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Keith Ginter Is Pissed

By battlekow

After Mark Ellis went down with a broken finger, the A's had a decision to make: Keith Ginter or Mark Kiger?  Keith Ginter you all know, Mark Kiger probably not: a fifth-rounder in the much-ballyhooed Moneyball draft of 2002, Kiger was actually demoted from AAA Sacramento to AA Midland midway through the year after hitting only .233/.348/.330 at the former.  Nevertheless, the A's chose Kiger over Ginter, primarily because Kiger is a defensive whiz:

"It was pretty unanimous that he's the best defender we have,"" [Assistant GM David] Forst said of the A's roster options.
Sounds like Chris Barnwell to me.  Ginter's reaction to the situation was rather acidulous:
Onetime Oakland second baseman Keith Ginter was less than pleased that he did not get the call after taking four days to try out for the position, and he said he was even more upset that he heard of the team's decision from Kiger rather than the A's.

"They didn't' tell me anything, not even thanks for coming down,'' said Ginter, who'd spent the entire season at Triple-A Sacramento, where he earned over $1 million. "So this is just another slap in the face.''

Ginter went 4-for-5 with a homer in Monday's instructional league game and he said if the A's had wanted to emphasize defense and didn't consider him an adequate defensive player, they shouldn't have called him in the first place, especially because he'd already declared free agency.

"Just another way of making me jump through hoops and then telling me, 'Forget it,' '' he said.

What I find really interesting in all this is Kiger's pretend status as a Major Leaguer:
Kiger...will be an emergency-only backup. He won't receive any salary or service time, and will get a playoff share only if approved by the A's players
Plus, if he gets into a game, Kiger will be making his Major League debut in the playoffs.  I wonder if that's ever happened before; can anyone think of an instance?

Regardless, I think this deplorable treatment of a local hero will be sure to raise to collective hackles of the city of Milwaukee, effectively turning it into Detroit West for the next week or so.  Wait, Keith who?

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