Tyler Bleszinski of Athletics Nation talked to A's GM Billy Beane on March 10th, and asked if the A's were tempted to sign someone like Mark Mulder or Pedro Martinez. An excerpt of Beane's response:
On Mark, my understanding is that he isn't ready to go out. That's sort of moot. But we've stayed away from signing the veteran starters because we have young guys that we want to be here at some point and I've never thought in our marketplace that that was an efficient use of your money. Short answer is no. It isn't really even something we pursued during the winter. We've got great young pitchers here and we want to give them a chance to get up here.
It's been quiet on the Mulder front lately. He was supposed to audition in mid-March. He told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle in February he wanted to be 100% before holding an open bullpen session.
