Devine is just too good to do without. He says it’s his mechanics, I hope he is just being overcautious.

in the austin motel

at least not unless someone has an emergency need….and even then, a $5.5 million dollar player who has not produced may not even be a preferred emergency option.

but couldn’t find the link for it since it was a few days ago. I don’t know if thats a serious rumor, though.

What’s a mediocre player to do?

this is exactly what I would want him to say:

“But I still think I can be a shortstop somewhere. Ideally, that’s what I want to do. In the meantime, I’m under contract with the A’s. I’m going to go out there and play for my teammates here. And play hard for them.”

He may be in denial about his abilities, but he seems like a good teammate.

I am all for this. Unless he’s topping out in the high 70’s, he’s worth having.

could mean “out for most of the season” with our record

run up the starter’s pitch count (limit is 70 games) and get into the bullpen (anyone throwing 30+ pitches in one game can’t pitch the next day). These were some of the rules for pitching for Round 1. In Venezuela’s case yesterday, once the starter was taken out it was obvious that Venezuela doesdn’t have a very good bullpen — that’s were the USA team did its damage.

The Netherlands and Puerto Rico have decent bullpens. That’s part of how the Netherlands upset the Dominican Republic, and was leading Puerto Rico 1-0 until the bottom of the eighth. (Oh, and Bernie Williams should not be playing in the outfield — and probably shouldn’t be playing at all.)

Italy seemed to be doing well against Canada, which last I saw was on the verge of elimination.