If it’s silly to ask why wait to call someone up, than it’s got to be at least ten times more silly to say you’re waiting so you don’t “ruin his confidence”.

Personally, I’d rather see tough pitchers on the mound, like Dave Stewart. These fickle pitchers who have their “confidence ruined” by being called to the majors haven’t what it takes with the bases jammed, 2 outs and protecting a one run lead in game 7 of the ALCS.

You should want pitchers who thrive on pressure and to find out if they can hack it is a good thing.

In regards to options, the hope is we call him up and never have to send him down again. If we’re truly rebuilding, why send him down like we’ve done with Eric Patterson after such a small sample size.. why not let them grow on the roster?

Service time… yea, rot away in the minors because we don’t want to use your valuable service time in the minors.

How about the A’s learn to be… not so cheap?

Being in Oakland and being a “small market franchise” is laughable and of their own design, unfortunately. There is no way a team that has performed as well as the A’s have consistently should be a “small market”, unless your organization is not that well run, which the A’s aren’t in certain regards. I live in Folsom, CA and I can’t see the A’s games. I just moved up here from Sacramento, CA, home of the River Cats, and I didn’t get to see the games. The radio signal sucks. Maybe it’s time they invested some money in making the product available so people could even be interested.

I mean, how else in holy hell can you explain the Giants being so amazingly popular with their horrible play compared to the A’s? Barry Bonds isn’t playing this year so that is no longer an excuse…..