I promised a while back to do a series of posts discussing everybody who threw a pitch or stepped to the plate for the A's this season. I've decided to do this in order of plate appearances / total batters faced -- low-to-high. I'll start today with Eric Sogard, the next post will be about Justin James, and we'll go all the way through to number 49, Gio Gonzalez.

Sogard, a 24-year-old second baseman who came to the A's in the Kevin Kouzmanoff trade, got into four games and came to the plate nine times in 2010, the first time he'd appeared in the majors. He hit awesome, racking up three singles and two walks, for a rousing 155 wRC+.

As you might've guessed, he hasn't hit quite this well in the minors -- he has generally posted a high batting average (.295 overall) and walked quite a bit (237 times in 1990 PAs), but his pop is negligible (143 XBHs). His minor-league Total Zone numbers peg him as an above-average defender at second, and the A's had him play some third and short at Sacramento this year, so there's clear utility infielder potential going on.

In other words, at a minimum salary, you could do a lot worse than Sogard. He's probably a decent bet to replace Mark Ellis's production if something happened to the wee South Dakotan, even if he's a terrible bet to replace his scrappiness (because who is scrappier than Ellis?).

For other players, I'll hopefully have a little more to say than this. I don't remember ever actually seeing Sogard, though, so you could tell me that this is Eric Sogard, or that this is Eric Sogard, and I wouldn't know which to believe.