We just found out the answer to the question of whether the A's were going to go for it and make a run at the playoffs or fold their tents for awhile-- they're folding. Just this afternoon it was announced that the A's traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Cubbies for right-handed pitcher Sean Gallagher, catcher Josh Donaldson, infielder Eric Patterson, outfielder Matt Murton, and a bag of beans. Citing injuries, Beane said it was a move he had to do-- the recent eight game losing streak probably forced his hand....

As the baseball season is now a quarter done, our occasional A's contributor, Christy of Athletics Nation, takes us through a team that somehow is managing to stay afloat despite the fact everyone on the team is on the DL except one of the ball girls and a coke vendor. Today, we'll go through the infield, and then we'll continue on with outfielders and pitchers...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Sharks 3 Predators 1- San Jose took an all important 2-1 lead in the series against the Predators with an offensive onslaught, getting off 41 shots while holding the Predators to only 19 shots. The Sharks actually were down 1-0 going into the second period when they got goals from Milan Michalek and Ryane Clowe. Patrick Marleau added the insurance goal with about 4 minutes left to play. Also of note is that while......

Here's todays recap of last night's sports...

-Warriors get beat down by the Clips, 103-90. Considering the Clippers are one of the teams that the Warriors need to pass in order to make the playoffs, that's a bad loss. -Stanford loses to UCLA, making them an official "bubble team" and Cal loses to USC making them an official .500 team. -The bad news: Sharks lose to Calgary. The good news: their round trip is over. Also, they didn't get in any ten......

A's 7, Indians 4- Rich Harden looked sharp in his first start in 3 1/2 months and Jason Kendall had three hits as the A's beat the Indians again. Your magic number is 4 with the Angels coming to town for a three game series. It's pretty simple, actually-- all the A's have to do is take two and champagne will be spilled at home. No scoreboard watching, no waiting around. Destiny, as they say, is for the taking. Oh yeah, Oaktown, get ready with some Montel Jordan cause you better be ready to party. ...

It's looking like one of those pitching kids the Giants have been bragging about for years might be living up to the hype. We're talking about Matt Cain, of course, who won yet another game, 4-0 against the Whale Vagina Padres. We love when the Giants play the Pads because they seem to beat them everytime, even when the Pads are in the midst of a five game winning streak. Anyways, Cain pitched seven innings, gave up one hit (he had a no-no going into the sixth), and no runs. In his past five starts he has given up one earned run in thirty-four innings and an era that was once over seven is now under four. Expect his arm to blow out sometime early next season....

The Oakland A's will win the American League West. Yes, this year! We (SFist) are not accustomed to making barrel-chested predictions that eventually turn to fool's gold as it often does on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" -- we're merely pointing out the obvious: the Oakland A's will win the AL West this year. Despite their anemic, Milton Bradley-less performance last night at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels and Joe Saunders-- who they made seem like a young Ron Guidry than the junk-ball throwing Tommy John clone that he is-- the A's will win more of those tightly-sewn games than the Angels, or god forbid, the perennial flame-out Texas Rangers. And they'll do it without resident genius Billy Beane making a nano-move during the trade deadline frenzy. ...

A large portion of Western literature doesn't make sense to California kids. Specifically, we don't get all those poems about springtime, because it just doesn't feel like that big a deal. This is not to say that "there are no seasons in California." Rather, we mean that spring is nice, sure, but so are summer and fall, and Indian summer, and hey, winter isn't really that bad, either. There seem to be more poems......

The All-Star break, which ends when games start today, is a time for the players to give back to the fans (or some such nonsense). It's also a time for baseball writers to fill inches with reflections on the half-season in the books, and with hopes and dreams, if not predictions, for the half-season that arrives in Oakland Thursday night. The first half ended on a high note for the A's, who swept a......

The Giants and the Mariners are bad this year. Here at A's Brand Baseball, we take no special pleasure in writing that, nor do we do so in order to taunt the other baseball fans and writers on SFist. (OK, maybe a little of the latter.) Rather, we simply want to point out that when the A's won nine of ten games against those two sorry-a$$ teams at the end of June, it didn't......

The A's have lost 8 games in a row, and 11 of their last 12. The A's are 9 games below .500. The A's have been outscored, in 2005, by every team in the American League and by every team in the National League. National League teams only have 8 hitters in their lineups, to American League teams' 9. The A's expected Rich Harden to turn into Tim Hudson this season, but this isn't......

Dear Oakland A’s, We get it. We understand that the team’s philosophy is very, very complicated, and involves math. It is not just about putting together a bunch of big, slow guys who walk a lot and then wait around for a three-run home run. Anyone who thinks it’s that simple, we know, is hella dumb. Now that we get it, could you please hit a few three-run home runs and maybe win some......

Baseball is, like, so weird. A 6-game homestand that included Barry Zito’s first win since last July, Rich Harden’s first major league complete game and the catch of Eric Byrnes's life all sounds good, and the A’s got exactly that this week but still managed to drop 4 of those 6 to Seattle and Texas. This week alone, they went from Z’s W over Seattle in front of 30,634 fans on the kind of......

Sunday night, the A’s finished a 3-4 road trip with a frustrating 0-1 loss to Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim. Joe Blanton pitched the first complete game of his career, giving up 6 hits and a run and making everyone who hyped him going into this season look good, but the offense didn’t bring in the two runs it would have taken to win the game. The anemic run production—3 shutouts and......

In breaking news, Billy Beane has shipped the Oakland A's ace, Tim Hudson, to the Atlanta Braves for three young players who, well, won't cost so much. From Atlanta's point of view, we think this may have something to do with the Mets signing Pedro Martinez. So the "Big Three" is now down to two, and since Mulder seems to have problems with his back and shoulder and Zito with his head, the days of......

A's remain tied with Angels after trading wins with Seattle....

Five games left, three back of the Dodgers, tied with the Cubs, a half game up on the Astros, and Milton Bradley losing his mind in LA. Does that say it all? Not if you're an A's fan. Then it's five games left, tied with the Angels, three distant games ahead of the Rangers, and Ichiro getting ready set a major record on the home turf. The Giants edged the Padres 7-5 in a nail......