Oakland A's News And Notes

The Oakland A’s are doing some last minute tinkering before Opening Day. Let’s look at what is going on.

A’s say goodbye to Jack Cust

Cust re-signed with the A’s in January for $2.65 million and less than three months later, he is unemployed again. The A’s designated Cust for assignment yesterday.

Cust is your classic “Moneyball” player. That means a guy who can’t play defense, hits a ton of home runs, walks a lot, and strikes out a ton. Over the last three years, Cust has 82 home runs, 309 walks, and 543 strikeouts.

But the A’s are moving away from those type of players and wanted to keep Jake Fox and Travis Buck on the roster, so Cust had to go. With Cust’s limited defensive ability, I am not sure how much interest Cust was garnering on the open market.

Eric Chavez to be primary DH

Yes, Chavez is still alive. To quote Simple Minds, not only is Chavez alive, but he is “Alive and Kicking.”

Chavez has played in a grand total of 121 games the last three years and now the A’s have dusted him off and Chavez will serve as the A’s’ primary DH for 2010. That probably says more about how bad the A’s will be offensively this year rather than how good Chavez has been this spring.

In case you are curious, Chavez went 11-47 this spring with two home runs. Thankfully for A’s fans, his six-year, $66 million contract expires at the end of the season.

Trevor Cahill placed on 15-day DL

Cahill was placed on the 15-day DL retroactive to March 26th with a sore left shoulder. I guess that would explain his 5.95 ERA this spring.

Gio Gonzalez will take Cahill’s spot in the rotation. The 24-year-old lefty had a very impressive spring posting a 2.96 ERA with 25 K’s in 24.1 IP.  However, Gonzalez does need to cut down on his walks to be an effective major league pitcher on a regular basis.

He had 13 in those 24.1 IP this spring. That won’t cut the mustard during the regular season.

Coco Crisp fractures finger

Crisp fractured his left pinkie finger sliding into second base during Friday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. Now he will start the season in the DL.

This won’t be Crisp’s first rodeo with a broken finger. He broke his finger as a member of the Boston Red Sox back in 2006.

The valuable appendage could take some time to heel, so who knows when Crisp will be able to return. Travis Buck will take Crisp’s spot in left while he is out.

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