After the A’s dispatched the Dodgers 7-4 Sunday, the club sent down second baseman Jemile Weeks and outfielder Shane Peterson.
Those were tough cuts, with Peterson hitting .408 and Weeks hitting .370.
It’s not going to get any easier, but some of the players who will make the team aren’t going to have numbers anywhere close to the numbers of the players just sent down.
The initial impression brought on by Nate Freiman’s first morning in the A’s camp is that the Warriors missed out on a good bet.
This guy has a power forward’s body.
It’s yet to be proven if he’s the right-handed power hitter the A’s need as an option to the left-handed Brandon Moss at first base, but spring is all about optimism, right?
One of the great things about sports in general and baseball in particular is how quickly things can change.
A’s manager Bob Melvin went through a Q-and-A about his first base situation about 45 minutes ago, saying he would be comfortable having left-handed hitting Brandon Moss as his only true first baseman.
But, he added, the club is always looking “to see what pops up.’’
Oakland got some good news during the A’s 4-all tie with the White Sox Friday night.
Josh Reddick came out of the game after suffering a sprained left ankle in the second inning. However, Reddick left Phoenix Municipal Stadium under his own power saying he thought he’d be fine.
For those of us trying our hands at covering baseball, among the things you can count on is the absolute day-and-night nature of the sport from spring training to the regular season.
Tonight, the Oakland A’s play their only Cactus League night game of the season. It means a break from having the alarm going off before the sun rises, and a welcome break it is indeed.
Once the season starts, nine of Oakland’s first 11 games will be at night, and that’s the way it will be for most of the 162-game schedule. Plenty of time to stay up late and to sleep in, unless you have a flight to catch that day.
While the night game will be the coin of the realm once the season starts, it’s an anomaly right now, and it takes a little getting used to.
So if you expected to get a blog post this morning, well, blame it on the night game.
Actually, while spring training day games and day workouts appeal to player and manager both, they could probably use more work at night in Arizona to get used to the lights under which they will work most of the season.
A’s manager Bob Melvin said he’s happy at least that two of the three games at next week’s Bay Bridge Series against the San Francisco Giants are under the lights.
“It’s good we have those two games in San Francisco to get acclimated,’’ Melvin said. The games Thursday and Friday in AT&T Park are under the lights, while the Saturday game in Oakland is a 1:05 contest.
One of the things about a job like mine is there are questions you hate to ask, only because were the roles reversed, you’d hate to have them asked of you.
I say this today because I spent 30 minutes or so talking with Pat Neshek of the A’s this morning, Neshek and his wife, Stephanee, lost their son, Gehrig John, just 23 hours after he was born last Oct. 2.
One thing this spring has already proven is that it’s not going to be easy for Hiroyuki Nakajima.
He’s in his first year in the U.S. from Japan, and he just doesn’t look comfortable eiher at shortstop or at the plate. How soon he does will determine when, or even if, he claims the starting shortstop job for which the A’s signed him.
