Looking at some of the Pitching Stats from 2004, I noticed something interesting with regards to the Oakland A's Pitching Staff, and who was eventually traded, released, or long-term DL'd...

Rank   Player              OBA

1.     Kiko Calero         .176 (2004)
   
2.     Joe Blanton         .214 (8 Innings Only)
   
3.     Octavio Dotel       .217
   
4.     Juan Cruz           .224
   
5.     Jairo P. Garcia     .227
   
6.     Chad Bradford       .234
   
7.     Jim Mecir           .239
   
8.     Justin Duchscherer  .241
   
9.     Rich Harden         .242
   
10.    Ricardo Rincon      .256
    
11.    Barry Zito          .263
    
13.    Mark Mulder         .264
    
14.    Danny Haren         .265 (2004)
    
15.    Tim Hudson          .267
    
16.    Chris Hammond       .277
    
17.    Justin Lehr         .280
    
18.    Kirk Saarloos       .284
    
19.    Mark Redman         .292
    
20.    Arthur Rhodes       .293

Statistics can be a little deceiving at times, and this may be as well, but I found this stat to be pretty interesting - The bottom 6 players and bottom 7 of 8 in 2004 were either traded, released, or put on the 60-Day DL...Obviously, Mulder's stats were a bit skewed by his post all-star break, but a MLB Season is a 162 games long, so there you have it.

I'm sure walks had to be considered into Billy's decision making, but if you're not giving up hits with runners in scoring position, runners don't score runs, except for the occassional walk with the bases loaded.  In 2004, the A's offense had so much trouble scoring runs with runners in scoring position.  Getting pitching that keeps batters from getting hits, especially with runners in scoring position, looks to be a valued in the 2005 Season (and any other season, for that matter).

By the way:

Dan Meyer - Unknown OBA in AAA, however, 62 Hits Allowed in 61.1 Innings Pitched in AAA (Richmond)  

Something to discuss...