State of the Team for September 15, 2009

This one's going to be brief. Edgar Gonzalez took the mount and we finally took advantage of a non-terrible outing from the guy. Every time he does alright it seems like the A's go out of their way to not score...kind of like the way Jack Cust seems to go out of his way to lead the league in strikeouts...does he know Carlos Pena's done for the year? He doesn't have to go on a strikeout rampage just to take the honors of AL whiff-leader. Anyway, A's are playing great, this could be (I'm crossing my fingers for no jinx) the A's first winning month since last June. Very unlikely to finish .500 (they'd have to go 15-3) like some had hoped this time last month, but there's a good chance they improve on last year. Sadly, Vin Mazzaro looks to be done for the year and, while I know he wasn't doing that well, I say it's sad because we have to keep Edgar Gonzalez in our rotation. And to make matters worse, some other pitcher who'd be an adequate mid-rotation guy in triple-A will have to take the mound because Brett Tomko has a pinched nerve...who thought anyone would be disappointed to not see Brett Tomko? The A's starting pitchers seem to be dropping like flies...Outman, Braden, Mazzaro and now Tomko are all down, which leaves Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill as the only ones remaining from the rotation that started the year. I guess that's why they're Olympians. It's funny that with Mazzaro out now, all these extra arms have seemingly been thrown in with the sole purpose to protect Cahill and Anderson. Obviously it's still interesting to see how Gio does, as well as the rest of the team, but so much is being done to preserve these young arms that it almost seems as though Billy Beane thinks the two Olympians are the Holy Grail he's desired for so long. It's too bad they can't hit...

But the Riverkitties lost their first game in the PCL finals to Memphis, maybe we'll get to see some guys who can hit once their seasons done..

.Both Anderson...

AND Cahill are Bronze Medal-winning Olympians, and the only two members of Oakland's opening day rotation that still pitch every 5...I mean 6 days...

Good win! Some of the better baseball this year is being played right now. It's too bad the games are so achingly long with all the reinforcements for the pitchers...

Trevor Cahill looks to bounce back from his most recent eye-blink of an outing...Go A's.