A's Fourth Loss In A Row Is The Most Painful

Poor A’s players having to play for Geren

 The game reminded of Whack-a-Mole, with the A’s getting pounded down every time they tried to get back in it.

We’re all still gonna die!

This may have been stated already and seem like piling on, but how do you PH Matt Carson for Ryan Sweeney?

Geren is probably a good baseball man, maybe a good Bench Coach, but not a major league manager, period!!!

 He is always running scared, i.e. the Deer-in-the-Headlights nickname. I have a feeling that his coachs barely utter a word to the contrary of what he decides, knowing how close Geren is to BB. It just is not a good situation.

That we are headed for a pretty sad bottom if this keeps up. What I see is a franchise at war with itself at several different levels… something so unaccountably mediocre that it makes me almost need to look away in revulsion. It’s not even the losing: this is how "rebuilding" — or at least what we have been sold as "rebuilding" by an ownership team that you could argue can barely conceal its outright contempt anymore for the very customers that make up its (dwindling by the hour) fan base — goes. You have your glaring weaknesses exposed in the most painful ways and that is what makes them available to be repaired and turned into the eventual strengths you will need to become competitive and even elite again.

No, it isn’t the losing. We play these teams like the Yankees and the Angels and you see, just on the sheer talent disparity on the field (and even the in quantity of legitimate All-Star representatives), what the likely outcome of competition with them will be in the vast majority of the games head-to-head. So it isn’t the losing but the sort of outward tolerance of the ongoing mechanisms that have put the thing into borderline-laughingstock status in just 4 short years. Because good and sound business strategy and implementation does not tolerate this kind of ongoing malaise: it makes changes and it makes them proactively and emphatically or it is out on its ass, unless there are no legitimate structures of oversight or overarching accountability in proper place to assure a flow of continuity that might pass for a business practice that wishes and even demands itself to be taken at all seriously.

To whit: the medical staff that simply cannot demonstrate the kind of pro-active excellence a franchise needs to be competitive in this cutthroat business called Major League Baseball, and which instead allows players to police their own training regimens 1/2 of the time and micromanages and babies them like Junior High School players the other half. And which has, on multiple occasions, failed not just to keep players vital to the success of the organization healthy but has in certain cases outright injured them with further and ineffective medical diagnoses and implementation of those diagnoses

To whit: the field manager who has followed 8 years of unprecedented success under other managers with four years and counting of the most ridiculous decision-making perhaps ever seen on a professional sports field or court of any type, to the point where things cross over from the mere momentary frustration endemic to any long season and into a situation where the players he needs to believe in the capacities of his leadership abilities are instead quoted saying things time and again that prove beyond any ability to gloss it over or cover it up that he has lost them and their respect completely and irrevocably.

To whit: the GM who once was as competent and innovative as any in his position in any sport worldwide, who has seemingly lost all ability to act in any way other than one which demonstrates that his level of passion and interest in continuing his legacy of (now distant) excellence has waned to the point where it is no longer distinguishable, even at the baseline required for the patrons of the endeavor — the fans — to believe he is acting as anything but an inert placeholder for the impending move of the team away to wherever it is going.

To whit: the ownership group which dares to take the luxury tax money — allegedly sums to be utilized to create and sustain a level of product excellence for the smaller-market teams commensurate with anything that would obtain even the most diffident interest from the most casual fans — and instead uses it as a kind of Corporate Welfare Insurance Policy to guarantee their sense of entitlement as very rich men to become even richer by turning a large personal profit from a caliber of product that doesn’t honestly qualify right now as one that should expect to be profitable, by its sheer lack of demonstrable excellence and focus minimally necessary to make it viable in a tremendously competitive — even with the handout form the rich teams to the poorer ones — industry such as MLB.

No, it’s not the losing… after all it is only a game, played by grown men for unimaginable fortunes, but a game nonetheless. What hurts so badly and agonizes to the point that I will go on live radio and make a colossal ass of myself over it is the downward spiral trajectory into total irrelevance, and how it tastes like that spiral is deemed not just tolerable but somehow appropriate and necessary by the people in power at the top of its administration to help precipitate — by means not of outright intention so much as unconscionable neglect — the conditions they desire to make it profitable beyond their wildest imaginations in another locale.

I apologize for the length of this comment but it is getting to the point that I either have to look away from this or look it in its eyes and tell it what it has become, that someday it might right its ship and retake the mantle of commitment it once held in dedication to upholding the tradition and legacy of its very name — Athletics — which now stands in such a pitiful and questionable condition for the whole world to see.

Josh/EN
West Oakland

AN has a weird sort of backward logic. It was a very close game, we played well, even outhit the other team, and the opponent was a good team. We were in the game till the very end, but we came up just short.

AN’s conclusion: We’re the worst team ever, Beane and Wolff aren’t even trying to win, we have no hope of ever winning a game again.

I realize close losses are more frustrating, but they aren’t more indicative of a bad team. I know you get tired of hearing Geren say, “we played well”, because he says that after every game even when we didn’t. But this time we actually did.

I thought Geren said he wasn’t going to have Bailey do that…guess that means Bailey won’t be available to close tonight?

In reading all the posts, it’s certainly tough to be an A’s fan nowadays, especially after a somewhat hopeful beginning of the season. As an A’s fan since the mid-1970s, I have seen many good and bad years, and this is shaping up to be the latter.

I think what separates us A’s fans from most is our tenacity and spirit, even during the lean years. Those are intangible qualities accumulated over time. As such, I will continue to support the A’s despite the accumulating numbers in the loss column. I will even continue to wear my A’s jerseys ;-)

And thanks Baseballgirl for the great game summary!

Guess I’m gonna have to pony up for that iPhone sooner than I expected….

And honestly, take Beane too if he’s going to keep making excuses for his best man.

2010 was always supposed to be a rough year. We don’t have the payroll to compete every year, so we have to take some time, build our assets, and hopefully stack them high enough for four or five years of contention. The pitchers are just about ready. The hitters (Carter and Taylor) are coming soon. It’ll be a nice 2012, but unfortunately, we’ve got to bide our time until then.

And what this doesn’t mean is that Wolff is purposefully tanking to move to SJ. Sure, we’re not really fully playing to win this year, because the ultimate goal is 2012. Beane isn’t going to make moves to improve this team unless he can do it without sacrificing the future team. This is the reason. NOT tanking for San Jose.

Last year, Giambi was supposed to be a part-time player. Instead, he started like a billion games.

This year, Gross is supposed to be the fourth or fifth OF. Instead, he keeps getting starts.

SAME SHIT DIFFERENT YEAR