Sep 25, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher George Kottaras (14) rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the tenth inning as Texas Rangers relief pitcher Mark Lowe (57) reacts at Rangers Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Today’s news of Kottaras’ departure could never be categorized as big news, surprising news, or new that will have a great impact on the prospects for the Athletics 2013 season.  Kottaras was a small cog in the machine that won the AL West in 2012, but without that cog the machine can still run smoothly.  The fact of the matter is this, the A’s replaced the Kottaras cog with a shiny new John Jaso edition cog that will theoretically make the machine run that much more efficiently.  Kottaras had become a part of the A’s family, but GM Billy Beane isn’t concerned about that in this case, his job is to improve the team by any means necessary.

But I would like to take the chance to recognize the contributions George Kottaras made to the Athletics in his very brief career in Oakland.  His 6 home runs, that doubled the output he had given the Milwaukee Brewers, came at crucial moments.

August 8th vs. Angels:  He took Zack Greinke deep as part of a 4 run 2nd inning as the A’s out slugged the Halo’s 9-8.

August 31st vs. Red Sox: Went deep twice and drove in 5 as the A’s slaughtered the reeling Red Sox 20-2.

September 7th vs. Mariners:  Crushed a 3 run homer off of Felix Hernandez to propel the A’s to a huge win coming off a sweep at the hands of the Angels at home.

September 8th vs. Mariners: Took Hisashi Iwakuma deep in a 4 run 4th inning as the A’s beat the M’s for the second straight game.

September 25th vs. Rangers: His 10th inning blast off of Mark Lowe put the A’s in the win column and gave the team a real fighting chance to take the division from the Rangers, which they did.

So while George Kottaras may not have torn the cover off the ball very often, he was able to pick his spots and give the A’s a lift when they needed it.  He’ll be fondly remembered for that undoubtedly.  Perhaps now he can make the same contribution for a young up and coming Royals team, just not against the Athletics.

September 28, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher George Kottaras (14) looks to the dugout during the sixth inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

George Kottaras will receive a cool $1 million in 2013 to continue to serve as the backup catcher to Derek Norris the team announced.  Kottaras hit .212/.280/.471 in  2 months with the Athletics after being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers before the trading deadline in exchange for Fautino De Los Santos.  His hits may have come few and far between, but he did hit twice the home runs 23 fewer plate appearances in Oakland (6) versus Milwaukee (3).  Perhaps his true value though comes with the fact that he uses Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle” as his walk up song.  It doesn’t get any more Oakland than that.

The 3 remaining players Blevins, Moss, and Smith will exchange arbitration numbers with the team on Friday, and the hearings will take place next month if no agreement is reached.  According to the fantastic arbitration projections on MLBTradeRumors.com Blevins is expected to make $1 million, Moss $1.4 million, and Smith $3.3 million.  I expect little issue in Blevins and Moss getting signed as their salaries are still relatively low, but if Smith is going to command a salary as high as $3+ million I could see him being moved sometime early in the season.  Most teams wouldn’t bat an eye at someone like Smith on their team making that kind of money, but this is the Oakland Athletics we’re dealing with here.  Right now Smith slots in as a 5th outfielder/DH and that might be too steep a price for someone in that role on the Athletics.  Stay tuned as this situation develops, I have a feeling something could happen.

Kottaras has 6 HRs since coming to Oakland in 23 games, not bad for a backup catcher. (Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE)

Tommy Milone looked like he might be in for a rough night after the first couple batters of the game singled to put 2 runners on with the mighty Josh Hamilton coming to bat.  And while Hamilton did hurt the A’s with a single, it was a costly error by Brandon Moss in right field that allowed the 2 runners to score.  Hamilton ended up at 3rd on the play as the ball rolled all the way to the wall, but Tommy Milone was able to bear down and keep Hamilton right where he stood.  The Rangers would not score again.  Milone retired 11 straight after that Hamilton single in fact, so he really was on his game.  His pitch count got a little high so he only was able to last 6 innings, but his outing was more than sufficient to get the job done.  In his 6 innings Milone allowed 6 hits, 2 unearned runs, walked none, and struck out 3.  Jim Miller, Sean Doolittle, and Evan Scribner combined for 3 scoreless innings giving up just 1 hit while walking 3.  Grant Balfour worked a clean bottom of the 10th for his 21st save.

After the Rangers scored in the first inning, the A’s battled right back in the top of the 2nd against spot starter Scott Feldman.  Originally scheduled starter Yu Darvish was scratched because of a stiff neck.  After walks to Brandon Moss and Chris Carter, Daric Barton who got the start after some shaky defense at first base recently doubled to right and drove in Moss (First pitch shockingly).  Chris Carter hit a ball with major top spin hard enough that it didn’t have time to dive down and stay in play in the 4th inning to tie the game, it was his 16th homer of the year.  After that no scoring would take place until the Kottaras homer in the 10th.

Josh Reddick was not in the starting lineup, but did appear in a pinch hit role, but still couldn’t break his 0 for now 28 streak in his lone at bat.  This slump is reaching its breaking point, his AVG has slipped to .241 during his recent struggles.  If he can break out of this before the season’s end it will be a huge boost to the A’s offense.

Speaking of boosts to the offense Coco Crisp appeared as a pinch runner in today’s game and did steal a base.  He was on the field during batting practice taking fly balls, so he may be close to returning to the lineup.  His presence as a catalyst at the top of the order is essential to the A’s success in this home stretch.

Evan Scribner notched his first big league victory after pitching a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th inning, his contributions to the A’s this year have gone largely unnoticed, but he’s become a fairly dependable middle reliever.

With this win the A’s pull back to within 4 games of the Rangers in the AL West, thus keeping the sliver of hope alive that they can catch them with 5 games still to play between the two.  Crazier things have happened.  Meanwhile in the wild card race with the Orioles loss to the Blue Jays tonight the A’s are back to within 1/2 game in the wild card standings.  The Angels resisted a late comeback attempt by the Seattle Mariners to win in Anaheim, so they remain 2 games behind the A’s.  It would be huge if the A’s could pass the Orioles again and have the Angels on their tail instead.  As they say, you don’t have to outrun the rally monkey, you just have to outrun the other team.

Jarrod Parker (11-8, 3.40 ERA) takes the hill after his dominant start at Yankee Stadium on Friday, he is the de facto ace of this staff and they need him to bring his A game tomorrow.  The Rangers will send out rookie Martin Perez (1-2, 3.78 ERA) who beat the A’s in Arlington for his 1 victory, that came right before the A’s started this run that propelled them into the pennant race.  The A’s can take this opportunity to show Perez that this is a completely different team than the one he saw on June 30.