knew how long Thomas, Sweeney and Chavez would be hurt if he would have brought in Barry Bonds. Remember, when Frank and M. Sweeney first got hurt the reports were that the injuries weren’t that serious. It makes no sense to sign Bonds if you have a healthy Thomas and Sweeney. (I don’t want to argue about J. Cust)

However, I wonder if in late May the doctor tells Beane that THomas and Sweeney will miss all of June and July if he doesn’t give Barry a call. It wouldn’t have cost him at all in the rebuilding plans. I doubt that a team drawing crowds as small as the A’s would have had to worry about fan boycotts and such.

It was reported in the winter in the SF Chron. that Barry was most likely going to the A’s – obviously they were wrong but it would appear that there was some interest.

I meant “figuring out that a team is rebuilding,” not the process of rebuilding itself. Rebuilding a team is not easy at all.

mostly because I don’t have one.

1) Given that Duke has been ill,

2) Along with the fact that the team is tanking

3) Today’s lineup being one of the worst you could ever NOT want to see

Hope there is plenty of water in the tank so they don’t hit their heads on the bottom.

P.S. Daric, You are on the DL so you don’t have to tank again

Also: have you ever seen Beane in “panic mode”? He knows what he’s doing.

There is no doubt the loss of 3 good veteran players during a season will hurt the morale of the club. The players, including the young stars (who in theory will be in this great team of 2010) want to win now. They are competitors and they are proud otherwise they wouldn’t be in the majors.

There are some fears that the team could stumble over the next few years but that’s why they play the games. I think the Pirates have been bad because they have made horrendous trades when it was time to deal.

GM Beane, when trading stars has made many good moves.

I think that Beane has said just about everything he can realistically say in public. Can he really get away unscathed with bluntly saying word for word that he is sacrificing this year for the good of the organization. If anyone can I guess he would be the one. But I think that too many people and media would just hear the giving up on the team part and not understand the bigger picture (Moneyball anyone?). I think he basically has said it without directly saying it (e.g., this trade makes us a stronger team in the future, we”re eithe something special or we”re building something special etc).

I don’t necessarily think it is a good idea to directly tell your team the short and long term plans either. I would imagine there would be a subtle inclination for the players not to give everything they’ve got once they knew for sure that the leadership has little interest in competing this year. Sure, in theory, that shouldn’t happen because they are paid very well to give their best regardless but I’m sure it would be a mental battle for some.

Another factor is that there is no guarantee that the players on this team will be on the 2009 team let alone the next 3-5 years. Maybe it’s just the 5 game losing streak but I”m finding it harder and harder to believe that the A’s will be “highly competitive” next year. (Can the offence really be turned around that quickly?) Competitive perhaps.

Now if the team made your statement and lowered the ticket prices in 2008….

I also agree that the team can and will win in 2009.

I still haven’t given up on 2008. The Angels might be too far away but
1- teams further back have won the Wild Card.
2- we are getting some good hitters back.
3- its going to be very tough with all the great teams in the AL for someone to run away with the wild card. Everyone will be beating up on each other

Well, it seemed to me that they DFA Bradley at a time when they had a full contingent of outfielders in 2007. However, Kotsay and Buck got hurt so he might have helped the team out in taking their spots. Also, they could have moved Swisher from part-time OF to 1B and then Dan Johnson would have been benched/ cut. Certainly, Johnson playing in 2007 had no relevance on the A’s future. So I think Bradley could have helped the team win a few more games in 2007.

Now, some would say he was a bad guy and was trouble in the locker-room. Maybe, but the team did not play better with him gone.

Now if the A’s would have kept him in 2008. He is a top hitter. Maybe not as well due to him playing in Texas. I think the A’s would have planned on him in the OF over Brown, so playing him over Brown wouldn’t have altered long-term plans there. They may not have signed Thomas because J. Cust would have no spot in the OF. I know I would have rather seen Bradley in the OF than Murton or in 2007 Jeff Davannon

First of all, if you’re going to mock, get it right.

Harden would have pitched the first game of the Angels series. Gallagher pitched instead. The A’s won that game.

My point is that I understand Duchscherer’s frustration. I can’t really assess the trades, because I don’t know enough about the prospects the A’s got in return. But the point is that the A’s are sellers. They traded away three starters and got Gallagher and some prospects. These trades may turn out to be great deals. Gallagher certainly has the stuff to be a good starter. One or two of the Phillies prospects may pan out as well.

But outside of Gallagher, who isn’t the elite talent Harden is (when healthy), the A’s got nothing that will help them win this year. They probably didn’t get anything that will help them much next year.

If I’m Duke, on a one-year contract with a team that is on the fringes of contention, I’m going to be mighty discouraged with trades that that basically tell me that management has given up on this season.

The Cubs traded for Harden so he could – if healthy – be a stud starter in the postseason. The Phillies traded for Blanton so he could improve the rotation enough so the team would make the playoffs. The A’s are planning for the future, a future that probably doesn’t include Duke.

I never said the trades, in concept or in actual reality, were bad deals. I did say I don’t blame Duke for not liking them.