Post-Mortem

OAK 2, TB 11

And the bitchslapping is over. I know, it's only Game 5 of a long 162-game season but some things just worry me.

Now that I'm in a much more rational state of mind, let's talk A's.

Negatives:

Zito: I don't know what to say about this guy. His curve wasn't working, his control was off, he couldn't throw a strike to save himself today. He told the media this offseason that he was working on some things and he was getting ready for a "big" season. I wanted him to have a big season. But what is going on?

I guess I can relate to this, not as a ballplayer, but as a musician.

Yesterday I had one of the worst "outings" in a long time, I was horrible, I couldn't sing musically, let along anything above an A. My sound was just wrong and I was muscling through too many passages of music when I should be finessing it. After months of learning and growing into better musician and singer all of a sudden I was back to square one. I was vocally fatigued after practicing for one hour and I couldn't warm up for the life of me. I was pissed and worse, I was just plain mediocre.

I can't handle mediocrity for any period of time. Every time I have a setback, I rest, then retreat to a practice room and get back on the horse and work my ass off 'till it's right. Is Zito doing the same? Is he pissed off of his mediocrity? He can be so much better than this, it's frustrating.

LOB: Not much of a problem today, check this out:

Team LOB: 3

LOB wasn't a problem today because hardly anybody got on base. Which leads to the next problem...

Cold bats: Only three hits today, Kotsay and Ginter went yard while Ellis had an infield single. The people you'd expect to produce, like Chavez and Durazo, aren't. Also Byrnes still seems to want to hit only home runs. Also, what contact that was made seemed weak. Few deep fly balls or unlucky hard liners, it seems that most of the balls put in play were pop ups and other weak hits to the shallow outfield. Even if Zito was on, it'd be hard for him to get a win with today's offense.

Positives:

The Rookie Starters: Haren, Saarloos and Blanton are pitching really well now and are holding up OK to the pressure. They've pitch themselves out of a few jams and I'm quite impressed.

The Bullpen: Truly awesome. When the bullpen comes in my stomach is no longer in knots, like last year. Duke's doing well, Cruz is doing well. You already know my feeling on Yabu and Street is doing really well. The bullpen, so far, has allowed only one earned run. Billy Beane did a really good job in rebuilding the 'pen during the offseason. I'm not thinking the A's will make the playoffs this year (2006 is a different story though), but if they do, the bullpen will carry the team to October.

Last but not least...

Rich Harden: Makes his first start tomorrow. Let's turn this around shall we? A's home opener is right around the corner.