but then, wouldn't they have just said Loaiza for PTBNL?  Maybe he did just give him away, which would be odd

a realist raises her head. Say it again... 25 teams passed on Loaiza! and his injury history is well-known. He's been around for quite awhile. We won't get significant talent for him. Just be grateful that 7 mill has been freed up to pursue some offense for next year.

looking for guys like Loiaza or maybe just the few that are needing pitching for a playoff run?  I think the "25 teams passed on him" argument is flawed when there really aren't that many teams looking right now.

An agreement was made behind closed doors  which enabled them to skip using the PTBNL tag, which makes the deal subject to league rules.

I just can't help but think there is more to this than meets the eye...

and she is a lot closer than any of us. So it could be possible.

Though the A's wind up with nothing out of the deal, they will save $7 million on Loaiza next year - and they have the goodwill of the playoff-chasing Dodgers for not pulling Loaiza back. Don't be surprised to see the A's make some sort of favorable deal with LA in the next few months, unless letting Loaiza go is reward in itself for Oakland. Loaiza had pitched very well in his two starts this season, but he fought injuries much of his two seasons in Oakland. He missed the first four and a half months of this season with a bulging disk in his neck and then a knee injury.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...

and medical staff? Untouched.

Perhaps Beane is about to hand day-to-day operations management to Forst -- but Forst has said that he'll only accept on the condition that Beane clear the decks of the lousy contracts which Forst didn't want in the first place (I'm totally speculating on that: I have no knowledge of Forst's involvement in any of the A's personnel decisions).

Beane sees that doing so will help improve the team's bottom line in the short run, and possibly enable medium-to-long-term on-field competitiveness, so he agrees to Forst's condition.

Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Seattle are to playoff spots, and look at who they're running out there (Claudio Vargas, Chuck James, Horacio Ramirez) and tell me Loaiza has no value. I'm one of ELo biggest critics and even I concede he has some value to a contender with enough hitting but not enough pitching.

for LaRoche, Hu...fell through, they discussed Loaiza and X for another prospect, Y, whom the A's want, but who is on the Dodgers' 40-man roster. Perhaps a trade of X for Y will occur later, maybe even with other parts potentially added in further discussions after the season.

be included as part of a trade back to the A's over the offseason?

That would sure be weird.

I would think that we could "give away" Chavez, Crosby and maybe Kotsay too, although the last one might be difficult.  If we are truly rebuilding than I am more than okay with that so maybe things will become clearer in the coming months.

< waits for a Monica Lewinsky reference from Monkeyball >

that notion around 1998.

told you to say, isn't it?

about the pre-Fremont plan, anyway.  Wolff has a vision that never entered Schott's dull narrow construct, so I wouldn't invoke that spectre.

But think of it this way.  For ownership, why should the A's spend to contend in '08 and '09?  MLB revenue is off the charts, and this is an extremely lucrative window to pocket profits.  $20-30 million in operating profit per year for 07-09 is definitely within reach.  They obviously don't hope to bring more than a third or so of the current fanbase with them to the new digs (see: wanton alienation campaign, late '05 to present).  And, the thinking goes, the desirable segment of the current fans are going to come to a new park with a contending team in 2011 even if the A's suck for a few years first.

This dovetails nicely, whether by plan or happenstance, with the fact that the current roster really needs some rebuilding.  So I suspect Beane's been given the nod to rebuild (and cut payroll and boost the profits in which he himself shares) for a couple years.  

The really amusing part is that this is giving Billy license to indulge his raging yang, telling Bradley and Kennedy and Loaiza to go to hell, like he's wanted to do all along, because he doesn't need to get value back, he just needs to shuck payroll.  Indulging his capricious temper is just the icing, not the cake.

or a hit with a runner in scoring position?

when he's only had 2 seasons since 1998 (9 years) with an ERA under 4.50?  That's not a #3 for a winning ballclub.