Ideally a pitcher shouldn’t be thinking “I have to pitch better because I don’t think the offense is going to help me much” but it’d be better for them to feel less pressure in that they can get away with a minor mistake or two if the bats pick them up.

At the same time, a pitcher who’s a leader can say “Don’t worry, guys. Just get me a couple runs and I’ll make it work.”

Sometimes you run up against a guy who just shuts your offense down but once in a while you do see a pitcher who seems to be bitten by the offense somehow scoring more runs for every other guy on the staff but him.

Especially if they’re going to have the starters they’re shaping up to go with this season, they absolutely need an offense that’s going to give them more room to go through some growing pains without it always coming at the cost of a chance to win.

beane wants the pitchers to let the ball get put in play. He knows the defense will take care of it.

I think a better defense is more important for a pitcher’s confidence.

Typically, young pitchers come up through the minors playing in front of bad defenses and try to strike everybody out for the first year or so. They settle in when they realize that a good defense behind them will make the plays that aren’t being made in the minors.

But it’s also good for a pitcher to know that he doesn’t have to be perfect every fifth day, that the offense will score runs either way, for the team to win. Most of this is pretty obvious. I think the moves were mostly made to upgrade the offense for the fact that it was woeful rather than the pitchers development, but I’m sure all of this factored in Beane’s decision, obviously.

I also think Beane wants to surround his young players with a few established MLB players with phenomenal work ethic.

Cust, Holliday, and Giambi all are extremely dedicated to training and (seemingly) very mature in their approach to baseball as a job. Those are good examples for young, good looking guys who probably have lots of temptation to go out and party, play video games and chase women excessively (Buck, Barton, Sweeney, etc.).

Seeing a 38-year-old ex-MVP with 100MM in the bank who still works harder than most teammates is probably a good thing for the 22-26 year-olds. And it means even more if he’s actually still good (Giambi/Holliday vs. Mike Sweeney).

I also think there’s a negative long-term psychological effect that comes with losing 90-100 games. I like knowing that they’re perpetually trying to put a competitive team on the field – it probably helps make going to work better for the players. I used to be of a mind that, if the A’s weren’t going to make the playoffs, I figured they might as well lose as much as possible and get the best possible draft pick. Now I feel like that would do more harm than good.

that statistically, pitchers lose most of the games in which their offense has been shut out in. I could be wrong though….
(yes, that was sarcastic. but an interesting discussion nonetheless)

and one which goes into the nebulous category of “non-stat based intangibles” like leadership, clubhouse presence, etc. – some will argue these are feel-good pluses that don’t affect actual player performance or wins and losses, while others will argue that the difference is felt everywhere, even if to a relatively small degree compared to ability and talent.

My official position is that we’ll never know – but I lean towards believing that some of these intangibles DO make a difference and that even Beane and Co. factor them into their decisions to some degree.

Okay, first, that statement makes no sense whatsoever. I would hope that you were speaking in jest.
 Second, you think Billy Beane signed Jason Giambi for 5 million so he could throw it away? Even if Dunn “was” signed to a contract, you mean to tell me you’re gonna be okay with letting a potential 30 jacks, 90 rbi’s, 100 walks, great obp% & slugging pct%, in Giambi, just walk out the door? Why? because…..you think he sucks defensively? Or you just don’t like the guy? What is it?

I’m sorry, usually your posts are very thoughtful and provocative but this one does nothing of the sort. :(