A look at the latest out of the AL and NL West..
- With the trade deadline rapidly approaching, A's manager Bob Melvin says that he is comfortable with what the team has at shortstop, tweets Jane Lee of MLB.com. Earlier this week, it was reported that General Manager Billy Beane would like to upgrade at the position. Even though Oakland has yet to engage other clubs in talks, Yunel Escobar and Stephen Drew were mentioned as possible targets.
- The Angels would like to get a read on starters Dan Haren and Ervin Santana before they consider dealing them, but GM Jerry Dipoto says that he won't let one or two starts dictate their fate, writes Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles. Dipoto added that the current trade market has the least "definition" of any that he has seen.
- While constant trade rumors can be a source of distraction for some, Diamondbacks skipper Kirk Gibson says that outfielder Justin Upton hasn't been fazed by it, writes Tyler Emerick of MLB.com.
- In this week's mailbag, Casey Pratt of CSNBayArea.com writes that trading Coco Crisp could give the A's more flexibility in the outfield.
“Justin, you distracted?” *Upton hits homer* “Nope don’t think so”
upton is a gamer he will be ok
Are you kidding Melvin? Have you seen the production we’ve been getting out of the shortstop position.
It’s a tough spot for a manager to respond to publicly. If he says….”Our shortstop is holding this team back right now,” he risks alienating a player. No sense publicly ragging the guys doing the job when there’s no certainty they’ll be able to upgrade. It’s just a matter of the forum.
What do you expect him to say? It’s up to Beane and Melvin is going to support his GM. Meanwhile, A’s fans have noticed that Melivin controls the game on the field and that the walk-o-rama snoozefest that marked the A’s since 2006 has vanished.
The A’s basically have 4 dead spots in their lineup each night—Weeks, SS, Inge and C. Coco Crisp isn’t all that, either.
All the A’s have to do is play Eric Sogard and they have improved at shortstop. Give him consistent at bats now that Pennington is on the DL and see what he does.