Athletics vs Dodgers coverage
Athletics vs Dodgers coverage
Here we are with my second go round in the press box. After fighting two sig alerts I made it to clubhouse just in time to see a group gathered around Mitch Jones. After about five minutes we let him get ready and I found AJ Ellis being interviewed one on one. I waited around and got a few quotes from AJ that I'll try to transcribe in a few minutes.
The clubhouse is much much smaller then I expected and the players are much smaller then I expected. Guess I've been watching to many Clipper games. Wondered out onto the field and after a few minutes Joe started his pre-game conference. Was able to get a nice seat which was good because he talked for almost an hour. Sammy Sosa evidently has been linked to the steroid report and so I nodded off as Joe had to talk about that for about ten minutes. Finally got around to the Dodgers. Plenty of questions but mostly boring ones so I'm only going to mention the one's I think our community might be interested in. TJ Simers was just as annoying in person as you'd expect him to be. In the beginning he was off off-putting but by the end he was coming across more as a human being and wasn't be so annoying.
Highlights:
1. Hopes to play Mitch Jones at DH sometime this weekend but can't make any promises. His guess is that he will DH this weekend. Talked to Tim Wallach for some insight on Jones.
2. Weaver is penciled in as the starter in Saturday, but with an eraser.
3. Milton is ineligible until Sunday so he's out. I asked about McDonald and he said "probably not". That leaves either Stults or Weaver
4. Manny is sick with bronchitis. They are not sure where his rehab games are going to be. They want him to play at home somewhere for several series so he's not traveling on the road with the kids.
5. TJ Simers kept bugging him about who he was worried about in the West. He wouldnt' answer, so I asked him "The Rockies have won 11 in a row, are you worried about them", his answer was "yes, they are playing the best baseball in the league".
6. Mitch Jones was excited to be here but has no idea what his role will be.
7. AJ Ellis was excited for Mitch Jones and said the whole Isotope team was happy he got the call. AJ Ellis has had his own long climb and I asked him a few questions about his game. I'll see if I can transcribe them later.
8. Andre was smoking in batting practice, putting four in a row into the pavillon.
9. Martin's first trip in the box was uneventful was ground balls and medium flyballs. However by his fourth trip in the box he was driving the ball out to left and left center, and smacking nice line drives to right center.
I'll be back with more.