A's need offense to back young pitching

Friday, August 22, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

The Athletics had a chance to make a big splash before the trade deadline, a chance to trade for Jason Bay. They would have had to surrender a package that included pitcher Vin Mazzaro, the 21-year-old right-hander who went 12-3 with a 1.90 ERA in Double-A this year, but the acquisition of Bay would have temporarily fulfilled Oakland's desperate need for a masher in the middle of their lineup.

With Bay, the Athletics might've scored more runs in the second half, won a few more games, and had a more respectable finish to the 2008 season.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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