Posted By Jeff Fletcher on March 16, 2009 10:50 am

A day that began with Jerome Williams getting sent down by the A’s is going to continue with Jason Schmidt and Shawn Estes pitching against them.

Wild, huh?

Start with Williams. He did fairly well in his bid to revive his career, allowing only four runs in nine innings. There were other guys ahead of him on the depth chart, though, so there just weren’t enough innings in big league games for him to be ready to start. He’ll go down to minor league camp and start there, so he can be in Sacramento’s rotation and be ready if the A’s need him.

Williams was one of eight players who got sent down today: RHP Ryan Webb, IF Jeff Baisley and IF Eric Patterson were optioned. RHP Kevin Cameron, RHP James Simmons, IF Joe Dillon and 1B Sean Doolittle were reassigned.

(By the way, if you ever wondered the difference between “optioned” and “reassigned,” players who are on the 40-man roster are optioned. Once a player is optioned, he can’t come back and play in major league exhibition games. Reassigned players can come back.)

As for those other guys, the one who made the biggest impression was Doolittle. He hit .364 with a team-leading nine RBIs.

“He had a great spring,” manager Bob Geren said. “He’s a real good, all-around player. He reminds me, just around the bag, of Don Mattingly. He’s a smooth fielder. He’s a line-drive, gap hitter, but he’s shown some power. He has a real bright future.”

Back to the old Giants, I’m looking forward to seeing Schmidt and Estes pitch today. Those were two of my favorite guys to deal with when they pitched for the Giants. It’s too bad that they’ve both had so many injury problems.