Quandary

The A's would like to activate Jim Mecir from the DL. Jim Mecir would like the A's to activate him from the DL. The DL would like the A's to activate Jim Mecir.

The problem is; who loses a roster spot?

The A's have outfitted Mecir with a new knee brace. The knee under the brace is beyond issue. Any attempt to fix the knee would require advanced technology and Jim Mecir simply does not make $6 million a year. So that whole bionic thing is out.

Complicating matters further is the fact all of the A's pitchers are out of options. Hmmm. That leads to a question we've long pondered. We'll gather some stats and figures, prepare to have your thinking hat on.

Who moves off the 25 man roster among the fielders?

Frank Menechino?

The A's would not have a reserve infielder.

Well, that means the A's have too many outfielders on the 25 man roster.

Duh.

If the A's aren't going to put Eirc Byrnes in the lineup, send him back to Sacramento. There's no sense in having Dave Hudgens further destroying Byrnes' swing and confidence. Have him stew in the Capitol City (hey, there's Tony Bennett!). Let him feast of AAA pitching for a few dyas until Mecir breaks down, again - or the A's move someone via the waiver wire.

Chris Singleton should have been in L.A. or Chicago by now, instead, he's still in Oakland.

After hitting two homeruns in two games (the only time he reached base in those two games) Terrence Long could be ripe for dangling o'er the waiver wire. Hopefully, teams will forget the horrible mispaly in leftfield last night that cost the A's three runs and possibly damaged Barry Zito's shaken confidence.

Speaking of which, the A's have held the AL's best offense (hey, wasn't that New York at the beginning of the year and then Toronto a little later?) to a measly zero runs in 18 innings. Sure, you can count the three run double, but if Long doesn't jump and merely reaches, he squeezes the third out of the inning and we're not having this discussion. Not a big surprise. Boston hit a snag in Baltimore over the weekend and having to fly cross country for a Monday night game is a cruel trick even by Kaiser Selig's office standards.

Adam Piatt...who the hell knows what the A's are going to do with this guy or what they should do, at this point.

Dangling Jermaine Dye around might have been an option a few weeks ago, but we've heard precious little on his 'progress'.

He's Got Ground Balls, They've Got Ground Balls

What can you expect from a pitching matchup between Derek Lowe and Mark Mulder? Ground balls to beat the band (which, is a lot, since the band doesn't even show with such a violent precursor).

Lowe almost laps the AL with a ground ball/flyball ratio of 4.15 (340/82). Tim Hudson is next with a ratio of 2.33 (343/147), followed by Roy Halladay at 2.30 (343/149) and Mark Mulder at 1.99 (307/154).

After the Hudson perfromance on Monday and the Zito offering last night, Mulder has his work cut out for himself. Ramon Hernandez will most likely catch and have the day off Thursday.