He Can't Say They Didn't Give Him a Shot

Ryan Langerhans was traded by the Braves to the Oakland Athletics today, immediately after their 11 inning loss to Colorado.

Langerhans was 2-41 entering today's game - in which he went 1-3 to bring his average to .068 on the young season. The fact is that the Braves couldn't wait any longer for Langy to "break out of it." With Matt Diaz hitting a decent .260ish in part time duty, and coming off a .327 season (nearly 300 AB) there really wasn't much reason to wait for Langy.

The Braves will get some cash and a player to be named later for Langy. Willie Harris has been promoted from Richmond to the big club as a result of the transaction. Harris was hitting .362 as a regular for the AAA team. This spring, Harris hit .318 in 44 AB. Harris came to the Braves as a non-roster invite to Spring Training. He hit .156 for the Boston Red Sox in 2006 (45 AB). Harris spent four seasons with the Chicago White Sox (2002-2005) and was a member of their World Championship team in '05. He broke into the bigs in 2001 with Baltimore.

Don't expect Diaz to take over the day to day work in Left Field. Expect to see the left handed hitter Harris take over for Langerhans in the platoon role. Harris has spent most of his Major League Baseball career as a second baseman (just what we need...another second sacker), but has been playing mostly in the outfield for the immediate past.

I'm a little unclear on what the A's have in mind for Langerhands...as it seems they have more outfielders than most clubs (5 according to www.athletics.mlb.com).

Pete Orr came off the bench today to pinch hit for pitcher Kyle Davies in the 5th inning. He grounded out to shortshop to drop his batting average to .222.