By Jason Wojciechowski on April 6, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Note: these are pregame links, despite not being posted until post-game, so there are no links to recaps or anything like that here. Next time.
Tyson Ross is probably the fifth starter but nobody's promising anything. Which means he's the fifth starter.
The Game Three lineup has a new batting order, with no more of that nonsense Weeks-Pennington-Crisp stuff. Crisp fails upward to the #2, Pennington goes to nine, and Josh Reddick gets the bump to #3. Bob Melvin, somewhat nonsensically, ascribes the change to Josh Reddick's "consistency." The A's, of course, have played two games.
That's not entirely fair, because there's been an entire spring training worth of at-bats, but still. I want a manager to explain a more or less meaningless move like a lineup change by saying "I felt like it."
I somehow missed on all the news sites that the A's traded Cedric Hunter for the Cardinals for some dollars. David Wishinsky mentions it. Hunter wasn't on the 40-man, so this isn't a space-clearing thing.
Wishinsky also mentions the release of Josh Lansford and Edgar Gonzalez.
I will note that Wishinsky seems committed to the idea that Andrew Carignan is on some sort of roster bubble, but the A's are a seven-reliever team, just like every team in the majors these days, and there are at most nine major-league capable relievers on the 40-man roster: the seven that are on the 25-man plus Neil Wagner and (this is where the "at most" comes in) Pedro Figueroa. I don't see Carignan going anywhere.
Someone has a rundown of the rosters of three A's affiliates.
This story about Sonny Gray from a West Texas news site discusses Gray's father, who passed away too young, and how Gray's sinker is similar to "current A's starter Trevor Cahill's."
That same site has a profile of Michael Choice, noting that he wasn't really a prospect out of high school, with few scholarship offers. But he went to UT-Arlington, bulked up, changed positions, and wound up the 10th pick in the draft. Not bad.
If you know anyone in Midland, host families are still needed. I'm sort of kidding, but not really -- these players don't make very much money at all, and that article describes there being a housing shortage in Midland.
This FoxSports story has a question for each team, with the A's one asking what the starting rotation will look like come August. It's a good question and one I decline to answer.
[Anthony Recker is only the second player from Alvernia College](http://athletics.alvernia.edu/news/2012/4/6/BB_0406124754.aspx?path=baseball) to make an Opening Day roster, after Wade Miller, the former Astros pitcher.[Corey Dawkins expects the Dallas Braden setback](https://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=16369) to cost Braden four to six weeks.[Jay Jaffe has one question](https://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=16366) for each of the nine West division teams. The A's question focuses on Yoenis Cespedes.[Craig Calcaterra's first power rankings](http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/04/your-inaugural-power-rankings-2/) have the A's 23rd, though I'm not sure they should be below the Dodgers and Pirates or above the Padres and White Sox.Neil deMause suggests [that a move to New York](http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/04/oakland_a_s_san_jose_move_forget_the_west_coast_the_a_s_should_move_to_new_york_.single.html) could benefit the A's, but he refers to "the inevitable cable riches" that I'm not sure would exist. Washington had a history of baseball and is a transitory town anyway, so it wasn't far-fetched that the Expos could move there and still make money. New York has two teams, one of which has an enormously lengthy and successful history and a devoted fan-base. How long would it take for the A's to be established there? How long would they remain on MLB welfare, no different than them being in Oakland?If you're a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, [Collateral Damage has a new format](https://www.baseballprospectus.com/collateral/?thisdate=2012-04-06) that is very exciting -- it has a list of all the currently injured players, expected return dates (though some of them are weird -- A.J. Burnett will be back before September), and so forth, with some text each day describing updates, additions, and subtractions from the list. It looks like you can step back through the days to see previous incarnations of the list. Like I said, very exciting.