The A's pulled off a trade today sending RHP Brad Ziegler to the Arizona Diamondbacks for 1B Brandon Allen (who has hit a HR that violated free-trade agreements) and LHP Jordan Norberto. While it is clear that both guys are going on the 40-man roster and Brett Anderson is being moved to the 60-day DL to accommodate that move, it is unclear who is replacing Ziegler on the 25-man roster as presently the A's website says nothing about it and have both Allen and Noberto not on the active roster.
Today's starter for the A's is Brandon McCarthy, who will likely be the topic of a future post (spoiler) due to his being one of those guys who has a wide fWAR (2.6 and best on the club) and rWAR split (1.6 fourth best pitcher on the club). McCarthy sports a 3-5 record as he has been a sore luck loser suffering through a lack of luck like a .307 BABIP, and a 64.6% strand rate. So despite great control (1.5 BB/9) and keeping the ball in the yard (0.4 HR/9) he has a solid 3.52 ERA but great 2.78 FIP and no one outside of Oakland knows about him or his year.
The Twins put up Carl Pavano who is just unimpressive no matter how you look at him and likely won't stir up any debates among anyone with his middling 3.8 K/9, 4.60 ERA and slightly kinder 4.15 FIP. Pavano has underwhelmed as have the Twins in 2011. Lineups are below (I hope they format correctly - this is my first Game Thread so cut me some slack!) - A's have a pretty standard for these days lineup, with Ryan Sweeney getting the start in right field being the one notable difference.
