That Was Then... This is Now-- is the real problem the GM??

What I am is just unbelievably frustrated. Geren sort of takes the cake, don’t you think? This team is simply infuriating. That’s what i was trying to get across, and at some point shouldn’t Beane be taken to task? Who is Holliday anyway? I was excited about him but now it seems the naysayers were right.

Don’t forget that Beane can only maneuver within the boundaries of his financial constraints. Giambi, Cabrera, and Garciaparra are players that were all affordable and still capable of being marginally productive. Obviously, the reason why they are affordable is because they come with caveats. They are old, declining, and/or oft injured (in Cabrera’s case his free agent classification).

And the Holliday trade doesn’t come with a built-in “disclaimer”. He traded 3 useful players, one of whom can become extremely good (as he is demonstrating so far this year).

and I haven’t read anything about Beane not taking responsibility.

and it’s correct but I take issue with Beane hiring lame arse managers and this one needs to be show the door. He has no clue how to manage the pitchers. Takes good hitters out (which are few and far between on this team) and leaves no offense.

Travis Buck has not been great but he should have been playing RF with Rajai Davis on the bench. I think Buck’s problem is sitting on the bench and not playing against LHP. No wonder he fails in his two at bats per week. Buck has shown plenty of promise, at least enough to warrant playing time and he sure is a hell of a lot better than Davis.

The other thing that gets to me and pisses me off is the lack of aggression with runners on. Strike 3 lookings should be minimal. Yes, the umpire screws up but that is not an excuse. It seems most players want to back their way on base. Jack Cust has changed and is attacking the ball early in the count. He will still have his strikeouts but he has been very impressive so far this season. I think this falls on Beane as this let’s take a walk philosophy worked years ago but has not worked of late. Like I have said a few times, The slegnA had the least walks in the AL last year bust scored over 100 more runs than us. What’s wrong with that picture.

Now having said all this, The offense should be fine when players are healthy and the weather warms up. Meanwhile Fire Geren which is not going to happen.

I can’t remember a single positive windyfelix fanpost.

In all seriousness, did people even think that Cashman was a good GM? The guy’s in hot water every year. Beane, on the other hand, gets all the attention for being a great GM. I think the fact that Holliday and Teixeira have the same stats so far reflects more poorly on Beane. Cashman often signs players who don’t produce as expected, what’s new? But Beane??? He’s made a few blunders of his own which aren’t as highly publicized, Hudson, Harden, and now maybe Carlos Gonzalez for Holliday, but people will now begin to see that he doesn’t always do the right thing.

March/April for Colorado (which actually meant more games than the A’s have played this year in every year but his rookie season, when he was a part-timer early in the season)

850 OPS It is his lowest month (925-941-992-891-1000 are the others)

The last two seasons his start was 901 (‘08) and 1000 (’07). The two years before that it was 772 and 733. The rookie year playing only 12 games it was 675.

So at 648 this is officially his worst start in the bigs. Hopefully he’ll start to approach (not match, given the Coors effect) those other numbers pretty soon.

there is no argument. I would argue that, given payroll, based on regular season alone, he was the best GM in the game. And pretty close to it even factoring in postseason success or lack thereof, depending on how important you view those October small samples to be.

But if you draw the line at 2004, for example, since the Hudson and Mulder trades. Or at 2003 after the resigning of Chavez. Is it the same verdict?

He has opten, or been forced, to deal 5 quality starting pitchers and one everyday player (two if you count Ramon Hernandez and three if you include the Chavez-Tejada decision, and four if you include Dye which is controversial given the reality of his contract) and what did the A’s get in return? And could the team have afforded to keep one or more of the above talents?

So far the A’s appear to have gotten a lot of promise (with the exception of 3 very fine years of Haren), a fair amount of disappointment, and a lot of injury, though not necessarily from the same batch of players. We all understand the philosophy, and we all get that the competiition has gotten tougher and smarter since 2003. Boston and the Angels are now two very real competitors for the playoffs who spend a lot more money and not stupidly though the Angels do come close on occasion. I think the disturbing thing is the worry that the merry-go-round will never stop— that even as Player A, B or C start to finally bear fruit, they may be dispatched for Players D, E or F, or undermined by the loss of Players G, H or I. (I won’t discuss Player Z here, but glad to see he threw a nice game yesterday) That this franchise will never take a stand and say " this is it.. this is the team". Maybe the finances simply cannot allow it until the new ballpark becomes real. But will Beane even be here when… no if, that day ever comes?