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A season in review: Why does it seem like we lost our way?

 

Ok.  I'm going to preface this by stating that I believe Billy Beane and his staff to be bright, capable and forward thinking individuals who have a long-term rebuilding plan for this team.  I haven't lost the faith.  But...

...it doesn't seem like it so much lately, huh?  The last couple of months have seemed more like, "Let's throw something out onto the field and see what sticks."  Yes, several (more) injuries to those few veterans still left in town has played a part in this second half debacle.  But so, too, has Billy & Co.'s decisions to rush several prospects who clearly were not ready for the show.  The question is why did they do this?  The A's front office's stance seems clear.  They believe that since the season is a wash anyway, why not start building up the experience for these players at the Major League level now.  And I agree that this kind of experience has no substitute, that most young players do in fact go through some growing pains.  But I also believe that you should choose to bring a player up when, and only when, he is properly equipped to face a Major League lineup or pitcher.  And while there is ample evidence that no matter how mature a young player may be physically & mentally, a time of adjustment is usually still needed,  there is also ample evidence that rushing a player can hurt his development and confidence.  There have been other possible misteps along the way as well, so without further ado, I'd like to re-examine our 2008 season.

 

 

This offseason I felt Billy was at his best.  The hauls we got back in both the Haren & Swisher trades were well thought out and the talent impressive.  Not only did we get some true "blue-chip" prospects, we also importantly received some lesser talented but Major League ready players, too.  It showed a masterplan.  Everything started out well enough.  Eveland and Smith in the rotation.  Check.  Sweeney and Denorfia in the outfield mix.  Check.  The idea was that these guys, while maybe lacking a ton of upside probably wouldn't embarrass either.  Let them play, and the best of them would still have a job as a 4th outfielder or back of the rotation starter once the "kids" were ready for primetime.  The Davis aquisition was another such move.  Fast forward to the Blanton trade.  This deal, too, made sense to me.  Blanton, while an innings eater, was still only a major league average pitcher.  He certainly has value, but his time under our control was coming to an end.  The main player we received back was a promising young middle infielder, a spot where we still lacked  front-line talent.  Unfortunately, Adrian has struggled since coming into the A's system, but that doesn't change the fact that the deal made sense at the time (and Cardenas still has plenty of time to turn things around).  Everything was copasetic.  Then the wheels came off.

Since that point, I think the front office has made a lot of questionable calls.  And yes, I know hindsight is 20/20.  But I honestly felt that these were mistakes at the time, too. 

Mistake #1:  Bringing up Cargon.  This actually occurred slightly before the Blanton trade, screwing up my timeline a bit, but, whatever.  Carlos has a lot of natural tools.  What he doesn't have is a great mastery of the strike zone.  There was no dire need to rush him along.  We had no shortage of outfielders, and besides middling/stopgap outfielders are a dime a dozen anyway.  Injuries paved the way (or at least proved the excuse) to bring Gonzales up.  But it wasn't like we had to.  He had not seen significant time at AAA before the promotion.  His production at Sacramento was not so noteworthy it "forced" a call-up.  He clearly still had/has much to learn.  So why risk turning the guy into Corey Patterson?  And why use up valuable service time to a season where, (despite the hot start) we had no realistic reason to believe we would contend.

Mistake #2:  The Harden trade. It was clear that Harden, after proving he could make a few healthy turns in the rotation, should be dealt.  By the time we were ready to contend again he would be entering free agency.  He was a high-risk, high-reward player, and those guys are better served on a team with playoff aspirations.  The Cubs were a nice enough fit.  But the returns were befuddling.  To point:

Murton:  Yet another A's corner outfielder with middling power.  Not a tremendous asset defensively.  No longer young enough to reasonably expect vast improvement.  If you need a guy like this (which we didn't) you can go dumpster diving and turn one up.  A few years ago he had some value on the trade market.  By the time of the trade he was approaching throw-in material.

Patterson:  Offensively, showed fairly well-rounded skills in the minors.  But, lacks a true position and does not have the upside to warrant carving out a spot  just to keep his bat in the lineup.  He's the perfect example of a baseball tweener, and he had no natural spot for a position of opportunity on this team (like third base maybe?).  If the A's truly believed he could legitamitely handle second base, they should have immediately dealt away Ellis while he still had some return value.  Instead they hedged their bets, and luckily so, as Eric's struggles at the Big League level have made him look like even more of a suspect than a prospect.  It doesn't look like he'll hit enough to warrant a corner spot in the outfield, and he isn't strong enough with the glove to play a premium defensive position.  But then, that was what all the scouts were saying about him before the deal was made, so this hardly comes as a surprise.  But I ask you, if the team didn't really think he could take over for Ellis, and they had no need for another outfielder, why acquire him in the first place?

Gallagher:  Sean is the best chance at salvaging this trade.  His arsenal is pretty impressive, he just needs to harness it better.  He's still young enough to fulfill the potential there, but I don't think he is an ace in the making.  There are also some health concerns.

Donaldson:  A wildcard.  He mashed last year, struggled at Peoria, but went back to mashing in Stockton for the A's.  There are apparently questions about whether he can stick as a catcher.  If he can, he probably has a Big League career ahead of him.

Gaudin: WTF?  Why was this guy included in the deal?  He could have immediately slotted into the spot left vacant by Harden.  He was still under team control for a couple of more seasons and if he didn't have much trade value (evidently the case) why wasn't he allowed to remain here as a place filler until our young guns were ready?  Now we are left with trotting out the likes of Dan Meyer just to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he is not, in fact, a Major League calibre starting pitcher and that, yes, the Hudson trade was indeed a full-blown disaster.

Mistake #3:  Rushing Gio Gonzales.  He, like Cargon, was seeing AAA for the first time this season.  And like Carlos, while his performance wasn't bad, it did not warrant a call-up.  And Gio, too, has trouble controlling the strike zone, only from the pitching end.  I just cannot see the wisdom of placing a 22 year old with only a 2/1 IP to BB ratio in the minors on your active roster.  Yes, he showed improvement in Sacramento as the year went on, but again, not to such a degee as to force a move.  I am also of the Earl Weaver school of thought that it is better to work your young starters into the rotation by first letting them get their feet wet in a relief role.  I think a smarter play would have been to call up Gio in late August and have him work out of the pen for the rest of this year.  A DiNardo or Saarloos type filling in rotation gaps for the rest of the season may have left some screaming for the youngsters, but the wiser course of action would have been to let them scream.

Mistake #4:  Not trading Huston Street.  I love the guy, but he should have been dealt.  His slump and minor injury just before the deadline did not help matters, but we really should have traded him sooner than that anyway.  You just don't need an experienced "closer" on a rebuilding ballclub.  And we have plenty of additional firepower in the bullpen to fill the hole created by his absence.  Even if the return was less than exceptional, I would have made a move, or perhaps packaged him with Harden since it would be a contending team most interested in his services anyway.  In our present state, Gaudin had more value to the club than does Street, IMO.  Again, it is unfair to look at what has happened since as a way to justify my present position.  But the fact is, Huston is no longer even the closer on the team, and that has to diminish his trade value in the offseason even further. 

Mistake #5:  Holding on to Emil Brown.  Why is this guy still on the roster?  He should have been dealt or DFA'd long ago - especially once the Harden deal was made and we had such a logjam in the outfield.  Brown clearly is not in our long-term plans.  Maybe Murton, Davis, Denorfia and Patterson are, maybe not, but why not maximize the opportunity available to all of of them to prove something at the Major League level this year?  We now have so many outfielders in the mix for possible September playing time it's almost comical.

And so that pretty much brings us up to the present day, and I'm feeling rather glum about the future, instead of excited.  This seems strange based on all the young talent we have acquired.  But this season has seemed to raise more questions than answers, and I can't help but feel that the team lost the proper direction somewhere along the way.  Then again, perhaps the perceived chaos is all just a part of Billy's master plan.  After all, he's a heck of a lot smarter than I am.