A's Eric Chavez Calls It a Season. Chavez finished the year with one homer and 10 RBIs.

Oakland’s longest tenured-player, Eric Chavez, has said that he’s most likely done for the remainder of the 2010 season. Despite this news however, the A’s Gold-Glove winner, has not announced his retirement just yet. Chavez, who is in his final year of the six-year deal he signed back in 2004, has an option for 2011, but the A’s are figured to just buy it out for $3 million.

Chavez, 32, has played in just 154 games since the start of the 2007 season, and has not been healthy since 2006. In his career, Chavez has hit .267/.343/.478 with 230 home runs and 787 RBIs. This season, however, Chavez played in only 33 games and hit just .234/.276/.333 with one homer and 10 RBIs. While initial reports suggested that the A’s 3B/DH expected to resume baseball activities last month and make a return this month, the team expects Chavez to close things down for the remainder of the season. Chavez was plagued with two bulging disks in his neck, and was never really able to make a full recovery. Despite these injuries, however, Chavez said that he’s got his own “Brett Farve thing,” and won’t announce his retirement until he’s absolutely positive that he cannot play baseball any longer.

Unfortunately, Chavez may not have much of a choice. Chavez is expected to be a free-agent this winter, and I just don’t see many teams giving him a shot to play. Given his injury history, Chavez should just call it quits and become an advisor or some sort of coach for the A’s organization. But for right now, the A’s slugger is expected to shut it down for the year and take things from there.

Disclaimer: The news about Chavez’s future for the 2010 season was first published by the San Francisco Chronicle or SF Gate. You can see the article by clicking here. All information, etc. is and should be credited to the SF Chronicle.

The A’s pitching staff had been incredible up until the series in New York, where the staff allowed 29 runs to cross home-plate. As a direct result, the A’s staff ERA rose to 3.56—which is still 4th best in the AL. The A’s offense did its best, but despite their efforts, the currently sit three games under the .500 mark.

Dallas Braden, who was Thursday’s starter, lasted five innings, but was removed due to cramping in his legs. The A’s fiery starter allowed just one run, two hits and struck out four before departing. The A’s don’t see this as a serious injury, in fact, it’s suspected that Braden suffered cramps due to the hot weather in NY.

Meanwhile, the A’s received news that outfielder, Connor Jackson, had a sports hernia surgery. The A’s note that the surgery went well, and that Jackson should be able to resume baseball activities in a couple of weeks. On the year, Jackson has played in just 18 games for the A’s. He was hitting .228/.362/.316 with a homer and five RBIs. On the year, Jackson is hitting .236/.336/.327 with two homers and 16 RBIs.

While this may be a little late, the A’s called-up two right-handed pitchers as their September call-ups. Many figured that the A’s would go with Chris Carter, Michael Taylor or one their other talented young hitters. However, with Carter injured and Taylor sent off to the Arizona Fall League, the A’s decided to go with pitching depth rather than offense.

The A’s called up Justin James, and Ross Wolf. For more on these call-up’s, you can click here. Personally, I would have loved to have seen Taylor up in the big-leagues, but the A’s aren’t exactly in any playoff race, so I guess the A’s front office figured it’d be best to give Taylor a little more seasoning in the AFL.

In 93 games with Oakland, Holliday hit .286/.378/.454 with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs before getting shipped to the St. Louis Cardinals. And after being traded, Holliday hit .353/.419/.604 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs. In return, the A’s received a couple of prospects. The most notable one, however, was 3B Brett Wallace. But, Oakland soon realized that Wallace was not third-base material, and shipped him to Toronto in exchange for prospect Michael Taylor.

But let’s get back to when the A’s decided to ship prospect Gonzalez over to Colorado. Initially, I was excited about the idea of having Holliday in the A’s lineup (as was everyone else in Oakland), but in hindsight, I realize this trade was a bad move by A’s GM Billy Beane.

This season, Gonzalez is hitting .326/.360/.596 with 29 home runs and 91 RBIs. So, why would Billy Beane trade away such a fine player as Gonzalez? The only reason I can think of is that the A’s didn’t like what they saw from Gonzalez during his time in Oakland. In 85 games with Oakland in 2008, Gonzalez (or CarGo) hit .242/.273/.361 with four homers and 26 RBIs. Those certainly are not likable numbers, but the A’s are guilty of rushing Gonzalez onto the big-league stage (or at least, in my opinion they are).

But, one look at Gonzalez’s numbers this year, and one can come to the conclusion that CarGo is definitely a young superstar. No player on the A’s current big-league roster has more than 12 homers—Gonzalez has 29 (one shy from 30, with a month left to play). Gonzalez is probably going to finish the season with 30+ homers and 100+ RBIs, which is even more painful for A’s fans looking back on this deal.

The A’s do have some talented young players in the minors (Michael Taylor, Chris Carter, Adrian Cardenas, Jemile Weeks, etc.), but let’s hope that Billy Beane hangs onto them for the long haul. We all make mistakes, and this was Beane’s biggest one in recent years.