DLD 5/16/2013 – Can’t Lose Edition

At least Jaso is optimistic:

Jaso felt as if the A's didn't play that poorly in the series; the A's lost in extra innings on Tuesday night or would have taken the series, for one thing.

"I think it was a pretty good series, we battled every time," he said. "We started putting up some pretty good at-bats against Ogando today. ... We put up some good battles. We're still doing all right.

"I don't think anything in this series should get us down."

Like myself, Joe Stiglich (filling in for Casey Pratt on the CSN Authentic A's beat), realizes that there aren't many options for starting pitching. As does Bob Melvin:

A move doesn't appear to be coming based on Melvin's postgame comments. Asked if someone else might be auditioned in Straily's spot, he responded: "I think what we have is what we have at this point."

Are there other realistic options available?

Chavez, serving as the A's long man right now, has made five starts for Sacramento this season with a 2.70 ERA. He's the only alternative on the current 25-man roster.

Fans surely would like to get a look at 2011 first-round pick Sonny Gray. He's the top pitching prospect in the organization, and he's 4-1 with a 2.19 ERA in six starts with Sacramento. But Gray has just seven career starts at the Triple-A level, and the A's may not want to rush such a coveted prospect before they really feel he's ready.

That said, what we have is not getting done. Jane Lee put it succinctly:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>A's starters are 2-7 with a 5.60 ERA over the last 10 games and, going back to the last 26, 5-17 with a 5.62 ERA.</p>&mdash; Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/JaneMLB/status/334813590102093824">May 15, 2013</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

In other news around baseball...

Max Marchi of Baseball Prospectus has another catcher framing piece up. I really like what Fast did initially on this, but the idea of 50 runs saved per season is something I'm not sure I can get behind. 25 runs, on the other hand, is and that is what Marchi estimates that Jose Molina during 2012.

If you really find this catcher framing stuff fascinating like I do, Ben Lindbergh wrote a great piece at Grantland about it that's less numbers and more background.

Matt Klaasen wrote about Josh Donaldson yesterday for Fangraphs:

Although it is still early for all of this, Donaldson's improvements in avoiding strikeouts and taking walks may be real. Even if Donaldson has not really improved in terms of his power and ability to get hits on balls in play, the walks have their own value, and the improved contact will enable him to not only get more hits, but more extra-base hits (in play and out of the park) even if his raw power has not improved

After that play he made yesterday, he really does merit ASG consideration, in my mind.

John Sickels did his second mock draft

24) Oakland Athletics: Aaron Blair, RHP, Marshall University: This makes perfect sense if you think about it. Blair is big, throws hard, is sabemetrically sound, and comes from the same school that produced Dan Straily.

Maybe those Straily comparisons are best left for another day...

That's it. Dump away!