This and That

The day after the loss, there have been a few grumbles from the players about their situations and the state of the club that were detailed in today's Knight Ridder papers.


Among them:

• Byrnes said that if he had the chance to do the dive again, he would because that's how he plays, all out. I can understand the fact that if he catches the ball the A's are out of the inning, but if he doesn't the A's are down by more runs AND they still have to get out of the inning. If he had played it on the bounce, the A's would have been down by 2 runs at the most with Rincon ready in the pen. At that late stage in the game, you have to minimize the damage and in that case, a dive was not the answer. And of course, Byrnes was benched after that play but there was no mention in today's papers that the play was the reason for being benched. Because if it wasn't, why did Macha decide to keep him out there for one more defensive inning before being pinch hit for?

• Apparently Melhuse has lost confidence in Macha about playing time after reading an online site that led him to distrust Macha. As you may or may not know, there have been numerous occasions where Macha has said one thing about a player and then a week later said another. Frankly, I wouldn't trust Macha at all; his personal skills aren't the best.

• Yabu was asked about facing Ichiro and he replied: "If I come in to face him, it means the Athletics will be behind by several runs," followed with "I don't think I'll have the opportunity to face him." I think it's pretty obvious that Yabu isn't happy with his usage and so far I can't blame him; he has been in only 3 games for the Athletics and has been charged with 1 earned run. Plus, his velocity has improved from spring training.

Frankly, I am surprised that there weren't more players complaining to the media about their respective situations. With Nomar being placed on the DL and isn't expected to return until 2-3 month or longer, the A's should jump at the chance to trade either Ellis or Scutaro as Ginter has no trade value and when Crosby returns in late May, there will be three people rotating on one spot.