Category: Oakland A’s
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Ernesto Frieri, Jason Grilli on verge of losing their jobs
June 20, 2014 Pittsburgh Pirates – Jason Grilli blew his fourth save of the season on Thursday. Four blown saves — and an accompanying 4.34 ERA — isn’t exactly horrendous, but it’s obviously not what you want to see out of your closer, especially when your bullpen has been stellar otherwise. So after the game,…
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Joe Nathan to Hot Seat; Ryan Cook returns
June 4, 2014 Detroit Tigers — Hometown hero RoboCop threw out Tuesday’s first pitch; even his bounced eephus looked good up against the offerings of closer Joe Nathan, who yielded four runs in one-third of an inning to raise his ERA to 6.86. Nathan’s reduced velocity and deteriorating command has put Brad Ausmus in a difficult position: stick with his $10 million man, who reports feeling “damn good,” or give…
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What the hell is going on in Houston?
May 30, 2014 Oakland A’s – With $10 million invested, the A’s really want Jim Johnson to succeed — or at least be a usable reliever. But after giving up 2 runs in the 7th inning of a close game on Thursday afternoon, Johnson’s ERA sits at 6.55. The A’s season is exactly 1/3 over,…
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Ronald Belisario and Cody Allen moving up
May 21, 2014 Cleveland Indians — Bryan Shaw pitched the seventh and eighth innings up three runs, yielding to Cody Allen for the ninth — although by then the Indians had scored another run to eliminate the save situation. Without that run, this would have been the second straight save chance for Allen, who hit 100 mph on the radar gun…
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Sean Doolittle looking like the leader of Oakland’s committee
May 19, 2014 Oakland A’s – A week ago today, Sean Doolittle got his second save of the season. Since then, the A’s haven’t had another save opportunity, but even before yesterday, it had started to appear that Doolittle was becoming the preferred option. Bob Melvin said on Wednesday that Doolittle would’ve gotten the save…