epitome of what’s been wrong with the A’s during their recent run of success (until this year and last): lots of talent, but way too passive. The A’s of this century have been a team that rolls over the lesser teams, but once a team stands up to them and fights back, Oakland folds faster than Superman on laundry day. That’s why they lost these past two seasons, especially finishing weakly in September: once Tejada left, there was no one left who’d stand up in the dugout and start screaming.

As for the Angels, I stand by my assessment: I think this team, though good, has peaked as constituted. I’m sure they have guys in the pipeline, but I haven’t heard much buzz about the Angels farm system, and they young players I have seen haven’t impressed me. It’s just speculation at this point; time will tell.

25

Do you even follow baseball? The Angels farms system has been top rated by everyone from Baseball America to Baseball Prospectus.