In a pre-game thread last month, I made this innocent-enough comment:
Last time I checked in on the Home Nine, they were a tad bit healthier than they are at the present time, but I guess we have all come to expect warranty issues with our Athletics. You get what you pay for, I s'pose.
Clearly, this is not hanging somewhere in the Oakland A's clubhouse.
Which brought this response from supersugarCrisp:
This subtle reference 67Marquez made in the intro, i don't think (if that was indeed his line of thinking) it gets enough mention.
And that is Beane's consistent paying of big-ish bucks to very injury prone players.
I understand that may be a new "undervalued commodity" and a place the A's just have to shop (and the Big Hurt paid off, sure,) but the A's already had/have homegrown injury issues (i don't blame the club or Beane for Chavez for instance) of their own, yet Beane continues to take big risks.
Are there just no healthier options for a team that needs to get out of the complete-seasons-washed-out-with-injuries cycle? Did Beane take these risks in years he knew they couldn't win anything major anyway, and that's why he took them, and wouldn't have if they were years the team was "right there?"
I like risk. I like Beane, usually. I just wonder about staking so much on so many injury-prone players, so many years in a row.
Since there was a game going on, ssC's comment produced only a couple of replies, but I am interested in the community's take on this.
Surely injuries are part of any sport, and there are plenty of teams dealing with their share this season, but doesn't it seem they happen a little more often in Oakland? I kid you not, I Googled "disabled list, most times used" and the first stories that popped up contained the names Eric Chavez and Rich Harden. Hmm.
Oakland has used the disabled list 70 times since the start of the 2007 season, including a team record 25 occasions in 2008. They have not had fewer than three players on the DL since the end of the 2006 campaign, and Bob Geren's club began this season with six players on The List, the most since 1998.
BABIP and UZR be damned: what you really need to follow the A's is a degree in medicine.
The first-place A's go for the series win later today; game time 12:35pm.