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The Oakland Athletics acquired right handed slugger Chris Carter in a trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks that also brought in Brett Anderson, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith back in December of 2007. Of all the players in the trade, Anderson and Carter are the only two players have have remained with the A’s organization.
Anderson made his way through the minor leagues and ended up in the A’s rotation in 2009 where he went 11-11 with a 4.06 era including one shutout and he struck out 150 while walking 45. He also has struggled with injuries since then and has so far missed all of 2012 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
For Carter he has made the big leagues the past three seasons, yet has never secured a spot. More memorable for some A’s fans is the start of his 2010 season with the A’s as he went 0-33 to start. Forgotten about is once Carter earned his first career hit he ended up batting .342 the rest of the way and added three home runs and seven rbi.
Still that wasn’t enough to earn a roster spot in 2011 and only made one brief appearance with the club where he barely got an opportunity to showcase his talent and was sent down to Sacramento for the remainder of the year. He again didn’t make the club out of Spring Training and since he was called up and inserted into the lineup he has not made Bob Melvin regret that decision.
He was splitting time with Brandon Moss at first base depending if there was a left handed or right handed pitcher starting. Now it’s getting difficult for Melvin to take Carter out of the lineup as he has hit lefties and righties and has moved Moss to the outfield with Yoenis Cespedes nursing a thumb injury that he suffered just before the All-Star break.
With Cespedes back in the outfield rotation it gives Melvin an opportunity to split time between Jonny Gomes, Seth Smith and Moss in left field and as the designated hitter. Coco Crisp has also been out of the lineup recently due to shoulder soreness and once he returns to the lineup the left field and designated hitter becomes more crowded.
When the season began not many A’s could foresee a log jam in the outfield or for playing time and not many A’s fans saw Carter making an impact. Yet, since he arrived on June 29th in the nine game he’s played in he has hit five home runs, driven in nine, has one double, has walked five times, is hitting .346 and a obp of .452.
On July 6th Carter had his highlight of the season so far as he hit a walk-off three run home run off of Steve Delabar of the Seattle Mariners for a 4-1 A’s victory in 11 innings.
At the plate Carter looks more confidence, he’s taking more pitches and he isn’t swinging at offspeed pitches out of the strike zone and with Melvin allowing him a chance to play look for his confidence to grow even more and he should give Cespedes a run for his money for longest home run of the season. The mark is 462 feet which also came off another Mariners pitcher in Jason Vargas.
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