Why Not Travis Banwart?

The Oakland A's rotation has taken a big hit in the last few days. We've been picking the A's to win this year since the start of the season. They lost Dallas Braden for the season over a month ago. In the past couple of days, they lost Tyson Ross and Brandon McCarthy.

For details on their injuries and potential replacements, check out Joe Stiglish's article in the San Jose Mercury News to this SB Nation article by David Fulcillo, this aptly titled Billy Frijoles piece on Athletics Nation: 'Possible Fill-Ins for Tyson Ross AND BRANDON MCCARTHY !#@%!@#$!@#$.'

Get well soon, Brandon!

Among other things, we learn "The primary candidates listed are Josh Outman, Guillermo Moscoso and Graham Godfrey."

I looked at the Baseball-Reference page for the Sacramento River Cats, where I found a viable fourth candidate: Travis Banwart.

This chart is from Baseball-Reference...

Rk		IP	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
5	Josh Outman*	37.2	1.726	9.1	1.4	6.5	7.2	1.11
4	Travis Banwart	46.0	1.000	6.8	1.0	2.2	7.6	3.55
3	Guillermo Moscoso	40.1	1.215	8.0	0.2	2.9	9.6	3.31
2	Graham Godfrey	33.1	1.110	7.6	0.5	2.4	8.4	3.44
	21 Players	378.1	1.306	8.2	0.7	3.6	8.4	2.35

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/21/2011.

Outman's control has been terrible, but Billy Frijoles of Athletics Nation says that's to be expected coming off surgery. Moscoso and Outman are already on the 40-man rosters, so it is easier for the team to recall them. Purely thinking from a non-business perspective and looking at their baseball numbers suggest that Banwart and Godfrey should get a chance.

In conclusion, here are a few more interesting triple-A statistics pulled from their First Inning player pages.

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching)
Guillermo Moscoso 2.97
Graham Godfrey 3.82
Travis Banwart 4.32
Josh Outman 6.44

BsRA9 (Base Runs Allowed/9ip)
Guillermo Moscoso 3.07

Save Travis Banwart

Graham Godfrey 3.12
Travis Banwart 3.24
Josh Outman 6.45

Moscoso's case is strengthened by those last two numbers. It'll be interesting to see who the A's go with. Outman's experience and the team's comfort level with him could earn him the promotion. Hopefully, we'll get to see Godfrey and Banwart pitch in the big leagues, too. If not, I'm picking the River Cats to do pretty well in the Pacific Coast League.