Jerome Williams to minors

Written by: Jeff Fletcher on 16th March 2009

Jerome Williams to minors | read this item

Jerome Williams, who had to lose 35 pounds to get another shot at the majors, saw his latest bid end on Monday morning, when he was among eight players sent to minor-league camp.

He did fairly well in his bid to revive his career, allowing only four runs in nine innings. There were other guys ahead of him on the depth chart, though, so there just weren’t enough innings in big league games for him to be ready to start. He’ll go down to minor league camp and start there, so he can be in Sacramento’s rotation and be ready if the A’s need him.

The other playes sent down were RHP Ryan Webb, IF Jeff Baisley and IF Eric Patterson were optioned. RHP Kevin Cameron, RHP James Simmons, IF Joe Dillon and 1B Sean Doolittle were reassigned.

(By the way, if you ever wondered the difference between “optioned” and “reassigned,” players who are on the 40-man roster are optioned. Once a player is optioned, he can’t come back and play in major league exhibition games. Reassigned players can come back.)

As for those other guys, the one who made the biggest impression was Doolittle. He hit .364 with a team-leading nine RBIs.

“He had a great spring,” manager Bob Geren said. “He’s a real good, all-around player. He reminds me, just around the bag, of Don Mattingly. He’s a smooth fielder. He’s a line-drive, gap hitter, but he’s shown some power. He has a real bright future.”

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Topics: Jerome Williams, Sean Doolittle