Cup of Coffee: April 28, 2022

The A's president melts down, a top prospect goes under the knife, we have some historical TV criticism, some words on aging, and talk about the benefits of being a pessimist

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

We had a full slate of games last night, a team executive melting down and then tweeting through it, an unfortunate injury to a top prospect, some broadcasting news and a retirement. In Other Stuff we have some historical TV criticism, some words on aging, and the benefits of being a pessimist.

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And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Cardinals 10, Mets 5: Remember yesterday when I said that the Mets weren’t mad at the Cardinals for being hit by three pitches in Tuesday night’s game but, rather, were mad at the ball? Well, they’re likely still mad at the ball, but they were mad at the Cardinals too, because when the game was out of hand Mets reliever Yoan López threw a pitch near Nolan Arenado's head, the benches cleared and we got a right proper melee:

Anthony DiComo @AnthonyDiComo

Here's that full benches-clearing sequence. You can see Cardinals coach Stubby Clapp throwing Pete Alonso to the ground around the 0:24 mark.

That all came after J.D. Davis got hit in the foot in the top of the eighth by a pitch from Genesis Cabrera. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to figure out that the Arenado pitch was a “we’ve had all we can stands, we can’t stands no more” moment. I’m sure matters weren’t helped by Cardinals righty Miles Mikolas saying yesterday morning, before the game, that “it's not the ball's fault. Take some responsibility for your actions” in reference to Chris Bassitt’s comments on Tuesday.

In the end Arenado and Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp — who appears to take down Pete Alonso — were ejected. The teams meat again in mid-May in New York.

White Sox 7, Royals 3: Chicago snapped its eight-game skid thanks to Andrew Vaughn hitting a tiebreaking three-run homer in the seventh. That capped a rally that began with two outs so, hey, way to come up off the deck. Earlier Vaughn had doubled in a run and Jake Burger, who had three hits on the day, hit a solo homer. The Royals have lost five of six.

Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 1: The Diamondbacks were held to only two hits, but one of them was a Nick Ahmed homer. Their other two runs scored after Max Muncy fielded a bunt and threw the ball out into the outfield in the eighth. Zac Gallen pitched six scoreless innings. Arizona twook two of three from the Dodgers despite the fact that they only notched six total hits in the two wins.

Brewers 3, Pirates 1: Aaron Ashby held the Pirates to one run and one hit while working into the sixth but left with his club down 1-0 due to two Pittsburgh pitchers holding the Brewers scoreless on one hit over those first six frames. Ashby got the no-decision instead of a loss, though, as Tyrone Taylor delivered a two-run go-ahead single in the top of the seventh, Kolten Wong drew a bases loaded walk in the ninth, and four Brewers relievers held the Buccos hitless over the final three.

Padres 8, Reds 5: MacKenzie Gore had to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and worked with traffic on the base paths for most of the game but in the end he struck out 10 over five innings of one-run ball and that’ll play. He had a nice five runs in his pocket while he was in the game too thanks to Jurickson Profar hitting a three-run homer. Eric Hosmer would add a homer later in the game and Manny Machado doubled in a run in the ninth to provide some insurance for the Reds’ mini-rally in the final frame. The Reds have lost 12 of 13 and their 3-15 record is the worst in the majors. Plenty of tickets available at Great American Ballpark.

Rays 3, Mariners 2: Drew Rasmussen struck out nine batters and allowed just two hits and issuing one walk over six shutout innings. Kevin Kiermaier hit a long two-run homer and Harold Ramírez singled in a run via a comebacker that knocked Mariners starter Marco Gonzalez out of the game when the ball hit his wrist. X-Rays were negative, though, and Gonzalez is not expected to miss time.

Phillies 7, Rockies 3: Odúbel Herrera homered for the second straight game and drove in two in all while starter Ranger Suárez, who should change his name to Phillie Suárez since he does not play in Texas, allowed three runs over six innings

Yankees 5, Orioles 2: Jordan Montgomery allowed two runs while pitching into the sixth and Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer — his 350th career dinger — and had three RBI. Joey Gallo also homered and a Bombers got a junk run on a wild pitch.

Marlins 2, Nationals 1: Pablo López tossed six shutout innings, extended his scoreless streak to 18.2 inning, won his third game of the season, and lowered his ERA to a microscopic 0.39, which leads all of baseball. Or, if you’re the Marlins per this tweet . . .

“Lowest ERA in THE MLB.” Oh my god I’m gonna plotz.

Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 1: I said something about Alex Cora making a pitching change in the other night’s game but, as some of you pointed out to me, that was wrong as Cora had stayed back home due to getting COVID. Well, he was cleared and made the trip up to Toronto and managed this one. Good timing too, as Boston went 1-5 under bench coach Will Venable while Cora was away. Maybe not his fault but ultimately managers are judged on results, so, welp. More significant than that was the fact that Xander Bogaerts played in this one because he went 4-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored and Michael Wacha allowed one run over six and then handed it off to a bullpen which didn’t allow nothin’ over the final three.

Cubs 6, Atlanta 3: The Cubs had a 3-0 and then a 3-1 lead until the eighth when Dansby Swanson singled in two to ties things and force extra. Chicago scored one tenth inning run on a William Contreras double and then Patrick Wisdom hit a two-run homer later in the inning to give Chicago some insurance and the win.

in the 10th before Wisdom gave the team some valuable insurance.

Twins 5, Tigers 0: Joe Ryan allowed just one hit over seven innings and struck out nine. Fantastic start on the year for Ryan, who is now 3-1 with a 1.17 ERA and a 25/6 K/BB ratio in 23 innings through four starts. Max Kepler hit two homers and Ryan Jeffers — who has been filling in more than adequately for the injured Gary Sánchez — hit a two-run homer in the fifth and doubled in a run in the seventh. The Twins have won six in a row.

Astros 4, Rangers 3: Kyle Tucker hit a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double in the fifth to turn a 2-1 Texas lead into a 4-2 Houston advantage. Chas McCormick went 2-for-5 with a homer, and Yordan Alvarez reached base all four times up by going 2-for-2 with two walks. Cristian Javier, whose fine work in relief has earned him a move back to the rotation, allowed two runs in five innings.

Angels 9, Guardians 5: Taylor Ward went 3-for-4 with a grand slam, a triple, a double and four runs scored. Shohei Ohtani allowed two runs over five innings and went 3-for-5 with an RBI double to score Ward and Mike Trout added a pair of RBI doubles. The Angels have won four of six. The Guardians, despite José Ramírez going 2-for-4 with a pair of two-run home runs, have dropped six straight.

Athletics 1, Giants 0: Chad Pinder went 2-for-4 with a solo home run which constituted the game’s only scoring while Paul Blackburn and five relievers combined on a three-hit shutout. There were “only” 32,000 fans at the game in Oracle Park. As you’ll see down in the Daily Briefing, that seems to matter to A’s president Dave Kaval a lot. Worse news for the Giants than the attendance figures: Joc Pederson was pulled from the game due to right groin tightness sustained while running the bases.

The Daily Briefing

A’s President Dave Kaval is acting like a child

The Oakland A’s have taken a great deal of flak over the past couple of weeks because of historically low attendance at their home games. That flak, however, is not attendance shaming for its own sake. It’s being discussed in the context of team president Dave Kaval and team owner John Fisher working overtime to alienate A’s fans by mounting an extended campaign to move the team to Las Vegas all while (a) badmouthing Oakland; (b) jacking up ticket prices at the Coliseum; and (c) trading away the team’s best players.

On Tuesday night the A’s played the Giants across the bay. Attendance for that game was 32,898. Which, while short of Oracle Park’s capacity of 42,000, is still a healthy attendance total for a Tuesday night and is more than four times what the A’s are averaging for home attendance so far this year. A’s team president Dave Kaval, however, thought that the light-for-San Francisco attendance was mock-worthy and offered multiple tweets about the Giants’ “attendance problems” and then fought with local radio hosts and tried to bait San Francisco and Oakland media members into fights. Given the A’s attendance woes and all the other garbage going on with that club due to its crappy executives, Ray Ratto of Defector described Kaval’s tweets as “the equivalent of someone complaining about someone else’s animal rights record while holding a bolt gun and wearing a bloody apron.”

It’s amazing how lacking in shame Kaval is. How totally and completely unwilling he is to take any responsibility for driving fan interest in the A’s into the dirt due to his completely bungled public handling of the A’s stadium situation and his and Fisher’s overarching greed in this entire process. It’s pathetic. It’s childish. I have no idea who, if anyone, remains on staff at that club who has the standing to tell Kaval to quit acting like this, but if they do exist, they had best get to telling him.

Jason Benetti to call Sunday morning Peacock games

While I don’t imagine many non-soccer and non-“The Office”-addicted people will be watching the games which will stream on Sunday mornings on Peacock, it does appear that those of us who do fit that description will at least have a good broadcast to watch. That’s because, per the New York Post, White Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti will be the voice of those games. Benetti is one of the best play-by-play guys going in my view and in the view of many folks.

The first Peacock game will air on May 8. It will actually be simulcast on NBC. That won’t be normal. It’s just a tease. The game, which pits the White Sox against the Red Sox, will also feature one White Sox analyst and one Red Sox analyst, yet to be named. Which, eww, three-person booth, but I’ll at least give it a shot.

Top pitcher in the 2022 draft has Tommy John surgery

Man plans, God laughs:

High school right-hander Dylan Lesko, the top pitching prospect in the 2022 MLB draft, had Tommy John surgery Tuesday, a source told ESPN.

Lesko, the No. 8 overall prospect in the draft rankings, had the procedure done by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the head team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the NFL's Rams, a source told ESPN.

Lesko is a Vanderbilt commit but he still could have/still can stay in the draft. According to ESPN he still stands a good chance of being the first pitcher drafted given this year’s weak pitching class and his talent. And, though I doubt anyone will go on the record saying this because it’s kind of crass, I imagine there is a baseline assumption within the game that a great many top young pitchers will have to have TJ surgery and that, for developmental purposes, it may be better for him to have it now, at age 18, then when he’s on the verge of making the big leagues. Not that anyone ever wants that.

John Jay retires

John Jay — easily the best baseball player named after a former Supreme Court justice and signatory to the Treaty of Paris — has announced his retirement. Jay hasn't played since he was released by the Los Angeles Angels in March 2021, but he played in parts of 12 seasons in the bigs. The first six of those seasons came with the Cardinals, which whom he won a World Series ring in 2011. He also played for the Padres, Cubs, Royals, Dbacks, and White Sox before finishing in Anaheim. He had a career line of .283/.348/.373 (97 OPS+) with 37 home runs, 341 RBI and 55 stolen bases.

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Other Stuff

Tough Critic

A tweet crossed my timeline, retweeted by a vintage television account I follow, noting that yesterday was the anniversary of an airing of a notable episode of “The Outer Limits” called “The Chameleon.” It aired in 1964 and starred a pre-fame Robert Duvall and was written by a pre-fame Robert Towne. The tweet also contained a listing for the broadcast from the Fort Lauderdale News, which included criticism in the episode summary:

I’m struggling to understand how you can rip Duvall and Towne a new ass while Mr. Ed thinking the house is haunted gets a free pass.

What a drag it is gettin’ old

Kane Tanaka, the oldest person in the world, died last week at the age of 119. Man, seems like EVERYONE who gets that gig dies soon after. Maybe it’s stressful? I dunno. Personally, I’d pass on assuming that title if someone offered it to me. It’s more deadly than being the second-in-command of the Taliban circa 2009.

In all seriousness, though, that article is interesting beyond the usual “she said the secret to long life is eating rutabagas and having one finger of mulled wine each fortnight” stuff you tend to get in these stories. It also touches on Japan’s aging population, the challenges that creates, and the manner in which society can and should work to accommodate the elderly when more people are living longer lives.

The other day I linked that story about the billionaires who want to radically extend life and possibly even defeat death. If they’re serious about that and all it entails they’ll also be serious about strengthening the medical, civil, and social infrastructure necessary to support people who will be living those radically-extended lives. If, instead, it’s just a weird cult/lifestyle thing for tech bros and/or a cynical cash grab in which they don’t give a rip about the implications of the technology they create, they won’t be.

Hopeful Pessimism

In what I think was a response to my talk of my predisposition to pessimism and darkness yesterday, subscriber Paper Lions shot us a link to a fantastic essay. It’s about optimism and pessimism and the origin of those philosophies. And yes, they are formal philosophies which arose out of Age of Enlightenment debates among and between Voltaire, Hume, Leibniz and that gang about why God allows bad things to happen and whether this world is the best possible world.

The key takeaway is that pessimism actually offers more hope than optimism does. It does so because a single question — “is it possible to see the future as dark and darkening further; to reject false hope and desperate pseudo-optimism without collapsing into despair?” — can be answered in the affirmative. It can be because pessimism, despite its reputation, is not a rejection of the possibility of good. It is merely the clear-eyed appreciation that good is lacking or absent and that it is our collective responsibility to try to bring about the good that does not presently exist. Such a view is 100% compatible with the notion that we can and should hope for a better world.

Optimism, meanwhile — a belief that the world is basically good or that good things are inevitable — forecloses the need for hope for or work toward better things. There’s a cruelty to optimism in that it says “the better things are already here; you’re just not experiencing them,” and strongly implies — and often explicitly states — that your failure to realize the good things is on you and your mindset. It attempts to explain away the manifest bad in the world as products of our own making and foists the labor of achieving happiness on you, the unhappy, lacking soul, not on everyone because it’s not their problem, it’s yours.

Money graf:

The thing to avoid is not so much pessimism, but hopelessness or fatalism or giving up. Even despair need not be completely avoided, since it too can energise and encourage us to strive for change, but we should avoid the kind of despair that causes us to collapse. These things are not the same as pessimism, which is simply the assumption of a dark view of the present as well as the future and does not imply the loss of courage or insistence to strive for better: on the contrary, often these are the very gifts that pessimism can bestow.

This is where I’ve been for some time. It’s what animates me and colors my view of the world. Those, in contrast, who say that unhappiness and want is the fault of those who are unhappy or wanting tend to be my enemy.

Have a great day, everyone.