To say that everything went right for Milone last night was understating how right everything went. The Royals were over-anxious (the changeup contributed), showed poor base running skills (though they had the right idea: to run on Suzuki), and hadn’t properly scouted Josh Reddick’s arm. Bourgeois led off the game with a double (off an 87 mph “heater”) then was thrown out at 3rd on a shallow fly to right. You can’t try to advance on most right fielders on a ball that shallow no matter how fast you are. So from no outs, runner in scoring position to 2 outs, bases empty. Bad, bad judgement.

Plus it was a chilly, windy night with high humidity (for the Bay Area) and the ball wasn’t carrying.

However, the A’s defense isn’t as bad as is being portrayed. Daric Barton is back at 1st. He made 2 outstanding plays, and he has a steadying influence on the younger fielders like Weeks and Donaldson (ie, he catches a lot of their off-line throws). The A’s outfield is actually good. Crisp is an average center fielder playing left, so he looks good there defensively. Cespedes looks to be average range wise in center with a plus arm, and Reddick is average with a plus-plus arm. But these guys don’t drop or boot things around in the outfield. So overall, the A’s outfield rates above-average (they aren’t the Rays, with Upton, Jennings, and Zobrist).

So prediction for Milone: pitching early in the year at the Mausoleum he’ll be effective. Later, as it heats up, he’ll look more like a 3rd starter, with less consistency. On the road he’ll be inconsistent, and the better Eastern teams will eat him alive. Overall, an ERA around 4.00, slightly above, with weak peripherals.