WOW

Ted Lilly is pitching in a 7-2 ball game in Detroit. He came in the game in the 8th inning. Lilly has lost his spot in the rotation.

Sort of.

The A's have altered their rotation and officailly skipped Lilly in the rotation. He's basically the 5th man in the rotation and that could still change.

The Red Sox claimed David McCarty off of waivers.

It will be interesting to see if the A's and Sox try to work out a deal.

ROB NEYER'S TWO CENTS

Rob Neyer has his two cents on the Scott Hatteberg signing last week. It just so happens he had it with William Lamar Beane.

Lucky bastard.

Plus, Rob had two more pennies on Jose Guillen:

COMING OUT OF NOWHERE

July 30
"The story about the Jose Guillen trade says this has been "a breakout season" for Guillen, which is a little bit like saying Bull Durham is Kevin Costner's best movie. Entering this season, Guillen had played 614 games in the major leagues, and his OBP was barely above .300 while his slugging percentage was barely short of .400. When you're a 26-year-old right fielder in the 21st century, those numbers aren't nearly good enough.


And yet, here he is in late July with a .385 OBP and a .629 slugging percentage. Is Jose Guillen for real? The A's must think that the new Guillen is the real Guillen, which is interesting because they're also hoping that the new Miguel Tejada and the new Scott Hatteberg aren't the real things."

Peter Gammons also has some stuff on the A's that makes some feel vindicated:

"Somewhere, maybe in halls of the old guard, there is remaining resentment that a 29-year-old Yale graduate could be running the Boston Red Sox. But there is an old guard that seems to resent a lot these days. Wasn't Beane supposed to have trouble making a trade because of "Moneyball" (which some dopes still think he wrote)? Beane got Jose Guillen and was right on the cusp of several other deals. Weren't Cashman and ex-Reds GM Jim Bowden supposed to be too young when they took over, and didn't each turn out to be extremely creative and successful (Tampa Bay: take note)?...

All of a sudden, Barry Zito is Oakland's fourth starter. Consider these numbers from their most recent starts:

Mark Mulder touched every number on the radar gun from 69 to 95 mph.

Tim Hudson touched every number from 78 to 95.

Rich Harden touched every number from 82 to 99.

So how, as a hitter, do you time and square anything? Ask the pitchers and they give a great deal of credit to the game's most underrated catcher, Ramon Hernandez. When the all-star ballots were distributed, the A's pitchers asked the players to all vote for Hernandez because of the way he handles them.


How good? In his last two starts, Ted Lilly has been banned from shaking off Hernandez. Result? Two good starts...

After being traded for one another, Kevin Appier and Mo Vaughn will be paid a combined total of $43.7 million by the Angels and Mets not to play for them, $300,000 more than the entire 2003 payroll of the Oakland Athletics.

Yes, the A's actually saved money on the Guillen deal. And what does it say about Raul Mondesi that the Blue Jays and Yankees are paying a combined $12 million not to have him around?"