[brackets]

I love seeing brackets in news stories because somtimes it's the writer covering up a swear word in quote that's being printed like this:

"It could have been a lot tougher if the team was full of [jerks]," Painter said. "But these guys here, they couldn't be a better group to come in cold on. I think they went out of their way to make Keiichi -- and me -- comfortable right from the start."

That was from a story about Keiichi Yabu's translator, Andy Painter, and his experiences at this year's A's camp. Don't let me down Yabu, I know you can succeed at this level.

[jerks] eh? I wonder what [jerks] could be...

I also like Mychael Urban's writing, he has good vocabulary, check this out:

Up next: Joe Blanton gets the ball Tuesday in the A's penultimate game in the desert. He'll go up against Aaron Sele and the visiting Mariners at 12:05 p.m. PT.
(emphasis mine, of course)

Penultimate, you don't encounter that word in journalistic writing often, especially sports journalism. As I said, I like his writing. However, I disagree with his assessment of the #5 starter job because I don't think Beane would let the arby clock start so quicky for somebody with such a high ceiling as Meyer. No matter how go he is, he's going to start the year in AAA. Besides, Harden was a mid-season callup his rookie year.

In other news, 1B Dan Johnson has been optioned to AAA Sacramento. This guy really deserves to play in the big leagues but being a first baseman it's hard to earn a spot in the Oakland roster since Billy Beane is so high on Scott Hatteberg. One of my friends has been following DJ throughout spring training loved that guy and thought that he had an excellent chance of making the roster as a bench hitter. The problem is, DJ's a leftie, and if there's anything the A's have in abundance, it's pitching and left handed hitting.