Sunday Musings 3/2: A Week Full of Nerd Power
By Jason Burke
Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Welcome to the second installment of my Sunday Musings, where I will talk about the previous and upcoming weeks for the Oakland A’s, as well as some tidbits from around the league. This is meant to be a weekly summary for everything A’s, as well as a, “Did you see that catch by Bryce Harper??! Here is the link” wrap-up.
The major story in A’s news this week was Eric Sogard‘s run to the Face of MLB finals. If you have a Twitter account and have logged in this week, chances are you have an idea what this is. We covered all of the action, so if you would like to read the posts, here are the articles. In short, Sogard beat out Buster Posey and “I’ll follow anyone” Jose Bautista before falling to David Wright amid some controversy on Friday morning.
The controversy came due to a suspicious number (50,000) of votes being cast from South Korea for Wright in the final 30 minutes. The consensus among fans and other sites is that MLB rigged its own competition so that Eric Sogard wouldn’t win. Either way, the A’s fan base made a loud statement that we are the best fans in baseball and we support all 25 guys on the roster, not just superstars.
On the field, Josh Reddick made two spectacular catches in the first game of Spring Training. The first one was debated as being the best catch of all-time on ESPN’s PTI. Here are both catches. It even comes with music!
We also covered that Sean Doolittle has been working on two new pitches and what that means to the A’s chances in 2014. We also wrote an article about the A’s rededicating themselves to the upcoming season, and how that will affect them come October.
On the field, the A’s went 2-1-1, with both wins coming against the Giants. Billy Burns, the player Oakland received for Jerry Blevins, has been a pleasant surprise through 4 games. He is 4/11 with a .364 AVG and already has 4 steals. If he winds up making the team, Burns, Coco Crisp and Craig Gentry could be all the speed the A’s need. With those 3 in the lineup, if any one of them gets on, they become a headache for the pitcher. When a pitcher’s concentration is not on the batter, they make mistakes. The A’s have enough power in their lineup to make the pitcher pay if he makes a mistake.
For a brief look at Billy Burns, check out this article by Devin Pangaro.
Around the League:
Spring Training games have started!
Former A’s player, Mark Ellis, is now with the St. Louis Cardinals. The red doesn’t quite look right on him.
The offseason’s big-fish free-agent Masahiro Tanaka pitched 2 scoreless innings and struck out 3 for the Yankees on Saturday.
Zack Greinke can’t get excited about going to Australia, according to ESPN Los Angeles. After saying this, Greinke suffered a calf strain. Karma sucks.
Minnesota Twins top-prospect Miguel Sano is set to have Tommy-John surgery and will miss the entire 2014 season. I found this article by a Twin’s fan to be really refreshing.
That it all for this week’s edition. Ideally, these will go up by Noon every Sunday. When the season starts, there will be more videos and more news from around the league. Have a great week, and see you next Sunday!