MurphDogg

It is amazing how much I worry about them blowing the lead and yet they still have the largest division lead in Major League Baseball. I know that unless they lose 6 of 8 to the Yankees that there is basically no way that they will be caught. Hopefully the O's take three of four in the home series against NYY and we can breathe a sigh of relief the last couple weeks. I am going to the game in the Bronx on September 24th and I hope they have clinched by then.

I'm not sure I agree that Rodriguez is a significantly better prospect than Delmonico at the time of their respective trades. Delmonico was probably the Orioles #5 prospect going into last season behind Rodriguez, Schoop, Gausman and Bundy. Delmonico was having a decent year at the time he was traded showing legit power and good OBP in the Carolina League at the age of 20. Granted, after the trade Delmonico fell off a cliff and looks pretty close to a lost cause at this point with a suspension and a terrible year repeating the A+ level. Rodriguez has had a down season this year and I think his value is about the same as Delmonico's at this point last year if not a little lower due to struggling at AA while repeating the level. They were equal young for their level but Rodriguez has now made 27 starts at AA and has been underwhelming, whereas to that point Delmonico had yet to hit a wall. I agree that Delmonico looked like a man without a position but with that bat he could have found a place to play.

Nah, retired numbers are for the best of the best. I scoff at teams like the Astros who have retired numbers for guys like Jimmy Winn, Jos? Cruz and Larry Dierker. Only 8 teams have retired the number more than one non Hall of Fame player.

I think it is even more likely that it is simply statistical noise from a 20 at-bat sample. One home run and seven singles on fourteen balls put in play.

Tough to say, as it was the second game of a double header and all the other candidates pitched in the first game. That said, I don't buy that the A's will go closer by committee, I expect Johnson will lead the team in saves.

Of course, Oakland also signed Doolittle to a long term extension so he can also accrue saves without financial implications.

No mention of his 8 scoreless outings that preceded this. He was on the verge of reclaiming the closer job.

I for one am shocked to learn that older players get hurt at a more frequent rate than younger players. And teams with a younger roster tend to lose fewer games to injuries than teams with an older roster.

It has nothing to do with a simple computer system. It has to do with the banking industry. And Ticketmaster is a for-profit company acting with very little competition, so yeah they got to wet their beaks.

It wasn't even fine print. It was included in a huge section stating "What happens if the games are not played?". Nobody should have bought the tickets without reading that section (ie, learning whether they would get a refund if the series was not played). It isn't like they said that they would refund all of your money and then there was a subsequent section buried in a separate terms and conditions page stating that you would not get the processing fees back. Complaining about not getting the processing fees refunded is silly both because the buyer had notice and because THEY DID PROCESS TRANSACTIONS. It isn't free for them to take money out of and return money to your account.