I've been on vacation out of the country since June 9, and while I had internet access, I didn't make a ton of use of it, being, you know, on vacation. So here's what I missed:

Mark Canha was sent to Triple-A and Jaycob Brugman brought to the majors on the 10th. Canha was already demoted once this year, but the reset didn't really seem to help: he hit .214/.257/.457 in his return to the majors, which lasted about a month. That's great power, but getting on base 25 percent of the time is not something a major-league corner outfielder can do and keep his job, especially if he's not doing other things, like defending. I know Canha got some time in center, but it isn't even clear to me that he's a plus defender in left or right, much less that he can legitimately handle center.

Two demotions and a career major-league batting line of .235/.291/.415 in 623 plate appearances, along with merely adequate performance as a 25-year-old in Triple-A in 2014, with no buzz, spell to me that our hopes of Canha being a serious contributor should probably be binned at this point. Quad-A is terrible damning and rude, but ... Quad-A?

Brugman hasn't set the world aflame in his first 34 plate appearances, and had managed just a .364 slugging percentage in Triple-A this year, lower than his OBP. PECOTA doesn't expect much (.248 True Average); nor do I. His stats and the lack of serious attention to him as a prospect scream that he's going to spend this opportunity trying to prove he can contribute on a major-league bench. He's not a future cornerstone, and I don't think he's even a future fifth-best player. He's, hopefully, a guy who can help so you don't have to go looking for a different guy who can help on the free-agent market.

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On the 11th and 12th, the A's held a draft. Well, so did the rest of MLB, but I don't care about them. The A's took a smallish high-school outfielder with their first pick, sixth overall. I have no opinions.

Here's what I do have an opinion on: the best names in the A's draft pool were

• Will "Sweet Thing" Toffey
• Santi Sanchez
• Parker Dunshee (like a banshee, but browner)
• Slater Lee (the closest we've come to Stagger Lee in baseball?)
• Hunter Hargrove (big-time baseball name)
• Cooper Golby (what)
• Haydn King (this is so nerdy)

The best spoonerisms were

• Austin Beck (Boston Eck)
• Parker Dunshee (Darker Punshee)
• Pat Krall (Cat Prowl)

The best schools from which draftees were taken were

• Gulliver Prep
• Orange Lutheran
• Francis Parker

The worst schools from which draftees were taken were

• Stanford (fuck Stanford)
• Dartmouth (fuck Dartmouth)
• Liberty (what)

* * *

On the 14th, Daniel Gossett was called up to start (and make his debut), necessitating an option of Matt Olson. Gossett got busted up in that game, which doesn't really move the needle on figuring out whether he'll be a fourth starter or not. I hope he will!

Gossett's call-up was necessitated by Andrew Triggs hitting the disabled list. This is bad, and makes me sad. Triggs hadn't pitched well, precisely, at least by runs allowed (DRA loves him), but he'd been a credible back-end starter, which is not something he was at all supposed to be entering 2016.

The other notable roster casualty in the shuffling around this time was Frankie Montas, who was optioned out related to Sean Doolittle's return from the disabled list. First, let's note: Sean Doolittle is back! Always exciting. No analysis needed.

Second, though, Montas has been battered in his first substantial exposure to the majors, giving up nine homers in 28 innings, and striking out just two for every walk. The hits allowed, who knows; the A's play some real bad defense, but Montas also pitched real bad outside of the hits question, so it could go either way. Anyway, the stuff remains the stuff, so there's still plenty of hope for the future, especially since he was coming off an injury and he's only got 11 innings at Triple-A under his belt.

* * *

On the 16th, Curt Young was fired, with Scott Emerson bumping up a slot to take over, at least for now. Here's what I think: Curt Young sent me an autographed baseball card in response to my letter asking him to sign when I was about 10. I've always liked him for that.

I have no idea, and nobody else who's going to talk publicly and on the record has any idea, whether Curt Young was doing a good job or a bad job. Nobody has any idea whether he was scapegoated, whether important pitchers were tuning him out, whether he wasn't incorporating good metrics or processes, or anything else, because nobody ever really tells us this stuff. (I'm not complaining about that; we don't have any particular right to know about his job performance.) I'll listen to the writers who talk to and take the temperature of the players every day and who might have some insight into the extremely soft factors at play; you'll forgive me if I dismiss any other opinions I might stumble across on this issue.

* * *

On the plus side, the 16th also saw Matt Chapman joining the A's, with Trevor Plouffe being DFA'd (and later being dealt to Tampa) to make room. I thought Plouffe would be better than he was, and would at least give the A's an opportunity to think about trading him to a team that needed a reserve infielder for the stretch run. Instead he wound up a millstone; if his season were to be over today, he'd have beat his career-worst OPS+ by almost 20 points. He seemed like a fun guy (craft beer!) so I don't have any particular joy about waving goodbye, but I am excited to see Matt Chapman get a few months to see whether he can hit in the big leagues.

I prefer to be optimistic, and I want to watch him play defense, but I also look at his minor-league strikeout rates and batting averages and wonder how on earth those are going to translate to anything but a .185 average in the majors. For what it's worth, Clay Davenport's translations convert his minor-league averages to .219, .226, .254 (High-A, Double-A, Triple-A).

But young players improve, of course! And it's notable that Chapman's translations in 174 at-bats at Triple-A this year was .254/.335/.554, which is beyond adequate for a plus defensive third baseman; it bears a resemblance to Adrian Beltre's 2011.

Obbbbbbbviously I'm not saying Chapman is Beltre, who is headed for the Hall of Fame. There's room, though, for optimism. There's also room for pessimism! Turns out that's true about every prospect ever. I have illuminated this difficult subject for you.

* * *

On the 17th, the A's called up a reliever I had never heard of, Michael Brady. They sent Zach Neal down. He's 30, and he'd started and relieved in Nashville; he was drafted by the Marlins as a hitter, and did hit in 2009, but he's been pitching since 2010. The Marlins 40-man'd him in 2013, then waived him in 2014. The Angels claimed him and outrighted him a few months later. The Nationals picked him up in the Yunel Escobar trade before 2016, then did not add him to their 40-man, so he became a minor-league free agent after that season. He signed with the A's this winter.

This chain of events is mainly worth noting for the fact that the A's can't outright him. If they want to take him off the 40-man, they'll have to subject him to waivers. On the other hand, he was only optioned in 2014, so unless there's something I'm missing about his years of minor-league experience that changes this, he should be optionable.