me and my beef with the Oakland A's

[Joe shmoe]

ok im writing this cause daniel called me out about how i always bash the yanks aand dont write about the goodness of the A's. so for one thing i bash the yanks cause its like stealing candy from a baby; fun, easy and aalways sweet. anyway back to the piont of the A's these are my problems.

1) they let every star they have go .... Gaimbi, Tedaja, Hudson, Mulder, Izzy, Foulke, Dye etc. while some of these they were right to let go most they shoulda held on to most of them. ok while i understand not resigning dye as he was expensive and injured. but there is no reason not to resign tejada as he is one of the best ss in the game who was content to stay in oakland for 6-7 mil a year. while some say gaimbi wanted the big town spotlight of ny he "said" he loved being an A's and all he wanted was 8 or 9 mil a year and a no trade clause. Hudson is great while we now have too many pitchers he was aa good fit for oakland. he pitches hard and low to get the ground outs that beane loves. same thing with mulder expect not as great. also damon i know public opion of him is low but he is a great player minus the arm. he is a great leadoff man with power and speed. he just shouldnt be playing cf as his lack of an arm is too big of a liability there.


2) they run their baseball teaam like a bussiness to make money instead of a baseball team. what i mean by this is they dont spend the money on home-grown talent hoping that in 2 yrs a prospect will be able to loosely fill the shoes. and then in another year or two they let him go and bring up another prospect. endless cycle. if you arent willing to spend the money to keep homegrown talent then why even try. hometown talent is cheaper than imported talent.

3) they have lied to their fans. what i mean by this is they have convinced every A's fan that they are a low bugdet team with no money and not enough fan base to maake money. thats a damn lie. the A's have had 2+ mil fans every year for the past 6 to 8. which is right around the end of the top 1/3 in the mlb. yes i know their tix are cheaper than most but still. also they dont have to pay/ paid rent (they didnt i dont know if they aare still there rent free) when the raiders came back they butchered the coliseum to what it is now. so to keep the A's happy they said ok no rent for a cool bit. so now we have a good fan base, no rent, and a low budget team. WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THE DAMN MONEY GO???

4) also i dont see the A's winning the world series this year. so i imagine that means they wont resign zito a huge mistake. and then next year when they dont win the world series they wont resign chavez (i think its his year then) they only further lose chances of winning the world series. they have to realize that unless they shell out a shit load of money they wont win the world series so they have to keep doing what they are doing only resign their superstars instead of spreading around the major leagues. right now if they had one more good bat like one of the stars they let go they would be a world championship team.

so i guess thats one of the reasons i hate the yanks if oakland would spend half the cash the yanks do then they would be unstopalbe

[Southpaw Slim]

Richard, that's very well stated. All the points you've made reflect my feelings toward the A's organization. However, there's another I'd like to add. Billy Beane doesn't believe in the word "clutch." It isn't like it doesn't exist, because it's a personality trait. It a sabermetric statistic could measure confidence in key situations, I'm sure he'd change his tune.

[TheLegend]

1) they let every star they have go .... Gaimbi, Tedaja, Hudson, Mulder, Izzy, Foulke, Dye etc. while some of these they were right to let go most they shoulda held on to most of them. ok while i understand not resigning dye as he was expensive and injured. but there is no reason not to resign tejada as he is one of the best ss in the game who was content to stay in oakland for 6-7 mil a year. while some say gaimbi wanted the big town spotlight of ny he "said" he loved being an A's and all he wanted was 8 or 9 mil a year and a no trade clause. Hudson is great while we now have too many pitchers he was aa good fit for oakland. he pitches hard and low to get the ground outs that beane loves. same thing with mulder expect not as great. also damon i know public opion of him is low but he is a great player minus the arm. he is a great leadoff man with power and speed. he just shouldnt be playing cf as his lack of an arm is too big of a liability there.

We aren't willing to pay out of the ass to keep superstars around because we have the best farm system in baseball. We have a rookie of the year candidate (or 2... or 3!) every year and (whether or not it's true) the guys in charge think we can be competative without doing much shopping around.

2) they run their baseball teaam like a bussiness to make money instead of a baseball team. what i mean by this is they dont spend the money on home-grown talent hoping that in 2 yrs a prospect will be able to loosely fill the shoes. and then in another year or two they let him go and bring up another prospect. endless cycle. if you arent willing to spend the money to keep homegrown talent then why even try. hometown talent is cheaper than imported talent.

I'm confused... Are you arguing that a baseball team isn't a business?

3) they have lied to their fans. what i mean by this is they have convinced every A's fan that they are a low bugdet team with no money and not enough fan base to maake money. thats a damn lie. the A's have had 2+ mil fans every year for the past 6 to 8. which is right around the end of the top 1/3 in the mlb. yes i know their tix are cheaper than most but still. also they dont have to pay/ paid rent (they didnt i dont know if they aare still there rent free) when the raiders came back they butchered the coliseum to what it is now. so to keep the A's happy they said ok no rent for a cool bit. so now we have a good fan base, no rent, and a low budget team. WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THE DAMN MONEY GO???

A's ticket prices are dirt cheap. dirt. cheap. I bet we have less revenue than any other competative team and just one or two superstars cal really eat away at it. Besides... we're winning... we just need to get over the hump! I think this years lineup is going to be one of the best in baseball.

4) also i dont see the A's winning the world series this year. so i imagine that means they wont resign zito a huge mistake. and then next year when they dont win the world series they wont resign chavez (i think its his year then) they only further lose chances of winning the world series. they have to realize that unless they shell out a shit load of money they wont win the world series so they have to keep doing what they are doing only resign their superstars instead of spreading around the major leagues. right now if they had one more good bat like one of the stars they let go they would be a world championship team.

so i guess thats one of the reasons i hate the yanks if oakland would spend half the cash the yanks do then they would be unstopalbe

I think Oakland has a very strong team this year. If they manage to stay healthy and they got hot at the right time this could be their year. They have a 1-9 lineup and a pitching staff that rivals the best in the league. If we had a (1 or 2) pure powerhitters, I would argue that we were the best team in baseball.

[onion]

I think this years lineup is going to be one of the best in baseball.

lay off the rock dude. this lineup may be one of the best oakland's had in a while, and it may be good enough, but one of the best? i doubt it's top ten. well, maybe ninth or tenth.

If we had a (1 or 2) pure powerhitters, I would argue that we were the best team in baseball.

that could very well be true, but you don't, and you won't. yeah, throw manny and ortiz in that lineup and you have a monster, but you could say that about most lineups out there. there are good 1-9 hitters on the club, but the middle is a real weakness. there's not one guy on the team who should be hitting third or fourth right now. the guys they have aren't bad, but no one there is likely to perform to that standard. i feel the same way 'bout the o's, except i'm comfortable with tejada in one of those spots. if there was a, say, delgado batting fourth, it would be a really good lineup 1-9. there isn't. instead it's a nice top of the order, a nice bottom of the order, and a big ol' hole in the middle. i don't think you can win without a real threat in the middle. i guess oakland at least has the possibility of that threat emerging, with thomas or bradley, but that's certainly not a garentee. you should still be excited, 'cause oakland's gonna field a damn good team, but i'd still say that the offensive is just adequate, not a weakness, but not really a strength.

[retep]

Richard, that's very well stated. All the points you've made reflect my feelings toward the A's organization. However, there's another I'd like to add. Billy Beane doesn't believe in the word "clutch." It isn't like it doesn't exist, because it's a personality trait. It a sabermetric statistic could measure confidence in key situations, I'm sure he'd change his tune.

I agree. As I have said before, while a Giants fan, I root for the A's, and hope they do so well. Likewise, I get worried when I see the above issues come into play.

[Joe shmoe]

ken what i saying is you decide to buy a major league club to make money. most dont the yanks, barves do becuase they haave their own network. and the yanks maake extra money on merchindice as wearing a yankee hat is cool. but rich people own baseball teams cause they have too much money and time on their hands, and sometimes they love baseball. for example george w. bush used to own (or was in charge of) the texas rangers. why cuase he couldn't hold down a real job to save his life and his family is filthy rich so it gaves him something to do and showed he has responsiblity.

[/quote]

[TheLegend]

most dont

I doubt this very strongly... research pending...

[retep]

most dont

I doubt this very strongly... research pending...

Ever wonder why they have som many community programs? Tax deduction! Most teams on paper make very little money, but no one would bother buying a 300 million expansion club if it wasn't worth it. Many owners use their teams to promote their maine buisness, for example.

[Southpaw Slim]

Yeah, with the grossly oversized Yankee clubhouse payroll (not to mention the front office and merchandising payroll) the YES Network can't produce enough money to make up for it. After last year, it was shown that the Yankees organization is losing money. Mid-sized markets like Oakland and the upper-Midwest clubs are the ones who make money. They can afford to run a ballteam that doesn't win because they have the excuse,"Oh, we can't afford a good enough team to win. Blame the owners." Meanwhile, the fans hate the owners, but love the team. They still show up to games to support the team, while their money supports the organization.