Nick Kurtz News: Big-league promotion official

The Athletics selected Kurtz's contract from Triple-A Las Vegas, and he's starting at first base and batting seventh in his MLB debut against the Rangers on Wednesday.

Reports first surfaced Monday indicating that Kurtz was on the move to the big leagues, but the Athletics waited until they had a matchup Wednesday with a right-handed starting pitcher (Kumar Rocker) before making the 22-year-old's call-up official. Despite the brief delay in his promotion, the left-handed-hitting Kurtz is expected to be given the chance to play regularly against both right- and left-handed pitching as he begins his major-league career. In leagues where he's still available on the waiver wire, Kurtz is worthy of a look for teams in need of power production after he slashed an impressive .321/.384/.655 with seven home runs and seven doubles over 20 games with Las Vegas prior to his call-up.