It's hard to miss Elephants in Oakland HQ on our block.




Every wonder what to do with that gown you graduated from high school or college with? Take a few wire hangers, the ones from the dry cleaners you have no idea what to do with, and form a crude body outline. Hang it from the ceiling of your porch and place a fog machine (about $20 from target) beneath it. Drape your skeleton with your robe. Change the bug light to a nice blue light or black light. You now have a headless corpse with fog emanating from the neck.

It takes about 40 minutes. You might want to consider using a tarp or sheet to enclose the porch. Adds an added dimension of spookiness with the shadows and outlines on the porch. Halloween sounds are up to you.

DELICATE INDEED! TRULY DELICATE! THERE IS NO PLACE WHERE ESPIONAGE IS NOT USED.

- The Art of War -

Under the guise of a losing season, Paul DePodesta has been fired by those darlings of Southern California, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tommy Lasorda, long boasting his Italian heritage, shows how undermining and cowardly he could be by getting into bed with the Southern California sportswriters - who are having a bad month. They couldn't keep USC atop the NCAA football polls, the Angels lost, the Saints are threatening to move to L.A. (not Louisiana) and UCLA's football team won't go away.

The AP, in all of their glory, have allowed Ken Peters to write:

"DePodesta graduated cum laude in 1995 with an economics degree from Harvard, where he played baseball and football for the Crimson.

He had been an assistant to Oakland GM Billy Beane since 1998 when he was hired by McCourt at age 31. DePodesta worked for the Cleveland Indians for three years before joining the A's.

Beane, under tight payrolls restrictions in Oakland, lead the revolutionary change in player evaluation that valued statistics over gut instincts. Author Michael Lewis wrote the 1984 bestseller "Moneyball" about Beane's approach to the game, which was adapted by DePodesta.

The technique has been criticized for underestimating the importance of team chemistry."

Just when you think you've read everything...

A lot if the articles are pointing toward the trades that DePodesta made, like the trade of Paul LaDuca to Florida. Hmm. Lasorda. LaDuca. LaDuca, supposedly the team leader in Los Angeles, went to the Marlins. Where his leadership and team chemistry skills worked wonders on the Florida Marlins in 2004 and in 2005. Meanwhile the Dodgers won the NL West in 2004 and in 2005 were stymied by an invasion of injuries.

Even better was that DePodesta is blamed for the Milton Bradley and Jeff Kent feud. Since when does a General Manager in baseball have anything to do with the personal relationships in the clubhouse? When Kent and Bonds were going at it in San Francisco, who was blamed? Not Dusty Baker and not Brian Sabean. So why is DePodesta footing the bill?

The Dodgers 'lost' Adrian Beltre, Alex Cora, Shawn Green, Steve Finley and Jose Lima. When you lose that, isn't it sort of like waking up the next morning and discovering that your amputated legs had grown back?

The L.A. hitmen continue:
T.J. Simers let's Lasorda do the talking, and it looks like if Bobby Valentine is not available the team 'might' be leaning toward Terry Collins. I wonder who is running the Dodgers, Lasorda or his ego. Hey, isn't he the guy who ran the franchise into the ground in the first place?

And the unbearable Bob Plaschke has never seen a paragraph. Plaschke doesn't care if he contradicts himself as long as he continually lobs non sequiturs at Paul DePodesta. Plashcke is the kind of 'writer' who makes Ray Ratto's mood swings a pleasure to put up with.

Nobody seems unwilling to throw DePodesta under the bus, Tony Jackson.

All the fingers point to an owner trying to blame the GM for his own decisions. Hiring high priced free agents, then trying to please Bill Plaschke and his gang of 'irreconcilables' and preening to the Angels.

Screw 'em all, Paul. Come home to Oakland. Come back and save Billy Beane's brain. The thing has been rotting in place since you've left. Anyone else think it's a mystery that the A's failed to make the playoffs the last two years and Paul has been gone for two years?

Just come home, Paul. Take a day or two and say goodbye to the smog and traffic and take the long way up Highway 1 to the BayArea...to the fog and traffic.

We'll see you at the 2006 Oakland A's fanfest.

• Darling: So you see, Blackadder, Field Marshal Haig is most anxious to eliminate all these German spies.


• Melchett: Filthy Hun weasels fighting their dirty underhand war!


• Darling: And, fortunately, one of our spies...


• Melchett: Splendid fellows, brave heroes, risking life and limb for Blighty!

2005 WRAP-UP

This is the first of several Q&A, interviews and Podcasts coming for the 2005 wrap-up. Here is a page view of the interview.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball America is always very gracious with his time and willing to offer his knowledge on Oakland A's baseball. Apart from being good-natured, humorous and telling me I have good taste in music, someone I infinitely trust told me that Kevin is the smartest person he has met in baseball (which might have actually been an insult to everyone else in baseball...depends on how you look at things).

     Ken Macha's here today, gone today, here today episode leads to many, many questions.  Dave Hudgens was also their roaming hitting instructor at one time and is now out of the organization.  How will the recent changes in the A's management affect the farm system? By that I mean, how much interaction do the A's major league coaches have with the minor league players? Does such interaction happen only during spring training and/or fall instructional league?
     Not a ton. During the season, they're far too busy worrying about the major league team. They certainly receive in-depth daily updates on the performance of players in their minor league system.


     The tandem starting system has been abandoned and the A's have had serious pitching injuries the last two years (Ben Fritz, Shane Komine) not to mention questionable use (e.g., Windsor and Braden both under seemingly heavy workloads in Stockton before being shut down in Midland). And, with all this change could David Forst's be mentioned as a possible replacement as a GM in other organizations? Is Erik Kubota's name going to start being mentioned as a possibility for GM or higher front office positions in other organizations over the next few years?
    Wow. That's a rambling all over the board question. I'll answer it this way:

1. Komine was another injury waiting to happen because of his amazing college workload. I don't think you can statistically prove overuse of Windsor and Braden. I think both of these guys were used pretty normally - they do rack up high innings counts, but they do it with few pitches.




2. I think Forst and Kubota could one day end up in GM talks, but not yet.

     The A's draft well, even with their peculiarities. It looks like the
A's again quickly singed a majority of their picks. Will Justin Smoak be
the one that got away from the A's? What of the A's going after high
schoolers; are they simply beefing up on players to trade later or are they
really looking at a long term development strategy? Clifton Pennington looks to be capable of being a leadoff hitter for the A's. Is he destined
to move from shortstop to second base or will the A's consider him
elsewhere (centerfield)?
    Nobody can pound more questions into a single question than you, ZM. Thus, I am back to numbered lists.

1. I don't think it's fair to characterize Smoak as the one that got away. He was generally considered a first-round talent, but everyone knew his bonus demands and that his chances of signing were very slim. They took a flyer on him, and it didn't work out, but it's not like they had a big shot at getting him anyway or lost anything by taking him. So not the one that got away, more like losing 10 bucks at the roulette table because you played a single number. The big payoff would have been nice, but not like it was some devastating loss.



2. The A's taking high school players is just the A's being the A's.     They're not about on-base percentage and they're not about drafting college players, they're about finding market inefficiencies, and that's where they thought it was this year.     Both Lansford and Italiano were very good picks. Their long-term strategy is to find what kind of talent is undervalued in each draft - so it's going to change from year to year.



3. Pennington is a shortstop, and a very good one at that. His maximum value to the team is as a shortstop, so there is absolutely no reason to move him until you are forced to. I see him as more of a classic two-hitter than a leadoff man.

     As far as player development, will the A's develop a corner outfielder capable of hitting 35 homeruns...at least while in an A's uniform anytime
soon?  Nelson Cruz looks like he's ready to make the jump, for the Brewers.
    It is a system weakness. There are not a lot of big time power guys in the system. I still think Swisher could be a 30 home run guy in the bigs. As far as Cruz goes, I don't know of anybody who thinks he's going to be a big time player like that. He's good, but you're talking about a guy who will be 26 next year and struck out 133 times in 2005.


     If you lived in Sacramento, would you buy season tickets to the A's
(Oakland), RiverCats (Sacramento) or the Ports (Stockton)?
    I work for Baseball America - I can get in for free! Seriously though, I'd do Stockton, but much of that is my bias as

(a) I love Class A baseball and
(b) I do our California League coverage for Daily Dish, Best Tools and League Top 20s, so I feel closer to that league.

     Where do the A's new collection of spare parts Matt Watson, Andrew
Beattie, Jack Cust, Hiram Bocachica, Jermaine Clark fall in the A's pecking order?
    Well, like you said, those are spare parts, and I'm certain that a few of them are no longer under contract and will be six-year free agents. These are minor league veteran/major league fill-in guys that every organization has. Nothing that's going to make an impact at the big league level.


     Let's go over some of the players off the Prospect Lists. Javier
Herrera was the MVP of the Northwest League in 2004, and was a moderate let down this year. I have heard there are some concerns about 'make up' with Herrera (not cosmetics). Can you elaborate? Can you also explain his brief promotion to Sacramento for a weekend early in the 2005 season?
    I'm still a big supporter of Herrera and his tools. He got off to a slow start because of the suspension, but once he got going, scouts were really impressed with him. He can hit, he can hit for power, he can run and he can throw. He's still raw certainly, but he has the highest upside of any player in the system. I've heard no makeup issues with him, I imagine anything you heard was probably related to the suspension for banned substances. As far as that goes, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I agree with David Ortiz' assessment that many of the young Latin American players are dealing with a language barrier and often do not have a full understanding of what they're taking.

As far as his brief Triple-A trip, there was some injuries at Sacramento, but they also wanted to bring in Swisher to rehab, so there was just no centerfielder there because of the numbers game. They thought he could handle it and thought he could be fill the job briefly, so there it was.


     Can you explain the Richard Pryor Robnett praise I hear? I've watched
him and I just don't see what others see. I see far too many holes.
There's some talent there, but I just didn't see the development from
2003-2005 I would have hoped.
    What people see is a tremendous amount of promise, based on his outstanding athleticism. I think you can be disappointed in his 2005 season, as he's still more raw than one would expect, but the upside there is very big. He's like a tech stock where you will lose your investment or it will pay off handsomely, but there's very little chance for something in between. The A's did work with his approach and swing in the second half, and there were some good results (14 HR, 43 RBIs in his last 60 G).


     What happened with Morrissey? He was an All Star in 2004, and
then just fell off the map.
    Well, yeah, the comeback album had some nice songs, but he's never been able to rediscover the magic that was there with Johnny Marr. Oh wait, ADAM Morrissey, sorry. I'm not sure anything necessarily 'happened' with him, he was just constantly overrated by people who only know how to look at spreadsheets -- based on only a very good 2001 season in Low A. He's never really produced consistently since (including 2004), and he never found a defensive home. Another guy, who like that spare parts list, could be a six year free agent.


     The A's have a few minor leaguers coming back (or came back) from
injury; Shane Komine (the Hawaiian Punch-Out), Landon Powell, Matt Allegra and Ben Fritz. What can
we expect from them in 2006 and will Fritz move back to catcher?
    I've heard nothing on Fritz moving back to catcher. Komine is a huge favorite of mine, but I don't think he profiles as anything more than a reliever. Powell is a big question mark that I'll address when I begin my Oakland Top 30 research in about two weeks or less.


     The A's had a few players who made some noise; Daric Barton, Travis
Buck, Jimmy Shull, Ramon Alvarado, Brad Kilby, Kevin Melillo, Dallas
Braden, Jared Burton...and some others that flew in under the radar, Ron
Flores, Casey Myers, Brian Stavisky, Dustin Majewski, Vasili Spanos, Jed
Morris...are the A's on the right track to continue to develop players to
fill their needs at the big league level.  And enough players attractive to other organizations in
trades? It looked like in 2005 they hit a bit of a lull, but some of the
players in the 2004 and 2005 draft are very promising.
    That first list is a strange combination of elite guys and very fringe guys, while the under the radar list has some players who definitely improved their stock (especially Majewski), and a lot of guys who, frankly, probably deserve to be under the radar. I do think the A's had some so-so drafts in recent time, but that both the '04 and '05 drafts will play a big role on the future of the system.


     Finally, the A's have new ownership that are, reportedly, willing to
open up the budget to sign players. And the A's are also not losing any
free agents that would suggest early round compensation. Will this hurt
the A's in 3-4 years or has the system been replanted well enough after the
harvest?
     I'm not sure hurt is the right term. The A's have had extra picks in the past, but now they're more on par with most of the other teams, as opposed to hampered by it. I think it does change ones philosophy when drafting, as your decision making process is different when you have two picks in the first two rounds as opposed to six.

Kevin was thanked and I'll be bothering him (my words, not his) again when we get closer to the Winter Meetings, Rule 5 Draft and the A's Prospects List.

Honestly, I don't like doing this. But a recent tribute to Bill King by Steve Kroner needs to be pulled by the San Francisco Chronicle and an apology issued. In this article Kroner makes several glaring errors:

• King, who died Tuesday at the age of 78, spent 21 seasons (1962-83) as the voice of the Warriors, 27 seasons (1966-92) as the voice of the Warriors and 25 seasons (1981-2005) as the voice of the A's.

Obviously, King was the radio voice of the Raiders from 1966-1992.

The next was just a ridiculous error in judgment by Kroner:

• King's panache probably contributed to the only knock on him as a basketball announcer: At times, he took his criticism of the refs a bit too far.

Kroner simply misread what was so endearing and honest about the man. What Bill King did, possibly better than any other person that has covered sports, was criticized officials for their failure to perform their duties. But the brilliance in King's delivery of the message was in how the officiating changed the flow and feel of a game and the ambiance of the fans in the stadium or arena.

Bill King was able to drag the pompous arrogance of the sports official down to the lesser level that they deserve to be. Why do officials feel they are an important part of the process? Isn't the context between two groups of professionals enough? Bill King never elevated himself above players, or coaches or managers or above the game itself. Why do officials constantly feel the need to do so?

Bill King put things in context so subtly that you felt even if the game was meaningless and 3,000 miles away you were there. You had as much interest in the action as a fan who had plunked down X dollars to get to the event, waited in line to pay for parking, waited to find a spot to park, waited in line to pay for a ticket, walked the march of endless death as fans impeded your path from the concourse to your seat, paid a small fortune for refreshments and sitting in an uncomfortable chair to watch a fierce competition between two teams of professional athletes of the highest caliber - only to witness someone officiating the event to bungle their only duty and possibly mangle the outcome of said event.

Another Kroner comes in the form of two quotes that are identical, to the point of being verbatim:

• That, though, proved beneficial to some players. On his KNBR (680 AM) program Tuesday afternoon, Barry was talking with Nate Thurmond, his former Warriors teammate, about King. Thurmond said because King frequently ripped the officials, "Some of them hated Bill more than they hated me."
  
  
  Barry, known to question a call or 2,000 in his career, said, "What's really amazing is some of them hated Bill more than they hated me."

Who said it, Thurmond or Barry or did they really both say the same thing?

Again, it's not a pleasure to sit here and type this. What is paramount for a journalist, writer, commentator or whomever in the mass media is to get it right. Just like an official in a sporting event. And when you get it wrong you deserve scorn and shame. Not just for the sake of it, but because of what the importance what of the sports media is; to inform and report.

The A's have attempted to sneak Keith Ginter off the 40 Man roster by outrighting him to AAA Sacramento. Ginter can refuse the assignment and become a free agent.

The A's could also swing a trade with a team and it's a good bet that Toronto, Los Angeles and San Diego/Arizona will be interested.

Ginter never really got going in 2005. He drove in a handful of runs, but the walks and hits just weren't there. Kind of happens when you get playing time every few weeks.

Ginter 'approaches' average defensively, but he can play 2nd or 3rd base. Of course, being a Jack of All Trades and master at none is great if you're into multi-tasking. But the A's spent $1 Million for some production from the 2nd base spot. Mark Ellis provided that at $400,000.

Where has the A's money management gone?