[The Elephant Walk is my weekly wrap-up of Oakland Athletics baseball. Results, performances, transactions or other thoughts I might have about the A's]

Not the best way to start… but the A’s tend to start slow and blow up sometime in the summer. The biggest worry however is losing two of three to Seattle. That’s not the way to start. I have however been pleased with the play of Milton Bradley, Mark Ellis, and Mike Piazza.

Starting Pitching

Rich Harden looked fantastic. Just fantastic…but then again that was never really the worry. The worry is, however how well Danny Haren, Joe Blanton, and Joe Kennedy will throw. Haren rebounded well on Saturday in a 2-1 loss to the Angels, so my expectations are that Haren and Harden will be at their normal levels… which gives the A’s one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball. Blanton threw well despite a 6.00 ERA; last year one of his problems as I saw it were his walk totals. He has posted roughly a 2 K/BB average over the last two years, and in his opening start he struck out 7 and gave out no free passes. If he can keep up pitching like that, not all the hits are going to fall on him and really the only things he controls are K’s and BB’s, and so far so good.

That pretty much leaves us with Esteban Loaiza and Joe Kennedy. I have never been a fan of Loaiza, or his signing. I do however, understand the need for a good lefthanded starter when Haren, Harden, and Blanton are all righties. It might not affect them very much now, but in a 5 or 7 game series you need to have both lefty and righty starters. So rather than talk about how pivotal Loaiza is, on the contrary, I think Joe Kennedy is the lynch pin. Loaiza’s health has never made him someone you can rely on, so I think Kennedy is the one to watch. If Kennedy can’t hack it - or even if he can and Loaiza is not able to contribute much at all - the A’s may need to make a trade for a left handed starter.

Injuries

Injuries of course with the A’s are huge, and since I don’t want to jinx too many players, I’m not naming too many names.

So far, Loaiza.. and as far as I am concerned the A’s need to learn to play without him. Also Mark Kotsay, which I feel impacts the A’s in a way that most might not be talking about. Kotsay is a good centerfielder, and many felt that his injury was most problematic in that is forced the A’s to either play a rookie in the outfield or pull Nick Swisher off first base. I don’t think those are the major stories however. Milton Bradley is honestly one of the A’s better hitters. Only problem is that he has only gotten 500 AB’s in his career once, and has lost much of his early career to injuries. My thinking is that much like Rocco Baldelli, if you are injury prone and play centerfield, your chances to get hurt are much higher than in a corner outfield position which involves significantly less running. Shifting Milton over to center is quite possibly one of the riskiest moves the A’s have made, because they will be a different team without him in the lineup.

Transactions

Todd Walker. The uber-utility player will have a very important role on this year’s squad because he can fill in at 1B (Dan Johnson injured, Nick Swisher may be needed in the OF), 2B (Ellis was inconsistent last year), SS and 3B.

The A’s had two interesting transactions during the week, one was naming rookie Travis Buck as the starting rightfielder. Buck is a patient hitter, and anyone who has read Moneyball knows that the A’s farm system preaches patience. He does not have a great deal of power, but his OBP should be fairly high, and he hits mostly line drives. One way to compare him is to call him a Nick Swisher with less power. Other guys he might compare well to are Andre Either of the Dodgers and Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox: patient, line drive hitters. Currently he is hitting in the eight hole, which probably needs to be adjusted considering he is batting right after Mark Ellis, who is the current league leader in RBIs for a second baseman.

The other transaction this week of importance was the trade for FLA 1B Jason Stokes. In order to get Stokes, the A’s had to send away minor-league all star catcher John Baker to Florida.. which honestly must have been tough for him being a Cal product who would then be playing pro ball only miles away from Berkley. But anyone paying attention to Florida this year knows how hot of a start Mike Jacobs is having.. well last year rumor had it that Jason Stokes had the talent to take his job away mid season. That never happened, and with Jacobs playing well I am sure that Stokes became dispensable. I know the trade is a reaction to Dan Johnson’s injury, as he at this point is completely unreliable for 1B and the A’s would be extremely dangerous with a solid 1B, plus Swisher, Bradley and Buck in the outfield. So where I am confused is what this means for Daric Barton? The 1B of the future is either developing much too slowly, they have given up on him, or he is being shopped around for a starting pitcher. Nonetheless, it will make for interesting storylines in the weeks to come.