FanPost

Is it time for a complete revamp of the Oakland A's front office?

Editor's Note: This is the most recent photo we have for Beane. It's from 2014. Don't know who that dude on the left is. - Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Most of you know me, I'm jANAF, semi-infamous for long, alcohol fueled incoherent raging rants. Hopefully, some of you also know me as someone who posts semi-serious to serious rational comments about the A's. If you're not familiar with the latter bifurcation of my split personality (Gemini, I can't help it), this is of the latter sort. I promise you, it will not be a rant, but rather a serious attempt to ask, 'is it time to turn over the management of this club to an (at least mostly) new set of actors?' I think it might be, and I will set forth my arguments below.

1) Past success eventually doesn't overcome current failure. This is a well-known aspect of the principle of creative destruction. The Byrds addressed this in the 60's, but they were pretty literally quoting the Bible, in their famous song "Turn, Turn, Turn":

♫To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven♫

What they were addressing was that as the earth turns, things change, and everything eventually ages out.

A too long history of eras in A's baseball follows

How does this relate to baseball, more specifically to our mutual favorite team? Well, way back in the early 20th century, John James McGraw made fun of the Philadelphia Athletics and their owner, Connie Mack, by christening the A's as Connie Mack's 'White Elephant'. Connie adopted the mascot as a personal point of pride, the A's proved themselves easily the equal of the NYG on the field, and eventually, both JJ McGraw and C Mack aged out into not only irrelevancy, but in the case of Mack, an extended period of total irrelevancy and incompetency. Turn, turn, turn. The seasons turned, the years turned, and what had previously worked for both of these famous baseball men eventually turned to shite. In the case of the A's, their terrible period came as they were supplanted as Philly's favorites by the Phillies, who finally achieved their 2nd pennant in 1950, the same year that a power struggle between branches of the Mack family came about. Connie was finally forced out as manager, and one branch of the family was forced to buy out the other branch. The team was heavily in debt and by 1954, they were forced to put the team up for sale.

Enter Arnold Johnson. Johnson owned a couple of stadiums, one was Yankee Stadium. The other was the home of the KC Blues in Kansas City, the Yankees' top farm team. Following the 1954 season, he bought the team with the intention to move it to KC. He had to sell Yankee stadium back to the Yankees and he sold Blues stadium to the city, who rebuilt it to major league specifications. Johnson's connection with the Yankees and his many trades of up and coming stars (such as Roger Maris) to them cemented the reputation that the KC A's were STILL the Yankee's top farm team even though operating at the MLB level. In 1960, Johnson died from a cerebral hemorrhage and Charlie Finley purchased the team from his heirs.

Finley had had a long-standing interest in purchasing the team, and was one of several competitors to Johnson in 1954, but MLB obviously preferred to go with the Yankees' preference at that time. When Johnson died, Charlie purchased a controlling interest in the team and then bought out the minority owners, too. He almost immediately began to invest in an effective farm system and stopped sending his best players to the Yankees. Charlie replaced the A's imaginary white elephant mascot with 'Charlie O', an actual living mule. In 1963, he adopted the green gold and white colors and the white cleats, all long since considered totally emblematic of the Oakland A's, but originally used in KC.

After the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum opened in 1966 as a multi-purpose stadium designed to accommodate both baseball and football, Finley, in a probably ill-advised move (for the time) without benefit of a huge amount of research, simply moved the A's to Oakland to start the 1968 season, at almost exactly the point when all the young talent he had amassed began to reach the big leagues. Even in his first year in Oakland, the team managed an 82-80 season, just a year after finishing last in the AL in their final year in KC. In 1969, they finished 2nd in the newly formed AL West (in an era where 2nd got you absolutely nothing), at 88-74. In 1970, again 2nd (to the Twins, again), at 89-73. In 1971, they won 101 games and finished first in the AL West, although they were swept by the Orioles in three games in the AL playoffs. In 1972, although they only won 93 games in the season, they won it all for the first time since 1930! Of course they repeated in 1973, even though Baltimore again won more games during the season. In 1974, they became the only team other than the Yankees to win three consecutive championships, again vanquishing the Orioles in the playoffs. After 1974, Charlie lost Catfish Hunter to free agency after a contract dispute. No matter, the 1975 A's won 98 games, however, they failed to win the AL pennant.

Finley could see the writing on the wall, that he was going to lose all his (famously under-compensated) stars to Free Agency after 1976, and he started to dismantle the team. Although he was defeated in court from going all the way through with his plans to ship virtually everyone worth anything out, the team was nevertheless gutted by the departure via free agency of virtually all the team's stars. In 1977, the team which had won 5 straight AL West titles finished last in the AL West. Finley began to scout new talent. Among the players he scouted and stockpiled in the minors were: Rickey Henderson, Tony Armas, Dwayne Murphy, Mike Norris and Mitchell Page. Even though the major league club was moribund, reaching a nadir of 54 wins in 1979 (a year I am proud to say I was one of the brave few 300K who enjoyed the roomy 'confines' of the Coliseum, along with 1978- a time I count as one of my most enjoyable couple of years on this planet, when most of my free time consisted of checking out great restaurants and going to almost free ball games- yeah, I WAS in my late 20's. Nothing beats it).

Bottom line: Finley hadn't lost his ballplayer evaluation touch, and this was borne out in the 1981 season, when due to the strike there was a 'first half' and a 'second half' winner, who met in a playoff. The A's started the season on fire and won the first half. They won the 1st/2nd half playoff; however, they lost the AL pennant to the Yankees. Charlie Finley was not around. He was forced to sell the team in 1980 in a divorce settlement to settle with his wife. He very nearly sold the team to a guy who intended to move it to Denver, however, Alameda County and Oakland, alarmed because they were also likely to lose the Raiders and thus their status as a 'big league' city/county, managed to force him to sell to a local guy, Levi Strauss magnate, Walter Haas. Thus ended the Charlie Finley era. His player acumen was never disproved, but his penny-pinching ways cost him dearly. Let's remember this for the future (this is called foreshadowing!).

And so began the Haas era. It wasn't a fortuitous beginning: Finley had hired the mercurial Billy Martin (a West Berkeley native whose real name - unknown to him until High School - was Alfred Pesano, Jr. -it's a long story). Billy Martin was a famous former Yankee player and manager, brawler, and drunk. He was instrumental in turning Rickey Henderson's talents loose on the bases, and specialized in a brand of baseball known as 'Billy Ball' involving speed and clever small-ball moves, but also (much less widely recognized) an aversion to relief pitching. He worked his starters to death, usually using them to throw 120-140 pitches per start. By 1982, most of his starting staff was toast. In 1982, the team plummeted to a 68-94 record, and Billy Martin, both manager and general manager was fired. (More foreshadowing just right here, folks...)

Enter new GM Sandy Alderson, who had previously been part of the A's legal team. Just as Charlie Finley had done previously, Sandy put his attention on the farm system, picking up such players as Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Walt Weiss. Those three combined to be three successive 'Rookies of the Year', which is a huge rarity that my minimal attempt at research hasn't managed to overturn as unique. Meanwhile, after languishing in obscurity for most of the decade, the A's slowly gathered steam and by 1986 ( the year Jose Canseco won the first of those three consecutive ROY titles), the A's were starting to look like there might be something coming, although they were still mired in 77-win seasons. Enter Tony La Russa, hired only three weeks after being fired from his first managerial job by the Chicago White Sox.

Tony La Russa, like it or not, is essentially the 'godfather' of modern MLB relief practices. In the run-up to the 1987 season, La Russa picked up the recently rehabbed Dennis Eckersley with the intention of using him as a long reliever. However, the A's closer, Jay Howell, was injured, and La Russa began to use Eckersley as a 'short reliever'- a role he was clearly made for. The results were spectacular. I clearly remember going to a game early in the 1987 season where I had my 'transistor radio' in the stands and the announcers were doubtful about Eckersley coming in to save the game. I, however, focused on A's games all year, knew he was going to be awesome, and he was! Blew the opposition away in the 9th in Dull-like dominating fashion. He was really fun to watch!

Meanwhile, the A's had a new offensive duo, the Bash Brothers. Their exploits were gaining fame, too. They still only won 81 games, but Dave Stewart (a 1986 trash heap pickup) won 20 games. The table was set for the next great era of A's baseball. 3 straight AL pennants, and one WS championship followed, after a so-so year in '91, they again won the AL West in '92. By 1991, the team was beginning to get very expensive according to its owner, Wally Haas, and in mid-'92, Canseco was shipped off, followed in '93 by a mid-season trade of Rickey Henderson (he came back the next year). The team finished last in '93. '94 and '95 were both interrupted by the strike, but in the end, the A's finished last in '95, too. Wally Haas died and the family sold the team following the end of the season and La Russa moved on to the Cardinals. The end of an era, then. Sandy Alderson left after the '97 season, installing his protege, Billy Beane.

tl;dr summation: eras always wound down and passed, in the past at least.

The first couple of years of the Beane era the team wasn't any good, however, there were young up-and-coming players arriving or recently arrived from the farm: Giambi in '96, Tejada in '97, Eric Chavez in '98, Tim Hudson in '99. The stage was set: Mark Mulder and Barry Zito combined with Hudson to form the 'Big Three' in 2000, and the team won the AL West, beginning a run of 4 straight post-season appearances, all of which ended with an ALDS loss. In 2004and '05, the team finished out of the post-season, but again made the post-season in '06, won an ALDS for the first time, but then were swept by the Tigers for the pennant. It was the furthest they ever got so far in the Beane era.

Following the 2006 season, the team no longer had any of the 'Big Three', and for 4 straight years they endured losing seasons. In 2011, armed with a bunch of young arms, they barely made it to a .500 season. Those years, of course, are not so fondly remembered as the 'Geren years' when Beane installed his crony Bob Geren to manage the team. It really didn't go well. Following the 2011 season, Beane blew the team up, trading away three of those young arms for a bevy of untried but near MLB-ready pitchers, a catcher and a right fielder. During the 2012 season, the team meandered along without much purpose or success, trying out all sorts of spare parts until they picked up Brandon Inge from the dumpster and then a bit later brought up Brandon Moss. The rest of course was history: a second great Beane run from mid 2012 through mid 2014 ensued. They again made the post-season three straight times. Unfortunately, Billy Beane went 'all in' in 2014, and when the team ended up seriously under--performing down the stretch and in the WC game, he blew it up again.

Needless to say, it hasn't gone well since. Although there were at least two great trades (Sharknado II, Zobrist for Manaea/Brooks), and several very good ones (Nottingham/Derby for Khris Davis), (Kazmir for Nottingham/Mengden), many other trades either resulted in no MLB-ready pieces (Moss/Wendle, Lawrie for Ervin/ Wendelken), or pieces that have since fizzled, such as (Donaldson for Lawrie, Graveman, Barreto, Nolin- 2 fizzles, one still not ready and one serviceable starter for an MVP-level player!), Norris for Hahn (still might pan out), Pomeranz for Alonzo, Rzep. In addition to the inconsistent trades, there were numerous signings. One disaster (Butler), and several questionable ones: Axford, Lowrie pt 2 instead of Lawrie. I would argue Madson was an overpay, but even though he's been a bad closer, it wasn't the role he was signed to play. There's been a mountain of bad luck and injuries throughout the past two years, but that's a lot of poor personnel decisions, as well. In addition, the team has seemed to lose its focus lately at least in regard to trades, veering wildly from extremely risky trades to boringly small ones. And, of course, they were penny wise and pound foolish throughout, behaving as if the budget has been maxed out in 2016 even though they're about $10 million under their max at the end of 2014. There are two sides to that penny-pinching, though: they truly loosened up the purse strings on prospects both domestic and international.

Is it time for the Beane era to end?

Whoo, boy, I'm conflicted. In the years since the early 00's run, from 2004 forward, there have been 13 seasons: 8 losing seasons, 1 .500 one, and 4 post-season appearances. I think it would be reasonable to assume that had not Billy pulled the 2012 rabbit out of his magic hat, his era would likely be over. But he did. And the A's were the best team in the league for a solid two calendar years, culminating in 3 post-season appearances.

However, he traded away 4 'All Stars' after the 2014 season, which was a pretty risky move. I agree wholeheartedly with two of those trades: I don't miss Norris at all, and he was totally exposed as a RHH with the majority of the catching platoon. And Hahn's fragility aside, he might yet amount to something. As I've always said, Sharknado II was a thorough fleecing of the White Sox, and I still have very high hopes for Chris Bassitt in the future. But the other two trades were disastrous and rash, and really have so far only netted Graveman. Of course Barreto is an exciting prospect, so that's a bit of a consolation. Meanwhile, the Butler signing and the Crisp extension have both been disasters, though for different reasons: Butler was wholly self-inflicted, but Crisp was extended mostly to appease his complaints that he could never be sure of stability on those one-year contracts.

In 2015, the bullpen unexpectedly collapsed and so, after the season, Beane set about building a new one. However, it really hasn't gone all that well for the amount of money tied up in several pretty old relievers. I'm sort of OK with Madson, but Scrabble, Hendriks and Axford have mostly been disasters. Dull and Coulombe are cheap and OK, as is Triggs. Of course, the team went 68-94, and is completely on track to duplicate that record in 2016. You will recall that record: it got Billy Martin fired after the '82 season.

What he's done right, however, is to keep the prospects, let them grow together and aggressively promote the guys who outgrew their league, and all that is fine. Overton isn't ready, might never be. Mengden might be serviceable. Manaea flashes some brilliance. Alcantara should be promoted soon to see what he can do. There are several worthwhile position prospects in AAA, all of which bodes at least well for the future. That said, due to a bunch of failures, the 'transition year' which was supposed to be 2015, now appears rescheduled for 2017, if then at best. Whither go the A's? And should they do it with continuity in the FO? I'm inclined to at least wait one more year, I think, to see if the 'plan' comes to fruition, or at least the team shows marked improvement. If not, though, I think it's time for Billy & Co. to go.