Excuse me while I rant about the A's and baseball...

If you only knew one thing about me then it is probably the fact that I am a big baseball fan. My favorite team, the Oakland A's, begin play in about 20 minutes against the Cincinnati Reds. I watched the A's play the Reds last night which makes me a little hesitant to even watch the game tonight... As an A's fan, it was hard to watch.

The manager of the A's, Bob Geren, has got to go. I've said this before and I'm saying it again. Is that the only move that needs to be made? No. But it is the first move that should be made.

Bob Geren brought in closer Andrew Bailey (2009 AL All-Star and Rookie of the Year) in the top of the 9th in a game tied at 1. I knew right away this would not work. If you have watched the A's like I have this year then you know that Bailey is not the same pitcher in a tie game that he is in a save situation (that means with his team leading by 1-3 runs in case you were wondering). For whatever reason, Bailey does not seem to have the save adrenaline and effectiveness when entering in a tie game. Before I knew it, the Reds were up by the score 2-1. The A's did come back to tie the game at 2 in the bottom of the 9th only to end up losing 6-4... like I said, it was hard to watch. I wonder how the hell is it that I see this constant problem with Bailey and Geren does not? Part of managing is to understand what situations certain players excel in. . . Geren doesn't seem to be doing that.

One of my favorite baseball movies is Little Big League in which a young kid named Billy Heywood becomes manager of his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins, while they are in a serious funk, and after Billy's grandpa,who owns the team, dies.





Now I'm not as young as the character of Billy is in this movie (In fact, AJ Hinch, a former A's draft pick, is the current - and youngest - manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks at age 36 - after his Major League playing career didn't pan out as hoped).

But if I was given a shot at making some decisions for the A's right now, here is what I would do...(and yes, I'm taking the fact that they are a small market team into consideration)

Fire Bob Geren - if anything it gives the team a shot in the arm and tells them not to take anything for granted.

Don't let Brad Ziegler pitch to lefties - I like Ziegler like a lot of A's fans do, but he is having a tough time getting left handed hitters out - maybe all he needs is to gain confidence facing righties only for a while.

Put Michael Wuertz in blow-out games only - He is not pitching like himself right now. He started the season on the DL and doesn't seem to have found his form yet. It is better to have him pitch in non-pressure situations.

Send Tyson Ross to the minors and release or trade Jack Cust - Tyson Ross was a nice story out of Spring Training and was effective at first but he has been disastrous lately. He should be sent back to AAA Sacramento for more seasoning. Jack Cust started the year in the minors but the A's brought him back. The A's outfield is crowded and Cust sucks defensively. On offense, he is a good rally killer. He will hit the occasional solo home run though when the A's are losing 6-0 .... but that means Jack shit. (see what I did there?)

Promote Chris Carter from AAA Sacramento - He may be hitting only .238 in AAA Sacramento but he has 15 home runs and 53 RBIs as well. I would like to see the 3 thru 6 part of the lineup look like this - Conor Jackson, Chris Carter, Kurt Suzuki, Kevin Kouzmanoff. Looks a lot better to me. Carter could play DH (instead of Cust) or he could replace Daric Barton at First Base now and then.

Stop bringing in Andrew Bailey to pitch tie games - You knew that one was coming, right?

::sigh::.... I know the A's have a small market team and can't afford to spend money on players like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers.... but that doesn't mean they shouldn't still try to compete with what they have.... and be smart (cough, Geren, cough) about it.