The All-Star Break could have been seen as the turning point for these A's. Going into the break, there was hope, albeit slim, that the A's were better than anticipated, and could challenge for the playoffs, despite trailing the Angels. Also, going into the All-Star Break, Justin Duchscherer was among the very best pitchers in all of baseball, representing Oakland at Yankee Stadium for the American League.

Just over a month later, five wins and twenty-three losses later, the story is much different. The A's personnel has changed a bit, Duchscherer seems to have lost his magic touch, and the A's are falling like a rock in the standings. Not falling? The Minnesota Twins, who in the Central Divison, are tied for first with the ChiSox, with a record of 70-53.

Looking to stop both trends tonight is the aforementioned Duchscherer, who comes into the game with a 10-8 record and 2.59 ERA, opposing Nick Blackburn, who sports a 9-6 record and 3.73 ERA. In off the field news, the A's have called up Kirk Saarloos to augment the bullpen, and have designated Wes Bankston for assignment.

Roma has finally closed the deal on Real Madrid's Julio Baptista.  I'm pretty pumped up because I love Roma.  It's unfortunate that the team had to break their salary cap of 2.5 M Euros and spend 4.5 per season for him, but I think this helps make Roma a much, much better team. 

I mean Roma's front will feature Francesco Totti , Vucinic and Baptista, that is a pretty formidable attack.  I'm biased because Roma is my team in Serie A, but what do you guys think?  Does this make Roma the team to beat?  They're also pursuing Suazo from Inter Milan as a backup option where they were really thin last season.

It's a beautiful day to be a fan of the beautiful team known as the Giallorossi.  Now if only the Galaxy can win tonight.

Just for argument's sake, let's say that this list of free agents for the upcoming offseason is presented to you as a general manager of the Oakland Athletics.  If you scan down the list, what looks appealing AND affordable? Remember, we're talking the A's here and I don't think this team is looking to necessarily break the bank...yet.  If the A's are going to sign someone longer-term, it likely isn't going to be this upcoming offseason.  Not unless the A's believe that their young pitchers like Cahill, Anderson, Simmons and Mazzaro are ready to contribute a LOT in 2009, which they very well could be.  It's just not something to bank on yet.

This organization is looking like it's built for 2010 and beyond.  And the good news is that once this team gets good, it's going to be in for a long period of being a great team, not just a good one.  That being said, the A's front office has to realize that this team needs some offense.  I mean, pretty much every pitcher in baseball knows that the A's offense is a cakewalk right now, including the A's own pitchers who seem to be suffering a bit from "If I let up one run, I'm screwed disease."

So with players like Carter and Cardenas a ways away, I think you're going to see the A's try and plug a couple of holes in the offense by opening up the wallet.  Not enough to make anyone incredibly excited, but it wouldn't surprise me to see the A's sign a couple of players off the aforementioned list.

Names that would fit?  Well, someone like Rafael Furcal would seem to be ideal.  He's injured and he might come cheap because of that injury.  Look at what the A's have done in signing free agents.  It's buying folks who come in the bargain bin but have great upside potential.  Sometimes it has worked well, as in Frank Thomas 2006, sometimes not so well as in Mike Piazza.  Furcal might be willing to come to Oakland, prove his worth again and that he's fine after his surgery and then sign for a relatively large contract elsewhere.

A few others that have been mentioned ad nauseum on AN include Jason Giambi, Hank Blalock and the recently traded Adam Dunn.  I might actually cheer for Jason Giambi if he was to return, time might have healed this wound surprisingly enough.  I don't actually feel like throwing something at my TV when I see him.  Maybe I'm just losing intensity in my older age.  Speaking of older age, perhaps the A's would consider Bonds again this offseason.  You have to think that guy can still hit despite everything.  I'm not advocating for it, mind you, but the improvement in this dreadful lineup could be immense. 

All of those options are left-handed and we know how Beane has craved a right-handed bat for a while now.  There really isn't much out there in terms of a big right-handed bat that doesn't sound like Lanny Con-Beerez.  And we just know that isn't happening.  At the same time, Jay Payton and Milton Bradley are available.  Oh wait.  Seriously though, Pat Burrell is probably the only realistic option and while he would be appealing, I think he'll be looking for more than the A's will be willing to offer.

The only other two options I could see are also left-handed.  Dallas McPherson has also been mentioned a bunch around these parts and he has mashed up on Triple-A pitching this year.  And Billy Beane has always coveted Brian Giles.  Beane does often finally get whatever he covets.  So Giles wouldn't surprise me at all and Giles is a better player than people think, especially having played in Petco for too long.

I know it's early to start talking about our 09 shopping list, but we don't have much else going on these days other than the upcoming September call-ups and seeing how Gio Gonzalez is going to do his next time on the hill.

Is there anyone on that list you find appealing?  Juan Rivera?  Would you bring Frank Thomas back?  Discuss.

I'm sure you've probably seen it by now, but the LA Galaxy has disposed of GM Alexi Lalas and, more surprisingly, coach Ruud Gullit.  Although Gullit supposedly walked away of his own accord. 

Something really had to be done about the lack of quality players on the back end and Lalas was clearly to blame for this.  Gullit never appeared to be all that interested in what he was doing as an MLS coach.  The Galaxy just seems like it's a mess right now.  Watching the team's backline is like watching the Keystone Cops trying to defend the backline.  It's just a joke. 

I'm wondering how much a coach can actually improve the situation on the field or are the players in back inept enough to make it a lost season.  I'm guessing that not much.  But maybe the offense can outscore opponents enough to at least make it into the playoffs.

Should be an interesting first game with Cobi Jones behind the bench.  Glad I have tickets for Thursday night's game.

Here is an excellent column on goal.com about whether or not Major League Soccer is actually progressing in popularity here in the United States, the only country in the world that seems to have resisted accepting soccer in any way, shape or form.

I wanted to open this up for discussion here.  I know for a fact that I'm one of the rare American fans who was drawn in recently to MLS.  I've always watched soccer for a long time, but usually only when the World Cup would come around.  The UEFA Cup really drew me in in a way that I never expected.  From there I've started watching a crapload of soccer and saw a lot of old England games on Fox Soccer Channel.  I loved watching Becks and the magic he works with the free kicks, corners and crosses.  I realized what a remarkable talent he was and he was playing here in my backyard, so I began watching Galaxy games regularly.  The quality of soccer isn't particularly great, especially if you compare it to Premier League or Serie A games. 

But it's done enough that it has encouraged me to attend my first live soccer match ever (outside of the ones I played in as a kid).  I'm extremely excited for it because I'm pretty sure it will be a great sporting experience to see the skill on display close up.  I can tell you from this American fan of someone who hasn't followed soccer on a professional league level that I've been sucked in.  It's pretty funny that at goal.com, a soccer-focused Web site, that a bunch of American folks slam the sport.  My question is, what the hell are you doing there?

What do you guys think of MLS and it's future?  Do you regularly go to games?  Who is your favorite team?  Do you think that the league will attract bigger stars?

I'm not the biggest Olympic fan in the world.  I really only like watching certain team sports like soccer and during the Winter Olympics, hockey.  I'm not really one to get into the badminton, swimming and all the other random sports that the Summer Olympics bring.  But for obvious reasons, I would love to watch U.S. Olympic baseball since two of the A's most prized possesions will be on that stage.  Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill are both participating.

Any way, if you want to keep up with the USA baseball ventures in the Olympics, you can do so here.  Course I'm not really sure how NBC is going to show the games.  They have like 18 networks showing games, so it's going to be up to us to figure out where to see the games.  So while the summer olympics usually bore me to death as I'm not really a basketball fan and most of the best soccer players in the world don't participate as it coincides with the professional leagues' seasons, we're actually going to have something to pay attention to during this deluge of sports.  And quite frankly, Cuba versus the U.S.A. in baseball is about as close as we're going to get to U.S.A. against the Soviet hockey team from 1980.

Maybe I'll get into the Olympics as it goes on, but I doubt it right now.  How excited are you about the Olympics?  I've attached the obligatory poll.

The A's and Justin Duchscherer look to end a slide against the Toronto Blue Jays and A.J. Burnett.

Duke's stats look like this:

If there was a guy to end the slide, this is the one.  Course it won't be an easy task as he faces AJ Burnett.

The lineups are as follows:

Sweeney
Ellis
Thomas
Gonzalez
Brown
Crosby
Hannahan
Barton
Bowen

The Jays go with this group:

Inglett
Wilkerson
Rios
Overbay
Barajas
Lind
Stairs
Rolen
McDonald

LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!

Well, maybe it is.  At least right now.  But I never really thought the A's were going to compete for the AL West in 2008.  I thought this was a team that Billy Beane was building for the future while hoping it wouldn't be a complete failure on the field this season.  A lot things happened to make the team worse than most thought, especially lately, but I do truly believe that the A's are going to be much improved in 2009.

And we're starting to see signs of the team building for the future.  Instead of pulling Lenny DiNardo out of the pen or Kirk Saarloos out of baseball purgatory to take a start, the A's are turning to Gio Gonzalez today.  I'm really excited to see his stuff.  I think he'll be one of the pitchers for the A's foundation moving forward.  He's going to be very important to the A's success (or failure) over the next couple of years.  The funny thing is that Gonzalez will likely be a third or fourth starter down the road.  In front of him in terms of ability are Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and possibly even Vince Mazzaro.  And these pitchers don't appear to be very far away.  Mazzaro has made great strides forward this year and is now in Triple-A.  Caill has been exceptional in Double-A and probably won't be far behind with his absolutely mouth-watering worthy groundball to fly ball ratio.  Imagine that in the Coliseum.  Brett Anderson is also pitching like a future ace at Midland.  These pitchers aren't as far away as we think.

Course pitching isn't and hasn't been the problem with this team.  It's the hitting that is the pain for any A's fan.  It wasn't that long ago that Giambi and his crew of out-of-shape RC car racers were smacking the ball all around the Coliseum.  So it's been especially painful to watch this current crew cutting their teeth.  But with guys like Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney and Carlos Gonzalez maturing before our very eyes, I'm pretty sure that I see what Beane and company see and that's a team that just needs a little bit of help offensively.  So if Beane uses some of that money this offseason to sign a bat and maybe trade for another one using a chip like Henry Rodriguez than the team could be much better than people will think in 2009.

That's the beauty (and sometimes curse) of having great pitching.  It's that you realize that the team doesn't need that much offensively to be a good team.  So while it seems like this current crop of players the A's are running out there are painfully inept, fear not because you can't keep a good organization down.

The A's will prove that in 2009.  Mark that down now because it's about all we have to help us survive the rest of what will be an ugly remainder of 2008.

Next Thursday I'll be going to see my first ever professional soccer match.  It will be the LA Galaxy against Chivas USA at Home Depot Center.  I've become quite a Galaxy fan since they're the local club and they've got such a fascinating group of players.  Although their defense is crap and their goalie is one of the most indecisive goalkeepers I've ever seen in a soccer match.  He can never make up his mind to charge or not.  Maybe he doesn't trust his defense, but it just looks awkward quite often.

Any way, I'm quite pumped to see Becks, Donovan and Buddle live.  I even picked up a Galaxy jersey for the occasion. 

Anyone got any tips about what to expect?  It's technically an away game for the Galaxy in their home stadium so I expect quite a few Galaxy fans there as well.  I don't expect it to be Premier League football, but I'm hoping to see a good match despite the Galaxy's terrible struggles lately.