Jemile Weeks has been as advertised for Oakland. Through his first 20 games, the younger Weeks has compiled a .303/.346/.461 line to go with six stolen bases in eight attempts, adding up to a .359 wOBA and a 131 wRC+. The second baseman of the future for the Athletics has quickly become the second baseman of the present.

Just as quickly, Mark Ellis became the second baseman of the past for the Athletics. His ineffectiveness had those around the A’s discussing Weeks’s impending arrival; his early-June hamstring injury began the Weeks era. At his return, the A’s had a decision to make. The A’s decided quickly, moving the venerable second baseman to Colorado for pitcher Bruce Billings and a player to be named later. The trade sees the exit of a player who defines the Moneyball Athletics, as Ellis compiled $83.5 million worth of value for only $27.3 million in salary as an Athletic.

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Like most hitters in Oakland this year, David DeJesus is not doing so well. The A’s acquired him from the Royals to give their offense a spark, but thus far he has racked up just a .229/.313/.358 line and has begun to find himself on the bench with some regularity. During interleague play, Bob Melvin has chosen to use Hideki Matsui in the outfield in lieu of playing DeJesus, a sign of just how uninterested Melvin is in using DeJesus.

That said, DeJesus is actually having a pretty standard season in many areas. In fact, take a look at his 2011 marks compared to the last two seasons:

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Billy Beane made it clear this past off-season that he intended to improve the A’s offense for the 2011 season. They had performed reasonably well in 2010, finishing with a 97 wRC+, which represented an improvement over the 2008 and 2009 teams. By trading for David DeJesus and Josh Willingham, and signing Hideki Matsui, Beane moved to bring that offense above the league average level, which, combined with its young and effective pitching staff, figured to make the A’s contenders in the AL West. Many writers indeed picked the A’s over the Rangers before the season began. But the plan hasn’t exactly worked. Oakland currently sports an 86 wRC+, which is third worst in the AL. Worse yet, they’re getting their best production from the lineup spot that bats least frequently.

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The Milwaukee Brewers’ “all in” offseason, during which they traded a good chunk of young talent (including some of their best prospects like Brett Lawrie and Jake Odorizzi) to dramatically improve their pitching staff, seems to be working. New Brewers Shaun Marcum and Zack Greinke are dominating so far (although it hasn’t shown in Greinke’s ERA), and Milwaukee is currently in first place in the National League Central. However, as part of the price for acquiring Greinke from the Royals, the Brewers had to take on shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. Betancourt has somehow been even worse than the Brewers might have expected (perhaps he’s the victim of a curse), and is at -0.5 WAR so far. Betancourt isn’t hitting, and he has only exacerbated the Brewers problems in the field. The Brewers are in the divisional lead, as mentioned, but some might doubt whether the Brewers can make the playoffs with Betancourt playing like, well, Betancourt. What does history tell us about replacement level players and playoff teams?

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The As are, to put it mildly, not having the season for which they were hoping. Brian Fuentes is reported to be in the doldrums after the firing of Bob Geren, but the clubhouse’s general sadness at the departure of their beloved leader is almost matched by the futility of the offense. You’ve heard this song before. One could point in a number of directions, but the production of first baseman Daric Barton is particularly troubling after a good season in 2010. The problem is magnified because the As lack real options if they want to replace him.

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Whenever the younger half of a brother-brother tandem is called up, the comparisons are unavoidable. Billy and Cal Ripken, Jose and Ozzie Canseco, Jason and Jeremy Giambi, and, of course, Ryan and Steve Braun. Most recently, we’ve had the combination of B.J. and Justin Upton, one of the least one-sided brother tandems in MLB history. With the Oakland Athletics’ recent call-up of 24-year-old Jemile Weeks, younger brother (by four-and-a-half years) of Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks, we may see yet another balanced brother combination. Jemile is poised to put together a solid big-league career, but he’ll be doing it with a different approach than big brother beyond just his switch-hitting.

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Back in April, we took a look at every pitcher who had thrown the slider more than 40% of the time during the past three years. The results weren’t pretty. The “Slider Group” was more likely to have major surgery on their arm or on their shoulder than the general pitching population. They also hit the DL more than average. To say the least, the pitch seems stressful.

Since the slider cutoff was so high, and the innings minimum non-existent, our 25-pitcher sample was made up entirely of relievers. Now with Brett Anderson reporting some general elbow soreness and a hefty slider percentage (41.1%), it seems like a natural time to ask the follow-up question: Do we see the same propensity for injury, both major and minor, among starters who favor the slidepiece? Did that pitch gobble up Anderson’s elbow ligaments like they were so many miniature hamburgers?

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Wrapping up the series on trade targets, today we’ll look at a few catchers who might be available (and perhaps even desirable!) for teams in contention. With the Diamondbacks surprisingly in the race for the National League West (at least for the moment), Miguel Montero isn’t on the table (if he ever would have been), and he probably would have headed up this list. Leaving out the multitudes of generic backup catchers (the Jose Molinas and Matt Treanors [Treanor!] of the world), there isn’t much out there. Among the contenders, the Giants need to fill a Buster Posey-shaped hole and the Red Sox probably want to improve on the Jason Varitek–Jarrod Saltalamacchia Duo of Yuck. Here are four catchers might be available and/or could draw varying degrees of interest.

In no particular order…

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We’ve already run through first basemen and designated hitters, corner outfielders, and middle infielders who could be available at the trading deadline. Today, we cover five relievers who could be switching teams over the next two months.

PLAYER: Heath Bell
TEAM: Padres
POSSIBLE DESTINATION(S): Cardinals, Indians, Phillies
CONTRACT STATUS: $7.5 million, free agent after the season
PROJECTED WAR: 1.3

Bell is pretty clearly the best “proven closer” on the market, and he’s likely the best overall reliever as well. Even though his K/9 is down to 7.0 this year, his swinging strike rate of 9.1% indicates that it’ll increase a bit, even if it doesn’t get all the way back to his gaudy 11.1 rate from 2010. To compensate, Bell’s ground ball rate is up to 51% this year — an especially nice quality to keep were he to exit spacious PETCO Park.

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The following data is current through 5-30-2011.

If you, dear reader, are like me, then you agonize unnecessarily over every lineup on every team in every game. Aaron Rowand leading off?! Yargh! No! Carlos Gomez batting second for the Brewers?! WRONG. Aaron Miles batting anything?! Unforgivable.

Holding egos constant, inefficiency is the greatest enemy of success. With regards to lineups, however, teams can really only lose a handful of runs over the course of full season, but a handful of runs, in real terms, can mean the difference between the division or a boring October. So it’s a dicey proposition. A mismanaged lineup on the Royals team does not mean a whole lot because they will lose the division by several trillion runs. A few lost runs for the Rays, Yankees, or Red Sox, though, can mean the season.
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