Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  Time for me to hand out my half year grades for our Oakland Athletics.  I'm going to do it a little differently this year.  In past seasons, I'd give it out to individuals, but I'm going to give it to the different portions of the team.  I'm going to break it out into starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, managing and front office.  I'll give my grade and my thinking as to why that grade applies and then standouts and disappointments.

As always, this is not scientific by any means.  Much of it has to do with the expectations that I had for that aspect of the A's I mentioned.

Starting pitching - A:  The A's started the season with a lot of question marks in their rotation.  I honestly thought that the rotation would include Lenny DiNardo and Kirk Saarloos right about now.  I figured Harden and Duchscherer would not have lasted and the emergency plan of DiNardo and Saarloos would be in full motion while we were waiting for Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill to make it to the pros.  Granted, both have missed time with injuries in the first half, but they've also pitched a lot more than I thought they were.  As a matter of fact, the A's starting pitching team ERA is 3.48, the best in the entire majors.  The starting pitching has been absolutely, positively stellar and probably the biggest reason the A's are still within shouting distance of the division-leading Angels.  They've also been able to do it with two rookies in Greg Smith and Dana Eveland.  It'll be interesting to see how those two guys hold up over the second half.  The irony of all this is that the pitcher who the A's tagged with the "ace" tag before the season started happens to be their worst starter statistically right now.

Starting pitching standouts:  Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland, Greg Smith

Starting pitching disappointments:  Joe Blanton

Relief pitching - A- :  If the major reason the A's have been winning is their starters, the relief pitching is the minor reason.  The A's have the sixth best ERA out of their relievers in all of baseball.  They've also done it with a cast of largely no names and folks that people didn't expect to be as good as they have been.  Santiago Casilla had a Dennis Eckersley-like start to his year.  Andrew Brown was fantastic.  Joey Devine was spectacular.  Brad Ziegler came from Sacramento to become integral.  The known quantities like Embree, Foulke and Street suddenly seemed to be the ones that made me more nervous than the less proven guys.  Still, the pen has been relatively solid.  Huston Street hasn't been as good as I'd like but I do suspect that he's been pitching through various injuries this year.

Relief pitching standouts:  Joey Devine, Brad Ziegler, Andrew Brown, Santiago Casilla, Chad Gaudin (he also could've made the starting pitcher portion too), Keith Foulke (yes, he's been good even though he scares me to death at times),

Relief pitching disappointments:  Huston Street

Offense - D+ :  The A's have the 25th best batting average in all of baseball.  A team that prides itself on having patience at the plate is 16th in all of baseball in on-base percentage.  And let's not talk about power.  The team is 26th in all of baseball in slugging percentage.  Not surprisingly, the team is 10th in the AL in runs scored.  If this team had just average hitting and the starting pitching continues to prove its might, the A's could truly be a contending team this year.  Now I suspected we'd have this issue, especially with a lot of very young guys getting their first true extended major league experience.  Carlos Gonzalez, Daric Barton, Kurt Suzuki and Travis Buck were all likely going to be a foundation of the A's offense.  I expected them to have ups and downs, but for Barton and Buck, it's mostly been downs.  Jack Hannahan was getting his first extended experience.  Jack Cust really only had last season in the pros.  So a lot of the offense was built on wild cards.  One major known entity was Frank Thomas who the A's picked up for a piece of Hubba Bubba and a used Hyundai when the Blue Jays dumped him.  Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays are one of the teams who has scored fewer runs than the A's in the AL.  Still, I suspected the A's hitting was going to be mediocre, but it's been downright bad at points.  There are a few guys who've been right about where I expected them to be, such as Mark Ellis and even Bobby Crosby (although he has been a bit better than I expected).

Offensive standouts:  Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust (he does have an .823 OPS even if his BA isn't impressive), Frank Thomas

Offensive disappointments:  Travis Buck (possibly my personal biggest disappointment), Daric Barton (yeah he's really young, but he raised hopes of something special at the end of the year last year), Emil Brown (I expected him to at least hit left-handed pitching), Chris Denorfia (I thought he was going to be the regular guy in center field)

Managing - B :  I still hadn't made up my mind about Geren before this season started.  He hasn't done anything patently stupid and he's more flexible with his lineup card than Macha could've ever dreamed of being.  The problem is that when he's filling out that lineup card, he's often dealing with many of his best hitters not being there.  Ryan Sweeney has been arguably the A's best hitter this year and yet, he's been in and out of the lineup due to injury issues.  Mike Sweeney was hitting well and now he has injured knees.  Frank Thomas was getting in a groove and then he went down.  Eric Chavez has just recently become a regular in the A's lineup and he doesn't look 100 percent yet.  Still the starting pitching has made Geren look good.  He's made smart decisions for the most part with the bullpen.  Although I would really like to see him start to trust some of the younger guys a little more.  Foulke always looks like he's about to give up a bomb.  And Embree is always all about the heat, it's just a matter of whether someone gets geared up enough for it. One thing that I'm sure is a popular topic of discussion these days among the A's front office and Geren is what to do about Joe Blanton.  After yesterday's performance, I really think the A's have to think about replacing him as a starter, at least temporarily, with Chad Gaudin.  Still, given what the A's have had to deal with this year in terms of the injection of youth, unexpectedly bad struggles of guys like Buck and Barton, the myriad of injuries in the bullpen and to key offensive pieces, Geren has done a nice job of keeping a team that wasn't expected to compete in the running.  Much of that has to do with the starting pitching, mind you, but Geren has also done a pretty damn good job of handling the bullpen.

Front office - A- :  I know a lot of folks are going to automatically charge me with just giving Beane some undeserved praise here, but I honestly think that this could be the best job Beane has done in his time with the A's.  Yes, the team is still offensively deficient.  But it also has the best starting pitching in baseball right now and that's WITH the "ace" being the worst statistically on staff.  Danny Haren was awesome.  No one can dispute that.  But the A's have three significant chips already contributing at the major league level.  They also have a ton of talent in their minor league system now.  I'm not sure there are too many other front office groups in baseball who could simultaneously rebuild a farm system while keeping the major league team competitive for a division crown.  The biggest thing Beane has done is to build a team with depth.  So when an Eric Chavez can't play for months at a time, Jack Hannahan is waiting to take over.  Earlier in the season when Barton was struggling at first, Mike Sweeney saw some time there.  Greg Smith stepped into the rotation when Harden and Duchscherer went down.  Gaudin would probably be a top three starter for most rotations.  Yet he's sixth on the A's depth chart.  Brad Ziegler is there when the A's have bullpen issues.  Beane is nothing if not adaptive.  Yes, Emil Brown is seeming like a mistake right now, but he also had a ton of key RBIs at the beginning of the season when seemingly no one was batting in runs.  And Beane deserves a ton of credit for getting Frank Thomas for nothing.  Is the offense still a gong show?  Yes.  But Beane has done enough to cover up for the shortcomings by building the best rotation in baseball and a very steady bullpen to back it up.

 

Overall - A- : Honestly I wrestled with this one for a while.  I wavered between a B, B+, A- and an A.  But ultimately for me it came down to expectations.  I did not expect this team to be here halfway through the season.  I expected them to be in a distant third or even last place in the division.  But the starting pitching has kept this team afloat and right in the thick of the AL West despite low to no expectations from most folks. And my expectations were pretty low heading into 2008.  I thought I'd just enjoy watching some young kids come into their own.  Instead the team has fought and scrapped its way into second place in the division.

So there you have it.  My first half grades for our Oakland Athletics in 2008.  What grades would you give and why?  Who has been a disppointment so far and who has been a standout?

Better yet, give me some predictions for the second half of 2008.  Will the A's hang with the Angels or will they fade?  Will Harden and/or Duchscherer be sent to a contender for a truckload of quality prospects?  And maybe you even want to throw in the win total for 2008.  If I had to guess, I think the A's wind up around 86 wins and I do think either Harden or Duke will be dealt.

You know, I'm predisposed to loving everything Oakland Athletics.  No duh you're saying.  But there is always differences in the love for each particular version of our beloved A's. I imagine it's kind of like having a new child every year.  You love them all, you just love them differently.

This year, the A's are just a lovable bunch and it's kind of a shame that the fans in the Bay Area aren't coming out to see this team more frequently.  It's probably something along the lines of what Beane always says about clubhouse chemistry.  The chemistry is there as long as you're winning.  The love blossoms the more winning that happens.  But it's not just about that for me.  It's a huge part, don't get me wrong, and the 2008 team is already a lot more lovable than the 2007 bunch.  There's just something about having that "no expectations" mentality and have everyone on the planet disrespecting the team and succeeding in the face of that that makes our muppets even more lovable.

I mean, I could go down a list of these guys and explain why I find each of them appealing...OK, actually, I'll do just that.

Rich Harden:  I love a guy who can be so very dominant throwing essentially two pitches for the majority of the time.  He's thrown the splitter a bit more lately, but he's doing what he's been doing largely with just a fastball and a changeup.  Remarkable.  Oh and that smirk is frigging brilliant.

Justin Duchscherer and Greg Smith:  I'm looping these two together because they largely accomplish great things despite the doubters and people who don't believe a guy who can throw more than 89 mph can be dominant.  Duke for being amongst the pitching elite and Smith for doing what he's doing as a rookie.  Oh and they both look more like they should be teaching third grade math rather than pitching in the big leagues.  Like Harden and Blanton both look like big league pitchers.  Duke and Smith?  Not so much.  I love that.

Joe Blanton:  Blanton has been good this year and he's assumed a larger role that he probably wasn't equipped to handle.  So he's often been matched up against the number one guy on the other team.  He's also pitched a ton already this year given that the A's started earlier in Japan.  Still, do still love Cupcakes.

Dana Eveland:  From his demeanor to his body he reminds me of a combination of C.C. Sabathia and younger David Wells.  Let's just hope that he doesn't need to have a hangover to throw a no hitter.  I love the fact that, according to things I'd seen written about Eveland, teams didn't think he could make it because of his body and lack of commitment to his craft.  It's always nice to give guys that are nice and motivated.

Mark Ellis:  How can I not start with Ellis?  The guy plays defense in an understated, yet spectacular fashion.  It's odd to believe that this guy has never won a gold glove.  He also never seems to have an at bat where I'm saying, wow, that was just a terrible AB.

Eric Chavez:  Everyone has jumped on Chavez for years for not being clutch and being the master of the meaningless home run, but there's something about him this year that seems different.  Maybe I'm the only one who feels that way, but that home run he hit off Webb last night was remarkable.  It was a nearly perfect pitch sinking away to the outside corner and he still hit it out to the opposite field.  I don't remember Chavez doing that since maybe 2002.  So perhaps he's just feeling much better having had all of his various ailments repaired this past offseason.

Bobby Crosby:  He's been public enemy number one around here for a while but I think he's looked a lot better and more consistent than he's been in his still young career.  Plus, you've got to love a guy who is laying out to keep a ball in the infield to preserve a shutout when the A's are up 8-0 like they were last night. 

Kurt Suzuki:  Zook has been up and down this year, but he's calling the game game like he's been in the league 10 years.  Our pitchers are trusting him and he can show very occasional flashes of power unlike the A's previous catcher.  Plus he seems to be willing to block the plate unlike the A's previous catcher before the previous catcher.

Carlos Gonzalez:  That catch he made last night was just amazing.  And he seems like the real deal to me at the plate.  Yeah he's going to need time to mature, but he's so young that I fully expect to see him as an all star in the future.

Jack Cust:  Yeah he sometimes looks like the Keystone Cops in left field, but I will always pull for a guy who finally gets a shot to succeed after languishing in purgatory.  Cust is doing just that.  Yes, he frustrates me with the strikeouts, but much like a curious kid who takes apart the new toy you bought him to see how it works, you realize that with the bad is going to come the good.

Frank Thomas:  Even though I said that signing Frank might've been a mistake, I gotta admit that I love seeing rebar man waiting in the on deck circle.  2006 was such a fun season as an A's fan and Thomas feels like he should've always been an A.

Daric Barton:  I'm going to start calling Barton Martin Brodeur because he does the splits to get a ball at first base nearly once a game.  Yes, he hasn't been producing the way we want offensively, but he's also very young and has such an advanced knowledge of the strike zone that I do believe he's going to mature into a really good hitter.  We just have to be patient with him now.

Jack Hannahan:  OK so he isn't Marco Scutaro, but Hannahan is an excellent defensive sub that the A's have now.  And he plays a very solid defense at third when Chavez needs the inevitable rest this year.  These kinds of moves are what make Beane so special.  That and getting two ML pitchers and a ML outfielder who are already contributing for Dan Haren (and I love Haren).

Ryan Sweeney:  Would you trade for Nick Swisher straight up for Ryan Sweeney at this point?  I don't think I would and I really loved Swisher's attitude when he was here.  But Sweeney is maturing into a great ballplayer right in front of our very eyes.  Yeah, he's not very patient at the plate, but he's a very good hitter.  Maybe he'll come back down to earth a bit, but I really like him both offensively and defensively.

Chad Gaudin:  So he doesn't squawk a bit when he's relegated to bullpen status (at least not that I saw) despite the fact that he did absolutely nothing to deserve the demotion.  He's been a part of one of the best bullpens in baseball and probably had every right to complain when put there.  Yet he just remained professional and did what he needed to.  You've got to love him for it.  That and he's been just nails out of the pen.

Brad Ziegler:  A 28-year-old rookie who agreed to switch his delivery because he believed the A's organization when they told him that it would likely lead to his shot at the majors.  He's someone that inspires me every time I see him pitch because he seems like one of those guys who could've given up.  But he didn't.  He did everything that was asked of him and he's finally getting his chance.

Are there other guys to love?  Hell yes.  I'm coming around on my bitterness surrounding Keith Foulke's departure to the Red Sox a few years ago.  Santiago Casilla, or the Artist Formerly Known as Jairo as I like to call him, has been brilliant now that he's finally stuck at the big league level.

Any way, I'm probably getting swept away in a good spell for the A's as I am a fan first and foremost, but I can't help it.  This is a fun team to watch on a nightly basis.  You almost always know you're going to see good pitching and a competitive game.  How many teams can you say that about on a consistent basis?

I love you, 2008 Oakland A's.

Happy Memorial Day!!  What better to top off a sweep of the Red Sox than a visit with A's General Manager Billy Beane. 

It's been quite a while since I had the opportunity to have one of my lengthy interviews with Beane.  In the time between he and I last spoke, he's kick-started a rebuilding process with the green and gold, trading away Nick Swisher and Danny Haren.  His rebuilt team got off to a surprisingly good start and he also made the decision to bring back 2006 A's MVP Frank Thomas.  AND his team is sporting one of the most surprising pitching staffs in all of baseball right now.

So, as you could imagine, there was plenty to discuss when he and I sat down last week.  This was one of our longer interviews, yet I'm going to try and get it down to three parts.  Without further ado, here is my most recent interview with Billy Beane:

 

 

Blez:  It’s been a long time since we chatted and the last time we did, you shied away from the word “rebuilding” and called it “retooling” instead.  Since then you’ve gone through the rebuilding process and you yourself referred to it in the media as that. What was the impetus behind that rebuilding?

Billy Beane:  The impetus for it was where I thought we were headed. That to me is as important as anything with a franchise: not where you are but where you are going.  I really thought our best-case scenario for the next year or two was really mediocrity.  Ultimately there was no chance to be a really, really good team and I just felt we were going to just be in that middle area there.  I also knew at some point we were going to have to, so to delay it was really just wasting time.  We were at the FanFest and a few people were upset.  Actually every year there are a few people upset (laughs).  I remember asking the question back to a gentleman in the audience who was upset and it‘s good that he was upset because he cares about the team and he was there spending a Saturday which is why we have those events.  But I asked him the question of how many games he thought we would win if we stood pat and he said something like 75 or 80.  He was upset and I said, “Are you OK with that?”  That was essentially trying to stimulate what was going through our minds and get him thinking the same way.  Winning 75 or 80 games is nothing to get excited about, particularly if that’s what you’re going to do over the next several years.

Blez:  Especially when the fan base is used to success.

Beane:  Exactly.  I’ve always said you’re either building something that’s special or you have something that’s special.  In between is just no man’s land.  That was really it.  I felt like as good as the players were that we traded, we need a lot of good players to create something long-term.  

Blez:  How did you approach the process?  Did you basically just put a lot of calls out there to other GMs and say, “Everyone’s available, come make me an offer.”  Was it like that or did you even target certain players on your roster that you felt might have the most value?

Beane:  No, very rarely when it’s one of our high profile guys is it a situation where we’ll solicit a deal.  If you start doing that, whether someone admits it or not, it’s going to diminish value by you being the aggressor.  In Danny’s (Haren) case, and to Arizona’s credit, he was someone they always wanted.  And (Arizona GM) Josh (Byrnes) started poking around a little bit at the end of the year last year.  In truth, the process hadn’t been decided.  I wasn’t completely convinced that if we had come back completely healthy that sticking with the current roster and seeing what we had was an option.  You know if Rich (Harden) was healthy and Duke (Justin Duchscherer) was relatively healthy and Chavy was going to be ready to go.  I wasn’t completely convinced yet that it was time to do it so there was hope for a healthy club, but we hadn’t really decided.  That being said, we actually waited for clubs to come to us figuring that the clubs who came to us would understand the value of the player and would be serious about doing business.  We weren’t out there soliciting things at all.  The clubs that were serious, we would talk to them.  In Arizona’s case and to their credit, they had done their homework and checked in early so we were pretty far along in the process once we decided to go ahead and make the move.

Blez:  Arizona had been poking around before you decided to go this route?  They had initiated the discussions last year?

Beane:  Yes.  We had also made it known that we weren’t sure what direction we were going to go yet.

Blez:  Did you do that on purpose?  You know, saying it publicly that you didn’t know where you wanted to go yet to try and get some interest going.

Beane:  Yeah, you do it for two reasons.  First, it can lead to people calling you on some guys.  What you don’t want to do is to go out there and be making calls on your own players.  If you are, then it can diminish their value a little bit and you don’t want to be doing that.  It also gives you some options without committing yourselves.  We literally hadn’t decided until we touched down from coming back from the winter meetings what we were going to do.  That’s when we decided that we needed to do something.  When we were at the winter meetings, we had talked about Dan with the Diamondbacks, but at that point it was unclear if that was what we were going to do.  And it was literally when the wheels touched down was when we decided to do something here.  That’s when we got the injury report on Gaudin.  Chavy was still battling through his problems and we felt like we were kidding ourselves thinking we could patch this thing together.  

Blez:  How different was this process compared to the (Tim) Hudson and (Mark) Mulder process of a few years ago?

Beane:  I think when we did trade Tim and Mark we quietly felt like we were going to be a lot better than people thought especially when you took into account the fact that we had some significant injuries that past year and we had a terrible injury month of May.  Then Croz (Bobby Crosby) came back and we had a great run.  But I think prior to that year, everyone (in the front office) thought we’d be better than people thought.  So it wasn’t really a rebuilding, but more of a shifting around of assets.  The difference this time is that we anticipate this being a longer-term situation and I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what we had.

Blez:  You mean what you got from the deals?

Beane:  Not so much what we got from the deals, but I didn’t know where we would be in the process until the season started.  So every now and then people would ask, “How good do you think you’re going to be?” and some people would ask, “How bad do you think you’re going to be?” and I don’t think we had any expectations for either.  At the same time, I don’t think we have limitations either.  We sort of kept an open book.  We wanted to create an atmosphere that was somewhat forgiving, which I think we did.  When you’re a contending team every year, people start filling up their stories (in the news media) about who is going to fill out the roster as the 25th man and who is going to fill the role of a left-handed bat off the bench.  There is such intensity every day and every article.  Our spring training articles were, “Getting to Know Ryan Sweeney” and “What is Kurt Suzuki’s Favorite Color” and things like that.  So an environment was created that we wanted to encourage.  

Blez:  Low to no pressure?

Beane:  Yeah, low pressure and kind of an open book and I think it helped.  People have said it, but I also think the Japan trip helped too.

Blez:  I think it did help because the team got off to one of its best April starts in a few seasons.  Are you surprised at how the team shot out of the gate?

Beane:  Not after the spring training that we had.  The spring training we had was really good.  So yes and no.  I wasn’t shocked.  A couple of individual performances surprised me.  We liked Greg Smith, but him coming up as soon as he did and performing as well as he did-- we found out that he’s a little further down the road in terms of development that we thought.  There were also some disappointing surprises too.  Travis (Buck) getting hurt and struggling like he did.  He’s the last guy I thought would’ve ever slumped out of the gate.  All he’s ever done since we drafted him is hit.  And so that was a surprise.  We had a blip when Duke and Harden went out. But that allowed Greg Smith to come in and Chad (Gaudin) did a really good job in the rotation.  I don’t really know whether I’m surprised or not surprised.  I really don’t know.  It’s still a short-term situation where I’ve stayed away from making predictions and I’ve been reasonably happy.  I just think there is so much more room for improvement which is really the encouraging thing.  When you start off and have the best pitching in the league and you have that as your foundation then you’re more than halfway there.

Blez:  Was the goal in making the Haren and Swisher deals to make sure you were building the best possible team towards moving into the Fremont Stadium in 2011 or 2012?  Was there any thought given to that rather than worrying about now?

Beane:  In the background, but even if we’d stayed here for the next 10 years, it was going to have to happen.  The benefit of this time around is that maybe these players we got and are grooming will stay around a little longer than years past.  If we develop a young player and he’s going to be a free agent at 26, maybe we can sign him to a long-term deal.  But if we’d stayed here, we’d still have to do this and probably more so because with the revenue situation it would’ve been a short-term constant similar to what we’ve had to do the last few years.  

Blez:  You and I have talked about this in the past, but there have been articles written about how this team is perceived as being soulless and having a revolving door of players.  The Athletics constantly have that carousel of players every year and the fan base has to get reacquainted with their players.  My wife was watching a game with me the other day and basically said, “Who‘s he and who‘s he?  They really did get rid of everyone.”  Are you afraid of how that’s viewed in the community?

Beane:  Not really.  We really don’t have any other choice to do this.

Blez:  I’m not really talking about the hard core fans who live and breathe and die with the team like the Athletics Nation people do.  I’m talking more about the casual fan who comes on occasion because the team has an interesting player they want to see.

Beane:  I don’t think people come out on a regular basis to see individuals.  I think people come out to see a team.  We have no other way to operate. We could operate where we have a whole generation of players well beyond its prime but there would be even less people here.  For every one we lose because we don’t keep their favorite player, we’re going to keep two if we win.  And the reverse is true.  The thing that’s always been interesting about being here is that there is always excuses about why people don’t come out.  The fact is that we don’t draw.  The blame has always been on this thing or that thing.  There is always something new.  I mean we went to the ALCS in 2006 and in an era when baseball attendance was shooting up 26 percent or something, we wound up drawing less people the next year.  Explain that.  Over the last decade, we’ve put a pretty good product on the field.  We have a group (of fans) here that’s been here since the first year we came here.  The fact remains is that we’re still well behind the curve when it comes to attendance and some of it is probably the organization’s fault.  Not everyone is completely blameless.  You can understand that when you’re having that kind of turnover you’re going to lose some of that loyalty.  Again the flip side for us, given everything that we have to balance, is that we’re going to maintain that loyalty with the hardcore people by putting the best product we can on the field and having to err on the side of making good business decisions instead of making emotional decisions.  Believe me, my life would be a lot easier if we could just stamp a team down for the next six or seven seasons.

Blez:  Obviously bringing someone on board like Frank Thomas doesn’t really jive with what people think of when they think of the term “rebuilding”.  What were some of your thoughts about why to bring someone like Big Hurt back to the green and gold? And are you afraid that it might take some valuable playing time, especially when you made such an effort to rebuild, from a great young talent like Daric Barton where he‘s sitting on the bench instead of gaining experience?

Beane:  That’s a fair point.  I think I saw someone on your site say, “Why did you sign Emil Brown?”  Someone was afraid he was going to take at bats away from others.  

Blez:  Man, you’re jumping ahead on me here.

Beane:  Well, we’re nothing if not efficient at these things now (laughing).  In Mike Sweeney’s case even before Frank got here, we were thinking we didn’t really have a young DH.  We wanted Jack Cust in the outfield for part of the time.  Not on a full-time basis, but part-time.  Jack will be the first to tell you that he isn’t going to win a gold glove, but we wanted it as an option.  It’s nice having a guy who can go out there when you need him.  But getting back to Frank, those points are fair, but in Daric’s case, when we signed Frank, Mike’s knee was barking a little bit.  Daric is still going to get the bulk of the at bats and his history, even in the minor leagues, suggests that he hasn’t played a full season.  This is an opportunity to give him some rest that’s needed.  We have a 162-game schedule and the idea that we’re just going to run him out there for 162 games when his past history suggests that he couldn’t do it in the minor leagues is probably a little unrealistic.  The other thing too is that we’re always going to look for opportunities.  If we find something that we perceive as a great value, we’re going to jump at it.  You always try to do both.  It’s not a zero sum game where you’re either this or that.  You can accomplish this while still trying to do that.  You can try to get young players and rebuild and create a good situation and also try to be competitive.  Quite frankly, Frank was such a positive influence when he was here.   The thing I like about having Frank around the younger players is how he prepares himself.  He prepares himself similar to how Barry Zito used to prepare himself to pitch in a game.  That’s good for young guys to watch.   And I have such a soft spot for Frank.  He had such a great year (when he was here).  And you can’t beat the price for a guy who brings all he does.

Blez:  Would you had made the decision to bring Frank back if the team hadn’t gotten off to a pretty good start?

Beane:  Yeah, I think so.  Our history suggests that if you can make incremental improvements, you should.  Yeah, it’s hard to imagine not being interested in Frank.

Blez:  You guys basically got back nine players in the Haren and Swisher deals.  You got nine players for three.  What made the nine guys you got back so appealing?

Beane:  It was well-laden in pitching.  A lot of the success we had the last 10 years was due to the fact that we had some great pitchers here.  A good deal of them were home grown and started with us.  We needed to get back to a point where our pitching was coming through the system because we had no other way of getting it.  It’s hard to sign it.  It’s too expensive.  It’s hard to trade for it once it’s established.

Blez:  Well that makes sense especially considering that you got six players back for an established pitcher.

Beane:  Yeah, exactly.  The Arizona deal and the Chicago deal help out greatly and we have a few guys in our system that we like quite a bit who are pitchers.  When we did the Hudson and Mulder deal, Meyer got hurt and Danny turned into what we thought he would, but in a perfect world you don’t struggle with injuries and you don’t lose half the value of the deals right there.  So we knew we needed a lot of guys to get this done, especially pitching because even drafting pitching in the first round is risky.  The biggest thing from our end is to know we have some good potential starters down the road knowing that things are going to happen over the next couple of years.  

Blez:  How tough was it for you to trade a guy like Swisher knowing that he has a couple of the traits the A’s covet the most in a hitter: power and patience?  He’s also one of your favorite personalities.

Beane:  It was a tough phone call.  I remember exactly where I was when I called him and he was shocked.  It was tough.  We had a long conversation.  I did like Nick.  He’s a good kid that had a lot of personality that fans saw and we saw.  How he is on the field is exactly how he is in the clubhouse.  He always had a smile and a lot of energy.  From a playing standpoint, he had the power and the patience.  We knew we were giving that up, but the thing about this winter is that there were never any illusions that we weren’t giving up good players.  We were essentially giving up a couple of good players to get a lot of really good young players.  These guys are both in the prime of their careers.  But in short, it was one of the most difficult calls I’ve ever had to make from a trade standpoint, if not the most difficult call.

 

Coming Tomorrow:  Beane discusses Rich Harden, the A's lack of a consistent offense and the first base, left field, DH shuffle.

For all the close games the A's and Angels have played over the last few years, tonight was the rare exception.  The A's blasted the hated Angels 14-2 with Emil Brown and Daric Barton leading the way with home runs and three RBIs a piece.  Frank Thomas also was a home run short of the cycle.  Chad Gaudin pitched through a rough strike zone and held the Angels to only two runs.

Let me get this out of the way right off the bat.  Yes, Frank Thomas hit a triple in the first inning and Jack Cust had an infield hit.  If that doesn't tell you that things have been breaking the A's way of late then nothing will.  Thomas might've had a shot at the cycle had Bob Geren not put a pinch runner in at the bottom of the seventh when he led off with a double.  The thing is, the game was actually still a game at that point because it was still 6-2 and despite Thomas' new found wheels that earned him a triple earlier in the game, I would want the extra insurance run if we can get it. 

Emil Brown decided to eliminate that by starting the pain train on Chris Bootcheck, who got the check booted out of him.  The A's started the Bugs Bunny style conga line going around the bases with Bootcheck.  But the game was probably decided earlier.  Home plate umpire Charlie Reliford had one of the most baffling strike zones I've seen in a while.  And apparently Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher agreed as he got thrown out after Frank Thomas walked in the third inning.  The funny thing is that Gaudin had to deal with the same weird strike zone and he worked through it.  Is there ever a game when Mike Scioscia doesn't complain about something?  The Angels announcers were blaming the loss on the Angels tough travel schedule about having to come home from Detroit last night late and play the A's today.  Of course, no credit given to these anonymous A's.  That's fine.  Keep dissing this team.  They love it that way.

I'm hoping Frank Thomas is now coming out of it with three hits tonight.  That's his first triple since 2002 and Mulder, Hudson and Zito were still Athletics.  That seems so long ago.  Also, Daric Barton hits his first home run of the season and I thought the reason he did was because he was patient with the baffling strike zone.  He essentially forced Garland to come in with an easy pitch right down the middle.

And finally, props to Vacafan who called Emil Brown's home run.  Dude, are you getting an Emil tat or what? 

This was one sweet night.

 

Cliff Lee was virtually unhittable today. With some better defense behind him, he could have been literally unhittable: with the exception of Garko's Tyrone Power impersonation on Buck's "triple" in the 2nd, and Pherhalhtha's subsequent underplay of Ellis's run-scoring infield "single," the A's didn't muster a baserunner against the Indians' starter. Lee was dealing, and with the weather conditions (featuring a 48-minute pregame delay due to cold and threat of snow) knocking down every fly ball, the A's offense didn't stand a chance.

On the flip side, despite a not-terrible final line (6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H) with not-awful peripherals (4 K, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 60/48 strikes/balls), Chad Gaudin really pitched a lousy game. He benefited far more than Cliff Lee from the weather conditions, with 3 or 4 Indians hitters being robbed of extra bases by the swirling wind, and he was pitching from behind all day long. Twenty degrees warmer, and this likely would have been an even bigger Indians romp.

Fernando Hernandez then single-handedly increased the temperature in the 8th by adding accelerant to the Indians' fire, giving up a four-spot to (ahem) put the game on ice.

Hernandez and Gaudin are both going to have to correct their control problems if they're going to remain, respectively, short- and medium-term members of the A's pitching staff. Gaudin's inconsistent control has already led two other teams to give up on him, and Hernandez isn't making much of a case to not be returned off his Rule 5 pick. (Note: I'm not advocating on giving up on Gaudin this year, as he's cheap and still under team control for a while, and has first-half-of-'07 promise. I'm just not sure if he's in the A's '09-10 "planned contention" blueprints if he keeps this up.)

Tomorrow, the A's are in Chicago for a quick two-game set against the White Sox to finish off the road trip.