caulfield12

That's still WAY too expensive for a non-closer...and he's unlikely to repeat that season. Maybe they can do what the Royals have done with Finnegan (move from starting to pen for their initial MLB experience) and push Olacio, Danish or Montas up....Beck would be another good possibility, if he's lacking the repertoire as a starter (what happened to Petricka, basically). There's also Sanburn who we got from the A's for Dunn who has as good a chance as Webb to stick going into next season.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 11:24 PM) Right, he's a 110 wRC+ type of player. But on an Oakland team that was basically built around Brandon Moss and Donaldson after Cespedes departed, the crumbling got a hell of a lot worse. At the very least, you know what Cespedes will give you. He's also a game-changer defensively with his arm...you can't discount that part of his game, especially in LF, where most corner guys are noodle armed. http://blog.sfgate.com/johnshea/2014/09/30...dunn-in-lineup/ Poor Adam Dunn. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...errible-manager Yost ripped to shreds for using Ventura over Herrera/Finnegan in the 6th. The Oakland A’s wrestled with the Kansas City Royals in extra innings Tuesday night, delivering an instant postseason classic in the process. In the end, the upstart Royals overcame in the bottom of the 12th, winning the game with one last unlikely hit, from KC catcher Salvador Perez. The final score was 9-8. But the storyline was epic. It was a lengthy and painful loss for the A’s. And it was also a postseason gem: A game that A’s fans will never forget. And one that KC fans will always cherish. Early on, A’s starter Jon Lester came out strong, but proved fallible, giving up three early runs. Kansas City starter James Shields came out even stronger, only to fall prey to an early hook from Kansas City manager Ned Yost. Back and forth it went, with extra weight on the endeavor. If the A’s lost tonight, their GM Billy Beane would be forever ridiculed for trading slugger Yoenis Cespedes for Lester at the trade deadline. If KC lost, 28 years of postseason waiting would be squandered. On the A’s side, Lester did well enough. And long-struggling A’s slugger Brandon Moss hit two home runs to put the A’s in the lead for most of the game. On the Royals’ side, manager Ned Yost almost wore the goat horns, after pulling starter Shields early, only to have his reliever give up Moss’ second HR. Neither team would give up in extra innings. It felt like the Royals simply had fate on their side. They finally pushed through in the 12th. The Royals now go on to play the Anaheim Angels in the AL divisional playoffs. The A’s go home to a very long winter, contemplating what may have been. At one point. the A’s were the best team in baseball this summer. Then, GM Billy Beane traded slugger Yoenis Cespedes for pitcher Jon Lester, hoping to win a one-game playoff in the postseason. Simply put: The gamble did not pay off. Beane will have to answer for that. sfgate.com/saracevic

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 11:02 PM) Cespedes isn't that good. This loss isn't about losing Cespedes. It's about having a team built on a lot of iffy parts and those iffy foundations crumbling down the stretch. When it came down to it, they're a fortunate bounce of a ball away potentially making a run in a playoff series. But that's what the A's and Twins have been saying for nearly a generation of fans. In the end, they're not getting it done when it counts. Gardenhire was just fired despite being a manager who led his team to 6 titles in 9 years. When you have Jon Lester retiring 12 or so hitters in a row, a 7-3 lead, and one of the best bullpens in the majors...you just have ZERO excuse for not closing that game out. The Royals were shell-shocked and back on their heels. Herrera wasn't even his normal self coming in with a two run deficit.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:53 PM) Agreed. I'm hoping the Sox go with Sale, Q, Noesi, Danks, Bassitt to start the season. Hopefully Danks pitches well enough to be traded sometime around June and then move Rodon up from Charlotte into Danks place. Hopefully one of Montas and Danish continue their paces and one of them be ready to challenge Noesi in ST 2016. They better get going soon. The Twins are coming. The Royals will have Ventura, Duffy, Finnegan, Vargas and Guthrie as a very solid and youthful rotation, and could get even better with some momentum going their way with a chance to knock off the Angels and even add some free agents (not retaining Shields or Butler's salaries). The Indians have Bauer, Salazar, Kluber and Carrasco.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:55 PM) Amazing game. What a disaster for the A's. They acquire an ace prematurely for their cleanup hitter thinking they had already won the division in July...only to fall out of contention because of their lack of offense. Then their ace more or less gives up a 4 run lead in a their only playoff game and they end up with nothing. It sucks to be an Oakland fan right now. Moore/Yost and Beane/Melvin changed places from goats/geniuses in the span of an hour or so. You almost have to feel a bit sorry for A's fans. They really mortgaged their future trading Cespedes and their future starting SS. Is their owner going to have the willpower to replace Lester and find a starting SS AND a bat to replace Cespedes (which was critical when Donaldson and Moss slumped and Dunn wasn't enough to stop the bleeding). Alexei Ramirez would make a lot of sense as an acquisition target for Beane.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:53 PM) I'm fairly certain Hammel is going to blow it here and it'll create a storyline of how Beane's trades were bad... And he does...lol Just like you knew Frasor would give up the lead against Callaspo. Destiny type of thing. Ever since the 10 game winning streak in July/August.

The Royals win the Wild Card Game, the Royals win the Wild Card Game, lol. Ryan Levebvre is going nuts at least. Absolutely thrilling/amazing/crazy post-season game. Good for their fans, they deserve it...having lived there in the worst of times (1996-2005, and 2006-07), no franchise's fans deserve something like that to happen more than Cubs fans, haha. Which of course we would never want to happen in our lifetime/s.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:46 PM) Well, Gordon failed. I'm not sure why Melvin is taking Abad out after just one batter in a game that might go on forever... He's bringing in Pomeranz though, who can probably go 4 innings if he needs to. Edit: nvm it's Hammel. Nothing like a former blown Rockies' pitching prospect to settle it...or was he with the Indians as part of the Jimenez deal? Can't remember exactly how he ended up with the A's now. SEVEN steals tonight for KC. A's brain trust all over it but couldn't hold onto the ball. Previous post-season record was only three. Talk about breaking a record.

Agreed...the kid's only 21 or 22 and has all the ability in the world as a hitter and pitcher. There's just not the "greed-based" incentive there used to be to sell his rights off with the new system. He's worth more to them staying in Japan, for sure.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:38 PM) I'd rather give Bassitt a look and wait for Montas and Danish than spend $100+ on James Shields through his age 38 season. I would consider $70-75 million and 3 years, but nothing more than that in terms of years and total money....which would quickly be eliminated by his agent as a realistic destination.

Gordon and Perez getting two more chances to walk off with the biggest Royals' win in three decades. Make that Perez. Gordon has really been scuffling the last 6 weeks. Yost finally moved him down to 5-6 after he hit 2/3 for most of the season. Hammel, Cubs' starter, to come into the game. Two blown saves over the last four innings for OAK. Beane must be about to have a heart attack.

Holy moley... where's GEOFF BLUM when you need him? 4 1/2 hour game and counting...amazing. Royals simply will not go away...despite all their numerous weaknesses, they've proven to be quite resilient and always perform at their best when you've pretty much given up on them as a frustrated fan on the team.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:17 PM) Going down with the ship on those sac bunts, huh? Sal Perez might be remembered as an equal goat to Yost/Ventura at this point. They've left 5 runners at 2nd/3rd in the 8th, 10th and 11th. Just couldn't get that clutch hit when they had a golden chance to win it.

Curse of former White Sox relievers with Frasor. Callaspo gets it done against his former team. Finnegan had never pitched more than 2 innings, so it's understandable why he was pulled....fwiw, Callaspo was hitting about 40 points lower (under .200) as a RHB compared to LH.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) The AL ROY says "Hola!" It's only Downs, Paulino, Keppinger and Abreu. So 3/4 have sucked, lol. The rest were under-the-radar, waiver wire, NDFA's, guys like Boggs/Cleto/Putnam/Noesi/Sierra/Taylor, etc.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:52 PM) Serious gas from Finnegan. Maybe he shoulda been in there in the 6th. In all fairness, it's not like he pitched a lot down the stretch like Sale in 2010. I think this is only his 7th or 8th outing in the big leagues. If Finnegan gave up the homer to Moss, then he would have been second-guessed about as much or more than using Ventura...that said, even though he was pitching for TCU three short months ago, the lefty against Moss is more attractive (of course, we have the hindsight again of seeing how well Finnegan has pitched the last two innings under the lights of post-season pressure).

QUOTE (scs787 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) This game makes me wanna watch Micah Johnson. Eaton/Johnson/Semien if they all live up to their potential would/will be fun.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:51 PM) And he's not even the fastest guy on the roster Gore, supposedly.

Guess we fired Yost too early, haha.

Willingham over Colon/Nix. Too many strikeouts. Of course, he'll probably hit a homer to left field with the wind blowing out. That worked out. Now you've got Dyson on 2nd base probably (or 3rd) with three chances to drive him in. Royals already set their post-season record with five stolen bases in the first 8 innings.

QUOTE (LDF @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:26 PM) I was never a fan of shields. so in all honesty I really can't gage on not wanting him on the sox. is it age? salary? yrs? Both those, along with the fact he hasn't had TJ surgery yet and that the White Sox would blow their budget on just one or two players, rather than being able to allocate that $25-35 million over the bullpen and 1-2 additional bats. If they're not competitive in 2015, then you're wasting his likely best remaining career season and then he's definitely on the downside in his mid 30's...and on the way to becoming an albatross contract.

Comparing Javy and Shields is JUST a bit of a stretch...bordering on ridiculous. He's simply been an excellent pitcher for the Rays in August and September from 2008-2013...with the exception of 2009-10 when he was hurting/ouchy/high accumulated pitch counts from post-season play. 2014 after All-Star Game 5-3, 2.62 ERA 2011-2013 after All-Star Game....24-13, 3.11 ERA 2008 7-2 with a 3.21 ERA

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:19 PM) Sal Perez...dude. He would fit in perfectly with the White Sox sporting that runner on 3rd, one out approach.

Aoki, Cain, Hosmer and Moustakas the only Royals to get a hit off Doolittle....current roster sits at 4/23. First interesting decision for Yost will be pinch-hitting Nix or Colon for Moustakas to lead off the bottom of the 9th.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:08 PM) Butler with another RBI single. Royals' best hitter now comes to the plate as the potential winning run Aoki and Cain have been better down the stretch, along with Escobar. I always thought Perez was going to be the best of the bench, along with Hosmer...but that still hasn't happened. With that said, Perez is still probably the best catcher (overall) in the AL. Might have to take that one back, haha. Overmatched there.