The world moves on— can’t you see? Of course the A’s had a better system and plan from 1999-2006, and the Rays went through a lot of mistakes before they finally started to get it right. But…. as Peter gammons would say.. they have a better manager, a much better lineup, a deeper pitching staff, and they’re not much older than the A’s are. That’s now. Billy Beane ain’t looking in the rear view mirror— i shan’t think we should either.

1 year deal?? Can you seriously look at that roster— and know that players such as Longoria, Upton, Price, Shields are only going to get better— and say this is a 1 year deal? Now maybe in 3-4 years they will start losing players to free agency and things will start going awry, but you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think they’re going to stay at or near the top.

No longer are they spending their number 1 draft picks on Dewon Brazelton or Josh Hamilton (only to leave him available in the Rule 5 draft). But like others have said, sucking for ten years to be very good for 4-5 (probably) is just not worth it. I’m all for having elite teams once in a while (see 2001/2002 A’s), but barely getting to the playoffs every year is much more fun than easily making once every five years.

Because when someone asks me about the fundamental factors of an ideal baseball team, the one that immediately pops up is “racial makeup”.

The A’s didn’t have to suck the bottom of the barrel of major league baseball for a decade in order to assemble a good team for a couple of years.

/facepalm

as to whether the BB that basically went away from his strength in signing players such as Loaiza, Kendall, Kotsay, etc.. can reconstitute the “mini-miracle” of 1999-2006, partic. the first 3 or 4 years of that run.

I noted the Rays’ draft position, and of course neither nor anyone would wish 10 years of abject futility on the A’s. But there were teams in late 1990s and early 2000s who had that same profile— and thankfully none of them drafted as well or made as strong decisions as the Rays finally have begin making. And back then most of the big boys were pretty stupid about the way they threw their money around.

So to rebut a “non-rebuttal”— since the fundamental attack on my original post is an attack against “air”— the fallacious notion that the only way to succeed is to suck for 10 years straight— I would simply note that somehow someway the A’s need a few stars. Not just a collection of “pretty goods” or “possibles”— which Beane has admirably stocked in our farm system. But we need to get smart with a better draft position this year or with the next trade and get something closer to a franchise player. We had them in Giambi, Tejada and the Big Three— maybe Cahill or Cunningham or Gonzalez or someone in the current pipeline will break through. But I doubt that we can truly contend for the brass ring with just the players we have now or in the near future.

And my point about African-Americans is pretty obvious— Crawford, Upton and Price are all stars or potentially superstars. We have produced no such player from this system in a long, long time. Virtually the entire Angel starting lineup is now minority. Yes we have Brown and Davis and Thomas and Patterson— so what? I’m not saying that BB is prejudiced in any way— I am saying that the A’s approach— foreswearing the “toolsy player” has probably cost us a shot at a few top-level minority players. I’d like to see them return. Remember the 1989 A’s? Or the 1970’s A’s? Campaneris, Jackson, Rickey, Hendu, Stewart, Blue. Or valuable lesser lights such as North, Odom and Phillips. Yes a smaller amount of AA play these days— but don’t tell me there still aren;t great everyday players out there.

The bottom line is how can we get near the top, or to the top? I think we need some stars and it’s time to go find them.

A minority player produced by the A’s system who became close to a superstar.

I’d probably get a lot more accomplished if the A’s were a 90-100 loss team for ten years.

or model on how to build a team.

OTOH, while they have clearly benefited from high draft picks, they HAVE made good decisions. Putting aside the Kazmir trade, which isn’t the kind of move that can be replicated without a lot of luck, they made good decisions with Carlos Pena, James Shields. With rosters parts like Iwamura. Anyone could have signed Pena, including Beane, during the 2006 offseason. Shields was drafted in the 16th round.

Try to find a corner guy/dh, trade Crawford or Upton?

In the late 90s. Mulder was #2, Zito was #9, Chavez was #10. They got lucky with Hudson in the 6th round. Giambi was a 2nd round pick, Tejada was signed as a 16-year-old lottery ticket. The A’s drafted very well, but these guys didn’t come out of nowhere, they were very highly regarded players.