I’d definitely trade him for a good bat, but that would probably be tough to pull off.

Quit getting ride of the quality pitchers

There are rides? On pitchers??! Wow, I’ll show up for that!

...sets the budget.

that the suggestion is to trade Beane, and he talks about Moneyball, yet he never mentions that Billy wrote the dang book. Or that the hitter we should try to get shouldn’t care about getting on base-after all that is what Moneyball (written by Billy) is all about .

everywhere kept. Is the place safe, I would be happy to be the appointed money watcher for the A’s if that job is open.

See, the problem with diaries like this one is that they don’t understand Moneyball! Billy Beane is driving all sorts of fans crazy, so his value is too low to fetch a good return! Also, he’d hold out for way too much in return! It’s just not going to happen. Get a grip, people.

How many people see (or at least think, believe, understand, etc.) that given the way the Coliseum plays, Beane has intentionally focused his priorities on having a strong pitching base to take advantage of the ballpark?

It appears some people are hoping for an awesome offense that’s just going to hit their way to wins left and right. That’s not realistic at this point. Now, a decent, COMPETENT offense? That’s another thing entirely and definitely something I think they’re trying to build toward.

But, having the pitching and defense more solidified first is important to start out with. In a ballpark like this, I don’t see it working if you try to build around hitting first. When you do it with pitching, those guys will keep you in the game more often than not as you work to improve the offense.

Otherwise, you just have a team build like Texas playing in a ballpark that doesn’t support that kind of roster.

If you “put” your ass on your head it “becomes” an asshat.

boo hoo, bad fanposts. move on, people.

Bean thinks hes a geenus, but he’s hella dumb!!!

I refuse to believe this dude wrote this sincerely. I think it’s one guy, writing a bunch of these asinine diaries under different names, then sitting back and laughing as th diehards go apeshit.

If that’s the case…dude’s a geenus.

Half of me was reluctant to write this letter out of concern that Mr. William Beane may be one of those people who say naive things for the sole purpose of gaining attention. But given William’s track record, I have concluded that only a fool can believe that all it takes to solve our social woes are shotgun marriages, heavy-handed divorce laws, and a return to some mythical 1950s Shangri-la, so I’ve decided to proceed. Let me start by stressing that I am not attempting to suppress anyone’s opinions, nor do I intend to demean him personally for his beliefs or worldviews. But I do think that I must break the spell of great expectations that now binds flighty publishers of hate literature to William.

I’ll talk about that another time. I have other, more important, things to discuss now. For starters, far too many people tolerate William’s generalizations as long as they’re presented in small, seemingly harmless doses. What these people fail to realize, however, is that if it were true, as William claims, that the media should "create" news rather than report it, then I wouldn’t be saying that William doesn’t want me to push a consistent vision that responds to most people’s growing fears about the worst sorts of rotten perjurers I’ve ever seen. Well, I’ve never been a very obedient dog so I intend not only to do exactly that but also to refute William’s arguments line by line and claim by claim.

William is too unprofessional to read the writing on the wall. This writing warns that I didn’t want to talk about this. I really didn’t. But his maudlin preoccupation with corporatism, usually sicklied over with such nonsense words as "methylenedioxymethamphetamine", would make sense if a person’s honor were determined strictly by his or her ability to contaminate clear thinking with William’s ungrateful artifices. As that’s not the case, we can conclude only that his odious squibs often resemble an inverted fairy tale in that the triumph of innocence comes at the start and the ugly sisters of sesquipedalianism and nativism enter on stage in triumph for the final curtain. At any rate, William, with his craftiness and froward tracts, will entirely control our country’s exuberant riches in the near future. William will then use those riches to persuade many of his opponents to enter into a one-way "dialogue" with him. The moral of this story is that if I said that his inveracities epitomize wholesome family entertainment, I’d be a liar. But I’d be being completely honest if I said that William thinks it would be a great idea to pamper nugatory common criminals. Even if we overlook the logistical impossibilities of such an idea, the underlying premise is still flawed. I could be wrong about any or all of this, but at the moment, the above fits what I know of history, people, and current conditions. If anyone sees anything wrong or has some new facts or theories on this, I’d love to hear about them.

Sincerely,

A Disgruntled A’s Fan