Shoulder injuries are the Wuertz.

Gaudin was reportedly unhappy toward the end of his last stint with the A's because they wouldn't put him back in the rotation, but I assume he'll be back in the bullpen again. Devine and Wuertz look very likely to start the year on the DL, so two out of Gaudin, Jennings, and Edwar will be in the bullpen. I like Gaudin best of the three, whether as a long man or a ROOGY.

Bailey, Blevins, Breslow, Kilby, Ramirez, Rodriguez and Ziegler are supposedly healthy enough. Add Gaudin and only one of the others won't make it. I'm guessing Ramirez. If it were up to me I'd send both Ramirez and Blevins down and keep a fifth bench player like Patterson or Chavez.

Watching the A's stumble through these past couple years has been painful.

Now they're about to go into the season with their previous strength relegated to weakness because they overused their best relievers in a throw-away season. They're also going to lose Patterson for nothing and will start the season without a SS backup. Why? Because they lack the discipline to treat a sunk cost as such (Chavez), lack the organization to figure out whether an acquisition has options remaining (Fox), lack the patience to wait on hiring outfield depth (Gross), and if you're pinning yourself to 7 relievers (which Forst has said they are) then that means there's only one more spot left which will be filled by the backup catcher.

I guess these are really just little issues at the margins of the roster, but that's what makes this all so sad. These used to be the kinds of things that the A's got right. Or maybe they've just always been this stupid and I'm letting some near-term nostalgia color my memories.

Edwar's not a Yankee anymore? Dammit! How did I miss that? Maybe I saw it and repressed the memory.

Here's hoping Ramirez enjoys success beyond anyone's wildest dreams. The man's changeup is one of my favorite pitchers in baseball today.

sc,

It seems like they've run afoul of a variant of the backpack problem. The A's have been able to identify players who have been undervalued by their clubs for years now, and guys like Patterson and Fox and maybe even Gross all fall into that category.

The problem is you have a backpack that you need to fit all of your valuable items in, and so you therefore can't collect an infinite number of undervalued items and you also have make considerations for the shape and weight of the items you can put in. The A's backpack is full, but they don't have anything in there that has a lot of value and takes up only a little space (maybe Anderson if he breaks out).

It is my main criticism of something like WAR. One +10 WAR player is worth more than a hundred +1 WAR players because you can only play nine guys at once.

It is my main criticism of something like WAR. One +10 WAR player is worth more than a hundred +1 WAR players because you can only play nine guys at once.

Also, from a business standpoint, it's much easier for casual fans to get excited by a 10 WAR player than 10 +1 WAR players. The A's don't have a single player that sells tickets, unfortunately.

I guess these are really just little issues at the margins of the roster, but that's what makes this all so sad. These used to be the kinds of things that the A's got right. Or maybe they've just always been this stupid and I'm letting some near-term nostalgia color my memories.

I'd agree with this. I think the A's have been very sloppy on the margins the last few years. I have no idea why.

They're also going to lose Patterson for nothing...

I guess I don't see why this is such a disaster. He's a 2B/OF who projects for a 89 OPS+ per ZiPS. That's potentially useful on a bench, but not something you'd typically rue losing.

It's ridiculous that they didn't know Fox was out of options (weird rostering by the Cubs at the end of 2007 with both Fox and Patterson), but Chavez continuing to play this deep into Spring without maiming himself has to be unexpected for everyone. The most optimistic wishcasting for Chavez would be to play about as well as Barton is supposed to, which makes him pretty worthless to the A's. The 60-40 time share at 1B Jon Perroto at BP says the A's are leaning towards sounds implausibly dumb, but they do seem intent on playing him somewhat regularly.

If they're definitely going to break camp with Chavez, they might be best off sending down Powell and using Fox as Suzuki's rarely needed backup. Fox, Chavez, Gross, Rosales. They need Rosales on the roster, or else they don't have anyone who can backup 2B or SS.

As for Patterson, I see him as Esteban German with a worse glove. I think Gross is a bit of an upgrade for cheap that doesn't hurt their depth.