Selling Point: A's GM Billy Beane will have to decide whether to sell at the deadline or not...(Photo Credit: BayAreaSportsGuy.com)

After dropping their ninth straight game, the Oakland Athletics sit in last-place in the American League West at 27-36. Injuries have been hitting the team like bombshells this season, and things are not looking too good for the green-and-gold. Hope surrounded the team in spring training, but with the recent struggles, only frustration seems to fill the clubhouse.

But even at this low point for the team, SF Chronicle writer Susan Slusser doesn’t believe that GM Billy Beane will necessarily turn the team into immediate sellers. While she does say that OF Josh Willingham‘s name is likely swirling around as a possible trade target, she doesn’t think that Beane will give up on the team this early in the season.

Injuries have derailed an A’s team that entered the season with higher expectation than in previous years, and the team has already used the disabled-list nine times this year. Oakland’s rotation has taken the biggest hit this year, as the team recently lost starter Brett Anderson to the 15-day DL. Anderson, 23, battled injury problems last season, but entered this year seemingly healthy.

He joins a DL that already includes fellow starters Dallas Braden, Tyson Ross, Brandon McCarthy, and Rich Harden. Braden, who threw a perfect game last year on Mother’s Day, is out for the season. Ross and McCarthy are still at least a month or so away from joining the team. Harden, meanwhile, is making some progress towards returning to the team. He’s been sidelined all year due to a muscle strain under his right arm. The flame-thrower has had his share with injury problems, but when he’s healthy, he’s got electric stuff.  (more…)