I'm not 100 percent sure that I liked the trading of Kirk Saarloos, but if the A's braintrust believes that Jason Windsor is ready to be the "sixth" starter, then I believe them. And granted, you can't really draw a conclusion from today's game, but Windsor didn't do much to earn confidence today. The good news is that the A's have Halsey in the wings to take that spot if Windsor proves to still need some seasoning.
The A's lost 14-8 after leading the game 7-1 today. But, and this will be a familiar refrain from me all spring, it's only a spring training game in Arizona with the wind blowing out. So don't go jumping off a bridge.
Marco Scutaro continued his hot hitting from the Winter Leagues by cracking a three-run home run. Nick Swisher was still trying to crush every pitch for a home run. On the other hand, Travis Buck performed well and Shannon Stewart got on board as expected. And Chad Gaudin was the Gaudin of 2006 which is encouraging for the A's pen.
Any way, rather than assess this game too much, I wanted to announce the charity effort is officially under way. I will collect money for ANers from PayPal only (I investigated other options for payment and it's just too complicated and ineffective). The donations will go to a partial season ticket plan for the kids from Sports4Kids. All you need to do between now and March 15th at noon PST is make a donation to blez - at - athletics nation - dot - com through paypal. Just be sure to add to the notes that it is for the Sports4Kids charity. I'm hoping we can at least raise the $3,500 we did last year. Thanks in advance for any donations you happen to make. I know the kids will greatly appreciate it.
