Moves Roundup

Duchscherer's season may be over, Suzuki back, Rodriguez, Bowers up, Donaldson down, Gaudin gone

via the Chronicle:

"Justin Duchscherer left little doubt Saturday night that his season is probably over, and that also might mean the end of his A's career.

"It's very similar to the other time, when I had to have the surgery," said Duchscherer...If I have to have surgery, I'm done for the year, and obviously that's not an option I want to explore unless absolutely necessary."

--

Well, I said to Zack at the beginning of the year that I expected Sheets and Duke to combine for 1 healthy season (~30 starts or so), and that's looking like an optimistic prediction.  Duke gave the A's 5 solid starts before giving out, and not only is his A's career likely to be done, his career in general is in jeopardy.  He certainly has proven his body cannot hold up as a starting pitcher, so any comeback should be in the bullpen.

The A's brought back Henry Rodriguez (who probably never left), and recalled journeyman lefty Cedrick Bowers who will be around until Vin Mazzaro in all likelihood takes the ball in Duchscherer's next spot in the rotation.  Bowers, 32, appeared in 5 games for the Rockies in 2008 (and got lit up) and the last two seasons at AAA has shown himself to be an erratic strikeout pitcher who suppresses home runs.  He had a combined line of 125.2 IP, 88 H, 6 HR, 88 BB, 141 K, and this year at Sacramento has been more of the same, with 17.2 IP, 10 H, 0 HR, 8 BB, 26 Ks.  His wildness makes him untrustworthy in any high-leverage situations so expect him to see limited action in mop-up duties as the 3rd lefty behind Breslow and Blevins.

Gaudin was the victim of some gopher-itis and a very high BABIP (.432), with a very solid 20:5 K:BB ratio in 17.1 IP, his FIP (5.93) and xFIP (3.91) were much better than his ERA (8.83).  But after yesterday's debacle, it's not surprising he was shown the door.

The A's do get some good news with the return of Kurt Suzuki, and Josh Donaldson, as expected, got sent back to AAA after getting his first taste of the bigs.  He looked overmatched most of the time, but did hit a bomb, so he's got that going for him, I guess.