Hello all. It's been a while since i wrote a fanpost/diary. I don't post frequently anymore either. But I do check AN like 45 times a day, and luckily next year at UC Berkeley I'll be able to track my beloved A's (and AN of course) no problem.

I was doing my daily www.firstinning.com check. What that means is that on that exceptional minor league baseball website with all your conventional stats and then the stathead ones as well, I have a list of A's players saved on my player tracker that I monitor. Among them is Trevor Cahill, who is pitching today in a pitchers duel against Texas' Casey Kiker. It inspire me to write this fanpost about A's prospects today.

As we speak, in the top of the fifth, the score sits at 0-0. Matt Sulentic just lined a single up the middle (I'm actually listening to the game on the internet). Anyway, one of the things that inspired me to write this was to not that:

Andrew Brown began his rehab assignment. He started this game in front of Cahill, pitching two innings with no baserunners and no strikeouts. As far as I'm concerned, he's throwing the ball well. He'll be back in Oakland soon. Hopefully that means goodbye to Dallas Braden.

Anyway, Cahill has thrown two innings, giving up two hits while striking out 5. Midland really wants him to come up. 

Elsewhere, Sean Doolittle is begging to be called up. He hit another homer yesterday, which gives him 15, with 15 doubles and 2 triples. He has 70 hits in 212 at bats. His OPS sits at a round 1050. As I noted in Grover's minor league thread, he has identical OPS's against both lefties and righties. A great sign. Tommy Everidge is the current first baseman in AA, but I wouldn't hesitate to DH him and call up Doolittle. Everidge is a decent prospect, but not much more.

In the Midland Rockhounds 9-3 thrashing of Corpus Christi, the A's had a couple good prospects perform. Jesus Guzman went 4-5 with his 11th homer. His OPS sits at .971. Stunningly, the A's could have found their second basemen of the future on the waiver wire this offseason. 28 year old Brooks Conrad is sucking in AAA, and he is the 2B in Sacramento. I don't see any reason to prohibit Guzman from taking over the spot by the All Star Break.Vince Mazzaro pitched into the 8th inning, giving up just 2 hits and 1 run, with a 6/3 K/BB. He induced 8 groundouts to 9 flyouts. He lowered his ERA to 2.31.

In AAA, Cliff Pennington is surging. Its kind of weird. He went 1-3 with a double and 2 walks today, and now his stats since getting called up a week ago. 6/23 with 2 doubles, 1 homer, 6 walks and 2 strikeouts. That leaves his OPS just over 850. He's controlling the strike zone, and he's hitting gaps in a very small sample size. If he continues this, he'll find himself among the top 10 prospects that Oakland has again. Landon Powell: He had another hit today to stretch his hit streak to 4 games. Doesn't seem like much, but he's hitting .192 thanks to a similarly low BABIP.. So I've been waiting for his BABIP (and average) to go up, and it looks like the hits are starting to fall.

And finally, another update in the Stockton Ports game: Its now the bottom of the 8th, Sulentic lined another single in the top of the 8th. Cahill is absolutely manhandling to this point: In five innings of relief he has faced 18 batters: 3 hits, 3 ground outs, and 12 strikeouts. Cahill is keeping his fastball low and getting his strikeouts with the slider. A magnificent performance.