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.