The A's are slipping farther and farther back from going to the playoffs this year. No, Billy Beane hasn't made his signature trade(s) yet, but who is available who's really going to upgrade the problem spots on this team? Maybe Luis Castillo to come shove Mark Ellis aside, since Ellis stopped hitting a long time ago, but what else?

Jermaine Dye and Terrence Long both started last night, and they got on base once between the two of them. How do you fix two holes like that? I mean, aside from benching the both of them and letting Chris Singleton and Billy McMillon play every day. Since that's not going to happen (Dye and Long make too much money, are too "established," to let that happen), I'm very worried about this team going forward.

Then again ... the A's are only a game back of where they were after 86 games last year, 5 games ahead of where they were the year before (and Seattle is significantly worse than they were at this point in that amazing 2001), and they stand exactly where they stood at this point in 2000. In other words, maybe I shouldn't worry so much. You always forget by this point in the year that the past years were just this bad and just this frustrating, and the team turned it around. Still, it'd be a lot nicer if they'd just win wire-to-wire at some point.

It'd also be a lot nicer if Jermaine Dye and Terrence Long (sorry, Weston) saw a whole lot less plate appearances.