TheLounge
01-09-2008, 01:54 PM
Everyone says Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager, has a plan when it comes to trading away the team’s best talent. I counter with this: Beane is so addicted to making moves, he won’t know when to stop.
On the surface, the trading of their top pitcher, Dan Haren, and one of their best every-day players in Nick Swisher for a ton of minor leaguers with gobs of potential is a good one. The A’s won’t contend in 2008 or the following year, but maybe 2010. I have a feeling the A’s will never get to a championship the way Beane is running things.
Let’s look at his M.O.: Develop players and then trade them for prospects again. The A’s never keep a team together long enough to see if it might develop into something special. How do you know if today’s team will blossom into something more if you don’t give the current players the chance to nurture and grow?
Here’s what I see happening. The players Beane drafted for will be in the big leagues sooner than later. They’ll develop into one of those teams that becomes a darkhorse darling one year and when they come up short in the playoffs, Beane will blow it once again.
It’s hard to fault what Beane has done. If anything, he’s shown to be a world-class evaluator of talent. Unfortunately, the A’s never hang onto their players long enough to see what might happen. And before you go with the argument, “Well, the A’s have won four World Series since moving to Oakland. How many do the Giants have?” I’ll counter with this: How many championships have the A’s with Beane running the team? That’s an easy answer: Zero. Here’s a little tougher one: How many American League Championship Series have the A’s been in during Beane’s tenure? One.
***
Anyone else believe Roger Clemens? Me neither. He can do all the softball interviews, deny until the cows come home, but until he proves to me he DIDN’T do it, he’s presumed guilty as far as I’m concerned.
Let’s look at his statements. First, he said his former personal trainer never injected him with anything. Then it was, well he did give me injections but they were pain killers and vitamin B. (Just as a side note: What’s up with injections of vitamins? Don’t these baseball players know they come in pill form?). While talking with “60 Minutes” he admits he was shot up with another drug. Where does it stop? Before, he said he was never injected with anything. Now we’re up to three different substances?
Let’s look at the facts: He was near the end of his career when he first latched on with the Toronto Blue Jays in the late 1990s. It also happens to be the same time he first hooked up with Brian McNamee, the trainer who identified Clemens in the Mitchell steroid report. Is it just coincidence that since that time, Clemens transformed from a great player into a legend?
You know what Clemens’ next press conference will be: I never KNOWINGLY took performance enhancing drugs.
***
I wonder how the University of San Francisco men’s basketball team is enjoying it’s new head coach? All Eddie Sutton has done since taking over the program is bad mouth the players, badmouth former coach Jessie Evans and tell anybody who will listen that he’s gone at the end of the season.
Class act. Everything he’s saying about the USF program may be true. Maybe he should have done some research before jumping in with both feet.
Sutton taking over the Dons’ program had to be one of biggest shocks the Bay Area sports scene has experienced in a while. Here’s a man who has coached at Kentucky and Oklahoma State, among others schools, and amassed 798 wins. He was forced to step down at Oklahoma State after being arrested for DUI and admitting a drinking problem. He was going to go to his grave two games short of the magical 800-win number.
But out of the blue, the USF athletic director gives Sutton a call and within days is named the new coach. Instead of being grateful for the opportunity, Sutton has behaved like a cranky, old man who bitches and moans about everything.
Make up your mind Eddie: Are two wins really that important to your self worth or should you have just stayed on your couch at home?
On the surface, the trading of their top pitcher, Dan Haren, and one of their best every-day players in Nick Swisher for a ton of minor leaguers with gobs of potential is a good one. The A’s won’t contend in 2008 or the following year, but maybe 2010. I have a feeling the A’s will never get to a championship the way Beane is running things.
Let’s look at his M.O.: Develop players and then trade them for prospects again. The A’s never keep a team together long enough to see if it might develop into something special. How do you know if today’s team will blossom into something more if you don’t give the current players the chance to nurture and grow?
Here’s what I see happening. The players Beane drafted for will be in the big leagues sooner than later. They’ll develop into one of those teams that becomes a darkhorse darling one year and when they come up short in the playoffs, Beane will blow it once again.
It’s hard to fault what Beane has done. If anything, he’s shown to be a world-class evaluator of talent. Unfortunately, the A’s never hang onto their players long enough to see what might happen. And before you go with the argument, “Well, the A’s have won four World Series since moving to Oakland. How many do the Giants have?” I’ll counter with this: How many championships have the A’s with Beane running the team? That’s an easy answer: Zero. Here’s a little tougher one: How many American League Championship Series have the A’s been in during Beane’s tenure? One.
***
Anyone else believe Roger Clemens? Me neither. He can do all the softball interviews, deny until the cows come home, but until he proves to me he DIDN’T do it, he’s presumed guilty as far as I’m concerned.
Let’s look at his statements. First, he said his former personal trainer never injected him with anything. Then it was, well he did give me injections but they were pain killers and vitamin B. (Just as a side note: What’s up with injections of vitamins? Don’t these baseball players know they come in pill form?). While talking with “60 Minutes” he admits he was shot up with another drug. Where does it stop? Before, he said he was never injected with anything. Now we’re up to three different substances?
Let’s look at the facts: He was near the end of his career when he first latched on with the Toronto Blue Jays in the late 1990s. It also happens to be the same time he first hooked up with Brian McNamee, the trainer who identified Clemens in the Mitchell steroid report. Is it just coincidence that since that time, Clemens transformed from a great player into a legend?
You know what Clemens’ next press conference will be: I never KNOWINGLY took performance enhancing drugs.
***
I wonder how the University of San Francisco men’s basketball team is enjoying it’s new head coach? All Eddie Sutton has done since taking over the program is bad mouth the players, badmouth former coach Jessie Evans and tell anybody who will listen that he’s gone at the end of the season.
Class act. Everything he’s saying about the USF program may be true. Maybe he should have done some research before jumping in with both feet.
Sutton taking over the Dons’ program had to be one of biggest shocks the Bay Area sports scene has experienced in a while. Here’s a man who has coached at Kentucky and Oklahoma State, among others schools, and amassed 798 wins. He was forced to step down at Oklahoma State after being arrested for DUI and admitting a drinking problem. He was going to go to his grave two games short of the magical 800-win number.
But out of the blue, the USF athletic director gives Sutton a call and within days is named the new coach. Instead of being grateful for the opportunity, Sutton has behaved like a cranky, old man who bitches and moans about everything.
Make up your mind Eddie: Are two wins really that important to your self worth or should you have just stayed on your couch at home?