Ever get the feeling someone is just yanking your chain for no good reason?

The state of the Oakland Athletics is unerving. It really has become an issue of Ken Macha's tenure as Oakland's skipper. The breadth of the communication gap between the manager and his players is so vast - you can fit Reggie Jackson's ego betwixt and still have room for Barry Bond's collective disdain for all things not Barry related.

"You get into a Catch-22. You don't want them trying too hard, which, for the most part, has been what's happening. You want them to focus on finding a good pitch and putting a good swing on it. You'll usually find, at the end of the year, that batting average with runners in scoring position is usually a little higher than team batting average. It's a little too early to panic. I just want the guys to focus, regardless of who's on base and who isn't."

- Ken Macha, current A's Manager

Has it looked like the A's are trying TOO hard lately?

Jermaine Dye needs a day off and the batting order needs to be tweaked. With Mark McLemore about to head to the DL (he had yellow fluid drained from his knee on Friday - the A's lead the AL in knee fluid drained this season) the A's have a chance to call up a player that might be able to light a fire under their collective arse.

15 Day DL Whom should the A's call up to replace Mark McLemore on the 25 man roster? Adam Morrissey Graham Koonce Dan Johnson Mark Teahen Esteban German Justin Lehr Chris Mabeus Joe Blanton Mike Edwards Mike Rouse Current Results

All four AL West teams decided to chuck it in last night. Does it have anything to do with playing the AL Central teams recently that the AL West has gone into a funk?

Yes.

The Oakland A's were shut out last night for the first time in 2004. The Boston Red Sox remain the only team in MLB that has not been shut out.

The A's left 14 runners on base last night. 14. To put that number in perspective, is the A's had driven in 15% of the runners on base, they would have scored two runs. Jermaine Dye left 7 runners on base all by himself. Scott Hatteberg left 5.

That's fairly crappy. It's borderline pathetic.

Of course Macah had to go and stat meddling with things and give up an out having Marco Scutaro bunt Bobby Crosby over to second with nobody out in the top of the 7th. Guess how many runs the A's scored?

Not being able to watch the game on TV made things even more enjoyable. You had to wonder if the A's were ambling around the bases like zombies looking for brains.

Incidentally, Mark McLemore has been taken for an MRI on his surgically repaired knee. There could be a DL stint in the near future for McLemore. Damian Miller is fighting a bad hamstring and Adam Melhuse has been coming in late in games. It should be mentioned that Barry Zito was cruising up until the 8th when he threw nearly 25% of his pitches in the last frame. Also, Zito shook off Melhuse several times, including the final pitch where Zito wanted to go with a change-up rather than the fastball curveball sequence Melhuse was ordering.

Let's get to some transactions for the A's before they are misplaced, we'll try to keep our comments to a minimum.

5/13 FRANK MENECHINO traded to Toronto for future considerations: Essentially it was a roster move to shed the A's aof a major league contract they could no longer do anything with. Mark McLemore was coming off the DL and Toronto had their own issues at 2B. Future considerations could mean several things; cash, Player to be Named Later or it can be part of a trade yet to materialize. Don't count anything out, especially with the draft around the corner.


5/14 MARIO RAMOS added to Sacramento's roster: Ramos was on the DL (groin) but it was a rather short stint. More than likely it was to work on ihs mechanics. After two years with Texas, Ramos went from rave reviews and compariosons to Mark Mulder to being released by the pitching poor Rangers. Ramos looks to be a back end starter right now, more than likley until his arm strength is up to par. Ramos needs a healthy groin, he and his wife are expecting a second son any day now.


5/20 BRITT REAMES added to Sacramenot's roster: Reames was on the DL for sideburn related injuries. Not burns on his hips, but his facial hair. Reames had a good spring training at he'll most liekly find himself on a Lou Pote flyer very soon.


5/20 MIKE ZIEGLER Sent to MIDLAND from SACRAMENTO: AA demotion from AAA. Nasty. That's waht his pitches weren't. Ziegler was lit up a few times and as more pitchers are moving up, a few are going to find themselves slipping down.


5/24 MATT WATSON Off DL: Watson has had a hamstring injury since high school and it plagues him. He spent about two weeks on the DL and then went right back to punushing the baseabll. Considering he is 26 years old, it might time to figure out how to fix it.


5/24 BEAU CRAIG DL: With Watson coming off the Dl Craig went on with a rib injury. Not sure if it was BBQ related or not, pork or beef.


5/26 LOU POTE traded to Cleveland: Lou had a good spring and the A's have cemented a pattern of being able to sell of veteran players in the minor leagues for cash when the draft coems around. The A's may not have to cry poor this year, but with 5 picks before the 2nd round of the draft, they know they will have to shell out some cash for signing bonuses. Expect a few more of these moves in the next few weeks.


5/27 CHRIS MABEUS promoted to Sacramento from Midland: Mabeus is having a fine year after being lost in the Rule 5 draft to Texas, he was retuned to the A's toward the end of spring training. Mabeus was the Rock Hounds closer and with Justin Lehr already the River Cats closer he'll fill the set-up role. Lehr looks ready and Mabeus is not too far away either.

The A's are laoded.

Well, let's put the pizza on the table, er cards. Jim Van Vliet, the Sacramento Bee Sports Writer who was fired last year for falsely reporting a story for a San Francisco Giants game, instead watching the game on television not at SBC/DEL TACO/PAC BELL/CHICO's BAILBONDS Park, is back on the radar screen.

Interestingly, when scoping out locations for an earlier Elephants in Oakland Pizza Feed, we were handed the card of the manager of a Round Table Pizza in Davis, CA. The manager's name? Jim Van Vliet. The same? Dunno.

Anyway.

Van Vliet has taken it upon himself to file suit against the paper AND the union. While it is common place for a terminated employee to examine all legal recourse, when a labor union won't stick up for you - that's fairly damning, no? Unions will defend nurses who steal drugs from hospitals and doctors who are drunk on the job. Unions will even defend employees in prison who killed their co-worker.

So taking the suit on merit is going to be a longshot for a federal court.

Recently, in the Sacramento News and Review, the free weekly in town had a blurb from Van Vliet.

Mis-Bee-havin’: "Speaking of failed Bee sportswriters, Bites touched base with the ever-quotable Jim Van Vliet last week, following the news that he’s suing the Bee for wrongful termination. Van Vliet, who was let go after reporting on a game he (reportedly) watched on TV instead of at the stadium, still is reluctant to discuss the specifics of his case. But he did offer a typically candid view of his former employer. "When I started at the paper back in the late ’60s, it was a family thing, where you could come in as a copy boy and work your way up," Van Vliet told Bites. "Now, if you come in as a copy boy, you’ll be lucky to retire as a 65-year-old copy boy." Van Vliet believes his firing--for reasons he dismisses as doing "something a little stupid"--is symptomatic of larger problems at the Bee. "I’ve learned that no matter who you are," said Van Vliet of today’s workplace, "you’re just one asshole away from being homeless.""

What would we do without the free press? And by that, we mean, the press that doesn't cost a damn dime and will quote somebody correctly when they use the word "asshole".

Gary Trudeau, author for Doonesbury has been a target recently for content and censorship. Several of his strips have been pulled, even one by the Washington Post that had characters discussing how masturbation can help prevent prostate cancer and another when a charcater used the phrase, "son of a bitch" when he was alerted he had lost a leg in combat.

"It's a South Park world now, and younger readers are unlikely to be shocked or confused by anything they find in 'Doonesbury'."
-Gary Trudeau

We mention the Jim Van Vliet subject because we wrote often to the sports editor of the Bee, Armando Acuna on Van Vliet's writings and how subsequent articles by other sports writers are in question. He doesn't like us and while our main concern is with the editing style, or lack thereof, the content is just boring and tedious at the Bee, which should be your concern. There have been instances where articles appear to be too similar to other articles and quotations are too dissimilar when taken from the same source as those that appear in other media outlets. Two examples; On March 13th 2004 in the Sacramento Bee a story ran on Billy McMillon and Adam Melhuse. Part of the article:

"Minor-league vets make major move as reserves
Published on March 13, 2004, Page C1, Article 11 of 13 found, 984 words.
** A year ago, Adam Melhuse and Billy McMillon thought the same thing.
Another great spring, another trip back to the minors. Another year to prove their big-league worth on the Triple-A circuit.
Both players had high hopes before the A's shipped them to Sacramento on the final weekend of spring training.
"Billy just looked at me and said, 'I've been in the minor leagues enough,' " A's manager Ken Macha recalled."

The same day, the following article appeared in the Contra Costa Times:

"Published on March 13, 2004, Page b01, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
A CHANCE TO PROVE THEY BELONG
Source: RICK HURD, TIMES STAFF WRITER
They were finished. Both Adam Melhuse and Billy McMillon had surpassed their 30th birthdays. Both had received only sporadic time in the majors despite playing more than 10 seasons in the minors. And both had been discarded by several organizations.Has-beens? These two were destined to be never-weres.Until their travels dropped them in the land of the A's, that is. The place where reclamation projects often turn into gold worked its wonders with Melhuse and McMillon a season"

How does that happen?

On May 13th, 2004 Derek Zumsteg had an article on Baseball Prospectus.com on keeping score.

On May 21st, 2004 Bob Sylva had an article in the Bee about keeping score.

Coincidence?

Probably. Maybe. Most likely.

But, when you've been labeled, tarnished and held in perpetual suspicion, things can get fairly ugly.

A few other instances with the Bee occurred when there were differences in direct quotes. It wasn't just the Bee, it is with all media outlets, too. But when we emailed Armundo Acuna he snapped back we were accusing his reporter(s) (particularly Kevin Yamamura of plagiarism. Which was far from the truth, we pointed out inconsistencies from a December 11th article in which the quotations from the Bee difference from MLB.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times. Of course, the Chronicle differed from MLB.com and the Contra Costa Times. It had to do with editing more than writing and we gave Yamamura the benefit that he was being very cautious after the Jim Van Vliet thing. And after emailing Kevin he assured he was being careful with a tape recorder and taking dilligent notes.

It was more likely an example of other reporters just being a little lax in direct quoting or paraphrasing. Big deal? No. But, it could be, so why take that chance?

Such is modern 'journalism'.

So, who is at fault for Van Vliet-Gate? Why has his editor been able to skirt the issue and the reporter been shafted? If this was a lone incident, where's the slap on the wrist and support from the union? We had Van Vliet nailed months before and the Bee has always found our contempt for sports writing (how can the local paper of the A's AAA team not even discuss On-Base Percentage or print walks in the box score) - so why was this suddenly an issue?

The real key for the defense is going to be checking Jim Van Vliet's email. What? If he was sending email from a remote server at the time of a game he reported on he can't be touched. But, if he was say, sitting in his office watching the game on TV or listening to the MLB.com audio feed and sending email from the local server when he should have been in oh, say, Toronto - then you have an issue.

Another favorite activity of frequent travelers is to cash in plane tickets or down grade from first class to coach and pocket the difference in cash. The IRS nailed NBA officials few years ago with that scam. Oddly, failing to report income tax landed the officials in hot water with the federal government, but not so much with David Stern, the bizarro Bud Selig. The NBA took back all but one of the 43 referees. Maybe Stern just felt that the officals miss so many other calls on the court, what's a few more missed fouls on travelling?

Don't bring that it in here. You know how we feel about the situation.

You thought that two weeks of the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals heals all ills?

As far as the performance by A's pitchers there are a couple of factors to look at;

• The A's are facing a former closer, lead off hitter and bench coach. All three have considerable insight to the A's.


• The game plan was poorly constructed and horribly executed.
• Adam Melhuse was catching.


• Ken Macha does not understand how to utilize his bullpen.


• Ken Macha does not understand how to utilize his lineup - why was Mark Kotsay batting lead off with an 0 for 16 and 1 for 23 stretch?


• The A's hitters forced themselves into a corner against Curt Schilling and didn't come out until it was too late (Damian Miller did catch Schilling two years ago - why wasn't he in the lineup?).


• The A's have averaged only 4 runs over the last 12 games against inferior opponents while giving up just 2.3 runs against two teams that are not exactly world beaters (yah, Detroit may be ranked high in some team categories, but they have been playing against the AL Central teams, too).

So, what do you do? You gear up for tomorrow and watch Justin Duchscherer carve up the Red Sox and wonder what might have been.

That, and you curse Ken Macha's name until you bleed from the mouth.

In one of the many examples that you reap what you sow, head over to Yahoo! or similar search engines and do a quick search on the word; GARY MILLER and URINATING. Throw in ESPN if you like, but the first two would be fine.

We'll wait.

. . . WAITING . . .

Did you find them?

A routine search in reveals that ESPN's Gary Miller was arrested several years ago for aggravated public indecency, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The charges stem from the fact that Miller urinated out of a night club's upstairs window and that urine happened onto the heads of undercover police officers passing below.

When it rains, it pours.

Miller recently reported on ESPN.com that Moises Alou urinates on his hands to toughen them and prevent calluses.

Of course it caused a deluge of jokes and litany of hand shaking metaphors. Sport talk shows, columns and blogs ran with this for a while. And Dusty Baker, as only Dusty can say, mentioned teammates now give Alou "the fist". Perverse sexual practices really don't need to be added to the laundry list. Could Baker have just as easily said; "they simply nod as an accepted recognition". No, not Dusty.

What many have missed is that Gary Miller apologized to Alou the next week:

"Finally, a note on last week's inaugural column. One of my favorite players in the majors, Moises Alou, apparently included in confidence a remark to me about how he toughens his hands to be one of the few players in baseball to never wear batting gloves. It was part of a long conversation, and I asked if his father Felipe or one of his uncles tipped him off to treating his hands with urine. It touched off an unfortunate reaction in my hometown of Chicago, both in newspapers and on radio talk shows in the area.

I send my apologies to Moises because I know what urinating jokes are like. If it works, it works. Do whatever it takes."

A classy move by a not so classy guy.

The Royals are throwing out their best pitching prospect for his Major League debut today.

ZACH GREINKE 2004 (AAA - OMAHA)

PITCHERS	W-L	PCT	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	GF	SV	IP	H	AB	TBF
Zack Greinke	1-1	.500	2.51	6	6	0	0	0	0	28.2	25	107	119
	R	ER	HR	SH	SF	HB	BB	IB	SO	WP	BK
	8	8	2	3	1	2	6	0	23	2	1

We saw Greinke in Spring Training against the A's (here's the box score). We watched and waited, thinking,...AND?

Granted, it was Spring Training.

He isn't overpowering, he's rather unassuming. Still, expect the A's to struggle against a pitcher they have not seen, at least for a few weeks. Greinke has been averaging less than 5 innings per start. So, you can predict that A's might start to get after him the second time through the lineup.

With previous Royals pitching prospect Jeremy Affeldt being moved to the bullpen the Royals are grasping for straws. When you get demoted to the bullpen and then get named closer in the same breath, things are not good.

We have a post on the Reggie Jackson numbering retiring, but want to accompany some images to go with whatever Jackson decides is "appropriate" to say for the occasion.

It is has been reported on SABR's site that Doug Pappas passed away from heat prostration in Big Bend, TX. Doug wrote on baseball and business and the business of baseball, many will remember Pappas as the lawyer who churned out the Marginal Payroll/Marginal Wins laid out in Moneyball . Doug recently was involved in a series of articles on Baseball Prospectus on a Ticket Price Survey's and the Fan Cost Index. Doug was also the only person willing and able to report on the litigation between former players arguing for (un-owed) pensions and a RICO (yes, the same kind that mobsters get thrown at them) case against Jeff Loria and essentially MLB. Doug has a countdown clock for the end of Kaiser Selig's tenure as Despot of MLB on his Business of Baseball blog.

When the clock strikes zero for Selig, hopefully we can all think of Doug and how he touched those in baseball and more importantly all of us in the baseball blogging community.

AAA - RIVER CATS (as of May 20th, 2004)

PITCHERS	W-L	SV	ERA	G	GS	GF	AB	TBF	Innings	H	R	ER	BB	IB	SO	HR
Joe Blanton	3-1	0	2.66	8	8	0	191	209	50.2	48	17	15	13	0	37	1
Eric Cammack	0-1	0	4.35	13	0	3	78	91	20.2	19	12	10	11	1	21	3
Ron Flores	1-2	0	3.00	15	0	7	74	83	18.0	21	8	6	8	2	19	0
Wayne Gomes	1-1	1	5.25	15	0	4	98	109	24.0	32	17	14	7	1	15	3
Shawn Kohn	0-0	1	4.66	5	0	3	39	41	9.2	10	6	5	2	1	11	2
Justin Lehr	2-1	6	2.33	16	0	14	75	82	19.1	19	6	5	6	0	24	0
Lou Pote	1-1	2	2.38	16	0	6	79	91	22.2	12	6	6	12	1	18	1
John Rheinecker	2-4	0	5.63	8	7	1	167	190	40.0	54	31	25	17	0	26	6
Mike Wood	7-2	0	2.36	9	9	0	206	225	53.1	50	23	14	14	1	41	5
Steve Woodard	4-2	0	4.22	8	8	0	194	216	49.0	55	25	23	11	1	18	5
Mike Ziegler	1-1	0	7.03	5	5	0	100	111	24.1	34	20	19	4	0	13	1

AA - ROCK HOUNDS (as of May 20th, 2004

PITCHERS	W-L	SV	ERA	G	GS	GF	AB	TBF	Innings	H	R	ER	BB	IB	SO	HR
Shane Bazzell	2-0	1	1.69	8	0	4	64	65	16.0	16	3	3	1	0	19	1
Kyle Crowell	2-0	0	6.23	12	0	3	83	94	21.2	25	20	15	8	0	28	1
Drew Dickinson	2-4	0	4.93	8	8	0	189	202	45.2	63	30	25	8	0	23	4
Ben Fritz	3-2	0	4.67	8	8	0	166	197	44.1	43	26	23	24	0	32	2
Marc Gwyn	0-2	0	2.73	17	0	5	93	105	26.1	20	9	8	8	0	29	1
Shane Komine	2-2	0	4.15	9	9	0	195	213	52.0	49	24	24	13	0	37	6
Chris Mabeus	3-0	10	1.35	18	0	17	77	79	20.0	17	3	3	1	0	24	0
Mike Oquist	1-3	0	10.02	6	6	0	93	112	20.2	34	27	23	14	0	7	4
Trevor Sansom	0-0	0	3.18	8	0	3	48	56	11.1	14	4	4	8	0	9	1
Bert Snow	1-2	0	2.45	14	0	3	75	84	22.0	15	7	6	4	0	15	2
Shawn Sonnier	1-2	0	4.98	11	0	3	85	91	21.2	22	13	12	5	1	15	3
Brad Weis	2-4	0	5.15	9	9	0	175	202	43.2	48	32	25	18	0	32	4

A - A's (as of May 20th, 2004)

PITCHERS	W-L	SV	ERA	G	GS	GF	AB	TBF	Innings	H	R	ER	BB	IB	SO	HR
Elvis Avendano	1-0	0	2.21	11	1	4	75	83	20.1	15	9	5	4	0	12	0
Bobby Bystrowski	0-0	0	8.16	12	0	6	61	72	14.1	19	13	13	8	0	11	3
Tomas Cabaniel	3-1	0	5.63	8	8	0	152	185	40.0	44	30	25	18	0	24	0
Steve Fischer	0-1	0	3.18	6	0	2	44	53	11.1	10	6	4	8	0	7	0
Shawn Kohn (AAA)	0-0	3	0.00	7	0	3	42	42	12.0	6	0	0	0	0	25	0
Matt Lynch	5-1	0	3.48	8	8	0	161	182	41.1	43	18	16	13	0	27	1
Derell McCall	4-3	0	4.79	8	8	0	149	179	41.1	34	24	22	19	0	39	2
Curtus Moak	0-1	0	4.43	16	0	1	87	102	20.1	25	14	10	12	1	18	0
Stephen Obenchain	0-1	1	4.55	15	0	3	116	136	29.2	34	22	15	15	3	29	1
Trevor Sansom	2-1	3	1.80	7	0	7	37	43	10.0	8	2	2	3	0	12	0
Marc Sauer	4-2	0	4.70	8	8	0	162	187	44.0	44	25	23	15	0	30	4
Chris Shank	2-1	1	2.42	17	0	5	101	108	26.0	24	10	7	6	0	29	1
Bradley Sullivan	3-4	0	5.35	8	8	0	151	172	38.2	47	26	23	18	0	18	4

A - COUGARS (as of May 20th, 2004)

PITCHERS	W-L	SV	ERA	G	GS	GF	AB	TBF	Innings	H	R	ER	BB	IB	SO	HR
Steven Bondurant	7-2	0	2.38	9	9	0	194	207	53.0	36	19	14	13	1	52	3
Jose Corchado	1-3	0	3.42	6	5	0	92	100	26.1	20	12	10	7	0	26	3
Chris Dunwell	6-1	0	3.74	8	8	0	177	189	45.2	45	24	19	8	0	38	4
Dan Fyvie	1-1	1	3.48	16	0	5	78	87	20.2	17	11	8	7	1	23	2
Jairo Garcia	1-0	9	0.53	14	0	14	59	65	17.0	7	1	1	3	1	32	0
Brad Knox	4-2	0	1.79	8	8	0	192	206	50.1	39	15	10	9	1	68	2
Brigmer Leon	1-1	0	4.24	15	0	4	96	104	23.1	26	13	11	6	1	19	1
Trent Peterson	0-0	0	0.75	2	2	0	41	42	12.0	5	1	1	1	0	10	1
J.R. Pickens	1-0	1	2.36	17	0	6	98	108	26.2	20	8	7	8	1	21	2
Manuel Rodriguez	2-2	0	4.88	14	1	5	97	111	27.2	22	15	15	11	0	16	3
Jared Trout	0-3	0	4.81	8	7	0	134	161	33.2	39	21	18	15	2	26	1

OAKLAND ATHLETICS (as of May 20th, 2004)

NAME	G	GS	W	L	Sv	Hld	Innings	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	K/9	WHIP	ERA
Justin Duchscherer	8	0	1	1	0	1	21.1	17	3	0	8	11	4.64	1.17	1.27
Tim Hudson	8	8	5	1	0	0	68.1	62	22	3	11	30	3.95	1.07	2.90
Chris Hammond	12	0	2	1	1	0	18.1	22	7	3	4	9	4.42	1.42	3.44
Mark Mulder	8	8	4	2	0	0	57.1	51	22	6	15	38	5.97	1.15	3.45
Mark Redman	8	8	3	2	0	0	50.0	59	20	5	13	25	4.50	1.44	3.60
Arthur Rhodes	15	0	0	1	8	0	17.0	19	7	4	9	15	7.94	1.65	3.71
Rich Harden	7	7	2	3	0	0	43.1	45	19	3	20	42	8.72	1.50	3.95
Chad Bradford	18	0	2	1	0	3	17.0	12	8	2	8	12	6.35	1.18	4.24
Barry Zito	8	8	3	3	0	0	48.0	60	30	8	16	37	6.94	1.58	5.63
Ricardo Rincon	15	0	0	0	0	5	10.2	14	7	1	5	13	10.97	1.78	5.91
Jim Mecir	17	0	0	3	2	6	14.2	15	11	2	6	18	11.05	1.43	6.75

AAA - RIVER CATS (as of May 19th, 2004)

BATTERS	G	AB	R	H	TB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
Mike Edwards	39	156	26	49	73	12	0	4	23	13	24	.314	.383	.468
Esteban German	20	82	12	27	34	3	2	0	11	4	15	.329	.367	.415
Dan Johnson	40	143	25	42	76	8	1	8	31	30	13	.294	.407	.531
Graham Koonce	26	100	17	25	50	4	0	7	24	13	24	.250	.339	.500
Adam Morrissey	26	89	19	26	39	4	0	3	13	13	21	.292	.381	.438
Mike Rose	35	113	20	36	50	6	1	2	18	27	25	.319	.437	.442
Mike Rouse	24	79	13	19	28	0	0	3	5	15	11	.241	.368	.354
Steve Stanley	37	120	20	27	36	3	0	2	10	18	16	.225	.326	.300
Nick Swisher	30	109	19	25	46	6	0	5	17	22	31	.229	.356	.422
Matt Watson	28	104	18	32	52	9	1	3	22	15	10	.308	.383	.500

ROCK HOUNDS (as of May 19th, 2004)

BATTERS	G	AB	R	H	TB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
John Baker	39	148	22	45	77	10	2	6	22	12	24	.304	.364	.520
Jeremy Brown	28	108	13	22	38	7	0	3	11	11	20	.204	.283	.352
Freddie Bynum	35	147	25	44	61	11	3	0	14	11	35	.299	.354	.415
Mark Kiger	34	130	21	34	44	7	0	1	16	21	24	.262	.359	.338
John McCurdy	34	123	16	29	46	8	0	3	9	6	39	.236	.269	.374
Brian Sellier	37	139	19	36	47	7	2	0	16	17	32	.259	.340	.338
Mark Teahen	39	148	21	52	84	13	2	5	30	19	33	.351	.417	.568
Jon Weber	37	135	18	40	63	9	1	4	17	14	32	.296	.362	.467

A - A's (as of May 19th, 2004)

BATTERS	G	AB	R	H	TB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
Brant Colamarino	39	141	30	47	81	6	2	8	26	23	18	.333	.425	.574
Nelson Cruz	37	147	24	41	73	15	1	5