I think it's very likely that Dana Eveland is the PTBNL that will be joining Craig Italiano and Ryan Webb en route to San Diego in exchange for Scott Hairston.

I think San Diego and Oakland's recent roster decisions have hinted at this.  Here's why:

 

 

1.  Today, the Padres DFA'd their current fifth starter, Walter Silva.  Silva has been very bad in his six starts for the Padres this year, and the team desperately needs to patch up the back of its rotation.  Injuries to Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Shawn Hill, and Cha Seung Baek have left the team scrambling for 5th-starter options...and frankly, there just aren't any left.

2.  The Padres won't need a fifth starter again until Saturday.  Eveland, having thrown only 71 pitches today, could potentially pitch Saturday on short rest.

3.  As mentioned on AN in the epic 700-comment Hairston thread, Padres GM Kevin Towers has stated that the PTBNL is between two SP candidates, at least one of whom has major-league service time.  Eveland fits that description.

4.  The A's may have sort of "created" the opportunity for Eveland to pitch today.  Admittedly, I'm going out on a limb here, and I don't mean to be disrespectful to Dallas Braden or his family in any way, but stay with me for second:  Today was Dallas Braden's scheduled start.  He is away from the team on bereavement leave, which is a 3-to-7 day period of time in which a player can leave the team in the event of a "family emergency or death of a loved one."  When a player is on the bereavement list, he continues to accrue service time but the team is allowed to call up an active player to replace him until the player comes back from bereavement. That means Braden is probably skipping only one start. What's unusual, though, is that I haven't seen a reported reason given for Braden's bereavement leave.  Teams often include that information in the press release.  Pure speculation, but perhaps the timing of Braden hoping to visit a sick relative coincided with the A's wanting to find an opportunity to give Eveland a major-league start. Which brings us to Eveland's start today...

5.  I would be curious if the Padres had a scout in the stands for Eveland's start today.  I think today might have been planned showcase of Eveland.  Granted, he didn't pitch well, but he was yanked really early, even for a struggling starter.  He threw only 71 pitches.  That leads me to believe the intent was to show, "See?  His velocity is fine, and he's demonstrably healthy. And, he'll be fresh when he throws for you guys this Saturday."  From the Padres' perspective - potentially acquiring a long-term asset/project - proving Eveland's health and velocity are far more important than the box score results of his pitching today.

6.  Eveland is out of options after this year.  Therefore, the A's would be far more desirous to move him than, say, James Simmons, who doesn't even have to be added to the 40-man roster yet.  This is an important point:  Simmons still has several years and all three option seasons to grow and develop as an asset to the A's; Eveland's time to be a productive asset on the A's is running short.  If, for example, Eveland was pitching poorly next spring, the team would be forced to release him, knowing that he had no more options and that he couldn't break camp with the team as a productive American League pitcher.  In that scenario, the A's would effectively lose Eveland for absolutely nothing, which is exactly what happened to Dan Meyer last offseason. That's not the case with Simmons, whose AAA struggles aren't as big of a problem because he's a less time-sensitive case.  Worst-case scenario, Simmons could be added to the 40-man roster and operate as the team's 6th or 7th starter, shuttling up and down between Sac and Oakland as injuries dictate during the course of his three option seasons.  That has value:  Every big league team ends up needing seven starters during the course of a season.  This example clearly shows how, even in a worst-case crystal ball projection for Simmons, his contract flexibility as an unpurchased contract makes him far more attractive to the A's than Eveland, with his expiring options status after this season.

7.  I mentioned Dan Meyer as my example for a reason.  I realize he's stranded an unsustainable amount of runners, but I would argue that Dan Meyer has pitched well by any measure this year.  Remember, this is a guy who was basically kicked out of the American League last year.  And now he's thriving.  How does that relate to Dana Eveland?  Because Dana Eveland's best chance of being a serviceable major league starter again is by heading to the National League, too.  And, as Chad Gaudin and Kevin Correia can attest, the best opportunity of all exists in the pitcher's haven of Petco Park.

 

My thoughts are that it would be a good trade for both sides.  You can disagree if you like, but I firmly believe it's easier to pitch in the National League (and the mounting sabermetric commentary and interleague play results would support that conclusion), and I also believe that teams can get away with carrying inferior 4th and 5th starters in the NL as a result.  Eveland does not have the stuff to ever be a good American League starter, IMO.  The A's have at least six guys ahead of him on the depth chart, all of whom do have the stuff to be good American League starters.  By trading him to the Padres, the A's would be extracting some value from a player who they might lose for nothing as early as next April, due to his out-of-options status.  From the Padres point of view, they get a guy who will take the ball every five days, which they desperately need.