LEST THEY BE PURGED FROM THEIR FATES

Well, Ken Macha is thinking of moving Eric Chavez down in the order against lefthanders and moving Erubiel Durazo up in the order.

Gee, what would make him do that?

With Jermaine Dye returning with the club this weekend it makes for a roster shakeup of immense proportions.

Well, some proportions.

Dye may not come off the DL this weekend, essentially allowing Ron Gant and Adam Piatt to sing for their suppers.

Piatt has some trade value, but not enough that Billy Beane and the front office are willing to trade him now - at this time. Piatt has Triple Crown ability and getting a third lefty reliever isn’t what the A’s are after.

Gant has little to zero value for another team, and sending Gant down to Sacramento is ridiculous.

Sacramento does have several players who should be sniffing the clean laundry in Oakland right now.

At Bat

Batting Average/On Base Percentage/Slugging Percentage

Esteban German 2nd base: .325/.425/.407

Jason Grabowski Utility: .392/.451/.588

Billy McMillon Outfield: .333/.401/.556

Graham Koonce 1st base: .247/.371/.506

Dave McCarty 1st base: .297/.370/.584

Mike Lockwood Outfield: .400/.486/.633

On the Mound

Innings Pitched - Strike outs/Walks Earned Run Average

Jeremy Fikac RHP middle relief: 13 IP 17/5 1.38 ERA

Chad Harville RHP - Setup: 27.1 IP 20/11 2.63 ERA

Justin Duchscherer RHP – Starter: 45.2 IP 38/3 1.77 ERA

Rising Storm

Aaron Harang came in yesterday and threw four shut out innings after John Halama gave up homeruns as if they were infected SARS patients.

Everybody calm down.

Eeyore came in and threw four innings of shut out ball. The Twins have not seen Harang in a very long time, so really, Harang was essentially pitching against himself. As long as he didn't do anything stupid (like leave balls out over the plate - Halama) he was going to do fine.

The twitching and shrugging about inserting Harang into the fifth spot doesn't make much sense when the 4th spot in the rotation is the bigger question mark.

Spoiled Rotten

As A's fans we’ve become a little spoiled when it comes to performance. Expecting your fifth starter to be Mulder, Hudson, Zito is a little overboard. A fifth starter is a fifth starter for a reason, they can't cut it as a 1-2-3 or 4 guy. At best John Halama is a fourth starter...unless we're talking Texas or Tampa Bay then he might be a 3rd starter.

No Lilly-Hammer

What really is an issue is Ted Lilly's inability to throw a fourth pitch that mixes well with his other three pitches. Lilly has a good changeup, decent fastball and a crisp curveball. He throws a cutter, but not effectively. It is an off-speed pitch that doesn't bode well. When three of your four pitches are off-speed, hitters can wait and simply time the delivery and guess location.

Ted Lilly needs to get a splitter working or develop some sink on his fastball. He's a flyball pitcher and he does not change speeds well enough to pitch into the 7th.

Too often, Lilly is ahead in the count and has two strikes. He then falls behind and loses hitters.

By the third inning the rightfield bleachers are muttering, "he's wasting too many pitches".

The difference between Mark Mulder and Ted Lilly is essentially attitude. Mulder will go after hitters because he knows he has an assortment of pitches that will keep the hitter guessing. Lilly is passive aggressive hoping hitters will strike themselves out guessing on the speed of the next pitch.

While Lilly's walk total is only 21 (K/BB of 2.10), the number of walks he gives up with two strikes is rather alarming...14 walks and 8 strikeouts. Which is really the difference of a single pitch.

Two thirds of Ted Lilly's bases on balls come with two strikes on the hitter.

Picky

We could throw in that on four different occasions Lilly has had a runner at first picked of and three times the runner advanced to second. Twice on bad throws by Scott Hatteberg and once a bad call by the umpire in the field.

Lilly does have a good pick off move, but once the shoulders are turned and the runner is frozen, the pitcher can come off the mound and run right at the runner. There' really no point throwing to first once the runner is caught. Especially if Scott Hatteberg is still reluctant to throw down to second.