musical chairs and the burden of youth

Who will it be? The coveted fifth spot in Oakland's rotation remains unclaimed, and the competition is not letting up. For a team very much in contention, boasting an offense with newly acquired starpower, the chance to anchor a Major League starting rotation is one hell of a brass ring.

Duke, Sean Gallagher, Dana Eveland and Gio Gonzalez can all but assume they have locked down spots as starters. That fifth spot, however, remains a mystery to A's fans and management alike. The candidates: Dallas Braden Josh Outman, Trevor Cahill, and Edgar Gonzalez. The median age: 23. Combined games of Major League experience: about 70. This group is young, talented, and largely unproven at the pro level.

Let's take a look at the crop:

Braden is easily the most battle tested of the group. Posting a 5-4 record in 2008, he's appeared in 39 games for Oakland over the last 2 years. Braden has decent power, with a fastball in the mid 90's, a hard slider and a unique knuckler/screwball pitch he calls "the scrooge". Bob Geren seems to like him, which will help his cause. At 26 years, he is also the oldest member of the Atheltics hopeful.

Outman could be the dark horse. Once regarded as a top 15 prospect in the Phillies organization, the 24year old southpaw came over in the trade for Joe Blanton and played in 6 games at the end of last year's inconsequential season. He gave up a disappointing 34 hits in 25 innings and definitely took his lumps in his first look at big league hitting. Outman boasts a hard fastball with movement and relies on a deceptive (sometimes inaccurate) changeup to deliver strikeouts. He posted 19 in those 6 games.

20 year old Trevor Cahill is probably the most highly anticipated of the group... and the farthest from game day ready. Despite representing the USA in Beijing Olympics, the A's have limited his time to A and AA appearances. He's dominated at every level so far, but is still being cultivated for a big league roster spot.

Last year Edgar Gonzales finished a lackluster 1-3 with a 6.0ERA for the Arizona Diamondbacks (similar to his 06 and 07 numbers). He impressed A's brass this week with a 100 pitch session, facing a number of A's batters and showing good change in speed, location and instinct. But, the difference between bullpen sessions and game time performance is huge. His big league numbers leave much to be desired. At 25 years old, he has time to work out the bugs, even if it has to be at AAA for another year.

So who will it be? Whereas we don't know that yet, we do know the 4 designated starters (aside from Duke) are also young and yet to be challenged by a 162 game season. Moves have been made to address this.

This offseason Billy Beane signed veteran relievers Michael Weurtz and Russ Springer, and is still eyeing former Minnesota Twin Dennys Reyes. These arms in combination with proven entities Santiago Casilla, Joey Devine, Brad Zeigler and Jerry Blevins look to shore up what is arguably the top stable of relief pitchers in the Majors. With a deep and talented bullpen backing the starting 5 up (and shortening their innings on the mound) the support is there, and the potential for damage is substantially mitigated. It seems Beane was very deliberate in building a safety net for Oakland's young starters--with good reason.

So as week 1 of preseason approaches its conclusion, the A's know what they need to work on. The promise of youth stares down the AL West, and Beane has his work cut out for him. It would be nice to see some of these young guys step it up and once again validate his instincts.