Originally posted by captveg:
I actually like the Shark trade quite a bit. Could be some solid contributors down the road.
I think Beane just did not like the bad vibes from the 2nd half last season. At all. Can't really blame him for that, honestly. I wanted this thing burned down and rebuilt, personally. I would have liked to keep Donaldson and Moss, but the former had become a bit of a hothead, and the latter, while being a top notch classy guy all around, has a major injury concern.
Hopefully the team can replace some of the power drained off the roster in the coming weeks, and gain some speed. 2015 as a semi-rebuild year (competitive but not playoff bound) is OK with me. He went for it all and it blew up in his face. Tough to keep a lot of that same team around when the funk got so bad.
If Beane didn't like the bad vibes in the 2nd half he's got one person to blame for that. And great, maybe solid contributors down the road...for a season or two until they're arbitration-eligible and then "Billy Boy" ships them out.
On the one hand I know that under Beane the A's have been competitive more years than not, and he does make some shrewd moves...but on the other, just as they get a nucleus they can build around he busts it up under the guise of "can't afford it", which is total BS. No I don't expect the A's to spend like the Dodgers, BoSox, Yankees, etc. but they could rather easily afford to lock up a couple guys here and there. IMO it's just a huge conflict of interest that Beane, with an ownership stake, has a vested financial interest in constantly crying poor and rarely keeping some of the younger guys as they enter their prime.
