Alex Rodriguez made me tear up Wednesday morning.

His comments about Jim Thome joining the 600 Home Run Club were part of ESPN’s coverage of Thome’s accomplishment from Monday night. They sounded sincere, not like an obligatory canned statement many athletes feel compelled to make.

“Jim is one of the easiest players of our generation to root for. It’s hard to overshadow 600 home runs, because it is a tremendous accomplishment and an exclamation point on a career bound for the Hall of Fame. But to me, the way he has treated the game — and the people in and around it — will always be the first thing that I think of when I think of Jim Thome. In so many ways, he is a legend of our game.”

It'll be interesting in the coming weeks to see how GM Billy Beane and Manager Bob Geren tackle the problem with the right side of the A's infield.

Simply put, the A's have the worst-hitting second baseman in the American League and the worst-hitting first baseman in the American League.

Both Mark Ellis and Daric Barton are solid fielders and good guys. But how long do you keep them in when their lack of hitting is clearly costing the A's.

Yes, nobody is really hitting (A's have just three players over .250), but every time the A's lose close games or fail to produce at least a couple of runs, they get closer to squandering all the great starting pitching.

Ellis is hitting .177 heading into Sunday's series finale against the White Sox. Worse than zero homers and six RBIs is he's drawn only four walks and has a .206 on base percentage.

There are a lot of Giants fans out there clamoring for San Francisco to make a deal for Mets shortstop Jose Reyes. While this makes a lot sense – he’s a great player and the Giants aren’t getting the production they need out of Miguel Tejada – I’m inclined to trust Giants General Manager Brian Sabean.

I mean, the guy did nothing wrong last season. He signed free agent first baseman Aubrey Huff, traded away Bengie Molina to get Buster Posey in the regular lineup, picked up NLCS MVP Cody Ross via waiver, and acquired outfielder Pat Burrell and reliever Javier Lopez. All of them were key players in San Francisco’s playoff run last year.

He also stuck with manager Bruce Bochy when plenty of Giants fans were calling for his head. And Bochy couldn’t have done a better job in the postseason.

As a fan, you'll do anything to "help" turn your team's misfortune. Grow a beard, don a rally cap, chug a certain number of beers by a certain inning. After witnessing Ben Zobrist's production rise after I dropped him from my fantasy baseball team, I came to the conclusion that my work wasn't done. I had to waive my Giants.

And lo! It worked. I'm claiming it, anyway. Yep, I'm totally taking credit for the Giants' offensive outburst Tuesday night after days and weeks of seeing them struggle. Shut out three times in six games last week? No home runs since April 24? I knew as soon as I dropped Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross from my family-league fantasy team, they'd come up big.

Going back to a previous item, not only have the A’s proven they have a better starting rotation than the Giants, they might just have the best rotation in baseball.

Just look at the ERAs (going into Tuesday’s games): Brett Anderson (1.56), 

Brandon McCarthy (2.10), Trevor Cahill (2.30), Gio Gonzalez (2.70), Dallas Braden (3.00 … although he’s on the DL right now.)

While the Angels may have the best 1-2 punch in the American League with Jered Weaver (0.99) and Dan Haren (1.46), nobody compares depth-wise to the A’s.

Now if they could just score some runs …

-- Jim Silva