A's Cepedes Leaves Game Early; Griffin Suffers Setback

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

It looks as the the wave of injuries that has already hit the team on the east side of the bay pretty hard, may be on its way to back to Oakland. Yoenis Cespedes, the A’s left fielder, was forced to exit Thursday’s game during the seventh inning. Cespedes has just begun to hit his stride this season. While only batting .238 after getting off to a slow start Cespedes has hit four home runs in the last week.

Unfortunately, it now appears that the 28-year old Cuban star may be sidelined with a hamstring injury after he limped off the Houston Astros’ field at Minute Maid park in the seventh inning. He is expected to be kept out of the A’s lineup for at least a couple days if not more.

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2014: Life as a MLB Season Ticket When the Team is Away, the Fans ...??

It’s a good question really. What do crazy fans who attend almost every ballgame do when their team is on a long road trip? Right now my Oakland A’s will have been gone 10 full days when they return Friday to take on the Houston Astros. (I threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Ryan Cook at the first A’s vs. Astros game in 2013 but that is another story for another time.)

Anyway, of course there are fans and season ticket holders who follow their teams on road trips, my self included (but again that’s another story for another time). Yet no one can follow their team to every city, unless of course they are a millionaire and can travel anywhere but the average, normal person who’s a crazy fan (so semi-normal people), what do they do when their team is away?

Well, I guess the first thing people like me do are all the normal things that you let go because there was that, Wednesday double header that you just couldn’t miss. Things like laundry, dishes, errands, making up for that day of work you may (most likely) have missed. But how do these obsessed fans cope?

Wanna read more about what I do when the A's are outta town? CLICK HERE! 

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You can find us on Twitter @OakAsSocksGrl and @SportsUnbiased1

Prospect George Springer to Join Astros Wednesday

The highly touted and prized prospect George Springer says that he is going to be joining the Houston Astros for his first stint in the big leagues on Wednesday. The club has not officially announced his promotion from Triple-A Oklahoma City but according to the 24-year old he’s headed to Houston. Of course that means that someone will have to switch places with him and the Houston Chronicle reports that it will be outfielderRobbie Grossman who will be sent down. The paper also reported that pitcher Lucas Harrell will be designated for assignment.

To learn more about Springer CLICK HERE! Brought to you by Outside Pitch Sports Network LLC

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MLB News: Rick Ankiel Retires

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Rick Ankiel officially announced his retirement Wednesday via St. Louis broadcaster Dan McLaughlin who made the announcement during the St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training Broadcast. This brings to an end the career of a very unique and intriguing ballplayer.

Drafted straight out of high school in 1997 by the Cardinals, Ankiel made his major league debut as a pitcher in 1999 at the age of 20. In 2000 he was rated at the number one overall prospect in baseball by Baseball America. After having a good regular season Ankiel faltered in the playoffs. He completely lost control of his pitches. He had two very poor starts, one in the NLCS against the Braves and the other in the NLCS against the Mets. He lasted no more than three innings in each start.

Ankiel continued to struggle in 2001 and was soon sent to the minors. Shortly after he had Tommy John surgery and besides on appearance pitching in relief for the Cardinals in 2004, it looked as though his career was at its end.

Read the rest of the story on OPSN - Outside Pitch Sports Network, a Major League Baseball Advanced Media Afiliate

AL West Recap: March 1st

Texas Rangers 2 at Oakland Athletics 2, in 9 innings

Ben Margot/AP

Phoenix, AZ - After a 34 min rain delay, Cactus League play between the Athletics and Mariners began Saturday. With Sonny Gray on the mound for Oakland and Martin Perez set to pitch for the Rangers the A's struck first against Perez. Perez gave up one run, one hit, two walks and had one strikeout in 2 innings of work.. The the A's only run, until the bottom of the 9th, came on a single by designated hitter Yoenis Cespedes. Gray, who also worked two innings, gave up two hits, two walks and struck out two.

The Rangers 2 runs were driven in by Jurickson Profar and Jared Hoying in the seventh inning. In the bottom of the 9th A's prospect outfielder Billy Burns, acquired this off-season in a trade with the Washington Nationals, scored on an infield error. Burns, who was a late substitute for Coco Crisp, had two hits, two stolen bases and two outfield assists.  He threw out Engel Beltre at third to stop a Texas rally in the first and threw out Hoying at the plate to keep the score from being 3-2.

The game, which could have gone ten innings, was ended in a tie due to the weather.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 3 at Seattle Mariners 5

Houston Astros 1 at Detroit Tigers 5

For More AL West Game Details Check Out OPSN - Outside Pitch Sports Network, a MLB Avanced Media Afiliate

Nolan Ryan to Return to Astros in Advisory Role

Nolan Ryan
Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Since Nolan Ryan resigned as CEO of the Texas Rangers back in October, there have been rumors about him going to work for the Houston Astros. It appears that those rumors have become fact.  According to Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston, Ryan will be joining the Astros front office in an advisory role.

Ryan will be an adviser to the club's business and baseball advising owner Jim Crane, general manager Jeff Lunhow, and team president Reid Ryan. Reid is Ryan's oldest son and that is likely the reason that Ryan is coming out of his brief retirement. About working with his son Ryan told the Houston Chronicle,

"It would be special and totally different than I have dealt with before because it's on the major league level and an organization. And if I could assist him in some way, it would be fun and challenging."

The Astros and Ryan met in January but any decisions had been kept quiet until now. On Monday Crane told the MLB.com's Brian McTaggart that the team was hoping to hear back from Ryan "any day." Crane didn't have much longer to wait because the answer he was waiting for came today in the form of a "yes."

In January, Ryan talked about the potential differences between working with the Rangers and the Astros ,

"I see my role in baseball different now from when I was with the Rangers. That gives you kind of a different feel about it and about the way it would involve my time and commitment. It would be more on a consultant type basis."

During his 27-year career Ryan pitched for both ball clubs.

Nolan Ryan with the Astros in the 1980's
Getty Images

He was with the Astros for eight seasons and spent five with the Rangers. Before being back home in his native state of Texas, Ryan also pitched for the New York Mets and the then California Angels. An eight time All-Star , Ryan finished his 27-year career having pitched 5,386 innings, winning 394 games and posting a 3.19 ERA.

The Astros are currently trying to rebuild their team which finished 5th in the American League West last season with a 51-111 record. Hopefully, Ryan's advice will be helpful for the ball club.

For More News from around MLB Check Out: MLB Nation!

What is the Rule 5 Draft?

A lot of even the most die hard baseball fans haven't even heard of the Rule Five draft or if they have they don't know a lot about it or the impact it can possibly have on their favorite team. Honestly, I learned a lot about it last season because of one ballplayer who did make a difference on the A's,  a tall guy named Nate Freiman.

But let's first look at what the Rule 5 Draft is and how it works. As stated by MLB.com a team can select any player who is not already on a 40 man roster who has played at least four years of professional baseball since signing at age 19 or who has played at least five years of professional baseball since signing at the age of 18. 

There are three phases of the draft Double-A, Triple-A and Major League. If a player is selected from the minors then the money does not exchange hands between the player's existing organization and their new one. This changes however in the Major league phase of the Rule Five draft.  A team must pay $50,000 to the team they choose a player from.  The selected player must be kept on their new team's 25-man roster for the entire season. The player may not be not be optioned or designated for assignment. 

If a selecting team feels the need they have the option to waive Rule Five player and if the player clears waivers but does not sign with another MLB team he must be optioned back to his original team for $25,000.

A Rule Five player must be active for 90 days which stops teams from placing a Rule Five draftee on the disabled list for the majority of the season. Even if the draftee is placed the DL for a number of days the remainder of the 90 days carries over to the next season. Once a Rule Five player has spent a full 90 days on a MLB team their status reverts to normal and they may be optioned or designated for assignment. 

Yes, this all sounds clinical and confusing at first. Now let's look at Nate Freiman. Freiman who was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2009, spent the first four years of his professional career making waves but was kept in the minors due to Padres regular first baseman Yonder Alonso. Now eligiable for the Rule Five draft he was selected in the second round by the Houston Astros but by March the Astros had to waive Freiman due to the signing of first basema/designated hitter Carlos Pena, the acquisition of 1B/DH Chris Cater from Oakland and their already everyday 1B Brett Wallace. There was just no room left for Freiman who cleared waivers and was picked up by the Oakland Athletics. 

At this point Freiman had not yet started to fulfill his 90 active days so the A's had to keep him on their roster those 90 days. Freiman stayed on the A's the entire year making some important contributions at first base and at the plate. On April 3, he had two hits in three at-bats in his major league debut and it seemed the A's had found the right handed hitting first baseman they had been looking for to complement their current staple at first base, left handed hitting Brandon Moss. Freiman was also named Rookie of the Month for the month of May after going 13-37 with a .351 batting average. 

The most notable moment of 2013 for Freiman and his real introduction to the rest of the major leagues was a walk off single against New York Yankees' iconic closer Mariano Rivera. Rivera, pitching in his final season and final game at Oakland's O.Co Coliseum, came in during the 18th inning of a marathon game to pitch to Freiman. Freiman hit a walk off single to left field scoring catcher John Jaso thus ending what was becoming (I can tell you because I was there) an almost unbearably hot July day that was beginning to turning into evening! Now Freiman has a job with the Athletics platooning regularly with Moss at first base. 

Find the rest of this article on Sports Unbiased your site for all Sports News, Polls and Predictions (and stuff written by yours truly! lol) ..... 

My First Solo Article for SportsUnbiased.com!

Please take a look! It would really help me out if you checked it out on the site! The title is : 2013 Oakland Athletics: Why They Will Win the AL West 

Here is my first real solo article for SportsUnbiased.com! Its a bit rough in my opinion but the editors helped me out and were really great! Please take a moment to read it and tell me what you think - positive or negative! Thank you!! I can use all the help I can get!!

http://sportsunbiased.com/mlb/15065/2013-oakland-athletics-why-they-will-win-the-al-west/

This is totally my dream to have the freedom to write about baseball and even better my Oakland Athletics. I tried to make the article as unbiased and to the truth as much as I could! I still have things to work on but for a first real try I think I did alright! All comments and criticisms are welcome because how else will I improve? Thank you for you time! Have a wonderful day! <3 OaklandAsSocksGirl