"We've been attempting to upgrade our rotation and we feel like we've done that," said assisat GM Mike Arbuckle. "We think Joe is a very strong, competitive pitcher that has the mental makeup to pitch productively in a pennant race. He pitches a lot of innings and takes some burden off the bullpen."
Blanton, 27, is 5-12 with a 4.96 earned run average in 20 starts for the A's this season. He has a 3.87 ERA in 17 of his 20 starts and is tied for sixth in the American League in innings pitched (127.0), having gone at least 6.0 innings in 16 starts. Blanton has the seventh-lowest run support average in the AL.
Over the past four seasons (2005-08), Blanton is tied for third among American League pitchers with 752 2/3 innings pitched. Only Mark Buehrle (766 1/3) and Jon Garland (760 2/3) have pitched more in that span. Last season, Blanton went 14-10 with a 3.95 ERA in 34 starts with 230.0 innings pitched. He pitched two scoreless innings for Oakland in the 2006 American League Championship Series.
A first-round selection by Oakland in the 2002 Draft (24th overall), Blanton is 47-46 in his career with a 4.25 ERA in 122 games (118 starts).
Outman, 23, was 5-4 with one save and a 3.20 ERA in 33 games (5 starts) for Double-A Reading. Cardenas, 20, was hitting .309 in 67 games for Class A Clearwater. Spencer, 22, was hitting .249 with six home runs and 41 RBIs in 84 games for Clearwater. All three players were originally drafted by the Phillies.
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