Lots of Changes for the Athletics Family
By Tony Frye
The day began like many others, with the Oakland Athletics acquiring a RHP from the Chicago Cubs. Taylor Thompson, who is not the kid from Home Improvement, was claimed off of waivers early Tuesday morning. In his 5.1 major league innings for the Cubs, Thompson worked a 10.13 ERA which puts him in line to be the greatest pitcher the Oakland Athletics have ever seen when he, inevitably, goes 25-0 with a 1.15 ERA in 2015. Of course, Billy Beane was probably looking at Thompson’s minor league numbers which include a more respectable 2.55 ERA in 279 innings.
More from Oakland A's News
- Zach Logue yet another disappointing Oakland A’s trade return
- Luis Barrera heading to familiar foe in Los Angeles Angels
- San Francisco Giants showing Oakland A’s offseason could be worse
- Lucas Luetge what Oakland A’s need in bullpen
- Oakland A’s bring Deolis Guerra back on minor league deal
To make room for Thompson, Bryan Anderson (catcher) was outrighted to the Nashville Sounds.
A little while after all of this hot roster action went down, we got the news that Josh Donaldson, recent recipient of the Fielding Bible Award for third base, did not win the Gold Glove for 2014. He was the lone finalist for the award and the case can be made that despite his stunning numbers defensively, he just had too many errors to nail down the honor. I would make the argument that a number of those errors were off of balls that a mere mortal third baseman never would have got their hands on but, alas, nobody asks me to cast a vote in these things.
Further on into the evening, the very sad news that former Athletics pitcher, Brad Halsey had passed away at the age of 33. Halsey spent some time between Oakland and Sacramento during the 2006-2007 campaign. Susan Slusser tweeted out quotes from former team mate Houston Street who spoke fondly of the young pitcher, as did Susan herself. On behalf of all the writers at Swingin’ A’s, we send out deepest condolences to the family, friends and team mates of this young player.
Huston Street says of Brad Halsey: "He was always cheerful, had a playful wit, and was deeply respected by his teammates." #Athletics
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) November 5, 2014
As if that wasn’t enough news to fill the Athletics day, it was also announced that the Dodgers were going to announce that Athletics assistant general manager, Farhan Zaidi, would be named the newest general manager for the Los Angeles team. This is clearly a “good get” for the Dodgers and will no doubt lead conspiracy theorists to over-analyze the major shift in Athletics management so far this off season. I wouldn’t read too much into it. These things happen and Zaidi has devoted a long time to being second fiddle to the most famous general manager in the whole baseball world. But, what do I know. I was going to give Donaldson a gold glove afterall.