Well, since nobody has posted a grade/first quarter of the season discussion on the main page, I figured I am not overstepping my place by posting it here in a diary.

Obviously, with the amount of injuries and flux we've had in the roster so far, it's going to be tough to assign these grades with any kind of certainty.  It's difficult to know to what extent players have been playing hurt because they are trying to gut it out while their teammates are down.

On to the grades:

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So the Outfield is in tatters and the bullpen is shaky.  We've tried to triage as best we could, but have done so by adding Braden, Buck, and Putnam from outside of the 40 man roster.  Now that we have no healthy CF on the ML roster, there will be implications if we want to add a good fielding CF to the roster.

Also, shaky performance of the bullpen to date gives rise to the question of what we could do there if we were so inclined.

We've already removed some of our AAAA roster filler by demoting Bocachica, Perez, and Thomas from the 40 man roster, so who else could/should go if we want to make further moves?  And how does it impact the future state of the 40 man roster?  

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Okay. Windsor is now up and did a decent job in his first start.  Zito could be traded for the right young players, and is very likely gone for 2 draft slots after this season.  Harden is great but unable to be relied upon.  Haren is with us for another three or four years, Blanton another four, Loaiza another two.  Kennedy is likely gone next year, but  Windsor, Saarloos, Halsey, Gaudin are all in our control for the next few years.  Many of you know this roster and are trying to figure out whether we have enough this year and in the near future without Zito, and not counting on Harden.

But the name I haven't seen come up in discussions is Shane Komine.

He had a rough start to the season, after riding a nice comeback from Tommy John surgery to an Arizona Fall League appearance.  He was 3-7 and had a brutal 6.10 ERA at one point.

But over his last six starts in Sacramento:
40 IP
28 H
5 R
3 ER
1 HR
8 BB
36 K
0.68 ERA during that stretch

His record is now 8-7, his ERA is 4.17

He has been outpitching Windsor for over a month, and is back to being the guy the A's protected on the 40 man roster.  

He's a factor again, he's a factor in how the front office feels about what they have going forward.  Many of us have been hoping for a Dan Meyer resurgence, but a Shane Komine resurgence might accomplish the same thing by letting Beane safely trade away someone like Blanton, Windsor, Guadin, etc...

The Visalia Times Delta had a story in today's sports section about former local prep star (and 2004 A's first round draft pick) coming back to the park he played his high school games in.  Puff-piece article, but interesting if you are an A's prospect hound.

here is the article

and a quote:

"[Oakland farm director Keith Lieppman] wanted me not to worry too much about the statistics.

I've had a lot of bad luck with some well-hit balls.

They told me, as long as I'm hitting the ball well, you can't worry about what the numbers are," Robnett said. "I was kind of anxious at first, but I'm starting to slow down, and trying to take it one day at a time."

I posted this in the comments at athleticsminors.com and wanted to subsequently offer it here to anyone interested in some of my (not professional scout worthy) impressions of some of the A's best prospects at play in Visalia last night.

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the promo is Susan Schlesser(sp?)at the top of the hour and then Barry Zito at the bottom of the hour.

no idea if it will be interesting or not

Okay, I guess I'm supposed to do three hundred words or so minimum in order to make this an acceptable diary entry.

So, I'll type as quickly as I can in order to be able to post this ASAP.  This'll be another in the series of Hot Stove League shows where the offseason exploits will be discussed.

No word on whether Zito will be asked about his break-up with Alyssa Milano, though he certainly will be asked about being the remaining big dog in the A's rotation.

And they'll certainly start riffing on the Canseco stuff too.  So it's on now.  Come listen, I hope my diary has made the needed word minimum.

listen at 680AM or KNBR.com

this is what the message is saying to me:

One-line diaries are prohibited on Athletics Nation. Give your diary a bit more thought, then give it another shot. If you have nothing to add to your proposed diary, then it probably belongs as a comment under another appropriate thread.