Oakland Athletics

We go to the 6th, A's 5, Rangers 2. Bartolo Colon pitching stellar. Lindblom out, Rangers pen the rest of the way. Our big hitters are coming through so far. Sogard HR watchers remain unfulfilled.

Fueled by Tex-Mex, Bartolo Colon takes the mound against Josh Lindblom (who?) in Arlington. Welcome to another edition of A's baseball! The A's lost a hard-fought series against the Rangers last week, with the extra inning backbreaker in Game 2 proving decisive. After that, AN collectively demanded that heads roll. Billy Beane happily obliged, cutting game 2 loser Chris Resop (2 HRs in the 10th inning) and Daric "Zombie" Barton. They were ably replaced by Hideki Okajima and Chris Young. A pretty substantial upgrade by anyone's measure. The A's outfield looks much better than it did in that series, with Coco Crisp and Chris Young back in action. Plus, Yoenis Cespedes seems to be finding his stroke again. Hopefully he will draw a walk from the inexperienced Josh Lindblom. I expect him to be pitched carefully given that the Arlington winds in the Rangers-Tigers series were carrying flyballs all the way to Dallas. Eric Sogard also has picked up his production with the bat, going 4-7 with 3 doubles in his last 3 games. He's coming to the site of one of his four MLB home runs so perhaps he can get lucky. The Rangers are hitting the cover off the ball but with Matt Harrison and Alexi Ogando on the disabled list, their starting pitching is suspect. Lindblom has spent his two-year MLB career as a reliever in the National League and has just been called up from AAA to start tonight. From Evan Grant at the Dallas Morning News: Rangers RHP Josh Lindblom (first MLB start of 2013) has transitioned well from relief work to the rotation while at Triple-A Round Rock. After a poor spring that saw him lose a spot in the Rangers’ bullpen, Lindblom has been able to get the ball down in the strike zone. The results: a 4-0 record and 2.08 ERA for the Express. He held Triple-A hitters to a .173 average. If he gets the ball up, watch out for homers. He allowed 13 in 71 major league innings in 2012. Bartolo Colon has also been prone to the longball recently, giving up 5 homers in his last three starts. The key to his start may be going to his secondary pitches slightly more often, and of course, keeping the ball down. I expect both starters will have a tough time with two solid lineups and perfect hitting conditions. But I'll take my chances with the fat, jolly veteran over the youngster up from AAA making his first big league start. The biggest news, however, is that certified A's killer Ian Kinsler is injured, paving the way for mega-prospect Jurickson Profar to start at 2B, batting 9th. Lots of fans around baseball will likely be tuning into Profar's first start in 2013. Here are the lineups. Time for revenge! 5:05pm Athletics (B. Colon - R) @ Rangers (J. Lindblom - R) Gametime Forecast: 86°F • Clear • 2%PoP 1. Coco Crisp (S) CF 2. Jed Lowrie (S) SS 3. Yoenis Cespedes (R) LF 4. Brandon Moss (L) 1B 5. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 6. Seth Smith (L) DH 7. Chris Young (R) RF 8. Derek Norris (R) C 9. Eric Sogard (L) 2B 1. Elvis Andrus (R) SS 2. David Murphy (L) LF 3. Lance Berkman (S) DH 4. Adrian Beltre (R) 3B 5. Nelson Cruz (R) RF 6. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B 7. Geovany Soto (R) C 8. Leonys Martin (L) CF 9. Jurickson Profar (S) 2B

The Merc’s Internal Affairs folks probably got a chuckle last week when Dan Orum, the San Jose Giants’ CEO since 2012, sent the paper an email criticizing them for their coverage of the Stand for San Jose lawsuit. After Orem’s missive, IA decided to look into the case to confirm Orum’s suggestion that the team was not a plaintiff in the suit. Turns out that the Giants were an original plaintiff in the lawsuit, which has everyone scratching their heads about what Orum’s intent was. Orum became CEO of the Giants only six weeks after the lawsuit was filed, so unless someone forgot to give him a memo or two, he should be well acquainted with the basics of the case. He was brought in to beef up sponsorships, and he may be running into resistance by local South Bay companies who are rightly confused about the little Giants’ role in the case. If Orum could somehow distance the team from the lawsuit, companies could be less reticent to commit. Of course, the paper had to go and muck that up. The SJ Giants are already in a tough spot trying to get breaks on a lease extension at Municipal Stadium, similar to the A’s current situation in Oakland. Thankfully the lawsuit will be underway shortly, so there’s hope that much of the confusion (and frankly, obfuscation) will be cleared up through the normal legal process. As the teams and public entities continue talks into the offseason, we’ll see which parties want to be partners and which ones prefer to be adversaries.

Right-hander Chris Resop cleared waivers Monday and was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento, three days after the A's designated him for assignment.

Every lineup, every day, as they are made public by the clubs.

There have been an awful lot of comings and goings in the A's system over the past week or so, as always seems to be the case about this time of year. Lefty Hideki Okajima was promoted from the River Cats' staff to the A's bullpen, while perennial prospect Michael Taylor was forced to make another return trip to Sacramento. And with Jeremy Barfield laying claim to a spot in the River Cats' outfield, Conner Crumbliss was shipped back to Midland, where he'll be joined in the outfield by Josh Whitaker, who was recently promoted from Stockton. Meanwhile, righty Josh Bowman was shipped back to Stockton, where it looks like he'll be joined in the rotation by former 1st-round draft pick James Simmons, who already made his first start for the Ports this week. And those are just some of the A's prospects who've been on the move recently! You can get daily updates on all the A's top prospects on my Athletics Farm blog and lots more details on the last week of A's minor league action right here on Athletics Nation... SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS (Triple-A Pacific Coast League) Record This Week: 4-2 Record This Season: 24-19 Outfielders Michael Choice and Shane Peterson have really been anchoring the River Cats lineup for most of the year. Choice leads the team in home runs and RBIs while Peterson leads the team in walks and OBP. Choice had been playing strictly in center field, but he's recently begun getting some starts in right field as well. And one has to wonder if the A's might be prepping him just in case right fielder Josh Reddick's absence lingers for too long. Jeremy Barfield filled out the outfield picture when he arrived from Midland a little over a week ago, and he's been fitting right in, batting .310 with a pair of home runs in his first 9 games with Sacramento. Combined with his 8 home runs at Midland, Barfield now leads all A's minor leaguers in home runs with a total of 10. Things got a little more crowded in the outfield when Michael Taylor returned to Sacramento this week and, with Barfield playing well, the A's decided to ship Conner Crumbliss back down to Midland. If first baseman Daric Barton ends up clearing waivers, the team might need to make room on the River Cats' roster for him before long too. Meanwhile, in his first 10 games with Sacramento, shortstop Hiro Nakajima is hitting just .237. With Hideki Okajima's recall by the A's this week, RHP Dan Otero is the only real standout in the River Cats' bullpen at this point, having allowed just 1 walk and 1 run over his first 15 appearances while notching 10 saves. Sonny Gray has been the clear standout amongst the starting staff, posting an ERA of 2.47 while allowing no home runs and striking out 38 in 43 2/3 innings of work. But starters Bruce Billings, Andrew Werner and Justin Thomas all stepped up with impressive performances for Sacramento this week. Top Cats: C Stephen Vogt (6 HR / 15 BB / 20 K / .338 AVG / .403 OBP / .579 SLG / .982 OPS) OF Michael Choice (8 HR / 26 BB / 35 K / .288 AVG / .396 OBP / .484 SLG / .879 OPS) OF Shane Peterson (3 HR / 33 BB / 34 K / .288 AVG / .426 OBP / .424 SLG / .850 OPS) 3B Scott Moore (4 HR / 18 BB / 31 K / .270 AVG / .367 OBP / .452 SLG / .819 OPS) RHP Sonny Gray (43 2/3 IP / 39 H / 12 ER / 0 HR / 19 BB / 38 K / 2.47 ERA / 1.33 WHIP) RHP Dan Otero (18 IP / 10 H / 1 ER / 0 HR / 1 BB / 14 K / 0.50 ERA / 0.61 WHIP / 10 SV) MIDLAND ROCKHOUNDS (Double-A Texas League) Record This Week: 3-4 Record This Season: 20-23 First baseman Anthony Aliotti, who has been one of the most consistent hitters in the A's sytem this year, had a career night on Saturday, collecting 3 home runs and 8 RBIs for the RockHounds. Aliotti now leads all A's minor leaguers in hits, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. And if Daric Barton doesn't clear waivers and end up back at Sacramento, it might finally be time for the A's to give Aliotti a shot to show what he can do in Triple-A. Outfielder Chad Oberacker's been the

Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports It’s no secret that the Oakland Athletics will only go as far as Yoenis Cespedes takes them, and his bat lifted them to victory on Sunday afternoon. The A’s won the third game of a weekend series against the Kansas City Royals 4-3, wrapping up a sweep in the process and pushing the A’s back over the .500 mark at 23-22. Cespedes, whose average had dipped below the .200 mark heading into Sunday’s game, ended up 2-4 with two runs scored. His go-ahead home run in the eighth put the A’s on top for good. With the recent rash of injuries dealt to Oakland’s outfield crew of Coco Crisp, Chris Young and Josh Reddick, Cespedes seemed to have been struggling with the burden of carrying the entire offense on his shoulders — hence his average heading south of the Mendoza line. However, he had a hit Saturday night and two more on Sunday, so perhaps he’s grown more comfortable at the plate. The A’s will open a series on Monday night in Arlington with the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, and their cause would be aided greatly by a productive Cespedes mashing balls all over the hitter-friendly confines of the Ballpark in Arlington. Crisp and Young are healthy and back in the A’s lineup, and it’s easy to see that their presence helped the A’s win all three games of this weekend set. Crisp is key particularly, as his leadoff skills allow hitters such as Jed Lowrie and John Jaso to assume their regular spots in the lineup (Lowrie seems to be most productive out of the two-hole). But as always, it all goes back to Cespedes, and hopefully Sunday’s game was a sign that he’ll start heating up soon. Adrian Garro is an Oakland Athletics writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and/or add him to your network on Google.

Since their hot start, the A’s have had a rough few weeks.  They were 12-4, and ended up falling as far as two games under the .500 mark.  Now, with this weekend’s sweep of the Kansas City Royals the A’s are 23-22 and appear as if they may have turned things around.  And the timing is important as they embark on a road trip through Texas to visit the Rangers and the Astros, and play a 4 game home and home series next week versus the cross-bay rival San Francisco Giants. May 19, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics left fielder Yoenis Cespedes (52), shortstop Jed Lowrie (8), pitcher Adam Rosales (17) and first base Brandon Moss (37) celebrate after the game against the Kansas City Royals at O.co Coliseum. Oakland won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports Needless to say the returns of both Coco Crisp and Chris Young give an exponential boost of legitimacy to the everyday lineup.  It may be a harsh truth but a lineup featuring Michael Taylor and Luke Montz with any level of frequency above the occasional rest days for the regulars is not indicative of a contending team.  That’s not to say they can’t possibly be useful parts of a contending team, but in complementary roles only.  Having 3/4 of the original starting outfield back has, and will continue to pay dividends for the team. The starting pitching may finally be coming around as well.  Despite the announcement Friday that Brett Anderson had a stress fracture in his foot and would miss an extended period of time, the starting pitching showed signs of life this weekend.  Jarrod Parker turned in his strongest start of the season Friday night against James Shields, Tommy Milone gutted out 6 effective innings when he clearly was struggling, and despite not being on his best A.J. Griffin kept the A’s in the game so they could come back and complete the sweep of the Royals.  The A’s will need those three to carry the load in Anderson’s absence, and at this point relying on his return and effectiveness upon that return would be foolish. Josh Donaldson is playing at an All-Star level.  Not a “well the Athletics have to get one representative so it might as well be him” level, but a legitimate All-Star level.  Through Saturday’s game, Donaldson ranked in the top 10 in the AL with a 1.9 WAR, that’s not AL third baseman, that’s AL position players.  He’s in elite company there.  His 152 wRC+ ranks only behind Miguel Cabrera and Evan Longoria at third base.  His .323/.393/.544 slash line compares favorably with just about anyone in the AL not named Miguel Cabrera.  He may get shunned from the All Star Game due to a lack of name recognition, but at this point he undoubtedly deserves a spot. Perhaps the biggest reason for short term optimism though is the fact that Yoenis Cespedes may be primed for a breakout.  Watching him in person on Friday night, the ball is jumping off his bat again.  Even when he’s making outs, he’s starting to make hard contact.  His .202 BABIP screams of bad luck.  While he hasn’t been making solid contact this year either, bad fortune hasn’t helped the cause.  If that BABIP starts to climb, he can carry the A’s back to the level where they were. This upcoming three game set with the Texas Rangers in Arlington will be a big test for the Athletics on their path back into the upper echelon of the American League.  They will have to contend with one of the best pitchers in the AL right now in Yu Darvish on Tuesday night, both Yu and the A’s love strikeouts so making contact will come at a premium that night.  If the A’s can take game 1 of the series against Josh Lindblom, that will do wonders for their chances to take this series.  In case you forgot, the last time we saw Lindblom he was walking off field in Oakland after Yoenis Cespedes sent a rocket down the left field line for a 3-run walk off home run to complete a sweep

On Monday, Josh Lindblom, 25, will toe the rubber in a big league game for the first time as a starter, when he and the Rangers take on Bartolo Colon and the A's at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Top-rated prospect Jurickson Profar is also expected to start for the Rangers.

Josh Donaldson went diving over the tarp in foul territory behind third base in what turned out to be a futile pursuit of a ninth inning foul ball that, if caught, would have ended Sunday’s game. The batter, Mike Moustakas, grounded out to end it a few moments later, but Donaldson said he had no [...]