So the Outfield is in tatters and the bullpen is shaky.  We've tried to triage as best we could, but have done so by adding Braden, Buck, and Putnam from outside of the 40 man roster.  Now that we have no healthy CF on the ML roster, there will be implications if we want to add a good fielding CF to the roster.

Also, shaky performance of the bullpen to date gives rise to the question of what we could do there if we were so inclined.

We've already removed some of our AAAA roster filler by demoting Bocachica, Perez, and Thomas from the 40 man roster, so who else could/should go if we want to make further moves?  And how does it impact the future state of the 40 man roster?  

Here's our current 40 man roster:

Pitchers:
Blanton, Braden, Calero, Casilla, DiNardo, Duchscherer, Embree, Flores, Gaudin, Halsey, Harden, Haren, Kennedy, Komine, Loaiza, Marshall, McBeth, Meyer, Shafer, Street, Windsor, Witasick

Position Players:
Brown, Kendall, Melhuse, Chavez, Crosby, Ellis, DJ, Murphy, Scutaro, Walker, Bradley, Buck, Herrera, Kielty, Putnam, Stewart, Swisher, Piazza

60 day DL (not currently on 40 man roster):
Kotsay

Guys not on 40 man:
Bocachica, Antonio Perez, Stokes, Furmaniak, Mitchell, Charles Thomas, Stavisky, Barton, etc...

Additional guys in minors who we likely will want/need to add to roster for rule 5 draft at end of season:

Powell, Barton, Robnett, Mike Mitchell, Suzuki, Melillo, Gray?, Robertson?, Petit???

This is in addition to Windsor, Putnam, Braden, Buck who have been accelerated to having a presence on the 40 man.  So this season the future implications of protecting our young players is looming over the roster moves in a way which didn't happen last year due to the lackluster draft class we had in 2003.

So, here's what I see right now.

1. Javier Herrera is the only choice to come up and play CF for the A's without dropping someone off of the 40 man roster.  Problem is that Herrera is not ready to hit at all, as he is struggling to a .179/.286/.239 line in Stockton right now.

1A) Bring up McBeth to play CF and add another power arm to the pen.  A neat idea, though I think someone already asked the A's brass about this and they said they were not considering that at all.

2. McBeth, Flores, and Halsey are pitching the best out of the pen guys on our roster.  Shafer is out of sorts, Casilla has been just so so, Komine and Windsor are the other possibilities here.

But Embree and Marshall are probably just overworked, so adding Halsey or Flores, i.e. another lefty, seems less than ideal.  The right handers Witasick, Duke, and Calero seem like the big issue right now.  So McBeth might be an obvious choice.  But either we eat Witasick's salary, or D.L. Duke or Calero and drop someone else from the 40 man roster.

It seems like much of this hinges on the organization's feeling/plan as regards DiNardo.  Also what happens when/if Loaiza comes back, Kennedy, another lefty to the pen, or Gaudin to strengthen the pen but perhaps weaken the rotation.

3. If you put another OF on the DL to make room for someone else, that person would either be DJ which doesn't solve the defense situation, Herrera, or someone else who is not on the 40 man roster.

4. The guys who seem the most expendable right now: Shafer, Dinardo, Walker (once position players are a little more healthy), Witasick (if you eat the money), Jeremy Brown (because you have to put Suzuki on the 40 man at the end of the season anyway), Dan Meyer, or one of last year's Komine, Windsor, Casilla, Halsey, Flores grouping.

There's much more to all this, but I'll stop it here for now, already a long enough diary.