Bye Bye Duchsherer

I am certainly not surprised but it is definitely disappointing. Susan Slusser of the Chronicle is reporting that Justin Duchsherer is going to have arthroscopic surgery on his injured elbow and that will likely cost him at least the month of April. With that, the Oakland A’s lose their best starting pitcher and probably get a lot younger in the starting rotation.

Duchsherer has been battling injury for nearly his whole career. He could be considered the pitching version of Eric Chavez in my book. Great if he is out there (okay so great may be a strong work for Chavez) but they can not get him out there enough. This spring he has battled an elbow injury. Every couple of weeks he would go out and give it another try only to fall short again. This week he tried a minor league game but had to shut it down early because of soreness. So now it is time to go under the knife and see if they can figure out what the problem is.

Hopefully for Duchsherer and the A’s it is just scar tissue, or swelling, or something easily fixed. But if doctors find something worse, well let’s just say that would be trouble!

So where does this leave the A’s? It appears Dallas Braden will make the opening night start. Braden was a top prospect a couple of years ago but in two years of bouncing between Sacramento and Oakland he has yet to establish himself. He brings six career wins with him to the mound. Dana Eveland and Sean Gallagher will be the next two pitchers. Eveland showed flashes of something last year, but his inconsistency cost him by the end of the year. Gallagher came over from the Cubs in the Rich Harden trade but did not distinguish himself. Between the two of them they have 16 career wins.

With neither Josh Outman nor Edgar Gonzalez establishing themselves and Gio Gonzalez missing time due to injury, it is looking more and more like top prospects Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill will make their major league debuts. It would be a shock if Anderson did not, Cahill seems to be a little more of a question mark.

There is a TON of potential in that rotation, but it really is a scary starting five for a team that is hoping to contend in the AL West. The A’s spent money and upgraded their offense in the off season, but now they find themselves very unknowing when it comes to pitching. If the hyp is the real deal, the A’s will soar! But when was the last time five young pitchers all hit their hype!

Duchsherer is a very good pitcher when healthy but given last year’s struggles, it was a big gamble of the A’s to not bring in a veteran pitcher to help anchor the squad. So for now, it appears the A’s will send out one of the youngest rotations in the Major Leagues, and let’s see what happens! It should be fun to see the youngsters for the first month, but without success, it could get ugly early!

A’s note:  The A’s also added a couple of catchers today. Just adding depth, probably nothing that actually affects the opening day lineup. Here is the story:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/athletics/detail?blogid=21&entry_id=37624