Brian Fuentes Isn't Good. Or Happy.

Oakland Athletics closer relief pitcher malcontent Brian Fuentes picked up his 7th loss of the season and 4th in a row. The losses are piling up during non-save situations and it isn't sitting well with Fuentes. So instead of, you know, just being better at his job, Fuentes decided to join the ranks of other recent MLBers and complain to the media. Over the past week, we've seen a pitcher (Edinson Volquez) kvetch about his lack of run support and an owner (Fred Wilpon) grumble about his own players. Not to be outdone, Fuentes blamed his own failures on his manager (Bob Geren). Jane Lee of MLB.com has the whole bitchfest but I'll go ahead and blockquote some of it for you...

What did you think of the situation you were placed in tonight?

Fuentes: It’s surprising yet not surprising all at the same time.

How do you feel with the way the manager has handled you as a reliever?

Fuentes: Pretty poorly.

How much communication do you have with him?

Fuentes: Zero.

Why is it pretty poorly?

Fuentes: There’s just no communication. Two games, on the road, bring the closer in a tied game, with no previous discussions of doing so. And then, tonight, in the seventh inning, I get up. I haven’t stretched, I haven’t prepared myself. If there was some communication beforehand I would be ready to come into the game – which I was, when I came into the game, I was ready. Just lack of communication. I don’t think anybody really knows which direction he’s headed.

In theory, your closer should be your team's best reliever. So Fuentes shouldn't be surprised when his manager calls on him in high leverage situations like being tied in late or extra innings. Or maybe he should since the "closer" role is almost exclusive to save situations now, which Fuentes hasn't exactly been Mariano Rivera with anyway.

Geren brought Fuentes in Monday night against the Angels with the score tied 1-1 in the 8th. Fuentes walked Erick Aybar who was erased at second on a Bobby Abreu fielder's choice grounder to third. That was the end of Fuentes night. Abreu stole second and then scored the eventual game winner on a Torii Hunter double off of Michael Wuertz. But Abreu's run belonged to Fuentes and so did the loss.

Fuentes has to be frustrated that he's on pace to lose over 20 games but to blame his pitching woes on a lack of communication seems like scapegoating to me. You are a relief pitcher. After being used in tie-game situations recently, perhaps it should cross your mind that you might be called upon during a 1-1 game instead of just mentally preparing yourself to pitch with a 3-run lead in the 9th.

Of course, I'm in favor of managers using their best relievers in the highest leverage situations during games. I also don't believe Fuentes is a great reliever (I am, after all, an Angels fan) but Geren doesn't have many better options. Fuentes' 3.16 FIP suggests he isn't as bad as his 5.06 ERA. But his 4.81 xFIP doesn't think that 3.16 FIP isn't going to be staying that low either. Fuentes is one of five Oakland relievers with a positive WAR but at 0.1, he is still basically at the replacement level.

I guess my suggestion to all of these players (looking at you too Posada) is shut up and go out and do your job in whatever role your manager sees fit. Sometimes you get pulled off the grill to work the fry station. Deal with it.

Josh Willingham's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, no-hitters and Brian Wilson's beard are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Josh Willingham is a more productive player than he seems. He's a really good OBP guy setting a career high .389 last season and has 20+ home run pop. He's basically a 2.5-3 WAR player based solely on his bat so trading for him made plenty of sense for the offense starved Athletics. Unfortunately, Oakland has a way of just sucking the production out of bats. Willingham has 6 homers but just a .228/.308/.409 line, all well below his career marks. Things didn't get any better Sunday. He struck out so much that even high school you would have been embarrassed for him...

Bottom 1st: Willingham struck out swinging against Mark Buehrle. He worked the count full before going down hacking.

Bottom 3rd: Willingham struck out looking against Buehrle. This one only took three pitches and he only participated in the second one.

Bottom 6th: Willingham struck out looking against Buehrle. Another full count so he at least tried to get his money's worth.

Bottom 7th: Willingham struck out swinging against Buehrle Jesse Crain. He completed the Sombrero with, you guessed it, another full count.

I should probably being keeping track of all the pitchers striking out the same batter three times in a game if I could remember how to use Excel or Access or had a better filing system than a shoe box full of bar napkins.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Shot of the night is late because I've been fighting with insurance people all morning. And I couldn't write it last night because of all the drunken arguing I was doing. I'm pretty sure I had a Barry Bonds debate with a piece of lawn furniture. Last night's shot of the night was The Gold, The Bad, and The Ugly: 1 1/2 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur, 1 oz Bailey's® Irish cream, fill with milk, 1 1/2 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps and it's mainly in honor of Trevor Cahill.

The Gold
The A's 22-year-old All Star pitcher threw a complete game shutout. He gave up more walks (4) than hits (3). Cahill is having a great year on paper with an 11-4 record and 2.72 ERA. But his .206 BABIP and 4.18 xFIP suggest he's not actually quite this good.

The Bad
While Cahill shutout the Royals in real baseball, I'm confident I could shut that lineup out in Wiffle Ball. If I had m good riser working that day. When you're lineup starts with Chris Getz and Jason Kendall, you know you're in for a rough day. Kila Ka'aihue: 0-1. Wilson Betemit: 1-2.

The Ugly
Brian Bannister. I really like Brian Bannister but he's not a good pitcher. He went 5 innings and surrendered 5 runs on 7 hits while walking 4 and striking out 4. Banny has embraced sabermetrics more than any other player in the MLB. So maybe he can take some comfort in knowing that his xFIP (4.85) suggests he's not as terrible as his ERA (5.95) implies.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is a Grand Slam: 1 1/2 oz Swedish punsch, 3/4 oz dry vermouth, 3/4 oz sweet vermouth. Swedish punsch, from what I gather, is some type of rum thing. Shot of the Night got delayed until this morning because I ended up playing drinking games until 3 am. I don't know why I think I'm still in my early 20's but, hey, when in New Orleans... Anyway, the shot is in honor of Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod went 2-3 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. One of the homers was a grand slam. That was A-Rod's third slam of the year and the 21st of his career. That ties him for second all time and 2 behind Lou Gehrig for first. Derwood and I had an hour long conversation the other night about Gehrig and I had to finally move him into my top 5. But that's a post for another time. I've always been an unabashed A-Rod supporter so I'd like to see him stay healthy and assault some records. I do hate the Yankees though, wanted to make that clear.

Honorable Mention: Trevor Cahill
The A's All Star surrendered A-Rod's benchmark slam.

Better Honorable Mention: Johan Santana
While Santana had nothing to do with a grand slam, he did hit a solo shot. Oh yeah, he also threw a 3-hit shutout.

I Want A "Get Off My Mound" T-Shirt

Dallas Braden is kind of back in the news for the third time this season. The first time was because of the altercation Braden had with Alex Rodriguez when the slugger trotted across Braden's mound on his way back to first base. This prompted a war of words between the two which reached its peak when Braden's grandma told A-Rod to "stick it." Nice mouth, grans. Then Braden threw an improbable perfect game. Now he's back in the news because he came out against the A's new "Get Off My Mound" t-shirt referring back to his words during the scuffle with A-Rod.

Obviously Braden is just ashamed of the manner in which he acted, right? Maybe not. The A's didn't get the MLBPA's approval for licensing of the shirt and that means no mention of Braden's name or number. Which means no extra cash for Dallas either. He hasn't mentioned the lack of financial gain but he did express his outrage...

"They're trying to generate revenue, trying to get butts in the seats, I can see that," Braden said. "It's almost like, at what cost do you do that? They didn't have permission. They were told on multiple occasions that, no, it's not a good idea. It's not going to be approved. They just kind of put the horse-blinders on and ran with it."

Braden would go on to argue that the shirt is pitting himself and A-Rod against each other. Of course the shirt wouldn't exist if Braden hadn't coined the phrase while yelling at A-Rod and almost inciting a brawl. So A-Rod has to be pretty miffed too, huh?

"I hope I get a cut," Rodriguez told reporters.

Not only isn't A-Rod upset by the shirt but he broke out in laughter when Robinson Cano sported the shirt before Monday's game against the A's. I reluctantly like Robby Cano a little more now. Great. Also, if anybody in the Oakland area is reading this, I'll take a large.

Gabe Gross' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

It's been busy for me today as I'm about to hand out my third sombrero. During the 14 inning strikeout fest between the Blue Jays and Yankees, I handed out a Golden Sombrero to Adam Lind and a Platinum Sombrero (or Olympic Rings) to Mark Teixeira. Usually, that would satiate my appetite for poor hitting but I had a feeling about today. In fact, I put Gabe Gross on notice...





I'd like to believe he saw that on his iPhone in the on deck circle right before he led off the 9th inning. I wonder what happened next. Let's find out in the recap.

Bottom 2nd: Gross struck out swinging against Fransisco Liriano. Bonus points are added because I own Liriano on my fantasy team.

Bottom 4th: Gross struck out swinging against Liriano again. I get a tingle up my spine.

Bottom 7th: Gross struck out for the third time swinging against Liriano. This is a true strikeout hat trick according to MTD. That's striking out three times, the same way, against the same pitcher. I really hope someone else didn't already claim that.

Bottom 9th: Gross struck out looking against Jon Rauch.

So there you go, the suspense is over. Gross got the Golden Sombrero. Although, you probably got that from the title of the post. I'm not much of a story teller. Let's go get tacos.