Big League Stew: Why Frank Thomas belongs in this year’s All-Star Game

“Send the Big Hurt to the Big Apple”...(inabigspotinabiggame.dietcoke)

Thomas’ on-the-field accomplishments, of course, would alone deserve such a career honor. He won the AL MVP in both 1993 and ‘94 and might have been awarded a third in 2000 if Jason Giambi hadn’t been juicing. As of this writing, he has a .302 career average and 516 home runs. He was the first player to hit over .300, score 100 runs, drive in over 100 RBI and take over 100 walks in seven straight seasons. Ask yourself this question: Were there any scarier sights for a pitcher in the ‘90s than Thomas’ hulking frame looming over a 3-1 count?

Yes, Frank had a phenomenal career — and it’s possible it could continue past ‘08 — but this campaign is motivated by more than just Thomas’ impressive numbers. It’s also rooted in the fact that over the past few years, we’ve scolded suspected star after suspected star for possible steroid use. Yet we’ve done absolutely nothing to reward and applaud the players who have actually spoken out against it.

Part of the reason for that inactivity is that there haven’t been many of that latter category. Yet Thomas has been the only one to shirk the clubhouse code of silence and the players’ unbreakable lockstep formation with its union. Think about it: When’s the last time you saw a column lauding Thomas for taking a very public stance against performance-enhancing drugs?

Madden: D-Backs-A’s pitching megadeal works for both teams

In between delusional champagne toasts to Norma Zimmer...Madden finds time to spit out another column.

These are giddy times in Arizona and Oakland, where, with the youth-filled Diamondbacks and Athletics, it’s baseball as it oughta be - and the respective GMs, Josh Byrnes and Billy Beane, are justifiably patting each other on the back for their blockbuster winter deal that already has had significant impact for both clubs.

Let’s, for a moment, revisit that Dec. 14 trade in which Beane reluctantly determined his small-market A’s needed of yet another major rebuilding job and opened up bids for his No. 1 pitcher, 27-year-old Dan Haren. Naturally, a lot of clubs called, but, in Byrnes, Beane knew he had the perfect trading partner - not just because the two were friends, but because Byrnes understood what Beane had to get for his best player. Even more importantly, Byrnes, like nobody else, also had the surplus of quality prospects to get it done.

“Josh recognized the fact that, in Haren, you had an All-Star starter with a good contract (signed through 2010 at approximately $5.5 mil per year),” Beane said by phone from Oakland the other day. “We both knew what Haren’s value was and Josh didn’t hesitate to give me what he knew I had to have back.”

IBA: A’s need to sign Bonds to help team, draw fans

Another hopin’ letter from Art Spander.

This is a perfect year. The Giants are down. Now’s the time to put your foot on their throat by putting Bonds on the roster.

Those legal problems? The federal government is having more difficulty building a perjury case against Barry than it is in keeping gasoline affordable. If Barry ever comes to trial, and that’s doubtful, it won’t be for at least a year.

Bonds is going to end up someplace this season. Could any place be more perfect than Oakland? Barry knows the territory. The A’s fans know Barry. True, they haven’t liked him, but loyalty in sports is little more than the letters on the front of a uniform. Let Barry pop a couple against the Yankees or Angels, and you’ll be amazed by his popularity.

We’ve heard reports Barry is being blacklisted, that there’s collusion among teams in the majors. Then Bud Selig, the commish, tells us, “Every club is free to do whatever they want with whomever, and I mean that.”

The A’s are a team in need of jolt of energy, at the plate, at the box office. Sign Barry. It isn’t the least you could do, but it’s the best you could do. Thanks for listening. Sincerely, A. Spander.

Dan Weisman, Baseball Investigator: One Degree of “Dr. Strangeglove”—The Jack Cust Story

Yes, the greatest baseball investigator since Philo Kvetch roamed the grimy bowels of Yankee Stadium...is back!

Give Cust credit for he probably never heard of Stuart. But Lawdy, Miss Clawdy, he did the greatest Dr. Strangeglove impression possible. First, he looked up to see the routine fly ball drift ever so graciously to Left Field. Ever confident—and nobody looked more confident than Stuart right before each next gaffe—Cust held up his glove awaiting the expected result.

Hosanna and look out below, the ball fell flush on a closed glove, bounced about 20 yards away and resulted in disaster, Angels flying around the basepaths. What Cust had done was cover his eyes with his glove. He never stood a chance.

But Cust is a playa, if not a fieldah, per se. Almost nonchalantly, he retrieved the ball, missed the cut-off man—perfect, if this were Superman’s Bizarro World, but here not so much—and eventually departed the field at inning’s end.

Cust’s no love for Mr. Glove did Stuart even prouder then. As Stuart often did, Cust went the distance and then some. Made up for it all with a ringing home run sparking an eight-run Fifth Inning that won the A’s the game. So imperfect in the damn field, Cust was perfect at the plate going four for four, walking twice and scoring three runs.

I am not too proud to say this: When I focused on the enormity of the effort, the Dr. Strangeglove resurrection in reflection, I got a little misty-eyed.

AP: Cust’s homer starts 8-run fifth, A’s beat Angels 15-8

Jack Cust went 4-for-4 with a go-ahead homer that triggered an eight-run fifth inning, Emil Brown had four hits and an RBI and the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels 15-8 Thursday night to gain a split of the four-game series.
...
Cust, whose two-out error fielding error in left field led to five unearned runs in the Angels’ second inning, gave Oakland a 7-6 lead in the fifth with his second homer of the season and first in 40 career at-bats against Angels pitching.
...
Los Angeles starter Nick Adenhart, called up from Triple-A Salt Lake after middle infielder Maicer Izturis went on the disabled list with a strained lower back, gave up five runs, three hits and five walks over two-plus innings in his major league debut.
...
Pitching on three days’ rest, Adenhart got the side out in order in the first but walked four consecutive batters during Oakland’s four-run second.

Of Adenhart’s 37 pitches that inning, 24 were balls. But the Angels grabbed a 5-4 lead in the bottom half with five unearned runs. Cust opened the door with a humiliating two-base error, as Garret Anderson’s lazy flyball popped out of his glove when he camped under it.

NY Times: Lessons From Big Leagues Guide a Bassmaster Rookie (RR)

“I’m lost, just lost,” the angler, Billy Brewer, a rookie on the Bassmasters Tour, said Wednesday, a day before the start of the three-day competition on the 71,535-acre lake about 130 miles east of Atlanta. He did not have much more luck Thursday, standing in 78th place.

“This sport is unforgiving, sometimes unfair, but you keep throwing, you compete.”

Brewer had the same philosophy about his previous athletic career, as a major league baseball player. He pitched in 203 games in relief over seven seasons (1993-1999) and toiled in the minors for another 201 games. An unforgiving situation on the lake can be matched with some of his experiences as a member of the bullpen for the Royals, Yankees, Athletics and Phillies and 12 minor league teams.
...
There was the time in 1996, after being traded to the Dodgers from the Royals, that he threw 30 scoreless innings in a row at Class AAA but was left in the minors.

“We were on a conference call with L.A.’s general manager, me and my agent, trying to find out why I couldn’t join the big league team,” Brewer said. “And the G.M. said: ‘We’re being told Billy isn’t throwing that well. We’re not arguing about it — he’s staying where he is.’
...
After 4 of 11 events, he is 33rd among 108 anglers and second in the rookie of the year standings among 11 anglers.

Sportsline: Miller: Big Hurt back in Oakland? He’s all about ‘production’

This is the biggest production I’ve seen...since that planned Chopra-Chopra-Capra-Capra Bollyhood venture fizzled!

“I felt like I was never used properly there,” says Thomas, who slugged 39 homers and collected 114 RBI in Oakland in 2006 to position himself for that big Toronto offer. “I had a big year here, and then I went there and it didn’t seem like I was brought over there to be the main RBI guy.

“Their future was Vernon Wells and Alex Rios, and they batted them fourth. I never hit out of my comfort zone for so long. I was in the five hole, six hole most of the year ... I’ve never been in that position my whole 18-year career.

“There were so many different people hitting behind me. I’ve been in the game too long, and if you don’t protect me ... last year, our offense was bad and they didn’t use me in the fourth or fifth spots. Only a few times.”

..."I’m running great, I’m quicker ... I’m going to go out and get hits and drive in runs,” Thomas says. “That’s what I do, produce runs. That .300 stuff is overrated. I’m a production guy.”

This from a guy with a lifetime .303 batting average coming into this season? From a guy who batted .300 or better in 10 of 11 seasons for the Chicago White Sox between 1990 and 2000?

“That’s when I was younger,” Thomas says. “Since ‘03, I’ve been a production guy.”

Fangraphs: Cameron: Cust Cussing

Custom Cams will give you the edge on your competition!

When you strike out as much as Cust does, you have to be amazing when you make contact. Last year, Cust was, posting a .366 batting average on balls in play and whacking 26 home runs in 124 games. So far, in April, Cust’s batting average on balls in play is down to .242, and only one of his seven hits are home runs. Even when he hits the ball, it’s not going anywhere, and that’s made him a significant liability at the plate during the first month of the season. With the signing of Frank Thomas to be the regular DH, Cust is going to have to play left field to keep his spot in the line-up. Unfortunately for him and the A’s, he’s about as good at that as he is at making contact. He might be the worst defensive player in baseball - if he’s not, he’s close.

Add it all up, and the A’s have a guy who has to torch the ball when he hits it in order to be a valuable player, and when he’s not driving the ball, he’s the least productive regular in the major leagues. Due to his defensive problems, it’s going to be harder and harder for the A’s to justify penciling him into the line-up if he doesn’t start producing better results when he makes contact. The A’s are surprising a lot of people by standing at 16-10 through 26 games, but they’re not going to be able to stick with Cust killing them in the field and at the plate forever.

SF Gate: Jenkins: Can Frank Thomas fit with A’s this time?

Your usual Jenkins fare...including these poils.

But Thomas, in tandem with his agent, was just plain crazy to leave Oakland. Granted, there was more money in Toronto. Look at the big picture, for crying out loud. That’s a team run by the highly unimpressive J.P. Ricciardi and hotheaded manager John Gibbons, both of whom could be out of a job at any time. Toronto means a look of resignation toward the penthouse, where the Yankees and Red Sox reside.

...I remember walking the streets just beyond downtown Cleveland, to visit a friend, on an A’s road trip many years ago. It was a stark, unforgiving place, lifeless in both architecture and mood. On streets virtually empty in mid-afternoon, you might spot a low-life hood, sporting a really bad jacket, ducking into a tavern. I’ve found that to be a recurring image these days - every time Hank Steinbrenner pops onto the television screen.

Athletics ink Frank Thomas

The Oakland Athletics signed former All-Star Frank Thomas on Thursday.

Thomas was in the second year of a two-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays and was batting just .167 with three home runs and 11 runs batted in when he was released by the Blue Jays on April 20.

SF Gate: Knapp: There’s more than one way to score runs

And Hüsker Dü’s “How to Skin a Cat”...makes more sense than this jumble.

This is about what the two of them represent. The A’s need reliable outfield defense more than home runs, even though they are tied for last in the majors in homers. They have nine, or one fewer than baseball’s leader, Chase Utley of the Phillies.Conventional wisdom makes a punch line out of that. A reality check says: So what?

Home runs are overrated. An otherwise competent offense won’t starve on a limited supply.

...Granted, this is fairly anecdotal, and entirely unworthy of Sabermetrics, but Bill James himself would have to agree that a team that draws a lot of walks can ultimately compensate for a power deficit. Also, baseball power is too often measured in home runs, and not enough in doubles and triples.

...Speed is a power all its own, and it has been underrated in baseball for a while. The youth movement should change that a bit. (We’ll leave steroid awareness out of this conversation since athletes can juice for speed, too.)

Let’s be clear: Putting the ball out of the park still matters, far beyond the purely statistical. It has a huge psychological effect on pitchers and managers. But having runners on second and third, knowing that opens up holes for subsequent hitters and distracts pitchers, has a potent effect, as well.

Chasing sluggers, and feeling blighted by their absence, makes no sense if they can unbalance a team. It can be dangerously like worshiping a false idol.

Yahoo!: Brown - Thomas has offers from A’s, another team [updated]

Frank Thomas is expected to sign with the Oakland A’s later today, according to a baseball source, reuniting the aging slugger with the team he hit 39 home runs for in 2006. Frank Thomas was close to signing with the Oakland A’s on Wednesday until another team made an offer at the last minute, according to a baseball source. The second offer, from an undisclosed team, at least temporarily put the brakes on the A’s deal, which would reunite the aging slugger with the team he hit 39 home runs for in 2006.
...
The A’s have had little production from their designated hitters. Jack Cust is batting .148 with one homer in 54 at-bats, and Mike Sweeney has only a .346 slugging percentage in 52 at-bats.

No kidding, A’s Brown is a king of clubhouse

Even when playing chess, Brown is noisy. He somehow manages to trash-talk while matching wits daily with closer Huston Street.

“Huston takes so long, you get mentally drained,” Brown said. “You start shouting to the chess gods, ‘Why is he taking so long?’ We had a timer, but Huston doesn’t follow the rules, he’d just ignore it.”

“I might have been slower when we first started playing, but Andrew has abandoned the most games,” Street countered. “I had his queen forked last night and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get home, my wife is pregnant.’ “

A nice profile of the 6’8 reliever who has yet to give up a run, in addition to taking over Nick Swisher’s role as clubhouse cut-up.

FOX: Rosenthal - Baby Boss could cost Yanks their GM

If Cashman wished to stay east, he could replace Phillies GM Pat Gillick, who is expected to retire. Or, Cashman could return to D.C., where he attended Georgetown Prep and Catholic University, if the Nationals chose to replace Jim Bowden. Why, Cashman could even stay in the AL East if the Blue Jays dismissed J.P. Ricciardi, who has two years left on his contract.
...
So here’s the question: Is [Frank] Thomas finished?

“He looked like he was on rollerblades, sliding all over the box,” says a scout who saw him recently. “His balance was poor. His bat speed was poor. His approach was poor. He was only hitting changeups — that was the only ball he could get to.”

Still, scouts were saying much the same thing about Thomas, who turns 40 on May 27, in the early parts of each of the past two seasons. One GM says he finds it difficult to believe that Thomas no longer could contribute coming off a 26-homer, 95-RBI season.
...
The Diamondbacks, already loaded with young talent, are discussing how to proceed with right-hander Max Scherzer, who opened the season by pitching 17 scoreless innings at Class AAA, striking out 29 and walking only three. Club officials initially believed that Scherzer could emerge as an impact reliever this season, but want him to remain a starter for as long as possible. Scherzer represents insurance for the rotation if Randy Johnson fails to stay healthy or Doug Davis returns slowly from surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid.

Country Genius: Cobb’s Player of the Day: Brian Doyle

A look back at the career of unlikely Yankees hero Brian Doyle.

I’ve only seen Brian Doyle in person twice in my life. The first time was the big parade when he received a conquering hero’s welcome in my second-grade classroom. The other time was in 1982 when he was at Brian Doyle Ballpark during some of our Little League games. Only four years had passed, but the circumstances were already very different. He was with the Charleston Charlies in the Indians chain, trying to get back to the bigs. As it turns out, that was his last stop. He retired after the ‘82 season at the ripe old age of 27. “I feel like Cinderella,” Doyle said after the ‘78 World Series. “I wanted to prove I could play this game.” That you did, Brian. That you did.

Country Genius: Cobb’s Player of the Day: Rick Bosetti

Ricky Cobb breaks down the career of ‘70s whiz kid Rick Bosetti:

The one factoid everybody seems to know about Rick Bosetti is that he liked to urinate on the field. Perhaps it’s an urban legend, but you will hardly ever find any extensive comment on him that doesn’t gleefully remind you this dude was regularly watering grass and turf across North America. Some stories even say he did this during the games, concealing the dirty deed with his glove. I’ve also seen several sources that indicate his career ambition was to empty his bladder on every MLB playing surface ... Wrigley Field was apparently tops on his hit list. He played in this cathedral only once: September 5, 1977. I shudder to think what happened in left field that afternoon.

SF Gate: A’s philosophy looks at mileage, not years (Tejada)

Are the A’s still eying Milledg...oh.

In other words, Tejada’s age wasn’t a big deal to the A’s, except possibly when they signed him in 1993 as a teen out of the Dominican. He was much more signable at 17 than 19.

As to letting Tejada leave as a free agent, general manager Billy Beane said, “For us, losing players is not a function of age, but a function of the size of contract.”

The A’s front office had a good relationship with Tejada, and nobody in the organization liked how ESPN reporter Tom Farrey presented a copy of Tejada’s birth certificate to him on camera.

“I don’t know what it’s like to live in poverty in the Dominican,” Schott said. “If someone wants to play baseball so badly and it’s your ticket out, and it’s your one dream, you’ll do what a lot of these kids do. Either way, I always thought highly of Miggy.”

Rays claim Dan Johnson

The Tampa Bay Rays have claimed former A’s first baseman Dan Johnson, the player’s agent confirmed this morning.

Apparently the A’s couldn’t swing a deal for Johnson, but the team had hoped to hang onto him rather than lose him to waivers. Johnson was out of options, though.

With Cliff Floyd out for a month or so, Johnson is likely to be DHing a lot, and he could do well hitting in the Tampa Bay ballpark. He also has had a lot of success against some of the AL East clubs.

Athletics’ expected move to Fremont likely delayed to 2012

Hey Oakland, you’re stuck with us for one more year!

The Oakland Athletics’ expected move to Fremont will probably be delayed at least until 2012, a year later than the team hoped.

Speaking at a community meeting this week, A’s co-owner Keith Wolff said the team could only make the move by 2011 if the city approves the environmental impact report by the end of this year.

But Wolff and city officials say that’s highly unlikely given the size and complexity of the proposed project.

The A’s proposal includes a 32,000-seat ballpark, more than 3,000 homes, an elementary school and an upscale shopping center.

That’s why you keep your eye on the ball.

Triple-A Sacramento outfielder Jeff Fiorentino incurred a fractured nose and several small fractures in his cheek after being hit with a throw in the face. He had surgery Monday and he is expected to miss four weeks.

Ow ow ow ow ow.

MLB: Harden lands on disabled list

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn
Harden’s on the DL
All’s right with the world!

For the sixth time in less than four seasons Athletics starting pitcher Rich Harden has landed on the disabled list.

Oakland placed the hard-throwing right-hander on the 15-day DL retroactive to April 3 with a mild subscapularis strain in his right shoulder.

...The A’s have yet to name a replacement for Harden’s scheduled start on Saturday. The leading candidate, though, appears to be left-handed reliever Lenny Dinardo. The 28-year-old was 7-8 with a 4.93 ERA in 20 starts last season for Oakland.

Oakland A’s all-you-can-eat section can be a contest unto itself

Submitted without comment.

SportsTicker: A’s [DFA Dan Johnson and] purchase contract of LHP [Greg] Smith

The Oakland Athletics on Wednesday purchased the contract of lefthander Greg Smith from Class AAA Sacramento. Smith, 24, will make his major league debut on Wednesday, when he starts against the Toronto Blue Jays. He was one of six players acquired in the trade that sent Dan Haren to the Arizona Diamondbacks on December 14.
...
To make room for Smith, the Athletics designated first baseman Dan Johnson for assignment.

At one time, Johnson, 28, was considered a top prospect for the Athletics. But he had just one at-bat this season, grounding out as a pinch hitter against Boston on April 2.

Johnson batted just .236 with 18 homers and 62 RBI in 117 games last season, his third in Oakland.

SF Gate: A’s Harden scratched from Tuesday start

Those of you with April 8 in the pool, please stand up.

The A’s have scratched Rich Harden for tonight’s game in Toronto with back soreness, specifically in the lat area.

The injury is believed to be minor and it might have been the aftereffects of the long flights to and from Japan last month. Harden is now expected to start at Cleveland on Saturday.

Cohn: Sabean makes GM moves; Beane runs a clearinghouse

Entering the Oakland A’s Clearing House Sweepstakes changed their lives forever—IT COULD CHANGE YOURS, TOO!!

Sabean got the Giants to the World Series in 2002, and Beane never got the A’s to the World Series, and never will. I don’t think Beane even cares about the Series. He wants to do pretty well, wants to keep up appearances, wants to claim he’s a poor small-market GM and, gee, not arriving at the ultimate destination—the Series—isn’t his fault even though he’s brilliant. So please don’t blame him or expect too much of him. He has a built-in excuse.

...The A’s aren’t a baseball team. They’re a baseball clearing house. In and out. In and out. As far as Daric Barton goes, well, in the first place, who the heck is Daric Barton? He is someone who may be, could be, perhaps, will be good. And if he becomes a standout player, it’s, “Hey, Daric, you’re out of here”—perhaps to Kansas City for four no-name players Beane will trade down the line if they achieve anything worthwhile.

SoSD: Jenkins: ‘Moneyball’ concepts have evolved

Somewhere in Beane’s data bank, you can bet, there’s a stolen-base success rate gauged on the phases of each of Neptune’s 12 moons.

“The depth at which people are breaking things down statistically is so far beyond anything from even a few years ago,” Beane said. “If you really look at a (baseball) front office now, it looks not dissimilar to what you’d find on Wall Street, the quantitative divisions you’d find in a Wall Street firm.”

...Which, naturally, brings Beane back to Sandy Alderson. Invariably, respectfully, Beane redirects most of the credit for baseball’s deeper thinking back to the Padres executive who once was Beane’s boss with the Athletics.

“I know (baseball uber-analyst) Bill James is mentioned a lot, but everything really started to change with Sandy, and I saw it right away as his assistant,” Beane said. “He changed the way I looked at the game. I came up as a player with a pretty traditional background and he completely changed the way I thought and interpreted the game. I mean, the things I learned from him were a complete reversal of everything I’d been exposed to as a player.”

...“As soon as you think you’re done finding things to measure, you find something else,” Beane said. “Comparing the things we were doing in the book to now – really re-defining how defense is being evaluated and various aspects of baserunning – it’s like going from Beta tape to VHS. Range factor? Park Factor? That’s like child’s play.”

Hi, I’m Chucky Carr. Wanna play?

THT: Fast: Jack Cust eats fastballs for lunch

“Yeah wall to wall
Door to door
Hall to hall
He’s gonna eat ‘em all”

Why pitchers didn’t throw Jack Cust more curveballs, I don’t know. It’s true that a curveball is among the hardest pitches to throw for a strike, and that’s doubly true against a hitter like Cust who doesn’t chase many bad pitches at all, but he seems to have plenty of weaknesses against the curve.

Left-handed pitchers appear to have tried to throw the curveball down and away, missing the strike zone for a ball 62 percent of the time. However, when they got the curve in the zone, Cust almost always took it for a called strike. He watched fully six out of every seven curveballs from lefties spin to the catcher’s mitt with the bat on his shoulder.

Right-handed pitchers threw the curveball both up and away and down and in and had more success throwing it for strikes, 47 percent of the time. Most of the curveballs up and away were taken for called strikes. When the curve was down in the zone, Cust was more willing to offer at the pitch, but when he made contact, he hit a lot of ground balls to the right side of the infield and managed only two singles in 11 balls in play.

Star-Ledger: Politi: Young at heart even at 99

Oldest living MLB player tells all! 

On the long train rides to Detroit or Chicago, Werber would team with catcher Bill Dickey in bridge games against Ruth and Gehrig—and they would almost always win.

“We’d get on the Green Diamond Express and Babe would say, ‘Cut the cards!’” Werber said. “Then he’d take a fifth of Seagram’s and he had a glass about this big”—he holds his hands about 8 inches apart—“and he’d pour out most of that bottle, put a little ice in it and maybe this much water”—not surprisingly, he is holding his thumb and index finger about a half-inch apart.

“He liked to irritate Gehrig and he’d give him funky, funky bids. And Gehrig wasn’t dumb. He’d throw down the cards and say, ‘Add up the score and I’ll pay you what we owe you!’ It was usually $3, $3.50, something like that. That didn’t mean anything to them

And another member of the “Jungle Cats” infield of the 39-40 Reds is still kicking around - Lonnie Frey’s a young whippersnapper of 98.

IBA: Steward: Time to come clean: We’re hooked on Harden again

Fresh off his enlightening speech at the Heffter Research Institute...Carl Steward is back.

Smoking. Gambling. Dark chocolate. Aged bourbon. Bad addictions, all.

And then there is Rich Harden, who for an A’s fan—or just a fan of power pitching—is like crack cocaine, heroin and LSD all rolled into one. Every once in awhile we get a pure dose of him, and we’re sucked in all over again despite all those trips to “won’t fall for it again” rehab.

...The other possibility is that Harden finally can string successful starts through midseason and Billy Beane decides not to tempt fate, particularly if the A’s aren’t doing well as a whole. He could dangle his most talented pitcher in trade on the old “sell high” philosophy.

But that would require some serious gulping on Beane’s part. Yes, the A’s GM managed to part with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, but Harden is a whole different case. You can scout for years and never find the combination of talent and tenaciousness Harden has. At his best, he is the equal to the Josh Becketts of the world, the kind of ace pitcher you simply don’t let get away, regardless of how fragile.

See? One brilliant outing and we’re happily hooked again.

SportsTicker: Athletics send trio to minors

The Oakland Athletics optioned lefthanded pitcher Dallas Braden and outfielders Carlos Gonzalez and Jeff Fiorentino to Class AAA Sacramento on Saturday, finalizing their 25-man roster.

Braden, 24, went 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA in 11 innings this spring. The 24th overall pick in 2004 recorded a 1-8 mark with a 6.72 ERA in 20 games with Oakland last season.

Gonzalez, who was part of the deal that sent righthander Dan Haren to Arizona, is Oakland’s top prospect. The 22-year-old had an impressive spring, hitting .360 (9-for-25) with three RBI but will start the season in the minors