I Hate The A's

I hate the Oakland A's.

It didn't always come naturally and it never really sunk in until a few years ago, but I truly hate them. And that is a good thing. Every team needs a rival. The Yankees have the Red Sox. The Giants have the Dodgers. The Diamondbacks have the Suns. And so on.

The Mariners have the Athletics. Not that anyone else really considers it a rivalry, but I do. And with this rivalry comes extreme hatred. Utter despise of that team.

Growing up the hatred festered inside, but never came out. Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire bashed forearms. C'mon, how stupid is that? Rickey Henderson loved himself. Dave Stewart dominated. Bob Welch won 27 games? Now they were really starting to piss me off.

Then it happened. Ken Phelps. The former Mariner hits a two-out ninth inning solo homer off Brian Holman to ruin a perfect game. Now the hatred starts to show itself. I begin to look at elephants differently as if they are the enemy. I see yellow and green as puke colored pigeon poop. Everything Oakland needs to suffer.

College arrives and I meet David Dunch. A good guy, smart, good looking enough (heterosexually speaking), but an A's fan. A dirty dirty A's fan. He grins smuggishly every time Miguel Tejada hit a home run or Tim Hudson struck out Bret Boone on a nasty splitfinger. Hate, hate, hate.

Then it got even worse.

We started going to Mariners-A's games. The A's fans are the worst. Bigots, brainless, and annoying. They throw batteries and quarters at Ichiro since he is Japanese. Not an exaggeration. They love the dirty, grimy white guys like Jason Giambi and Nick Swisher. Or even worse, Matt Stairs. They wear the ugly green A's jerseys and swing their little flags or bang on their drums. Why the hell are they banging on drums? I don't understand and I hate even more. "Let's Go Oakland!" Shut up, just shut up. You will shut up unless you want a knuckle sandwich.

Then it went from worse to dirty puss scab disgusting.

Mike Rasay started rooting for the A's.

A guy from Hawaii with no affiliation to any team. If anything he should root for the Mets at the time due to the relative success of Benny Agbayani. But no, he jumps on the bandwagon. A skinny, guitar-playing, Hawaiian picks the A's over the beloved Mariners. What is he doing? Claiming that he enjoys rooting for the underdog, stupid Mike joins forces with Dave. Now they both sit in the hate circle.

As time goes on, my hate grows stronger. Swisher = hate. Blanton = hate (despite being my twin brother). Scutaro = really hate. They all suck. They all need to get slapped and kicked in the nuts. So here's to you A's fans (yes, that is poop).

Baseball Notes

To quote the brilliant Jay-Z, "Sure I do, I tell you the difference between me and them/They tryin to get they ones, I'm tryin to get them M's".

See, Jay-Z loves the Mariners. And if he loves the M's, he must love their prospects.

Here is the latest update on the top 10 prospects:

1. Carlos Triunfel, SS (A) - .282, 0 HR, 11 RBI (.473 last five games)
2. Adam Jones, OF (AAA) - .306, 4 HR, 19 RBI, 20 R (.317, 3 HR, 10 RBI last 10 games)
3. Jeff Clement, C (AAA) - .223, 4 HR, 19 RBI (.297, 2 HR in last 10 games)
4. Ryan Feierabend, LHP (AAA) – 1-2, 3.38 ERA, 37 1/3 IP, 29 K (no more than 3 ER in any start)
5. Tony Butler, LHP (A) – 0-2, 3.79 ERA, 19 IP, 21 K
6. Alex Liddi, 3B (A) - .222, 2 HR, 11 RBI (.322 in last 10 games)
7. Chris Tillman, RHP (A) – 1-2, 4.76 ERA, 22 2/3 IP, 27 K (only gone 1 IP in last two starts)
8. Matt Tuiasosopo, 3B (AA) - .341, 1 HR, 14 RBI, 27 R
9. Greg Halman, OF (A) - .209, 2 HR, 12 RBI
10. Wladimir Balentien OF (AAA) - .317, 9 HR, 28 RBI, 23 R (.171 in last 10 games)

• After my praise of Balentein to the point that I was ready for him to replace Guillen, both have changed course. Wlad is hitting only .226 in May while Guillen has become one of the best players for the M's. He is hitting .286 with 4 homers and 16 RBI. Guillen leads the team in OBP and is second in OPS.
• How about the Giants farm system? On the old website I used to rank four teams with their top prospects (A's for Dave, Giants for Joe, Red Sox for Justin). While Travis Buck is raking for the A's and Dustin Pedroia is starting at 2B for the Sox, the Giants win the prize. Outfielder Fred Lewis hit for the cycle yesterday and OF Dan Ortmeier and IF Kevin Frandsen are also playing. Not to mention Tim Lincecum.
• Did you know Barry Bonds would be the NL MVP right now? He might even be more absurb than A-Rod.

Rodriguez .329, 15 HR, 39 RBI, 35 R, 9 2B, 14 BB, 31 K, .407 OBP, .714 SLG, 1.122 OPS in 140 AB

Bonds .307, 11 HR, 23 RBI, 25 R, 37 BB, 14 K, .512 OBP, .727 SLG, 1.239 OPS in 88 AB

88 ABs! Look at the walks versus strikeouts with only four less homers. Sign me up for those roids.

• The Brewers are awesome thus far thanks in large part to the duo of J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder. You had to think Prince would be a slugger due to the pedigree, but Hardy? I didn't think he could have 11 homers and 34 RBI at this point. Couple that with Fielder's 11 home runs and 31 RBI. Wow.
• Jake Peavy? Nasty. 5-1, 1.52 ERA, 17 BB, 66 K in 53 1/3 innings. Batters are slapping the ball around for a .173 average against him. And he is getting better. Over his last four starts in 28 innings, Peavy has allowed only 12 hits and four runs with striking out 46. Disgusting.
• Francisco Cordero apparently is good as well. Really good. In 18 games Cordero has thrown 16 2/3 innings and allowed only four hits and one run. Hitters own a .077 average against him and his WHIP is 0.66 with 15 saves. He projects out to 64 saves (breaking Bobby Thigpen's record of 57). The projection does not indicate that his arm will fall off, but I am pretty sure that is a safe bet.
• Jose Valverde, Takashi Saito, and Salomon Torres. Those are the next three save leaders in the N.L. after Cordero. Huh?
• I love Jose Reyes. I wish he was a Mariner. And if Bonds isn't MVP, then Reyes wins. Fifth in hitting at .340, while leading the league in triples (7), stolen bases (21), and runs scored (33). He also has 23 RBI (good for 17th).
• Speaking of people I love....Ken Griffey Jr. Hitting .336 (5th) with 7 homers and 23 RBI. Awesome.
• The Mariners are 12th in ERA in the American League at 4.91. Take out Jeff Weaver and they vault to 6th at 4.13. I hate you Jeff Weaver.
• They stand 7th in the A.L. in batting average at .264 but apparently dominate at night. The M's are first in the league in night batting average at .290, but last in day average at .220. The freaks come out at night!
• Last in walks (77, not even close), but also last in strikeouts which gives them an OBP of .316 (11th in the league). But they seem to hit when it matters. The M's are 5th in batting with runners in scoring position (.262), 6th with two outs and runners in scoring position (.266), and 1st when close and late (.301).
• Wonder how the A's win with all the injuries and subpar hitting? Dan Haren, Chad Guadin, and Joe Blanton all in the top 16 in ERA. And they hit .296 (best in the A.L.) with runners in scoring position and two outs.
• The A's success seems to be in no part due to the legendary Chris Snelling. He came down with a bruised left knee and is out day-to-day. As Mariners fans know, that means done for the year soon enough. Snelling suffered a broken hand in 2000, a broken ankle in 2001, ACL surgeries in 2002 and 2005, a broken wrist, and a broken thumb. Oh and five additional surgeries on the left knee for seven total. The same knee that is hurting him now.
• But with Snelling down, Jack Cust gets to play! The newest addition to my second place fantasy baseball team, Cust es en fuego. Hitting .346 with six homers and 14 RBI in only seven games! Ridiculous. Although not entirely surprising as he hit 30 homers for the Beavers last year and 19 with 75 RBI the year before for Sacramento. His 191 minor league home runs get him compared to Crash Davis of "Bull Durham". Not even close. Hector Espino gets that title as he leads all career minor leaguers with 484 homers.