Wednesday, May 31, 2006
BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE
VALIDATION STATION
- CAKE, Nugget
Nate Silver comes to the rescue with a review of the, as he states, "Oakland Elephants".
Silver essentially puts in graphical terms what has been said for some time; the A's are not watertight, airtight or even loosely packed in the overhead bin. Even as A's fans profess that all of the A's are MVP candidates, only Frank Thomas, Barry Zito and Jason Kendall have even been selected to an All Star team. Only Zito has an outside chance at one in the next few seasons. Not that All Star Games mean a damn thing.
Back to Nate Silver's article. I don't want to cull too much and rip off Silver or BP so I'll try to keep matters thin and get through some of the main points.
Silver systematically goes through the A's, surgically displacing myth with pathos.
Silver levels the Bobby Crosby expectations."He's a good player, but he’s not the second cheap superstar that a team like the A’s may require."
He lowers the boom on the late Eric Byrnes parade - now Nick Swisher party."I am hedging just a little bit with Swisher because the bar is set pretty high for a slow corner outfielder...I think he settles in as a .255/.375/.550 guy and a perennial stathead favorite."
The effects of the A's (by my estimation, purposely) driving down attendance."Being the second team in a two-team market is precarious if you aren’t playing well enough to pull in the requisite walk-up sales."
Silver also touches on the questionable pitching decisions, the empty cupboard in the minor leagues and Daric Barton's lack of progress. Several players have outperformed Barton at the plate in Sacramento this season; Doug Clark, Matt Watson, Jeremy Brown, Charles Thomas. The A's were once rich with pitching talent and are now embarrassingly thin. Why oh, why is Kirk Saarloos starting and Chad Gaudin held in reserve.
Another topic Silver lists with a graph, but not text - Ken Macha is average/fringe.
Silver touches on some names; Piazza, Willis, Hudson. With Hudson, I think the A's should really consider packaging Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas with someone like Cliff Pennington off to Atlanta for Hudson and Brian McCann or Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Call it a bundled rebate.
Silver doesn't want to paint a bleak picture, but it's hard not to with all the variables the A's have stacked against themselves.
To be blunt, here's Silver's analysis:"...And there is just too much chance that a poor season risks testing the patience of Beane and the fanbase...All of these factors call for a more aggressive approach in Oakland."
Maybe I am stretching and overreaching. But what I read is, the A's have been making some pretty bad decisions the last few years and Billy Beane's been lazy.
Again, maybe I am stretching it. But I don’t think so. I think there is more than enough to shatter the legend of Billy Beane and start picking up stones to throw. As an owner and General Manager, he bares an overwhelmingly huge responsibility for delivering.
The days where Beane could cover up his free agent tracks with trades are over. Now it’s all about the work. Quite frankly, it hasn’t been getting done. Drafts have been bare and picks have been pruned. The A’s are in for a world of hurt before the decade is out unless something happens in the next 9 months. In March 2007, the A’s will be in their 10th season under Billy Beane’s control.
The tarnish is showing and the apathy is growing thick. As much as most like, admire and respect Beane and the A’s limited accomplishments, there are those growing wary, those who loathe, and those with venomous bile raging in their mouths. Two expansion franchises, the Angels, the Red Sox, the White Sox and the Yankees have won World Series in the last eight seasons.
The A’s are still on the outside, wondering why they haven’t been given a championship, yet.
posted by ZACHARY D MANPRIN at 4:46 PM
The Forum is open and available to all - registration is required to post, but not to read.
GAME 54 ELARTON vs BLANTON
posted by ZACHARY D MANPRIN at 12:06 PM
The Forum is open and available to all - registration is required to post, but not to read.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE
GAME 53 BAUTISTA vs HALSEY
>< PITCHING>< ATHLETICS
posted by ZACHARY D MANPRIN at 5:31 PM
The Forum is open and available to all - registration is required to post, but not to read.
WHOA THERE, NOW
- Elvis Costello, The Other Side of Summer
I wasn't sure how to reference this post, either with Howard Zinn's You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train or actually showing the diagrams for jumping from a moving train.
So I will do neither.
Where is all of this animosity and apathy going to get you? You know Ken Macha's history. You know the fortitude of the front office. Why allow them to dictate your feelings?
A few wins might not cure all ills, either. But it's a start.
When are they going to come? Pray for rain all you want, it won't make it come any sooner.
The last week or so has been quite an embarrassment. The A's were spared quite a scene as John Rheinecker's start for the Texas Rangers was pushed from Sunday to Monday, thus allowing the A's to slink out of town.
Rheinecker's Line:
Let's see, the A's trade away Freddie Bynum and John Rheinecker and get Juan Dominguez. The Rangers trade Bynum to the Cubs and get John Koronka. So, the Rangers got 2/5 of their starting rotation and the A's got another Juan Cruz without the strikeouts.
Something that swirled around in my brain during the Texas series was the number of home grown players that are on the Rangers' roster. Their entire infield; Teixeira, Kinsler, Young, Blalock and 2/3 of their outfield, Mench, Botts are all from within the organization. Their trifles with Alex Rodriguez still netted Alfonso Soriano and he got Brad Wilkerson in return. Where the Rangers are hurting is pitching. But three or four pitchers versus six position players - a few who could be MVP's, makes it seem like the A's minor league system is stuck in neutral.
But let's get back to the issue at hand; the Oakland A's.
The A's are losing baseball games because they aren't scoring enough runs. Bitch and moan all you want about injuries to the pitching staff, but the fact is the staff has pitched well. It hasn't been managed well, Ken Macha manages the bullpen like he manages his sock and underwear drawers, but the A's have pitched better than they or the media would have you believe.