Jarrod Parker is trying to be as hopeful as possible as he prepares to undergo his second Tommy John surgery. "I've done it before, and I can do it again," Parker told reporters, including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. "You can't put statistics on individual guys….I don't want to be a statistic, really. I want to be different. Hopefully things can work out and I'm going to do anything and everything to make it work." The right-hander is scheduled for surgery next week and will miss at least the entire 2014 season during the rehabiliation process.
Here's some more from news out of Oakland…
- Also from Slusser, outfielder Michael Taylor still isn't a fit for the A's roster, despite his impressive Spring Training performance. There's no chance the A's would be able to get the out-of-options Taylor through waivers without losing him, however, as the former top prospect is drawing interest from a number of teams. One scout tells Slusser that his team either already has, or is preparing to offer Oakland a deal for Taylor, while another rival scout figures his team is too low in waiver priority and would need to trade for Taylor to bring him into the fold.
- In a must-read interview with Grantland's Jonah Keri, Athletics GM Billy Beane discusses how his club has tried to stay current now that the "Moneyball" tactics are known and widely-used throughout baseball. With so much data available to teams, Beane said that implementation of that information has become the more important factor, praising manager Bob Melvin's openness to new ideas and predicting that teams will eventually have "an IT coach" in the dugout.
- “I don’t want a lot of guys like me who played the game,” Beane told Keri about building a front office. “Quite frankly, I want blank canvases, I want people to come in with new ideas. I don’t want the biases of their own experiences to be a part of their decision-making process. Listen, our whole staff…didn’t really play. The bottom line is that any business should be a meritocracy. The best and brightest. Period. This game is now evolving into that.”
- CSNBayArea.com's Joe Stiglich looks at the Athletics' roster configuration, shoots down a few trade suggestions and covers several other topics and as part of an online chat with fans. Of note, Stiglich hasn't heard anything about the possibility of the A's making a play for Bay Area native Jimmy Rollins, who is rumored to be on thin ice with the Phillies. Rollins, however, has said that he won't consider waiving his no-trade protection unless the Phils completely fall out of the race.
I would love to see Taylor back in Philly, but since they just signed Byrd, I don’t see it.
I was thinking Phillies as well. He could atleast fight with Mayberry for the job. Byrd probably will be gone by next offseason anyways. Him, Burnett, Lee, Kendrick, Papelbon, Adams, Brown and Rollins.
Taylor has looked really good so far this spring, im sure he can be a productive player for a team like Miami
Teams are lining up for Taylor. Knowing Billy he is holding out for a starting pitcher. A team with a extra starter would be my bet. Twins, Brewers, Marlins, or Astros are the ones that could use another outfielder.
And yet another reason to like Billy Beane.
Eh, I can’t quite agree here. Michael Taylor has been held hostage by the A’s. It’s pretty obvious to me they made up their mind years ago about his role in their organization and then held on to him just because they can.
Taylor will have takers now and would have had takers last year, the year before, the year before. Oakland doesn’t want him, but you can’t have him.
If your not part of the plan, the A’s are a brutal organization to be stuck in.
mrsjohnmiltonrocks
Seems kind of harsh. Taylor isn’t being held hostage, he just isn’t good enough to play in majors. The A’s have given him several chances in the last three years and he can’t handle major league pitching. He also looks lost at times in the field.
So, Taylor’s hot Cactus League performances mean very little. Same with Derek Barton, who flashes every September against exhausted pitching staffs and Sept. call-ups before, turning back into a pumpkin during the playoffs.
At any rate, I’d love to see Taylor gone for some pitching help or a promising, young developing player. Just trade him already.
I don’t happen to agree with your definition of ‘several’ chances. A grand total of 78 at bats spread over three seasons- I wouldn’t write him off on that. Sure he has problems in his game but his biggest problem at the moment is that he’s in an organization that has no interest in him, but won’t let him go.
Just designate him for assignment and work the best deal.
Taylor would be a fit in Philly. Trading Rollins to the A’s would require RAJ to include $, which has yet to be seen. The A’s would likely eclipse the 434PA mark and be on the hook for 11MM in 2015 so… maybe 6-7 per year from the Phillies would suffice?
Billy will not trade for Rollins. His attitude would not gel with the club. Last off season when the A’s asked about him Rollins said he didn’t want to come to Oakland.
But this year you have to wonder why Rollins wants to stay in Philly.
He wants to break Schmidt’s hit record for the phillies. He is short 60 hits. Sounds to me he will not waive his no trade rights.
So after 2 months, he’s available. Took him till the beginning of June to get 60 hits. That’s if they don’t undercut his PAs to void that 2015 contract.
The emerging number of pitchers undergoing a second Tommy John is starting to make me wonder…what is baseball doing that is causing the frequency of these one-year-out-of-your-career injuries? Pitchers pitched 300+ innings a season less than two generations ago, against a league with similar stats as today…it’s hard to understand how the pitching coaches of this generation are even marginally close to those of 40 years ago.
I’d need to see the numbers to make a more adequate judgement but I’d guess a couple of things. As the league has grown, so has the number of pitchers so logically the number of injured pitchers would also rise. Also I’d say as the revenues for teams and the price of players has risen there’s more intense training for younger and younger players possibly leading to more injuries.
Just guesses though.
I’d agree with the second part of your response, but not the first; we’ve had at least 24 MLB teams since 1969, and the number of games played hasn’t changed either. A large number of pitchers – easily in the range of 2-3 per team – pitched at least 250 innnings per year. To clarify – Adam Wainwright led the majors with 241 IP in 2013, and 36 pitchers threw 200 innings. In 1974 – 37 pitchers through more innnings than Wainwright did in 2013, and 65 pitchers threw at least 200 innings, and 8 threw 300 innings. Almost three pitchers per team threw 200 innings in 1974, and just over one per team did the same in 2013…and yet, 1974 was the year that Tommy John was injured, leading to the first surgery that bears his name. So certainly – something is terribly awry in the modern age of the game.
I really wish the A’s would give Taylor a chance.
Again, Taylor’s had several chances. He’s been so bad when called up, they had to sent him back down. And, no, you don’t get 3 or 400 hundred plate appearances in a single season to prove yourself at the major league level when winning is so important. The A’s tried that with Jemile Weeks in 2012. It didn’t work.
What are you talking about? What chances? 30 at bats in 2011, 21 n 2012 and 23 last season. He was a highly regarded prospect who has performed well in the minors, I’m not talking about handing him a starting job or 3-400 at bats. But given his talent he should be worthy of giving at least a couple months of platooning on the big league roster to see what he is capable of. There is no way he could have been much worse than Josh Reddick was for much of last season. Once or twice a week in the outfield and an occasional DH start to give Jaso or Moss a rest doesn’t seem like too much of an opportunity.
Taylor, unfortunately, is just another product of the Stanford style hitting under Marquess, an approach that works better for small guys, but even then isn’t ideal. Jed Lowrie and Jason Castro both reworked their mechanics. It still took Jason Castro a long time to become even average, and we’re not sure if that’s a fluke year or not.
Basically his approach is line drive oriented and to the opposite field, even though he, and other big guys like Austin WIlson/John Mayberry/Brian Ragira/etc etc, should be focused more on power and pulling the ball.
Yes he’s put up nice numbers but, and especially in the case of AAA, they come with a shaker full of salt. Outside of his first year he’s been old and repeating the level in a hitter friendly PCL, so he’s definitely not going to hit for as much power as he has in AAA, not anywhere close.
He is much worse than Josh Reddick was for much of last season, which was obviously affected by his wrist and by two horrible months (if you look at his splits, you can see he’s a very streaky hitter, outside of a couple months he’s been average to slightly above). In a down year Reddick was a 2.7 fWAR player, whereas Michael Taylor’s ceiling is probably about 1-1.5 fWAR.