The Pickin' Machine formerly known as Scott Hatteberg is an Oakland Athletic no more. The Athletics refused to offer him arbitration.
They also refused to offer arbitration to Erubiel Durazo and Octavio Dotel (Alberto Castillo as well but who's counting). They absolutely had to make these moves otherwise they would've been on the hook for an excessive amount of salary for big-time question marks.
The A's offered arbitration to Ricardo Rincon. This tells me that the preliminary talks with Mike Myers must not have progressed as the front office would've liked. They probably want insurance because the A's need a LOOGY in the pen. I just hope they don't wind up overpaying for Rincon because his stats have been getting worse for the past three years. His innings pitched have gone down while his ERA has gone up. Lefties hit .250 against him last year after only hitting .200 against him in 2004 and 2003. The biggest problem was that lefties had a .313 OBP against him. I'm not sure I like this move, but we'll see what happens.
As for Hatteberg, the A's can't re-sign him until May 1. So it's likely that either he becomes a bench player for another team or he could possibly come back as a coach or front office assistant. Hatteberg will always be synonymous with that 20-game winning streak and that amazing game against the Kansas City Royals. And for that single moment he will always have a place in Oakland Athletics lore.
