Oakland Athletics thread

Its really a shame that the A's business model is what it is. But a friend put it to me this way, and as unfortunate as it is, it makes a ton of sense.

He is a die hard A's fan, and he basically said he approaches his team the same way people approach a college football team. Enjoy the great players you have for 3-4 years, and get a new crop of players in after that.

Thought it was an interesting way to look at his team. Makes a lot of sense too.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:
Its really a shame that the A's business model is what it is. But a friend put it to me this way, and as unfortunate as it is, it makes a ton of sense.

He is a die hard A's fan, and he basically said he approaches his team the same way people approach a college football team. Enjoy the great players you have for 3-4 years, and get a new crop of players in after that.

Thought it was an interesting way to look at his team. Makes a lot of sense too.

I think it makes sense only in the context of a GM who also happens to be a minority owner with a vested interest in always trading away good players just before they hit their prime. The fact is the A's DO have money to spend...while they do play in a s***hole ball park, thanks to revenue-sharing they are comfortably profitable and have an owner (Fisher) who is one of the richest owners in baseball.

I'll say it again, Billy Beane has done wonders with consistently fielding competitive teams on a limited payroll, but those limits are for the most part self-imposed. No they can't outspend teams like the BoSox and Dodgers, but they easily could afford to once in a while lock up a couple of their young stars. So yeah they're usually a nice story of the scrappy underdog, but the constant re-shuffle doesn't lend itself to postseason success.

Originally posted by DelCed2486:

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:
Its really a shame that the A's business model is what it is. But a friend put it to me this way, and as unfortunate as it is, it makes a ton of sense.

He is a die hard A's fan, and he basically said he approaches his team the same way people approach a college football team. Enjoy the great players you have for 3-4 years, and get a new crop of players in after that.

Thought it was an interesting way to look at his team. Makes a lot of sense too.

I think it makes sense only in the context of a GM who also happens to be a minority owner with a vested interest in always trading away good players just before they hit their prime. The fact is the A's DO have money to spend...while they do play in a s***hole ball park, thanks to revenue-sharing they are comfortably profitable and have an owner (Fisher) who is one of the richest owners in baseball.

I'll say it again, Billy Beane has done wonders with consistently fielding competitive teams on a limited payroll, but those limits are for the most part self-imposed. No they can't outspend teams like the BoSox and Dodgers, but they easily could afford to once in a while lock up a couple of their young stars. So yeah they're usually a nice story of the scrappy underdog, but the constant re-shuffle doesn't lend itself to postseason success.

Yeah, that's what irritates me. Lew Wolf built the Earthquakes a stadium with straight cash homey, yet we can't lock up any stars to a fair market rate deal.

Jesus I thought our bullpen was supposed to be good. Its been one gas can after another so far.

Originally posted by DelCed2486:

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:
Its really a shame that the A's business model is what it is. But a friend put it to me this way, and as unfortunate as it is, it makes a ton of sense.

He is a die hard A's fan, and he basically said he approaches his team the same way people approach a college football team. Enjoy the great players you have for 3-4 years, and get a new crop of players in after that.

Thought it was an interesting way to look at his team. Makes a lot of sense too.

I think it makes sense only in the context of a GM who also happens to be a minority owner with a vested interest in always trading away good players just before they hit their prime. The fact is the A's DO have money to spend...while they do play in a s***hole ball park, thanks to revenue-sharing they are comfortably profitable and have an owner (Fisher) who is one of the richest owners in baseball.

I'll say it again, Billy Beane has done wonders with consistently fielding competitive teams on a limited payroll, but those limits are for the most part self-imposed. No they can't outspend teams like the BoSox and Dodgers, but they easily could afford to once in a while lock up a couple of their young stars. So yeah they're usually a nice story of the scrappy underdog, but the constant re-shuffle doesn't lend itself to postseason success.

Oh I agree with you that the A's could certainly spend more money to keep some of their players, but the way they operate is to not. I am not saying that they aren't physically able to. They choose not to. And that is their business model.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:
Oh I agree with you that the A's could certainly spend more money to keep some of their players, but the way they operate is to not. I am not saying that they aren't physically able to. They choose not to. And that is their business model.

And that's what is irritating lol. I hate it when billionaire owners treat a sports franchise as an expense sheet and not as a rich person hobby, if ya know what I mean.

Bullpen just sucks, A's haven't won a day game yet, don't even think they've won 2 straight at any point, and once again failed to win the rubber game of a series. My gut-feel of an 85-88 win team might have been a tad optimistic...if the bullpen continues to falter, this team will not finish above .500.

A month in and I just can't get into this team...they're bland to me, don't have the same feel of those 2012-thru-July 31, 2014 teams. I know I need to get over it but for me Beane just sucked the life out of this team. Of course a nice winning streak will help that but I'm not holding my breath.

Sonny got us a daytime W yesterday. Even on a bad day, he's shuffling his pitches pretty nicely. Velocity has been up this season, which makes him even more unhittable.

We f**king suck. I wish Sonny could pitch everyday.

Originally posted by socalfan21:
We f**king suck. I wish Sonny could pitch everyday.

The A's have hit and scored more than I thought they would, but the bullpen which has been a strength the past few years is frickin HORRIBLE...and outside Gray and to a lesser extent Kazmir, the starting pitching hasn't been real good, either.

Barring some miracle turnaround, this team will be in fire sale mode by the ASB...at the very least I'd expect Kazmir and Reddick to be dealt, and I would not be surprised at all if Beane also traded Vogt and Gray. Yes, Sonny Gray...I think he's arb-eligible in 2017 and with how he's pitching right now his value to other teams will be sky-high, so yes I could easily see Beane leveraging that. Sounds crazy but we are talking about the GM who never wants to pay anyone and who traded his cleanup hitter with 2 months to go in the middle of a penant-race.

Originally posted by socalfan21:
We f**king suck. I wish Sonny could pitch everyday.

He's becoming a star, which means he'll probably be traded soon.

The offense has been really good. The pitching - bullpen in particular - has disappointed.

A's fans. Y u no post in thread?

Originally posted by pdizo916:
A's fans. Y u no post in thread?

For me there's not much point to it...as I've said before, on July 31 last year and then in the offseason, Billy Beane gutted the team and my enthusiasm. And there's not much to say about the team right now other than they suck donkey ba**s.