Something's rotting...

In light of the second demotion of Keith Ginter and the first promotion of Freddie Bynum, I have decided to do some gamelog and stat scouring to explain my opinion on these events.

For the former, I think the A's dropped the ball, and for the latter, it's a pretty good move.

Keith Ginter was called up when Chavez had complaints of shoulder pain. He had been demoted about two weeks earlier when it seemed as if he could use the time in the minors to get his swing back.

But what other information is there to explain the decision? Well last year, Scutaro played 3rd along with Mark McLemore when Chavez was on the DL with his broken wrist. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that Ginter's experience at third was the deciding factor. However, let's compare their performance this year...

Ginter played how many games at third before being demoted? Just 1:
May 15th New York @ Oakland

• A-Rod grounded out to third


• Giambi popped out to third


• Sheffield grounded out to third


• T Martinez fouled out to third

Scutaro played how many games at third before Ginter was demoted? Just 1:
May 5th Texas @ Oakland

• No Chances in 1 inning

Since Ginter was recalled Ginter has had 3 errors in 20 chances since being recalled. Scutaro had no errors at third while playing in 5 games with 21 chances. With the limited amount of time for each, the A's based their decision on Ginter playing a great deal of third base in 2004 with the Brewers. But what about other options in the minor leagues?

On May 21st, the A's recalled Jermaine Clark for the second time. On the 28th, they designated him for assignment, for the second time, to make room for Britt Reames. On May 30th, they optioned Ginter to Sacramento. So when he was recalled on the 15th of June, only Ginter, Rouse, and Bynum were on 40 man roster. The decision was based on calling up a guy someone on the 40 man roster as opposed to dfa'ing another guy to get someone who wasn't on the 40 man like Clark or Bobby Smith or Andrew Beattie.

But we cannot rush to judgement as Clark was on the DL with a broken wrist; said as much on the Rivercats telelcast that weekend. But what about Smith or Beattie?

What happened here was that the A's did not have the foresight to let Clark stay on the roster; from the time they demoted Clark to when they demoted Ginter, Ginter had played in 1 out of 5 games. Why would it have been so hard to keep Clark and designated Harikkala for Reames? Harikkala was designated for assignment 4 days AFTER Ginter was called up; he made room for Ron Flores on the 40 man roster. But the decision to DFA Clark and not Harikkala was baseless as Macha was not going to use him as a righty specialist which was his strength. And from the point of the Reames decision to Harikkala's demotion, Harikkala pitched 5.2 innings consisting of 3, 1 inning appearances, so dependancy is not an issue here.

When the A's called up Reames, they must have wanted him as a long man because it just so happened that on his callup, he was needed to pitch in relief for Blanton who went 1/3rd of an inning against the Devil Rays. That can be the only reason why Harikkala and Reames did not switch places; the A's were going to need another arm in the pen. Ok, fine, you need a mediocre arm in the pen.

However, as Clark was dfa'd for the second time, they had to have realized that Bynum or Rouse were the next options to be called up in case there was a need with the big club. Why those two? Because the A's could have allowed Ginter to stay in triple A to get more swings then two weeks worth. The A's blew the chance to let Ginter build up value; But they are letting Cruz and Thomas build up value. Which says alot because Cruz and Thomas were recieved for Tim Hudson. In order for them to save face with the press over trading one of the Big Three, they need to make sure their trade investments improve, hence the reason why Kennedy was choosen over Cruz on last Saturday's start.

So let's look at a 13 minor league game stretch for Ginter and Thomas:

Ginter	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
5/31/2005	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	2	0.250
6/1/2005	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.250
6/2/2005	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.231
6/3/2005	4	0	2	2	0	0	3	0	0	0.294
6/4/2005	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0.238
6/5/2005	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.192
6/7/2005	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0.241
6/7/2005	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.219
6/9/2005	5	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.278
6/10/2005	3	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	2	0.282
6/11/2005	6	1	2	0	0	1	3	0	2	0.289
6/12/2005	4	2	4	3	0	0	2	0	0	0.347
6/13/2005	4	2	2	0	0	2	3	0	0	0.358

Thomas	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
6/11/2005	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.000
6/12/2005	4	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	0.200
6/13/2005	4	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	0.286
6/14/2005	5	2	3	1	0	0	2	0	0	0.368
6/15/2005	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	0.348
6/16/2005	3	1	3	1	0	1	2	1	0	0.423
6/17/2005	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.400
6/18/2005	5	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0.429
6/19/2005	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0.405
6/20/2005	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0.390
6/21/2005	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.364
6/22/2005	2	2	2	0	0	0	1	3	0	0.391
6/23/2005	5	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	0.392

Thomas did not deserve a promotion just like Ginter didn't either. They both just started to heat up, but eventually Thomas regressed.

They A's messed up big time and are very likely to have a negative net value when they trade Ginter in the offseason. If Clark or Smith have no future with the team, why not let them rot on the bench? And Clark would have been abled to play all three middle infield and all 3 outfield positions, unlike Ginter. Instead, they lost trade value by forcing Ginter to stay on the bench, all the while rotting away.

Rattling the Lumber

So the A's have gone off on a "Bunyan-esque" rampage since the return of Eric Chavez; that doesn't mean that they won't struggle against the soft-tossing Chen tonight, but it gives hope that Crosby is out of his slump.

When Crosby came back from his April rib injury, he was inserted into the third spot, allowing Chavez to get more comfortable in RBI situations. But after a torrid June, Crosby started to decline and until last week, he had not homered in 100+ ab's.

Well yesterday, Bobby homered again and although he may be on the rise, the fact is his "swing harder, every time" approach is very troublesome. I hope that he has learned from what caused him to wear down over the season last year was not so much the amount of playing time, but the effort he put into every swing.

We need him to go for the gaps, not the fences. Tonight, it would be nice to see Bobby oblige.

Out of reach

So the A's lost 2 of 3 to the Royals. No, the Royals did not win in any true sense of the phrase, the A's just plain sucked ass. The Royals, who HAD a 19 game losing streak before the A's played the role of "slump-buster," were able to shut down the A's juggernaut of an offense. How the A's lost a game with Scott "Big Words, Soft Stick" Hatteberg, I will never know.

But let's rewind to the beginning of the week with the Orioles series. They were unable to win ONE game against the Orioles even though two of those losts were practically handed to the A's as wins. But of course, the A's had to be the team that broke the Royals losing streak; look on the bright side, do you even know who the '88 Orioles broke their losing streak against? Didn't think so.

Kotsay's lost ball was a parallel to how the last week has been in regards to the A's playoff chances. So long as Hatteberg is not on the DL to get "rest" and Melhuse is not the full time DH, meaning he hits as a lefty AND a righty, then the A's have no shot at finishing August on a positive note. I may be mistaken, but isn't the fucking disabled list used for players who need the proverbial "rest?" Why is it that Hatteberg is unable to go on the disabled list?

Oh and what the fuck is Ginter doing on the bench? When was the last time he even started a damn game? Yeah, that's right, I don't remember either. How about calling up a third catcher so there is actually a replacement for Kendall in case we don't need one of his patented weak bloop shots?

You may have noticed, this post was full of question marks and not a whole lot of periods. Sort of like this damn A's team. For a final thought, let's turn to everyone's favorite svengali, skipper Ken Macha:

"My main concern is that we gave up a three-run lead," said Oakland manager Ken Macha after his team's seventh loss in nine games. "Our bullpen has to not do that.

"We need to throw better out of the bullpen to close out that game, we absolutely do."

The Scorched-Earth Policy

The definition of scortched earth via Wikipedia:

"a military tatic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy whilst advancing through or withdrawing from an area."

Almost every player is put on waivers where teams can claim a player in an order based on the current standings. If a player clears waivers, he can be traded to anyone. The process is abit complicated, so here is a detailed explanation of how the "waiver wire" works. More on this in a bit...

With the A's having lost 5 of 6 games, the leader of this club, Eric Chavez and Bobby Kielty have spoken out to the media about neededing more help:

Eric Chavez - "To me, it's pretty apparent that another hitter would really help, especially this late in the year," he said. "I think the guys in here have hit a little funk, but remember, I didn't wait to say this now -- I was saying this a month ago. Just a big presence, that's what we could use."

Bobby Kielty - "These are the dog days right now," said Bobby Kielty. "Some of us aren't feeling too well with the way we're swinging the bat right now."

As the team is starting to struggle offensively, the A's are at a crossroads in the sense that if management gets another hitter, the players know that there is support from the front office with their play. By getting the best player from the pool of those who have cleared waivers, the A's are able to: move past other teams, rejuvenate the existing players, move Hatteberg into a part time role, and for postseason/franchise success.

So who's cleared? Well, the information is sketchy at best but two players who are known to have cleared are:

Mike Piazza. The Catcher with the DH Bat.

Dmitri Young. Above average DH bat who can play LF and 1st adequately.

I have gathered their stats along with a control, Phil Nevin, to compare and contrast the two possible acquisitions.

Mike Piazza:

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	#P/PA	GIDP	GB	FB	G/F	XBH	BB/PA	BB/SO	IsoP
1992	LA	21	69	3	1	4	12	0.284	0.319	3.50	1	29	12	2.42	4	0.054	0.33	0.087
1993	LA	149	547	24	35	46	86	0.370	0.561	3.73	10	211	157	1.34	61	0.076	0.54	0.243
1994	LA	107	405	18	24	33	65	0.370	0.541	3.54	11	151	129	1.17	42	0.075	0.51	0.222
1995	LA	112	434	17	32	39	80	0.400	0.606	3.44	10	150	119	1.26	49	0.082	0.49	0.260
1996	LA	148	547	16	36	81	93	0.422	0.563	3.54	21	226	117	1.93	52	0.128	0.87	0.227
1997	LA	152	556	32	40	69	77	0.431	0.638	3.49	18	218	151	1.44	73	0.109	0.90	0.277
1998	LA	37	149	5	9	11	27	0.329	0.497	3.33	3	62	37	1.68	14	0.068	0.41	0.215
1998	NYM	109	394	33	23	47	53	0.417	0.607	3.64	12	160	103	1.55	56	0.105	0.89	0.259
1998	Fla	5	18	0	0	0	0	0.263	0.389	2.79	0	7	10	0.70	1	0.000	0.00	0.111
1999	NYM	141	534	25	40	51	70	0.361	0.575	3.58	27	194	182	1.07	65	0.086	0.73	0.272
2000	NYM	136	482	26	38	58	69	0.398	0.614	3.47	15	161	163	0.99	64	0.106	0.84	0.290
2001	NYM	141	503	29	36	67	87	0.384	0.573	3.71	20	171	162	1.06	65	0.117	0.77	0.272
2002	NYM	135	478	23	33	57	82	0.359	0.544	3.81	26	161	156	1.03	58	0.105	0.70	0.264
2003	NYM	68	234	13	11	35	40	0.377	0.483	3.52	11	88	83	1.06	24	0.128	0.88	0.197
2004	NYM	129	455	21	20	68	78	0.362	0.444	3.67	14	162	137	1.18	41	0.129	0.87	0.178
2005	NYM	97	351	23	14	34	60	0.326	0.444	3.52	6	133	103	1.29	37	0.088	0.57	0.185

Dmitri Young:

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	#P/PA	GIDP	GB	FB	G/F	XBH	BB/PA	BB/SO	IsoP
1996	StL	16	29	0	0	4	5	0.35	0.24	3.50	1	8	10	0.80	--	0.118	0.80	0.000
1997	StL	110	333	14	5	38	63	0.34	0.36	3.69	8	148	74	2.00	22	0.101	0.60	0.105
1998	Cin	144	536	48	14	47	94	0.36	0.48	3.52	16	210	139	1.51	63	0.080	0.50	0.172
1999	Cin	127	373	30	14	30	71	0.35	0.5	3.51	10	162	90	1.80	46	0.073	0.42	0.204
2000	Cin	152	548	37	18	36	80	0.35	0.49	3.28	16	240	130	1.85	61	0.061	0.45	0.188
2001	Cin	142	540	28	21	37	77	0.35	0.48	3.19	22	242	150	1.61	52	0.063	0.48	0.180
2002	Det	54	201	14	7	12	39	0.33	0.46	3.31	12	84	47	1.79	21	0.056	0.31	0.174
2003	Det	155	562	34	29	58	130	0.37	0.54	3.69	16	200	131	1.53	70	0.091	0.45	0.240
2004	Det	104	389	23	18	33	71	0.34	0.48	3.46	8	143	96	1.49	43	0.076	0.47	0.208
2005	Det	105	400	23	18	25	87	0.32	0.47	3.62	12	155	95	1.63	44	0.057	0.29	0.208

Phil Nevin:

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	#P/PA	GIDP	GB	FB	G/F	XBH	BB/PA	BB/SO	IsoP
1995	Det	29	96	3	2	11	27	0.318	0.33	4.03	3	28	29	1	6	0.100	0.41	0.12
1995	Hou	18	60	1	0	7	13	0.221	0.13	3.38	2	22	22	1	1	0.103	0.54	0.02
1996	Det	38	120	5	8	8	39	0.338	0.53	4.15	1	36	23	1.6	13	0.062	0.21	0.24
1997	Det	93	251	16	9	25	68	0.306	0.41	4.01	5	78	69	1.1	26	0.090	0.37	0.18
1998	Ana	75	237	8	8	17	67	0.291	0.37	3.92	6	87	52	1.7	17	0.065	0.25	0.14
1999	SD	128	383	27	24	51	82	0.352	0.53	3.85	7	120	126	1	51	0.116	0.62	0.26
2000	SD	143	538	34	31	59	121	0.374	0.54	3.81	17	187	126	1.5	66	0.098	0.49	0.240
2001	SD	149	546	31	41	71	147	0.388	0.59	4.06	13	168	137	1.2	72	0.114	0.48	0.28
2002	SD	107	407	16	12	38	87	0.344	0.41	3.8	12	151	109	1.4	28	0.084	0.44	0.13
2003	SD	59	226	8	13	21	44	0.339	0.49	3.9	9	81	66	1.2	21	0.085	0.48	0.21
2004	SD	147	547	31	26	66	121	0.368	0.49	4.03	16	191	146	1.3	58	0.106	0.55	0.2
2005	Tex	16	64	4	2	3	15	0.265	0.38	4.26	5	16	24	0.7	6	0.044	0.20	0.16
2005	SD	73	281	11	9	19	67	0.301	0.4	3.88	2	96	81	1.2	21	0.062	0.28	0.14

So after looking at their cumulative stats, lets look at the dollars and sense of this:

	2005 Salary	2005 Remain	SLG	Delta SLG	dSLG:d$ ratio
Piazza	$16.071	$3.952	0.444	0.084	2.51
Young	$8.000	$1.967	0.473	0.113	8.28
Nevin	$9.492	$2.334	0.399	0.039	2.25
Hatteberg	$2.450	$0.602	0.360

In that last column, you have the percentage of the ratio between the diffence in SLG and Dollars with Hatteberg; clear and away, Young provides the biggest margin in which acquiring him would be the best upgrade. But the problem with Young is that he has vesting option for 2006...

DH/1B Dmitri Young, Tigers. His $8 million option for 2006 vests if he reaches 500 plate appearances this season or 1,000 combined in '04 and '05. He's closing in on both totals.

A's would have to be able to either get the Tigers to take on a little bit more of his contract, or they may be willing to bite the bullet as there is a bit of leeway in next year's budget.

Said Forst: "A lot of it is that we like the team we have. And guys who get through waivers oftentimes are guys with big-money contracts. ... But certainly, ownership has made it clear adding payroll for this year is something that they would consider."

In past conversations, Wolff has mentioned that the goal of building a new park is to have a larger season ticket fanbase which helps prepare the yearly budgets with up-front funds. Even though the A's are having some nice attendance figures, Wolff is unhappy with day of game sales as they are not forms of guaranteed money. So as he pushes his new ballpark plan, a postseason push would allow for more sales of 2006 season tickets.