Fire yourself, you are not a good GM in spite of what the Beane apologists think,

You have no clue how to build an offense and Nico is right on 100 percent.

Go and run your soccer club into the ground.

Oh how the A’s lose, let me count the ways, they can’t score one run for a couple of days. If they manage hits, then come double plays. You might think they are the Tampa Bay Rays, but even that team has seen better days, then the offensively challenge Oakland A’s. Who cares what they look like because it all pays, bumbling and stumbling, close your eyes Mayes. A’s pitcher’s throw and everyone prays, inside the ballpark, the baseball stays. Can’t throw can’t hit don’t even want praise. I sit back in my seat and chew on some Lays. Wait, it’s a hit my eyebrows raise. Another foul ball, not a thing to amaze. You can’t even play with the smaller A’s. Your no pro, like that announcer says. Strike three looking, your eyes in a glaze. Back out on D your not even phased, when your out there forever on some very bad plays.

Beane supposedly reads this site, not that it matters as his ego is too big to listen to anyone but himself but he does need to read this anyway. Someone have Blez email him and have him read it.

is irrelevant to next yrs team. if they gave guys like petit, pennington, patterson, etc i’m not so sure theyd be any worse than the current guys

He’s one of the guys who would have been worth signing to a big-time extension. As the young pitchers struggles this season reveal, true number one starters do not grow on trees.

I understand the Swisher trade, but why did you deal Haren? Why?

It had to be said… let’s see if it gets any reaction, whether BB himself or perhaps in the old media, or who knows where.

The Brewers because they mash… and Cubs fans are as intolerable in losing as the Red Sox fans used to be..

Blue Jays because TB has lost its mojo (lose Longoria to the pitcher at the beginning of the game— seriously?) and the other alternatives are evil..

And Texas because they have the guy that should be managing here, and if we can’t do it, and we can’t, then we must all become Ranger fans and shut down the Scioscias and Lackeys of the world.

when I was 12 years old and just becoming interested in baseball. I’ve seen the A’s go through their ups and downs, but never have I found being a fan of the A’s as difficult as this year and last. I try hard not to be the guy that threatens to stop being a fan, but damn the management and ownership makes it more and more difficult on a daily basis. It’s become obvious to me that this team has pretty much no chance of competing this year. I’m not necessarily opposed to playing the young guys, but why have a losing season while your paying guys like Giambi and Holliday millions? Get rid of the dead weight and let some of the youngsters play regularly.

I have always supported Billy Beane, but I’m ready for him and Bob Geren to move on. The two of them have succeeded in building a team that has little talent, and even less desire to win. It’s hard enough to watch this team lose seemingly a different way every game. I could even deal with a 100 loss season as long as the team showed potential for the future. This team is not built for the future, and apparently not for the present either. My biggest issue with the team this year and last, is that they have absolutely no heart. My nephew’s little league team plays with more fire than the majority of the current A’s roster.

I’ve felt for years that the key moment for this franchise was when Long’ s ball went into the corner on that now long-ago night in October. If Howe had only pinch-ran Byrnes; if Jeter hadn’t made such an incredible play; if Jeremy had slid; if the umpire had called it differently…

Well, you know the rest. Dye would never have broken his leg. I firmly believe that team with a well-rested pitching staff would have handled the Mariners… and whether or not they would have beaten Arizona, we would have had a WS in this era.. before the Giants did.. before Bonds’ HR chase became the be-all and end-all. The team would have had 15-20 million more to play with based on the ensuing attendance spike. As good as that team was in 2002 attendance would have carried over until 2003 big time. Maybe with the successful playoff experience they beat the Twins and then it’s the Angels. Maybe we have a repeat all Bay Area WS in 2002, and win it AGAIN, ensuring another year or two of big-time attendance and payroll flexibility. Tejada does not leave in that environment, and I doubt Hudson does either.

But those things didn’t happen— BB soldiered on, but eventually this franchise spiraled back to lousiness— as has been its pattern for a century now. Let’s hope we get someone smart to pick up the pieces and can win, say, 2013 or so. But forget the next two or three years and the end of the Beane regime.

I want someone to email the game thread and wrap up to him to pass onto Beane. Is this possible?

Hardly…

When your team— the one you’ve essentially run for the last 12 years— has won all of one playoff series, is coming off two mediocre years in a row, and appears to be a lot worse this year… and yet they’re making a movie about you starring Brad Pitt, where’s the sense of entitlement? please.

Billy you may not be selling jeans.. but we are not buying egos.

4/5 ths of their projected 09 rotation duke,eveland, gio, gallgher injured or struggling have given nothing and were forced tofast track cahill/anderson.
The bullpen had tons of depth last yr with devine/ziegler/brown/blevins etc which allowed them to trade street. i know at the time brining in wuertz/spring were surprising moves but imagine where the bullpen would be wihtout either to fill in along with bailey. Thats almost a complete 08 staff, having produced not much so far.
the FA hitters all had risks attached to them, worst case scenario has happened.
It might be unfair, but the progress of sweeney/buck/barton as potential core pieces of this future offense has not happened thus far. Only Suzuki looks like a current regular player to stick long term.
I’ve given up on contending and moved onto the continued rebuild. Hope some of these older players regain some value and are commodities at the deadline. The next wave of prospects in AA/AAA will be ready by late 09 into 2010.

they need to put a decent team on the field.

This team would be lucky to compete in AAA.

They are defrauding the fans.

MLB teams are supposed to entertain the fans, that’s how they make money and the players get their high salaries.

we are being ripped off by an embarrassing team.

Other emails ripping Beane and team

Buan is reading one now.

He just gained some respect from me.

after reading how we feel at the moment. If he cared about the team he would.

The A’s owe every fan! If not for fans, they would not be employed. You do not rebuild at the professional level, period. Maybe in a transition year, but years of rebuilding? C’mon they are supposed to be professionals. It does seem very obvious, the team is not trying and that is shameful. In any other line of work that kind of attitude and performance gets you fired. Yes, they OWE US FANS. That’s what we pay for. That’s what they advertise. Go to a restaurant and have them tell you there is nothing to eat we are rebuilding, after they take your money. Or you go to see a famous concert and you pay top dollar for a certain performer and a ten year old comes out to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Yes, many were optimistic at the beginning of the year, but it was only wishful thinking. Everyone knew how pathetic the trades have been over the last two seasons and we all just were praying for something good. You can’t blame us for trying. Although we knew they did not address major issues, we were wishing for luck. The people on this site are very intelligent and very loyal to the A’s. Why would they bash the team until they know for sure? Now they do and you think they are wrong for pointing out the problems.
We are owed, at the very least, an honest effort. The teams want us to give them our money, buy their gear, pay for games. That’s just great! We deserve a team that plays hard and management that have the best interest of the team, in mind. In fact, they owe it to us!
Sense of entitlement = we paid money!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=290517106

The Tigers outscored Oakland 34-9 in the weekend sweep.

“I just talked to everyone as a group, and told them that I thought the effort was outstanding this weekend,” Geren said. “We just need to write this off as a bad series, get out of town and start fresh in Tampa.”

one is injuries…we’ve had an insane amount. now some of them, you can’t do anything about. but others…well, you can’t count on certain guys. chavvy is the main one. i still wonder, though, if the a’s strength training staffs all the way down the system aren’t doing something right. anyway, take away the unpredictable injuries that have killed us the last few years…the pitching staff this year. we all KNEW coming in that there might be issues w/ duke, and that cahill needed more time in AAA (anderson was more ready, but not ready imho). yet we didn’t make any moves to sign some pitchers…didn’t need to be big time guys, but people who at the very least could pitch some innings so our young guys (and i include gallagher in this…he had control issues, something that should have been worked on in AAA for a month or two). but no, we didn’t do that. and look, our pitching has been, as predicted, all over the place. i hope this stuff doesn’t get the young guys off track too much. then, the biggest problem – we have no idea about offense. i understand the draft is a crap shoot, but wow, we have been absolutely awful in developing hitters. is that a scouting issue? a coaching issue? its pretty obvious it has been atrocious for the past few years, and needs to be addressed.

No one thing, be it Geren or injuries or Beane involved with soccer has led to this. Each should be evaluated to find the root of the cause.

Some of the problems… and questions:

1. Injuries!
Are we even in this problem if the players are healthy? Granted some of the injury total is due to signing older vets that we all know have a higher chance of landing on the DL. Subtracting the injuries for guys like Thomas, Giambi, etc do the A’s still have more injuries than average?

2. Prospects not panning out
Crosby, Meyer, Barton, etc. Guys who were to be great and are either poor or not on the team. There’s still time for Barton to turn it around, but suppose our prospects did pan out? How does the team do then? In my estimation the A’s are all too eager to trade for minor league talent. Having a stocked farm system is great… but is it worth a poor record in the big show?

3. Management
Under Geren the A’s are a combined 164-192, or a .461 winning percentage. Under Macha and Howe you have to go back to 1999 to find a losing season. I repeat: Macha did not have a losing season. So even if Geren isn’t the problem, I can’t see him as a solution either. This is one of my big critiques of Beane – installing his friend as manager. Maybe his ever-positive schtick works well in the minors when guys need to believe in themselves, but this is the majors.

4. Failure to learn from other teams
Money ball and statistical analysis is great, but it’s not the key to winning. Teams like the Twins are doing better than the A’s without all the fancy analysis. Does that mean our problems are overshadowing any statistical benefit? Or is it because too many stats don’t make for a fluid team?

5. Batting with RISP
Why take a walk? Swing! Swing! Errors happen, singles happen, things happen! unless the bases are loaded taking a walk does not score a run.

alright, back to campus…

I used to think that I would go on loving the A’s forever. These two past years have been difficult to bear, but this year is purely miserable. I’ve asked myself many times as our popular fan favorites have been traded to other teams, “Is it the players like those who were traded that I love or is it the A’s team?” I’ve always come back to my senses and realized that it’s truly the team that I loved and it’s the team that made me look forward to the following Spring and Summer day so I could be entertained and thrilled with the hope of another win or at least the realistic possibility of a another win.

This baseball season just brings me deep, deep disappointment with bleak feelings that a bright new day with an exciting game to watch is no longer realistic.

Now I ask myself and my relatives and friends who are also fellow A’s fans, "Is it time to watch the Giants from now or is it time to ask the A’s ownership to please sell the team to a new owner or group of owners who are honestly and truly committed to a winning even if it means risking paying more to get real talented players and coaches?

Right now, I’d rather look forward to another Monday of work after a weekend than to look forward to the next more than likely A’s loss.

Finally, regulars of this blog are sending out honest feelings about how bleak our A’s look instead of being so loyal and defenders of such a miserable organization.

To the tune of an attendance of 9,000 at home games.

You are in a meeting with Mike Crowley, Lew Wolfe, Billy Beane, and David Forst last November. Financial and performance analysis points to two very likely possibilities: 1) The free-falling economy will cause the A’s to lose money for the first time in a long time, and 2) the Angels will be weakened by free-agency and, therefore, vulnerable in the division race.

Beane is a man who understands probabilities and outcomes. If he were convinced of those high-probability scenarios, what could he have done differently?

i agree with several of your points, but I think you take it a bit too far especially considering we’re only 20 percent through the season.

you seemed at least semi-optimistic in the offseason when beane made all these moves. your emotional post doesn’t have enough substance behind it. If you were beane what would you have done differently?

probably avoided trying to compete this season? so we wouldn’t be in a much different position…
we’d have cargon and a tiny bit more money.

in my mind beane did a nice job giving the team a chance to make the playoffs this year. they were projected to win the division by several reliable sources (BP?). You didn’t seem to argue against these projections too strongly then, and thus I don’t think you have enough backup for you to make such a strong statement after on 20 percent of the season.

I just noticed above that you suggested picking up wolf and branyan. i’d say going it to the season i’d put nomar or gamabi chances at succeeding as high or higher than branyan. Wolf , while being injury prone, or another starter would have been nice though. It’s a shame basically all the young starters have struggled thus far, it was tough to predict that.

I think it would take Holliday and some top pitching prospects to get one because whoever gets Holliday is probably only renting. I think Holliday goes back to the NL.