Are the A's teasing me again?

Two seasons ago, I stuck my neck out in my 2009 Divisional picks by going with the Oakland A's to win the West. We had just come off seasons where teams like the Angels, the Marlins, the Tigers, the struggling Cardinals, the Rockies and Rays had won pennants that confounded the experts.

So I thought "Why not go against the grain? If I am right with my pick, then I look like a genius."

Then again, if the pick flops, then I look like a moron.

I had the 2009 Oakland Athletics winning the World Series.
They finished in dead last place, 22 games behind the Angels.

WHOOPS!

But now I am looking at this team, and I can't help but wonder if I should pick them again.

They just added Brian Fuentes to the roster and he should make their bullpen pretty damn deep. Andrew Bailey, Grant Balfour, Brad Ziegler and Brian Fuentes in the pen?

Closing out a rotation of Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson?

(I am not going to include Rich Harden. Any day he is NOT on the disabled list is a bonus.)

Couple that with Hideki Matsui and a few other bats added to the lineup... Texas losing Cliff Lee and the Angels not being able to sign anyone and Seattle in flux...

Dare I do it?
Dare I make the pick again?

My 2009 picks of Oakland and Cincinnati doesn't look so outlandish for 2011.

But can I pick Oakland?
Or are they teasing me.

Maybe I'll pick the Mariners.

What the hell kind of season is Dallas Braden having?

It is a strange season for him, no doubt about it.

He has had surreal controversy regarding A-Rod walking on his mound.

He had the heart warming Mother's Day perfect game and his grandmother telling A-Rod to stick it.

He did a good job delivering a Top Ten list on Letterman.

He's got 5 complete games plus 2 shutouts (which lead the AL).

So he has the aura of being a good pitcher.

But he has a losing record... and not just a hard luck Cole Hamels kind of losing record... he's gotten BOMBED.

And tonight, with the A's having a sliver of hope, and Texas already in the loss column... he coughs up 5 runs in a brutal second inning that takes the A's out of it early and makes their wild 9th inning seem like desperation rather than a genuine comeback attempt.

And I thought Dice-K was tough to figure out!

Is the pitching getting better or is it just me?

2010 has already had some extraordinarily special pitching moments and we're not even in mid June.

Either the steroid era is really over or the pitchers are on something.
And it's great for baseball in my opinion.

We have had Ubaldo Jimenez throwing a no hitter and putting up numbers that would be eye popping in a pitchers park let alone the zero G of Coors Field.

We have had Dallas Braden throwing a perfect game on Mother's Day (and seeing his grandmother trash talk A-Rod to boot!)

We had Roy Halladay throwing a perfect game in Miami.

We had the Armando Galarraga spoiled perfect game.

We had Daisuke Matsuzaka nearly throw a no hitter.

We had Stephen Strasburg's mind boggling debut.

We had ancient Jamie Moyer throwing a shutout.

We've seen Tim Lincecum, Jon Lester, Adam Wainwright, Clay Buchholz, Matt Cain and Josh Johnson all throw like aces.

We've seen Jaime Garcia, Mike Pelfrey, David Price, Phil Hughes, Mitch Talbot, Mike Leake and Mat Latos all blossom into top starters.

We've seen comeback seasons from Tim Hudson, Ervin Santana, Livan Hernandez and Carlos Silva.

There's a surplus of Cy Young contenders and well pitched games with intriguing match ups are becoming more and more common.

Just today you have Toronto's Shaun Marcum going up against Tampa Bay's David Price and St. Louis' Adam Wainwright is going up against L.A.'s Clayton Kershaw.

Not to mention Dallas Braden, Jonathan Sanchez, CC Sabathia and Clay Buccholz are all taking the hill as well.

Look, I know the home run is sexy and there is a sense that most fans just want to see a slugfest... but I don't believe that.

I think that if you get a dominating pitcher facing a kick ass hitter, it makes for a confrontation unlike any in sport.

How exciting is a home run into the upper deck when the pitcher is a scrub just up from AAA, or a middle reliever who barely has a job, or Kyle Farnsworth?

Maybe this IS the end of the steroid era for hitters... the slugger happy AL hasn't seen a 40 home run hitter since A-Rod's 54 taters in 2007.

And perhaps when someone says "they are a 30 home run hitter" or "they are good for 95-100 RBI" it won't sound like they are describing a platoon reserve shortstop.

Maybe we can expect some real dominating pitching. Maybe all the nonsense that we'll never see another 300 game winner can end.

Maybe games will move quicker. Maybe runs will be at a premium and when a team falls behind by a few runs, it will make the game more tense instead of having everyone think "Ah don't worry... this will be a 9-8 game by the end."

It's as if they are playing BASEBALL and not just playing home run derby!

What a novel concept!

Tell us your thought process, Yahoo Sports

Yahoo Sports lists the Top Batters on each team for each box score. Both the winning and the losing team gets to have a player highlighted.

I guess this is mainly for fantasy purposes.

But I found this entry to be a bit strange.
When Dallas Braden threw his perfect game on Sunday, Yahoo Sports dutifully picked a top batter for Tampa.

They picked Jason Bartlett... who like the rest of the team went 0-3.

So what was the thought process? Was his 0-3 a productive 0-3?
Were they happy he didn't go 0-4?
He DID hit a line drive that was caught... were they giving him credit for actually hitting the ball hard AT someone?

Was it just that he was the lead off batter?

If anyone should have been the performer of the game it should have been Gabe Kapler who fouled off a bunch of pitches in the 6th.

Either way, I doubt there were a lot of people who own Jason Barlett in their fantasy league who looked at his line in the box score and said "YES!"

No Hitters trump the cycle

It isn’t often then you get a concrete confirmation of an opinion you might have… but I got one this weekend.

I had written that even though hitting for the cycle is about as rare as a pitcher throwing a no hitter… the no hitters are infinitely more memorable.

This weekend Jody Gerut hit for the cycle… and his achievement was noted but hardly treated as front page news.

Dallas Braden throws a no hitter and it is the headline of MLB.com (which with the Red Sox and Yankees playing, an Oakland pitcher being the top news is tremendous.)

Granted it was a perfect game, but that is beside the point.

The no hitter is just more memorable.
I’ll always associate Dallas Braden with his perfect game.
I can already feel myself forgetting Jody Gerut hitting for the cycle.

It may not be fair… but reality sometimes isn’t fair.

Dallas Braden's perfect game made me feel badly for someone...

Somewhere in the world there is some shmuck to over thought his fantasy team and said "I'm not going to start Dallas Braden today. The Rays will knock him around."

Whoops.

Well, he now has a perfect game to go with his, as A-Rod called them, handful of wins. And guess what? With a perfect game under his belt, it will mean this whole silly "don't walk over the mound" insanity isn't going away.

But hey! Didn't I tell you to watch the A's/Rays series?

I do know there were 12,228 fans who saw it... but as the years go by there will be tens of thousands of people who will CLAIM to have been there.

The A's are an exciting team now. And they go into Texas for a series where they can get back into first place.

There have GOT to be more than 12,228 people who are interested now!

Either way, you had best not walk over Dallas Braden's mound.