The Rubik™ Lineup

It does not need to be said Chavez is struggling right now; the problem is that if you expect him to come out of his shell, why must he be in a crucial spot in the lineup? Last year, Beane didn't keep Rhodes as closer when he was failing even though he had the background to be a reliable reliever.

Towards the end of April, Macha stated that moving Chavez out of the third spot would not happen because he would turn around...

Chavez, batting .188 overall and an MLB-worst 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position going into the day, went to Macha and said he'd be fine if Macha wanted to move down him down in the batting order. Macha declined.

As of yesterday, Chavez's numbers with runners in scoring position has him ranked with the third-worst batting average, second-worst OBP, and third-worst slugging percentage(.182/.217/.273, 16 RBI's) of all major leaguers with at least 50 plate appearances.

Of course, this is nothing more then a slump that is to be remedied by continuous failure according to Macha. The fact is that Chavez is not producing the runs that signing the largest contract in A's history calls for. Even Chavez himself feels that contract is mainly based on RBI production; last year on an ESPN Sunday Night Telecast, Chavez told Joe Morgan that he would like to hit for a higher average but that the club signed him in-order to drive in the runs and anything else was just extra. As of right now, that contract is somewhat far from being honored.

So what is a team to do in this situation? Before yesterday's first inning thumping by the Devil Rays, the A's had a player-meeting and afterwards, they submitted a lineup to Macha; according to Ken Korach, Kendall was leading off, Kotsay was batting third and Chavez was forth. After reading the lineup, Macha said that he would not be using this lineup. His rejection of the lineup is pure irony to the phrase he loves to use: "The players write the lineups." This was one time where the players' pens seemingly have run out of ink...

The main issue here is that the A's continue to string out guys in positions where they are causing damage to the flow of the lineup. Having Hatteberg bat in the forth spot is not a great idea. He has a slugging percentage of .379 which is not bad compared to the current A's lineup but it is 41 points lower then last year which was pretty much a career year as he played in a career-high games as well as the most at-bats. And of course, Macha continues to gloss over the fact that Kielty has been a pretty good run producer compared to the rest of the lineup:

	G	AB	RBI	BB	OBP	SLG	OPS	PA:RBI
Bobby Kielty	31	102	17	16	0.403	0.422	0.825	6.941
Mark Kotsay	45	184	22	15	0.343	0.380	0.724	9.045
Eric Chavez	46	182	20	14	0.271	0.313	0.585	9.800
S. Hatteberg	44	165	18	14	0.339	0.370	0.708	9.944
E. Durazo	41	152	16	14	0.305	0.368	0.674	10.375
Eric Byrnes	36	120	11	9	0.333	0.408	0.742	11.727
Marco Scutaro	44	135	13	18	0.340	0.378	0.718	11.769
Jason Kendall	43	165	15	15	0.321	0.291	0.612	12.000
Mark Ellis	34	109	7	11	0.350	0.358	0.708	17.143

Macha's insistence for Chavez and others to continually bat in situations where they shouldn't be in boggles the mind. Looking at the top 6 players in the lineup, each player have 40 PA's where they have posted better numbers then the normal lineup used.

	OPS	PA
Mark Kotsay	0.724	201
Jason Kendall	0.582	129
Eric Chavez	0.570	150
Erubiel Durazo	0.666	84
Bobby Kielty	0.829	87
Scott Hatteberg	0.762	58
	OPS	PA	dL-OPS	dP-OPS
Mark Kotsay	0.724	201	0.000	0.000
Eric Byrnes	0.961	48	0.379	NA
Jason Kendall	0.659	51	0.089	0.077
Eric Chavez	0.641	47	-0.025	0.071
Bobby Kielty	0.829	89	0.000	0.000
Scott Hatteberg	0.762	56	0.000	0.000

How can Beane allow his so-called "puppet" to approach the lineup situation in a nonchalant manner? Hopefully Beane realizes that the old cliche' of having a lineup full of "6th and 7th place hitters" is far too applicable to this team.

Update

As you have heard, the A's are going to call-up Dan Johnson and most likely place Erubiel Durazo on the DL with a sore elbow. According to trainer Larry Davis, Durazo injured his elbow while he was warming up for his start at first base on Sunday. This information coincides with an Oakland Tribune article where infield coach Ron Washington called-out Durazo for his lack of effort when it comes to defensive drills.

While Durazo is at fault for lax effort, the A's haven't exactly instilled the idea of him being a first-baseman. Last year, he made two starts at first and they were during interleague series in which he made errors in both. Afterwards, the A's had been reluctant to have Durazo spell Hatteberg at first. The A's had been griping to him in the past about his hitting abilities and that they wanted him to focus on that area. If the A's wanted him to be able to play defense, they should have taken a different approach towards his abilities at the onset of his arrival.

As for site updates, I have three or so blog posts in the queue with regards to the A's recent play and player movement; I hope to get those out over this weekend starting later today. And I bet those Byrnes foul/pop-outs are driving you nuts; hopefully I can get something gathered on that.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Britt Reames has been called up from Triple-A Sacramento and Swisher has been activated from the DL. As result, Jermaine Clark has been designated for assignment, twice in as many weeks, and Matt Watson has been optioned to Sacramento. This is all found in today's Rivercats gameday notes.

It is highly unlikely that the A's are able to retain Clark for he has been called up and sent down twice and given the human condition, Clark will most likely decline a minor league assignment and sign somewhere else as a free agent. Apparently this also mean that Watson had one more minor league option then previously thought and so the A's decided to use an option on him instead of sending down Charles Thomas who has had 0:3 PA/game ratio in the past 7 days. Is it because Beane doesn't want a player he acquired for Tim Hudson to be demoted to the minor leagues? In the words of Robert Buan: "You said it man, not me..."

That leaves Scutaro as the final piece for Crosby's return. He does have another minor-league option but the problem is that he may lose trade-value to be in the minors; Scutaro should be traded to fill the minors' pitching dearth.

The sad part in all of this was that Watson was serviceable unlike Thomas, which is not a knock on Thomas just that he needs to get constant ab's in order for him to get his swing back. This also means that Byrnes will be showcased and hopefully a great night tonight will expedite his departure.

Deep-frayed arm

A few days ago, Dotel went to Dr. Lewis Yocum, a leading elbow specialist, in regards to the extreme pain that made him unavailable Tuesday night. On Friday, Dotel was back with the club and spoke to the beat-writers about his elbow injury.

"I even asked if maybe there was a little operation he(Yocum) could do to make [rehab] go faster, because I just want to take care of this now. But he said if he went in there, he'd have to replace the whole ligament."

However, the situation got interesting this evening as Gammons' new article contains this snippet:

Under normal circumstances, Octavio Dotel would not have been disabled with calcification in his elbow. But the plague that has descended on the A's required they get as many healthy bodies on the roster as possible.

The issue is two-fold:

1. Why would the A's decide to put Dotel on the DL and not callup another reliever? Reames would have been a serviceable addition to the pen and would not have required the A's to remove Saarloos from the rotation. By calling up Clark, all that is fulfilled is the team's healthy-body quota.


2. When Yocum told him that if surgery was to be done, he would have to replace the entire ligament; that procedure would be Tommy-John Surgery which deals with the ulnar collateral ligament. Calcification in the elbow is known as bone spurs and coupled with Yocum's opinion on surgery, this means that the ligament must contain spurs. According to a report conducted by Dr. James Andrews, "Heterotopic calcification in the ulnar collateral ligament may be associated with ulnar collateral ligament injury and tear."

From this point forward, the A's must feel that if they are to get anything for their injured reliever, they must leak out to the known media pawn that there is nothing wrong with Dotel and that in normal circumstances he would be on the club and given some down-time. For the real truth could be that the A's know Dotel's injury is much more serious then a case of bone-spurs that most pitchers have; rather, it's an issue of when his elbow will explode and how soon can they get a return on their purchase...

UPDATE: Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll has comfirmed the issue of Dotel's elbow and reached a similar conclusion.

Seeing the forest for the trees

In the top of the 8th, against Giants closer, righty Tyler Walker, Macha declined to put the runners on first and second in motion. This inaction prevented Alfonzo from covering bag, which would have created a hole for Kendall to pull the ball through. Either Alfonzo decides to stay in the hole or he decides to cover the bag in case of a throw; as Walker is right-handed, a throw-out at third is a possibility.

Of course, Kendall pulls the ball towards Alfonzo who was playing to cover the hole, not for a possible tag-play if the runner at second decided to break. However, he was close enough to the bag where he could force-out the runner coming to third but could not get Kendall at first.

In this situation, the threat of a stolen base is just as good as the act itself; had the A's started the runners earlier in the AB, there may have been more focus from the pitcher on the batter and the defense on the runners. Doing this would cause the pitcher to be around the plate for a possible strike-out/throw out play.

There was also Macha's mismanagement of the bench; Felipe Alou had Matt Herges and Jason Christianson warming up to start the top of 7th, but once Christianson came in, Eyre started to warm-up in the bullpen. In the top of the 8th, Rincon's spot came up and as Alou went to Herges, Macha decided to go with Watson even though he had requested that the A's replace the Dl'ed Dotel's roster spot with the lefty-hitting Clark for reasons of "flexibility".

At this point, Alou went with Eyre and Macha countered with Scutaro. The problem here is that right after Herges was brought into the game, Alou had Walker, get up in case he was needed as early as the 8th. And with Kotsay due up next, Alou was not going to remove Eyre for Walker. So now when Byrnes comes up to bat, who is hitting .189/.277/.324 off right-handers, Alou goes with Walker. At this point, had Macha planned according to Alou's avaliable pitchers, he would have realized that in the 8th, Byrnes was going to get an AB which was the correct moment for Watson to hit.

Cruz Control

With the last pitching transaction being Rich Harden sent to the 15 day DL with starter Seth Etherton taking his place, the A's bullpen was constructed as such:

Keiichi Yabu

Seth Etherton

Justin Duchscherer

Juan Cruz

Huston Street

Octavio Dotel

Ricardo Rincon

Tim Harikkala

However, on Monday night, Yabu came in for Saarloos which was a surprise as earlier in the day, there was an article about Yabu making his first start in the Bigs. So that meant that Etherton would be replace Harden in the rotation.

Now going forward to last night(trippy), after the bullpen blew the game, Macha closed the door to his office to quickly gather his thoughts as he explains why his team lost it's tenth game out of eleven. So when he opened up, his first comment was that Dotel came to him and stated that his elbow was in extreme pain and so he was unavaliable. That made it 2 players who were unavailable by injuries, Duke and Dotel, 1 pitcher unavailable due to work in Yabu, and Etherton becoming a starter so the A's were left with Cruz, Rincon, Street, and Harikkala to get the final 12 outs of the game.

Macha's plan was to use Cruz until he could get close enough to Street to close it out. Cruz was able to get through 2 shaky innings until he got to the 8th when he was allowed to hit Jason Varitek, walk Bill Mueller, and walk Jay Payton. So now you have to be wondering, why didn't Macha replace Rincon after he hit Varitek? Well, Macha's explanation was since Bellhorn is worse as a right-handed batter, then a left-hander, that was the best opportunity to bring in Rincon.

Huh? It's a good idea to leave a guy, who before this game had been relegated to mop-up work, in to pitch for another inning and continue to let him pitch even after he hits a batter and walks two more? All of this with none out. So if one compares Bellhorn and Mueller's stats versus left-handers, we can understand Macha's "idea:"

	AB	H	2B	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG
Mueller	28	8	3	3	6	.286	.355	.393
Bellhorn	39	8	5	9	20	.205	.354	.333

In eleven fewer AB's, Mueller has a better avg but the same OBP and a higher slg percentage. So perhaps it was best to leave Cruz in there for one more batter. If you were to place anyone else in there, say Rincon, it would hurt regardless of the outcome because you would have to face at least 1 more batter and that would be Jay Payton. At that point, you could bring out Street for a 4 out save but then he may not be available if you need him the next day.

Before we delve into that issue, let's continue on with the way the inning unfolded. So now you have Payton at the plate and Cruz is still in the game; at this point if you are Ken Macha, you must be proactive in your ability to control the inning. If you leave Cruz out there, you are playing to the Red Sox advantage as Cruz is proving to be ineffective. So the best option would be to bring in Harikkala to to face Jay Payton; why you ask? Harikkala is a righty and as I will focus on in a soon-to-be-blogged post, he is a righty-specialist. All that matters now is that you know Payton is a righty, Harikkala is a righty, and that there is only one more OF on the bench and it's lefty Trot Nixon.

Now, the Boston manager, Tito Francona, has to make a decision on whether to leave Payton in the game to face the right-hander or to bring in Nixon; now Macha has backed Tito in a corner where he has to make the move as the inning is no-longer played on his terms. And in this situation, Macha has the upper-hand as Payton v. Harikkala is a smart move or Nixon v. Rincon is another move. As you can see from what Francona did, he left Bellhorn in the game to face Rincon solely based on the left-right matchup and not on the splits.

Had we lost the game in this manner, I would not have been made with Macha at all; he would have tried to use the rest of his bullpen in getting the final 6 outs of the ballgame and in my scenario, he would not have had to use Street until he was close enough to 4. But in the final result, he had to use Street anyways in an act of desperation in keeping the game close for his team to possibly win.

Ultimately, the problem with Macha is that he tries to squeeze water from rocks in the sense that he will ride the hot hand or he will try to get the most out of a reliever eventually setting them up for failure. While Macha may not have had the best of relieving corps possible, he had to make due which he did not. And it was shameful that he wasn't fired soon afterwards; If I failed to stop an accident from happening three times I know I would be. The boy from Pittsburgh should be so lucky...

Hatty being shopped

Providence Journal is reporting that the A's offered Hatteberg to the Red Sox but they had no interest as John Olerud was recently signed to a minor league deal.

The fact that the A's are shopping Hatty indicates that they want to bring up Johnson to replace him at first-base. Of course many an A's fan can tell you that Hatteberg's "fall of the face of the Earth" September should have been a sign for the A's to cut bait and bring up Dan Johnson.

I doubt that any team will be willing to take Hatty purely as a salary-dump unless there is a team that has a starting pitcher who could replace Saarloos spot in the rotation yet bump Blanton to the fifth spot. Or they could trade him to the Phillies for lefty reliever Rheal Cormier who makes the same amount as Hatty but fills a need for a second lefty in the bullpen. If you look at his stats, you can see that his home vs road splits are huge in difference. Later I'll look up his Lefty road splits to get a better idea on his abilities.

UPDATE: Here are his lefty road splits...

Date	Hits	Runs	ER	HR	BB	K	GO	FO	# of Pitches	# of Strikes	Batters Faced
4/11/2005	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	1
4/13/2005	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	5	2
4/24/2005	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	1
4/25/2005	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	10	6	2
4/27/2005	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	8	5	2
5/6/2005	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	1	1
	1	0	0	0	0	2	3	3	31	19	9

The issue here is that Cormier has had allowed fewer earned runs at home and better vs. righty batters that one has to wonder whether this year is an anomly as far as statistics are concerned. It should also be said that he has given up 13 more home runs at home compared to on the road in the last 3 years.

"Where there is much light, the shadow is deep" - von Goethe

A continuation of a previous post, there were interesting developments today in regards to what the A's may do.

Josh Suchon of the Oakland Tribune interviewed David Forst about the teams position on any trade...

As always, general manager Billy Beane is talking to other teams about possible trades, but assistant GM David Forst said nothing is imminent.
"It's hard for everybody to evaluate their team in May," Forst said. "The same is true for us. We're not exactly sure what we need."

So today, Beane and Macha had their second meeting in about a week's time where they discussed possible roster moves. According to this AP report, Dan Johnson's name was brought up in the meeting. That must mean that unlike last time, the doors that lead to Macha's office must have been open.

I'll be on the look-out for a possible Johnson pinch-runner/hitter move durring tonight's game.

UPDATE: Johnson was in the entire game... :(

Rotating Impact

With Harden very likely to go on the DL with a left oblique strain, the A's will be looking to callup someone either to replace him in the rotation or to replace a reliever who will step into the rotation. One option that is not available is minor league starter John Rheinecker as based on today's notes:

...Rheinecker initially scheduled to start in today’s game, is now scheduled to start Sunday’s game against New Orleans after having Tenosynovitis (in ammed tendon sheath) in his left middle finger.

So that would leave Etherton as the only real option from Triple A as a starter while Britt Reames is more likely as a replacement for any long relievers in the bullpen to step into the rotation.

"A hunter of shadows, himself a shade" - The Odyssey

On this off day with little news, I decided to go through the past week's articles with a fine toothcomb. After Monday's debacle, Susan Slusser reported that "assistant general manager David Forst said the team was considering 'any and all' options, including looking for help at the minor-league level." One would think that as he is Beane's underling, he would not deviate from the Boss's plan.

Of course, two days later, Beane tells Slusser that "We have some guys (in the minors) who are starting to hit well, but they're also in positions where we have guys who've been a major part of our club. We've got to keep perspective. The guys who are struggling do have a track record. I was talking to (manager Ken) Macha and we're not ready to do something irreversible."

So are we to believe that the A's have not been following the Rivercats as closely as A's fans? Are we to believe they didn't know that their top choice, Dan Johnson, is 1. a lefty hitter and 2. a first baseman/DH and that would prevent a platoon situation at either position?

What is known is that Forst was sent to Boston to stay with the club while Beane was back in Oakland. One could deduce that the A's were planning to make a trade and that by keeping Forst with the team, the A's would be able to have someone with the club inform the traded player the news. Or it could be that Forst was sent with the team to monitor the Calero situation; however, the A's did not know that Calero was going through elbow troubles, they only could see he was not pitching the way he was before he sat out of the 'pen. Harikkala did take a plane late Monday to be with the team but that was after Forst was in Boston so that idea can be removed.

Perhaps, and it wouldn't be a something novel, but the A's could have made a posturing move by having Forst in Boston with the other beat writers while the Boss could be back in the Bay Area to visit the minor league teams and be at the base of operations. Forst would then be able to deflect some questions while Beane works in the shadows...

Test of a franchise guy's "pull"

As you may have heard, the recent Jason Giambi minor league saga coupled with a return series back to Oakland has fueled speculation of Giambi returning to the A's franchise.

So when Eric "I got the franchise money" Chavez was asked by reporters yesterday whether having Giambi back was a good idea he responded:

"It would be ideal," said A's third baseman Eric Chavez, discussing the topic strictly hypothetically, in the event New York decides to part ways with Giambi. "It would be great. I would love that."

Chavez and Giambi are the best of friends and whenever the subject of Giambi comes up, Eric always has a loving comment about him. And as he is in a significant slump and maybe be faltering under the pressure of being the RBI guy, Chavez would be able to hide behind Giambi. But according to Bob Klapisch, Beane would not want Giambi back:

(registration required)The A's have "zero" interest in the embattled first baseman/DH, and have already made an internal decision not to pursue Giambi even if he were released by the Yankees

"There's no way, none, not even if he came for free," is how the executive measured the gulf between Giambi and his former employers.

So now the issue is whether this is something that Chavez really wants Giambi to return for the sense of mental security or if it is just a fleeting wish because of Giambi's current situation. Look for Beane to make some sort of statement if Chavez is pushing for Giambi.

Opinion: Trade Chavez?

The idea of trading the one player who, out of the myriad of other players whom have left the A's, was kept to a long-term contract may seem incredulous. This post is not meant to suggest what Beane would do, and not so much what I would like to see Beane do. It is meant to have fans discuss where they feel the future of the A's is going.

After thinking about the current A's overall situation, I propose this trade; it's a three-way trade where I think all parties have a fair piece of the pie. First off I want to talk about the other two teams' situations...

The Phillies are at the bottom of the NL East despite the emergence of right-handed pitcher Brett Myers. Jim Thome is out with a back injury and 3rd baseman David Bell has had problems with his back this year. Baseball America rated their top ten prospects in the beginning of the year and if one looks at the list, there is a a glaring absence: a 3rd bagger. As of right now, Placido Polanco is playing third as he won the arbitration game of chicken this past-offseason with a 4.6 Million dollar prize.

The Reds are in a horrible pitching situation as their top two pitching 2004/5 pitching acquisitions, Eric Milton and Ramon Ortiz, have been complete busts. Actually, bust is an understatement. As such, they currently have former A's pitcher Aaron Harrang as their best starter with none in the minors ready to make the leap as starters.

So I propose to you the reader, the following trade

The Phillies acquire Eric Chavez(cannot deny trade) for Brett Myers , Cole Hamels, and Placido Polanco

The Reds acquire Brett Myers and Joe Blanton for Adam Dunn

The A's acquire Adam Dunn, Cole Hamels, and Placido Polanco

Dunn is in his first year of arbitration so getting him as soon as possible allows the A's to allocated Chavez money to him for a long-term deal as well as replace Blanton with an equivalent, if not better, pitcher. Polanco buys the A's time as they look for a possible replacement for Chavez maybe even giving Polanco an extension.

The Phillies are able to shed Polanco's money from the payroll and are able to solidify third-base for 6 more years allowing them to focus their attention on other issues and are able to use Ryan Howard as bait for a pitcher to replace Myers. As for Chavez, he is able to relax in a lineup where he is not being counted on as the franchise player.

The wildcard here is the Reds; they have to make a decision on whether to try to pay Dunn money to keep him in Cincinnati despite the fact that he may not play on a contender or they can trade him for two pitchers who they wouldn't be able to compete for on the free-agent market. By getting these two pitchers, they can move Harang, lefties Brandon Claussen, and Eric Milton further down in their rotation giving them a much more solid 1-5 rotation.

All three teams are at a crossroad when it comes to the future of their respective franchises. The A's are trying to create a new image after the breakup of the Big Three, the Phillies are desperate turn their lackadaisical lineup into the contender they expected, and the Reds are able to start a new with a solid rotation and the money to allocate their top players Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Peña. It may be a crazy idea or it may just be the type of deal that works out for all parties.

Calero to DL

As a part of the Daily Paper Derby, Knight Ridder A's reporter Joe Roderick is making his bid to challenge Susan Slusser and Mychael Urban with this newsworthy note:

"He came in and said he can't pitch," Davis said. "There's no argument you can make to that."

When asked if the D.L. was a possibility, Davis said, "That's the plan right now."

The question is now, who do the A's callup from Triple A? Do they decide to go with a hitter for the sputtering offense or do they callup a pitcher like John Rheneicker who is currently having a phenomenal season? Or do they do both by sending down Clark or Thomas? Should make for an interesting two days...

UPDATE: The A's selected Tim Harikkala from the Rivercats and optioned Adam Morrisey for assignment.

Opinion: When is enough, enough?

History lesson: In 2002/2003 offseason, the Marlins franchise was purchased by the Montreal Expos owner, Jeffrey Loria. A trait shared by most new MLB owners they like to make their marks on their franchises. So when the Marlins had the mark of 18-24 on May 10th, 2003, after breaking a 6 game-losing streak, Loria fired manager Jeff Torborg and hired former A's skipper Jack McKeon. Of course afterwards, the Marlins won the World Series...

So when does Wolff/Beane pull the ol' "enough is enough" cliche' out of their collective bags and decide to make radical changes? While it is entirely possible that the A's make a move during this Boston series, the A's may will make a move when they comeback to the Bay Area on Thursday. While some may point to the fact that the A's "are playing for 2006, not '05," the fact is that Beane hates to lose. If one refers to the chapter "The Trading Desk" from Moneyball, there is the story of Jeremy Giambi's trade and how Beane went stir-crazy and decided that even though he was his experiment, he would get rid of him because he was a detriment to the team; that was when the A's were 19-25. I have to believe that as much of a competitor that Beane is, he would make a move to shake up this team. The problem is that the offense, the one thing that was to carry over from last year, is the deficient aspect of this team. Had it been the pitching, I could understand the way this team is playing, but that is not the case.

Hudgens is not going anywhere

If you happen to read Slusser's Monday article(Slusser and Urban are becoming top A's writers BTW), the situation regarding hitting coach Dave Hudgens' job security is satisfied, for now...

One thing the club will not do, though, is affix blame to hitting coach Dave Hudgens. Forst emphatically echoed GM Billy Beane's statements of last week, in which Beane said that Hudgens is not the problem, by pointing around the clubhouse and saying, "These guys have to get it done, not Hudge.''

The thing that A's fans should realize with Hudgens is that he is the A's version of a loyal Rick Peterson. Peterson was a pitching coach who was ahead of his time using revolutionary ideas such as pitching with your eyes close and traveling to Dr. Andrews', creator of "Tommy John" surgical procedure, Biometrics lab in Alabama. But when it came to ego, he was a very confrontational person as illustrated in Mychael Urban's book, ACES.

However with Hudgens, he has been with the club for about 16 years and as a result his teachings have he permeated through-out the A's organization as illustrated by this screen-cap:

Hudgens, like Peterson, has spent time to create his own brand of "scientific applications" for hitting such as the Juggle Stick and the Vision Beads. Because of that, the A's feel as if they have an upper-hand to other teams by having a hitting coach who thinks "out of the box." And when you think about this, it's a quality that the A's look for with Beane at helm as evident by hiring staticians.

Semi-OT: Trouble brewing in Cincy?

In late April, Cincinnati's right-fielder Wily Mo Peña went down with an injury; instead of being replaced with Austin Kearns, second-baseman Ryan Freel was moved to right, SS Feilpe Lopez moved to 2nd and veteran Rich Aurilia played SS. Since then, Aurilia has essentially replaced Kearns in the lineup which is something that Kearns was not too happy about as he was considered to be the highest on the OF depth chart out of Spring Training.

Well this weekend Kearns had a smokin' series against the Dodgers with 2 2-run homers. To his amazement, he was not in the starting lineup for Sunday's game. Consequently, he spoke out about his current issues with playing time to the media:

Kearns was pulled from Saturday's game shortly after the homer as part of a double-switch. And when he reported to work Sunday afternoon, Kearns was frustrated to find his name out of the lineup once again. Asked if he ever knows what to expect when scoping out the lineup, Kearns just shook his head.

"I sure don't," he said with a sigh.

While this in itself does not make for controversy, today's Yahoo edition of Ken Rosenthal's Inside Dish has a take on Kearns:

The Braves remain interested in Reds OF Austin Kearns, who also is on the Royals' and Nationals' wish lists. The Reds, however, don't want to trade Kearns until he increases his value to the point where they will get a quality pitcher in return. The Braves' first move likely will be to promote OF Kelly Johnson, a left-handed hitter who has batted .321 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 106 at-bats at Class AAA. . . .

So while it looks like the A's may not be interested according to Rosenthal, if they were to inquire on Kearns, they may have the best chips out of the three teams as Atlanta is the team with the top minor league talent and they will not part with their two top prospects, pitcher Kyle Davies or 3rd bagger Andy Marte for Kearns. There is also the question of how much weight a player creates when he demands a trade as that could diminish the team's ability to demand top quality. Then there is the issue of health regarding Kearns and the fact that he is being benched for the .216/.247/.386-hitting Aurilia.

Moves soon to be made?

Susan Slusser has scooped out the other writers, so far, on the issue of possible player moves the A's may make after their second straight shutout.

It's possible they'll do it with an addition from Triple-A Sacramento. After Oakland's second shutout in two days, a 6-0 loss to the Yankees, assistant general manager David Forst said the team was considering "any and all'' options, including looking for help at the minor-league level.

"We need to get the offense going,'' Forst said flatly. The A's 108 runs are the fewest in the league.

The problem is that as of right now, there isn't much indication that a player is coming from the minors as the Rivercats game was played earlier in the day so there is no need to remove a called-up player. As it is early in the season, a call-up is more likely then a trade simply because Beane is backed into a corner where he has to make a move. Then again, he didn't have to give up much for Dotel when the 2004 relievers couldn't close out games.

Now the question becomes which player or players get released.

Extra Crispy redux

I decided that it was important to go over two major issues of the Sanders talk:

1. There are too many sources confirming the A's interest in Sanders for it not to be true. So it is a given that there is some interest in acquiring him.

2. Sanders has played in the NL his entire career; while this may seem trivial with the invention of interleague play, let's look at some players who played at least 5 years in one league before switching to another:

Ken Griffey:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
1999	606	123	173	26	3	48	134	91	108	.285	.384	.576	.960
Apr. 00	92	14	20	1	0	7	24	18	23	.217	.333	.475	.790

Carlos Beltran:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
June 04	99	23	33	7	0	6	19	13	13	.333	.421	.586	1.007
July 04	102	16	24	6	1	9	23	13	17	.235	.322	.578	.900

Mark Kotsay:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2003	482	64	128	28	4	7	38	56	82	.266	.343	.384	.727
Apr. 04	86	8	22	3	0	0	5	7	14	.256	.316	.291	.607

Ray Durham:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2002	564	114	163	34	6	15	70	73	93	.289	.374	.450	.824
Apr. 03	71	12	20	3	1	2	4	14	15	.282	.395	.437	.832

Gary Sheffield:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2003	576	126	190	37	2	39	132	86	55	.330	.419	.604	1.023
Apr. 04	75	11	20	5	0	1	12	11	10	.267	.368	.373	.741

Vladimir Guerrero:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2003	394	71	130	20	3	25	79	63	53	.330	.426	.586	1.012
Apr. 04	92	17	30	7	0	6	15	6	10	.326	.374	.598	1.021

Jason Kendall:

Time	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2004	574	86	183	32	0	3	51	60	41	.319	.399	.390	.789
Apr. 05	89	10	23	3	0	0	11	9	12	.258	.333	.292	.625

As you can tell, not many players were able to avoid an adjustment period durring the first month of playing in the new league. I hope to get some more players to futher the sample size but I would venture to say that most often than not, players who switch leagues have to go through some adjustment. The question is, if a player is currently having a sub-par season, how much higher is the adjustment curve?

Colonel Sanders' - Secret Recipe?

Hmm, how 'bout a nice bucket of genetically-engineered fried chicken?

Kidding aside, an A's fan posted on AN that WGN Radio in Chicago reported the Cardinals are working with the A's in a trade to move left-fielder Reggie Sanders for Eric Byrnes and a minor leaguer. So then yesterday, BP's Will Carroll said the following in his "Under the Knife article:

Larry Walker is dealing with a sore groin and while it isn't serious, the fragile Walker is being held out as a precaution. There's some talk about a Cards/A's trade in the works, but no one with any credibility has scared anything up"

Finally, Mychael Urban(is he making a name for himself or what?!) has addressed the rumor:

According to a credible out-of-town source whose information was substantiated by a National League scout, there have been talks about Eric Byrnes and a low-level prospect being sent to St. Louis for Reggie Sanders.

Once you move past the fact that Urban lists a 10-batter lineup, the only reason why I think a minor leaguer is involved is so that the Cardinals can cover the rest of Sanders' contract.

Now, why would we go for a guy who has never played in the AL and who is not much of an improvement over Byrnes as far as production is concerned right now? As Kotsay in 2004 and Kendall this year have shown, there is an adjustment period from the National League. So not only would Sanders have to break out of his current slump, he would have to adjust on the fly. Oh and there's that little problem of him being up their in age as he would become the oldest player on the A's roster.

However, there is another twist to this story; with the Yankees hitting the panic button in putting Tony Womack in left-field, who's to say that they wouldn't take Sanders in left-field? While this is far from a confirmed rumor, according to someone from within the Clippers FO, (not those Clippers, these Clippers) , the Yankees are apparently talking to the Reds over a deal where they would get Austin Kearns for pitcher Chien-Ming Wang and second-base prospect Robinson Cano. Austin Kearns is known as a corner-outfielder so there goes the idea that Matsui would move back to left-field.

One has to wonder that if this deal has legs to it whether a four-way trade could occur where the A's get Kearns and the Yankees get Sanders. Seeing as how Sanders was a part of the magical 2001 World Champion D-Backs squad, Reggie has a name that the Boss would override any collection of average stats Sanders has. With the A's going to Yankee Stadium, it's possible some players may be show-cased for a trade.

One door closes, another one opens

Mychael Urban had a major scoop from last night as he was the only one to accurately describe the closed-door meeting as one between Macha and Beane.

Macha would not provide any details on what was discussed. "That's an
internal matter," he said."

This could have been about a numerous amount of issues that surround the A's on and off the field, but if one was to read into the current articles about the buzz surrounding hitting coach Dave Hudgins, Macha may have been saving the bad news for a face-to-face with Dave instead of him reading it in the paper that his job security is on very shaky ground. Of course, Macha has been known to rip a player in the papers, Piatt and Byrnes for instance, but on the other hand, he may feel that keeping respect amongst his peers is important if he is to stick around in baseball.

Today, Urban was able to talk to Beane about the current situation with the club and while he did not bring up the meeting, he did get this nugget:

"We really need the middle of the lineup to produce," Beane said.

Beane has always been known to have quippy remarks so the bluntness of his remark is due to the sorry state of the A's hitting may lead some to speculate that if the heart of the lineup does not produce, some action will take place in order for them to produce, such as firing a hitting coach.

Last year, the A's were 10-9 and went into Yankee Stadium therby waking the slumping Yankees and were swept in three games. This time, the A's are 13-15 and will see them return to another slumping Yankee team...

Swisher to DL, Clark called up

The A's have placed Swisher on the 15 day DL with an AC Joint Sprain and have called up IF/OF Jermaine Clark from the Rivercats.

Well what does a guy like Watson have to do to get called up? He is second among the Rivercats in OBP(.377) while Clark has an OBP of .354; here are Watson and Clark's respective career minor league numbers:

Games	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	BB:K
850	2966	.290	.384	.415	.799	.9
575	2087	.305	.378	.461	.839	.9

The problem here is that Clark makes the already muddled infielding situation a bit more complex as he will almost certainly see some time in the infield. This is the main problem with this callup; as Watson would be play RF and possibly 1ST, there is no interference in getting the three infielders ab's so they can up their trade value, especially Ginter. There are rumors that he may be traded but the problem there is that at his current value, you are only going to get perceived value based on past performance. And seeing as how Clark does not need to build trade value, having him in the infield does not make any sense at all.

UPDATE: Here is EIO's well-written take on the dumb move.