So I've seen Ben Sheets pitch; I just haven't seen him get anyone out. Today, Sheets makes his next attempt at going 0.1 IP or more, trying to avoid a repeat of last Monday's "Ben Sheets pitched to 10 batters in the 1st." Half the A's squad, including Ryan Sweeney, Eric Chavez, and Kevin Kouzmanoff, is in Goodyear taking on the Indians, while Sheets and the other half host the Cubs in Phoenix with this lineup (courtesy of Susan Slusser, who probably stole them from RotoWorld and corrected the spelling):
Patterson CF
Pennington SS
Ellis 2B
Suzuki C
Barton 1B
Cust DH
Gross LF
Buck RF
Petit 3B
Sheets P
One practical note. With Sheets on track to start Opening Night, if you look at Justin Duchscherer's schedule it looks like he is poised to start the A's-Giants game on Saturday, April 3rd (which gets him 3 exhibition starts) and then to slot in as Oakland's #4 starter in the rotation. So if you like order, as far as I can tell the initial rotation is shaping up to look like this:
Sheets
Anderson
Braden
Duchscherer
Cahill or Gio ... ?
EDIT: Actually, if Duke stays strictly on an every 5th day regimen beginning Monday, he would go in the #2 slot on April 6th, so that's also a possibility.
Finally, with the Mariners' Cliff Lee and the Rangers' Tommy Hunter already hurting, remember ... it's not just the A's!
