Beaneball

I can't find an announcement anywhere, but on MLB's Gameday, neither the A's lineup nor their bench contains "D. Johnson", so it looks like he was in fact the loser in the decision of how to get Greg Smith onto the 40-man roster. I'm guessing Johnson was DFA'd, but we'll have to wait to find out. Hopefully the A's can still get something for him, but immobile first basemen who haven't hit much in the majors don't exactly fetch a pretty penny around baseball these days, especially when the potential trading team has already DFA'd the guy.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 18:47 | |

It turns out that it will in fact be Greg Smith going for the A's tomorrow against the Jays. The 25-man spot will be opened by Justin Duchscherer hitting the DL with his biceps strain, which means that Smith will get at least one more start after this one. It's not yet clear how the 40-man spot is being opened. I still think the best way to go is to 60-day Eric Chavez. When's Kiko Calero due back? Maybe he could be 60-day'd.

Also, it appears that while I thought Rich Harden's injury had something to do with his back, it's actually his (cringe) pitching shoulder. Sigh. Really, that's all. Just sigh.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 02:17 | |

The A's won a wooly one in Toronto tonight. I couldn't watch, of course, but I did follow the second half of the game on MLB's Gameday (still a remarkable tool, even if the video highlights are actually lamer on Windows (for being choppy and buffering to the point of unwatchability) than they are on Linux (for being in Windows Media format and thus not actually viewable), and I caught the meager highlights on Baseball Tonight. Some positive thoughts: Ryan Sweeney looks like he's got a nice swing, and a game-winning triple sure is a nice result from that swing; Travis Buck, off the schneid!, and with extra bases to boot!; Jack Hannahan's offense (a single, a couple of walks) continues to make us forget Eric Chavez, since Chavez wasn't any more of a power threat the last few years than Hannahan anyway; the bullpen is filthy, for the most part: Andrew Brown with two zero-filled innings of 95 mph heaters; Keith Foulke, continuing to not call it a comeback; Huston Street back on track with a disgusting slider to strike out Vernon Wells to end the game; yeah, Alan Embree gave up the bomb to the Hurt, but that happens sometimes, and all's well that ends well; and Kurt Suzuki! Granted, it's all singles, but you'll take all singles when he's hitting two of them every game.

Some less positive thoughts: Jack Cust has to wake up, because I don't think the team is going to have many nine-run games that involve him going 0-4; I hope Chad Gaudin is better than this next time, because with A's starters already dropping like flies, the healthy ones really need to perform up to snuff.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 02:08 | |