Spring Game #7: Overton shines, rest of pitching falters in 10-3 loss

Ho-hum. On a day where the A's pitched mostly non-roster invitees – superstars such as Eric Surkamp, Ryan Brasier, Chris Smith and Corey Walter – they ended up pitching poorly. Not really a surprise. The A's drop to a 3-3 record in the early going of the Cactus League.

In an otherwise pretty unremarkable game, Dillon Overton is the easy story to talk about. His two innings were by far the most effective of the afternoon, resulting in five strikeouts and only allowing two hits. A few reports have said that his velocity was around the 88-90 range, which is just about as expected. Even if the extra velocity never comes, he obviously has learned to pitch well without heat.

Overton is currently eighth or ninth on the starting pitching depth chart, but a strong spring could move him up in the rankings. A strong showing for Overton would also help the A's with their starting pitching depth issues that have resulted from trading Aaron Brooks and losing Sean Nolin.

We're talking minor issues around the edges of the roster – Overton almost certainly won't make the team out of spring training, and if he pitches much at the MLB level in 2016, it'll be because something went horribly wrong – but it's still important. If the Dillon Overton that showed up today is the real one, the A's front office will be breathing much easier.

Liam Hendriks had a really bad day, allowing 3 earned runs in his inning. He mostly got singled to death, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. He's still the smart choice to end up as the second-best pitcher in the bullpen in 2016.

The offense wasn't non-existent, but it certainly wasn't great. In the third, a three-base error benefiting Coco Crisp backed up by a Jed Lowrie RBI single scored two runs, and Matt Chapman drove Marcus Semien in with a sac-fly in the fourth. That's about the extent of it.

Chapman had a pretty good afternoon that won't show up on the boxscore. He started one rather impressive double-play, and hit the crap out of the ball on two occasions. He didn't end up with any hits, but he still looked good.

Billy Burns did Billy Burns Spring Training things as well – he went 2-3, bumping his average up to .500 and his OPS to 1.345. Why are Eric Sogard and Billy Burns always so good in March? What's in the water in Arizona? If they got traded to the Diamondbacks, they'd probably end up in the Hall of Fame pretty quickly.

To finish up individual stats: Yonder Alonso went 2-3, Jake Smolinski hit a double in garbage time, and Lowrie went 1-1 with an RBI and a walk.

Sonny Gray makes his spring debut tomorrow afternoon, so definitely try to listen to that. Hopefully it'll be a bit more fun.