The Returns Of Eric Chavez and Travis Buck

DH Frank Thomas to be placed on the disabled list.  Prior to the actual activation of 3B Eric Chavez, the most likely player to be recalled was OF Travis Buck.  When he is recalled, will Buck recover the doubles stroke he had last season along with his plate discipline or will he continue to be the player he has been so far in 2008?  So far, Buck has a slash stat line of 345/430/460 in AAA Sacramento with 12 walks.

More interesting for the A's is the return of 3B Eric Chavez. Normally, I wouldn't be excited about Chavez' return given how awful he has been over the past two seasons.  But he had back surgery that was similar to what White Sox 3B Joe Crede did, and Crede has produced this year to the tune of 269/337/473 with 8 HRs.  In an American League bereft of productive 3B, that type of production from Chavez would be an assett in AL-Only leagues.  FWIW, Chavez had a 367/424/667 line on 30 ABs during his AAA rehab assignment.

Through May 28th, the American league has a collective SLG of .396 versus the NL SLG of .410. Yeah, if Chavez recovers like Crede did, then he'd be an asset for AL-Only leagues.  More odd, the American league has a collective ERA of 4.08 - .13 lower than the National League.  Welcome to the Bizarro season!