In a 3-way deal, Oakland obtained Houston closer Octavio Dotel, sending
River Cats Mike Wood and Mark Teahen to Kansas City, which sent Carlos
Beltran to Houston. There was also some cash involved. Both Dotel and
Beltran can become free agents after this season, so it's questionable
whether Dotel will remain in Oakland next year.

I put Dotel's 2001-2004 numbers into my Extrapolated Runs spreadsheet
that splits out pitcher-only from ball-in-play (except HR) events. Over
that 4-year period, Dotel pitched 324 innings and faced 1286 batters.
This is a guy who relies less on his fielders than most, as his
percentage of pitcher-only events was 43.9%, compared to the NL 2004
average of 29.8%. This is largely due to his very high K rate, 11.39/9
IP. His K/W is a great 3.42 (NL 1.95) and he has allowed a homer only
every 38.9 outs, compared to 25.5 for the NL this season. His xR/PA on
pitcher-only events is a mere 37% of the NL figure, with seasonal
figures ranging from a high of 56.6% to only 24.8% for this season so
far. His BIP figures have bounced around more, as you would expect, two
seasons being below average and two well above, averaging out to 79% of
NL average. All this is despite pitching half the time in Houston's
hitter-friendly park. This guy is good!

Mike Wood was the winningest pitcher in the PCL this season, with 11
wins and a sub-3.00 ERA. I saw him pitch last Monday in Sacramento, and
he is a pitcher, not a thrower. They display pitch speeds in Raley
Field, and I never saw him crack 85, so I doubt that he has a great
future in the majors. Joe Blanton, who has been struggling in AAA after
a very fast start, is a much better prospect, IMO. Teahen was promoted
from AA, where he was hitting .335 .419 .543 in around 230 PA; at AAA,
he hit .275 .383 .391 in about 80 PA.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the Royals wanted Jairo Garcia,
currently at single-A Kane County, but the A's and Astros convinced them
to take Wood instead. Garcia has only pitched 30 innings this year, but
he's allowed only 16 hits, no homers, struck out 49 and walked only 6!
Garcia is 21, from the DR and was signed about a month before his 17th
birthday, according to the DOB in Baseball America's "Super Register"
for 2003. In three seasons of Rookie-level ball, totaling 166 IP, he has
a K/W of 3.2, a K rate over 10/9 IP, an opposition BA of .229 and only
10 homers allowed. He has a long way to go, but I'd rather have him than
Mike Wood, and that's not a "knock on Wood." >:-) It appears that the
A's feel the same way.
-------------------------------

The NL Central finally caught up with Oakland. After smashing their way
through the pitching staffs of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the A's got
swept by Tony LaRussa's Cardinals and lost two of three to the Cubbies,
suffering several bullpen meltdowns along the way. Mark Redman had the
best pitching performance in the one game Oakland did win. After
Chicago, the A's went to Anaheim for a 4-game set and lost the first
two, badly, before Redman again acted as a "stopper." Yesterday, Mark
Mulder didn't need any bullpen help, going all the way on 106 pitches to
beat the Angels, 2-1. The A's were shackled by Ramon Ortiz, but he was
replaced with one out and one on in the sixth by Scott Shields. Jermaine
Dye took Shields deep to CF for his 14th homer. In the 9th, Mulder
fanned Eckstein and Figgins, bringing Vlad to the plate. Mark pitched
him VERY carefully, understandable with no margin for error, and walked
him, then got Garrett Anderson to ground to 2B for the final out. Mulder
leads the AL in innings pitched, wins (tied), quality starts (tied), ERA
and, perhaps most importantly, opponents' OPS. (Hudson is 8th in
oppOPS.) In my view, he should start the All-Star game for the AL,
although I couldn't really care less about the All-Star game.

The Giants visit Oakland this weekend for a three-game set. Jason
Schmidt faces Barry Zito tonight. Schmidt has been mowing them down
since coming off the DL, but is being worked very hard by Felipe Alou,
averaging 113 pitches per start, with a high of 144. Zito is struggling
to get past six innings, as his pitch count has been hitting 100 about
then. He is averaging 17.3 pitches per inning, compared to Mulder's
14.1. Advantage to Giants tonight. Saturday Kirk Rueter will face Rich
Harden, followed by Dustin Hermanson vs. Tim Hudson, who got shelled by
Anaheim his last start.

Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA
read "Al's Baseball Tidbits" at:
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/primer/tidbits/gm.cgi