Would be huge RT @whiteygleason: Bob Nightengale, USA Today tells @957thegame S. Drew to #Athletics "likely" today, Pence to #SFGiants not.
— Dan Dibley (@dandibley) July 31, 2012
All I care about is getting a new SS. I’m sure Pennington is a nice guy and all that, and I know Hicks hit one out yesterday, but it’s time.
Also Chase Headley would be nice, but if a deal involves Straily I just want no part of it. Gray, Peacock, yeah that’s fine. Maybe even Cole.
Supposedly Arizona wants pitching that’s ready now, though, in a deal for Drew. That should be Colon, or Ross (just tell them he’s ready).
GO BILLY GO. DON’T STAND PAT AND DO NOTHING.
Also I might kinda love JessicaAtTheAs.
My shirt for spin this morning. Fitting. http://t.co/Z0zSvBbB
— Jessica Scott (@JessicaShazzam) July 31, 2012
Don’t stand, Pat?
GAAAH!
Well, okay. As long as we don’t give up Straily for her.
I believe I shall continue the baseball overdose by going to the Brett Anderson start today. Three hours watching baseball in the Reno sunshine should equal 40 miles on the bicycle for weight loss, even with beer involved.
OH COME THE FK ON
Thanks, and go As.
Did you actually believe Nightengale, king of the false rumor?
Believe? No, but it’s not as if he’s the only person who said Drew might be coming here.
But, hey, at least the Gnats are getting Hunter Pence so we can hear all the fuck about how they are being bold and making moves and whatever.
and we have a SS that can’t even OPS .550
Joy.
Thanks, and go As.
This is something: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/31/4676712/mets-dickey-credits-balfour-with.html
Great story!
Dude. Don’t swim in the Missouri River. It is dangerous and fking disgusting. Do you know how many bodies wash up down stream? We had 2 last week.
Ew
There used to be a serial killer in Independence in the late 80s/early 90s (I was less than 10, mind you) who killed prostitutes and threw the bodies in the MO river. A few of them was up down here. My grandpa used you say you could find a good whore on Independence Ave because they were the ones wearing life jackets.
I’ll be sure to watch for those
Or any Waffle House.
omg!
Thanks, and go As.
Are the Dodgers trying to acquire everyone?
Nice!
The A’s flagship station is all Giants trade speculation this morning. Rage…
“Reddick Whip” sounds vaguely dirty.
until you separate the syllables. then it’s specifically dirty.
Positively unsanitary.
ack! and painful!
And dangerous!
AND 95.7 GOES NUTS!!!!1!!1one!!
Thanks, and go As.
i’m so confused. well, except i just figured out people tweet pretty much whatever they feel like.
Gnats get Pence. In other news, it looks like Nightengale is full of shite.
Nightengale’s whiffed on so many things the next time I trust a rumor of his will be after it actually comes to pass.
This is a surprise?
He’s such an idiot.
Before I dive into the 1000 comment thread:
Holy moly, I cannot believe I left that game in the 12th. Got home just before midnight and the damn thing was not over yet.
I don’t really think I am a responsible parent for staying that long, but I did get them to BART before it closed, so there is that.
huh? all kinds of responsible parents thumb a ride across the bay bridge at 2am…
contributing mojo for a new SS, i’m airing out the skeletons in my closet and confess that, yes, i was there (pretty sure) to witness bobby’s first ML E.
Wait, Travis Snider got traded for a reliever yesterday? Wat?
Thanks, and go As.
I know. The trade market seems like it’s been so easy for everybody else to trade nobody for good players… why the fk is Arizona asking for anybody good for Stephen Drew?
So is it more likely that all the other GMs are ganging up on Billy alone while making these extremely buyer-friendly deals? Or is it that Billy is valuing his “nobodies” a lot more than the market says they’re worth?
Neither. He’s a tough and shrewd negotiator who will outsmart everyone in the end, or else write a book about how he did.
He’ll convince the world that 9 Kottarases is the best offense in the league.
It’s seeing this truth that separates Billy Beane from all the mediocrity that passes for general managers these days.
Or maybe infielders are a lot more valuable trade commodities than outfielders and relief pitchers. That and Wolff cheaped out on Hanley.
The trade of Hanley for Nathan Eovaldi and some other guy tells me that infielders aren’t more valuable than outfielders and relief pitchers
When they have huge contracts and are sulking malcontents, yes.
Ok, so the A’s weren’t willing to take on Hanley’s contract. And by all accounts, they aren’t willing to take on Rollins’s contract, they aren’t willing to make up the difference in terms of prospects to get those guys, and they aren’t willing to give up prospects of note for Yunel Escobar or Chase Headley.
I ask again: How the FK were they expecting to be able to get an above average player?
and by other accounts they had a deal in place for Hanley, and then the Dodgers came in and said they’d take the whole contract, and Loria jumped on it.
Thanks, and go As.
Yes. Their owner was willing to take on his salary. Ours wasn’t.
Yes, clearly Wolff’s fault.
God, this site sometimes.
Thanks, and go As.
Simple statement of fact.
Only if you ignore the fact that there was a deal in place before the Dodgers took on the entire contract.
Thanks, and go As.
The A’s couldn’t have done the same?
I’m not quite sure how you could continue to defend the guy and loudly whine that the A’s haven’t made a move yet.
He’s not the GM.
Thanks, and go As.
The A’s have a 19-4 record in July with the lowest payroll in baseball, so obviously the owner is trying to win but the GM isn’t nimble enough. Got it.
So Wolff is the one who has reservations about Hanley’s hand injury then? Obviously a deal was OK’d, and Drew is making less money the rest of the year than Hanley, and less than Escobar, so how exactly would it be Wolff’s fault if Beane doesn’t deal for a shortstop?
Thanks, and go As.
That’s not even remotely what I said.
My two cents:
My impression was the A’s-Marlins deal was inplace with the A’s getting ~$20M.
Dodgers at the 11th hours say No money and this dude. Hanley goes to dodogers.
The pieces missing are, was there a counter from the A’s or would it have mattered? Was the “surplus value” from the A’s original piece worth ~$20M.
We don’t have those answers, we have our ideas based on prejudice, but we can’t know.
What I do know is that the Dodgers got a pretty good player for almost nothing.
that is undeniable
He is the GM’s boss. If the GM sucks, Wolff has to replace him.
is it that easy even when the GM is part owner? (also, i wish the GM could fire the boss.)
Yes, it is. Small equity holders get fired all the time. You either offer to buy them out, and often the terms are written into the original contract, or you let them keep the equity and not hold an office.
Now hold on. It’s very possible that the deal was about to be made and the Dodgers jumped in with the full contract and the A’s weren’t offered a chance to counter. If the Dodgers did a take or leave it one time offer, the A’s wouldn’t get a chance to say “we’ll pay the whole thing” or “we’ll offer you more.”
Right, that’s sort of what I’m thinking. I mean, if the A’s were about to get Hanley while paying for only half the contract, why would they offer to pay for the whole contract? We don’t know that they wouldn’t have.
Do you think a GM would prefer to save on money or the quality of his prospects?
Depends entirely on the quality of prospects.
I’m not sure when the Dodgers jumped in is relevant. If the A’s were willing to take on the whole contract, why discuss giving up better prospects and the Marlins taking on ~half the money in the first place?
Maybe they weren’t giving up better prospects and saving half the contract was the best deal Loria was going to get until the Dodgers came in?
Nah. Wolff’s fault.
Thanks, and go As.
Sure. If you assume that the Dodgers decided to give up better prospects and take on the entirety of the contract.
Depends on the prospects. If they weren’t necessary, than why bury yourself in the financial burden? If the difference is a couple of throw-ins for 20 million dollars, I think I’m going to throw those prospects in. There’s better use for the money over those prospects.
We’ll never know for sure but I really don’t think a deal that would’ve had the Marlins eating 20 million dollars featured “unnecessary” prospects coming from the A’s.
Unnecessary is a relative term. And if that’s the best offer they had on the time at the time, it may not have been a matter of eating that money. Especially if every other team set the market value as half the contract. It’s very possible to have, say, 5 teams saying “I’ll give you X for Hanley and half the contract” and the A’s had the best “X” value. Then out of no where the Dodgers say “we’ll take the full contract for our X but you have to decide now.” I’m not saying Wolff isn’t cheap, I’m just saying this isn’t proof of it.
Yes, this would be interesting if we had reason to believe that 5 teams were involved or that the Dodgers placed a strict deadline on accepting the trade or that the prospects they offered were even remotely close to what the A’s offered.
Well, we certainly knew other teams were involved, just not how involved or where their talks went. But the reality is we know nothing. So making an assumption either way is dubious at best, which is the point.
Yes, we will never really know the true story of anything that goes on in baseball. But of course as fans, we like to use what little information we get to speculate on stuff, or else we’ll never really have anything to talk about.
Personally, I think there’s a reasonable chance that a coalition of Selig, the BRC, and the Illuminati themselves personally stepped in to ensure that the A’s didn’t get a superstar. Try to disprove that.
I believe BS has hidden our new stadium under a rock somewhere in the world.
Please now disprove me by checking…
Pfft. Like the BRC is a real thing.
Ok. Even ignoring Hanley, remind me again what Scutaro, Ryan Roberts, Chris Johnson, and Youkilis were traded for?
Youkilis happened too soon. I don’t know if Ryan Roberts and Chris Johnson are much of an upgrade from Inge. Scutaro…I don’t know what happened there.
Scutaro is in the same category as Roberts and Johnson. They’re all pretty close to replacement level.
Not getting Youkilis is (in hindsight at least) this year’s biggest blunder by far.
Other than Johnson, they all projected to be about 2 WAR.
ZiPS has Roberts and Scutaro at 0.6 WAR for the rest of season (so, yes, close to 2 WAR over a full year) and Johnson and Inge at 0.5. Personally, sure, I’d rather have Roberts but (like you were saying about Drew/Pennington yesterday) the difference is awfully slim.
Youkilis (1.1, and presumably more if he can stay healthy) and Headley (1.6) would be much bigger upgrades, especially when you take into account the next couple years teams as well.
True enough. Admittedly I’m biased against Inge cause I think the guy has the worst at bats of any A since Emil Brown.
but but but… RBIS /casey pratt
Thanks, and go As.
He does have terrible at bats, but his combination of excellent defense and ability to run into one is acceptable to me. I just wish he were the worst hitter among the starting nine.
But all his grand slams have come with the bases loaded.
He’s an RBI machine….just like Emil.
Full credit to Kenny Williams on that one.
Well I think so, but I also think Inge is pretty terrible. Chris Johnson is debatable but Roberts put up a 3.6 WAR last year. Anyways, the real point is that there hasn’t been an infielder traded yet that’s been expensive in terms of prospects.
Dammit.
Thanks, and go As.
Which means Escobar is out, Rollins is….out, and Drew is still mediocre. So I guess that leaves Bob Crosby and Miguel Tejada.
I don’t know if August changes anything on Rollins. Wouldn’t he clear waivers with that contract?
Does Kenny Williams need a SS?
Thanks, and go As.
Alexei Ramirez is having a pretty bad year…
He might, but he still would have to approve a trade to Oakland and the A’s would still have to pay his salary. I don’t see why those things would happen in August if they didn’t happen in July.
Not if they claimed him on waivers and Philly just let him go.
Thanks, and go As.
Can they do that to a 10/5 guy?
Pretty sure. It’s waivers, not a trade.
Thanks, and go As.
Here’s what the collective bargaining agreement says (Article XIX.A.1):
I can’t figure out for sure if letting someone go on waivers counts as an “assignment” of the contract, but I would assume it does.
The point is that the A’s would still have to take on his contract. If they aren’t willing to do it now, they probably aren’t willing to do it a few weeks from now.
Not sure — in a few weeks, with some more wins by the A’s (and losses for the Phutiles), the economics might change for the better, as might Rollins’ view of what postseason prospects look like.
HAHAH YEA RITE LIKE LEW WOULD PAY ANY MONEY FOR ROLLINZ OMG NOWAI
Thanks, and go As.
Perhaps. I just find it unlikely that a couple of weeks would be the difference between the A’s not wanting to take on the remaining 25 million on Rollins’s deal and willing to.
Oh, absolutely. I’m just saying the passing of the deadline doesn’t change anything.
Right
Wuh. At least today is the day for major shifts.
i know i took one!
oh wait. didn’t see that F there…
all these people look like they’re taking major shifts too.
Olympic spoiler, women’s gymnastics:
Spoiler:
whoa
BUT MAN WE GOTTA FKING HANG ON TO STEPHEN DREW
Thanks, and go As.
This would be awesome for the Cubs. Matt Garza for Justin Upton? Wow.
Sigh.
I wonder what the Rays would do tonight if they indeed trade Shields. I mean, they haven’t brought anyone up after last night and their entire staff is pretty much maxed out…
They could make the other team include a pitcher in the trade
Yeah, but would they get here in time?
Not if Jean Quan closed the Oakland airport, Bay Bridge and I-880 and I-580
Why do all that when all it takes is a tip off to TSA.
That would require doing work.
They’d better be trading with the A’s, Mets or Giants, then.
Clearly Keppinger would get the start.
Couldn’t they have a minor leaguer en route?
Maybe, but DRaysBay hasn’t mentioned any news of that sort.
Sounds uncomfortable
I fear our balls are going to hit the ground with a loud thud.
No, our balls will bounce all over the place and down the hall. We’ll never see those things again.
That’ll teach Nate Schierholz to whine about not enough playing time.
I really really dislike Nate Schierholz.
And I have a hard time getting worked up about people I don’t know and never will
They are saying on MLB Network that the A’s and Jays are back in heavy negotiations re: Y. Escobar.
Hot and heavy, or just heavy?
Hot and steamy.
Like elephant dung?
MLB Network just said we’re talking to Toronto about Escobar again.
Thanks, and go As.
I think we need to quickly corner the market on ugly orange-and-black plaid hunting caps, sew a pennyloafer style pocket on them, put two cents in there, and sell them to the hordes.
Perfect
I’m glad I don’t live in San Francisco. Giant fans would annoy me even if they were pretty women.
No matter how naturally pretty they are, the orange gear makes them look ugly.
At the very least, it makes them easier to see from a distance.
In the fog.
Breslow->Sawx
I wonder why
its a trap to pound the Yalie
Good plan.
T minus 1 hour.
I’m enjoying my imagined telephonic showdown between AA and BB right now.
I’m imagining desk pounding and chair throwing
Peter Brand just walked in.
Denard Span rejected a trade to the Reds.
Thanks, and go As.
Can he do that?
He’s not a 10 and 5 guy is he? MLB Network must be wrong.
Thanks, and go As.
Thanks, and go As.
The Marlins are awesome in a slithery kind of way.
Wow really, Marlins got Zach Cox for Edward Mujica?
Thanks, and go As.
Apparently Cox is behind Freese and Carpenter in the Cards 3B plans, but still…..he’s probably not any worse than Matt Dominguez.
Yeah, I know people have dislikes about Cox, but I’d think he’s worth more than that.
On the other hand, relief is the main hole that the Cardinals seem to have.
i’m reading you all wrong today.
Alex Cox is too old and crazy
I’ll just be glad when this is all over. Can we just play ball already?
“… and tell him the when the A’s win the World Series, I’m keeping the gate receipts.”
I can’t bring myself to watch that movie.
It’s a fun watch for a fan.
I was suicidal after the playoffs.
That playoff series wasn’t as hard to take as the 2001 series, but it was pretty horrible. The Twins weren’t anywhere as good a team as the A’s that year. Of course the Twins were a lot better than the A’s in 2006 and lost to them, but that’s not as satisfying to me.
they don’t focus too long on the playoffs.
Dempster -> Rangers
And….scene.
Great.
Ok now I’m sure the A’s FKed up.
I really wanted Head(ley)
Competition got better, with Greinke and Dempster going to our rivals. This organization sure seems committed to showing us they want to win… someday.
yeah, stick to the pies in the face Casey, this ain’t your strong suit.
He seems like a puppy version of urban
Except, y’know. Casey’s not a douchebag.
hence the puppy.
Urban is a star fucker extraordinaire. Casey Pratt is an excited kid with what he thinks is a dream job.
I want to give him hugs.
He should definitely stick to the happy fluffy stories, though.
Excited? He always looks hungover when I see him on TV.
I only know him from twitter and written things. I don’t have Comcast-ca and the internet is for reading not tv watching, so I don’t watch his skits.
It’s more like the producers briefly cut to a shot of him, in the booth, staring intently at three laptops in front of him. Sometimes Ray and Glen tease him when he’s on camera.
It is human drama at its finest.
what the FK?
Thanks, and go As.
{scratches head}
Casey Pratt, whilst a very good looking young man, is also a crackhead. Greinke doesn’t make the Halos better? Dempster the same for the Rangers, given the injury to Lewis? He should just go back to fetching Kate Longworth’s coffee.
That made me chortle, thank you. And I agree on item #2.
Maybe he thinks the Angels and Rangers were already a million times better than the A’s so the presence of Greinke and Dempster don’t matter much.
That’s more what I took from it.
Eh. The more of his opinions I read, the less I think he knows what he’s talking about.
Thanks, and go As.
Of course you’re entitled to that opinion. We all have them.
That, plus those two only are an improvement every 5 days.
Greinke this year: 4.2 WAR
Reddick, the best player on the A’s this year pitcher or hitter: 4.1 WAR
Thanks, and go As.
They’ll probably make about 10 starts each from now until the end of the season.
10 games of Greinke over Richards/Santana and Dempster over Feldman seems pretty significant to me.
Significant, yes, but the goal here is still to make the playoffs. I’m inclined to agree with JL below – the biggest place where it matters is head to head; at most, we’ll see Greinke in 3 games; Dempster in 2. It’ll more likely be 2 for each. With the A’s pitching, especially with McCarthy/Anderson returning, we can still split those games.
On the other hand, the last month and a half could be a total mirage, even with an upgrade, in which case Beane didn’t get rid of whatever few future pieces we might have for a shot at nothing.
Look, the A’s could go 5-0 against Greinke and Dempster just like they could go 0-5 against Richards and Feldman in their stead. But all this is beside the point.
The point is that the Angels and Rangers improved their chances of winning games, which adversely affects everyone else’s chance of winning games, and most adversely affects Oakland’s chances of winning games, because we alone have 17 remaining games against the Rangers and Angels while the other wild card contenders match up against them fewer times. In other words, Greinke matching up against us 3 times as opposed to once against the Tigers or something obviously sucks more for us.
Exactly — it’s the process, not the outcome. Now, I’ll obviously be super excited if the outcome is good for the A’s, but we can still be angry about the process.
I am also crossing my fingers that one of the new acquisitions pulls a Beltran-on-the-Giants.
He could have stopped after the third word in the reply and really have been done.
For Profar, I trust?
better be
Two A ball players. So definitely not Profar or Olt.
Ugh. So the Angels get Greinke, the Rangers get Dempster, and the A’s get…Kottaras? This sounds promising.
I think you mean Kottaras!
We’re getting Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy is the way I’m forcing myself to look at it.
3B Christian Villanueva and RHP Kyle Hendricks
dammit. that’s my last name. and i thought you were saying he was coming here. it didn’t make perfect sense, but i was already counting my jersey money.
haven’t refreshed yet. scared to look. did anything happen??
oh well. there’s always next year’s trade deadline…
So I guess we get nothing and like it.
The AL West needs ditch diggers too.
FKing fail.
Thanks, and go As.
It starts:
This is where I am too. Incompetence is always the most likely explanation.
Barring a late reported trade, this has been the most disappointing trade deadline I could remember. It just makes no sense to not upgrade at several obvious positions when there are actually several cost controlled, long term options available at those positions.
Yup.
But hey, like Billy says, when you have an opportunity to get better you have to do it.
OH WAIT.
Thanks, and go As.
Well he did get George Kottaras.
Greek for Championship.
Thanks, and go As.
And if the opportunity doesn’t exist?
This.
Look at what Billy did in the offseason to make this team what it is now.
I think it’s kind of stupid to whine and flail about it now as if Beane is deliberately not doing anything just to piss us off and suck. I’m sure he’s been busy and if the deal to improve the team was possible within, he would have gotten it done. This is a different market than in past years, and sometimes deal almost happen and then don’t and it sucks but jeez, it’s not like Billy keyed your car.
Oh, but I forgot, Lew Wolff offered to pay for Hanley and Greinke and a puppy and give us all candy but obviously the problem is that Billy Beane doesn’t know how to use a cellphone.
Thank you.
CANDY?!
Well, based on the information saying a deal was in place for Hanley before LA came in at the 11th hour, and there were talks with both Toronto and Arizona about SS, San Diego about Headley, and apparently Colorado about Scutaro.
So, there was opportunity, and I think not getting Hanley was a huge failure.
Thanks, and go As.
And we’re basing ALL of this on the same level of rumor mongering that lead Nightengale to suggest Drew was likely? Yeah, this is the time of year where a lot of people throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks. We know nothing of the details good or bad. So maybe the opportunity is there, but the price isn’t right. You can want to buy a house and have the deal fall through when the owner decides it’s worth more than you’re willing to pay or they just change their mind. That’s life. You can call it a failure, but without knowing the circumstances, you’re purely speculating based on emotion and pure want.
Of course I am. We all are. However that’s why I’m saying not getting Hanley was a failure. We know what he was traded for — an OK pitcher and a scrub, plus taking on his salary. I have no idea what Toronto wanted for Escobar or Arizona for Drew, but I know what LA gave up for Hanley and consider is a failure to not have topped it.
Thanks, and go As.
And what LA gave up may have been overvalued by them than us. We don’t know shit about what went done. It sucks, but it’s not the end of the world, nor the end of the season. And yet by the look of this thread it’s as if Eric Fucking Byrnes didn’t touch home plate, Tejada stopped in the middle of the base path or fucking T-Long looked at strike three without swinging. And it’s not. Not even close.
No because at least then we were in the playoffs.
Thanks, and go As.
I’ve been in radio silence for the past week, so I’m catching up now. Is there any word on what prospects the A’s would have had to give for Hanley? Also, it seems that the $20 million difference between the A’s offer and the Dodgers’ offer is rather significant.
This would seem to apply to Headley, among others:
So here we are, with the opportunity to be THE sports story heading into the fall, putting together this historic, storybook magic run and dominating against all odds and needing a piece or two to really assure ourselves of amping up our ability to compete with the (already totally stacked) teams we are up against, and…. nada.
The people that run this are living in a childlike fantasy, where when they close their eyes all they see is this beautiful, packed stadium in the South Bay that the cocksucking SF Giants will not let them build in 100,000,000 years. Anything that happens before that ridiculous, infantile fantasy comes true (aka NOW, the only time we know we truly have) in their world (presumably presided over by Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy in a field of rainbow-hued unicorns), they just aren’t willing to service with anything but the most putative, lukewarm impetus.
And so many people still ask, after almost a decade of FUCK YOUs, why don’t the fans come?
Okay.
No. not okay. The way this is run is analogous to the austerity philosophy currently being attempted to be imposed worldwide. But deprivation and austerity don’t work, and they aren’t intended to work as anything but a way for the well off to say “Let them eat cake.” to the not-well-off whilst they wait for them to get hungry enough that they will accept anything. We have been told for years to just fuck off and die and this is just another chapter in that sad saga for me.
It’s like the spotlight is right there and something special is there for the taking and these people just won’t dare do anything to step out of their fantasy plans and into the reality of now.
I’m not getting back into the classism stuff you’re carrying on with. Sorry.
And before I go get lunch because I’m hungry as hell, here’s why I’m rolling my eyes at this:
The A’s are now 19-4 in July, their best July ever, in the wild card lead and knocking on the door of the AL West. None of this was expected to happen at all, but Cespedes is playing great. Reddick is playing great. Carter’s actually looking like a solid MLB hitter. They’re getting timely contributions from other parts of the lineup even if there are holes in a few positions. The pitching staff has been as good as usual overall.
How many people came out last night after numerous close wins, walkoffs, a 4-game Yankee sweep and a 4-2 roadtrip in which they put up a bunch of runs?
12,564.
That’s it.
Getting Hanley Ramirez or someone else in a deadline deal is not changing that significantly. And, it’s not even about making a deal to bring some more fans in. It’s about making the team better. Again, yeah, they have holes to fill and for one reason or another they weren’t filled this time. Do we know what the asking prices were for people they were looking at? No.
We do know they seemed like they were about to get Hanley Ramirez but the Dodgers came in and picked up all of his contract. We do know the Padres were asking for the moon for Chase Headley.
Sure, the Angels added Greinke and the Rangers got Soto and now Dempster at the end. They improved. It’s no guarantee of anything. The games still have to be played.
I’m just tired of the whole “LEW LIED HE NEVER TRIED!” stuff people are already ramping up since the A’s made no real deadline deals (FDLS for Kottaras is a small, minor move). I’m looking at this from the perspective Scott Ostler has probably set himself up for. Trade people and he can say, “Once again, the A’s aren’t giving their players a chance to shine here!” Don’t trade people and he can say, “Once again, the A’s had a chance to get better and didn’t!”
We just have to wait and see what plays out. The team is still far ahead of whatever we thought they’d be doing right now. Not making a big move at the deadline is not the end of the freaking world, and it sure as hell isn’t reason to go back to the conspiracy theories.
Now I’m going to go eat.
I had baked potato soup. It was marvelous.
Thanks, and go As.
Lew Wolff is a real estate wheeler dealer for the last 50 years on this Earth. He lies when his lips move.
Again: okay
Sorry we just fundamentally disagree on whom one can trust in this world, man. People like him, they aren’t on my list, period.
I’m not saying I trust everything Wolff says, but I’m not in the camp that doesn’t trust him one single bit. Things are a whole lot more complicated and complex than that. That’s all.
We still have the historic, storybook magic run and dominating against all odds thing going.
We had a real chance to both bolster our short-term fortunes going into what will be a super competitive stretch run in August and September AND shore up the hole at SS for years to come and didn’t do it. I’m disappointed, can’t sugarcoat that.
Unless and until I see exactly who the A’s tried to get and who the other teams wanted, I’m not going to rush to any sort of judgment and say they fucked up.
Don’t worry, the sensible and highly credible Billy Beane pronouncements are just moments away about how the “price was just too high.” Just like it was for our principal competition, who got Greinke and Dempster for next to nothing at all.
Yeah, I’m done with this.
Good. Keep believing what they’re about to tell us.
Will do.
I think you’re fooling yourself. I mean, really look at this team. We have only a couple of good offensive players and the rest are unreliable. Good pitching, but very inexperienced. And you want to bet the farm on that? Do you remember the shitty first half they played? They’re playing way over their head for a month and if they continue, awesome. But I won’t be surprised in the least bit if they fade and one more position player ain’t going to change that.
Exactly.
This team certainly could continue being hot ‘n’ sexy through September but… one more guy isn’t going to guarantee anything. This is one of those teams that’s gonna be feast or famine, either it’s gonna hold together or the wheels are gonna fall off HARD.
No it won’t guarantee anything, but if you have a chance to upgrade the worst position in the american league and do it with a guy youll have for 2 or 3 more years, you kinda should.
Thanks, and go As.
I agree with that, but we really don’t know exactly what that chance was.
I don’t really trust the twitterverse to be 100% accurate on what is or is not on the table.
We do know that what the Dodgers paid for Hanley. That’s not conjecture.
Of course you should. Absolutely no one’s arguing against that. But there’s no *real* guarantee that chance actually existed. And as Kyli pointed out, you’re using the twitterverse as fact and that’s just flat wrong to do.
Especially if Bob Nightengale is involved in any way, shape, or form.
Oy, that guy.
There is a “real” guarantee that the Dodgers acquired Hanley for almost nothing. I see nothing wrong with assuming that the same opportunity was there for Oakland. It’s implausible to me that the Marlins preferred an inferior offer from the Dodgers just to irritate us.
Have we seen what they wanted from the A’s, though? If they were still going to be on the hook for, what, half of Hanley’s contract, I don’t think the A’s get him for what the Dodgers sent over.
Well sure, the A’s would have had to make a better offer than the Dodger offer. I just don’t think it would have been that difficult to top.
the only thing I can think of id that A’s said HR +$20M for B+.
DOdgers say $0 + NE for HR
A’s don’t have a NE equivilant, and didn’t think their B+ and $20M was good value
That’s not the way that the intertoobnets and the radio talkers have made it out to be.
The way I understand it is this:
A’s/Marlins said HR + 20M for XYZ
A’s said OK, one sec is this dude’s hand infection OK after he punched a cooler or whatever
Dodgers said NE for HR and we’ll pay all the moneyz
Loria said FUCK YEAH DO THAT SHIT RIGHT NOW 20M IN MAH POCKETS WOOOO
Seriously, as evil as everybody here thinks Wolff is, Loria makes him look like a goddamn saint. It wouldn’t surprise me in the FKing *least* if he got a much lesser return in order to pocket $20M. The dude started a firesale IN YEAR ONE OF A NEW STADIUM
Thanks, and go As.
Sure but the lesson here is when someone makes you an offer that you like, the correct answer is to get the deal done before they change their minds, not play games further. Loria had to take the Dodger deal because they were willing to act immediately and he had no idea whether Beane was going to come back with a better deal or not, since Beane was delaying, according to the story you just described. If Loria had said to the Dodgers, “let’s wait till Beane gets back to me”, he takes the risk that the Dodgers make a different deal and Beane gets all the leverage in the second round of negotiations. Basically if Loria says no to the Dodgers, or says wait a day, he takes the risk of getting screwed the way Beane got screwed by dragging his feet.
Oh, I agree with that and I’ve said multiple times that it was a FKing failure to not acquire Hanley. Rookie move, really. Close the damn deal.
Thanks, and go As.
No kidding.
Well sure, let’s say NE is a B and the A’s prospect is a B+. The A’s would either have had to pay all of HR’s salary of come up with a prospect that was worth more to the Marlins than $20M. They should have done either IMO, just because I think the Dodgers got a great deal here.
Be that as it may, the Marlins could have either not come back to them and jumped at the deal or asked for the same deal as before but without the $20 million and the A’s called their bluff or balked with the Marlins seeing the money on the table already and anxious to grab it. Regardless, we don’t know what went done. In a coulda shoulda woulda game, not knowing where and how we actually failed, it’s hard to get angry about it. (well, easy to get angry for some, I guess).
I can’t disagree with you. But its not my $20M and other prospects.
Well I really hope that the 2013 payroll doesn’t include the next Ben Sheets, Brian Fuentes or Grant Balfour because the MLBPA and the Yankees think the A’s payroll is too low.
I never said they chose an inferior offer to irritate us. I’m saying we don’t know what went down. The only thing we know is the final result. We don’t know how *they* value that prospect compared to us or what they might have asked for from us. Nor do we know what the Dodgers offer really was, not in terms of money/prospect, but in terms of timing. And that makes a difference too.
There is a theoretical possibility that the Marlins think Nate Eovaldi is a million times better than the consensus view. I think it is more likely that they may like him somewhat more than most people, and that’s not that much. It shouldn’t have been that difficult to top that offer. I concede the theoretical possibility, while simultaneously discounting it as very unlikely.
The Marlins have a pretty well-established history of valuing cash money profit above everything else. So I’m assuming that the $20M was everything.
OK, then the A’s should have made that offer and offered someone better than Eovaldi.
You just said above that when the Dodgers raised the stakes, why wouldn’t they have jumped at that deal (like they did) and instead give the A’s a chance to offer more?
I said that to Mike in response to the scenario he described. If in fact that scenario transpired, the correct move would have been to accept the offer before the Dodgers got involved. But as dmoas said, we don’t really know what the minute to minute events were. I am generically assuming that the Marlins would have taken the best offer available. If for example Beane hadn’t delayed, and was in the middle of negotiations when the Dodgers called, I would assume that the Marlins would give Beane the chance to beat that deal, because he hadn’t ever said he needed time to evaluate Hanley’s hand. If Loria/Beinfest thought Beane could act in seconds rather than days, they would have been foolish not to give him the chance to top the offer.
Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I still think the A’s have a shot. They don’t have to beat Texas OR LA to make the playoffs. And then it’s a 1 game crapshoot between one of those two teams.
They have a shot but the problem isn’t that they have to beat Tex and LAA. The problem is that, with so many games left against those two teams, them getting better affects the number of games the A’s could win, which in turn, affects Oakland’s ability to stay in front of Chicago or Detroit or Toronto or Tampa or Boston, etc.
by the same token, LAA and TX play a lot of the rest of the year against the teams you mentioned (with a little bit of SEA, KC, BAL and CLE thrown in, but mostly against the specific 5 you said). so maybe bolstering the top of the standings could help the A’s keep the pack away from the 2nd wildcard?
Of course Tex and LAA play against those teams. But which of those teams have to play them 17 more times like we do?
yeah, the number is more significant than i guesstimated when looking at the sched. (not to mention the one i did count i got wrong. i had 14 games for the A’s… missed the 3 days in october). BOS gets 9. i think that’s the 2nd most after the A’s.
is there some consolation to be had in that TX and LAA have 8 against each other still?
Meh, we could just as easily face them zero times if the schedule works out right. It is what it is.
Sure, everyone always has a shot until mathematical elimination. That doesn’t mean inaction is not stupid. Both can be true simultaneously.
Rangers got Dempster for NOTHING whatsoever. Two A ballers.
But I guess Toronto wanted Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone and Cespedes for Escobar, right? And the Padres, OMG, they had to have those three plus Reddick for Headley. I’m waiting for the press conference or interview with Beane where we are told “the price was just too high.”
The A’s didn’t need Dempster, and I think it’s pretty pointless to try to talk you out of the scenario you’ve concocted for why they didn’t get Escobar or Headley, so I won’t bother.
Don’t worry, BB will be on the Game shortly to explain in a highly credible and sensible way how the other teams wanted the whole world for a player like Yunel Escobar.
I think you should go do something else for a little while.
Really? What should I do? When he’s on with Tierney this week moaning about how the price was too high to improve I will expect an apology from you.
I’m making a resolution to stop bothering when you get like this.
Coming up next on The Game, Billy Beane explains why the A’s had to tarp the BART bridge before it got walked off.
Dude, you need to calm the fk down.
I will say exactly what I wish to say, when I wish to say it.
And others are more than free to tell you you’re being unreasonable, which you are.
Yes, you most certainly can. But all you’re doing is sounding like an overemotional fking lunatic off his rocker on the verge of a coronary. If you’d like to continue to go down the path, by all means, do so. No real harm in venting around here. If you expect anyone to take you seriously, you might want to take a step back and be a little more rational.
This.
Well, the price for Escobar probably WAS too high. He’s under contract for 3 more years and he’s cheap and good, and the Jays had no need to deal him. Realistically it probably would have taken Straily and something else.
Headley is the same situation, only cheaper and there were multiple teams after him.
However, IMO there is just no excuse for not acquiring one of Ramirez or Drew. Half a season of Drew coming off a broken ankle shouldn’t have been cost prohibitive at all, and I already threw a shitfit about not getting Hanley when the Dodgers got him.
Thanks, and go As.
Honestly, Ramirez troubles me. The novelty the first few weeks is nice, but he is all about himself and might have been too much of a chemistry-disturbing addition for this, a team predicated almost entirely on interpersonal chemistry.
Escobar is also totally notorious as a clubhouse problem, and he as a youngster doesn’t even have the years of production like Hanley to justify the attitude. I just feel like he is young enough and might mature and grow up some amidst our crew of all-for-one/one-for-all miracle workers, and if he could be had it was worth having him given that we are getting .197 from SS so far.
Whatever, I should have learned long ago that this ownership group doesn’t make moves like the moves that were out there this time and just be happy with the unexpected overachievements of this season so far.
Escobar is a year older than Hanley is, he’s 29.
I think Hanley just wanted out of Florida and he’s going to FKing rake for the Dodgers.
Thanks, and go As.
It’s so cute you think the Game will stop talking about the Gnats long enough for Beane to come on.
Thanks, and go As.
Right? The A’s should just start selling Giants shit at the Coliseum concession stands now, given that their alleged flagship favors the franchise actively seeking to put them out of business..
I think there is a pretty credible middle-ground viewpoint on this that keeps clear of conspiracy theories but also honestly admits that the front office FKed up badly by standing pat. The AL West is a pretty heavy division right now — Texas has been dominant for going on three seasons now and the Angels have a terrifying rotation (acquisition of Greinke means that Dan Haren is their *number 4* starter) plus Trout and Pujols. I can dream about the A’s pulling it off this season with their current roster, but that’s because I’m a fan and it’s my job to be wildly optimistic. If the front office believes that there are no possible improvements in the lineup, then they are blind; if they believe that the A’s have no shot even with upgrades to the lineup, then they are playing too conservative and missing a great opportunity to go for it.
Or the shorter version, which has already been put forward a couple of times in this thread:
I guess incompetence is the only result when you know you can’t lose money on your business cuz you’re getting money from welfare.
We as middle class and lower middle class and poor people should only have such an opportunity, guaranteed break-even no matter how we behave.
Exactly. This is the total issue for me, the opportunity of now vs. the glorious future these owners have tried to sell us on waiting for since 6 years ago, really.
They just don’t seem to get that all you have is now, that opportunity knocks NOW. It’s like they are just addicted to waiting for some vaunted, speculative era of excellence that they see in their heads, much of it revolving around a new facility that (even were it to begin construction today in the location of their fantasies) would not be ready for several years.
So the point I was trying to get at is that this really doesn’t have anything to do with Wolff. It’s Billy’s job to balance the future of the team with the present. It seems like he is either discounting the present, or else overly optimistic about the current team. Either way, it’s on him, not Lew.
I just see it as BB is an owner too, the only GM that has an ownership stake. And in this fucked up situation with the stadium issue and everything, for me this has made him act in the most conservative, wait-for-something-that-may-or-may-not-happen way possible.
I guess my core issue and why I really don’t bother writing about this team anymore is that I just don’t expect any deviation from the established pattern, it’s obvious what they want and that they won’t really act in any daring or risk-intensive ways until their dreams come true.
I just don’t think standing pat was their plan. I think Hanley was their plan, and it went to shit because the Dodgers got some benjamins in their pockets. And I’d rather they not make a move, than make a move just for the sake of doing something. Sometimes, shit just doesn’t work out.
I’m sure Billy could have traded Straily for a random scrub if it would have made people feel better to see the A’s listed in the transactions.
Yeah, it sucks to see the other teams get high value for little loss, but I’m not sure our magical SS was out there, and since none of us in Beane’s office, being all BEANE NEVER TRIED OMG is kind of silly.
I never sais he didn’t try, I just contend that his ownership stake causes him to act in the most risk-averse manner possible and that this was a year of all years to take a risk (even a moderate one like Strailly for Escobar), given that we are on the cusp of possibly accomplishing something previously held by the conventional wisdom to be completely impossible.
Are there any grounds whatsoever for your belief that Beane’s ownership stake is the source of him being risk-averse?
It’s just logic. The truth about this franchise isn’t that they have been “trying to lose,” it’s that they haven’t been trying to win… which is essentially, in the hypercompetitive 21st Century construct of MLB, the same thing. The primary owner of this thing has expressed a total unwillingness to engage with reality outside the borders of his South Bay Fantasy Move, and to behave in as conservative a way (since the Holliday disaster anyway) as possible around personnel moves knowing that he’s insulated by the luxury tax from bearing the loss of fan interest and the attendant drop in attendance that entails financially. It seems to me like in this case, Beane is on board with this attitude and behaved accordingly today, eschewing any move that in his projection deviates from the trajectory. That long-term initative in this as-yet-venueless situation and context is the initiative of someone in ownership, not someone in a GM framework who is trying to take what he has and win something with it ASAP given the promise it shows and continues to show.
Being owner and GM in this situation vis a vis the stadium has been painted as a serious conflict of interest for many years now, this isn’t anything new or shocking, is it? They imagine this opulent future — and one where they really don’t need the extant fanbase — and much of what they do is what they feel they must do to service that imagined future.
I think you’re coming at this having already decided something, then looking for things to happen that support your conclusions. Beane has never hidden from making a deal he thought would actually improve the team, nor has he hidden from making a deal for the future. This is a fact.
We, dating back to AN and elsewhere, have never been shy about saying exactly what we think about each move he’s made, including the ones that have left people going, “He’s lost his mind! He should just go focus on soccer now since he obviously doesn’t care about baseball any more!”
Even this past offseason we had that left and right with the Cahill, Gonzalez, etc. trades. It was all about how Beane’s sacrificing everything today to play for 2015 and a new ballpark.
Then they got Cespedes.
Then Reddick started doing what he has.
Then Parker started looking good.
Then Milone started showing good signs.
Then Carter got a chance and finally started to hit.
Then Blackley morphed into someone who can actually pitch.
Then they rode a crazy wave of momentum and kicked ass in July.
Now we’re talking about filling a few holes to position the team better for a run at the playoffs…and we’re back to people going on about how Beane won’t do this or Wolff won’t do that because San Jose because screw Oakland blah blah blah.
Probably the only reason Beane didn’t blow this team up now was because he’d get lynched for it after what they’ve done in July, right? And, of course, just because other teams traded apparent crap for good players means the A’s had the same opportunities, yes? Let’s ignore the fact their minor league system STILL isn’t all that great aside from a handful of people doing all right, someone like Straily coming out of nowhere, and by the way Choice broke his hand last week.
Even their pitching depth isn’t THAT deep when you consider the health status of Braden, Anderson and McCarthy, not knowing if or when Blackley will turn back into a pumpkin, trying to rely on youngsters like Griffin, Parker and Milone, Colon not being here long term, and who cares about Ross or Godfrey?
But this is all about Beane not wanting to take a chance that might fuck up San Jose. Got it. It’s old.
Or… It could be that they’re trying to win within their budget. And not wanting to go broke (as the rich tend to want to do) chose not to spend like it’s someone else’s money (because fk yeah that’s really easy for the rest of us to do) and he made the practical, if not terribly unexciting, move of “checking” instead of going all in with his chips.
Billy wants to win more passionately than Billy wants a few more ducats as an owner. His ownership interest is a nice pension plan, but it is illiquid and I’d be surprised if there’s a big cash payout on any regular basis.
His best ‘play’ is to win.
I agree with most of this, and I think it’s plausible that Billy having an ownership stake makes him more likely than most GMs to take the long-term company line in this instance. But absent Billy, I doubt that a more conventionally employed A’s GM would achieve anything different at the trading deadline.
And none of that changes whether they go all in or not. They could have upgraded with Hanley and Headly, but that would have still left them well behind the pack in terms of talent. Emotionally you want them to do it anyway, realistically you just ride this shit out and see where it leaves you.
Here is the lineup. Guess who is not in it? No no, Sogard is playing short…
Crisp is still out. Huh.
Thanks, and go As.
I can live with his constant injuries, I just wish they weren’t so often of the day-to-day variety. After a 15-inning game last night it would be nice to have Cowgill or Taylor’s fresh legs on the bench.
Sogard/Inge platoon?
I’m not sure that redistributing playing time among Hicks/Sogard/Inge accomplishes a whole lot.
spread the suck.
Thanks, and go As.
3rd?
WE GOT YOUR CATCHER OFFENSE
YEAH BUT SUZUKI HIT A DOUBLE YESTERDAY
Thanks, and go As.
Sigh.
AND HE HANDLES THOSE PITCHERS SO WELL!!!!!!!!
I’m convinced that if we still had Norris up, I woulda been in bed by the time the game actually ended last night.
Brett Anderson is alive!! He tossed a nondescript 4 innings, balking in a run and giving up a solo HR. Fastball was only about 87-88; I saw 90 once. Pedro Figueroa hit 94 on the same gun.
Trying to decide whether to eat Staplehead, Cowgill or the umpires.
“Hmmmm…..#10 looks juicy and tender.”
It’s a bit less scary in daylight, but still…
BTW, I saw Cowgill looking up there after I was shooting the picture and then chasing down a ball at the warning track. Upon closer inspection I realize Cowgill is aiming for the mouth in that pic.
When you think about it, he never got the chance to do that when he played for Reno.
You gotta eat quite a few rivercats before you feel full.
ack! beyond the creepy and the fingers and the mouth creases and the singing… it’s huge!!!
The great thing about the trade deadline is that it gives us one specific day to piss and moan and spew vitriol about a counter factual reality.
In the theatrical version of this season Bob Melvin is, right now, giving a speech in the clubhouse to the team. It focuses on how the A’s have the other teams in the division running scared, but that everyone in this lockeroom knows the measure of their heart and that there is no way for them to be stopped. There’s probably a really inspired sound track playing in the background that rises as the speech continues. At the end of it Reddick stands up and snorts an entire whipped cream canister of nitris and goes bolting out of the clubhouse. This year’s team isn’t Moneyball folks, it’s Major League. Relax and laugh a little and try to enjoy the ride.
In other words, Nepotism and the good ol boys club is alive and well in MLB.
Thanks, and go As.
Yep. Just like Beane dealt with Jonah Hill when he became the Dodgers GM and Ricciardi when he was with the Blue Jays.
Kevin Millar praising the A’s fans that show up at the Coliseum to high heaven on MLB Network right now, begging MLB to let us build something somewhere in the Bay Area already.
Shit’s getting expensive
It might be time to discount tickets $1 for each walkoff like they did with the hits discount before.
Thanks, and go As.
Right? In September it’ll be up to 40 bucks otherwise.
They should always be sold for $3.14
No that’s the “convenience fee”
Thanks, and go As.
If you pick them up at the ticket office they just throw them in your face.
Someone sneaks up from behind and smashes you with them.
Thanks, and go As.
Don’t you have a voucher for $4 tix for that game? Sslinger has hooked me up for $4 via the same deal, I think. So I’ll show up Thursday and sneer at the suckas who paid $12. Also pie.
I think the $4 tix are second deck, so we can throw things at the posh $12 people.
did not see, but i have not looked today
I hate all you Eeyores. I am gonna marry this guy:
Think of trying to sell Moneyball 2 to Hollywood. You can’t possibly do that if we win with Hanley, Drew, or Headly.
Your agreement with SLF has a same sex opt-out clause?
sure
Jimmy rollins passing through waivers will not be a surprise
It would, however be a surprise to me if the A’s actually acquired him, because if they really wanted him they could have made a deal in July.
MLB Network discussing what the A’s did and didn’t do today, Strailly coming and so forth with the chemistry issues being central to the success thusfar.
Panel agrees that we can still win with this group and continue what we are doing, but that it’s hard to assess it all during a hot streak like this. They also love Melvin and think the pitching is limitless in what it can do going forward.
Eh. They were 37-42 before having the best single month in the history of the franchise. If they play .500 ball the rest of the way, they win 86 and probably miss the postseason.
Thanks, and go As.
And they’d still probably be ahead of where anyone thought they’d be at this point, but in the end if they aren’t winning World Series it’s all a failure. Or something.
Actually I think just making it to the ALDS and maybe winning it in 5 crazy epic games that everyone on Earth will be talking about might be enough to save AL baseball in the Bay Area and perhaps even in Oakland. Worked in Seattle in 1995 anyway.
They could win the WS this year (please, pretty please) and I doubt it has an impact on anything one way or another. But fk that, gimme gimme gimme.
Maybe yes, maybe no… but you gotta believe that in the generation of a national story that can become so all-consuming in the narrative of this season as this one is starting to become, the right set of eyes and ears could somehow get pasted to the equation that was not looking at the situation these last years, and that it could make a ripple down the road to free our franchise from the death spiral it’s been in, particularly in regards to the stadium thing and building it the home it’s in the process of re-proving it so manifestly deserves.
I guess I just see everything about the A’s through the need to resolve the venue issue and desire whatever means necessary to break it free from its position between a concrete rock Coliseum and the Giants’ intentionally-implemented hard place. It’d be better to just enjoy the ride but I just can’t make myself do that for some reason, given what has been and is at stake.
I love the passion you bring as an A’s fan because I know you live and die with this team. Maybe you can’t compartmentalize it the way I’m trying to, but I’m just sitting here enjoying what the team is doing without worrying so much about all the other stuff.
I’ve long since realized nothing is likely to happen as long as Bud Selig is in power because he’s a piece of crap who’s too afraid to actually be the commissioner and make a tough decision, but in the meantime the A’s are a lot of fun to watch and that’s where I’m placing my focus.
I also have zero investment in whether they stay in Oakland or go to San Jose. Not having to move would be nice, but at this point I just want them in a new ballpark and I don’t care where in the Bay Area that ends up being.
I agree, I should enjoy this run while I can but I can’t help but feeling that this run and our ability to extend it to further unlikely-yet-possible achievements and the story those achievements could generate might hold some sort of key to the overarching resolution of the main, central issue it faces.
Good or bad, what will be, will be. That’s where I’m at on it. I get what you’re saying, though.
You know what?
Boobs.
Thanks, and go As.
This is true.
I rest my case.
Thanks, and go As.
But what if “titties” is really a better term? LOLOL
you’re too dumb to read between the boobs!!!
I guess what bugs me that no one seems to understand in their rush to repeat the conventional wisdom of everything is that these opportunities to do the extraordinary only come so often, and you have to err on the side of striking while the iron is hot to really make them snowball into the achievements they can become. I am saying that time again the ownership stake and all that entails in this specific situation (unlike no other given the stadium brick wall erected by the cocksucker Giants) has put Beane on the conservative side of moves or non moves and that before he got that stake he was way more likely to shoot from the hip re: personnel moves. Everyone just thinks I am irrational and insane for that, but that’s nothing new… in fact I am irrational and insane and resemble those remarks, the root of ‘fan” being “fanatic” anyway.
Cespedes was a pretty damn good “Shoot from the hip” move.
Mostly I think a lot of the “Beane lost his mojo” stuff is bunk, but I still think not getting Hanley was a massive fail, but I also think not trading for Matt Kemp 2 years ago when he was pissed at the Dodgers and Colletti hated him and they said maybe he needed a change of scenery was also a massive fail.
Thanks, and go As.
No one could have known that Cespedes would progress this fast and turn out to resemble Roberto Clemente immediately… a lot of people doubted his ability to catch on to ML pitching so quick. Plus, we HAD to sign him, because we were below the salary floor at the time.
As for the other deals, they were seen as fire sales at the time, and only since the (utterly stunning) haul he got for Gio/Cahill/Bailey turned out to gel into this July juggernaut have people begun to realize that guys like Reddick may have legitimate All-Star futures.
This may all work out in the end and we might still shake up the whole world in Sept and Oct but today makes that climb — for which the opportunity does not present itself all that often — more difficult as the main competition did not hesitate to improve in crucial areas.
They HAD to sign Cespedes? No, they got Cespedes because they were the only team willing to offer him a 4-year deal since nobody bit on a longer contract that would take him through his primary free agency period. He chose the 4-year deal the A’s put out there over a 6-year deal the Marlins were dangling.
Yeah, the road to the playoffs got more difficult today, but all the conspiracy stuff is just taking it way too far. It’s nothing more than an overly emotional reaction, which is fine, but let’s not act like it’s something other than that.
Texas got Dempster, yeah. Great. They also already lost Lewis and now Feliz to TJS. Soto’s very up-and-down but you’d figure he’ll be okay in Texas. Greinke helps the Angels, no question, but they’re already a damned good team. The Angels and Rangers could have done nothing and it still would’ve probably kept the A’s as an underdog overall.
Oh, definitely, we could have gotten Josh Hamilton and we’d still be the underdog… especially if he found his way to 16th and Mission in The City or Int’l and 103rd in East Oakland, always a possibility with him.
When I say they had to sign Yo I mean they had to sign someone to get over the salary floor and he was the last one out there at the end of the offseason. You could even say he wanted a 4 year deal in a pitcher’s park so he could leave for a bandbox at the end of that time having proven he can hit it to the moon, and often, anywhere.
It is not — repeat NOT — some sort of conspiracy to suggest that an ownership stake in this most daunting and unique situation would not inspire some degree of conflict-of-basic-interest, given the roles of GM and ownership and that BB is unique in that he is both the only GM to have ownership and the only player to have become a GM. I think all of that has complicated things for him, understandably, and don’t see positing such things as at all irrational or tin-foil-hat material.
To put it bluntly, I do not believe there is any conflict of interest whatsoever between having an ownership stake vs. GM position when it comes to Beane making a deal or not. I have not seen any evidence to tell me he’s more worried about the bottom line than how his team is constructed, and nothing about today’s trade deadline changed that opinion of mine.
Let me put it another way: if his primary focus was the team’s bottom line and how that affected any profitability, I’d expect more to be done to build the team up because of the ripple effect that could have. Revenue sharing and a usually boring team that doesn’t draw? I don’t think that’s what Beane’s about at all, even if it leads to them making a small profit in the end. He’s too much of a competitor and a tinkerer to be content with some kind of safe position.
I would like to believe that, but I just don’t. I guess I am staunch in my sort of Marxist belief that Capital is failed Labor, and when someone gains access to a larger slice of resources their impetus and endeavor becomes primarily to conserve those accumulated resources… and that their initiative to stay hungry enough to prioritize innovation at every turn becomes stifled and subordinate to their desire to project what of their accrued resources can be kept.
We can just agree to disagree, because these for me are deep issues that speak to the dynamics of how humans deal with the accessing and retention of vital resources in situations and have less to do with baseball in its pure, distilled form.
I’ll definitely agree to disagree on this one, especially because like I said above, I really don’t want to get into the other points you’re making around it. No offense.
Yeah, those points have been debated for 150 years, and are no closer to consensus now as then, you know?
I mean, I’m sure if I got a bigger slice of some pie I’d do what I could to maximize it. I just think in certain cases it can be possible to play both sides of the fence, so to speak.
The debate you allude to is essentially the central argument over the efficacy vs. inefficacy of capitalism in the long term as it portends for the future of Humanity.
Unfortunately both sides of anything can be played only for so long, and eventually a choice must be made re: whether the effects of a system that demands infinite growth from finite resources are worth what such demands put the planet, and us upon it, through.
If I see the A’s plight through the broader scope and spectrum of the prevalent economic system and how that system pushes people to react to resources as they do, I apologize.
The central reason I quit giving away my labor to the other blog wasn’t that I felt robbed of that labor, it was that the powers there would not allow me to write about the A’s as integrated into the broader system and how that system is in the process of laying waste to human institutions and resources.
LOL!
WITH WHAT!?
Hee
Ha! It’s about time they started doing that.
The master-plan is to be in this position next season and trade Straily for free-agent-to-be Derek Jeter as the SS upgrade.
Shut up you.
… and Choice for Figgins at 3rd.
i give you permission to stop
Closer (with the option not to look):
Brian Wilson
Spoiler:
So this guy is actually the Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas (i.e. he will be elected to the US Senate this November).
(emphasis mine, link here)
Alex Cox is a genius (wait for 1:07 or so and it will all make sense).
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boom!
LOL, Agenda 21.
LOL at the copy on the A’s website:
George Kottaras and Derek Norris disagree
sigh. when the only fact available totally disproves the discourse…
It was a terrible move. Clearly the chemistry was disrupted yesterday. The team looked awful — chaos reigned.
Stuff was frothing out of beakers, bunsen burners were exploding left and right…
ladies and gentlemen, your 2012 oakland flubbers!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fMwFxUQx1PI%3Frel%3D0” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
you gave me major saturday nights watching PBS thirteen in brooklyn flashbacks. which was awesome. this or pepe le moko nearly every other week!
…they didn’t break the deadline?
Glad the A’s didn’t get Hanley Ramirez, he hasn’t been worth his contract for the last year and a half, and I don’t want an underperforming player eating up a quarter of the payroll for the next two-plus years.
Disappointed that nothing whatsoever was done to upgrade the worst left side of the infield in baseball, though. I hope no time is wasted in pulling the trigger on getting Chase Headley, Stephen Drew, or Aramis Ramirez.
Would you have been happy with Hanley for half his contract and a not-untouchable minor leaguer or two – which from all I’ve seen seems to have been the offer they hesitated on.
Hmmm….let’s weigh the pros and cons of this:
Hanley — 3-7 WAR SS for $7M
Pennington – 0-3 WAR SS for $400K
I’m going with Hanley
Minor leaguers — who cares?
Yeah, that would have been OK. Didn’t end up what he costed, though.