Listening to Marty Lurie's "inside baseball" show this morning, his first guest is Vince Cotroneo. The first thing he mentioned was that, witih the Rivercats' season done the A's have called up three players:

relief pitcher John Meloan (Vince pointed out that he has bounced around many clubs)

relief pitcher Henry Rodriguez (the fireballing prospect) -- his first callup to the big leagues

outfielder Travis Buck -- remember him?

Marty asked Vince about Wallace and Carter, about whom there has been much speculation. (Slusser laid out a rationale yesterday for calling Carter up.) Vince replied that the A's don't want to start the major league clocks for Wallace or Carter just yet.

Update: I put an update below that Susan Slusser wrote that explains who was called up or not, and why. It also doesn't sound like Buck is going to get much playing time, from what she wrote.

A couple of days ago I commented that the A's website for 2010 season tickets had omitted several seating areas, including the rather large Plaza Level area. This morning I called the season ticket office to ask, and this is what they told me:

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Following up on an earlier post, I just wanted to let you know that I have been told by someone in the A's organization that they have been working actively with KTRB to resolve the problem of poor reception and other issues. This is described as a "work in progress", which of course is very frustrating for us fans but also for them.  I didn't mean to imply in my earlier post that there was a lack of effort on the part of the station or of the A's to improve the situation.

Susan Slusser has an extensive article, including an interview,with Eric Chavez.

He has just gotten terrible news that he has a herniated disk in his back. He is still hoping to strengthen himself enough to be able to play, but anything -- playing, carrying a suitcase, getting up from a chair -- could cause it to go even worse. He said in the article that he knew he'd eventually have to get surgery to fuse the disk, which would make athletic activity impossible. However, he thought he had about 10-15 years before needing to do the surgery. Now with this latest news he knows that time is sooner.

I loved watching Eric at third base! But it seems to me that it is not worth the risk to his health beyond baseball to try to come back this year and play third base under this cloud.

Slusser also speculates on the free agent third basemen who will be on the market after this offseason, such as Figgins and Beltre.

It's time, Eric.

Update 5/19/09: Rotoworld is reporting that the A's have transferred Chavez to the 60 Day DL. Not confirmed yet on the A's site, but hardly surprising. They'll likely put Eric's best buddy Eric Munson on the 40 man roster in order to bring him up to be the backup catcher...as we know Powell hurt his hamstring yesterday so is likely going on the DL. More updates: the A's website is now confirming that Chavez was moved to the 60 day DL.  Slusser writes on Tuesday around 1:20 PM Pacific Time that she's surprised about Chavez being moved to the 60 day DL, as he had thought he could be ready to play by the end of May -- this pushes his return (if that happens) to late June.

It's been interesting following Marty Lurie's and Ken Korach's comments on the A's woes. Both are pointing specifically to the problem of having too many inexperienced starters at the same time. Marty also mentioned an over-reliance on good luck not only regarding the rotation but also counting on good health from too many players with health issues. He didn't mention names, but of course we've been mentioning them all over the place.

Looks like the Rays have a DH today!

Thanks to Joe Stiglich for posting the starting lineups:

Today’s A’s lineup: Cabrera SS; Suzuki C; Cust DH; Holliday LF; Giambi 1B; Kennedy 2B; Sweeney CF; Crosby 3B; Buck RF; Gallagher P.

Rays lineup: Upton CF; Crawford LF; Longoria 3B; Pena 1B; Zobrist RF; Aybar DH; Bartlett SS; Iwamura 2B; Hernandez C; Niemann P.

In very small sample sizes here is how A's hitters have fared against the Tigers' starting pitcher:

Athletics hitters vs Armando Galarraga
2004-2008
Hitter AVG AB HR RBI
Buck, Travis .000 3 0 0
Cabrera, Orlando .333 3 0 1
Crosby, Bobby .000 3 0 0
Cunningham, Aaron .333 3 0 2
Cust, Jack .500 6 1 2
Davis, Rajai .000 6 0 0
Giambi, Jason - - - -
Hannahan, Jack .000 2 0 0
Holliday, Matt - - - -
Kennedy, Adam .500 2 0 0
Powell, Landon .500 2 0 0
Suzuki, Kurt .167 6 0 0
Sweeney, Ryan .667 6 1 1

apologies for the formatting. I can get it to look good until I publish it.

Perhaps Geren pays a little attention to minor league performance against Galarraga, since Powell is starting and catching. Then again, Cunningham is not.

Today's lineup according to Slusser:

Cabrera SS, Kennedy 2B, Jack Cust RF, Matt Holliday LF, Giambi DH, Sweeney CF, Crosby 1B, Landon Powell C, Hannahan 3B.

Here is the link

It's also on the A's transactions page

(I noticed someone mentioned this in the DLD but without a link, also there is so much other stuff in the DLD that I thought it was worth creating a FanPost in case anyone wants to discuss this move (not that anyone discusses A's moves here, right?)

So Blevins ( who doesn't seemed to have overwhelmed anyone at Sacramento either ) and Gallagher (who hasn't come close to getting stretched out yet) are called back to Oakland, while Gio -- who pitched his heart out, and we hope not his arm out -- goes back along with Patterson (can't argue against that move).

Of course the A's pen is very, very used at the moment. Is Gallagher being brought up for the bullpen? Will he actually get used this time? Will Blevins somehow be better this time?