Crisp activated, Powell demoted

Instead of making a rehab appearance tonight in Sacramento as planned, Coco Crisp was activated from the DL and will start in center field against the Giants.

To clear a spot, the A's demoted Landon Powell, once again leaving Jake Fox as the primary backup to Kurt Suzuki.  Powell hit .231/.362/.282 in 13 games for the A's.  He also caught a pretty special game.

Most interestingly, the A's now face a roster crunch when Mark Ellis returns, probably early next week, assuming his rehab at Sacramento goes well.  Much like the end of spring training, the A's will either have to go to 11 pitchers (and demote Cedrick Bowers), demote Adam Rosales (and he's played well enough that this might not happen), or have to designate someone for assignment.

It won't be Fox, because he has to catch, and it's unlikely to be Jack Cust.  That leaves 4 candidates --- Rajai Davis, Eric Chavez, Eric Patterson and Gabe Gross.  I don't think it will be Davis because of how solid he was last year and what his speed and defense offer off the bench (if the A's stick with a Cust/Crisp/Sweeney OF).  Chavez has been pretty bad, but I don't think it will be him purely for sentimental reasons.  Patterson has some versatility and has shown some pop.  Gross seems to be the odd man out, as he's hit just .254/.286/.288 in 64 PAs and had just a .681 OPS last season for Tampa Bay.  He seems to be behind Patterson on the depth chart given the amount of starts each has had, and Patterson has better speed and can play more positions.  It looks to me like the Gabe Gross era in Oakland is going to end, and was about as memorable as the Jeff DaVanon/Danny Putnam/Ryan Langerhans eras.