Opinions on the A's this year...

[Tha Dynasty]

I for one think Beane has something up his sleeves and these moves are not as bad as people think. They freed A LOT of cap room which would let the A's make a splash in the FA market this year or next and they didnt get half bad players from the trades. People have to trust Billy Beane...he has never let the A's fans down.

[stAte]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

I for one think Beane has something up his sleeves and these moves are not as bad as people think. They freed A LOT of cap room which would let the A's make a splash in the FA market this year or next and they didnt get half bad players from the trades. People have to trust Billy Beane...he has never let the A's fans down.

He got a lot of nice players in the deal...cheap. He was able to move two players to build for the future without too much money tied up. Didn't Jermaine Dye have a big contract too?

[stAte]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

I for one think Beane has something up his sleeves and these moves are not as bad as people think. They freed A LOT of cap room which would let the A's make a splash in the FA market this year or next and they didnt get half bad players from the trades. People have to trust Billy Beane...he has never let the A's fans down.

He got a lot of nice players in the deal...cheap. He was able to move two players to build for the future without too much money tied up. Didn't Jermaine Dye have a big contract too?

[fossen]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

We knew this was coming. The big three wouldn't stick around, and Beane is getting what he can for them.

I think, though, that the A's are in a rebuilding mode .... a very calculated one, but rebuilding nonetheless. Probably a few years before the window starts to open again.

[fossen]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

We knew this was coming. The big three wouldn't stick around, and Beane is getting what he can for them.

I think, though, that the A's are in a rebuilding mode .... a very calculated one, but rebuilding nonetheless. Probably a few years before the window starts to open again.

[Solution]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

No question fossen. They are not gearing up for a big splash, the A's do not make big splashes. They are small market, and will not exceed the $50ish million range. It was time to move on from some of these pitchers, and mulder was struggling as of late anyways. It was time to get what they could for the two and try to rebuild asap. I for one think they'll still continue to contend on a year to year basis.

[Solution]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

No question fossen. They are not gearing up for a big splash, the A's do not make big splashes. They are small market, and will not exceed the $50ish million range. It was time to move on from some of these pitchers, and mulder was struggling as of late anyways. It was time to get what they could for the two and try to rebuild asap. I for one think they'll still continue to contend on a year to year basis.

[Vince]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

They were still in their 20's..It's not like these guys were aging vets...
So he'll develop some nice prospects, make them into good major leaguers just to eventually start rebuilding AGAIN.

Gotta love MoneyBall...

[Vince]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

They were still in their 20's..It's not like these guys were aging vets...
So he'll develop some nice prospects, make them into good major leaguers just to eventually start rebuilding AGAIN.

Gotta love MoneyBall...

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

I get sick and tired reading/hearing people say the A's are a small market team.

If they're a small market team then why did they start last season with a $59,425,667 payroll which placed them 16th out of the 30 teams in the league. No small market team has a payroll that is in the middle of the league.

The A's have taken a step back for next season but this team is built to contend for years to come. Harden, Meyer, Haren, and Blanton are all controlled by Beane for the next 5 years. Zito still has 2 more years left in his deal.

The A's might have the best bullpen next season. The pen is full of flamethrowers in Cruz, Dotel, Street, etc...

Back in 1999, the Oakland A's went 87-75 for their first winning season since 1992. Their lineup included 21-year-old Eric Chavez, 23-year-olds Miguel Tejada and Ben Grieve, 28-year-old Jason Giambi, and an assortment of aging veterans like Tony Phillips, John Jaha, Matt Stairs, and Randy Velarde. The pitching staff was built almost entirely around guys on the wrong side of 30 -- Kevin Appier, Gil Heredia, Tom Candiotti, Kenny Rogers, Mike Oquist, Omar Olivares, Billy Taylor, and Doug Jones. Midway through the season, 23-year-old Tim Hudson made his big-league debut, going 11-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 21 starts.

The A's were at the beginning of the success cycle, biding time until the young talent in their system was ready to take over the team. Chavez, Tejada, Grieve, Giambi, and Hudson were soon joined by Ramon Hernandez, Terrence Long, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder, and young veterans like Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, Jason Isringhausen, and Cory Lidle were added along the way. As the young players developed, the team continued to grow stronger, moving through the success cycle. Oakland won 91 games in 2000, 102 games in 2001, and 103 games in 2002.

Then, as those young guys started to get older and more expensive, they began to leave. Giambi went to New York, Tejada went to Baltimore, Isringhausen went to St. Louis, Damon went to Boston. Grieve was traded to Tampa Bay, Hernandez and Long to San Diego, Lidle to Toronto. Billy Beane continued to fill gaps with veterans, adding guys like Erubiel Durazo, Scott Hatteberg, Mark Redman, Keith Foulke, Ray Durham, Billy Koch, and Damian Miller. He also continued to add young pieces to the puzze, as Bobby Crosby replaced Tejada at shortstop, Eric Byrnes and Mark Ellis stepped in as everyday players, and Rich Harden joined The Big Three in the rotation

After two straight 100-win seasons, the A's dropped to 96 wins in 2003 and then won just 91 games this season, failing to make the postseason for the first time since that 1999 team. It appeared, for the most part, that the A's had gone through the success cycle -- starting with a young, inexperienced team in the late 90s, improving until they peaked in 2001 and 2002, and then gradually declining as defections left the roster depleted. With Hudson, Mulder, and Zito getting expensive and free agency right around the corner, the window of opportunity to win with this core was closing.

The A's could have continued to patch holes with veterans, introduced a couple prospects to the mix each year, and continued to compete for the next several seasons. Maybe they'd win 91 games again in 2005 and another 90 in 2006, perhaps sneaking into the playoffs another time or two. But at some point, the three stud pitchers would be gone, just like Giambi and Tejada before them, and the A's would be left with a shell of a roster. Instead of going through that, Beane decided to blow the whole thing up and start from scratch.

So Beane traded Hudson and then sent Mulder away too, cashing them both in while their value was high and getting an assortment of young, cheap players in return. After six straight winning seasons and four trips to the postseason in five years, the A's now find themselves right back where they were in 1999, which is both good and bad.

Instead of a lineup built around young hitters like Tejada, Grieve, and Chavez, they've got Crosby and Nick Swisher in place. Instead of a still-young veteran hitter in the middle of it all in Giambi, they've got the same thing in Chavez. Instead of bringing pitching phenoms Hudson, Mulder, and Zito gradually into the mix, they will attempt to recreate that magic with Dan Meyer, Dan Haren, and Joe Blanton, with Harden having already established himself with an outstanding season at the age of 22.

And just like in 1999, as the groundwork was being laid for a sustained period of excellence, there are plenty of young reinforcements on the way, from the recently-acquired Daric Barton, who is one of the top offensive prospects in baseball, to Huston Street, Richie Robnett, Kurt Suzuki, and the rest of Oakland's extremely promising 2004 draft class. Of course, while Beane is setting the team up for another run behind young talent, there is a question of whether or not the packages of players he got for Hudson and Mulder are enough.

Basically the A's will be fine next year and for the next 5 years. I wouldn't be suprised to see them in the playoffs next season.

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

I get sick and tired reading/hearing people say the A's are a small market team.

If they're a small market team then why did they start last season with a $59,425,667 payroll which placed them 16th out of the 30 teams in the league. No small market team has a payroll that is in the middle of the league.

The A's have taken a step back for next season but this team is built to contend for years to come. Harden, Meyer, Haren, and Blanton are all controlled by Beane for the next 5 years. Zito still has 2 more years left in his deal.

The A's might have the best bullpen next season. The pen is full of flamethrowers in Cruz, Dotel, Street, etc...

Back in 1999, the Oakland A's went 87-75 for their first winning season since 1992. Their lineup included 21-year-old Eric Chavez, 23-year-olds Miguel Tejada and Ben Grieve, 28-year-old Jason Giambi, and an assortment of aging veterans like Tony Phillips, John Jaha, Matt Stairs, and Randy Velarde. The pitching staff was built almost entirely around guys on the wrong side of 30 -- Kevin Appier, Gil Heredia, Tom Candiotti, Kenny Rogers, Mike Oquist, Omar Olivares, Billy Taylor, and Doug Jones. Midway through the season, 23-year-old Tim Hudson made his big-league debut, going 11-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 21 starts.

The A's were at the beginning of the success cycle, biding time until the young talent in their system was ready to take over the team. Chavez, Tejada, Grieve, Giambi, and Hudson were soon joined by Ramon Hernandez, Terrence Long, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder, and young veterans like Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, Jason Isringhausen, and Cory Lidle were added along the way. As the young players developed, the team continued to grow stronger, moving through the success cycle. Oakland won 91 games in 2000, 102 games in 2001, and 103 games in 2002.

Then, as those young guys started to get older and more expensive, they began to leave. Giambi went to New York, Tejada went to Baltimore, Isringhausen went to St. Louis, Damon went to Boston. Grieve was traded to Tampa Bay, Hernandez and Long to San Diego, Lidle to Toronto. Billy Beane continued to fill gaps with veterans, adding guys like Erubiel Durazo, Scott Hatteberg, Mark Redman, Keith Foulke, Ray Durham, Billy Koch, and Damian Miller. He also continued to add young pieces to the puzze, as Bobby Crosby replaced Tejada at shortstop, Eric Byrnes and Mark Ellis stepped in as everyday players, and Rich Harden joined The Big Three in the rotation

After two straight 100-win seasons, the A's dropped to 96 wins in 2003 and then won just 91 games this season, failing to make the postseason for the first time since that 1999 team. It appeared, for the most part, that the A's had gone through the success cycle -- starting with a young, inexperienced team in the late 90s, improving until they peaked in 2001 and 2002, and then gradually declining as defections left the roster depleted. With Hudson, Mulder, and Zito getting expensive and free agency right around the corner, the window of opportunity to win with this core was closing.

The A's could have continued to patch holes with veterans, introduced a couple prospects to the mix each year, and continued to compete for the next several seasons. Maybe they'd win 91 games again in 2005 and another 90 in 2006, perhaps sneaking into the playoffs another time or two. But at some point, the three stud pitchers would be gone, just like Giambi and Tejada before them, and the A's would be left with a shell of a roster. Instead of going through that, Beane decided to blow the whole thing up and start from scratch.

So Beane traded Hudson and then sent Mulder away too, cashing them both in while their value was high and getting an assortment of young, cheap players in return. After six straight winning seasons and four trips to the postseason in five years, the A's now find themselves right back where they were in 1999, which is both good and bad.

Instead of a lineup built around young hitters like Tejada, Grieve, and Chavez, they've got Crosby and Nick Swisher in place. Instead of a still-young veteran hitter in the middle of it all in Giambi, they've got the same thing in Chavez. Instead of bringing pitching phenoms Hudson, Mulder, and Zito gradually into the mix, they will attempt to recreate that magic with Dan Meyer, Dan Haren, and Joe Blanton, with Harden having already established himself with an outstanding season at the age of 22.

And just like in 1999, as the groundwork was being laid for a sustained period of excellence, there are plenty of young reinforcements on the way, from the recently-acquired Daric Barton, who is one of the top offensive prospects in baseball, to Huston Street, Richie Robnett, Kurt Suzuki, and the rest of Oakland's extremely promising 2004 draft class. Of course, while Beane is setting the team up for another run behind young talent, there is a question of whether or not the packages of players he got for Hudson and Mulder are enough.

Basically the A's will be fine next year and for the next 5 years. I wouldn't be suprised to see them in the playoffs next season.

[SPTO]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

So he'll develop some nice prospects, make them into good major leaguers just to eventually start rebuilding AGAIN.

The trouble is you can't just MAKE prospects into good major leaguers. Sometimes the best talent in the world can't handle the pressure of the bigs. At some point Beane's wonderful luck of finding great talent is going to hit a snag. It's happened to every organization that had the minor leagues as the basis for their MLB success.

The Blue Jays had a great minor league system that carried them til about '96 and then it went to hell and is now only starting to get good again.

The Dodgers were always a strong team with their minor league scouting but they still went through rough spots.

The Cardinals are a team that's a prime example of this. They had one of the best minor league systems for YEARS and then it went dead in the 90s and is now only being really good again.


I do think that it's a rebuilding phase in Oakland and i'm sure Beane will build up a good club in the next few yrs but as I said even the greatest at this kind of stuff fail at times. (major example: The Expos)

[SPTO]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

So he'll develop some nice prospects, make them into good major leaguers just to eventually start rebuilding AGAIN.

The trouble is you can't just MAKE prospects into good major leaguers. Sometimes the best talent in the world can't handle the pressure of the bigs. At some point Beane's wonderful luck of finding great talent is going to hit a snag. It's happened to every organization that had the minor leagues as the basis for their MLB success.

The Blue Jays had a great minor league system that carried them til about '96 and then it went to hell and is now only starting to get good again.

The Dodgers were always a strong team with their minor league scouting but they still went through rough spots.

The Cardinals are a team that's a prime example of this. They had one of the best minor league systems for YEARS and then it went dead in the 90s and is now only being really good again.


I do think that it's a rebuilding phase in Oakland and i'm sure Beane will build up a good club in the next few yrs but as I said even the greatest at this kind of stuff fail at times. (major example: The Expos)

[dieselboy]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

In the end, I was really suprised that Zito was not dealt.

[dieselboy]

Re: Opinions on the A's this year...

In the end, I was really suprised that Zito was not dealt.