The A's are now 15-5 in the spring thanks to a strong start by Dana Eveland again, further cementing his case for the fifth starter spot. The only real problem Eveland has seemingly had this spring is his inability to avoid the walks. Other than that, he's been pretty darn good in stating his case for that spot in the rotation.
Chad Gaudin also made his first appearance of the spring and pitched two scoreless innings with one strikeout. He didn't allow a hit or a walk. As a matter of fact Keith Foulke was the only A's pitcher today to give up any runs.
In case you missed it in the game thread, the A's re-assigned Greg Smith and Gio Gonzalez to minor league camp. They also informed Todd Linden that he's not going to Japan and Linden is expressing his outrage over the decision after the largeness of his small sample size performance. Here's what Slusser says Linden said:
Linden is less than happy with that decision after hitting .577; he believed he'd get a roster spot if he got a good opportunity to win a job, and he feels he was somewhat misled about the A's plans for him.
I can understand Linden getting upset, especially if he was promised a realistic shot of making the club, but truly the best thing a guy like him can do is to go down to the minor league club and kick some butt. Life throws those kinds of things at people and the ones who step up and perform are often eventually rewarded. It means a ton of money for Linden, yes, but if you really have the talent then you'll get there.
By the way, one last downer of a note. Spring training records don't often translate to anything once the bell rings on the regular season. XBX linked to it in the game thread and I thought it was a pretty good read for those who missed it. Yeah, it's nice the team has done so well in spring, but unfortunately it doesn't mean much for our green and gold's performance in 2008.
