James Venes

The past couple months have been mostly taken up by finalizing a home purchase and moving and I’m getting settled in enough that I can go back out and do some games. Shooting a lot of stuff in Sacramento and Stockton is nice when I’m only about 20 minutes from Sacramento and 40 minutes from Stockton compared to about two hours and one hour respectively, depending on traffic.

I got back out to Sacramento on the 11th then did a game in Stockton on the 17th followed by another in Sacramento the next night as I work on getting more used to night games. After covering the first game I started thinking more about getting a little extra zoom. Before I got the new camera and lens for it, I’d been using one that went up to 300mm but the problem was its aperture settings were nowhere near good enough to shoot at night (about f5.6 when at full zoom). Now I have one that’s f2.8 but it’s only 200mm and I’ve been noticing it’s not quite enough for me when it comes to cropping to a larger part of the image for a better-looking result.

I started looking at 300-400mm lenses with f2.8 but they’re definitely expensive. Rather than plunking down a few thousand on one (I’ve been spending more than enough lately getting necessary items for the house) I decided to try a 1.4x teleconverter Nikon puts out. So far I’m pretty happy with it, though having to go down a full stop to f4.0 does make for some differences in how I can shoot once night sets in. It’s a fair tradeoff, though.

Before getting into the next bit of news, three galleries:

6/11/09: Tacoma Rainiers at Sacramento River Cats:  From Raley Field in Sacramento. The Rainiers won, 6-4. Brad Nelson tied the game with a 3-run homer in the 8th inning and two-out singles in the 9th by Mike Carp and Mike Morse was enough to overcome an early 4-1 deficit. Travis Buck hit a solo homer and had a sacrifice fly and Danny Putnam had a 2-run homer to account for Sacramento’s runs. Andrew Baldwin went 7 innings for Tacoma and pitched well aside from the homers while James Simmons worked 5 for the River Cats before leaving with tightness in his back.

6/17/09: Modesto Nuts at Stockton Ports:  From Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton. The Nuts won, 6-2. Connor Graham pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings for the win, allowing just 4 hits while walking 4 and striking out 7. Tyson Ross was undone by a 5-run 6th, giving up 6 runs on 9 hits with a walk and 4 strikeouts in 5 1/3. Home runs were hit by Modesto’s Jay Cox and Stockton’s Jemile Weeks, who has at least one hit in all 18 games so far this season. Brian Rike drove in 3 of Modesto’s 6 runs.

6/18/09: Salt Lake Bees at Sacramento River Cats:  From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 9-0. Cliff Pennington’s 3-run triple in the 7th broke open a 1-0 game and the River Cats scored a total of 8 runs in the last 2 innings to turn it into a blowout. Gio Gonzalez worked 5 1/3 innings, allowing just 4 hits and a walk while striking out 10. Dan Denham pitched 6+ for the Bees but left with the bases loaded before the bullpen failed to limit the damage. Eric Munson’s solo homer was the only run until late in the game. Pennington finished with 4 RBI while Travis Buck, Munson and Aaron Cunningham had 2 hits apiece for Sacramento. Brandon Wood was the only Salt Lake batter with multiple hits, also getting a pair.

Something else I’ve started playing around with are animated gifs. Of course they’re nothing like video with 30-60 frames per second, but with a camera that lets me shoot about 10 fps it can be fun messing around with throwing a sequence together and seeing how it comes out to get a better look at someone’s pitching motion or a stolen base.  Here are a few examples:

* Salt Lake’s Howie Kendrick tags out Sacramento’s Cliff Pennington
* Sacramento’s Gio Gonzalez from the first base side
* Sacramento’s Gio Gonzalez from behind the plate
* Salt Lake’s Dan Denham from the third base side
* Stockton’s Tyson Ross from the third base side

Some talk has surfaced among A’s fans about the delivery Ross has ever since he was drafted last year and just looking at one or two still shots doesn’t tell the story the same as a video or animation like this does. With the camera what it is, I can play around with things like this a lot more and turn it into another part of what I do.

As for the actual news, I’ve got credentials lined up for three minor league All-Star Games in the next month:

* June 23: High-A All-Star Game in Lake Elsinore, CA (California League vs. Carolina League)
* July 1: Double-A All-Star Game in Frisco, TX (Texas League North vs. Texas League South)
* July 15: Triple-A All-Star Game in Portland, OR (Pacific Coast League vs. International League)

The opportunity to cover a few of these is a good one, especially with the chance for some of the photos to see further exposure online and in print. It’s also just a lot of fun to be around things like this. I’ve been to both ballparks in Lake Elsinore and Portland but the one in Frisco will be a first and from everything I’ve seen it’s a beautiful ballpark. You’ll see what I mean. I’ll also be close enough to go watch a game or two in Arlington and knock one more MLB ballpark off my list. Midland (the Oakland affiliate in the Texas League) is too far to go to this time around but about 10 players from the team will be in the All-Star Game anyway.

The next month will be pretty busy but that’s just fine with me.

In a season that started out well for the Oakland A’s, one that has soured in the midst of a 10-game losing streak as part of a 2-19 slide since a win on July 11, it becomes important to look for some positives in the wake of all the negativity that can be found about the A’s offense, some of their pitching, etc.

One of the biggest positives is Brad Ziegler, holder of a Major League record.

On July 22 in Tampa Bay, Ziegler set the new American League record for scoreless innings to start a career when he passed Dave Ferriss, whose 22 innings stood since 1945. Ziegler didn’t pitch the next day and they had a day off before returning home for games against Texas and Kansas City. With the chance to see history made, albeit history even Ziegler initially thought was too obscure to really warrant all the attention, I decided to go to as many games in Oakland as it took to see it.

On July 25, he entered the game in the seventh with 2 out, a runner on second, and Ian Kinsler at the plate in a 5-5 game. Kinsler was the first hitter Ziegler faced in his debut at the end of May and he allowed a run-scoring single up the middle before picking Kinsler off. Unfortunately, Kinsler got him again with a liner to right that gave the Rangers the lead in a game they’d put away with 8 in the ninth after Ziegler worked a scoreless eighth, tying George McQuillan’s record of 25 inning, set in 1907.

While Ziegler allowed a run, it went into the books as an inherited runner scoring because it was not one he let get on base. Inherited runners is a stat many see as more important for relief pitchers than ERA because of the situations they’re often used in. For example, three of the first six runners Ziegler inherited scored. Since then, he’d been used a lot to start innings but there have been situations where the A’s needed a ground ball to get out of a jam and he delivered. Now, he’s only allowed four of eighteen inherited runners to score, just one of his last twelve. Looking at that, it’s evident how much he’s improved in that department.

Ziegler did not see action the next day, a 9-4 loss to Texas where an appearance was not necessary. On Sunday, July 27, it was. Entering the seventh, the A’s clung tightly to a 6-5 lead against a team that could erase it with one swing of the bat. Knowing that, the A’s sent Ziegler to the mound, someone who had not allowed a home run since converting to his sidearm delivery beginning in 2007. That run of success was not about to change, even facing three of this year’s All-Stars in Michael Young, Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley.

When he struck out Young looking on a slider that caught the outside corner, some fans, myself included, believed Ziegler had passed the record. We were wrong because of a rule that makes sense when you think about it. For this streak to fully count, Ziegler would have to finish the inning or be taken out without any runners he was responsible for scoring (here we return to the inherited runners thing). It goes back to “closing the book” on a pitcher’s line when they’re removed in the middle of an inning.

It didn’t matter. He struck out Hamilton swinging. Bradley singled. When Marlon Byrd hit a broken bat grounder third baseman Jack Hannahan charged and barehanded before throwing to first for the out, it was official: Ziegler’s streak had reached 26 innings and he was the holder of a new Major League record. He added another inning to the total in the eighth, capped off with a double play. With his help, the A’s held on to the lead and won.

During a post-game interview the always-humble Ziegler was quick to credit his teammates, saying, “You can’t say enough about my defense behind me. That play Hannahan made to end that seventh inning was unbelievable. Absolutely tremendous.” Talking about the success he’s had he explained, “I’m not going to strike a lot of guys out. To be able to get ground balls and rely on my defense, these guys have made plays all year.” He then added, “It gives a guy a lot of confidence knowing that when he gets ground balls guys are going to make plays behind him.”

The thing I remember most about being there to witness it is feeling so happy for him. I knew he tried to downplay the whole thing and just keep his focus on getting outs, but I hope since then he’s had the chance to take a little time to enjoy it. He laughed when he was asked about some things of his going to the Hall of Fame, glad that it wasn’t because he was involved with something embarrassing for him. As someone who’s met him and sent photos to him, there’s also a small personal connection that makes all of this even more special to me. Being able to work minor league games, I do get to meet some people and it makes following their careers more interesting. In this case, there is absolutely a rooting interest that goes beyond just hoping some random guy does well because he plays for your favorite team.

Moving on to the series with Kansas City, he didn’t pitch in either of the first two games. In the last one, he entered in the sixth after Sean Gallagher ran into trouble, allowing a go-ahead single: two on, none out. Ziegler’s job was to get out of the inning without things getting worse. He did so with a strikeout and a double play. In the seventh, a one out single was erased by another double play and the A’s tied it in their half of the inning. Then the A’s sent him out for another inning. A leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt left the Royals with a runner at second and one out. Alex Gordon was intentionally walked to set up the double play and Jose Guillen obliged. Three innings, three double plays (four dating back to his last inning against Texas). 30 scoreless innings. The A’s would lose in extra innings but Ziegler once again gave the team a chance to win.

Taking the show on the road, Ziegler pitched in three of the seven games in Boston and Toronto, adding five more innings to his total. In the process, he’s climbed the ladder of Oakland pitchers with scoreless streaks at any point in their career. He passed Rollie Fingers, Cory Lidle and Paul Lindblad, currently sitting at 35 innings. That’s also 10 more than McQuillan’s old one. Now, only starter Mike Torrez remains ahead of him among Oakland pitchers. That mark? 37 innings.

It’s a little premature to be thinking about Orel Hershiser’s 59 scoreless innings in 1988, but that record was set much faster. In Ziegler’s case, and with any relief pitcher, it’s a lot different. There are more appearances but it takes much longer for the innings to pile up. A starter can put up 35 scoreless innings in four games. That’s still very impressive, making what Hershiser did amazing. At the same time, doing this as a relief pitcher is also something special. Part of it has to do with getting out of jams. Another factor is when you let someone on base. Giving up a couple singles or walks with two out is much easier to get out of than doing it with nobody out. That’s just what Ziegler did yesterday. Two quick grounders, then two singles, then one more grounder to escape trouble.

While one mistake can end a streak at any time, Ziegler’s now appeared in 27 games without allowing a run charged to him, earned or not. He has faced 123 batters and of the 21 hits he’s allowed not one has gone for extra bases. 21 hits, all singles. He’s walked 9, 2 intentional, and struck out 15. Like he said, he’s not a strikeout pitcher. He’s also coaxed 11 double plays, a rate of nearly one every three innings, something that’s even more impressive when factoring in his WHIP of 0.86. He doesn’t allow many runners to reach base in the first place, but when he does (and when he enters the game with runners on) he’s been better than average at getting the double play.

Put all that together along with pitches that have great sink, a trajectory that’s much different than what hitters are used to seeing and, yes, no small amount of good timing and some luck and this is what you get. Of course Ziegler’s not going to go his whole career without being scored upon and there will probably come a time where he gives up a number of runs in a short period of time. Things have a way of balancing themselves out. However, what’s becoming clear is Ziegler has quickly proven he has the stuff to make it in the Major Leagues and do more than just hang around. His path has been filled with setbacks and some difficult decisions but he’s remained focused, determined, and has continued to keep the faith and believe he would one day make it. Now he’s being rewarded for all the hard work and perseverance.

A quick summary of his stats this year:

2008 MLB: 1-0, 0 SV, 0.00 ERA, 27 G, 35 IP, 21 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 15 K, 9 BB, 0.86 WHIP

2008 AAA: 2-0, 8 SV, 0.37 ERA, 19 G, 24.1 IP, 15 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 20 K, 4 BB, 0.78 WHIP

Total: 3-0, 8 SV, 0.15 ERA, 46 G, 59.1 IP, 36 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 35 K, 13 BB, 0.81 WHIP

A brief sidenote: so far in 2008, Argenis Reyes stands out because he’s the only batter keeping Ziegler from having an ERA of 0.00 for the entire season, Majors and Minors. On May 11 in New Orleans, he had a 2-out single in the bottom of the ninth to plate Victor Mendez and tie the game against Ziegler. Sacramento would still win that game in ten innings. The only other run he allowed was an unearned run on April 10 in Portland, coming on an error by the catcher.

This is all a lot to say about one person but when you look at what it’s taken for him to get here (outlined in my last entry) and what he’s done so far, it’s one of those things I want people to understand the significance of.

As for the photos, there are a number of them. I rented a lens that’s better for shooting night games before I went to the first one against Texas and I’ve also had the chance to use it at some Minor League games in Stockton, Sacramento and Fresno. Somewhere down the line I plan to get one like it and that will really expand my ability to cover more games instead of having to search for just day games based on the equipment I have now. All the same, I was glad to be able to see Ziegler set the Major League record during a day game because that meant I could get even better shots in the process by using the lens I already have thanks to being able to get closer with it (300mm compared to 200mm). All four games here:

7/25/08: Texas Rangers at Oakland A’s

7/26/08: Texas Rangers at Oakland A’s

7/27/08: Texas Rangers at Oakland A’s

7/30/08: Kansas City Royals at Oakland A’s

Added: Tonight, Ziegler picked up his first save in the Major Leagues with 2 more innings of scoreless baseball against the Detroit Tigers, ending the game with another double play. He has now tied the Oakland mark of 37 innings by Mike Torrez.

I love day games, especially when the weather is perfect, there’s a breeze, and the home team wins. I got all three yesterday but the last was in doubt until some late heroics helped the A’s to a 3-2 victory.

Greg Smith and R.A. Dickey matched up in this one and neither let a run cross the plate. The A’s bullpen surrendered a couple runs late in the game but the A’s used two solo homers by Jack Cust and pinch hitter Kurt Suzuki (whose came with 2 away) against Brandon Morrow to force extra innings, then Emil Brown ended it with his first walkoff homer in the bottom of the 11th.

In the midst of it all, Brad Ziegler threw another scoreless inning for the A’s, running his streak to 19 innings to begin his Major League career. He already set the Oakland record a few days ago but now he is 3 innings away from tying the American League mark held by Boston’s Dave Ferriss, who reached 22 innings in 1945. Here are just a few things that make this more special:

* he was let go by the Phillies organization a few years ago because they didn’t think he could make it and he was too old to be at such a low level (Low-A Batavia at the time)
* he was brought in by the A’s after a brief stint in the Independent League and pitched effectively as a starter, then he was approached with the idea of converting to a sidearm/submarine style before the start of the 2007 season and becoming a relief pitcher
* he has had two separate skull fractures from being hit in the head with a baseball. One was off the bat of Fred Lewis in the minors a few years ago while the other came in an accident in the off-season after a youth camp session (he was getting some throwing in and one of the kids that was talking to him reached in front of him for the ball, which deflected off the kid’s glove and hit him in the forehead)
* this season, in a combined 43 1/3 innings pitched in Triple-A and the Majors, he has allowed 1 earned run, good for an ERA of 0.21

So for him to not only reach the majors but pitch well enough to make it almost impossible to think of sending him back down, it’s really amazing. I’ve had the chance to talk to him a few times and he’s as nice a person as you could ask for. I guess there’s an extra sense of me pulling for him to succeed because of all that, plus I’ve had some contact with his family and sent prints to them with more going to him in the next few days. There’s definitely a personal rooting interest there.

For this game, I sat a few rows behind the first base dugout for most of it. Being closer than I was a couple weeks ago really helped, as did a change to the camera’s settings that got some higher-quality shots to work from (I’d used a normal setting before to make sure I’d have enough card space, but I realized I don’t need to worry about that). As a result, I think I got some of the best-looking shots of any game I’ve been to and I’m eager to see how much better I can do it with these settings in the minors.

7/10/08: Seattle Mariners at Oakland A’s

Well, sort of. No credentials yet of course, but I believe it will happen someday.

My first MLB game using the DSLR was close to one for the record books as Rich Harden flirted with perfection for just over half the game before a clean single by Philadelphia’s Shane Victorino ended the suspense. Victorino would get both hits against Harden, who walked a batter and struck out a career-high 11 over 8 innings. The A’s scored twice in the first then got a few insurance runs later, one of them courtesy of Carlos Gonzalez’s second home run in the bigs. Final: A’s 5, Phillies 0.

With me working so many minor league games in April and especially May, I just hadn’t gone out to an A’s game until now and to be honest part of the reason had to do with me not wanting to go back to using the old camera because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to bring the DSLR in. I’m just so accustomed to taking photos at a game, it’s hard to consider leaving the camera home. Of course, cost is a big part of it as well. It’s quite a difference to pay $50 for a seat around the infield compared to free field access in the minors when I cover a game there. I’m also used to much tighter restrictions at Warriors games, where they once told me my Panasonic Lumix was a “professional” camera and I couldn’t bring it in. I never saw whoever said it again and didn’t have any other problems using that camera, but I’m sure the DSLR is a different story.

I was happy to run into no issues taking my camera to the game. The A’s seem to be a lot more lenient about it with the general rule being “no commercial use, no tripod, and don’t block the views of others.” I can easily work with that but I probably need to sit a little closer to the plate next time because I found that I had to use all 300mm of my lens just to have the pitcher/batter in most of the frame and it often left just enough of a focus issue that I wasn’t satisfied with some of the results. I’m picky like that. It also led to me cropping some shots not as closely as I normally would.

Things came out a bit better around the mound but I ran into it again shooting past that around second and first. That’s one thing about all that foul territory at McAfee Coliseum – you’re far away from the field and it really shows when I’m shooting probably a good 100 feet away compared to half that or closer in a minor league ballpark with credentials. Still, I got some good results and I can build on that partially just by sitting somewhere else. I can compare this to past games I shot with the Panasonic and the difference is clear.

6/26/08: Philadelphia Phillies at Oakland A’s