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Pick Up Sports Illustrated

By papiblez

This week, Sports Illustrated reporter Daniel Habib wrote a story about the revamped A's rotation.

It's a good piece that should enlighten many of the baseball world (outside of AN - you already know) as to what Billy and company were thinking. Definitely worth your time to read it.

I was able to get a sneak peek at it in advance because I did an interview with Habib this past Saturday. He wanted to get a little insight as to AN's reaction to the deals.

Here is an interesting little taste from the story to whet your appetite:

Oakland proceeded with the trades on the assumption that given the existing market for starting pitching and the 29-year-old Hudson's impeccable résumé (a 92-39 record and a 3.30 ERA in more than 1,200 innings), a contract extension was not an option. With about six weeks left in the regular season, the front office was already conceding Hudson's departure; at that point the idea of trading another of the Big Three arose almost instantly. This was a radical insight because it was the second deal, trading the 27-year-old Mulder, that was most surprising.

(it continues...)

Beane and his lieutenants, including assistant G.M. David Forst, believed that the roster required wholesale change to remain sustainable and competitive in the long term; only moving two premier but soon to be high-priced pitchers could accomplish that goal and forestall the talent void that would have arisen after
the '06 season, by which time all three would have been gone.

Oh, and my quote in the story said that more that about 90 percent of the AN crowd now supported the moves. Since I was speculating at the time, I want to put up a poll to see if that is in fact, true. So click on entry link below to vote.

Thanks.

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