by the frequency with which I see posts (here and elsewhere) titled “The coming roster crunch,” or “Roster moves needed,” or “Who stays, who goes,” or whatever. I can’t recall a roster crunch ever actually happening.

My guess? Casilla comes up, Street goes to the DL with a groin pull. Sweeney comes up, Travis Buck goes to the DL with… something. And didn’t Devine already have some kind of setback?

Let’s go through this—how to get to 25

C—Suzuki, Bowen—nothing changing there

IF—Barton, Ellis, Crosby, Chavez, Hannahan, Petit—I don’t think they are ever going to feel good enough about Chavez’ back to cut Hannahan loose—or feel good enough about Hannahan at 1B, partic. with M Sweeney out another month minimum—to send Barton back down—so these 6 stay, with Murphy for Petit a possibility;

DH—Thomas

That’s 9 spots—4 more if they go with 12 pitchers, which seems likely at first

Cust-Brown-Buck-Gonzalez-Davis-RSweeney

Oops—either 2 go or it’s only 11 pitchers. I frankly see Emil Brown as eventually the odd man out here—he is simply going to be a platoon player unless both Buck and Gonzalez are bad/hurt—I would rather the A’s let Gonzalez keep playing 75% of the time up here and drop either Brown, Davis, both, or a reliever.

Pitchers: 11 man version/12 man version

This is equally vexing

First off, if Greg smith or Dana Eveland are bad for a stretch, and the A’s are still in playoff contention, I can see Gaudin replacing one of them and the lefty going to AAA until harden or Duke goes down, or Blanton or Harden gets dealt. But only if that occurs. If they each rebound I think Gaudin stays in the pen.

With Street-Embree-Casilla-Brown, for sure.

That leaves 1 or 2 more, depending on the OF situation. Given Ziggy’s options, One would think he rates behind Foulke. But if the guy keeps getting people out, why not cut Foulke loose once Devine returns??

Injuries may take care of these problems, but as has been said before, essentially the A’s have somewhere between 30-32 major league ready players—and only 25 slots.

Takers for Emil Brown? Probably none, given other teams know that he will prob be DFA’d if he is not traded.

Foulke? Doubt he’ll bring back anything more than a B-prospect, and that’s only if some team is desperate.

So why not trade the valuable to others, say STREET, and then ride out the vets for the year, and hope the young players progress, like casilla and devine.

and Foulke will get a B-prospect. But how many Jerry Blevins do we need in the minors?

But would Foulke net a Henry Rod?

A person I think the team moves is Petit. Also, they really don’t need Murphy. We really don’t need a 6th infielder.

Basically Hannahan and Chavez would not be DH. The Infield is Barton, Ellis, Crosby and Chavez with Hannahan as the utility man. Hannahan can play any infield spot. Also, Petit is getting no chance to play, he would at least be getting chances in the line-up at AAA.

The outfield is a bit crowded when R. Sweeney gets back and worse when Thomas returns. I don’t think E. Brown will be cut as we could use a right handed bat. I say we keep them all if healthy (Sweeney, Cust, Buck, Gonzalez and Brown can platoon into the 3 spots. I would also keep Davis until Thomas returns (or cut a pitcher). We could use one of the non-starting outfielders as a PR instead of Davis.

Once Mike Sweeney gets back then I would move Brown as you now have the right-handed bat that the team needs.

PROVIDED ALL HITTERS ARE HEALTHY.

1- R. Sweeney returns (lose Davis)
2- F. Thomas returns (lose Petit)
3- M. Sweeney returns (lose E. Brown).

so I imagine when he gets activated, he goes to AAA if he has options, if not DFA

I think Brown is gone. He hasn’t hit since well since April, and even then when he was hitting, he doesn’t draw walks. He’s a liability defensively and on the basepaths. Davis is at least useful as a 5th outfielder given that he can play all 3 outfield positions and has speed and defensive skills. Brown won’t sniff the starting lineup with 3 young guys and Cust ahead of him. Sweeney, Buck, Gonzales, and Cust are all important for the A’s at least into next year. Brown has no place here at this point. He’s done. I will be quite pissed at the front office if they don’t make that move.

The GM of the A’s brought these guys in the pre-season when everyone was healthy (including Denorfia). The only injured player was Chavez and none of them play 3B.

They were brought in when everyone was expecting a team that would not be in the pennant chase and expectations were very low. You might say it made no sense to add these guys.

So far many of the young stars are injured (Sweeney, Denorfia, Devine, Casilla) or not producing (Barton, Buck). These veterans have performed at the level of many on the team, in many ways they have exceded others on the team. The A’s have a winning record and are a hand full of games out of 1st place or Wild Card. WHY ON EARTH WOULD THE A’S DUMP THESE VETERANS NOW?

It makes no sense to sign these guys in the Spring and then cut them when we are still in the race. Why sign them at all then? The answer is that most baseball teams like having veteran players on them. Most of the great teams and desent teams have had players past their prime on them. For clubhouse morale, experience in big games and decent perfomances conventional baseball wisdom is one that says you can’t win the pennant without many veterans.

I think many of the posters have argued against signing them in the first place. I don’t know if its because they don’t believe that the team has any chance to compete this year so why play any veterans. Or if its just that many on the site favor young players and/or prospects in general.

Baseball teams have always had veteran players who play key and supporting roles. They help mentor younger players and provide needed experience. The A’s over the last decade have always had guys like Durazo, Hatteberg, Justice, Gant who no doubt were in no way considered parts of the future. I don’t think this will change this year either.

I think Beane is going to try and stay in the race and based on his past that has always meant the presence of veteran players. Thus, I don’t think these guys are going to be dropped UNLESS their performance is much worse than the other guys on the team. Brown is not playing that much worse than some of the other players.