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A's trade their stars, and the Beanophiles rejoice


Published: Monday, July 21, 2008 at 10:36 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, July 21, 2008 at 10:49 a.m.

This is my first day back from vacation and while I was gone Billy Beane dismantled the A’s pitching staff and yanked his team out of contention, and — this absolutely kills me — everyone is praising the guy.

I don’t just mean the average fan. I mean sportswriters are praising him, sportswriters who should know better, sportswriters who are my friends and seem sane in all contexts except when it comes to Billy Beane. Where Beane is concerned they are chronic Beanists, Beanophiles and, worst of all, Beanoholics.

Beane never has asked for this worship, never has demanded that a cult form around him — the Cult of Billy — never has asked sportswriters to drink the Billy Kool-Aid. But they have, anyway. People are praising this guy when he so clearly deserves hard scrutiny and, yes, criticism.

Call me crazy but I think the A’s are a better team with Rich Harden and Joe Blanton, whom Beane recently traded for a bunch of minor leaguers, prospects, unknowns. Call me crazy but I think Beane soon may trade pitchers Justin Duchscherer and Huston Street. Call fans and writers crazy because they will laud Beane’s genius if he does. Please, cease and desist. Please stop being crazy.

The pro-Beane argument — and I’ve heard it until I’m woozy — goes like this: The A’s — whip out the violins here — are a poor, small-market team and can’t be expected to compete with big, rich meanie teams like the Angels and Yankees. So they must — I emphasize “must” — trade their good players for nobodies in order to make money, in order to afford being a baseball team in these economically unfair times. I feel like weeping just writing those words.

In exchange for really good players like Harden, they get players who will be good in a few years. This is where the Beanists kneel and kiss Billy’s ring. He is the messiah. When these players mature, the A’s will be one honking good team. In this regard, Beane’s philosophy is like communism. It never ever works in the present but it will work in some far-off mythical moment that never comes.

That’s right, it never comes.Because when the good young players get older, Beane trades or unloads them as he unloaded Miguel Tejada, but kept Bobby Crosby and Eric Chavez, a baseball sin if there ever was one. Do you honestly believe Beane will hold onto outfielder Carlos Gonzalez when Gonzalez is 27 and at the top of his game and could demand a $100 million contract? Beane will cry poor and trade Gonzalez to the White Sox for six minor leaguers and a potato peeler from Ronco, and everyone will praise Beane. And the A’s rebuilding process will extend into the future — to infinity.

Beane does not run a baseball team in the sense of really running a baseball team. He is a baseball-player middleman, a wholesaler who acquires and sells players. Under him the A’s are a player clearinghouse. A’s ownership imposes no expectations on him. Other GMs actually try to win, maybe even get to the World Series. Not Beane. He tries to do “well enough.”

Well enough is not the same as excellent. Well enough keeps up appearances and prevents fans from bellyaching. Well enough preserves the bottom line. But well enough is not nearly good enough in real baseball organizations.

If Beane wanted to compete in the dynamic, scary world of the big leagues he could have become the Red Sox general manager. He toyed with the idea but backed out. He had his reasons. He likes the Northern California lifestyle.

You can look at it another way. Why would Beane test himself in Boston and perhaps fail when he has it made in Oakland? Of course, he could win a championship in Boston and he never will with the A’s, but he and the A’s don’t want championships. They want the appearance of succeeding, not the reality.

Sometimes I wonder if Beane is as confident as he seems. He surrounds himself with people who are beholden to him. His manager is his childhood friend. His team is mostly a bunch of young guys or mediocre or over-the hill veterans, guys who owe their big-league existence to Beane. He hired his assistant GM when the guy was still in his 20s.

Where are the people who might stand up to Beane, tell him he’s all wet? Where is the stud superstar, the Manny Ramirez, the Vladimir Guerrero? You never will find someone like that on the A’s because that someone would have his own sphere of influence and that would diminish Beane.

People who root for the A’s do not root for a team — if by a team you mean a bunch of players you get to know and pull for. A’s fans root for a uniform and an economic business model. “Gee, Gladys, we unloaded our best player but got seven minor-leaguers who haven’t started shaving and we saved $10 million. That’s great, and Billy sure is terrific.”

Beane has the best job in the world. He’s a part owner of the team and makes a ton of money and the standards are so low he never can fail. Getting that job was his true genius. Check that. Convincing everyone he’s a genius is his true genius.

You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.


Comments

  1. silverandblack707 says...
    July 22, 2008 8:32:49 am

    RE: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080721/NEWS/346116111

    Once again Cohn opens mouth and inserts foot . . . . Earlier this season you wrote a negative article about the Oakland A's , claiming they were not a real baseball team but an illusion.

    Oakland then swept Boston and you ate those words . . . .

    Here you are again , another negative article about Oakland , Billy Bean specifically.

    Billy Bean is a wheeler and dealer . . . . always has been , always will be.

    Have you ever heard of a Farm System ?? With an article like this , obviously not.

    It's where young players are developed into Major League All Stars and thanks to all Billy's hard work , Oakland now owns the deepest farm system in MLB.

    Rich " cant stay healthy " Harden and Joe " 4.96 ERA " Blanton were recently traded away and you seem to think that was a bad move and all Billy fault.

    Harden has NEVER pitched a full season because he breaks down and always gets injured. This guy was supposed to be the man and take over in the wake of Oakland's Big 3 breakup ( Hudson , Mulder & Zito ) and years later we're still waiting . . . .

    Blanton went 14-11 last season and already has l2 losses thus far this season to go along with a 4.96 ERA. Not exactly our best player or our best pitcher for that matter.

    That " bunch of minor leaguers , prospects and unknowns " that you seem to dismiss includes SP Sean Gallagher , who has already taken Harden's spot in the rotation and in his 2 starts with his new team has pitched very very well.

    It also includes Carlos Gonzalez , who when he came over via a BILLY BEAN trade was one of those " minor leaguers , prospects & unknowns " , yet you know enough about the kid to know he's developing into an All Star and that the A's couldnt possibly keep him around long term ( so you assume ).

    Dan Haren , Oakland's Ace from a year ago and dealt to Arizona , also fell into the " minor leaguer , prospect & unknown " category when he came over in the Mark Mulder trade. We all know how he turned out.

    So , which is it Cohn : Billy trades his best players for a bunch of nobodies ( according to you ) or a bunch of somebodies ?? You cant have it both ways.

    I pray Huston Street is the next player

  2. The Big Dog says...
    July 22, 2008 8:59:01 am

    A club house prima donna who can swing a bat? I hear Barry Bonds is looking for work.

    Lowell Cohn has always been a dope, going back to his days with the Chronicle when some of the most ridiculous ideas would come off his fingers with amazing regularity.

  3. gissvoran says...
    July 23, 2008 5:03:54 pm

    Lowell,
    I love your stuff. Even when I used to read your sage words in black ink on green paper (back in high school). But you've just dated yourself. You come from an era and place where players stayed with their teams forever. I didn't. My heart first broke with the breakup of Finley's team in the 70's. How would have you reacted if that happened to your favorite team in New York when you were growing up? Fastforwarding to now we have seen this happen a few times in Oakland.
    A player only has so much life with any team at this point. Beane accelerates the process by exchanging the talent he has for what he perceives will allow him to stay competitive. He borrowed that concept from notables such as Bill Walsh. You remember him. Don't trade your talent before it's too late and look stupid. Admittedly I hate to see some of the talent that has left here but you'll have to admit that, unlike the Giants, their record over the last 10 years does indeed consitute "success".

  4. frank.stranzl says...
    July 24, 2008 3:07:49 pm

    Mr. Cohn, please stop your clearly biased assault on everything Beane. For a seasoned veteran of the columnist arena, I expected more than your vague rant regarding the Aâ??s latest trades. But hey, who needs facts to back up their opinions? Certainly not a Press Democrat columnist!

    â??Call me crazy but I think the Aâ??s are a better team with Rich Harden and Joe Blanton, whom Beane recently traded for a bunch of minor leaguers, prospects, unknowns,â?ť says Cohn.

    Fact: Joe Blanton, at the time of his trade, had a 4.96 earned-run-average and a 5-12 record. His career line shows a 4.24 ERA and a 47-46 record. He was the worst starter in the Aâ??s 2008 rotation (unless you add a stat column for ignorant prose, I suppose).

    Fact: Rich Harden played a full slate in 2004 with 31 starts, but hasnâ??t pitched an entire season since. He averaged 16 starts per-season from 2004-2007 and just under 11 per-season from 2005-2007. Two players acquired from the Harden trade are now starting for Oakland (Matt Murton and Sean Gallagher) Yes, Harden was talented. But, during his six seasons with the franchise, he contributed a whopping 36 wins.You also point out that Oakland might be crazy enough to trade Huston Street. Gasp! You mean the guy who has five blown saves and a 4.04 ERA this season? The one who saved a mind-boggling 16 games last year after two stints on the DL? The same closer who blew 11 saves in 2006? God forbid the Aâ??s trade that guy that guy! Such outside-the-box thinking should be outlawed in Major League Baseball!Harden and Blanton were not the indispensable players you make them out to be. Nor were Jason Giambi (.262 average, 28 homers/season, 197 total home runs, $115 million for New York in seven seasons), Mark Mulder (5.04 ERA, 22-18 in 55 games, $25 million over four seasons for St. Louis), Tim Hudson (3.81 ERA, 53-38 in 119 games, $37 million over four seasons for Atlanta) or Barry Zito (4.89 ERA, 15-25 in 53 games, $24.5 million over two seasons for San Francisco). They were big-name players, but their stats donâ??t support their salaries.

    Had the Aâ??s re-signed the previously listed players at their current salaries, Oakland would have $60.4 million extra on their payroll this season, and for what? A broken starter in Mulder, a noodle-arm in Zito, a steady but mediocre pitcher in Hudson and a deflated, steroid