Cahill Doing Well Since Bump

Trevor Cahill wins.

The 20-year-old A's prospect has gone 5-1 2.25 for the Midland RockHounds since his promotion to AA. This includes a win in a relief appearance against the San Antonio Missions on July 11. Billy Beane must be happy with Cahill, who is a combined 10-5 this year.

Ironically, Cahill has won at Midland despite struggling somewhat with his command. Not to worry. Cahill still has racked up nearly twice as many strikeouts (29) as walks (15), averaging more than 8 Ks per 9 innings of work. This means he has been merely good as opposed to outstanding, since the promotion.

As prospect watchers and keeper league stat geeks know, Cahill is an extreme groundball pitcher in the Brandon Webb mold. He does not pitch to contact; when a batter does make contact, the ball usually gets pounded into the ground. As baseball fans and physicists know, it's difficult to hit a ground ball over the fence.

Along with former D-Backs' farmhand Brett Anderson, also 20, the righty Cahill gives the RockHounds a strong starting rotation. The team, however, is a mediocre 16-18 in the second half for the A's organization. Midland was 34-36 in the first half of Texas League action.

A pair of 21-year-old righthanders, Vincent Mazzaro (10-5 2.08) and James Simmons (5-6 3.57) have anchored the RockHounds rotation this year. The organization sent down 21-year-old righty Henry Rodriguez (1-6 8.82) to iron out some obvious control issues. Rodriguez, an undrafted free agent, does throw hard; he averaged over 9 Ks per 9 innings at Midland, and over 12 Ks per 9 with better control back at Hi-A in Stockton.

Simmons is repeating AA, but don't view that as a red flag. This is only his second minor league season. Simmons was a 2007 first-round pick out of Cal-Riverside, and pitched sparingly at Midland last year, with two spot starts.

Mazzaro is a 2005 third-rounder out of Rutherford High School in New Jersey, a school which produced one of the two Bobby Joneses toiling in the bigs in the late 1990s and early 00s. This was the Bobby Jones who, unfortunately, started his major league career in pre-humidor Colorado. Rutherford High also produced Pat Pacillo, who spent two seasons as a reliever and spot starter in Cincinnati in the 1980s.

With Cahill and Anderson, the A's have two good ones who might be ready to take a step up next year. While Cahill might need some time at AAA next year, Anderson is ready now.