HEY! Major League Baseball General Managers! It's me, CRAZY BILLY, and boy am I talking to you! Did your team come up just short last season? Do your fans demand you pick up at least one big-name free agent this offseason? Just trying to shut up those sports-talk jerks in your market? Well, forget your problems, and get on down to Crazy Billy's Baseball Talent Clearance Center, 700 Coliseum Way in Oakland, TODAY! We've still got Cy Young winning pitchers, Gold Glove infielders, exciting young outfield talent, ex-rookies of the year galore...and ALL of it's gotta go! Hell, we've got a brand new stud catcher who's second guessing coming here...and for him, we'll take a rosin bag and an A-ball middle reliever with an ERA around 4.00! Why? We're NUTS!!!! No offer too crazy! We'll take nobodies for proven studs! We'll take the rights to unborn players if you'll take some salary off our hands! Everything must go! Now! Now! Now! That's me, Crazy Billy! ...And when you're in sunny Southern California, don't forget to visit our sister location, Insane Paul's Baseball Talent Clearance Center, at our convenient Chavez Ravine location! What are you waiting for? Let us improve YOUR team today!!!!! ************* ARGGGH! Sorry, guys, had to do it. I can't think of anything else to say after yesterday's Mulder trade other than words that gag the profanity censor. (Beane, in the paper two weeks ago: "Mulder is untouchable.") Now, I've figured either Chavez or Zito is next...and Kendall's probably second-guessing things, too. Guess he shouldn't have been so excited about getting to catch the "Big Three," but then again Beane didn't say "which three."
You forgot that Insane Paul's gives a significant discount if you're shopping from the same division!
A bit bizarre, him trading two of them, but it makes some sense to me. I mean, one had to go. So why not send Hudson to his local team. And I know you didn't get robbed for Huddy, Cruz and Meyer are very good young arms and Thomas is a A's-type player. As for Mulder...well. I assume the prospects are high-quality. I think Harden will step up, at least, he was untouchable when it mattered down the stretch last season. Anyway, we'll see what happens. And hey, thanks for Hudson!
I don't know. I certainly haven't ripped on Sabean much, especially in comparison to Beane. But Beane's certainly had better luck with his "risky" moves (and non-signings) than Sabean, at least recently. Examples: Sabean Puts together a team that reaches, and nearly wins, a World Series in '02. Then: 1. Trades Russ Ortiz for Damian Moss, and nobody really steps up to replace Ortiz as a strong #2 starter behind Schmidt. Moss doesn't even last a season in SF before he's traded for Sidney Ponson, who pitches okay in SF but doesn't get any run support, then returns to his old team in the offseason as a FA. 2. Doesn't re-sign David Bell, who wanted to stay. The Feliz/Fonzie experiment at 3rd fails to really pan out. 3. Doesn't re-sign Reggie Sanders, who was a huge contributor in '02, especially in the clubhouse. Sabean almost makes up for it by signing Jose Cruz Jr., who wins a Gold Glove in RF in his only year in SF, but Cruz is made to pay for his costly playoff error. Then the G's blow it with the Tucker/Mohr RF combination, which left something to be desired. 4. Trades Joe Nathan to Minny for A.J. Pierczynski. Nathan becomes an all-star closer, and Pierczynski is a defensive liability and allegedly a cancer in the G's clubhouse. Then he waives Pierczynski to sign Mike Matheny (good move, but it means SF got zilch for an up-and-coming all-star caliber pitcher). 5. Should I mention not re-signing Tim Worrell, and how that worked out? Beane Meanwhile, Billy continues to piss off A's fans, but gets really lucky: 1. Makes no effort to re-sign Jason Giambi, but replaces him at 1B with converted catcher Scott Hatteberg, who does just fine. Especially after new DH Erubiel Durazo picks up for the missing power. 2. Makes no effort to re-sign Ray Durham, but gets a solid replacement out of his own farm system in Mark Ellis. When Ellis goes on the IR for the entire '04 season, Beane gets lucky again with a more than serviceable performance from Marco Scutaro and Mark McLemore. 3. Makes nothing more than a trivial effort to re-sign Miguel Tejada, but gets the AL Rookie of the Year in his replacement, Bobby Crosby. 4. Beane gets rid of very good closers after '01, '02 and '03, and only gets burned by it in part of '04. Jason Isringhausen gets replaced by Billy Koch who gets replaced by Keith Foulke. For the first 2/3 of '04, the A's had no closer, because Arthur Rhodes couldn't deal. But Beane traded for Octavio Dotel, who's scary but usually got the job done. Now, Sabean has also done a lot of good (and also gotten lucky, like with Santiago), and Beane has done some questionable things. It remains to be seen if Beane will get burned by trading away two huge fan favorites and great pitchers in Mulder and Hudson, but given his luck, don't be surprised if at least two of the six players the A's got in trade turn out to be really good. Face it, the A's never won it all with all the good players Beane's traded away or not re-signed. But if he gets burned on these Mulder and Hudson trades, yes, I would expect many Bay Area baseball fans to call for his head. Wasn't really complaining, just having a bit of fun with it. I posted in the hot stove thread that I think the guys we got from the Braves sound pretty good on paper, and later I really liked what I read about Meyer, who sounds like a dominating lefty. Cruz sucked in Chicago but was better in the ATL. The reason I question Thomas' inclusion, as I stated in that thread, is that the A's already have two pretty solid veteran backup outfielders in Bobby Kielty and Billy McMillon, unless Beane moves one of them. The local media also says Eric Byrnes is on the trading block, so if he goes and it's not for another OF, Thomas may get some significant playing time. Then again, perhaps Thomas will simply beat out Nick Swisher for the starting RF job in spring training...who knows?
These trades were all about Steve Schott trying to save some cash, not any stupidity on Beane's part. There's some baseball logic to trading Hudson, but trading Mulder with two years left on his contract was all about saving money. Beane is an employee, and he'll be judged on how well the new players turn out.
Agreed. But if we A's fans can't have a laugh at this, we'll go nuts. It never sucks to get six players for two, because one or two will likely (hopefully) become keepers. Hard for fans to deal with losing two of the public faces of their franchise in one offseason. Imagine, for instance, if the Earthquakes lost Donovan and Agoos in one offseason.
I did get the joke, I just hadn't read Hot Stove Cruz did well under Mazzone's tutelage (though really, few don't). Whether he'll remember what he learned or revert reamins to be seen, we tend to see guys go both ways when they leave Atlanta. As for Thomas, given he's a speedy contact hitter and fantastic defensive outfielder, I think he'd challenge your regulars for an everday job or help out with a strong platoon. Or maybe he'll be available for trade. I did hate to see him go...
The Mulder trade was an excellent move on Beane's part. Haren can become a #1 or 2 starter, Kalero will become a lights-out setup guy/closer, and Barton is the best catching prospect in baseball.
Losing Barton was the part of the Mulder deal I liked least. He actually is a below average catcher, but an amazing power hitter. When he makes the bigs, i would be suprised if he was still behind the plate instead of at first/outfield.
Cool. I know he throws smoke. He's listed as #3 going into next season (behind Zito and Harden). Hopefully... One of them, for sure, and our sportswriters said he was the Cards' top prospect and the key to the deal. If this guy rises quickly, and the A's still have Jason Kendall, look for them to do what Dave Brull suggested, and move Barton to a different position. So, in two trades, the A's got top prospects from two teams...Barton and Dan Meyer (from ATL). Hopefully they'll pan out. Fortunately for the A's, they also have the best minor league organization in baseball (won AAA and A titles in '04), and they're loaded with trade bait and potential new stars. The A's top minor league pitcher (and another of the top pitching prospects in MLB), Huston Street, will also be given a chance to make the team in spring.
Erm.......lucky? Sorry, but the above moves fit Beane's MO perfectly. Accumulate draft picks by letting older veterans leave, as they're overpriced, draft lots of young college pitchers high. Its not like Foulke or Koch were lucky - he traded for them. (Foulke, meanwhile - is there a worse GM than Ken Williams?) Crosby, for example, has been in the pipeline for years, and really didn't have a great season, especially not by Beane's standards. No one else in the AL had a good rookie season either, is all. Beane is doing exactly what he usually does. As for not making an effort to resign Giambi - they offered him over $10 mil a year.
Beane just seemed to be taking advantage of something that's been a fact of baseball for almost two decades now--college players are almost always better bets than their high school counterparts. Get them into the majors quickly with their fairly high levels of experience, watch them blossom, then either trade them for guys at the end of their contracts, or let them move on and pounce on the compensatory draft picks (provided they are a type A or B FA, of course). Never seemed like rocket science to me. I don't know, maybe Beane just had a much higher confidence in college guys than other GM's did. Not being an A's fan, I'm also unsure as to whether or not Beane utilizes the Rule 5 draft very much.