Dammit, the A's should be playing .900 ball, for no other reason than we're A's fans and everybody else is not.  Is this reasonable?  Of course not...  But I'm telling you all what...  I'm sick and tired of being reasonable.   Being reasonable is the reason this whole ballclub is stuck in this middling morass of mediocrity.    I'm sick of ballclubs being run by "baseball people."   What the hell do baseball people know about baseball? They just play it, and they act like being a good player is the be/all end all of baseball experience.   In the locker room, the amount of respect a player gets comes from how much money he makes and how good his stats are, not his intelligence, savvy, or personal brilliance (or lack thereof!)   I wouldn't let an ex-player even sniff a management/coaching position unless he happened to also be of genius level intelligence and have a burning obsession for victory.  

 "Hissho" is what it's called in Japan, and it translates to "Desperate Victory..."   basically, the idea is that today is the end of the world, and in order to be able to live with yourself in the afterlife, which will be coming immediately after the game, you need to f***ing win, to redeem your mortal soul...      I seriously heart this philosophy, and would like to see more of its' implementation/use among coaching staffs and non-star players...    Star players should only play defense and run bases at 90-95% to avoid DL stints for hamstring pulls and other nagging injuries.  However, I want to see 110% effort from the scrubs at all times, because they are eminently replaceable.  It is also the duty of a quality organization to maintain a good blend of medium-ceiling prospects and AAAA-type players in AAA to replace the injured...  

A gung-ho win win win mentality can't just be put on or taken off like clothing.  It must be planted like a seed and nurtured.  First, it is important to pull the weeds and the old dying crops from the plot of land one wishes to sow.  Even though the dying tomato bushes might produce another fruit or two, it is better in the long run to suffer a short-term tomato shortage than long-term starvation due to inefficient crop rotation.   This means that in order to implement a hardcore culture of winning, house must be cleaned of anyone and everyone who plays more for himself than for the team.   Extreme egos must go.  Players who accept winning and losing on an even keel must go.  Members of management with interests other than success of the franchise and winning every possible game on every level must go...   If it so happens that the most physically talented players or most intellectually gifted members of management are unable to maintain a total commitment to creating a winning franchise, then they have to go, too.   Players who get down on themselves and get in severe funks have to go.   Players who can not generate artificial confidence/arrogance/bravado to sublimate/defeat self-doubts and fears have to go too.

A club that wins every year has to have somebody very strong at the top, who works harder than anyone else in the organization...  Someone that hates losing and spends nearly every waking minute either working or brainstorming to make the organization better.   I would prefer that this someone have no spouse or family, and basically be married to the ballclub like a priest is married to the church.   This person can be a baseball genius (GM) or an organizational genius (Club President) who maintains a hive of sublimate baseball geniuses; that part doesn't matter.  However, this person has to be the positive inspiration for club employees and players to work hard to win, and the negative inspiration to make people afraid to lose. 

The manager of this club needs to be someone smart enough to help design the build of the club and its' corresponding strategies, and someone who is willing to stick to those strategies and not do a bunch of dumb maverick Ozzie Guillen shit.    The manager needs to take an active role in the emotional health of his team, massaging certain players' egos, while kicking other players in the ass.   He can be a brilliant tactician, but if he's not, he can easily be surrounded with the right coaches and sabermetricians to make all the tough decisions for him.   It's important that he gets in an argument with a player or two each year to set his boundaries and emphasize the importance of team play, concentration, hustle, and winning.   It's also important that he gets kicked out of a game or three each year because, otherwise, the umpires would see his club as weak and would have no reason to fear making bad calls against his club.

As for the players, we would draft less on college statistics and performance scouting, and put way more emphasis on psych profiles, hand-eye coordination tests, and coachability.   It is likely this club would draft most of its' players out of HS, preferring four years of intensive team-controlled training to four years under a college coach.   

Team-controlled training wouldn't just be light coaching and the expectation that the wheat would sort itself out from the chaff.   Team-controlled training would take the more useful elements of intensive Japanese style training, and add much more personal coaching than any prospect ever gets in any minor league system today.    

This club would not only likely have 10-15 coaches per roster (some players with a personal coach), but likely the club would sponsor teams in the Mexican Leagues and possibly create more minor league affiliates at the Rookie- Low A levels in order to foster/train more talent.   It's the Branch Rickey method, circa 1930, and it worked then, and it can work now.   It would cost a few extra million a year, but the key, of course, is to sign more prospects cheaper and train them with maximum efficiency.

A beautiful by-product of this intensive baseball culture of winning is that once it's established, it doesn't take nearly as much energy to maintain as it does to get started.  Winning is addictive, and a player who was raised in an intensive team culture of winning might end up more addicted to winning than to the almighty dollar.  Hometown discounts aplenty...  It would be like the Patriots football club, where players take less money to stay because they know they're gonna win a lot of games, and life is gonna be good.

This, as well as a creative system of paying star players ownership percentages of the club, held in trust until retirement, should be good enough to retain enough homegrown stars to keep the club competitive at all times.

Yet, even with total commitment from management and players, even more of a commitment is necessary from the fans.   Immediate creation of 'Oendans,' another Japanese concept loosely translated as 'Fan Clubs' or 'Booster Clubs,' would serve to foster a group of raucous, loyal, football game loud fans.   In Japan, Oendan members wear uniforms, attend cheering practices, and are absolutely serious about their rooting.  It's almost like a job.   The only way we could get Americans to go this apeshit over a baseball team would be to pay them to attend... which, oddly enough, is exactly what this club would do.   Oendan leaders would be paid employees of the ballclub, and Oendan members would get their tickets at a nominal price, as well as a shitload of perks...  A couple of Oendan sections would be set up around the ballpark, with one in a nice (but not too nice!) part of the ballpark, and of course, one in a crappy section (where newbies would have to pay their dues before getting promoted to a better Oendan!)  

Giving away tickets indiscriminately is dangerous.  The point of giving a ticket away is to entice a seat to be filled that wouldn't otherwise be filled.  Yet, a person with a free ticket still could choose not to go to the game.   Well, this club would create season ticket programs for the most undesirable sections of the park that would, in effect, pay people to sit there.  This could be done through means like selling tickets with a $10 food voucher for $8, for example, which would entice the value conscious.  Another idea would be the Senior Bonus program, where Seniors over 55 could get a special non-premium season ticket program in which they are given a team debit/Visa card that gets swiped at entry and credits the patron with $3, as well as a 10% discount on any food/merch bought in the park with the card.  Some thrifty folks might never buy a thing, but most people want a hotdog or a beer when they watch the game, and would spend over the initial credit on high profit ballpark food/merch.  As an owner, I'd rather have a full seat and amazing public goodwill for the loss of a few pennies than an empty seat to save a few pennies.   

Of course, this club would be cutting-edge with its' promotions and seating arrangements.   As soon as marijuana gets legalized, there would be an open air stoner section with cutting-edge ventilation systems to keep the park from turning into a hazy Grateful Dead concert.  A 21 & over singles bar/section for every game, with slightly overpriced tickets, but discounted alcohol within that section only...   Multiple 'family' sections, with mascot(s) and no smoking and no swearing...   And multiple 'Loudmouth Asshole' sections (separated by plexiglas barriers from other sections) where people can get drunk and fight and be horrible people in general and get away with it, while not ruining the ballpark experience for others...  We'd keep abreast of every minor league team in the country, from AAA to independent leagues, and rip off/adapt their quirky/cool promotions.  The major leagues need a little bit of country-style cornpone promotion to strip off some of the unwarranted arrogance.   Being serious about being major league is elitist and silly.  The only thing to be truly 110% serious about in sports is winning.