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Good afternoon, Athletics Nation! Thursday brings a much-needed off-day, although rumor has it that Luke Gregerson is warming up at this very moment to pitch in the ninth inning of Bob Melvin's beer league softball team's game.
Stuart Wallace of Beyond the Box Score gives us a look inside Scott Kazmir's sore triceps, and explores how the issue may have affected his performance and what to expect in the near future.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports explores Oakland's closer-by-committee and wonders whether Billy Beane will attempt to completely break down the conventional wisdom on the strategy of bullpen usage.
Tony Blengino of Fangraphs looks at the Athletics' low-risk, high-reward starting rotation.
Jane Lee of MLB.com answers questions about topics including the bullpen, A.J. Griffin, Drew Pomeranz, Josh Reddick and more.
The Astros called up top prospect George Springer on Wednesday, and the outfielder made his long-awaited Major League debut. He will now face the A's in games two-through-four of his career. The Crawfish Boxes has the full run-down on everything Springer.
On a related note, for the first time ever, there has been an update on www.hasgeorgespringerbeencalledupyet.com.
Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs takes another look at pitch-framing, focusing specifically on Houston's Jason Castro, who the A's will see this weekend.
If you've got anymore A's-related links to share, then dump away in the comments!
