A's Cast - A's Talk - September 4

0:00It's time to hear from you, the fans from road trippers. It's a strike, it's a ball, same location, different call. Yeah. To fanatics. It's not a country club. And the rest. I'm so fired up up confused. This is A's talk. You know, it's an air from my heart, take. Go ahead, Michael, it's your heart, take. Here's your host. He's like the kid, Mike, can I be a part of it? Can I play in the game? Michael Barrabald. It's months you will eat things off against Logan Gilbert. Yeah, it's the right hander delivers in the first pitch. That's swung on a drive down the left field line, hooking in the corner of its parents' trouble. And it's gone. Overrun from Muncie and the A's now trail two to one just inside that left field foul pole. And that's number eight for Max. Anyways, didn't know time against Gilbert. And the old one pitch. That's swung on fly ball to deep left field. The Rosa Rando going back and this game is tied to two. Elyca Williams with his second home run of the road trip is fourth of the year.

1:02And it's a two to ball game. Not just getting the hits the runner goes. But just want to drive to a right field. That's hit well going back Montess and this ball is gone. Chef McNeil, a two run homer. And the A's now lead it. Four to two. That has the one-o pitch. That swung on driving the left field. And the left field, the Rosa, and it doesn't even move. Get off, hits it out. Four home runs for the A's here in the third inning. And it's five to athletics. What an inning that was. What a game this was. A33625227, it's the number that's a three three six two five two two seven eight. What a night. What a night in Seattle for the athletics. Seven to six the final a one run of fair.

2:03Hogan Harris three days in a row pitching. In the ninth inning gets the last three outs for his 15th save of the season. And the athletics bullpen continues to shine. And the theme of this weekend really the theme. That we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks. Is this sort of extended trial run for some of these guys. Well, right now. With this bullpen in particular. It's September and we're scouting for guys. To rebuild this bullpen. It's September scouting. That's what the A's are doing right now. And they're finding some guys. They are finding some guys. We already knew about Hogan Harris. Elvus Abrauto not sharp. We learned obviously he wasn't feeling feeling well battling the flu. So you have to take that into account.

3:03But you look at what Brady Baso did. I mean. You want to look at what Baso did. It was basically a mirror image of what Scott Bluett did last night. Came in calm the game down. Gave the A's multiple innings. Got them through a lead. And set up the rest of the bullpen beautifully. And you need guys like that. I said last time the turning point was Scott Bluett. Tonight it was Brady Baso. Played the exact same role. You get good outings from Hartleab. Again, Alvarauto didn't have it. Obviously dealing with an illness. But he got through it limited damage. ПасA and Harris minus little Kids. Ever again. U. Looking for guys, we talked about how you need to rebuild, this bullpen.

4:05And he's most of it. Yeah. 老師. Scott Bluitt is turning into a guy. And your September scouting. This is what it's for. By the days now, three and oh, in September. Three and one, excuse me, they lost on Tuesday. I'm corrected to three and one. Not a bad record in September. And playing spoiler right now, the Mariners season's on live support. There are 10 games under. A's are going to be going for another series. When they have won multiple series in Seattle in the same season since 2012. This is good stuff right now for the athletics. And you look at everything that has gone on the season. And all of the negative things that have happened.

5:07And you've had the pitching coach fired. Had the general manager and the organization mutually agreed apart ways. There has been so much that has gone out with the team. We talked about all the injuries and all of the obstacles that the team has gone through. You got to sit back and still appreciate this three game stretch. Yes, I've been on yet the nice blowout win on Wednesday. A solid win yesterday come from behind. And then you get this unbelievable third anywhere. We hit four home runs, some that hadn't been done since April 27th of 2002. Against the white socks. And then all of a sudden in the blink of an eye, the game was tied. So now all that momentum you had built goes away. Well, then what is Brady Basterdou? Again, he comes in and calms the game down. You take the lead in the fifth. Thanks to Zach Gelloff and Lawrence Butler. And your bullpen does the rest again.

6:10The A's bullpen the last three games. 15 and a third innings, a 1.17 earn a run average. Just a 550 OPS against. This is obviously not these aren't numbers that are going to sustain over a long period of time. But again, we're September scouting. We're looking for guys are going to be a part of this bullpen in the long term. Because you got to go find them somewhere. Multiple, multiple guys that are going to be in this bullpen next year aren't on the roster yet. You don't draft and develop bullpen guys. You go out and find them. You turn them into something. You find someone like a Scott Bluet. You find something in him. You unlock it. Jeff Hartley maybe Chris Roycroft. Again, not all these guys maybe not all these guys will be on the roster in 2027. You got to go out and find guys. And unlock something within them.

7:10That's going to help your team going forward. You know, the question was asked last night, well, would you put Jack Perkins in the bullpen and put Luis Medina in the starting rotation? And my answer for those of you that weren't listening was, I don't think you messed with Medina. I think if you find something with Medina that he can give you multiple innings in the late portion of games and leverage spots. Someone with his stuff, he's got starter stuff. I would keep him in there all he may be your closer long term. Everyone everyone's clamoring for closer. Where's the closer? Who's the closer? Who's closer? Right now it's Hogan Harris clearly. You're thinking long term Medina could be that guy and it could be sort of a an old school time to close to where maybe they can get multiple outs or excuse me, go multiple innings consistently. Because with how much bullpen are used, I could see the return around baseball of quote

8:16unquote closures going multiple innings, going the eighth and the ninth. Because bullpen are just going to continue to become bigger and bigger and bigger parts of the game. And while starting pitching is valuable, it's great to have it, they're throwing less innings than ever before. And they're getting hurt more than more than ever before. So you're going to need bullpen guys, but not just guys that can go one inning, right? So how it started was you eliminate the lefty specialist and the guys to come into face one better. And with the three better minimum that was eliminated. Well now I think with how starting pitching has gone in the direction it's going, you could see the elimination of just one innings relievers. Now this is not something yet you're going to see eliminated as your release next season. But I think if we look five, 10 years from now, I'm curious how many appearances will be just one inning in 2026 versus what they are saying in 2033, 2034.

9:22Because I do think, again, you look at a guy like Basso, heartleaved going in ending in a third. We've seen blue at go multiple innings. We've seen Medina go multiple innings. We've seen Hogan Harris go multiple innings. This is the direction. I think the A's bullpen can take and this organization can take. You're going to go out and find guys go out and find guys that can get six outs every night. You may not even get six outs every night. But hey, the expectation should be when you come to our team, when you come in pitching our bullpen, you're going to be someone that's expected to get more than three outs when you come in the game. That should be the expectation going forward. Will it be? I don't know. But you look at what Bluit did last night and what Basso did tonight. Basso, Basso, excuse me, is more stretched out and obviously can give you more length. But this is something that can be bullpened wide.

10:25And I would love to see a team, especially the athletics, going in direction like this and have a ton of guys that can get you four, five, six outs on a nightly basis. And if your starter gives you length, great. As I've talked about that too, right? You look at the top 10 teams in baseball with the starters covering the most innings. They are in playoff position. So starting pitching is still valuable and getting out and getting length still exists. And the A's have been able to overcome that the last two nights. Getting just three innings out of Perkins and getting just two and two thirds out of the Cain Morris. Now is that going to, is that sustainable? No. But it does also open the conversation of having bullpen guys, having guys down that bullpen, going more than just one inning consistently, consistently. That's what I think you need to start. Look at more.

11:25It's an old school type of thinking and people in 2026 and modern day baseball are so afraid of going back to the past and going back to old school way of thinking. But guess what? It still works. You go back to the core roots of baseball. It can still work in 2026. Pictures getting out, getting length. You still have guys like that. That's why I've come on this program and said that the A's losing Luis Severino has had a bigger impact than any of us had anticipated. Not because of the contract and not because he hasn't lived up to expectation. It's because he ate up innings. He gave you six or seven innings. Yeah, he gave up maybe four or five runs and the expectation that this was going to be your ace. But you know what? On a night where the bullpen had to cover 18 to 21 outs, even in a game, you knew that

12:28Luis Severino was starting the next day. You were going to get six or seven innings out of them and you were going to be able to give some of your guys a rest. So the production given the expectations for Severino wasn't there. But man, the A's sure have missed the way that he can eat up innings and get out for you. Going back to this bullpen, bro Brady Bassow did today three innings out of the bullpen. Look at what blew it did last night. The return of the multi inning reliever, I think, should make a comeback. Those guys, you look at those guys across baseball. They are very, very valuable. 8 3 3 6 2 5 2 2 7 is the number we're going to get to your phone calls coming up next here on A Stock. And Gilbert's one two is on the way. And swung on lifted right center. Feel this is well hit. Montez back in the alley at the track right to the wall. And he makes a phenomenal catch. Now he dropped it and the bulls loose on the warning track.

13:28The run scores and gel off winds up at third base. And the three to the Butler in a swing and whistled into center for a base hit. And the A's lead by two and Butler has a 13 game hitting streak. He crushed that ball and it right on the screws into center. And it's seven five a's in the fifth inning from Julio Rodriguez. So in one. But this pizza is incredible. It's incredible. I know it's not just saying that. This is it. This pizza is unique. It's kind of like the Troix style a little bit, but it's in a rectangle. Mark you're going to have to update us on this pizza. I know nothing about it. It was insane. The compliments they were giving that pizza. Was this like a pizza at the ballpark? Was this a special delivery? What do you got for us? So all I know is they said it was from a place called Motto Pizza up there in Seattle.

14:32And it was a very obviously very popular with Ken and Johnny. Extremely. I've never heard them praise something like that before. I will have to get some. I'll have to get the scoop on that one when we get back to West Sacramento on one day. That's a conversation I need to have with Ken and or Johnny. All right. I think that's your phone calls now a 3 3 3 6 2 5 2 2 7 is the number Dennis and Hilmar start us off tonight. Hey, did you get me Michael Mark nice to have you with us tonight. Mark. You know, Michael this game tonight. Just the last probably I guess maybe couple weeks. They really started playing competitive baseball back again. Where you can sit down and watch you know nine innings of baseball and and you know. Be proud to to root for this team.

15:37You know what three weeks back or somewhere again pummeled by everybody. You know and and we knew we knew once and went to the bullpen. You know, it was over. You know that the bullpen's pitching better that came more. So I think I think we kind of rushed them. You know, we I mean, and I know we need starting pitching, but I think I think he probably needs to spend more time down in AAA. You know pitching in a regular rotation. But you know, it was a great game. Seattle is a is a playoff contender still. I guess they're on lifeline. But you know, they they're not going to give us anything and they're out to beat us. And you know, this was this was a. This was a I mean, those four home runs out. That was pretty cool to watch. And you know, Michael probably one thing I really want to touch base with you tonight is. Is that go off? OK. Is that go off he's he's truly healthy now.

16:40You know, he has some free. You know, when he got stepped on by Chapman and ran into that fence and Detroit. Kind of freaky freaky incidents this year. But the kid he's healthy now and he's just hitting the cover off the ball. He's playing a great third base. I think we're going to have to just, you know, when next year, we're going to, you know, when we get all our, our, our infield back. You know, Kurt's going to be at first. I think, I think we're going to have to just, just, just, just pay, go off at second. Just leave him like he, like he likely drafted him for put him at second, put Wilson that at shortstop or flip flop him with Leo debris. If Leo comes up. So, but Zach's got to start and I think he's got to be our second baseman. I really do. I don't think there's, you know, and I'd like to keep, I'd like to keep on McNeil as well,

17:40you know, because he, you know, he's, he can play anywhere. I know he's not going to be cheap, but he's a gamer and I believe these kids are really learning a lot from him just by watching, just by watching him, how he goes about his, his day to day, you know, the, the guy's a true ball player, true hitter. You know, so I think, I think once we get everybody back next year, we, we, we tinker with that bull pin and maybe we, I don't know, Michael, do you got an idea? I haven't really looked at who's going to be coming up for free agency next year, you know, starting pitching or have you, have you, have you kind of looked at the contracts and seeing how I want to look at that the other day, but I didn't get a chance to. Does the name Terrick school will be on the market here? Yes, he does. Hey, rings of bell. Why not? We might have no dentist. I haven't looked at closely at obviously with free agency.

18:40Obviously, there was, there was bigger issues coming with baseball, so we don't know what free agency is going to look like. And you know, I'm curious to see how free agency plays out if there will be a rash of signings before December 1st, or if teams are going to be really resistant to handing out contract offers, if, you know, given the fact that there is a likelihood that the rules of engagement and the parameters are going to change. Yeah, I think, Michael, I think, you know, that's exactly the unknown, whether it plays in the ball players favor or the ownership's favor. I guess that's going to have to play out and we're going to have to see. I guess, you know, just, we're going to have to stick our, stick our neck out here, because we got the young core, you know, in another year goes by, they're all going to get another year older. You know, we got to make this thing happen once we, once we land in Vegas in 28, we got

19:42to be ready to roll. No doubt about it, Dennis. Thanks so much for the phone call. Have a great night. You know, Dennis mentions that go off. Coming into the month of September, he was on a stretch where he was four for 45, going from about mid August to the end of the month. Well, in the month of September, not so bad, seven for 18, an OPS of over 1500, and he's now had three straight multi hit games. This is someone that he may not have a position to affect a position. This is someone that's going to have a spot in the A's lineup if he continues to hit. And I think there's a very good chance that he's going to hit at a very high level in the league for a long time. This is one of this was the initial cornerstone of the franchise. Given how he came up, went through injuries, went through struggles, had some fluke injuries this year, right, getting stepped on. We've talked about that running into the wall or sliding into the wall in Detroit, making

20:44that great play and laugh. But man, this kid is an athlete. He can hit and when he, when he connects, you can hear it all over the ballpark to quote money ball. And he pops off his back. He's one of those guys. Mike in Texas, what do you got tonight? How you doing? How you doing, Michael? What's going on? Well, great win tonight. Good team win. One of the best wins of the year, I believe. And we face another guy tomorrow in Brian Wu who left home us. And if we can beat him tomorrow, I think we finish him on the fourth game. But the other, you talk about free agency and the contract and the, the negotiate is dealt out. I gave you a number of the other nine. And I really did think he's playing it well. And I'll do it quickly. That one, and I gave you 175. The players want 200 to 25. And the owners want less.

21:44But at that 175, it triggers two things from the players. At 175, that means the owners have to put more money into their team. They have to put their profits back into the team. And with that, they have to, they're going to demand their money back. They're going to have to put more bucks in the seats. To put more bucks in the seats, you're going to have to put a more competitive team on the field. And that's the second thing that that money triggers for the players. That's why the players want to settle for that. It's not about lost size. It's about making the owners do what they should have been really for a long time and spend the money they make on their team. And now you talk about go getting relievers. At least money to go get relievers. It's just that's what it all triggers. That's what's being reporting. I'm not pulling that out of my ear. That's branching in the rest of them are all safe.

22:44So that's why I was saying it. And I'm trying to explain it better that night. But we're going to do well, I believe. And I think we're left feeling with as a new gender manager and a new manager. I don't think it's not about Mark Scott speaking up. I just don't think it is. He continues with the car. Appreciate he breaks his own guy. It's something that we are going to definitely need to obviously follow and look out for. Like thank you for the phone call and have a great night. And look, it is obviously there are different philosophies everywhere you look. And it's going to be very intriguing to see. And I think the biggest thing for me in terms of the general manager search is how quickly will this person be hired once the season ends. I mean, I'm very curious. The search is obviously still ongoing. Dan Feinstein's interim general manager. Will the interim tag be taken off of him shortly after the season? He'll be the permanent guy or will the athletics go in a different direction?

23:48And I mean, for me, obviously, free agency is going to begin five days after the conclusion of the World Series. So I believe game seven is slated for October 31st. So you're looking at early November, obviously, if the world series ends a little bit sooner, it'll be sooner. But I think just in terms of getting ready for free agency and everything that's coming up. And I think that someone would be in place rather quickly after the season is over. And if obviously if they are going to hire from the team that is in the post season, it's likely that maybe someone will be announced, but wouldn't officially start until their previous team season was complete. So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens there. Tim and Zach Romero. What's up? Hey, Michael Barrabaugh. Hey, man, like it was so happy for me to see the Beyond the Dog Gal episode with Zach Gelov just recently posted on the A's YouTube. And then he goes and hits the home run. And you got law dog who's starting to get hot. Now if he had done that in the beginning of the season, when the A's were on a roll, we'd

24:52be in a much different position now. And the A's, man, they got one more full season to really do a salute to service to the city of Zach before they go on to Las Vegas. And also a quick shout out to a new member of the Raiders, Sacramento board, my classmate, Taryn Johnson. He's going to be a problem with the Raiders. I hope he does well. And I'm going to Las Vegas this up, 2028. All right, Tim. Thanks for the phone call. Have a great night. Coming up next, we'll look around the league and look ahead to tomorrow here on A's talk. Tomorrow, the A's will go for the series win. Remember, the A's took two out of three from the Mariners in Seattle in April. And then a one two or more series in Seattle. Now in the old days, the A's would go to Seattle and go to every division all opponent three times. But now at the balance schedule, back then you had 18 or 19 division games.

25:56Now you have 13. So you're only going to each division on opponents ballpark twice. And so the A's haven't won two series in Seattle in the same season since 2012. It took two out of three in a series in late June. And then of course that magical September one run that they had, they swept the Mariners in Seattle. So the A's have two chances to accomplish that feat here in 2026. Tomorrow, they're going to send Jeffrey Springs to the mound to try and get him. Off the snot as he has obviously had a very, very rough season. But quickly, let's go around the league. The guardians walked off the Tigers in 10 innings four to three. As did the Padres walking off the Yankees three to two in 10 innings. The Dodgers five through winners over the Nationals. In the second game of a double head of the Guardians beat the Tigers again and one run fashion. Seven to six. The final Cardinals also seven to six victories over the Colorado Rockies. Blue Jays nine to two of the Royals.

26:58Astros three to one over the Diamondbacks the race being the Rangers seven to six in Arlington. The White Tocks four to one over the twins. Cubs six to one over the Marlins giants falling to the Met's 10 to six Orioles. Shut out by the Red Sox at Camden yards one to nothing. The final there. Same final in Pittsburgh, the Pirates beating the Angels. These fall to the Braves five to two 10 to seven. The Brewers over the Reds your scoreboard this evening in baseball this Friday night, the first Friday in September. Jeffrey Springs on the Mount for the athletics. Our coverage will begin tomorrow at six o'clock. So no Ace casts live just townie and shooting Babu with Ace cast and a me see sports California. And of course, Samo casts here on Ace cast and the A's radio network, which leads in the first pitch at six 40 Ken Korak Johnny Dosco with the college. Jeffrey Springs going to take the Mount for the athletics looking for that elusive win that he has not gotten since April. Let's see if he can do it in the Pacific Northwest.

28:00He will be opposed by George Kirby of the Seattle Mariners for Mark Brady back in our studio. Michael Barrabalt here. Thank you all for listening to Ace talk everybody and we'll talk to you all tomorrow. This has been a presentation of the athletics.