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		Michael Duca on A's and Giants By Michael Duca August 30, 2010

	Sportstalk: The A's took a tough series in Arlington by having a weekend with wins on Saturday 5-0 behind a shut out by A's pitcher Dallas Braden and then putting on a hitting derby with a 8-2 win on Sunday behind the fine hitting of Daric Barton with a two run homer. The A's trail Texas by 7.5 it's late August in your opinion at this point do you see any chance of the A's breathing any life into this race for September? Realistically, no, I don't. The good news is that the A's don't have to catch any other teams. They only have four games (at home) left against Texas this year -- they have to sweep that series and hope other teams help them out. That's never a good place to be. They have contenders to face at New York and Minnesota, and at home against the Red Sox and White Sox. I think they dug themselves too much of a hole earlier in the year, but they are clearly out-performing expectations this season, and should be credited for that. Sportstalk: Former Athletic Frank Thomas had his number retired Sunday and the fans gave "The Big Hurt" a standing ovation in Chicago for a job well done. He will always be remembered as an White Sox but his contribution in Oakland will not be forgotten is a that a huge tribute to Thomas who helped get the A's to post season in 2006 hitting .270 with 77 runs, 126 hits and 114 RBIs and what about his chances for a Hall of Fame bid? In the "modern era" of HOF voting, it's really hard to figure out who will be looked at as a worthy candidate. There are writers who are insisting they will "never" vote for McGwire, Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, A-Rod, et. al. Of course, when you are up on your high horse like that, you risk a nasty and painful fall, and those writers might come to find out that they already HAVE voted for "tainted" players, either from PEDs, or in other ways. And, since we have no real idea of how pervasive the steroid problem was/is, the only way they can safely be true to their (ridiculous) moral position is to vote for nobody at all who played in that era. Frank Thomas was not, to my knowledge, tarred with that brush, and he certainly put up numbers which, in past years, would qualify him for membership. If you look on baseball-reference.com at Thomas' career numbers and compare them with the four metrics used to predict HOF membership, he clearly and decisively exceeds the threshhold in three of them. Thomas is in. Sportstalk: The Giants have lost four of their last five games including a tough last outing for Giant pitcher Tim Lincecum Friday in a 6-0 loss to Arizona. Lincecum has now lost his last five decisions. Is this a freak slump for "the Freak" or finally the contortions of his pitching motions has finally got to him taking off velocity off the fast ball and causing him to have control issues to spot his pitches? It's rapidly becoming more of a whodunit than JonBenet . . . with about as much success in solving the "crime". There are people who swear he's 20 pounds lighter than when he came into the League, and that the weight is almost all lost from his legs. There are those who whisper about the "Oregon" problem of the offseason, wondering if he's lost something because he's not smoking/smoking too much weed. Some think it's because he's trying to establish a separate identity away from dad Chris, who has been his putative pitching coach all these years. Roy Oswalt chimed in, pointing out that "little guys" who are power pitchers have to work twice as hard to maintain their ability, in the weight room and running. There are two separate issues, and you identified both. Control is mechanical/mental, and can usually be fixed. Confidence enters into that, a pitcher must believe totally in each pitch he's about to throw in order to "finish" it correctly and give it the movement that make a pitcher successful. Loss of velocity is generally tied to strength and stamina. Lincecum hasn't really lost velocity -- he's lost the ability to sustain it over an entire start. That seems to me to be more stamina than anything else, and I think Oswalt probably is the Sherlock Holmes winner here. Timmy thinks so, too.