More photos » by Jeff Roberson - AP

Team USA third baseman Brett Wallace snags a ball that bounced into the air hit by World Team's Jesus Montero during the first inning of the All-Star Futures baseball game at Busch Stadium on Sunday, July 12, 2009, in St. Louis.

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Nothing like articles like this to start your Friday off right! (But Happy Friday, almost holiday, everyone!)

From The Hot Stove Blog on Wednesday:

In his most definitive comments to date about his offseason plans, A's GM Billy Beane on Tuesday -- two days before the free-agency frenzy kicks off in earnest -- suggested that whatever money is available to upgrade the team's talent might stay in the coffers unless it's used to pay the salaries of young players brought in via trade.

Beane, now more than ever, is committed to going young. If he doesn't think a current need -- third base, first base, shortstop and left field are unsettled -- can be filled by a prospect from within the organization, he'll be looking for swap partners.

Ideally, top prospects such as third baseman Brett Wallace and first baseman/outfielder Chris Carter will quickly blossom into the positional equivalent of A's closer Andrew Bailey, who on Monday was named the AL Rookie of the Year.

"We're going to look at young players to fill spots, first and foremost," Beane said. "If those players we'd like to acquire aren't obtainable, we'll consider bringing in guys who can hold the positions down. We're going to stay disciplined and try to do everything we can to fill those spots with young players.

Are we really going to say goodbye to free agent fun and speculations this off-season? From this report, it looks like the A's are holding steady with the group of youngsters they already have in the system (or trading them for other young players who play different positions). I also thought the "positional equivalent of Andrew Bailey" was an interesting choice of words; we aren't really banking on this, are we? I'm all for positive thinking, but Andrew Bailey was almost the pitching equivalent of Mariano Rivera and Joe Nathan this season. I can make the reasonable assumption that Wallace and Carter will not be A-rod and Pujols.

Quite honestly, I fear for our offense. All signs indicate that the pitching will be stronger, as our young pitchers continue to develop, but if we thought the 2009 offense was bad (even with Matt Holliday), what can we expect from 2010? What will our lineup look like?

Give me a reason to be optimistic, because "holding positions down" does not mean "putting good players in positions". The 2010 season screams "rebuilding" right now, and it would take nothing short of a miracle season for the A's to be competitive.

Who do you want to see make the team in 2010? Do you think we'll pick up any extra help? Who is going to break out this season? Who is the rookie you are most excited to see?

Also known as Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants. He's the major's first repeat winner since Randy Johnson won the award four straight seasons from 1999-2002.

And they say marijuana isn't a performance-enhancer.

Oh I kid.

Discuss here.

More photos » by Ed Zurga - AP

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And the awards continue...

For all of my complaining in recent years about how the baseball writers ignore even the most basic of stats (ERA, WHIP) in favor of Win/Loss records and team standings, I think they got it right this year with Zack Greinke's Cy. It's not like I made up the bias out of thin air; I'm pretty sure the 2005 voting jaded me on these awards. Bartolo Colon's 21 wins overshadowed both Johan Santana's (who placed third!) and Mariano Rivera's seasons, despite Colon's deficit in all other categories.

But this year was something different. Greinke won the SB Nation voting by a landslide, but I figured that was a blogger thing, and we haven't yet bridged the gap to the baseball world. I was wrong.

Zack Greinke was voted the Cy Young award winner yesterday by a similar landslide; and he did it all with a W/L record of 16/8, on a very (VERY) bad team. Maybe that's why the sixteen wins were so impressive? But more importantly, he beat out a pitcher with 19 wins. Would it have been the same vote had Felix managed to secure the magic 20th win? I'd like to think so, but again, see 2005.

Today's awards will be the Managers of the Year. I've already written in Scioscia; adversity and all that jazz. But as many have pointed out, how hard is it to win the AL West, really? Jim Tracy should take the NL. And the people who probably care most about this award are the ones who think managers make a significant difference overall in the season. [Update] Both Scioscia and Tracy have won their respective awards.

So, are we seeing a shift in the way baseball pitchers are evaulated in MLB itself? And what are the qualities of a winning manager?

Today's award results will be announced in about an hour. Let's pretend that Bailey wins the ROY again!

Chris Jaffe over at The Hardball Times has a book coming out soon titled "Evaluating Baseball's Managers" that stretches back into baseball's history for what looks like a comprehensive look at managing over about a 130-year period.

(Harry Pavlidis also has a piece up today on Andrew Bailey, but this post is going to be about Billy Martin.)

In the excerpt Jaffe shares today he summarizes all of what made Martin the manager he was, detailing the ways he got each of his teams to play along with the short life span he had with each of them.  If there was ever a manager who ran things his own way, Martin was that guy.

Highlights of the excerpt include making an immediate impact with the Minnesota Twins in aggressively stealing home to not only instill a specific mentality in his team, but also to make his opponents play wondering what they'd do next. In one game, both Cesar Tovar and Rod Carew stole home in the same inning and Martin had a penchant for trying the triple steal.  At one point they basically made the A's look silly in an early July series that moved the Twins into first place to stay, his style helping cause the A's to also beat themselves with mistakes. Jaffe compares Martin to Hernan Cortes.

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Here's how a conversation generally goes with a passionate A's fan unclear on the concept:

2008: "We should get J.J. Hardy; he's really good."
          "No way -- we'd have to give up so much to get him!!!111"

2009: "We should 'buy low' on J.J. Hardy."
           "No way -- now I'm worried that he sucks!!!111"

2008: "We should sign Russell Branyan; he'll be really cheap."
          "No way -- he's not that good!!!111"

2009: "We should sign Russell Branyan; he's proven himself now."
           "No way -- now he's overvalued!!!111"

           "Hasn't proven he's any good yet!!!111"
           "On the decline!!!111"
           "Too injury prone!!!111"
           "Too good; we can't afford him!!!111"
           "Not good enough; we don't want him!!!111"

Thing is...If you stay away from players who just showed how bad they can be, and stay away from players who might have just shown the best they'll ever show, stay away from players who are risks for decline and injury, and don't even think about those really pricey players who are good, established, healthy, and in their prime...Who exactly is left?

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There are two things we could do today that we won't do -- three if you include doing the dishes -- and they are to debate whether managers are important, i.e., impactful enough to be worth analyzing, and to debate who should win the coveted "The votes for these awards are always made by the wrong people for the wrong reasons" award for 2009.

If you find yourself venturing into either of these two conversations, then you have to do the dishes and make it a trifecta. Today we're going to look at the "how" -- if intelligent people voted intelligently (sorry, Rafael Palmeiro: NO GOLD GLOVE FOR YOU!), what would form the basis for assessing the Manager of the Year?

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Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

In the interest of being fair, I thought I'd post the rest of the awards, picked by SB Nation, even though it's likely that A's fans will just tune into the AL Rookie of the Year voting for Bailey (and Anderson, too). No one wants to hear how Derek Jeter is going to win the MVP, right?

Let's start with the AL MVP. From what I remember, and from the clear winner here, I'm sure I voted for Joe Mauer, who you would think is the obvious choice, right? (If you cannot see the entire table, simply click on the post's title, or "Continue Reading This Post" below.)

Just for fun, I included NL voting, as well, and if you think that Mauer is an easy MVP pick, take a look at the NL. There is only one real choice in the NL MLB category, unanimous in this poll, and probably pretty close in the actual voting.

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Andre Agassi's "Open" is just the latest in a long, long line of literature in which an athlete comes clean.

The former tennis star admitted to using crystal meth in the 1990's, and then lied about it after failing a drug test.  Aside from the obvious that Agassi's DOC was not a PED, is there anyone left in the sporting world we can trust?  Do we even care?  Should we care?  I mean, the man wore a wig, for mullet's sake!

Surely these tell-alls are slightly more intriguing when the person telling all is someone of stature, a la Canseco, Torre, Agassi, et al; even more so when innocent bystanders are thrust under a bus in the process.

One writer wonders what other tennis players might reveal in their own autobiographies, including the story behind Sharpova's shrieking on the court:

I had a coach to hone my groundstrokes and another to fix my serve, so it made perfect sense to find someone who could perfect my grunt. To protect her identity, I'll call her Monica. Before a big tournament, I would always pay her a visit to work on my pitch range and timing. Not only did Monica improve the length and volume of my screeching, but most importantly, when to change the frequency. We developed special screeches for different situations in the match. If I was losing, I would break out the scream that sounded like I had come home to find my dog brutally murdered. We called it "Dead Dolce." Then there was the one I'd use when returning serve on a pivotal break point. It was an extended moan with a touch more bass than my standard scream. Before I met Monica, I was just a noisy teenager with some promise. She made me a Wimbledon champion.

A fond as I may be of Maria, I prefer to ponder a penning by Nico of his blogging days at Athletics Nation:

"I wanted Marquez banned from the beginning, but Blez had a soft spot for him for some reason.  Gad, how many posts on the 1974 A's can someone write?"

"People never got me.  No one even tried to know Cindi.  They only wanted to know the Nico living inside of me.  Truth is, I hated Nico."

"Most nights I'd sniff glue before a (game) thread."

Wait, that last one might be true.

I guess Andre and other athletes/artists feel that these confessions are somehow soul-cleansing, but isn't that what therapists are for?  I can't imagine he needs the money.

I just don't get the point.

I'm technically a day behind the SBN sites who participated in the voting, but yesterday's fantastic post deserved its own full day. If you are a Rays fan who just registered for AN for the trade discussion, please feel free to participate in the post below.

This year, SB Nation took a vote on the major baseball award categories and I thought Rookie of the Year would mean the most to AN. Obviously, our very own Andrew Bailey is up for the award, which will be announced next week.

Here are the results of the SB Nation poll; Bailey received the highest number of first place votes, but ultimately lost out to Elvis Andrus.

One of those first place votes was mine.

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Scrapbook Memories celebrates the 20th anniversary of Oakland's last World Series triumph.  Since the day they set foot in Arizona some seven months prior, the A's mission for 1989 was clear; a wildly successful 1988 season had ended with a thud, leaving a sour taste in their collective mouths, and a sense of unfinished business.  After disposing of the Toronto Blue Jays in five hard-fought games, the A's allowed a single run to the San Francisco Giants in the first two World Series contests, putting them two victories from being crowned champions for the first time since 1974.

Just when it seemed there was nothing to derail Oakland's date with destiny, a massive earthquake shook the Bay Area a few minutes from the commencement of Game 3.  While the region healed, baseball took its proper place.  It would be a full ten days before the teams would again take the field at Candlestick Park.  Prior to 1989, the longest delay in World Series play was six days.  That was in 1911, and the participants were the (Philadelphia) A's and (New York) Giants.

ABC's Al Michaels, as told to a nationwide audience before Game 3, Part 2 (you can read the first part here):

"...And now on October 27, like a fighter who's taken a vicious blow to the stomach and has groggily arisen, this region moves on and moves ahead."

"And one part of that scenario is the resumption of the World Series.  No one in this ballpark tonight- no player, no vendor, no fan, no writer, no announcer, in fact, no one in this area period- can forger the images.  The column of smoke in the Marina.  The severed bridge.  The grotesque tangle of concrete in Oakland.  The pictures are embedded in our minds."

"And while the mourning and the suffering and the aftereffects will continue, in about thirty minutes the plate umpire, Vic Voltaggio will say ‘Play Ball', and the players will play, the vendors will sell, the announcers will announce, the crowd will exhort. And for many of the six million people in this region, it will be like revisiting Fantasyland."

"But Fantasyland is where baseball comes from anyway and maybe right about now that's the perfect place for a three-hour rest."

Oakland manager Tony La Russa had kept his players' eyes on the prize by flying them to Phoenix for two days of workouts, but clearly there was a wide array of emotions (excerpt from "Three Weeks in October"):

"We showed up in Arizona and there were all these people in the stands.  That really touched me.  It's like somebody was saying, ‘Baseball is great.  Baseball means something.'  When the day was over, I felt this tugging," he said, pointing to his heart.  "I had some positive vibes, but then I had another tug.  A different kind.  I was embarrassed.  I mean, aren't we supposed to feel guilty?  It confused the hell out of me.  When I drive by 880, I feel a lot of emotion.  Then about 10 miles down the road I'm getting full of myself.  And I start feeling guilty again."

La Russa said he would tell his team before Game 3: "Be honest.  If you feel good, you deserve to feel good.  They're calling this the forgotten World Series, but if you play well in this situation, it will have more meaning than any other World Series that has come before.  Nobody's ever been asked to do this."

Indeed.

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