Yesterday, all our troubles seemed so far away...
The Original Oakland Big Three are no more. It's the end of the Beatles of the East Bay. We're left with Harrison, Starr and McCartney to toe the slab.
Tim Hudson was a horse for the Oakland Athletics. A .700 winning percentage. A smaller man who worked hard on his craft, honed his pitching and made the best hitters in the American League look silly.
And now, he is in the National League, pitching close to his roots with the Atlanta Braves.
As I predicted, Billy Beane made a move when he felt the time was right.
I'm not shocked by the move because the A's got a good mix of players in return. Charles Thomas had a solid rookie year, despite his overmatched look in the playoffs. Juan Cruz is a solid bullpen addition to set up for Dotel. And Meyer is the gem of the deal. A top pitching prospect who is major league ready.
Who knows whether the quality of the players Billy is getting in return will match even a single season of performance from Tim Hudson, but the truth is that Billy could not wait until March 1st or even until the season started. Why? Because he could not take the chance that Tim Hudson would get hurt again and we'd lose a star, stud pitcher for nothing but draft picks.
Were there better deals out there? Only Billy and the rest of the front office knows. You never really know if Edwin Jackson was discussed until Billy himself says it.
The reality of our fandom is that this team needs to be a chameleon, adapting in order to survive.
But I will say once more that I am sad to see the end of an Oakland era. The Big Three are no more. The Fab Four never really had a chance to materialize.
I'll change and adapt with my team. No throwing the green and gold out for me. My daughter will still be at the Coliseum with me next season. And the season after that.
It doesn't mean that I'm not devastated to lose a talent like Tim Hudson. I just need to realize that instead of Hey Jude, we've got something else.
