Dana Eveland is finished; Ben Copeland is back

By Jason Wojciechowski on May 6, 2009 at 4:02 PM

The A's brought Ben Copeland off the DL yesterday and sent Dana Eveland to Sacramento. This gets the A's to 12 pitchers, but you have to wonder how much playing time Copeland's looking at. I think I'm not going out on a limb when I figure "none". The interesting question is what this does for Oakland's rotation. Sean Gallagher came up along with Jerry Blevins after the 14-inning disaster the other night, so I'd guess he'll be the new starter. He's pitched fine out of the bullpen in all of seven innings of action and his five starts in Sacramento resulted in a 3.10 ERA and a K-rate over nine, so he could be ready to step in and do some damage of the positive variety for the A's (as opposed to the Evelandian variety).

Eveland, it's sad to say, may have broken the final thread he was hanging from. It's not clear where he goes from here. He's not any tougher on lefties over his career than he is on righties, so he's not a situational option, and a 7.40 ERA doesn't cut it as a long man out of the bullpen any better than it does as a starter. He's likely destined for a long summer in Sacramento.