GameDay Thread 8/28/14 vs. OAKLAND

[Halos of Anaheim]

It takes a serious amount of luck to score in an inning where someone as slow as Pujols goes first to third on a ground ball that was nearly a DP, then for him to score on a sac fly. But, well, I'll take it.

If somebody told me that's how we would have beat the A's today, I would have laughed.

[Mad5577]

Remember the rays protest couple of days ago, that was not upheld

[bloodbrother]

Jeff Fletcher ‏@JeffFletcherOCR 2m

Crew Chief Gerry Davis said the call was obstruction on Moss and be couldn't comment further because of the protest. #Angels #Athletics

 

 

Jeff Fletcher ‏@JeffFletcherOCR 19s

Crew Chief Gerry Davis also said it was a "judgment" call by Greg Gibson. That's significant bc judgment calls normally can't be protested

[martinpa25]

Tommorow is throwback night! YES WE CAN!!

[2002_halos_II]

Good Game

[HaloMagic]

Aybar had to change his path because it was blocked. He either changes angles or gets called out for impeding Moss. It's pretty cut-and-dried, I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

The runners lane was never blocked. Aybar purposefully ran inside into the field instead of outside into the completely clear path that baseball made just for him, the batter-runner. Why? To interfere. It worked. But it was the wrong call.

Edited August 29, 2014 by HaloMagic

[Oz27]

How the hell does that work? If it's a judgement call then it can't be challenged. And if it can be challenged then surely it can't be protested. So what the hell can be protested?

Rule interpretations. So, for example, that Houston game last year where they took the pitcher out before he'd faced anyone, that was an incorrect interpretation (or just failure to know) of the rule, things like that can be protested. You can't protest when an umpire knows the rule and simply makes the wrong call (like when a runner beats a throw to a base but is still called out).

[Richard]

Jeff fletcher:

@JeffFletcherOCR: Rule 4.19 says no protest shall be upheld of a "judgment" call. Crew Chief Gerry Davis called this a "judgment call by Greg Gibson."

[Mark68]

Then you weren't watching the same replay I was. Moss was coming to the slight outside of the baseline and Abad was coming over from the inside. At the time that Aybar veered, he could have gone way outside, risking being called out for being out of the basepath, or he could have found the seam between the two of them, one that was closing fast.

[LAA Road Tripper]

Protest is not moot because we didn't score. That has nothing to do with it. However it was a judgment call which will not get overturned.

Pretty moot, though. Even if it wasn't considered a judgment call, no way they uphold it after the Angels failed to score that inning. The bar is pretty high to win a protest and not scoring that inning chops the argument off at the knees.

[Oz27]

Ok that makes sense. I'm assumimg you used to be able to protest the second situation, but not anymore with challenges. So this play tonight is non-challengeable AND non-protestable? I guess it's the same for balls-strikes, but still that sucks for Melvin.

No, hence why teams used to lose due to bad calls all the time. In fact protests being upheld are extremely rare, the one a couple of weeks ago was the first in 20-odd years. Part of that though is that they no longer apply if the protesting team wins, so protests which probably would have been upheld (such as our one in Houston last year) no longer apply.

[HaloMagic]

Then you weren't watching the same replay I was. Moss was coming to the slight outside of the baseline and Abad was coming over from the inside. At the time that Aybar veered, he could have gone way outside, risking being called out for being out of the basepath, or he could have found the seam between the two of them, one that was closing fast.

But he chose to run more inside into the guy with the baseball. To be clear, he didn't have to run "way outside". The 3' runners lane that starts right outside fair territory was completely clear. If he runs into Moss in the runners lane and Moss has no baseball then it's clear obstruction. Instead, at no point was Aybar in his lane nor did he make any attempt to get to it despite it being clear. After Aybar collided with Otero Moss' left foot crossed over into foul territory by about 2 inches. Had Aybar been in his lane and collided with Moss somehow then it would have been obstruction. That is the point of the rule. But instead Aybar never gave Moss an opportunity to obstruct him because he never went into his runners lane. He chose to run in fair territory and then collide with the dude with the ball. Should be out.

[BleedRed]

Glad it worked out but I will never understand not pinch running for Albert there

Ah, maybe they had no first baseman left....

[AngelsFanSince86]

Then you weren't watching the same replay I was. Moss was coming to the slight outside of the baseline and Abad was coming over from the inside. At the time that Aybar veered, he could have gone way outside, risking being called out for being out of the basepath, or he could have found the seam between the two of them, one that was closing fast.

Otero, not Abad.  I watched the replay MLB posted and it shows the angle from behind home plate where you can see where Moss comes from.  Neither player stepped off the grass during the play.  Both began on the inside of the grass.  Aybar started running on the very inside of the base path and chose to change directions as Moss neared the base path.  When the ball was caught, just before Aybar and Otero clashed, Moss steps into the base path to get out of the way.  From the replays they showed on TV I can see what you are saying because thats what I thought too.  But I saw a much better angle on my phone and watched it 40-50 times primarily because my friend who was an A's fan was talking a bunch of smack about it and I wanted to make sure I was right.  I wasn't.

Edited August 29, 2014 by AngelsFanSince86

[Angel Oracle]

Big props to Howie for batting Cook after being 0-2 in the count.

Big props to Morin for a huge K of Vogt.

Big win!

Edited August 29, 2014 by Angel Oracle

[jimbo]

Aybar is a ballplayer in every sense. Baseball IQ is insane. The one dude on the field who is always thinking of a way to gain an advantage.

[laagamer]

So we have to go 20-9 to win 100 games.

 

Yikes. 

[AngelsFanSince86]

Aybar is a ballplayer in every sense. Baseball IQ is insane. The one dude on the field who is always thinking of a way to gain an advantage.

 

Agreed.  I don't think he should have been called safe, but I had to watch the replay over and over and over to see that.  He constantly pulls these things out.  Definitely one of my favorite players.

[Lou]

A's are playing playoff baseball while the Angels are just playing.

 

Pujols and Hamilton will determine the outcome, and so far it does not look good.

I agree

[Glen]

Jeff Fletcher ‏@JeffFletcherOCR 2m

Crew Chief Gerry Davis said the call was obstruction on Moss and be couldn't comment further because of the protest. #Angels #Athletics

Jeff Fletcher ‏@JeffFletcherOCR 19s

Crew Chief Gerry Davis also said it was a "judgment" call by Greg Gibson. That's significant bc judgment calls normally can't be protested

I hope that's the case.

[Angels]

The protest is never going to be upheld, anyway...but

From MLB rule 4.19:

"“Even if it is held that the protested decision violated the rules, no replay of the game will be ordered unless in the opinion of the League President the violation adversely affected the protesting teams chances of winning the game.”"

The Angels didn't score that inning. The A's could argue that they burned a few pitchers, had to face additional batters, etc.. But that would never be rewarded.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Angels

[Halos of Anaheim]

So we have to go 20-9 to win 100 games.

 

Yikes. 

17-12 should win us the division.

[Lou]

The protest is never going to be upheld, anyway...but

From MLB rule 4.19:

"“Even if it is held that the protested decision violated the rules, no replay of the game will be ordered unless in the opinion of the League President the violation adversely affected the protesting teams chances of winning the game.”"

The Angels didn't score that inning. The A's could argue that they burned a few pitchers, had to face additional batters, etc.. But that would never be rewarded.

Exactly

[Lou]

So we have to go 20-9 to win 100 games.

 

Yikes.

We've won 3 of our last 3.

At that pace we'll go 29-0

[Angel Oracle]

Game 2: More Bad'th News'th for the A'ths!

Game 1 along with Saturday were their two best chances to beat the Halos, coming into the series.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Angel Oracle