Chris

Carter

The 25-year-old Carter entered the game with just one long-ball this season, so his outburst was good to see. Carter doesn’t have many roadblocks to playing time in Oakland. If Sunday was the beginning of a hot streak, he may be in line for a promotion soon. Carter has an ugly .167/.226/.254 batting line over his first 124 plate appearances in the majors. Most consider this to be a make-or-break season for him.

The 25-year-old Carter has an ugly .167/.226/.254 batting line over his first 124 plate appearances in the majors. Taylor was a major disappointment in 2010, but the 25-year-old showed signs of life last season by batting .272/.360/.456 with 16 homers, 14 stolen bases and an .816 OPS over 400 plate appearances at Triple-A. Both will spend time with the big club this season, as will Wagner.

The Athletics have Daric Barton, Chris Carter, Kila Ka’aihue as options at first base and Coco Crisp, Seth Smith, Josh Reddick and Collin Cowgill for their outfield, so Allen looks like he could be the odd man out. The 25-year-old was acquired from the Diamondbacks last July in the Brad Ziegler trade. He has regularly mashed minor league pitching, but has an ugly .210/.297/.383 batting line over 367 plate appearances in the majors. We wouldn’t be surprised if another organization takes a shot, but It’s unlikely the A’s would get much in return.

Carter is receiving regular playing time at first base for the A’s, and is grabbing the opportunity by the horns. He’s always possessed impressive power, but has struggled to make consistent contact. If he can maintain the contact gains that he displayed at Triple-A, he could be a very useful player in the second half of the season.

He finished the night 1-for-3 plus a walk and a pair of runs scored. His solo blast off Tanner Scheppers in the ninth inning brought the A’s to within one at 4-3, but they couldn’t add on another run. It remains to be seen how the playing time will be dished out in Oakland, but if receiving everyday at-bats, Carter’s massive power certainly has value in most fantasy leagues.

The Angels spread it around today, hitting five homers and scoring in five different innings. The A’s, on the other hand, did all of their damage in the second and sixth innings. Carter’s homer gave the A’s their last two runs and a 9-5 lead, and the team barely held on to win from there. It was Carter’s 10th homer in 90 at-bats since his callup.

The A’s knew that sending Carter up to hit for Brandon Moss would cause the Mariners to replace Oliver Perez with Delabar, but they preferred the righty-righty matchup and Carter made it pay off, delivering a three-run blast to left-center. He has three homers in just 12 at-bats since being called up on June 29. While the idea was to play him against lefties, they might want to give him some starts at DH against righties, even though that would weaken the outfield defense by putting Seth Smith in left and sending Coco Crisp to the bench.

Carter was hitting .279/.367/.486 with 12 homers and an .853 OPS through 72 games at the Triple-A level this season. Of course, hitting in the minors hasn’t been a problem for him, but he still has a lot to prove in order to shed the Quad-A tag.

Carter got the A’s on the board with a two-run single off Francisco Liriano in a five-run third inning. The 25-year-old has been hugely productive in limited at-bats for the A’s this season, hitting .283 with 10 homers and 22 RBI over his first 99 at-bats. He’s worthy of a look as a corner infielder in most fantasy leagues.

Cespedes went 0-for-1 with a walk and a strikeout before exiting. Brandon Moss took his place in left field while Chris Carter entered the game to play first base.