FanPost

Spring Game #12: Cotton BACK!

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The rotation problems are solved! Jharel Cotton is back to being the next Pedro Martinez. Get hype y'all.

In all seriousness, this is still pretty darn meaningless, but hey, winning 7-3 over Seattle is fun in any context.

Jharel Cotton was the star of the night, throwing four innings of one-run ball with no walks and five strikeouts. He commanded all of his pitches well, and overall looked incredibly sharp--a refreshing change from the beginning of his Spring.

*** Click here to revisit today's Game Thread! ***

This all serves as a reminder that spring training numbers, especially early spring training numbers, don't mean much of anything. Performances fluctuate so much in the early weeks, that #HotTakeSZN is just all over the place.

So in reality, don't get too excited about Cotton, but don't get down on him for his rough starts last week. He remains a high-upside, but high-risk, rotation option that should be in line for another extended look in the big leagues. His spring performance overall is a reasonable sample of what to expect going forward: his stuff can function as a mid-rotation guy when he's on, but he has his fair share of starts where he's all over the place and nothing is working.

Some other things that happened in this game:

  • Dinger counter: Sheldon Neuse, Jake Smolinski (off a righty!!), and Chad Pinder
    Neuse and Pinder aren't too surprising, as both have shown pretty legit power, but Smolinski going yard off of a righty was pretty cool (even if it was David Phelps). IF Smolinski can hit righties, he's got a decent chance to crack the 25-man sooner rather than later. That take may or may not be copied-and-pasted from each of the last two springs too.
  • Chris Bassitt: ehhhh
    The homie looked pretty rough in his inning of work, giving up three hits, two runs and walking three. Given the fact that he's not young, coming off major surgery, and hasn't been a productive MLB pitcher since 2015, I remain skeptical that he can contribute this year. Hopefully they can stash him in Nashville and he can get hot as a reliever, but he's looking more and more like a potential DFA candidate in the near future.
  • Barreto's bat still looking good
    He went 1-2 with a pretty nice opposite field double, and he's hitting .318 this spring. Obviously, he should still be in Nashville to start the year, but I'm thinking of him as a "hot streak away from the show" kind of guy right now.
  • A couple hits for Mark Canha
    Cool, but unfortunately for him he's probably squeezed out a roster spot right now barring injury. I'd be willing to bet he's in Oakland at some point in April though.
  • The A's couldn't touch Marco Gonzales (yikes?)
    Marco Gonzales has been a, um, bad MLB pitcher, and the A's couldn't touch him in his four shutout innings. That being said, they torched semi-proven reliever David Phelps and the subsequent random dudes the Mariners tossed out there. All of that to say, probably not a huge concern, but would've been nice to get some good swings in against the starter with a 5.47 career ERA. (s/o A's legend Sam Moll though for the scoreless inning)
Overall, a feel-good night for the A's, as the starting pitching is starting to look like less of a dumpster fire, and a few fringe roster guys got the bats going. The squad hosts the Angels tomorrow.