Are we the Yankees, lite?

by theblackpearl on Jan 8, 2009 12:01 PM PST Comment 36 comments

This is a little tongue in cheek, but I haven't written in a while, and what the hell, it's not like we have anything A's related to talk about.

When the Yankees signed the BIG THR$$, everyone was in an uproar. The Yankess just buy everything, never grow there own talent, blah, blah, blah. Now turn your attention to the A's and the 25, hell even the 40 man roster, and you will see the same thing, just a a sligtly less expensive manner. The potential signing of Cabrera, will leave the A's starting lineup,with 3Home Grown players, unless you count Giambi, that is semantical, he left and came back. The starting rotation has noone the A's have drafted, and Casilla is the last of the bullpen as well, well Braden too, if he makes it. We all know, the A's had a bad 5 or 6 year drafting window, where the higher picks never made the impact they might have wanted, but what is the difference between what the A's are doing, and what the Yankees do? The A's have 14 home grown players on the 40 man roster.

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/team/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=oak

0 recs | Comment 36 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

No, we arn't.

The issue people have with the Yankees and Red Sox is NOT that they do not make their own players, but that they buy all the good players at exorbitant prices so that other teams can not get any premium players.

facepalm.jpg

by Zonis on Jan 8, 2009 12:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

If that is the case...

then the “people” should have an issue with the rules of baseball, not teams who follow the rules and spend the money they do have on players.

Bring back Hammer.

by OaktownPower on Jan 8, 2009 12:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

in the Red Sox defense (and I hate that I’m doing it), they don’t play ball like the Yankees. They draft and trade very well. Last years squad only had Manny and JD Drew as big free agent. Nearly everyone else made their way to the Red Sox via draft or trade before they signed for money.

I hate them!

by dogdays on Jan 8, 2009 2:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Lugo

Not to nitpick, but until Lowrie got called up, the Red Sox were playing $10M per year SS Julio Lugo as well… For the most part, though, you are correct: Varitek was acquired from SEA; Youk came up through their system; Pedroia came up through their system; Lowell was acquired in a trade; Bay was acauired in a trade; Ellsbury came up through their system; and Ortiz was picked up off the scrap heap from MIN.

by Uncle Charlie on Jan 8, 2009 5:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

In some ways, everybody

is Yankees Lite.

Let's Go Oakland! clap clap clapclapcl-- damn, I think I sprained my wrist...

by SF Geoff on Jan 8, 2009 12:32 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

The question is

are we less filling, or do we taste great?
Last year was definitely less filling.

Let's Go Oakland! clap clap clapclapcl-- damn, I think I sprained my wrist...

by SF Geoff on Jan 8, 2009 12:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

And I still can't get that taste out of my mouth!!!!!

by auldone on Jan 8, 2009 4:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

thats what she said

"My group runs some frogloks down the hall to finish them off and POP! RASTER! If there was a way to scream louder than caps in EQ I was doing it. Man I am straight panicking because I know I have NO CHANCE soloing and the party has run off. I'm in my hotel room; it's like 5am, and I am straight hollering, in EQ and in real life. Bottom line is the group comes back, heals me, and kills Raster! WOOT!" -Curt Schilling on his favorite memories in the video game "EverQuest"

by travdog6 on Jan 8, 2009 5:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

You've certainly tasted better than you did last year also...:)

by MidwayCityLivestock on Jan 8, 2009 5:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

True that the Yankees buy their players

but over the last few years they have refocused on player develpoment. Joba is prime example of this. Even tho they didnt live up to the hype, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy could be solid mid rotation guys. And Cano is a homegrown talent for them also.

What’s funny to is that they won their WS with homegrown talent like Jeter, Posada and Rivera in the late 90s and 2000. But ever since they began spending zillions of dollars, they havent won a WS.

"Chlorophyll?! More like bore-ophyll!"

by SoCal As Fan on Jan 8, 2009 12:51 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I'd think Joba isn't reallly the best example

They way they screwed with his starter/bullpen/starter role when he came up was kinda weird.

by mikev on Jan 8, 2009 12:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

if only the Yankees could produce two sure-thing HOFers and one near HOFer every year they'd be fine

by jdr on Jan 9, 2009 11:31 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Defining "home grown"

The short answer is no, we don’t acquire players the same way the Yankees do.

The longer answer is to take a look at how we got those 26 players. When the phrase “how the Yankees acquire players” is referred to, it generally means obtaining other team’s star players in trade or signing major league free agents. Of the 26 non-home grown players on our 40 man, 18 of them were acquired in trade. Of those 18, only Holliday was the star player in the deal.

Jerry Blevins was a minor leaguer and Rob Bowen was a backup catcher when we trade Kendall (and a bunch of money) for them. Andrew Brown was in San Diego’s minor league system when we got him in the Bradley trade, as was Joey Devine when we got him in the Kotsay deal, as was Gio Gonzalez who we got in the Swisher deal. These deals are pretty much defined by a guy we were giving up. Even guys with some ML experience were clearly not the big name, like Eveland in the Haren trade, Sweeney in the Swisher trade, Outman in the Blanton deal or Gallagher, Murton and Patterson in the Harden trade. Duchscherer, Hannahan and Davis were minor leaguers traded for other minor leaguers.

The other 8 don’t exactly scream “Yankees lite” to me either. Denorfia and Copeland were snagged in the rule 5 draft, and of the 6 free agents on our 40-man, Giambi was the only major league free agent, the rest were all guys let go by other farm systems.

In short, the only two players on our roster acquired Yankees-style are Holliday and Giambi, and if you want to get picky about it, Giambi IS home-grown.

by Nate on Jan 8, 2009 12:55 PM PST reply actions 1 recs

Denorfia was acquired from the Reds

through a trade of reliever Marcus McBeth in a year that Denorfia would spend on the 60-day DL.

"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other." - Jack Handey

by JJ on Jan 8, 2009 1:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

If the Athletics go to Orlando [Cabrera, not FLA]

Does Crosby become a $5 million utility man. If so, can he play third if Chavez goes down?

If not, then does the team just cut him and eat the $5 mil?

by LowcountryJoe on Jan 8, 2009 1:08 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

First choice

Would probably be to trade him. If there are no takers, then yeah, he probably joins Hannahan as the two utility infielders. I don’t know that he can play 3rd, but usually shortstops can make that move, and Crosby isn’t a bad shortstop. He has a good enough arm to handle third.

by Nate on Jan 8, 2009 1:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Crosby was placed on waivers and no one claimed him.

So, there are no takers really. He was essentially offered up as take me and my salary and you can have me for nothing — nothing meaning nothing of value [read: another player involved] in return.

by LowcountryJoe on Jan 8, 2009 3:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Someone might take him with cash

I don’t think anybody would have claimed Kotsay off waivers before we traded him to the Braves and he netted us a future closer.

There’s no guarantee that Crosby could be traded, but just because nobody wanted him for $5.5M doesn’t mean nobody will give up a low-level prospect to get Crosby for $2M

by DiegoAsFan on Jan 8, 2009 4:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

My dream would be a trade

I’d first look at the Padres. They’re trying to cut salary but look like they might keep Peavy. The guy with the next biggest paycheck on their roster is Brain Giles. And he likes the West Coast (and has a NTC) and has legal troubles. Those two factors will drastically reduce his suitors. A BoCro for Giles trade would be amazing and it would allow the Padres to cut some salary. I figure a more realistic option would be something like Sweeney and BoCro for Giles though.

Giles is the approximate equal to Dunn and Abreu on offense, but is also a premier defender.

"Loyal? I'm the most loyal player money can buy." - Don Sutton

by vignette17 on Jan 8, 2009 1:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Padres got a new owner

They’re not looking to dump salary anymore.

by DiegoAsFan on Jan 8, 2009 4:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Trade BoCro for Khalil Greene

Straight up.

Bob Geren and Ken Macha both enjoy jai lai.

by CarGon's Jock on Jan 9, 2009 12:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

No not at all

by Athletic on Jan 8, 2009 1:08 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I refuse to root for any Athletic that Billy Beane has not raised himself from infancy

This is hardball! This is where we overreact! @('.')@

by monkeyball on Jan 8, 2009 1:39 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I chuckled

by mikev on Jan 8, 2009 1:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I cried

then laughed again…

by mrod on Jan 8, 2009 2:30 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Notice Suzuki changed his # to 8 from 24

seems as if we will have Rickey retirement ceremony this year

"just a beating heart ... plasma that we'll put into our uniform." - Billy Beane

by athleticsBB4life on Jan 8, 2009 2:31 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

that is one heck of a sharp catch there

This is hardball! This is where we overreact! @('.')@

by monkeyball on Jan 8, 2009 3:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Why would he ever want Emil's old number?

Say something funny.

by muffinpryde on Jan 8, 2009 3:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

He wants to be known as an RBI MACHINE!

"However, at Elias, I think they keep track of the amount of sunflower seeds spit in a dugout each night." - Brad Ziegler, 8/7/08

by doctorK on Jan 8, 2009 5:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

he was #3 in college

but that’s unavailable

"If you hit .440 with 20 bombs, you don't have to do s---. You don't have to bring a glove to practice, just hit and leave whenever you want. You can bring a 40 and smoke a cigarette and call me from the parking lot asking me what time the game is, and I'll tell you. You can even say 'F--- you, Steve!' Actually, don't say that, that wouldn't be very nice." -Steve Friend, Head Coach, Chabot College Gladiators Baseball

by flipgatey3 on Jan 8, 2009 6:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs