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Lefty Brett Anderson endured a shaky return from the disabled list Friday, surrendering five runs and taking the loss as the A's fell, 6-1, to the host White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

The A's placed closer Andrew Bailey on the 15-day DL with a strained intercostal muscle on Friday and activated lefty Brett Anderson.

The A's on Friday officially announced they have reached a Minor League contract agreement with first-round Draft pick Michael Choice.

Despite his name being mentioned in trade speculation, Craig Breslow is likely headed anywhere.

Kane County outfielder Myrio Richard came into this season being known mostly by Oakland A's fans as the younger brother of former A's farmhand Michael Richard. However, Myrio is making a name for himself in Kane County. Nathaniel Stoltz takes a deeper look at Richard's first pro season and likes what he see.

With the trade deadline fast approaching and September call-ups just around the corner, there is lots to talk about in the minor league world. Join us for a chat about the Oakland A's system and baseball in general at 11am PST.

In a one-week home stand at Citibank Ballpark, the RockHounds won 6-of-7 games ... the last three comprising a sweep of the Frisco RoughRiders ... moved over .500 at home (no easy task in the Texas League this season) and swept the Frisco RoughRiders.

Oakland's staff will be spotlighted on FOX's This Week in Baseball on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET., from the burgeoning rotation all the way down the line to closer Andrew Bailey.

Hot News for SP Justin Marks

Vin Mazzaro endured his worst start of the year, surrendering seven runs in fewer than six innings as the A's fell, 7-4, to the Rangers on Thursday night.

The Sacramento River Cats just recently returned home after a long road trip. In his latest blog, Michael Taylor talks about how players survive a long road trip, playoff Mohawks, being a prospect at trade deadline time and more...

Ben Sheets, who learned he will miss the remainder of the season with a torn flexor tendon in his already surgically-repaired right elbow, admitted Thursday he was rather surprised by the findings.

Andrew Bailey's return to the mound appeared to be coming sooner rather than later, but the A's closer is still experiencing pain in his upper back and, as a result, was examined on Thursday.

While I only covered one Minor League All-Star Game this season, I was able to make up for not going to any others by putting a little four-day trip together to Colorado for the first time.

It all began around planning to see 311, a band my brother got me into over a decade ago.  I really enjoy their sound and style and got out to 311 Day in New Orleans in 2008 to see them play over 60 songs over about five hours. Every even-numbered year they do a concert like this on March 11, so it’s considered the ultimate show for a 311 fan.

This summer they toured with The Offspring for about a month and their only dates in California were down south.  I decided to at least see what would work around my days off if I went out of town and when I saw they were playing Red Rocks in Colorado I knew that was the place to go. It’s one of those venues any fan of live music should get to at least once if they can.

From there it was a matter of figuring out what else to do around Denver and decide on how long to stay. I found a wild animal sanctuary outside Denver and liked what I saw, so I donated to them and made plans to visit the place.

I would have liked to see the Colorado Rockies but they were out of town so I checked on the Colorado Springs Sky Sox as a backup. It happened to be they were at home and the Sacramento River Cats would be visiting. Perfect timing! Thanks to that, I had my plans. A friend in Colorado Springs also suggested I visit Garden of the Gods while out that way, so that was added to the mix as well.

All told, I ended up posting 280 photos in six different galleries. The wild animal sanctuary was nice, though the stories of a lot of the animals that ended up there are pretty sad. Some were really abused and the things people did and ways they kept some of these animals illegally is disturbing. It was good to see them in a more open area and as evening set in, the lions and tigers roared, the wolves howled and it felt right.

Red Rocks was pretty special. Just the way the seating fits in between the rocks creates a perfect, natural place to see music with some great scenery around it. Rain fell for much of the early evening but it cleared up by the time 311 took the stage. I don’t usually take pictures at a concert but I got some decent ones out of this with my Nikon Coolpix P100, the non-DSLR camera I used for everything but baseball on this trip. It was picked for its superzoom ability (26x) and I knew that’d come in handy in exchange for sacrificing a little image quality compared to the DSLR.

Garden of the Gods was also pretty neat and the weather cooperated long enough for me to get some good shots over the course of about an hour and a half. I would’ve liked to get up to Pikes Peak but for me that’d probably be more of a full day because of all the stopping and snapping of pictures I’d probably do.

Sacramento won both games without much trouble and put up 49 runs and 12 homers in the four-game series, sweeping it. I always enjoy the chance to work at a ballpark I haven’t been to before and while the one in Colorado Springs isn’t the fanciest, I was a little closer than I usually am at other places. It’s the highest pro ballpark in the country (about 6,500 feet above sea level) and has the smallest capacity of any in Triple-A (about 8,500). The first night was a sellout with Rockie Troy Tulowitzki there for an injury rehab appearance, and the way it worked out I saw his only two games there.

Good, enjoyable trip. Here, have some galleries:

7/19/10: Wild Animal Sanctuary

7/20/10: Red Rocks

7/20/10: 311 & The Offspring

7/21/10: Garden of the Gods

7/21/10: Sacramento River Cats at Colorado Springs Sky Sox

From Security Service Field in Colorado Springs. The River Cats won, 8-1. Tyson Ross earned his first win for Sacramento with 5 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks to go with 7 strikeouts. Chris Carter & Steve Tolleson homered for the River Cats while Tolleson, Dallas McPherson, Josh Donaldson & Adam Heether all recorded a pair of hits. Eric Sogard, Tolleson & Carter had 2 RBI each. Troy Tulowitzki singled in an injury rehab start for Colorado Springs & Chaz Roe took the loss.

7/22/10: Sacramento River Cats at Colorado Springs Sky Sox

From Security Service Field in Colorado Springs. The River Cats won, 14-9. Seven Sacramento players had 2 or more hits, with Jeff Baisley picking up 3, 2 of them doubles while scoring 3 times. Josh Donaldson, Anthony Recker & Dallas McPherson all homered and combined with Baisley for 9 RBI. Chris Carter walked and scored 3 times as well. Boof Bonser picked up his first win for the River Cats. Chris Nelson homered, had 3 hits and scored 3 times for Colorado Springs, and Matt Miller also went deep while driving in 3 runs. Josh Muecke took the loss.

Catching up on some things since the last entry, with another to come after this.

I stayed busy with that lens I rented about a month ago, finishing up with a few more games to begin July. More worth noting was a game where Oakland’s Dallas Braden went back to pitch for Stockton in an injury rehab start. While coming up through the A’s system he briefly played for Stockton in 2005 and 2006 but I never saw him pitch. The only thing I really remember of him was a photo I took from the seats of a few players before a game.  Braden was in it and he was goofing around.  Sounds about right.

When the City of Stockton honored him in May, that was a pretty special moment.  Braden himself admitted before the rehab start that he was going to be the most excited person there by far but he had to remember the purpose of the outing. As expected, it brought out a pretty good crowd.  I’ve got pictures from that and a few more, including a 4th of July game in Stockton:

7/15/10: Visalia Rawhide at Stockton Ports

From Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton. The Ports won, 10-9. Mike Spina’s 3-run walkoff homer capped a wild game that featured hometown hero Dallas Braden making an injury rehab start. He pitched 4+ innings, allowing 7 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 K and 2 HR on about a 75-pitch limit. Jermaine Mitchell led off the 1st with a homer & Yusuf Carter hit a 3-run homer in the 4th for Stockton. Marc Krauss, Paul Goldschmidt & Josh Ford all homered in the 5th for Visalia (the first two were back-to-back against Braden).

7/4/10:  Modesto Nuts at Stockton Ports

From Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton. The Ports won, 7-5 in 12 innings. Stephen Parker’s walkoff home run gave Stockton the win after they came back from a 4-0 deficit only to see Modesto tie it on a single by Jordan Pacheco with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th. Brandon Pinckney, who replaced Grant Green after an 8th inning ejection, singled with 1 out in the 12th before Parker ended it with a blast that was gone the moment it left his bat. Todd Johnson, who had 3 hits for the Ports, drove in 3 with a bases-clearing triple in the 7th. Modesto’s Scott Robinson had 3 hits, 3 runs and 2 stolen bases.

7/3/10: Fresno Grizzlies at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The Grizzlies won, 5-1. Brett Pill doubled twice and drove in 3 runs to lead Fresno to the victory. Eugenio Velez & Tyler Graham also had a couple hits. Kevin Pucetas couldn’t finish the 5th inning and Alex Hinshaw picked up the win. Matt Carson had a double for Sacramento and Michael Taylor drove in their only run with a single. Graham Godfrey took the loss.

7/2/10: Fresno Grizzlies at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 4-3 in 11 innings. Matt Watson had an early 2-run homer and drove in 3 for the River Cats, who rallied late to tie it before winning in extra innings. Matt Downs & Jesus Guzman both homered for the Grizzlies. Fresno’s Joe Martinez pitched 5 innings and allowed a couple runs, while Sacramento’s John Halama gave up the same in 5.2 innings.

Shane Peterson extended his hit streak to 15 games, and led the RockHounds attack, going 2-for-4, scoring three runs and driving in three more during Wednesday's 14-3 rout of Frisco.

The A's earned a 3-1 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday, courtesy of eight scoreless innings from right-hander Trevor Cahill and a pair of RBIs from Kurt Suzuki.

According to a baseball source, the A's are close to signing No. 10 overall Draft pick Michael Choice, a 20-year-old power-hitting outfielder from the University of Texas at Arlington.

A's closer Andrew Bailey, still nursing an upper back strain, was unavailable for the seventh consecutive game Wednesday but could potentially be back on the mound for Thursday's series finale with the Rangers.

A's manager Bob Geren announced on Wednesday that right-hander Ben Sheets will miss the remainder of the season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.