The Oakland Athletics attempts to climb out of the AL West cellar took a significant hit as they placed starting pitcher Brett Anderson the disabled list with soreness in his left elbow. Anderson has seen his velocity drop in recent starts and after sending Anderson back to Oakland to get his elbow checked out, the team decided the DL was the place. There is no word on the extent of his injury at this point.
To fill Anderson’s spot in the rotation, the A’s are calling up Bobby Cramer from Sacramento. Cramer battled for the fifth starter spot in spring training but lost out to Brandon McCarthy. Cramer made four starts for the A’s in 2010, finishing 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA. In six starts at Sacramento this season, Cramer is 0-0 with a 4.03 ERA as the team has worked to stretch him out from a long reliever role.
This now marks the fourth starting pitcher to go down for the A’s. Dallas Braden was the first to go down, landing on the DL in April with a sore left shoulder. He was followed in short order by Tyson Ross and Brandon McCarthy who were both hurt within one day of each other.
Now Anderson is added to the list and the A’s find themselves wondering what else can go wrong at this point. They have a long road ahead of them if they want to climb back into the AL West race. While seven games back isn’t a huge deficit, the A’s are playing at a level that makes it appear more difficult.