Barring something special… nay, miraculous, the A’s are headed towards their 2nd consecutive losing season. The pitching staff looks fine down the road but the line-up is thin.

I hate that Beane took Weeks in the 1st round but love the aggressiveness in going over-slot in the latter rounds. Signing Inoa was huge. Still, the over-slot signings and the in-roads into Latin America are things the A’s should have been doing all along. So while I’m glad to see these things happen I can’t help but wonder if they’ll happen again next year.

Beane’s made some good, solid trades but he’s killed other deals by asking for irrational packages. I still think he sold short on Harden/Gaudin.

I could probably answer either way, but tonight I’d say I’m split 51/49 and disapprove.

I’m positive that he’s been given no budget and won’t be given money to put into the team until the team moves to Fremont…

So considering what I THINK he’s been given to work with, I think he’s done a good job.

First of all I don’t think his heart is in baseball anymore:

http://www.thestar.com/article/248165

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/apr/19/newsstory.sport11

http://lioninoil.blogspot.com/2007/07/beane-to-bring-moneyball-to-mls.html

A simple google search with Billy Beane and soccer will yield you dozens of other stories. I don’t care what the excuse is, but when your GM is spending that much time in another sport there is something wrong. It’s sad that Beane has gotten so much clout in this organization something like this could go unnoticed. WIth him having an ownership in the team I think he has way too much power. I can’t imagine the ruckus that would ensue if Theo Epstein or Cashman said they spent the majority of their time studying soccer in preparation for taking over the NE Revolution, NYC Red Bulls, or some other B.S. like that. Having a hobby in another sport is something an ESPN analyst should be doing on the side, not an MLB general manager!

Looking at his baseball moves recently it leaves a lot to be desired. The Harden trade seems absolutely terrible. The only way that trade is any kind of success for the A’s is if Harden gets hurt, and thats the last thing I think any of us are hoping for. The only way Gallagher will ever outperform Harden is if the guy is on the DL for the majority of a season, and I don’t even want to get started on Patterson and Murphy. Harden was under control until 2009, it wasn’t like we were going to lose him at the end of this season, and if his value only warranted Gallagher and two awful MLB players then he couldn’t have been then expensive to extend this offseason. This all goes without mention Gaudin was in this trade.

At the trade deadline he failed to make any moves. Probably wasn’t for lack of effort though. I don’t see many teams wanting to fork over anything valuable for any of Beane’s players. From the guys Beane has valued the most on this team; Chavy, Ellis, Crosby, and Street; other teams said: “Thanks, but no thanks,” at the deadline. The few guys that Beane over valued on this team were completely rejected by the rest of the league when the interested teams actually decided to send some scouts to A’s games. That is a bad sign, a really bad sign. Which reminds me, is he still putting a premium on defense?

I’m not sure if the Haren trade this past season is even a success. Sure it’s a win/win for both teams, but how much better are we this year and next with Haren? If the farm system had not been neglected over the last five years the A’s wouldn’t have needed a reason to trade away one of the best young pitchers in baseball and rebuild the whole system in the first place. What the heck has been going on down there? It’s not like there have been any good offensive call-ups over the last few years to deplete it. The best offensive player to come out of it that Beane has had anything to do with was probably Swisher, and thats not saying much.

For his entire career in Oakland, Beane has not traded for or drafted a single prospect that turned out to be anything besides average in the big leagues. The team rode the success of the Big 3 in the early 2000’s with the help of stars like Giambi and Tejada, that Beane had nothing to do with, and a few lesser guys aided by performance enhancing drugs.

The highlight of Beane’s time here was back in the late 90’s when he started acquiring the great pitching the team based its success off. Even now though, the Big 3 has a little sour taste in my mouth. I’m probably being a little overly negative with this, but I’m wondering if the fact that Hudson, Mulder, and Zito were all collectively healthy and not getting shelled at the same point in time was mostly luck. Those guys were all time bombs waiting to go off, and it’s just a good thing it didn’t happen on the A’s watch. Beane could have been shrewd to deal them before they got hurt, but more than likely he knew it was just a matter of time before Hudson and Mulder fell apart in Oakland.

I really had a lot of faith in this guy. Look on youtube at the AN Day interview from 2006. You don’t see a teams GM being that candid and excited chatting with a small group of fans very much, if ever! I also liked a lot of the philosophies and ideas that were presented in Moneyball. At that time, I think the A’s were on to something with the patient, high OBP approach. We’re in a different time now, things have changed, and if we have a GM who spends more time listening to soccer podcasts than he does watching baseball it may be time for a change.

Beane has not traded for or drafted a single prospect that turned out to be anything besides average in the big leagues

Only if (1) pitchers don’t count, (2) guys we acquired but then traded away before they became good don’t count, and (3) “average” means top 30% among regular starters.

Then maybe you have a case.

All in all I give the magic Beane a solid B+ in his time as GM of the A’s. I think he’s been a shrewd trader and he seems to know when it’s time to get rid of pitchers.

My reservations start with the draft. Since the A’s ownership is unwilling to spend money on top free agents the draft is the lifeblood of this franchise and the A’s have only been solid at best in the draft. Outside of Kurt Suzuki no everyday players drafted by the club look all that promising.

My biggest concern is that teams no longer seem to be willing to trade top prospects for established players so unless the A’s start drafting better things could really go down hill.

Despite all these reservations I still wouldn’t trade Billy Beane for any other GM in baseball.

After all, every debate over GM performance is irrelevant, except to the extent that it changes the hearts and minds of fans.

I suspect, for example, that Beane’s rating went down after most of his recent trades—Bradley, Loaiza, Haren, Swisher, Harden and Blanton. In between Swisher and Harden, I bet it went up sharply during the A’s surprising first half of this season, just as I bet it fell after the Hudson-Mulder trades and then rebounded sharply when the young A’s got surprisingly good in June of 2005.

So fans are short-sighted morons whose opinions of a GM are based on how the team is doing RIGHT NOW… and that is the only relevant debate over GM performance?

I voted Yes, but if you’d offered me a mid-range option I’d have landed there, because I’m not happy with writing off two or three season entirely in pursuit of what might or might not happen in 2010 and beyond.

I will ask this, who else would want to and be able to GM the A’s as well as they have been during Beane’s time as GM. Not one of the comments or the main post provided any names of anyone else who could/would do a better job than what Beane has done. Now I am not saying that Beane has been the greatest GM ever but I would give him at least a B to a B+ and that could of risen to an A- to an A if a certain someone had attempted a slide into home and more than likely this would not even be a topic of discussion.

Until the A’s get an owner that is not a tight wad and is willing to spend more money than what the A’s are allowed to spend this is how things have to be done. Find players for the A’s follows a several step approach, cheap first, moderately effective second, and superstar talented high priced is down the list near 10. But getting by on the cheap is how the A’s do things for the time being. It may not be the best model but it has worked pretty good in 9 out of the last 10 years. Going into this season everyone knew that the A’s were going to be bad, but a strong first half got a lot of peoples (even mine) hopes up. But a fall back to reality was bound to happen and again its called rebuilding project. It may take a year or two but one would have to believe that some of the what 15 top tier pitchers that the A’s have in the minors may be part of a trade (once the A’s decide which core group are going to be their guys) at some point in the near future that will land 2-3 bats that are needed in the A’s lineup and another truck load of prospects.

P.S. I read your navel-gazing “I see myself in Billy Beane” comment today. (I had to catch up on a month of AN today, basically.) Just thought you should know. lol