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Yea great series against the Red Sox, too bad we couldn't get 2 out of 3 vs Baltimore, but still a decent road trip so far. Parker is an exciting addition, hope he can live up to his potential.

Apparently the A's are considering putting Crisp on the 15-day DL for this inner ear problem and calling up Michael Taylor to play LF. Taylor has been on fire with the Rivercats, batting .347, 13 doubles, 18 RBI, .938 OPS. It would be great to see one of the Rivercats get a legimate chance with the A's, they didn't give Cowgill a fair chance at all. Brandon Moss is also mashing for the Cats, .313, .992 OPS, leads the team in HRs.

Tampa Bay is scary, it would be awesome if we could get 2 out of 3 and end the road trip 5-4, but 4-5 wouldn't be so bad considering the teams we were up against.

Baltimore has been playing some good baseball from what I have seen. They tend to drop off as the season progresses but the Yankees have been struggling against them.

Well we got 2 out of 3 @ Tampa, thats awesome, and then a walkoff grand slam last night! 16-14, unexpected, it'd be nice to put together a streak here and move away from .500, but my expectations are still low.

We are still last in the league in batting average, and close to last in OBP and runs. Good starting pitching and great bullpen getting it done.

Manny Ramirez will debut May 30.

What are your expectations?

HMFFL wrote:Manny Ramirez will debut May 30.

What are your expectations?

Not really sure what to expect from him, but am pretty excited to see him. We should have a solid line-up when he returns same with the other hurt players.

Jemile Weeks - 2B
Josh Reddick - RF
Yoenes Cespedes - CF
Manny Ramirez - DH
Kila Ka'aihue - 1B
J. Gomes/S. Smith - LF
Brandon Inge - 3B
Kurt Suzuki - C
Cliff Pennington - SS

Agreed on the lineup^ though I would go with Reddick/Cespedes/Manny at 3-4-5 instead, problem is we don't really have high on base % guys for the 1,2 spots. Hopefully Weeks gets out of this slump. Also too bad we have this guy named Coco Crisp who is going to start in LF quite a bit. I like Crisp, but he isn't a good fit with Cespedes in CF now.

Well, we managed to win one against San Francisco. Frustrating series!

3 games vs. the LA Angels, so let's win the series, and after that we face the Yankees.

Yikes well that imploded in a hurry, cant say im suprised with this terrible excuse for an offense.

Another blown save for what should have been a good bullpen,hate seeing Milone pitch another great game and not get a win. Parker we need 9 out of ya tonight to get the win!

Jarrod Parker has a 0.43 ERA during his last three starts. Hopefully we bounce back from yesterday and win. Another win streak (2 games +) would nice.

Back to .500 at the Allstar break. Amazingly we are only a few games out of the Wild Card, but there are several teams in front of us.

Sentimental part of me says to keep the team together, logical part of me says we should be sellers at the deadline, keep the young core together and get what u can for the players who there is a good chance will not be back next season or who are in the way of prospects (Colon, McCarthy, Crisp, Suzuki for example).

It's been an interesting season for sure. I hope for some success during the second half and for us to grow as a team.

Sweep of the Twins, awesome. I'm so happy to see guys who were hitting for the Rivercats being called up and having success. Moss and Carter tandem seems like finally we have power at 1B. Rest of the infield still remains the problem for the offense. Outfield has been awesome.

Schedule gets much much harder now, 2 vs Rangers, then 4 vs Yankees, and then a bunch more vs the AL East.

Yoenis Cespedes went crazy yesterday. 4for5, a HR, and three RBI's.

4-3 win last night against the Yankees.

mlbtraderumors.com The Athletics, Dodgers, Blue Jays and Orioles are among the teams with interest in Hanley Ramirez, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). Interest levels in Ramirez vary and nothing is close, Rosenthal reports. The Red Sox are also interested, according to USA Today. However, Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com hears Boston isn't in on Ramirez (Twitter link).

This is crazy

Fola314 wrote:This is crazy

No kidding. What a game.

Haha I mean this season is crazy, especially this month. In the preseason prediction thread I guessed 80 wins and I thought I was being overly optimistic. Lowest payroll in the league, traded away our top 2 starters and allstar closer from last season (Gio, Cahill, Bailey) , other two top starters (Braden, Anderson) injured. This is unreal.

Still need some production from SS and C, but I am amazed. Carter finally panning out has been huge. Lead the league in ERA and bullpen ERA with nearly an entirely new staff. We also now have the hottest pitching prospect in baseball in Straily.

I know this could all fall apart, but as of today we are 2.5 games ahead of the Tigers for the WC, tied with the bazillion $ payroll Angels, and 4GB of the Rangers. 55-45! Wow, its been 5 yrs now since we have been in any kind of contention.

Even if we don't make it, I am excited that we have this young core of pitchers, and more importantly we finally have a core of hitters. Looks like we may be relevant for the next few seasons.

Suzuki gone for a single A prospect. Salary dump I suppose, they were on the hook for several mil next season. Its too bad really, idk what happened to his offensive production, he really just fell off the map this season. Kottaras hopefully will provide leadership and Norris has some pop.

Currently half game back of Baltimore and Detroit for WC. Barring another July type streak we won't catch Texas. After this series with ChiSox we have some easier opponents, hopefully we can beat up on because September looks tough.