Kuzul

As the MLB trade deadline is quickly approaching, we have a greater idea of which teams will be buyers and which will be sellers.

One of the biggest commodities during the trade deadline will be starting pitching.

No team can have enough pitching and with all six divisions being decided by six games or less, the races are closer than ever.

A good starting pitcher can mean the difference between a team ending its season in disappointment and a team reaching the playoffs. 

Besides Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt, two of the more interesting pitching options on the market are Jake Westbrook of the Cleveland Indians and Ben Sheets of the Oakland Athletics.

Both of these pitchers have the talent to be a second or third starter and will cost considerably less than Lee or Oswalt.

It is very likely that both of these pitchers will land in the National League East.

The Mets, Braves, and Phillies are all in a tight playoff race and all three teams lack depth in their starting rotations.

If I had to guess, I would predict Ben Sheets will end up in New York and Jake Westbrook will have a new home in Philadelphia.

The Mets expressed interest in Ben Sheets during the off-season and he could provide the team some much needed pitching depth.

It is unlikely R.A Dickey and Hinsori Takahashi will continue their hot starts while John Maine and John Niese are still injury risks.

Signing Ben Sheets would give the Mets a pitcher with great raw talent.

The Mets realized Sheets isn’t a polished pitcher but his potential down the stretch, combined with his recent successes, will make him a viable option for New York.

Ever since losing J.A. Happ to an early season injury, the Phillies have been looking for pitching help.

The team has recently contacted Pedro Martinez about returning for the second half of the year.

Although Pedro Martinez has plenty of playoff experience,he does not have a great deal of velocity. I question his ability to pitch quality starts week after week without breaking down.

For the right price, Pedro may be worth a chance but Jake Westbrook is a much safer bet for the team.

Westbrook has a career ERA under four and is less of an injury risk.

The reason why I don’t see the Braves landing Westbrook or Sheets is because I think they are the front runners to land Cliff Lee.

Unlike the Mets and Phillies, the Braves lack a number one starting pitcher (the Mets have Johan Santana and the Phillies have Roy Halladay). Cliff Lee can be that answer.

Lee pitched brilliantly last year in the playoffs and would provide the relatively young Atlanta Braves roster with some much needed postseason experience.

Although Roy Oswalt is a likely target for all three of these teams, it is doubtful any of them will get the Astros hurler.

Oswalt is a long-term commitment, unlike the aforementioned three starters and has a no trade clause.

This combination of factors will most likely not land him in the National League East.

It will be interesting to see how the NL East shapes up in the next few weeks.

It will be a tight race until the end and all three contenders will look to the pitching market to gain a competitive advantage.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

We are now a little over a quarter of the way through the baseball season, and the Oakland Athletics’ Ben Sheets is the center of attention. In the off-season, Sheets signed a one year, 10 million dollar contract with Oakland. Almost unheard of in the scheme of Billy Beane’s makeup for the A’s.

Now, it is my intention to grade the overall performance of Sheets up to this point.

The 10th overall pick of the Brewers in the 1999 draft has appeared in 10 games this season. Within that stretch, he has had two 6 inning, shutout games, including his most recent outing against the crosstown Giants, which he won 3-0. That being said, he has a 5.04 ERA.

Not what you expect from a man who is supposed to be the leader of your team.

This has resulted in only a 2-3 record for Sheets. I will give Sheets the benefit of the doubt that his ERA has spiked from his April 27th and May 2nd outings. He gave up eight and nine earned runs in those starts, respectively.

What can’t be forgotten is that he has no decisions in his four starts against the division. That means he is simply not showing up in the most important games of the early season.

Right now, the Athletics stand at 23-23, 2.5 games back of the Texas Rangers. If Sheets can continue to work himself back into form, the Athletics will be right there, fighting for the division.

The Rangers and the A’s cannot forget about the Los Angeles Angels, of course. They have had a slow start, but have the ability to run off a streak of wins to take hold of the AL West.

With all of this put into play, I give Sheets a C- so far for his ability to keep the A’s in games, though this grade could improve steadily. It will be intriguing to see if he can pick it up or if the rest of the starters will have to carry the load.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

After the Oakland Raiders traded for the Washington Redskins’ Jason Campbell, the speculation in the swirling rumors of JaMarcus Russell’s imminent demise was replaced with inevitability.

The big man with the even bigger contract was due $9.45 million in the upcoming season and, by all accounts, nothing about the kid warranted rolling the dice when that kind of money was at stake.

And so the axe fell on May 6th, putting Russell firmly in the running for the title of Biggest Bust in the History of the National Football League.

That’s gotta sting.

The news has been fodder for numerous punchlines and snicker-inducing jabs around the country, but it’s not creating as many laughs in the Bay Area. The city across the Bay from the City is, shall we say, displeased.

So, to hopefully lighten the mood of some very disgruntled Oaktown residents and fans (or at least to give them an outlet for anger), I thought it’d be fun to bring the 510’s success story into the fray—the Oakland Athletics.

More than a few Major League Baseball players have been former college quarterbacks so what if the A’s starting pitchers traded rawhide for pigskin?

What current NFL signal-caller does each mound maestro most closely resemble?

Obviously, we’re not talking looks here—I’m a heterosexual man and everyone knows we don’t make aesthetic distinctions when it comes to our fellow fellas. This is strictly about a mix of on-air personality, body of work, age, and a healthy dose of gray area for the sake of convenience.

Or idiocy—you decide…

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