Eric Chavez, A's leader who is on contract with A's for 7 years, were in deep slump dropping his batting average to .264. I hesitated last night I shoud be pulling him out of my fantasy roster, but I did choose to put him into the lineup. He replied a home run today in return.
A's won again. They have been winning nine times in a row. They keep their position as the first place in the division, ahead 0.5 game of Texas Rangers. Always A's accerates its speed around All-star break and they are really strong in the second half.
* A lot of injuries.. Who are in, Who are out?
At last, Frank Thomas was replaced on DL after he left the yesterday game. But this is not critical damage for A's because A's have 15 straight interleague games with national league teams. In pitching part, ace Rich Harden and left bullpen pitcher Joe Kennedy, best reliever pitcher in the team Justin drousher are suffering injuries that forces them to be on DL or bench. For batters, Mark Kotsay is appealing his back injury and Milton Bradley has leg problem and Mark Ellis has another issue. Huston Street, Estaban Loaiza, Bobby Crosby and Jay Payton were back from the injuries this year. And Eric Chavez is suffering small injuries. Right now, A's largest enemy is the injury. To overcome this, bench players have to do more than what they are doing. They are doing good now.
* H. Street has no sophmore season?
H. Street was one of the best closer in the league last season as a rookie. A lot of people were deep impressed about his success last season, so they put high expectation, evaulating his coming season before the opening.
Right after season opening, there was some symptoms of sophmore season which is frequently occured to the player coming off the rookie season. He struggled early season and went to DL. But, after being back from the injury, his mode has been like last year. He's done 8 time in a row to close the winning game these days. His ERA and opposite-avg are higher than last year's, but his WHIP is better. If he can keep this pace and has no struggles like early season, his final records is going foward last year's one.
* Don't need speedy player for a big game?
My big complaint about the lineup is that they have no speedy player. I stressed several times the importance of speedy player, especially for a big game like world series. Batter can't hit well every time. If oppnent pitcher is on the best condition, every hitters should be in trouble with hitting the ball and make the run. At that time, to make the opportunity to run or destroy the pitcher's pitching balance, we need speedy runner.
And for a game that one run is important and decesive to win, speed is more critical factor for the game. Assuming the team have runner at second base at game-tie, they need only one hit to win. But if we have slow-runner, lone hit is not enough to run or runner could be out at home in worst case. So I think before trade deadline, bringing speedy players like Juan Pierre who was the big contributor of the 2003 Champion Florida Marlins, should be the good choice for playoff games.
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