Idiots Write About Sports

And on the second day, the A’s rested. Well, they pretty much rested on the first day of the season, too — it’s just that they had a game scheduled then as well.

So the focus moves from yesterday’s lackluster opener to the status of Rich Harden’s fingers. For much like Ringo Starr at the end of “Helter Skelter,” Oakland’s recently reupped starting pitcher awoke the other morning and screamed “I got blisters on me fingers!” He’ll miss his scheduled start Wednesday; Kirk Saarloos gets the nod instead.

And therein lies a problem for the A’s. While he is the team’s fifth starter, Saarloos technically isn’t on the A’s roster since he wasn’t supposed to pitch until Sunday at the earliest. By leaving Saarloos in Sacramento until the weekend, Oakland was able to keep Marco Scutaro around — which proved to be quite handy what with Bobby Crosby not exactly the picture of health these days.

So what has to happen by the time Saarloos takes the mound at Camden Yards tomorrow? Near as I can figure, the A’s have three options.

• Put Crosby on the DL and have Saarloos take his place;
• Send Scutaro down, and have Mark Ellis start at short if Crosby isn’t good to go;
• Send down one of the pitchers, most likely Huston Street or maybe even Keiichi Yabu.

Option one is probably not viable — even if Crosby doesn’t see another pitch of action in Baltimore, I’m not sure the A’s will want to shelve him for two weeks. Option two seems problematic as well — it leaves Oakland’s bench pretty thin, and you could debate the wisom of sending Scutaro to Sacramento anyhow. He had a great spring, improving his plate discipline; he can play either second or short, giving the A’s some flexibility; and his double on Monday indicates that he can contribute offensively. Given the way the A’s are swinging the bat, I don’t think they should be turning away capable hitters right now.

So that leaves a pitcher as the odd man out. The vote here is for Street, pretty much because I don’t know if he should be on the 25-man roster to begin with. That’s not to say I think Huston Street isn’t going to be a fantastic pitcher for the A’s — I expect him to be the team’s closer by the beginning of next year, if not halfway through this season. But the fact remains, he’s a young pitcher seeing his first Major League action. And if you need any reminder how Ken Macha feels about young pitchers seeing their first Major League action, consider the usage pattern for Mike Neu.

Neu was a Rule 5 draftee who took up space on the A’s roster a couple seasons ago. He racked up 42 innings of work in 32 apperances, none of which were what you might call high-leverage situations. Basically, the only time Neu saw action was when the game was hopelessly lost or laughably in the bag — Macha rarely brought him in when the outcome of the game was in doubt. It wasn’t that Neu pitched horribly — he tallied a 3.64 ERA, which translates to a 4.46 Equivalent ERA, according to last year’s Baseball Prospectus — it’s just that the A’s never seemed to trust him in sticky situations even at the risk of using players who were clearly not up to the task.

There’s a vast gulf of difference between Neu, someone Oakland grabbed from another team’s leavings, and Huston Street, who seems penciled in for fortune and fame. And you figure that if the A’s thought enough of Street to put him on the roster and start his service clock a-runnin’, then the team probably has plans for him that aren’t limited to garbage time. Still, so long as it’s Macha gesturing down to the bullpen, you never know how a pitcher might be used until you start seeing some box scores.

My point? If the A’s plan to throw Street right into the fire, then fine — keep him on the roster. But if the idea is bring him along gradually, letting him get his feet wet in blowouts, then the team would better off sending him to Sacto, at least until Bobby Crosby is ambulatory on a more regular basis.

Like I said, I see big things in Street’s immediate future. Whether or not Ken Macha shares that vision should determine who’s catching a flight back to Sacramento International tomorrow.

[Update: Word has reached these shores, courtesy of Susan Slusser’s reportage that the A’s seem to be leaning toward option one — Crosby to the DL.

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