The A's did exactly what I hoped they wouldn't and called up Dallas Braden. My first thought was that he was just up to patch the bullpen hole left by Chad Gaudin, but that doesn't fly because even without Gaudin, Oakland has six bullpenners active. So maybe he's up to take a spot start in Rich Harden's spot? But that spot doesn't come up until Friday, which should be plenty of time for Sean Gallagher to arrive. In fact, ESPN has him listed as Friday's probable starter. So I guess Oakland's going with 12 pitchers again, even though Duke is a machine, even though Thunder Matt Murton is coming to push Emil Brown to the reserve spot he deserves. Maybe the A's will go with Murton anyway and cut bait on Brown now. If either of these guys is going to help the A's next year as a reserve or platoon bat, it's Murton, not Brown. So let's see what he can do starting every day for the rest of the year.