It was on this day in 1975 that the Oakland A’s released Herb Washington, ending Washington’s unique Major League career after 105 regular season appearances and five postseason games. Signed by the A’s prior to the 1974 season, Washington served exclusively as a pinch-runner — he never made a single appearance at the plate, in the field, or on the mound. A distinguished track star at Michigan State, Washington tied and set world records in the 50-yard and 60-yard dashes, respectively. Athletics owner Charlie Finley, never one to shy away from an unusual idea, signed Washington as the sport’s first “designated runner,” putting Washington on Oakland’s 25-man roster despite his lack of anything beyond high school baseball experience. Washington ended up scoring 33 runs and stealing 31 bases (out of 48 attempts) during his regular season career, though he was caught stealing twice in the ALCS and picked off first base in Game Two of the 1974 World Series. The A’s still won the Series, giving Washington a championship ring to show for his brief stint in professional baseball.
Here’s the latest from around the majors, including an item on the modern-day A’s…
- Blake Treinen “came in feeling quite a bit better” on Sunday after suffering from elbow discomfort the day prior, Athletics manager Bob Melvin told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and other media. Treinen said Saturday that he believed was suffering from elbow tendinitis, though he and the team will have more information when the closer is examined by doctors on Monday. In the wake of his outstanding 2018 campaign, Treinen has a 3.00 ERA and 10.8 K/9 through 15 innings for Oakland this season, though with a troubling 6.6 BB/9.
- Ronald Guzman (hamstring) is set to return from an IL stint on Thursday, leaving the Rangers with a 25-man roster question, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. Veterans Danny Santana and Logan Forsythe have been two of the team’s better hitters, and designating either for assignment would create the risk of a claim from another team, plus Santana and Forsythe both have the right to reject an assignment to Triple-A. Perhaps the likelier option is that Texas demotes a reliever, as the Rangers are already working with an eight-man bullpen, or Delino DeShields is sent to Triple-A and Santana takes over in center field. One option that isn’t on the table is a Triple-A stint for the struggling Rougned Odor, as manager Chris Woodward expressed confidence that the second baseman would get on track. Even after a two-hit performance today against the Blue Jays, Odor is hitting only .141/.221/.244 through 86 PA this season.
- The Angels are planning to activate Cody Allen from the IL on Tuesday, manager Brad Ausmus told Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group and other media. Allen was sidelined on April 26 with a lumbar spine strain, though he’ll return after missing just over the minimum 10 days. Thus far, Allen hasn’t found any success in an Angels uniform, with a 6.00 ERA, 10 walks, and 11 strikeouts over nine innings this season. After excelling as Cleveland’s closer from 2014-17, Allen had a rough 2018 and had to settle for a one-year deal (worth $8.5MM guaranteed) in free agency.
Chris Davis is currently a better player than Odor. The only saving grace is that Profar is giving him a running for the worst player in the AL. Why the Rangers won’t consider sending him to AAA is baffling.
Richie Martin is right there too. The only excuse he has is that he’s a rule 5 pick rookie coming from AA.
Money, he signed a somewhat big extension a couple of offseason ago and they want to make sure they get a bang for their buck
Rougie always starts slowly, thats why he has been demoted twice already in his career. With the injury this year I think he’ll get a long leash.
There was also an article on the Athletic I think that said that Rougie is following what the hitting instructors have said but not getting the results. Opposite end is Gallo. But they almost changed Rougie too much and now are having to undo a little of it. He is following what has been asked of him which is why he won’t be demoted. That would send a very bad message to any player that hey, do what we tell you to do, not what got you to the majors and if it doesn’t work we will send you back to the minors. It is rookie managers so they will learn as well but Woodward is basically saying that Rougie’s issues are on them, not Rougie. Talk about a manager having a players back!
Brought up on local Dallas radio last week,Odor uses one of the longest and heaviest bats in baseball, was suggested to switch and not sure of outcome.
Guess he thinks
he’s Babe Ruth.
The size of bat
Ruth used was
incredible!
Look at all that talent on the rangers team! Decisions, decisions!
Those A’s teams are what got me interested in baseball. A powerhouse team. Then “The Bird” came onto the scene and I have been a Tiger fan ever since.
Article has nothing to do with it but the piece on Washington made me look up the foot speed of players. It’s interesting to see guys who aren’t very fast at all that can swipe a couple bases. Alex Gordon was the 466th fastest player in baseball last year and he swiped 12 bags. Not that is some kind of great feat but if you look at the comps of guys with his speed it’s pretty crazy to see.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard?year=2018&position=&team=&min=10
That’s because base stealing is a skill and not automatic just because a player has speed. You have to read pitchers, especially lefties. Pitch selection applies just as much as when you’re in the batter’s box. Guess the off speed and you’re in there most of the time. Then there’s Peter Bourjos who can fly but has never been a good base stealer.
and how much the pitcher is even paying attention to a batter. Joe Mauer used to steal bases if pitchers were completely ignoring him.
I knew something physical was going on with Cody Allen because he was putting up all zeroes in his first 5 outings and converted 4 consecutive saves. Then the wheels fell off in 5 of his last 6 outings. I know his velocity dropped but to hit a brick wall like that, it had to be an injury. I’m sure he’ll be fine. But at this point, I don’t think the Angels are in desperate need of a closer. Their young relievers have really taken a step forward, so Allen can slot in just about anywhere late in games.
No
Allen was only getting lucky early – with guys being fooled by nothing and putting everything in play, but the ball not finding holes.
Over his first 5 appearances where he was “putting up zeros” he held a .000 BAbip but 4.75 xFIP and was getting just a 6.9 SwSt%, while putting only 41.7% in the zone with a Fastball that was sitting below 93mph.
Wheels fell off because he was pitching very poorly all along, and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to him.
Later teams had the benifit of using his early game tapes to see just how poorly he was pitching, and they made sure he paid the tab in a major way. So he didn’t “hit a wall,” he merely ran up against prepared hitters licking their lips eager to get ahold of him
Fascinating! Thanks!
I’m too lazy to look up stuff like that LOL.
I thought Terrance Gore was gonna be like Washington when he started his career as a pinch runner in the playoffs
It’s awesome to see Gore get some true playing time now, and he’s doing a fine job as a fourth outfielder. This Royals team has to be one of the fastest teams in history.
And Washington parlayed his World Series shares into highly successful McDonalds franchises in the Rochester And Buffalo NY areas.
Wow! Cool!
The A’s need to release Rodney. Watching him blow the save was agonizingly painful.
Danny Santana can get got like any other hitter, but banking on him sustaining his success is a fool’s errand. I’d DFA him and trade him if anybody was foolish enough to think Santana can suddenly play baseball at the major league level at the plate or in the field.