And, Blanton hasn’t been all that great this year; they got a pretty good return for him from the Phillies, which might not have happened had they waited until he completed the year.

Oakland has won more regular season games since the year 2000 than any American League team not named “Yankees.”

Haha, love the gunfight analogy. Reminds me of playing Goldeneye with invincibility turned on and killing all the enemies with just the hunting knife.

The problem with the argument about beating everyone except the Red Sox and Yankees is that it’s not right. Beane HAS NOT beaten up all the other teams. Since he became GM in 1997, the A’s have made the ALCS once (in 2006, losing in 4 straight). In that time, I count 7 other teams that have made the ALCS BESIDES the Yanks and Sox, including Cleveland three times, Anaheim/LA twice, and Seattle twice. Beane’s a really good GM, but he’s not the only guy who’s managed to succeed in a Yankees/Red Sox world—he HAS done it on a tighter budget than most.

Peter B is right that the A’s have won a lot of games under Beane’s regime, and Beane deserves every bit of credit he gets for putting a competitive team on the field with limited resources. But the point isn’t to win lots of games; it’s to win championships. By that measure, he’s not so special. Perhaps there’s nothing he could have done, given his resources and given bad luck. But, I can understand why A’s fans might be less than satisfied with what has become a very skillful, but continuous rebuilding effort.

Billy Beane is not the one who makes Oakland have a small payroll… that is fair. So, my criticism there is more directed to the ownership groups and other executives and front office personnel who have utterly failed to take advantage of a big resource that many other teams do not have: 7 million people in the immediate market. Even considering they share that market with the Giants does not excuse this failure of the organization. Maybe Beane’s role in this is minimal, but I think its difficult to isolate a GM completely from the marketing and revenue strategy of a team.

I would consider the wild card team a playoff team, I said he won 4 division titles in the 12 years he has been there. That is still true. I find that even less impressive since they only have 3 other teams in their division- something that is discussed less than it should be, I think. Playoff baseball is a weird thing. Small sample sizes etc., and Beane certainly follows the theory of get in and see what happens. That’s fine.

My problem with Beane is not that he didn’t keep Giambi, Tejada or Hudson. My problem is selling on Harden, Gaudin, and Blanton in mid-July of a season whcih they are still very much in. It is trading those guys who would be cheap for years to come. Maybe they were good moves, for value sake, maybe they weren’t. But let’s say Beane was the GM of the 2007 Indians and he traded CC in July. Maybe he would have traded him in 06.

Perhaps that is a good strategy; and I don’t mind calling him a good GM. I just get sick of the unrestrained praise for every move he makes as if he is some infallible baseball god.

First, like my original post said and like I have clarified a couple times, my anger is at both Billy Beane and the A’s organization. So while it might not just be Beane that has convinced people that they are a small market team, it is the combination of writers and people who think they are a small market team just because they have a small payroll and are a poorly run organization on the non-baseball side of things.

More on point, my frustration is with baseball fans and writers who give Beane the extreme benefit of the doubt any time he makes a move. I’m not saying we should look at a move by Billy Beane the same way we would one of Bill Bavasi or Steve Phillips, but the “trust” that people have for anything Beane does is annoying. He is overrated in that he is put out as some mastermind. He is successful, yes. But so are a half dozen other GM’s that use similar strategies. There are flaws in his ways. Take this year, if they just make the playoffs, or if they get in the playoffs- I’d be pretty pissed if I was an A’s fan that I didn’t have Harden at the top of my rotation.

Again, I’m not saying he isn’t smart or isn’t good. Just that he is overrated.

I can’t see them hording Horne when they haven’t had to give up Justin, Kennedy or Hughes. That’s not to say we can get him, but we might.

If he does it won’t be for long. Big guys with stress Fx early in their careers often have more stress Fx – like Walton and Bowie. The lone exception I can think of is Zydrunas Ilgauskas.