Byrnes can't cut it

Sure he won Thursday's game, but to think that he should be left in when defensive changes were made Friday is silly at best. In the top of the 10th, Thomas pinch-hit for Hatteberg and in the bottom of the inning, Swisher was moved to 1st and Thomas moved to Right. While Macha had the right idea of defense, he left Byrnes in the game.

So when Gathright hit a fly ball to the warning track, Byrnes didn't, as usually, get the best read on the ball and had to play the ball of the wall. Had Thomas been in Left with Kielty in right, that ball would have been caught. Bobby Cox has seen a ton of great left-fielders, just in his days with the Braves alone, and when he says that Thomas is the best left-fielder he has ever seen, you have to realize that keeping Byrnes in left is a liability.

The A's need the Pirates to hit some offensive woes in order to try to pry Snell from them for Byrnes. Getting Snell would make the pitching depth huge when it comes to keeping Zito.