MLB.Com Release

Oakland, CA - Two-time Major League All-Star and 2006 Wagner graduate Andrew Bailey will be featured on Fox's This Week In Baseball (TWIB) on Saturday, July 31 at 3:00 pm (EST) before the network's game of the week between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The show will highlight the Oakland Athletics' pitching staff that has posted the second-best ERA in the American League at 3.72, despite being the youngest in the AL with an average age of 26.5 years.

According to the official MLB press release, the “burgeoning rotation” will be highlighted from the starters all the way down to Bailey, who is in his second year as the team's closer.

TWIB will start things off with a behind-the-scenes look at Oakland's young starters, namely 22-year-old All-Star Trevor Cahill and promising 24-year-old southpaw Gio Gonzalez. TWIB also talks with A's pitching coach Curt Young, who gives the show the inside scoop on how Oakland has been able to develop its crop of young arms.

"There's a developing group of guys," TWIB lead producer Matt Anderton said. "They've all come up together, they're all learning the game together and they're having success as a unit."

After that, TWIB and the A's will reflect on Dallas Braden's perfect game, about 12 weeks after the magical afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum on Mother's Day.

From there, TWIB will jump to the bullpen and focus on lefty reliever Craig Breslow, widely considered to be one baseball's smartest men. Given his Yale education, it's easy to see why. Breslow caught up with TWIB and his old college coach on Yale's campus and reflected on his educational and playing career with the Ivy League institution.

"We asked him how it was going from Yale's dugout to the Major League dugout," Anderton said. "And it's funny, he said as long as he sounds like he knows what he's talking about, everyone believes it."

TWIB also followed Breslow to a local hospital, where funds raised by his Strike 3 Foundation helped develop a new oncology unit.

Following a segment on Minnesota Twins' player Michael Cuddyer, TWIB will bring its focus back to the A's and Bailey. Given Oakland's history of great closers, i.e. Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley, TWIB asks the question: is Bailey next?

"We don't answer the question, but we kind of pose it," Anderton said.

Bailey has not allowed a run in 13 of his past 15 appearances, a time span in which he's compiled a 1.10 ERA. He has a 1.56 mark on the season, good for fifth among all American League relievers, while recording 29 strikeouts and 20 saves in 40.1 innings, spanning 38 appearances.

TWIB will wrap up the show with great plays, bloopers and a Diamond Demo from MLB Network's Dan Plesac, who shows the art of a left-handed pickoff move. The XM "Call of the Week" will highlight Matt Garza's no-hitter, the fifth one thrown in baseball this year.

TWIB can be seen on video boards in stadiums, as well as internationally in Australia, Canada, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Japan, Latin America, The Middle East, The Netherlands, Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama and Taiwan.

Fans can e-mail the show at twib@mlb.com, and visit the web site, MLBProductions.com, for original blogs and bonus footage. TWIB will re-air on MLB Network at 12:30 pm (EST) on Sunday.

OTHER WAGNER NOTES: 2008 graduate Joe Testa, who broke Bailey's Wagner strikeout record, was also in the news after being traded along with top prospect Wilson Ramos for All-Star closer Matt Capps ... With the trade Testa moves from the Minnesota Twins to the Washington Nationals organization ... He will stay in the High-A ranks and now be pitching for the Potomac Nationals of the Carolina League ... In his last seven games the hard-throwing lefthander has yielded just one earned run in 15.1 innings of work while striking out 15 and walking just two ... Click Here For Baseball America's recap of the trade.