A's Cast - A's Talk - September 6

0:00It's time to hear from you, the fans from roadtrippers. It's a strike, it's a ball, same location, different call. Yeah. To fanatics. You're not a country club. And the rest. I'm so fired up up good feet. This is A's talk. You know you're not from my heart, take. Go ahead, Michael, what's your heart, take? Here's your host. He's like the kid. Why can't I be a part of it? Can I play in the game? Michael Barra Bolt. 8-3-3, 6-2-5, 2-2-7-A. Well, the four game losing streak or sees before game winning streak has come to an end for the athletics. As they fall to the Mariners to nothing. One hit basically by Brian Woohoo has always had a tremendous amount of success against the athletics in his career. And he did so again. When the Mariners, I guess you could say needed it most. Although as you all know that if you listened to the show last night or caught it on our podcast platforms,

1:00I declared as a September 5th the Mariners season over and it's still over after today. But that's beside the point. A's get shut out one hit. Gage jump. Look really good early on. And then obviously ran into trouble in the fourth. When you throw a 40 plus pitches and ninning, you're not going to see another inning on the mound. And wasn't able to give you the length. That's been the problem with Gage jump. Even when he has had maybe not necessarily his best stuff but good stuff. He has struggled to give you length, lot of foul balls, lot of deep counts. It looks like he nibbles at times at the play. He didn't walk anybody today. So that's a positive, right? You don't want him giving away free bases. And you know, at least today, you know, we got knocked around a little bit in that fourth inning. Obviously six hits, two runs on the outing in the four innings, but seven strikeouts. 43 pitches to in the fourth inning. Yeah, a lot of pitches, a lot of foul balls, a lot of deep counts. That's something he's going to have to really correct and not be afraid, not be afraid of contact.

2:02I mean, he's got strikeout stuff. No one can deny that. But as a pitcher and as a young pitcher can be hard. To really be okay with contact because without hard. Gage jump throws. If they score up a 98 99th foul, not our fastball, it's leaving the ballpark, especially in 2026 baseball. But what you have to do a good job of as a pitcher is. Stay balanced in your repertoire and try to get as much weak contact as possible. You don't have to get seven eight 10 11 strikeouts every now. I mean, you can do it with. With a little finesse and really changing speeds. I mean, look at what Jacob Lopez has done. He doesn't throw his fastball is about 91 92. I think he can get up to about 93 94 tops. But what he does is he has done a really good job of mixing pitches. And yes, he has that deception with that three quarter release. But you know, the way Gage jump hides the baseball.

3:03He himself has a little bit of deception as well. But with what I see with jump. Over half of his pitches or excuse me, exactly half his pitches today were four seat fastballs. And in baseball in 2026, that's not going to cut any only through his slider, his second best pitch 13 times. Just a lot of fastballs time after time after time. Obviously, he's still working on his change up. And I'd like to see him more development with that sinker. The change up he threw nine times a sinker. Just seven times. I mean, the good news with the sinker. All seven times he threw it. It was a strike. But at the same time, if you're half of your pitches are fastballs, I'm sorry. I don't think that's going to cut it in modern day baseball, especially with again, even with the velocity that he has. Players can hit velocity nowadays. And this is not to say Gage jump needs a totally overhaul, but you know, all goes back to the fact where. That fastball again half the time.

4:05And he's having to throw the fastball half time. Why? Well, part of it's because it's a live fastball. And it's got great life to it. And when it comes off his hand, it pops. Right, you can hear it all over the ballpark. When that ball hits the catchers minute, you can hear it. But at the same time too, when you get into deep counts, three, two, your force to make a pitch. Wood pitch you're going to go to your best pitch, which is the fastball. And when you leave the fastball out over the plate, again, even if you throw 98, 99, 100, it's going to get hit. And now players nowadays, even when you get to two strikes and they're behind in the count and you're ahead on the mound, they're going to just foul off that pitch. They're just going to get a piece and stay alive. So with what jumped it again, very good for three innings, but that 40 was a 43 pitches, Nate, that 43 pitch. Four thinnings, what did it in, especially what did it in for him? I mean, it sounded like he was going to be done anyway, but it was a very, very quick top of the fifth right after that.

5:07I mean, if the A's get some runners on, maybe they score run, maybe that buys gauge jump a couple of batters. But with how quickly that next half ending went and gauge jump, basically not having any rest, he was probably going to be done either way. But it's just, it's something that he's going to have to try to overcome. And I think at times he just tries the nibble and work on the outer edges of the sound, which is fine. But when you try too hard, then those pitches end up missing. There were two strikes. Maybe they're not off the plate enough if you're ahead in the count. So what do hitters do and set up swinging and missing at those pitches? They're swinging and fouling them off, which means more pitches, more stress, and that pitch count gets driven up. But other than that, with what gauge jump has done, I mean, I've liked what I've saw. He's been up here a lot sooner than I think he or anyone else anticipated given the situation. But you know, you like to have seen, you like to see, you liked what you have seen, I think so far when you look at the whole package. The numbers may not indicate it.

6:08But when you look at the stuff and what he has room to develop for, I think gauge jump is going to be a part of this rotation. And if he's going to be an ace, I don't know. That's all has to play itself out. But is he going to be a part of this future going into Vegas? I truly think so. And you look at with jump Jamie Arnold's now in Las Vegas in AAA. We'll see how he does the rest of the season up there going into the playoffs up there with the aviators. There's some guys coming. And we'll see what happens with JT again. Of course, he's now in the injured list. Not sure really sure what the deal is there to be quite honest with you. And you look at Jacob Lopez and what he's done. So there's a few guys there. Just so many question marks. And it's the same thing I talked about with Johnny in the bullpen in the eighth inning about, and we've talked about it extensively on the show. You need to find a way to rebuild this bullpen. And at least half of it. And you need to go out and find guys again, Scott blew it. What does he do today? One, two, three in the seventh inning.

7:09Seth Johnson. I like his stuff a lot. Has an ERA over six, but I really like his stuff live fastball. You need more high velocity guys. And I think Seth Johnson, I mean, six up six down today again, high ERA, but I like what I see. Will he be a part of the roster in 2027? I don't know Nate, but you know, the A's are starting to find some guys. If you can find one positive in this season, they're starting to find some guys that maybe you can take with you to spring training in 27 to give him a closer look. Yeah, a lot of these guys are making it making some different or are going their play will create tough decisions for the A's front office. And I know that's been said a lot, but it's very true. It's, it's exciting. Like you, I think Henry Bolte is here to stay. I don't really see him not being with the A's coming into 27. I don't think he'll be back in AAA.

8:10I don't see why they would do that. I've been impressed. I know Lawrence's streak was snapped today that, you know, I think you got to 14. Is that right, Mike? Fourteen, 14 straight games with a hit, which was exciting to see. And also, as you were talking, Mike, I just, I just thought I'd take a look at the prospect rankings for as they currently stand. Leo's currently number two, the A's have three Leo degrees. Who never heard of him. Okay, well apparently he's got a new nickname coming out soon. But he, he sits at number two, the A's have three prospects in the top 57. Let me just say top 60 if you want to be a little cleaner. But him, Burs at 41 and then at 57, you have Jamie, Jamie Arnold. I, I just think, yeah, I mean, you have to be at least like this year was such a letdown. It hurts so bad. Everyone's been calling this year talking about how tough it's been. And it's not, you know, it's, it's been brutal.

9:11It's been, I mean, we know we, we go through it almost everything as we know, as we know, Mike. But you just have to have faith going forward. And, you know, I, I do think things are looking up in the near future in the next couple of years. You just have to, you have to hope the pieces fall in the place. And the pieces are available. It's just like you said, getting, getting some bullpen guys, cleaning up, you know, the overall rotation, the overall ERA bringing it down a little bit. It'll help a lot when they get to Vegas. And they're, they're not pitching in Sacramento and how brutal that, that has been. I just think, I think the future is bright for the A's. I'm selling hope today, Mike. Well, you were a positive Nate last night too, because, you know, you had like five days off. So must be nice. Yeah, yeah. I'm back to depressed. No, just kidding. You know who sounded depressed though? And that's obviously a little dramatic, but, um, gauge jump, man.

10:11He sounded so, I don't know if you heard his post game. Yeah. On NBC, he gets so down on himself. And as a guy who's, you know, really positive now and really happy, he's got to work on that. I really think he needs to, I understand looking in the negatives and being upset with yourself. And today was rough, but it wasn't a disaster. It wasn't horrible. It was a four and hit the door type day, but it was, you know, it's, I would like to see him be a little bit more positive. I hope he can do that. I hope he can, and I'm just some guy in a chair somewhere talking about it. But I really hope gauge jump can be a little bit more positive going forward. Yeah, but you know what I like about that? He's, he's different than everyone else. It's not the standard. Well, you know, just had a couple of pitches that, you know, you know, caught too much of the play. It's like, no, he's, and town he says it all the time. He's real. He's going to be straight up. If you so, I like it. And you know what? Never, it's kind of that attitude never be satisfied because look. Now, if gauge jump goes out there and throws a perfect game, he says, well, I didn't have, you know, that was embarrassing.

11:15Okay, then you can say that, but you know, at the same time, look, the expectations are sky high. So I kind of like that. You know, this is the never, never be satisfied world. You know, you essentially gauge jump in his mind, right? You could say I can be replaced in, you know, next season. All right, they can go out and trade for a bunch of starting pitching. And next thing, you know, I'm back in triple A. Sure. I think there's a line you need to ride. There's a gray area of being not even being down on yourself. I don't think that's the right word of being critical of yourself and learning from experiences. And not, I think if you just beat yourself up so much, even if it's just verbally, it's, it's not good. And I think you make a great point, Michael. Publicly. Yeah, publicly. Yeah. Being real and being too negative. I mean, townie, townies are a bit negative sometimes, right? No. So, and Michael, I think you are too. And I think Cody is too.

12:17I think you guys are maybe a little too negative. What do you think I work with every day? I know. It's a, it's kind of like a positive feedback loop. It's rubbing off on me. Yeah, where it just goes over and over again. And I understand liking that, like, I just got to be better. You know, I didn't do that. That's great. I think there's a, there's a limit where it has to hit. And he's so young and I think Katsai's helped him kind of go in the right direction with that. But don't get me wrong. I love Gage. I love watching him pitch. I think he is the future. I think he is, you know, a three, four rotation guy for the a's for the next. Hopefully half decade plus maybe more. But yeah, I just, you know, don't, don't think too much about it. So would you be saying the same thing if Christian McCaffrey always came out and be like, oh, well, you know, we sucked in, you know, are you a talk Christian McCaffrey a be positive Brock party? I mean, what? The Niners are good though, Mike. So that's the difference. I think Niners are. Look at last year. Not last year.

13:19What do you mean? They were really good last year. Was it the year before? I don't follow the NFL closely. Okay. Yeah. They're not the Niners. Niners got bounced in the divisional last year. Pretty bad by Seattle. They were banged up towards. I think it was an 11 game season. 11 game win season last year. I'm thinking of the year before then. 2025. Do you mean 24? Yeah, 2024. Yeah, it's Sunday. It is Sunday. It's football day. Next week, it will be. I'm so riding high off my sun devil 70 but seven. It's also different with a guy. Okay. If we're crossing boundaries here, I think Christian McCaffrey is like a well-established star in a league. That's a lot different. I think his words carry a lot more weight. And there's a lot more eyes on you. So if he came out and said some negative, it would be a bigger, bigger deal. But gauge jump. I just think, you know, if, if, speak it into existence, the power of positivity is something that I'm learning.

14:23And I would love to have gauge jump hop on that train with me. Maybe I need to hop on it too. Yeah, Mike. Maybe you need to hop on the day quill train too. Yes. In case you guys don't hear it, I have been feeling a little congested and a little under the weather last three or four days. But I'm powering through. It's what we do. It's what we do. We don't take days off. Yeah, I don't, you think I'm taking days off. Not me. Not me. I'm working. I'm going to see this thing through and through to game 162 and a couple of weeks. That rhymed. It did. Through and through all the way to 162, Mike. You realize we're three weeks away from the end of the season. Like I know I do realize it's like, but it's like you don't realize how fast it really goes when you're in it every single day. Yeah, because most days feel the same too. Yeah, it is. I mean, it just flies by.

15:24But I think I think everyone's ready. Fans, players, you look up and what? We're 144 games in now. Yeah. Well, it's more than that with spring training, at least for me. Yeah. So that's another 20 for me. 22. Pretty wild. All right. Coming up next. We'll get to your phone calls. 83362278. This is a sock. Ace fall to the Mariners to nothing. The final from the Pacific Northwest. He's mustering up just one hit, but it was thanks to Henry Bolte who went one for. And he continues to be really good for the athletics. George, what do you got? Michael. I'm calling in. Michael, I'm worried. Michael, we need to get you some Kirkland brand honey. We need we need the GM town needs to get you some honey or get the San Francisco tech bro to get you some honey.

16:24I don't know, but I'm worried about your voice. We need to get you taken care of. You can go through the whole season and get this thing going. I'm calling in about three things. I mean, it's basically three things. One is we got wooed by Mr. Brian Wu. And I got to give props to you guys about the show last night. And also I got to talk to you about the psycho sweet. So first and foremost, with we got wooed is. Brian Wu, there's two things we got to understand. We go up against the guy like Brian Wu. Number one, if he's on like here today, we got to chip away at him and get as many. Pitches out of him to get him out the game as soon as possible. That was kind of our fault. I mean, sometimes we brought up the pitches well with some hitters, but he just he was on point and you know, you got a tipper cat and he just pitch well. The second key thing about Brian Wu that I want all these nation and I want Brian Wu to know and the other nations understand. Brian Wu is playing for the wrong team.

17:26Brian Wu should be in the green and gold. I like to be with us. He should be with us. And whenever he decides or his agent decides to come with us, come on down, but he's on the wrong team. And when he's ready, come on down and for a good price, come on down. So it's higher to help him when he takes over his GM. Is that was that your advice? Is that his first move? No, no, that's not the first move, but that'll be in the future where we go to Vegas move. But but my first move, Tony knows what we got to do. Also, the San Francisco Tech bro with the very spiffy vest, the a athletic screen vest that I want myself knows what to do as well. Also, I got to give you guys props in the show last night. Nate, you did really good by playing the boogeyman song. I gave it all the time. He gave it one run, but he pitched. Okay, that was awesome. I got to give props to Dennis and Hill, Marr. He bit with awesome salty, the intro with awesome. Greg, of course, you know, Greg is awesome.

18:29And I gotta say the cycles were awesome. Is that is is Greg awesome, though? Hello. Is he really that awesome? Nate, when he calls in, Michael, when he calls in, you can have a good conversation about awesome. I don't like Greg from slow it. And because you know, he called it a lot. That's his nickname. It's got one of them. Yeah. Yeah, there's one of them. Yeah. And it's also the ratings monster. So God's gonna break my ratings. Never. Yeah, but that show last night was awesome. I had to hear it like five big times. And I'm probably gonna hear it out. Geez, that's real psycho behavior, George. Hey, he's a fan relax. Thank you. Thank you, my I'm a fan. I'm a psycho. And I got to talk to you about the psycho sweet.

19:31Because Greg, he was pulling for the cycles about the cycle sweet. I got echo it. And I got to ask you guys because Nate, you brought up the slushies. Michael, you and your uncle brought up the popcorn. And if we're going to have popcorn and slushies over at the West Sacramento with the Houston series, I got to ask both of you guys and the other cycles as well. If we can get an active a's player into the into the cycle sweet on the last year, who would be the fun. A player to come see us in the cycle sweet. Oh, man. Unfortunately, and there's a there's a list. We got a plethora of guys, you know. And I mean, for me selfishly, I would say I want Brooks Christie because I want to talk about the save lines about how we need to get some save lines, three pictures to come and pitch for general manager.

20:36County County County in 2027. Brooks Christie, I want to make sure I want to shake your hand, but I'm being too selfish to do that. But he knows. I'm just saying, three good pictures that need to be on the days next year that I wish that we can have. And I hope you're off from Portland with like these pitches as well. But I'm just saying great show yesterday. We got wooed by Mr. Wu, the slow bro, AKA in the future, you should be pitching for us. But you got to tip your hat and we just got to go. Hey, if we see him again in in West Sacramento, we got to beat him. We got to beat the players. We played great in Seattle today. Let's keep it going. And I'm just saying, thank you guys. Great show for yesterday. I'm going to listen to when I get to get off right now. Have a good Sunday. All right, George. Thanks for the phone call. I enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Who would be a player? My pick is to go up to that to the suite that they're obviously not going to get.

21:36I would pick Karota grower. I mean, in the short time that I got to obviously talk to him in the clubhouse. He's got a good personality. He's funny. I don't know. The players I like, I don't think would be that actually, you know what? If Greg's going to be there, let's do Lawrence Butler and Jeffrey Springs. Let's do those two. Wow, that's my answer. That is just one or the other. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I don't. I like them both. So one of those two. Wow, from the top rope. Yeah, he doesn't, but we do because we like everybody. I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth. But I'm just saying that's who I would want. But if it wasn't out of spite, I don't know. No one seems like this is going to sound mean. I'm just going to know it seems like fun party guy.

22:36Like hang out because they're all like professional athletes who are good at their job and. But there's a good pick for that too. Yeah. He's got it got that outgoing personality. I also, I like guys who aren't very serious. You know, like real jokes. There's no, I like guys who aren't very serious. Not that I don't like super serious, but I'm just saying like I like guys that can, you know, goof around. You know, and like my whole thing with the shows, like I kind of ruined it and take it off off the tracks. No, I like guys like me. We do that. No, you don't know. This show never gets out of hand. No. What about my son? What about my fellow son devil, legal Williams? Sure. Brian servant. I mean, I mean, I mean, cool. Jeff McNeil, I think would be fun to talk to. I think all the young guys wouldn't be as fun. I think because you're probably a little more wound up.

23:41Brent Ricker, maybe he seems pretty serious, though. Is he's pretty serious? Mike, I haven't really been around him. He goes about his business. Yeah, certain way. Okay. I need a veteran though. I need a silly Billy in there. Real goofball. Well, how about we think about this coming up next and we can have our official picks after this here on A's talk. A's are going to be back home in West Sacramento starting tomorrow night Labor Day. One of the few night games on tap in Major League Baseball tomorrow night as the A's will host the Toronto Blue Jays, the defending American League champions, and then the Seattle Manders will be in West Sacramento next weekend for Hall of Fame weekend, which should be a very, very fun weekend at the ballpark in West Sacramento with the Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday night before the game. First, the A's are going to have to contest with Dylan Seas and the Toronto Blue Jays, but first let's briefly go around Major League Baseball on this Sunday afternoon couple of games still in progress, but we'll get to those a little bit later.

24:46The Padres beat the Yankees four to three. They took two out of three. The Cardinals 10 to eight winners over the Rockies. The Rangers will the win over the race so they keep pace with the Seattle Manders, eight six the final there. Royal six, Blue Jays one, Arizona defeated the Astros three to two. Marlins 10 to three over the Cubs. The Mets four to two over the San Francisco Giants. The Guardians walked off the Tigers again in extra innings, three walkoff wins in that series for the Cleveland Guardians. The Pirates won one nothing over the Angels Red Sox three to one over the Orioles. Braves five to four over the Philadelphia Phillies and the Reds 12 to eight over the Milwaukee Brewers one game in progress is the Minnesota twins trailing the White Sox one to nothing and then a little bit later on the Dodgers and the Washington Nationals will do battle from Dodger Stadium. As I mentioned Dylan Cecil be on the mound for the Blue Jays he comes in 10 and five eight 2.25 earned run average and he'll be opposed by Jacob Lopez and another test for Lopez the Blue Jays have been playing better and they are still in the playoff hunt and Lopez back at home in West Sacramento.

26:02Let's see if he can keep up what he has done over the last several weeks since he has rejoined the rotation he is really then impressive. A little bit of a later start tomorrow seven of five first pitch which means our coverage our wall to wall baseball coverage doesn't start till five o'clock tomorrow so Ace cast lives at five o'clock which leads into view from the press box at six 630 town and Steve Sacks will have Ace cast and a UC sports California and of course we will side more cast here on Ace cast and the A's radio network seven o'clock first pitch still in C's Jacob Lopez the pitching match up tomorrow Nate we're back at home. Let's go what time do we go on tomorrow Mike. Oh we play in this game again today was another fast one. Yeah but you know back at home usually a little bit longer more offense. Yeah I'm going to go that's a tough one to I'm going to go 10 20. 10 18.

27:03So 10 20 that means it's about actually that would be a quick game. I'll stick with 10 20. Yeah I'll just do 10 18 just for positivity if the game ends around 945 to hours 40 to hours 40 minutes or so. Sounds about average. Yeah it's about average I'm going to go 10 20. I can't really we're still doing this because you hit it one time and right on the dot and I had to spend 10 minutes in the opening segment last night just so Nate so great. People said it was a good show people said it was a good show so do we want to have good shows. Everybody wants to talk about Nate and we want to have good shows. You know Nate played the boogie man song and I love doing tours. Nate everyone and Nate wants to be here all night. No I had. Yeah I want to be here. I'm happy we're getting out before 5 today that's crazy. Yeah 110 first pitch. That's awesome.

28:03Quick and efficient game. Thank you Wu. Quick and efficient game. We have two more home stands tomorrow's the start of the second to last home stand of the season. It has certainly flown right by but 705 first pitch tomorrow and our coverage will begin at 5 o'clock. Jacob Lopez on Mount 4 the athletics for Nate little field in our studio Michael Barrabal here. Thank you all for listening to A's talk everybody and we will talk to you all tomorrow. This has been a presentation of the athletics.