How many villiage idiots are on the A's roster?

[Dynasty]

As if Eric Byrnes and Miguel Tejada's inability to touch home plate wasn't enough to question the IQ of the A's roster, Terrance Long has made it a necessity.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1632992

Long, the player who looked at strike three in the bottom of the 9th Monday night to eliminate the A's from the playoffs, is talking as if he's going to demand a trade from the A's. The .245 hitter seems to think he isn't getting the proper respect from the A's manager, Ken Macha.

My favorite like from the story:

When asked whether being at the plate as a pinch-hitter with the decisive game on the line Monday night was a show of confidence in his ability, Long struggled to answer the question.

[Boris]

The sooner they get rid of Long the better. They are going to have to package him with some prospects though or no one will pick him up. He sucks.

I also think the sloppy base running is in some ways a poor reflection on the coaching staff. You can't tell a guy to go out there and hit a home run, but you can practice the fundamentals such as defensive technique and base running strategy. I'm still wondering why no one was in the batter's box when Byrnes had his brain fart. Isn't that a little bit of the coache's fault?

[Sooga]

[ QUOTE ]
The sooner they get rid of Long the better. They are going to have to package him with some prospects though or no one will pick him up. He sucks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sucks doesn't even begin to start to describe Long. He was one of the main reasons why the A's had one of the least productive outfields in all of baseball. This guy's lucky to even be on a big-league roster. He does NOTHING well. Hit for power? Nope, he's never gone for over 18 homers (and that was 3 years ago). Steal bases? Nope, never even stolen in the double digits. Hit for average? Nope, he hit .288 his rookie year and he's been declining steadily ever since. Get on base? Nope, again, his highest was during his rookie season, at a .336 clip, which isn't even that good. And to top it all off, he's a pretty mediocre defensive player. If I were an A's fan, I'd HOPE they ship his ass out of town. The A's have literally wasted 1000 AB's on this guy the past 2 seasons, as he's had OPS's of below .700 in each of them. That is just unacceptable. I have to admit, in 2000, he was a 24-year old with a pretty bright future - .788 OPS, 104 runs, 18 homers, .288 BA. But now, he is completely and utterly useless.

[Mike Gallo]

...because thats what they do, pick up village idiots and every other teams misfits. /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[pudley4]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/tom_verducci/10/07/insider/index.html

Bottom of the 9th, 1 out, men on 2nd and 3rd. Boston is set to intentionally walk Jermaine Dye. Ken Macha decides to pinch-hit for Dye. "I was thinking perhaps they may walk (pinch-hitter Adam Melhuse)" /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[David Steele]

Players aren't idiots because of one play, especially plays made in extremely high pressure ( e.g. taking a pitch with the bases loaded, down 1 run, in the last inning of the final game of a series, maybe it was a good pitch and he thought he could snag the walk, should have protected the plate but idiot??? ).

Even Byrnes had a strange but plausible explanation, he just thought he was out, couldn't hear anyone else, distracted by pain, didn't know the ball was dropped.

How can Tejada be called an idiot, when in a thread earliar this year you guys were debating if he was the top SS in baseball?

Long may be a little weak, but give him credit for striving to play full time.

D.

[andyfox]

Here's my favorite line from the story:

"Had the game gone into extra innings, Macha said his defense would have looked like this: Long at first base, backup catcher Adam Melhuse at third, shortstop Miguel Tejada at second and Gold Glove third baseman Eric Chavez at shortstop."

"Defense" would be a charitable description.

[andyfox]

Tejada may not be an idiot, but he did an idiotic thing when he stopped running between third and home to claim he was interfered with. I mean think about it: he stopped running between third and home, carrying home the run that would have put Oakland in the Championship Series. Let's contrast that with, say, Derek Jeter's play against the A's when he cut off an errant throw from the outfield on the first base line and made an on-the-money backhanded flip to the catcher to cut down the tying run in the 8th inning of a 1-0 game with the Yankees down two games to zero.

Bill James, a Royals fan (before he became a Red Sox employee) once wrote about how the Royals, a running team, didn't realize they were playing against a smart defensive team when the played the Yankees in the playoffs in 1976-77-78 and wasted far too many outs getting thrown out on the basepaths. The A's should have read that essay.

[Boris]

He's gonna make $4m next season. gack. how the hell did that happen?

[Sooga]

[ QUOTE ]
He's gonna make $4m next season. gack. how the hell did that happen?

[/ QUOTE ]

Man, your guess is as good as mine. We all know Billy Beane has made some great deals, but signing Long and Hatteberg to multi-year deals were two of the worst, with Long's the worst by far. At least Hatteberg puts up respectable numbers and he can play backup Catcher or 1B. Long's numbers are getting downright atrocious. Almost all his numbers across the board got worse for the 4th straight season, and Long is at the age where hitters should be coming INTO their prime. The A's should just eat his contract and start playing some promising minor-leaguer. He couldn't possibly be any worse.

[Sooga]

[ QUOTE ]

Long may be a little weak, but give him credit for striving to play full time.

D.

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally, I love players who scratch and claw their way into games and do whatever they can to play as much as possible. But Long is not that type of player. He's been given a starting role despite the fact that he's put up absolutely horrible numbers the past 2 seasons, and he has the audacity to complain about his playing time? I was trying to think to myself if there were any worse OF's in MLB (not just the AL) OPS-wise, and I couldn't come up with any. I ended up looking it up, and sure enough, there were only 2 other regulars with worse OPS's. One was Gary Matthews, who admittedly is pretty horrible, and the other was Carl Crawford, who stole 55 bases and hit .281 this past season, as a 22 year old. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Terrence Long is THE worst full-time outfielder in all of baseball.

[David Steele]

He possibly is an idiot based on all the stats you mention
but not for the one pitch mentioned in the original post.

D.

[Dynasty]

I wasn't saying he was a villiage idiot because he took strike three. I was saying it because of his over the top post-game comments in the story I linked.