March 4th- Oakland at Milwaukee
MIL 9 OAK 4 @ Maryville, AZ

A third day in the sun has me seeing some small changes. My pale skin has taken on a little color, unfortunately that color is bright red. My attention span has grown a little longer, but most importantly, I am starting to get an idea of what is important in these early games. Pitchers do not need to be sharp- regaining the ability to locate is success in itself. Fielders may bobble balls here and there, but even now, range and arm strength come across clearly. We can expect young hitters to press a little, but those who can control at bats have a huge advantage. With these considerations in mind, I take you through some of my takeaways from the Brewers win over the A’s.

A’s Notes

*The primary attraction of today’s game was the nominal pitching matchup. In a pennant race, Barry Zito versus Ben Sheets would be the type of tete-a-tete that even the casual baseball fan would consider before clicking over to American Idol. Spring Training is a different story, with pitchers throwing straight stuff for a couple of innings before running some sets of foul poles in the late innings. Today was no exception, with Zito coming out flat and allowing a big homerun to Rickie Weeks in the top of the first. The biggest highlight was breaking off a big 0-2 bender against Ben Sheets that started over the plate and dove down to his ankles as he hopelessly flailed to end the inning. Everyone in the park knew what was coming- as is usually the case with Zito, an ace with a reliever’s arsenal- on the heels of two four-seamers. Sheets had possibly never seen Zito’s curve before, and had seen it only a handful of times at most. It was a thing of beauty for any baseball fan.

*Billy Beane’s approach to building a team has clearly become more refined from the early days where he accumulated everyone he could find who drew walks. Of course the walk is extremely valuable offensively, but it should come if there is no good pitch to hit in the at bat, not as a desired outcome. Fouling off good pitches in order to prolong a plate appearance in search of a walk is obviously foolish, and the A’s have started to include the “rake” component of “take ‘n’ rake.” The top of today’s order bears out this point perfectly.

Mark Ellis lead off the game, working the count against a slightly out of rhythm Ben Sheets, eventually drawing a walk and scoring. His next AB ended in a single, and his third and final one saw him get ahead in the count before yanking a fastball to the LF gap for a triple and another run. Number two hitter Mark Kotsay had an even more fruitful at bat in the fifth inning. With a runner on third, Kotsay got down 1-2 after a pair of foul balls and started protecting the strike zone. He fouled one straight back, then another. Next he confidently took a heater one ball’s diameter above belt height. A chopper into the first base dugout, another popup straight back. After the AB had reached 14 pitches, Kotsay jokingly gestured to manager Ken Macha that he wanted out for a pinch hitter. He blooped the next pitch, a fastball on the hands, into CF for an RBI single, after which Charles Thomas indeed replaced Kotsay. With a pedestrian lineup of journeymen at the bottom of the order, the discipline of Kotsay and Ellis played an important role in cultivating Oakland’s four runs.

*Oakland’s bullpen also has a unique construction. Jay Witasick and Juan Cruz saw action today with Witasick getting beat like a rented mule and Cruz looking sharp with plenty of pop in the cannon. Add Kiko Calero, Joe Kennedy, Chad Gaudin, Kirk Saarloos and Justin Duchscherer to that mix, and the A’s have a bullpen full of swingmen. That’s a sort of simple math that adds to the team’s versatility: if a pitcher can pitch only one inning, we call him a setup man or a closer, but if a pitcher can pitch four or five innings when asked, then why can’t he also succeed for one inning? No reason, really, and the A’s are set to give their best arms more days of rest by relying on relievers for more than one inning, or less, at a time. Since several of these relievers have already proved their chops as short-outing guys- Calero and Duchscherer in Oakland and Cruz in Atlanta two years ago- so their design only enhances their flexibility.

*I recently mentioned to Todd Linden’s struggles in LF, partially due to the sun. To be fair, I should mention that Bobby Kielty had similar troubles with the sun in the same position of the same field today, so Linden’s problems may have been as much a product of positioning as anticipation.

Brewers Notes

*As mentioned earlier, Ben Sheets did not look like a star on this day. He’s a tremendous pitcher with raw stuff to match his impressive statistical profile, but I was disappointed that my first exposure was to a stiff-looking assortment of four-seam fastballs. I can’t blame a pitcher for starting slow; it is probably the only way to work into game shape. Still, it can’t help but put a chink in his armor in my mind to see him overwhelmed by several reserves.

*The most exciting moment of the day came in the bottom of the seventh with the Brewers leading 7-4. Nelson Cruz had spent the whole game in LF, receiving a pretty generous chance to state his case for the fifth OF job once the team breaks camp, and I was thinking of just how little he had done to impress in the game. Right in step, Cruz blasted a HR to left field. It wasn’t the only homerun of the day, and it should not be that surprising that a player with solid power like Cruz is able to hit a spring training round tripper, but this shot may have been the most titanic of any homer I have ever seen. The spring training stadiums are built without bleachers in the OF, instead featuring forty-five degree hills sloping upward so fans can buy cheaper lawn seats. Cruz hit a ball that cleared the LF lawn on the fly, hitting a brick wall some 50-75 feet past the wall, straight up the hill. Some fans sitting around me conjectured that it had flown anywhere from 450 to 510 feet, but no official length was announced. A modest estimate would put it at 450 feet or more.

*Milwaukee mixed and matched their starting lineup from the one I saw two days before, sliding Bill Hall to short to replace J.J. Hardy and starting Corey Koskie at third. Instead of Prince Fielder, Corey Hart moved from LF to first giving them a look at some other OFs. Assuming Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Koskie, Lee, Clark and Jenkins make up the everyday positional alignment, the presence of Hall and Hart gives the team tremendous versatility. Hall makes a superb backup at second, third or short, while Hart can play the OF corners and first well enough. Backing up seven positions with two very strong players allows them to fill in holes with an eye on specific needs. While some teams carry an extra SS for defensive purposes or a backup first baseman who can hit well, Milwaukee can get a speedster for specific situations or an extra lefty pinch hitter. Think these things don’t matter? Ask the Red Sox and Dave Roberts.