The Downfall of the Mad Hatter

"I’ve given up, honey please admit it’s over"

- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Scott Hatteberg had some great times while with the A's: his game winning homer to clinch the 20th game of "The Streak," carrying the A's in April 2003 with a Player of the Week award, etc.

However, there have been bad times like the error-filled game in 2003 at the Metrodome, or his ran-down slump in September last year. And this year is no exception. Throught his career, Hatteberg was known for his walks, doubles, ocassional homer, and his eye; these are the qualities that have allowed Beane to look past the fact that he did not hit the typical amount of homers from first-basemen.

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	AB/2B	AB/HR	BB/PA	AB/HattyXBH	#P/PA
1995	Bos	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0	5.5
1996	Bos	10	11	1	0	3	11.000	0	0.214	11.000	5.07
1997	Bos	114	350	23	10	40	15.217	35.000	0.102	10.606	4.09
1998	Bos	112	359	23	12	43	15.609	29.917	0.105	10.257	3.95
1999	Bos	30	80	5	1	18	16.000	80.000	0.180	13.333	3.93
2000	Bos	92	230	15	8	38	15.333	28.750	0.141	10.000	4.22
2001	Bos	94	278	19	3	33	14.632	92.667	0.104	12.636	4.09
2002	Oak	136	492	22	15	68	22.364	32.800	0.120	13.297	4.15
2003	Oak	147	541	34	12	66	15.912	45.083	0.107	11.761	3.98
2004	Oak	152	550	30	15	72	18.333	36.667	0.113	12.222	4
2005	Oak	98	339	15	5	37	22.600	67.800	0.097	16.950	3.86

Noticiable from this year is that he is seeing the fewest pitches per plate appearance and his AB to Hatty XBH( 2B+HR ) ratio is the lowest of his career.

Entering into the Minnesota series, he had this line: .280/.358/.373. Hatteberg would play all 4 games against Minnesota, facing two great starters and two mediocre ones:

	AB	RUN	H	BB	SO	LOB	Notes
Johan Santana	3	0	1	0	0	0
Joe Mays	3	0	0	0	0	1
Carlos Silva	3	0	0	0	0	0
Kyle Lohse	2	0	1	0	0	1	GDIP

Before the first game of the next series in Kansas City, Hatty had a right-oblique strain when hitting batting practice. He sat out for the entire series and on Tuesday of last week, he had a set-back:

But Manager Ken Macha said Hatteberg took early batting practice Tuesday and "didn't hurt himself. I consider that quite a hurdle to pass."

But after hitting in the regular batting-practice session, Hatteberg was pulled from the lineup and Adam Melhuse was inserted as the D.H.

He would miss the Angels series and the first game of the following series against Minnesota.

From last Saturday to yesterday, he has 1 hit, 1 walk, and 1 SO swinging in 14 ab's. While his recent slide may be attributed to his injury, lets look at some numbers. As I stated earlier, Hatteberg had .280/.358/.373 on July 31st of this year; last year, a career year, he had this: .292/.372/.449. Even in 2003, an injury ridden year for him where he hurt his Achilles, ankle and back, he was .267/.351/.398 after July 31st. That's 25 MORE points on his SLG then this year.

Until recently, Macha was placing him in the fifth spot behind Chavez. However, with the emergence of Dan Johnson, Hatteberg has started in the 6th spot or lower. There may be the slight hope that Hatteberg increases his double rate, but that is really pushing it. Beane may want to keep Hatteberg in there for the rest of the month to see if Hatty can turn it around but to me, and a lot of other fans, his age, coupled with his performance this year say he's done as a regular starter. He's 35 and the fact is that he has a catcher's bat posing as a DH.

This raises the question of what is Plan B...