Maybe everyone else was right - this is a rebuilding year. Let's call a spade a spade.

However I'd been giving this a lot of thought the past couple of days and I decided that I would remain positive and upbeat.

I still have faith that the A's are a good team. I still believe that Billy Beane knows best. I'm trying not to take out my bitterness on guys like Kendall and Charles Thomas.

After all, I'm also learning that a true fan sticks with their team even during the losing years. I love the A's. I'm not going to give up on them now.

I think it is also a matter of expectations.  Just like Blez, I really thought we would be really good this year.  I thought the pitching might be a little rough given all the new guys, but I thought we had a solid pen that would carry us along.  Probably the biggest surprise has been our anemic offense.  I could have never guessed it would this bad.  I don't think we can call ourlselves the "swinging A's" anymore.  I also thought we were so much smarter--read moneyball--than other organizations.  And perhaps that was true at one time.  But perhaps Beane and co. really don't have much of a leg up anymore on market inefficiencies.  

All in all, this has been a really low point.  I have to say, not long ago someone wrote the "maybe there just not that good" post and it has really helped me.  I have lowered my expectations of the A's and now I simply enjoy watching them play.  They are underdogs and I like that.   It is easy to be a Yankees fan.  It is not always easy to be an A's fan as Blez points out.  But I wouldn't trade places for anything.  I like what we have, even if it is not working well right now.

And what has happened was inevitable as, sans a salary cap, low revenue teams like the A's will have to deal good players they've developed like Hudson, Mulder, Miguel and Jason. Hopefully, most of the youngsters acquired or drafted in their stead will lead to another interesting playoff team for several seasons to come. Just be patient.

Again, baseball is just another form of entertainment. And I respectfully suggest that if it is too painful for some of you to watch this evolutionary process the A's are undergoing, do yourself a favor and find a more pleasant way to fill your recreational hours.

Observing the gradual progress of talented young players should be a reward in itself. Those who feel a need to constantly bitch and moan should get a life. Or perhaps find a dominatrix. ;)

Oh, and every once in a while the team will shock us by actually winning a game, and then I can really be   happy for a bit.

this team is definitely underachieving and i've oscillate between hope and despair with every win and loss, and it's pretty sad, but the bad season doesn't nearly have as much emotional impact as the history of heartbreak a's fans have lived through.  as optimistic as i am, i still didn't think we'd break any wins records this year. the reality is this season we need to see what we got.  and don't forget, it ain't over yet.  

thanks blez for keeping the site and the spirits up!

let's go oak-land!

Certainly, BB should wait for the most part until the trading deadline to garner greatest value. He most assuredly will have to do that with Dotel and Durazo because they are currently hurt. And if Johnson doesn't hit, he will have no reason to part with Hatte. But Bumblin Byrnesy should be dispatched elsewhere post haste as his lame-brained play is not a good influence on the younger players...

Witness the game today: ByrnesBrain, in the words of Ray Fosse, could have caught the triple that led to the Ray's two runs if he had taken the right route to the ball. How often have the A's experienced similar misplays by ByrnesBum. And those saying he should play more regularly should note that he has started 4 of the last 5 games and garnered but two basehits. And he's supposed to hit southpaws so well--the Gnats pitched three lefties in a row vs the A's and Kazmir yesterday is a southpaw who started for the A's.

So you can see Byrnesbrain is next to useless. Hopefully, other teams might misread his abilities the way so many do on AN...

I think Haren will utimately eclipse Huddy as a money pitcher for the A's. He surely has the stuff and lacks only the experience...

even I don't think the A's will finish 54-108 this season. though the D-backs lost 111 last season and Tigers lost 119 the season before that.

I guess 54-108 is possible this season. I'm a 'realist/cynic' but I don't think they'll drop 108  this season

1994 -- not only a strike year -- but the A's bottomed out at 17-43 -- Hell, even I don't think the A's will lose their next 14 games to reach that mark of futility.

1986 -- 30-52 at the All-star break. that was bad, but then TLR became manager, Canseco won ROY and the A's actually finished 76-86 (I think)

beyond the nine World Series championships (4 in Oakland) won by the Athletics franchise ... also know that NO American League franchise has LOST as many games as the Athletics, not the Indians, not the Senators/Twins or Browns/Orioles ... the Athletics own that record of distinction.

1977 is similar to 2005 because there was significant roster disruption in 1977 and 1977 ended NINE seasons of winning for the Oakland A's.  

In each of the first nine seasons in Oakland that A's had winning records, so 1977 and its (63-98 record) was a bucket of ice water dumped on top of the head !!

this year's sensation is similar !!

The really sad thing about those teams was that they were playing to their true level of ability so there wasn't any hope things would get better. We had to wait for the next generation of prospects to work their way through the system each time. The current squad has several players who are playing way below expectations so we can look at them without our green and gold glasses and feel confident they're going to do better. Still, there are a few moves that need to be made.

They could start by exiling the singles-hitting first baseman/cleanup hitter to the bench or the NL so Dan Johnson can be called up. I'd be thrilled if Larry Dierker could be hired to manage the team. I don't have anything against Ken Macha but this team looks very comfortable sleepwalking through the season, playing very sloppy baseball. Maybe seeing a head or two roll will get them going. It's not as if Ken Macha is a brilliant motivator or tactician. Larry Dierker is known for something I think the A's deperately need -- his pitching staffs allow very few walks.

I know is easy to call for the managers head when things are going badly but in this case, I think it's justified. Something like the Menechino/Tam/Jeremy purge of a few seasons ago is needed to send a message to this team.

And it's probably only gonna get worse this season, so get used to it.

So enough with the whining and wimpering.  Buck up, rub some dirt in it, and get out to the Coliseum an root for the A's.

First, look at your personnel and I'll bet BB has been doing that since spring training. Almost all of you have recommended changes. So have I. The only person that will make those changes is BB. Don't you think it will be fascinating to see what he does, particularly if you read Moneyball? I'm focusing on that - forget the wins and losses. What moves will be made (because they surely will) that can make 'business better'.

Second, look at what has gone wrong so far. The closer lost those 2 in Boston with walk off home runs. Unbelievable, sure, but was he hurt then? If so, why did he pitch at all? Dotel has said recently that he won't be back. If you have an employee that is sounding off like that, do you give him more responsibility? I don't. Look, too, at the fundamentals discussed at length here. Do some of our employees need re-training?
How and when do we do that? As a fan, is there any sign of it being underway? It's sure not  too late in the season to stress basics!

Third, since the long ball seems to have evaporated (as early as the end of last season), can we install a strategy of small ball? Will BB encourage this when we can see in Moneyball that he didn't like it? That will be interesting to watch.

There's more, but Moneyball, to me, was as much about business as it was about baseball and businessmen change tactics all the time - they must if they are to survive.

That's how I'm watching this team now. I see no playoffs in our future this year, but I sure can see some interesting problems that need attention in this 'business of Oakland A's baseball'.

No panic - just reality.  

With the exception of major news, I wonder if we ought to put AN into dry dock for a month to give everyone a chance to clear our heads?  It would also enable us to see who comes back after 30 days and is a real fan.

Right now this daily Chinese Water Torture isn't very healthy.

This is nothing like that. Yes, the team is losing, but there are a lot of things to be excited about. Watching young players like Huston Street, Rich Harden, and Danny Haren, and Crosby when he gets back, you can really see where this team is going. You want something else to make you happy--pay attention to the A's minor league teams, its fun to get excited about the prospects that are playing well. No team will win every year, but it can be fun in a way to watch a time with a lot of promise for the future.

And hey, if you want something to hang your hat on---in 2003 about this time the Marlins were 19-29 and ended up winning the series.

This season has been interesting and fun to watch with all of the young guns like Harden, Haren, Blanton, and Street. Not to "jinx" them, but if they fall off the face of the earth, it'll be satifying to see them knock some potential playoffs team out of contention. BUT it's always more exciting to root for a playoff-bound team.

For me, the disappointment is less now because I expect much less.  

Everyone knows the playoffs are a crap shoot -- and even though the Red Sox were better on paper, losing that match was a real blow to faith.  

Being in the Coliseum that night was my Reality Check to what the As are capable of.  The memory is still painful.

Summer is almost here, we have lots of opportunity to go to the Coliseum, sit in the sun, drink beer, eat peanuts, enjoy the company of good friends and root for our beloved Athletics. Yes, it would be nice if they could win, but I've been an A's fan way too long to get too down about all this. As Blez says, "our day will come" and when it does -- it will be sweet!

There's always a silver lining for sticking with the team.

Most frustrating thing for me is just listening to the games or watching on TV (we get a game every two or three weeks on Fox Sports or ESPN over here). When I'm actually at the Coliseum I'm never bored, rarely as frustrated, and always enjoy the company of my fellow fans. Dang, I can't wait to get 'home' for a few weeks at the end of July.

I will be staying thru AN Day2 and, like Blez and others, am really looking forward to hoisting a few with my fellow sufferers.  The phrase "drowning our sorrows" definately has ring to it these days.

The AN Embassy here in Manama has a special Secure Room for our green & gold party hats. They're safely put away for the moment, but can be brought back out in a heartbeat. Just give us an excuse to cheer!

There are two games that stand out in my memory.  I attended the last pre-strike game of the 1994 season, a weird and depressing ending to a rotten year during a long drought.  And then there was the 1998 doubleheader against the Yankees.  They killed us in the first game.  Kenny Rogers baffled them in the nightcap, and we had a huge lead.  But Rogers exited, and our incompetent bullpen let it all slip away - culminating in Darryl Strawberry's you-could-see-it-coming-a-mile-away grand slam.  That game had an odd grandeur, because that Yankee team was truly extraordinary.  But the sight of the Yankee fans turning the game into a true home game, not the mixed affairs we see now, was just hideous.

This is nothing.  This is a team that had a really good run and failed to win any big prizes.  And now it's over.  But there is talent on this team, even if it's difficult to see it clearly at the moment.  And Billy Beane was right to trade Hudson and Mulder; the team had gone as far as it could given the budgetary constraints.  (I'm less sure about whether we got the right guys in return, but Nico is correct to point out that the keys to those trades are Meyer - injured - and Barton - a teenager.)  

The bigger question is how long it will take Beane to rebuild the team so it's competitive.  I don't know, and it may take longer than we hope, but his track record speaks for itself.

It's difficult to adjust to a season without scoreboard-watching and a steady diet of losses.  We've grown spoiled, and expected Beane to give us a contender against all odds.  It hasn't happened, and everything has gone much worse than expected.  It's no fun, but as mentioned above, it's been a lot worse.

Baseball is entertainment, and I guarentee noone feels worse than the guys themselves.  I still take the little joys and enjoy the season.  This is the beggining, not the end.

Not to sound like Barry or anything, but the yin and the yang just aren't in check. Once offense clicks with our pitching, we'll be fantastic. I just hope that it happens this year... I'm pretty confident it will. And if not, did anyone see SFweekly's best of 2005 list? It came out a few weeks ago:

Best Bay Area sports Team: The 2006 Oakland Athletics.

The thing is, not matter whether they win or lose, I still get excited to head out to the Coliseum, still love to prop up my chair near the ol' hoopdy, smiling at all the A's fans, enjoying this "summer" weather and all the games that I look forward to all winter. Cuz I love the A's, but I love baseball even more.

So I am clinging more closely to that feeling of pleased relaxation, and am ready to cheer the A's on, regardless of how they are playing, because I know that in the life of a team, just like in my life, there are crappy times and good times, and they always follow each other. So if you don't like the situation now, just wait awhile.

In the meantime, you gotta enjoy what you can of the ride.

When Ass-Jack Pyrzinski hit that home run to make it 5-1, and then Ellis made it 5-4 yet we still lost. I'm positive we would have stopped the Angels too.

The last handful of years with playoff busts was dissapointing, but having a very good team to get to that point was something to hang your hat on at least.  Knowing we have a bright (immediate?)future with the talent on this team makes this feel not as bad as 10 years ago or so.