2014 Oakland Athletics

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Apr 25, 2002
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I don't know why people get so upset with Billy Beane, he can only do so much with the payroll budget... It's not like he's turning down money from ownership or building up a surplus with unused money that he was allotted every season because he has something to prove.

There are maybe 2-3 GMs in the game that might (but probably wouldn't) be able to do as much as he has with as little as he's been given to work with... If you have a job shoveling shit and your boss makes you use a spoon because he's too cheap to buy a shovel, should you take the blame for being slow?

The last time something like this happened they traded Gio, Cahill and Bailey after winning 74 games in 2011 and won the division twice in a row with 93 & 96 wins in 2012 & 2013. I don't think he would have signed Butler for three years without some kind of plan, so try to hold off on assaulting Billy Beane until the 2015 All-Star Break because you may have changed your mind by then.

Or don't, I don't give a shit, if you fight him at least send it to Worldstar so I can watch.
 
Apr 25, 2002
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I'd wait to see who reports to Spring Training or what the Opening Day roster looks like before saying they're completely rebuilding... They wouldn't have signed Butler for three years if they were looking at next season or beyond.
 
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Jan 5, 2006
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A lot of A's fans talk shit, not all but A LOT of them do... about the Giants specifically. I like the A's and root for them when they don't play the Giants (Not a hardcore fan but the only AL team I give a shit about, the A's).

My question is... is money ball really working? They made a movie about it but to me it's not working. All it is, is a never-ending cycle of developing talent, trading it for more talent and so it keeps going.
 
Jan 29, 2005
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PHX
My question is... is money ball really working? They made a movie about it but to me it's not working. All it is, is a never-ending cycle of developing talent, trading it for more talent and so it keeps going.
Money ball isn't working at all and I don't think Lew Wolfe and John Fisher actually care.

The A's are abusing the fuck out of the MLB revenue sharing system. Keep operating costs as low as possible meanwhile get paid the same check a team with double the operating costs gets. The A's are at the bottom of the league with incoming revenue so they pay out a lot less in the revenue sharing pot and get a decent pay check back.

Add that with the extremely low pay roll and they get easy money.

It's been cool fielding some playoff teams with the system, but 15 years with 7 playoff appearances (I'm not counting that fucking wildcard game this past season) with zero pay off just shows this shit is stupid and they need to pay these players they develop. Instead we're gonna be forced to watch Josh Donaldson race for an MVP in Toronto while Lawrie sits on the IR. Even if Lawrie does play to his potential and not get injured, what happens in 2 or 3 years? He more than likely gets traded when it comes time to get paid lol
 
Apr 25, 2002
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A lot of A's fans talk shit, not all but A LOT of them do... about the Giants specifically. I like the A's and root for them when they don't play the Giants (Not a hardcore fan but the only AL team I give a shit about, the A's).

My question is... is money ball really working? They made a movie about it but to me it's not working. All it is, is a never-ending cycle of developing talent, trading it for more talent and so it keeps going.
Moneyball is just a book, it's not a philosophy.

The A's are stuck in a piece of shit stadium that they're sharing with a football team that ruined it and soured the city (who is broke now anyway) on supporting professional sports teams. San Jose would welcome them with open arms and allow them to thrive, but they gave the rights to the Giants when they wanted to leave San Francisco (which they no longer needed when they gave up on San Jose for Florida,) and they won't give them back because even after multiple championships they know that the majority of their fanbase is fleeting and they don't want to compete with another team in a nice stadium that can afford a high payroll.

No owner is going to come into Oakland and spend money on the payroll until they can build a new stadium. Between the Raiders, the city of Oakland, the Commissioner (now Commissioners) of Major League Baseball and the Giants, they're stuck without a means of building a new stadium, which means they're stuck with a low payroll.

Moneyball is just a book that an author wrote about the A's when he wanted to find out why they could win as many games as teams like the Yankees with a fraction of their payroll. Broadcasters and sportswriters with a limited understanding of the situation like catchy buzzwords so they throw it around a lot, but it's not some philosophy that the A's have been perpetuating for all these years because they feel like they have something to prove... They have one of the best GMs in baseball and he can win more games with less money more consistently than others because he's good at what he does. The reason that he doesn't have a lot of money to work with is because no business owner in their right mind would put money into that team while they're playing in that stadium. For the most part it's been a never-ending cycle of developing talent because they've been stuck in a never-ending search for a solution to the stadium situation.
 
Apr 25, 2002
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Unless they're planning to deal him at the end of the trade deadline
I can't imagine that there's going to be a team that needs a DH with no power that only hits lefties well to make the playoffs, let alone a team that needs one so badly that they're willing to risk being stuck with him for an additional two years.
 
Props: BUTCHER 206