A's DL Casilla and call-up Petit

by athleticsBB4life on May 16, 2008 12:57 PM PDT

OAKLAND -- The Oakland A's today recalled infielder Gregorio Petit from Triple-A Sacramento and placed right-handed pitcher Santiago Casilla on the 15-day disabled list with soreness in his right elbow.

Petit was batting .304 with no home runs and 15 RBI in 37 games with Sacramento this year, all at shortstop. He was leading the River Cats in hits (45) and doubles (12) and his batting average was sixth best in the A's farm system. The 23-year old native of Venezuela had a .448 (13 for 29) batting average with runners in scoring position and made 19 starts in the leadoff spot. Petit was signed by the A's as a non-drafted free agent on July 17, 2001 and will be making his Major League debut.

Casilla was 2-0 with a save and a 0.93 ERA in 21 relief appearances with the A's. He left the game yesterday in Cleveland after allowing a home run to the only batter he faced, Jhonny Peralta to lead off the seventh inning. Casilla is tied for second among American League relievers in appearances (21), tied for third in strikeouts (22) and tied for fourth in ERA.

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Buck.

Is he being punished for something? The guy was supposed to be the starting RF regardless of his struggles. Why is he still down in AAA?

What about Barry?
"Barry who?" Forst said, and I felt like I was in the middle of a knock-knock joke.

by KMoAsFan on May 16, 2008 1:14 PM PDT 0 recs

why not. We have too many outfielders, and Ellis must not be 100% yet

by theblackpearl on May 16, 2008 1:16 PM PDT up 0 recs

Buck doesn't play SS.

stat-addled alien overlord

by salb918 on May 16, 2008 1:17 PM PDT up 0 recs

He's being punished for "having too much time on his service clock"

See my article of yesterday. If the A’s keep him down until the end of the month, they will have him for an extra year before free agency.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 1:38 PM PDT up 0 recs

That was an excellent point:

where did you find that knowledge, as far as contracts go and the such?

by passionately objective on May 16, 2008 2:17 PM PDT up 0 recs

Cot's is the best I've found

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/

But they don’t update service time mid-season. Still though, it’s not too tough to add the days yourself.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 16, 2008 2:27 PM PDT up 0 recs

Indeed

Cot’s is the happening place for service time questions, unless you’re looking at a player who’s bounced up and down a bunch over a season… in which case you might have to do it by hand (ugh).

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 3:24 PM PDT up 0 recs

in last night's game in Sacramento

Buck was playing centerfield, and gonzalez was in right field. He threw out a runner at home last night, apparently his second assist with the Rivercats.

by OaklandSi on May 16, 2008 1:49 PM PDT up 0 recs

Petit...

should start at SS, just to put a little scare into Crosby

"just a beating heart ... plasma that we'll put into our uniform." - Billy Beane

by athleticsBB4life on May 16, 2008 1:27 PM PDT 0 recs

The A's defense would be better with him at short and Crosby at second

but I suspect he will get Peraltaed and the A’s D will suffer unnecessarily.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 1:40 PM PDT up 0 recs

There's an interesting discussion about this on minorleagueball.com

concerning Hairston/Phillips in Cincy.

Just because the defense, in the perfect video game world, might be better by moving Crosby it doesn’t make it the right move (and it doesn’t mean both players will perform that way).

You might disagree, but check out the comment I posted regarding that situation because I think the same thing applies.

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/5/15/509952/don-t-understand-dusty-bak#comments

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 16, 2008 2:30 PM PDT up 0 recs

League average OPS in the AL is 720.

League average OPS in Oakland is 698. Bobby Crosby’s OPS is 703.

ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524

by rfloh on May 16, 2008 2:02 PM PDT up 0 recs

The expected move

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

by Zonis on May 16, 2008 1:40 PM PDT 0 recs

I thought this would happen

particularly since Petit didn’t play in Sacramento’s game last night.

by OaklandSi on May 16, 2008 1:50 PM PDT up 0 recs

A's could have a big infusion of talent come the end of the month

Chavez, CarGon and Buck, with Petit also being a possibility of Crosby keeps struggling and Beane lets go his mancrush on Bones.

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

by Zonis on May 16, 2008 2:16 PM PDT 0 recs

Gonzalez

is slumping badly in AAA. Don’t hold your breath just yet.

by Crosbino on May 17, 2008 8:03 AM PDT up 0 recs

not saturday night he wasn't

actually, it appears that he’s more affected by his stop-start AAA campaign, due to injuries, than a slump per se.

by OaklandSi on May 18, 2008 12:15 PM PDT up 0 recs

Welcome to bigs Gregorio!

by mrfox on May 16, 2008 2:19 PM PDT 0 recs

Petit vs. Buck?

Other than the very good point of money, Buck has been pretty miserable in AAA if I’m not mistaken, and Petit has been doing pretty well.

Also, the A’s have 2,324,324,234 OFs and only .28 INFs.

by passionately objective on May 16, 2008 2:20 PM PDT 0 recs

But Petit has a .741 OPS and Buck has a .692 OPS. And Buck has been heating up lately. Looks to me like he’s finally turned it around. He’s only played in 11 games there, and he has 9 of his 11 hits in the past 6 games. So, basically, once he got the rust off from so much time off, he’s been hitting the crap out of the ball. Petit just doesn’t impress me at all. For what it’s worth, he’s not in John Sickels’ top THIRTY A’s prospects. And I can see why. His upside is Rey Ordonez.

Petit also has 11 errors (which I know doesn’t mean a lot, necessarily, but that’s a LOT of errors).

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 16, 2008 2:35 PM PDT up 0 recs

I am too lazy to look, but I would like to know the ratio of throwing, vs fielding errors?

The Rivercats don’t exactly have GG caliber defensive 1st baseman, and he has abnormally good range, and can get errors where most won’t even touch the ball, and he will learn, to eat it more.

by theblackpearl on May 16, 2008 2:44 PM PDT up 0 recs

He seems to be a polarizing prospect

BA had him at, what, #14 I think?

Pretty wide gap between that and not even in the top 30. Ordinarily I’m on the stats side of these arguments, but not when it comes to minor league defense.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 3:30 PM PDT up 0 recs

Yeah, agree on the minor league defense

To use a current player, how do you think his upside compares to Adam Everett? Maybe I’m underestimating his offensive possibilities, but I think people are probably overestimating his defense.

If he can turn into Everett (at least pre-injury Everett), he’s a quality major league starter. But Everett is one of the best defensive shortstops of all time. I think it’s silly to think a minor leaguer is going to be the best anything ever.

I still don't understand why they call up Petit if they dont plan to play him everyday.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 17, 2008 2:08 PM PDT up 0 recs

That was weird

I have no idea why it turned my last paragraph into that gray box thing.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 17, 2008 2:09 PM PDT up 0 recs

HIs upside is Adam Everett, yes

How likely is he to reach that? I dunno.

I definitely think you’re underestimating his offensive possibilities. He’s not going to be a mid-order slugger, but he has the ability to hit for å high average. If a guy is hitting .300 in AAA at age 23, he has legitimate offensive upside.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 17, 2008 8:09 PM PDT up 0 recs

I don't think Everett's a good comparison

In terms of total value, his upside is probably along the lines of Everett, yeah, but like Paul said, Petit has legitimate offensive upside. Everett’s never hit worth a lick. His entire value is in his defense.

Petit strikes me as someone who could develop into a player with 80% of Everett’s defense and 120% of his offense. Or thereabouts. Petit may be a stretch as a regular when all is said and done, but I think he’ll be at least a quality utility guy.

RagingHarden: Yeah if you get 20 starts out of me I'll be shocked. Like, I'll wreck my drawers.

by walk off bunt on May 18, 2008 2:39 AM PDT up 0 recs

Yahoo sports player profile of Barton ......

Says Urban is reporting Daric may play third during Inter-league play..Yikes!

by HRH on May 16, 2008 2:28 PM PDT 0 recs

Do we know that's a bad idea?

He seems to have decent range at first. His bad plays have all been goofy, boneheaded plays. It’s not like a popup at first is easier than at third. The real question is whether he can throw.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 16, 2008 2:36 PM PDT up 0 recs

He played 3rd in Sacramento, and had something like 9 errors in 20 games, or some

astronomical number.

by theblackpearl on May 16, 2008 2:45 PM PDT up 0 recs

That is what I was referring to - Yikes

by HRH on May 16, 2008 2:49 PM PDT up 0 recs

Oh, that's not good. THat's not good at all.

If he were mashing right now, I’d say they could maybe live with it. He’s not. Actually, Hannahan is performing better at this point. That will absolutely not last, but may as well go with it for now.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 16, 2008 3:04 PM PDT up 0 recs

He's not going to play over Hannahan there,

the idea is if we ran out of players in NL parks, (like phing Sweeney or Thomas for Hannahan), he might play there for the last inning(s).

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on May 16, 2008 3:10 PM PDT up 0 recs

He was given a try at 3rd in the minors because he was a horrible catcher.

He couldn’t cut it there. He also couldn’t cut it in left field, which is why they put him at 1b

by mikev on May 16, 2008 2:48 PM PDT up 0 recs

We already know what happens when he tries the throw across the diamond in the other direction...

...and the results aren’t pretty.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on May 16, 2008 3:10 PM PDT up 0 recs

he was quoted as saying that if he catches the ball

playing third, he can throw to first—but his problem is catching the ball.

by OaklandSi on May 16, 2008 4:25 PM PDT up 0 recs

once the

considered by some the best hitting prospect in the minor leagues…...Barton is looking like Ben Grieve without the great rookie year.

"The two of them deserve each other. One's a born liar, the other's convicted."

by SwampyD on May 16, 2008 2:51 PM PDT 0 recs

Oh, come on

You know what Adam Jones’s OPS is right now? .654.

Adam Jones, the guy I said I would trade Joe Blanton for, straight up, over the offseason.

I would still make that trade. Playing crummy for a month and a half does not mean a guy’s skills have evaporated. At this time last season Barton had like a .600 OPS in AAA.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 3:47 PM PDT up 0 recs

I was just thinking earlier today about Barton's AAA season last year

We were all upset at how badly he was playing, and then he went on Berkmanesque tear for, what, about a month?

He may just be a very streaky hitter at this point in his career. He clearly has plenty of talent. My only worry is that his hand injury is still bothering him—it’s exactly the kind of thing the A’s have guarded as a state secret under Beane.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on May 16, 2008 3:52 PM PDT up 0 recs

Yeah

He was bad in April and August last year, OK in May and July, and ZOMG insane in June and September.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 4:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

Barton hasn't even been BAD for a month and a half

It’s been more like a month. In the past 28 days he’s had 89 PA: .207/.270/.317

Before that, .246/..383/..338. Not anything great, but he was actually getting on base and was still useful. What I think happened is at that point he had no home runs, 4 doubles, and 1 triple. I think he started trying to hit the ball harder and farther and although he has hit a couple home runs since then, everything else has gone down.

He’ll be fine. It just amazes me how short-sighted people can be. Does nobody remember two weeks ago when everybody said some of this same stuff about Jack Cust? Guys slump. It happens.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 17, 2008 1:58 PM PDT up 0 recs

Someone needs to take him aside and tell him the home runs will come,

but stop trying to hit one every at bat.

by OldhamA on May 17, 2008 3:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

once the

i want to go home I’m tired.

"The two of them deserve each other. One's a born liar, the other's convicted."

by SwampyD on May 16, 2008 2:53 PM PDT 0 recs

Figures

I add Casilla to Fantasy team (Isringhausen is slumping big time and there weren’t many saves out there) and he promptly gets hurt.

i also dropped Andruw Jones and then he hit a HR. JERKS!

You have to include smiley faces - Poppy
;- ) :- ) :-O : -> : -] : -}

by micdog2001 on May 16, 2008 3:25 PM PDT 0 recs

please quit playing fantasy

thx.

by mikev on May 16, 2008 11:12 PM PDT up 0 recs

Any other news on Casilla?

To hear some AN’ers in the game thread describe it yesterday, you’d of thought his arm flew off. Somebody said “60 day DL for sure,” another said it looked like Tommy John surgery. Wow. We do tend to over-react … myself included. Hopefully, it isn’t too severe.

I needed a team so I wouldn’t turn into one of the eighty million pink hat-wearing Bud Light-drinking mulleted idiots at Fenway.

by Vacafan on May 16, 2008 3:25 PM PDT 0 recs

Forearm/elbow strain for pitcher

= very, very, very bad thing. The fact that it hasn’t been announced yet means very little, because it typically takes some time—potentially a month or more—to figure out the extent of elbow damage. It may be a Pat Neshek situation where they’re unsure of whether he needs TJS or not. Or if they’re incredibly lucky, the injury might heal on its own.

TJS isn’t something where you just waltz right into the OR. If the med staff is even vaguely competent they will be having him looked at by specialists and getting second (and maybe third) opinions.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 16, 2008 3:39 PM PDT up 0 recs

I partied in TJ once

and I waltzed right into the hospital.

Eveland rocks! Eveland rocks! Somewhere Drew Carey just smiled.

by miggyk2 on May 16, 2008 3:49 PM PDT up 0 recs

I partied in TJ once

and waltzed right into jail.

I'll try not to swear.

by Tony on May 16, 2008 3:53 PM PDT up 0 recs

Nice Party Bitches!!!!!!

by theblackpearl on May 16, 2008 3:55 PM PDT up 0 recs

Casilla was in ATL tonight.

They had him jogging around during BP and he was tossing up balls and hitting them back to the retriever in center field. It didn’t seem like he was overly cautious or favoring his arm too much. I’m not sure that the elbow in jury is something that doesn’t bother when you aren’t throwing, but he looked a lot better today than I thought he would. Either way, I guess it would be a no brainer for the A’s to send him down I-20 to go talk to James Andrews over the weekend. I think we are really going to miss this guy. When Embree came in tonight to face Chipper, Tex, and Frenchi I couldn’t help but think that was the perfect situation for Casilla to come in.

What about Barry?
"Barry who?" Forst said, and I felt like I was in the middle of a knock-knock joke.

by KMoAsFan on May 16, 2008 11:19 PM PDT up 0 recs

re

I don’t want to be a dick, but do people not realize Crosby is one of the best defensive players in baseball? He is. He’s a very good player if he hits league average, which is about where he is right now. I don’t understand this Petit fantasy right now, when Cros is getting the job done. Offense is way way down in the AL. Everybody’s raw numbers look more shit than they are.

by 31Boots on May 16, 2008 6:53 PM PDT 0 recs

People don't realize that because it's not true

Well, I guess in a sense it is. He does play shortstop with some competency. That basically makes him better than every 1B/2B/3B. But it’s not like he’s a great defensive shortstop. I don’t think he’s in the top half in the league.

2007 UZR: -22 Runs per 150 games
2006 UZR: -1 Runs per 150 games
2005 UZR: 13 Runs per 150 games
2004 UZR: 0 Runs per 150 games

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 17, 2008 2:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

re

Well, he was still a close second to McDonald in Dial’s rankings, but fair enough, he didn’t grade out as well in the various other metrics last year. UZR was an obvious outlier though.

by 31Boots on May 17, 2008 3:25 PM PDT up 0 recs

When you watch Crosby, do you really think he's the 2nd best SS in baseball?

I don’t like to rely on just the eyeball test for defense for all sorts of reasons, but that’s not to say watching a guy is useless. I just see him being… alright. I tend to think he’s probably a little better than his 2007 UZR numbers suggest. I think he’s about average, maybe a bit above. But there’s no way he’s as good as McDonald, Everett, or Uribe (speaking of which – how dumb are the White Sox for having Uribe at second and Cabrera at short?).

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 17, 2008 4:22 PM PDT up 0 recs

re

I wouldn’t say second best, but I’ve always thought he was well above average. He’s a master of positioning, and he’s athletic enough to move that big body around. IDK, i’ve never been a big believer in his bat. Even when he hit well, I always thought he looked off and I really never thought he would hit for average (did think he’d hit for a lot more power though.) His defense on the other hand, I’ve always been a huge fan of. It’s rare when I’m watching the A’s a ball gets by him that I think he could have gotten to.

Hasn’t Uribe declined pretty rapidly with the weight?

by 31Boots on May 17, 2008 6:13 PM PDT up 0 recs

Uh

Uribe?

What?

Uribe’s range has declined to Jeter levels at this point. There’s no way on the planet I would play him at short over Cabrera. They really shouldn’t even be playing him at all.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 17, 2008 8:12 PM PDT up 0 recs

At season's end, in 2007

best SS in the AL by UZR:

AL
Pena +10
Cabrera +6
Bartlett +4

ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524

by rfloh on May 18, 2008 5:59 AM PDT up 0 recs

The UZR numbers he's using are incomplete.

ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524

by rfloh on May 18, 2008 6:00 AM PDT up 0 recs

That 2007 UZR is only until sometime in June

You really should not be using it. If you’re going to use it, at the very least provide a caveat that it is only for games in 2007 until June.

At the end of the season, the 3 worst SS in MLB by UZR:

Jeter -27
Guillen -24
Young -15

2007, using RZR, Crosby was 9 runs above average. Using ZR, 12 runs above average.

ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524

by rfloh on May 18, 2008 5:55 AM PDT up 0 recs

That should be 3 worst in the AL

ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524

by rfloh on May 18, 2008 6:00 AM PDT up 0 recs

This is strange

Because the file I have I downloaded in March and it was a link MGL provided to what I thought he said were updated files. If this is only through June, I had no idea.

I stand corrected on the 2007 numbers.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, Uribe was at +19 through that same timeframe. I find it hard to believe he lost all of his range in the past year.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on May 18, 2008 7:39 PM PDT up 0 recs

In his case,

it was specifically noted by advance scouts that he had lost a TON of range over a couple of year period. Like, they were shocked by how immobile he had become.

A major dropoff in his D numbers would not surprise me at all.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 18, 2008 11:11 PM PDT up 0 recs