Beane ruined a championship contender.

[DonyellFreak]

August is the first losing months after 14 straight winning months for the Athletics, the team is shook and looks to be a shell of itself after the trade deadline.

Beane is having a terrible year and should consider vacating the G.M. job and move into some other role with the club that he has a small ownership stake in. Let's review the moves this year.

He traded for Jim Johnson who cost $10 million dollars when that money could have been used to fill the glaring hole at second base or even to get a shortstop and move Lowrie to second base. He traded top prospect Michael Choice for Craig Gentry.

He kept Daric Barton on the roster out of spring training again despite Barton's long track record of being a below average player, to keep Barton around Vogt was sent to the minor leagues where he got hurt before resuming his great hitting that he showed in the spring.

Vogt capable of catching, playing both corner outfield positions and first base demoted desipte his much stronger offensive spring than Barton who only plays first base and often defends poorly with mental lapses.

Beane's love of Barton does not stop there, instead of risking the chance someone would claim Barton via DFA he instead DFAed outfielder Sam Fuld who had played fairly well for the A's at the time of his DFA.

Beane in June made a big move trading for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel mortgaging the future and seemingly moving in to try and win a championship this season. The problem with the trade other than being weaker in the future without Addison Russell and Billy Mckinley is Jason Hammel is who we thought he was a middling veteran pitcher that benefited from an outlier start to his season and being in the NL he's been hot garbage here for Oakland.

So in a panic / ego move Beane went insane and traded Yoenis Cespedes along with a comp draft pick for Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes making the team weaker now and in the future on a day to day basis. While Lester is an amazing talent he already has one foot out the door making comments to the media about having three months and hopefully four in Oakland before leaving via free agenceny shaking hands with the guys he met here.

Speaking of Beane's ego it seems he wanted to punish Cespedes for participating in the home run derby again and asking if he could stay in left field if Josh Reddick could cover center while Coco and Gentry were hurt. As well as young pitcher Drew Pomeranz who broke his non throwing hand in a fit of rage after a bad start but was healthy enough to be recalled months ago instead of a return for Pomeranz the successful Beane got a guy like Hammel. Milone was rumored to have asked to have been traded after being demoted to make room for Hammel, it seems Beane feels he is beyond reproach and any players that dare cross him are jettisoned from the team.

The statement coming out of Athletics headquarters was Cespedes was going to be dealt anyways at the winter meetings so get Lester now so someone else cannot get him as Cespedes was already at the end with Oakland, it makes no sense though as Lester will leave this offseason where Cespedes could have played for A's next year and been traded if the team fell out of contention.

Cespedes had stated he wanted to stay in Oakland when Coco Crisp got extended he has reinterated that after the trade as well that he did hope to play for the A's his entire career ( not many good players ever want to be here ), the A's don't have money for Cespedes so they claim but they do for the weak defending Crisp and they had $10 million for Johnson this season.

Oh I should mention that Beane's love of Barton also hurt at the non waiver deadline yet again, Beane needing outfield depth and a new platoon to replace Cespedes traded an assist in Tommy Milone for Sam Fuld the same guy he waived just a few months ago.

The waiver deadline is this weekend, Beane has this team so f***ed they can no longer catch a bus back to f***ed in my opinion, he might as well piss away what little talent is left in the minor leagues and go get a Jimmy Rollins or Chase Utley to help in the middle of the infield, Alex Rios cleared trade waivers too Beane needs to get someone like that to help the slumming unconfident offense.

There is nothing to look forward to in the near future all the young talent that had been touted coming up though our minor league system is gone ( Choice, Russell, Mckinley and Chris Carter ) Beane has made his bed rather he has crapped it now he's got to sleep in it there is nothing to lose anymore go for it Billy.

I fear this team will lose a one game wild card playoff against Felix Hernandez or David Price or even worse miss the wild card game completely. Should that hapen I'm hoping Beane will show some pride and resign, because I doubt uncle Lew has the stones to fire him.

To sum it up, this was the best team in baseball before the trade deadline ( record wise ) they are now playing sub .500 ball Beane can claim he has no regrets about the deals he made to John Hickey all he wants but he's blowing smoke up the media's butt along with any fans that believe him.

 

[navamind]

2012-14:

Crisp: 9.1 WAR in 1524 PA
Cespedes: 9.6 in 1649 PA

 

[Isaiah4110]

Wow, step away from the ledge bro. The offense was slumping before the Cespedes trade even happened, so you can't blame the offense's woes on that trade.

Yes, Jim Johnson flopped, but no GM is perfect and I don't even think you can call it a bad move. Jemile Weeks is 72 (no longer a prospect), didn't even last the season with the Orioles, and is looking more and more like he will never be a full-time major league starter. David Freitas is 25, has never even gotten a cup of coffee call-up yet, and has a .771 OPS split between AA and AAA this year.

Have you looked at Michael Choice's stats this season? Craig Gentry beats him in nearly every category except HRs while providing stellar defense at all 3 outfield positions. Josh Lindblom hasn't done anything this year, but neither has Chris Bostick. At worst this trade is breaking even, but the case could be made that Gentry has added more value to the team than Choice would have this year.

You are also ignoring the Brett Anderson for Drew Pomeranz and others trade. Brett Anderson has (surprise!) only started 8 games for the Rockies this year and Pomeranz has has looked every bit as goiod as him in his time with Oakland.

Russell and McKinney are unlikely to contribute in the majors until at least 2016. Neither of them is even a shoe-in everyday starter at this point as McKinney was struggling in A+ when we traded him and Russell has yet to prove he can perform in AAA. Remember back in 2007 when Barton was 21 and closed out a successful AAA season by mashing a 1.067 OPS with 4 HRs in 18 September games for Oakland? And what happened to his career? Neither of the players we gave up for Samardzija and Hammel have even made it that far yet, so pump the breaks. Hammel has definitely struggled, but he also just fired off two of the best starts we have gotten from any of our starters in the last week. He very well may have found his groove again.


Bottom line: The Angels just happened to go on a hot streak right at the same time we hit an extended slump. It is the start of September so there is still PLENTY of time (and plenty of games remaining against the Angels) for us to get hot and reclaim the division lead.

 

[RaiderZar]

Today is 2 A.D. (After Dunn). Let's see what happens in the couple of weeks. I still wish we could have pulled off an Utley trade, but what's Dunn is Dunn. Moss, Norris & Callaspo need to find the mid-season groove they were in. But most of all, the 4 Horseman need to pick up the pace. We don't need Hammel to be our best Sept. pitcher.

 

[RaiderZar]

Sonny = FAIL. Next up, Lester.

 

[DonyellFreak]

Wow, step away from the ledge bro. The offense was slumping before the Cespedes trade even happened, so you can't blame the offense's woes on that trade.

They were averaging five runs a game, don't mistake a week of not being red hot for a struggle.

Yes, Jim Johnson flopped, but no GM is perfect and I don't even think you can call it a bad move. Jemile Weeks is 72 (no longer a prospect), didn't even last the season with the Orioles, and is looking more and more like he will never be a full-time major league starter. David Freitas is 25, has never even gotten a cup of coffee call-up yet, and has a .771 OPS split between AA and AAA this year.

Johnson cost $10 million when this team claims it cannot compete because of not being financially viable at the O.co I see money that could have been used for a middle infielder or a Cespedes extension.

Last year Beane got Chris Young for another $10 million as well, just terrible contracts to take on with guys like Sogard, Punto and Callaspo getting extended playing time.

Have you looked at Michael Choice's stats this season? Craig Gentry beats him in nearly every category except HRs while providing stellar defense at all 3 outfield positions. Josh Lindblom hasn't done anything this year, but neither has Chris Bostick. At worst this trade is breaking even, but the case could be made that Gentry has added more value to the team than Choice would have this year.

I don't care what Choice does or doesn't do from here on out Beane is mortgaging the future for plantoon players like Gentry and Hammel.

You are also ignoring the Brett Anderson for Drew Pomeranz and others trade. Brett Anderson has (surprise!) only started 8 games for the Rockies this year and Pomeranz has has looked every bit as goiod as him in his time with Oakland.

Pom is a nice enough still but Beane's punished him by keeping him with the Rivercats for his rage against the chair, which in turned caused him to overvalue the need to add more starting pitchers at the cost of our offense and defense ( Moss and Gomez are downgrades in left field )

Russell and McKinney are unlikely to contribute in the majors until at least 2016. Neither of them is even a shoe-in everyday starter at this point as McKinney was struggling in A+ when we traded him and Russell has yet to prove he can perform in AAA. Remember back in 2007 when Barton was 21 and closed out a successful AAA season by mashing a 1.067 OPS with 4 HRs in 18 September games for Oakland? And what happened to his career? Neither of the players we gave up for Samardzija and Hammel have even made it that far yet, so pump the breaks. Hammel has definitely struggled, but he also just fired off two of the best starts we have gotten from any of our starters in the last week. He very well may have found his groove again.

Russell is very highly touted and was our top prospect, weather he had a great career or not we won't know for years but he's compared to Barry Larkin often. I guess we get to enjoy Andy Parrino instead now.


Bottom line: The Angels just happened to go on a hot streak right at the same time we hit an extended slump. It is the start of September so there is still PLENTY of time (and plenty of games remaining against the Angels) for us to get hot and reclaim the division lead.

The Angels didn't really go on a hot streak the A's walked in there with their heads down and rolled over. I wish we had gotten Dunn before that series because the offense doesn't look as terrible now, still the team just lost two of three at home to the Mariners even with Dunn.

Beane needs to go should this team not get past the wild card game, he's been our G.M. forever and it's never amounted to success.

 

[DonyellFreak]

Sonny = FAIL. Next up, Lester.

Lester is solid but his two mistake pitches got taken out of the park, A's lose ground to the M's and even the wildcard is looking far from a sure thing at this point. It's like we aren't even watching the same team after the non waiver deadline.

 

[Isaiah4110]

They were averaging five runs a game, don't mistake a week of not being red hot for a struggle.

The warning signs were there. We had just lost 2 of 3 to Houston.

Johnson cost $10 million when this team claims it cannot compete because of not being financially viable at the O.co I see money that could have been used for a middle infielder or a Cespedes extension.

Last year Beane got Chris Young for another $10 million as well, just terrible contracts to take on with guys like Sogard, Punto and Callaspo getting extended playing time.

If we set a budget of $60 million this year and only use $50 million of that budget that doesn't mean we automatically have an extra $10 million to tack on to the budget in 2016 (when a Cespedes extension would have kicked in). Sure, we could have tried to get a middle infielder, but which available player would have been a significant upgrade? You think Beane should have tried for Cano? Or should he have traded the house (let's say, Weeks, Russell, Frietas and Straily) for Chase Utley? But then we are going into the year without a closer (the results we got from Johnson are irrelevant here) and you would have been screaming for Beane's head over letting Balfour go without bringing in an adequate replacement.

I don't care what Choice does or doesn't do from here on out Beane is mortgaging the future for plantoon players like Gentry and Hammel.

You should care. Choice is doing nothing for Texas (hitters park by the way so those stats would be worse in Oakland) and Gentry has been a productive piece all season for us. We got something for next to nothing at this point. If Choice doesn't turn in around then how is it a bad trade?

The same goes for Russell, Frietas and Straily in the Samardzija/Hammel trade. If they don't turn into a bare minimum of two average major league quality starting players then how is it a bad trade?

Pom is a nice enough still but Beane's punished him by keeping him with the Rivercats for his rage against the chair, which in turned caused him to overvalue the need to add more starting pitchers at the cost of our offense and defense ( Moss and Gomez are downgrades in left field )

They had Pomeranz working on some things down in AAA, namely getting deeper into ball games. Would you have rather had him starting in Oakland and not pitching past the 5th inning? Do you realize the strain that would have put on our bullpen?

Russell is very highly touted and was our top prospect, weather he had a great career or not we won't know for years but he's compared to Barry Larkin often. I guess we get to enjoy Andy Parrino instead now.

Yes, so if Russell flames out like Barton did then we made off like bandits in the Samardzija/Hammel trade. Russell's value is high right now and you typically have to give the other guy something they want in order to get what you want. The Cubs wanted Russell.

The Angels didn't really go on a hot streak the A's walked in there with their heads down and rolled over. I wish we had gotten Dunn before that series because the offense doesn't look as terrible now, still the team just lost two of three at home to the Mariners even with Dunn.

I wasn't simply referencing the recent sweep. The Angels have been hot for the last month and a half while we have been slumping. That one series did not take them from 3 games back as of July 24th to 5 games up right now.

Beane needs to go should this team not get past the wild card game, he's been our G.M. forever and it's never amounted to success.

Beane is the reason for the A's sustained success over the past 15 years. Take him out of the picture and I guarantee we don't even have half of the playoff appearances we have had. Would you rather have the Marlins' GM? Astros? Cubs?

 

[DonyellFreak]

The warning signs were there. We had just lost 2 of 3 to Houston.

LOL stopped reading there. Enjoy making excuses for Billy all off season guy, you cannot handle the truth.

 

[RaiderZar]

Donyell, I agree with all of your points in #6 (didn't want to re-copy again), especially the middle infield comment. How we march out scrubs like Sowgard, Callaspo, Parrino, Punto, etc. is just embarrassing.

PS: the team BA is now down to #21 in MLB & dropping faster than Kim K's granny panties.

 

[Isaiah4110]

LOL stopped reading there. Enjoy making excuses for Billy all off season guy, you cannot handle the truth.

Have fun mindlessly railing on one of the best (if not the best) GMs in baseball and completely ignoring all evidence supporting that fact.

 

[ducky]

The Oakland offensive troubles were as predictable as the sun rise for anyone who watches baseball instead of just reads the box scores.

Stat people will tell you that a guy like Cespedes can be replaced. Watching baseball for any amount of time will tell you that you can't take a middle of the order hitter out of your line up and replace him with crap and not have negative ramifications up and down your entire lineup.

The idea to trade for Lester was a good one. But to trade away the #3 hitter out of what was the #1 offense in baseball at the time was absolutely idiotic.

 

[oaktown]

The slide continues

The A's have lost 3 straight, 7 of 8, 9 of 12 and 17 of 24 to fall a season-high 6 games back of 1st place. They led by 4 games on Aug. 10.

I'm not so sure that the A's can turn things around in time. It's possible but I doubt.

 

[DonyellFreak]

The A's have lost 3 straight, 7 of 8, 9 of 12 and 17 of 24 to fall a season-high 6 games back of 1st place. They led by 4 games on Aug. 10.

I'm not so sure that the A's can turn things around in time. It's possible but I doubt.

The wildcard looks like the last hope but I honestly think Seattle and Detroit are much better than us right now, maybe the team can find a little steam and get lucky but they look like a club that's given up mentally.

 

[Isaiah4110]

Seriously Donyell? Did my saying you need to rein it in on the "Our season is over and Beane ruined everything" bit really get under your skin that much?

Do you realize how petty it makes you look to go through the forum and down-vote every one of my posts?

 

[Isaiah4110]

This Week in Overreactions: Cespedes trade dooms the Athletics

This Week in Overreactions: Cespedes trade dooms the Athletics

By Mike Axisa | Baseball Writer
September 11, 2014 9:11 AM ET

Josh Reddick and the Athletics have been slumping hard since early July. (USATSI)

It's time for another installment of "The Week in Overreactions" -- the idea that was stolen borrowed with approval from our friends at Eye on Football. To the narrative machine!

The Athletics are slumping because they traded Yoenis Cespedes

The Athletics lost a heartbreaker to the White Sox on Wednesday night (CWS 2, OAK 1), blowing an eighth-inning lead thanks to some sloppy defense. Oakland has now lost six of its past eight games -- all six losses by one run -- and 23 of 38 games since Aug. 1. They've gone from four games up in the AL West on the morning of Aug. 11 to nine games down on the morning of Sept. 11.

Conveniently, the team's struggles can be traced back to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, when GM Billy Beane made the ultra-bold move of trading cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox for Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes. Beane had already dealt elite shortstop prospect Addison Russell to the Cubs as part of the package for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, but he felt he still needed more pitching to give his team the best possible chance to win.

Before the trade, the A's were hitting .253/.329/.405 as a team and averaged exactly five runs per game. Since the trade, they're hitting a weak .229/.300/.344 while averaging only 3.71 runs per game. At one point in late August they scored a total of four runs in a four-game series against the Angels, losing all four games and getting buried in the division.

The storylines write themselves -- team trades cleanup hitter and immediately has difficulty scoring runs, therefore the trade is to blame. It's too convenient. Too convenient and incredibly oversimplified. Unless we're talking Babe Ruth or early 2000s Barry Bonds, one player does not have that much of an impact on an offense. Especially when that one player ranks 27th out of 51 qualified outfielders with a 112 OPS+, right behind Marcell Ozuna (113 OPS+).

In reality, Oakland's slide in the standings started weeks before the trade deadline. They went 9-8 in 17 games before the trade and two key players had seen their production slip in the months leading up to the Cespedes trade:

• Brandon Moss: .934 OPS in April and May, .750 OPS in June and July.
• Josh Donaldson: .926 OPS in April and May, .647 OPS in June and July.

Those two guys were expected to carry the offense following the Cespedes trade, but their production had already started to slide weeks before the move was made. It also hasn't helped that Coco Crisp has been dealing with a nagging neck problem all season or that Jed Lowrie tried to play through a broken finger before eventually spending close to three weeks on the disabled list last month.

Furthermore, the bullpen has been a total disaster since closer Sean Doolittle went down with an intercostal strain on Aug. 23. Since then, the team is 5-12 and has blown six saves. Six! Even if they had converted only half of those save chances, the Athletics would have a nice 4½-game lead for the first wild-card spot rather than a tight 1½-game lead.

Did trading Cespedes weaken the A's offense? Absolutely. Is one man responsible for the club suddenly scoring 1.29 fewer runs per game? Not a chance. Even if you fully buy into the idea of lineup protection and all that, slumps like this take a total team effort. Moss has flat-out stopped hitting. Crisp, Lowrie and John Jaso have been banged up. The team never had a quality second baseman to start with. Both Scott Kazmir and Sonny Gray have hit a wall. And the bullpen suddenly can't protect a lead.

Trading Cespedes has hurt the Athletics, probably more than many people realized it would. But the entire team is struggling at this point and one man can't fix that. I know a lot of people have their knives sharpened and are ready to tear into Beane for anything that can be perceived as a mistake, but the idea that trading away one player -- the second-best player in the trade, remember -- can result in an entire club struggling like this is lazy at best.

 

[DonyellFreak]

66-41 Before the trade deadline.
15-24 After the trade deadline.
Wildcard lead is 1 game ahead of the Tigers and 1.5 ahead of the Mariners for the last playoff spot.

I'll be stunned if they win one game in Seattle, sure I'll hope for a sweep but this team is drowning right now. Beane should resign from the G.M. position maybe he can be the spokesman for the ownership group and try to get the stadium issue settled.

 

[williewilliejuan]

Wow. This is a pretty negative board. Even if you buy into the fact that Beane is responsible for the A's current swoon, he's also responsible for this team with a tiny payroll being relevant year after year when so many teams with greater resources aren't. No offense A's fans, but any calls for him to step down are, in a word, donkeycocktarded.

 

[RaiderZar]

Wow. This is a pretty negative board. Even if you buy into the fact that Beane is responsible for the A's current swoon, he's also responsible for this team with a tiny payroll being relevant year after year when so many teams with greater resources aren't. No offense Donyell, but any calls for him to step down are, in a word, donkeycocktarded.

 

[Isaiah4110]

66-41 Before the trade deadline.
15-24 After the trade deadline.
Wildcard lead is 1 game ahead of the Tigers and 1.5 ahead of the Mariners for the last playoff spot.

I'll be stunned if they win one game in Seattle, sure I'll hope for a sweep but this team is drowning right now. Beane should resign from the G.M. position maybe he can be the spokesman for the ownership group and try to get the stadium issue settled.

You obviously didn't read the ARTICLE I posted (and linked).

RaiderZar, I wasn't around the ESPN board long enough before they shut it down to get a good feel for him, but is this similar to what dump would do at all?