Why don't the A's win any more?

This thread may have been more premature than Heyward, Wieters, Andrus, etc Hall of Fame?

 

Back in the Charlie Finley days.

Last graf on this page: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1094953/index.htm

 

Lew Wolff is definitely a slow moving target but the real moneyman in the A's ownership is John Fisher.

 

Volumes could be written on the A's radio situaiton since moving from Kansas City:
They started off on KNBR, and even had Harry Caray for a year after getting the boot from the Cardinals.
Then they were on a bunch of smaller stations throughout the Bay area in their World Series years, like KEST, KEEN and KXRX. Some of them could even be heard at the Coliseum!
When the Haas family (Levi's and later, the Haas Pavilion at Cal) bought the team from Charlie O. Finley, they got a deal with KSFO, and paired Bill King (who should have been given the Frick award long ago) and Lon Simmons (who has the Frick). When KSFO went righty talk, it was back on the bicycle ... KNEW for a while, then KABL, and then the KFRC in its last days as a Top-40 AM station before being sold to Harold Camping (the guy who said the world was going to end last year). They were trying to buy a part of KTRB when it went bankrupt, but the judge shot them down and they ended up with their current situation on an FM station.

 

Lew Wolff's idol:

 

This thread deserves revisiting today.

In March, Billy Beane essentially raised the white flag. He had let go of his best hitter (Josh Willingham) and best pitcher (Gio) and closer (Andrew Bailey) without any attempt to replace any of them. They did sign Cespedes, but even with that it was kind of billed as they were getting him on the cheap (they were the only team willing to sign him for as low as four years). Their biggest off-season move was thought to be signing Manny Ramirez. Beane said in March:

"The fact is, we have a third-place team that I didn’t envision, with the money we had left, was going to be better than it was last year. It was going to be worse than it was. So I didn’t see any sense in sort of floating around and hoping to get to third place. Seemed like the obvious decision to make."

That's a preseason concession speech. And then they seemed to be fulfilling the prediction by going 26-35 out of the gate.

Since then they are 66-33 despite losing their two best pitchers, Colon and Brett Anderson, along the way. If you were to put together a 25-man American League All-Star team based on full-season stats, I think they'd get one pitcher on there in Jarrod Parker. Maybe Cespedes or Reddick would also make it, you could argue them but you could also argue for six other A.L. outfielders and be comfortable leaving them off.

This is truly Billy Beane's most amazing work. When the "Moneyball" era was going, he had MVPs and Cy Young contenders and All-Stars all over the roster, a fact that was largely overlooked in the book. But this ... he has done this with a bunch of guys that, other than Cespedes, would have been well within the Pirates' or Royals' or Marlins' budget to sign. They're that non-descript.

The only thing spoiling it is seeing fat fucker Lew Wolff with his shit-eating grin and his neener-neener about everyone writing that they were going to lose 100. I don't remember anyone writing that, but the predictions were unanimous that they were headed for last place BECAUSE THEY TOLD US THEY WERE TRYING FOR LAST PLACE.

It has indeed become Major League. The stands were rocking last night. And if they introduce Wolff at a playoff game, I bet he gets booed.

 

If they were trying for last place, they failed.

Losers.

 

Don't worry. It's the playoffs so the A's will choke. If they win on Friday, at least they can say the actually won a playoff "series."

 

They won a series in 2006 which is more than many teams can say.

 

I think the point of Beane's third place comment was they had a third place team last year that wasn't going to be better if he kept it intact (by keeping Gio, Cahill, Bailey).

He wasn't saying they were a third place team in 2012. He probably thought they were, as did everyone else, but that's not what he meant with that comment.

 

Hmmmm ... here was the whole quote, in the context of the San Jose stadium talk:

-Q: You’ve just gone through another turnover period. Is your roster stable for now?

-BEANE: Listen, it’s no fun. But we had to turn back the clock.

There’s two things, I think when we did it there was this perception that we had some sort of a nod and a wink that we knew where were going. That’s absolutely false.

That being said, if we do move into a new stadium, this was a process that we would’ve had to take anyway.

You only get to open a stadium once and the right way to do it is still the way the Cleveland Indians did it—a new stadium is no panacea for attendance and interest unless there’s a good team playing in it.

If in fact we do get a decision, it’s something we probably would’ve embarked on, anyway. And in our current situation, it was something we needed to do as well, given our payroll, where it was going.

The fact is, we have a third-place team that I didn’t envision, with the money we had left, was going to be better than it was last year. It was going to be worse than it was.

So I didn’t see any sense in sort of floating around and hoping to get to third place. Seemed like the obvious decision to make.


It sure sounds to me like they were planning to be the early '90s Indians -- who won 57, 76 and 76 games in the three years before the Jake -- and through 61 games everything was going according to plan. Then some freaky shit started.

Here's the whole interview. I don't think there's much doubt about the context and Billy's expecations.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2012/03/08/billy-beane-on-the-as-giants-escalation-cespedes-and-much-more/

 

Yeah, making the playoffs after a 162-game marathon is no accomplishment at all, especially for a team that lacks the resources of others.