Tyson Ross's return

By Jason Wojciechowski on July 4, 2011 at 9:40 PM

(Programming note: no game recaps for Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. Busy all weekend with other matters.)

Yesterday afternoon, Joe Stiglich wrote at Inside the Oakland Athletics:

It will be interesting once Tyson Ross is ready to return from the DL. Does he bump someone in the rotation? Join the bullpen? Stay in the minors?

Link.

I don't have much to say beyond this: if Ross does not bump Guillermo Moscoso from the rotation, then I have no earthly idea what the A's are thinking. Brandon McCarthy's reinstatement from the Disabled List presented the question of whether Josh Outman or Moscoso should be the one kicked out. Ross, then, will pose no such issue, because Outman is already gone -- Moscoso has a mediocre fastball that helps him to a 4.6 K/9 just over one homer per nine, and only halfway decent control (3.6 BB/9). He's getting by with a sparkling 2.51 ERA so far because of two things: five unearned runs in just 43 innings (we know how silly the earned/unearned distinction is) and a 6.7 hits-per-nine rate, a preposterously low number given his whiff capabilities, solid A's defense (or not so solid, depending on which numbers you believe and which particular configurations have done their duty behind Moscoso's starts) or not.

No, it most certainly should not be "interesting." It should be the easiest decision the A's make all year.