Well, it's the All Star break and I figured it would be a good time to check in on the progress of many of our prized minor league prospects since that's the direction our beloved green and gold are going.

 

Jonathan Mayo covers the minor leagues and the draft for MLB.com.  I thought I would interview him regarding our A's prospects since that's his regular beat.  I happened to send this interview to him before the Harden deal so I didn't get a chance to ask him about the prospects the A's got back from the Cubs.  Maybe he'll stop by and offer his take.

 

Enjoy!

 

Blez:  First of all, have you seen Michel Inoa?  What do you think of the A's going out and beating everyone out for this guy?

 

Jonathan Mayo:  I have not seen him. The A’s going out and getting him has to be one of the bigger surprises in recent memory, doesn’t it? I mean, the A’s just don’t do things like this. The whole process has been fascinating and it looks like Beane’s personal touch paid off. I know there are people out there who feel something odd occurred in the negotiating process, not necessarily with Oakland, mind you, but with what happened with other teams involved. Unfortunately, the whole international signing process is so difficult to monitor, there’s a lot that goes on unseen and a lot of rumors that end up being generated as a result.

 

Blez:  How do you think he projects out?  I know that's tough for a 16-year-old, but I'm wondering what you think of his upside.

 

Mayo:  That’s the thing that’s so scary about Inoa. He’s so big already and the fact he could add an inch or two is frightening. He’ll also fill out some and how he handles that growth will determine just how good he’ll be. I think he’s got as much upside as any pitcher to enter the pro game we’ve seen in years.

 

Blez: How would you rank the A's top 5 pitching prospects and can you give me a short blurb about each of them?

 

Mayo:  Trevor Cahill -- He's gone from a decent prospect to an outstanding one with his 2008 season so far. Pitching in Double-A and a recent trip to the Futures Game are some nice feathers in his cap.

 

Brett Anderson -- Coming out of high school, he wasn't your typical prep pitcher. Because of his father, a long-time college coach, he really knew how to pitch and looked more like a pitchability college lefty type. Showed a nifty pickoff move in the Futures Game, that's for sure. In Double-A, he's already way ahead of the curve.

 

Henry Rodriguez -- Created as much buzz as anyone at the Futures Game by hitting triple-digits and sitting in the upper-90s on the radar gun. He might be a short reliever when all is said and done, but I'd like to see the A's exhaust the possibilities/opportunities for him as a starter before making that move.

 

Gio Gonzalez -- What can I say? I still love the guy. Stuff-wise, still among the best LHP in the Minors. Still very young. It's going to click at some point -- maybe it's starting right now -- and when it does the A's will have an outstanding southpaw starter on their hands.

 

Michel Inoa -- I know others might rank him more highly right away based on upside/ceiling, but color me skeptical. I like to see a guy pitch in affiliated baseball at least for a little before going too nuts over him.

 

Honorable mention: James Simmons, Craig Italiano

 

Blez:  There seems to be a lot of debate about Trevor Cahill and whether he's a top-line starter in the making given his incredible stats this year.  Where do you fall on that and have you seen him pitch live?

 

Mayo:  I saw him pitch live in the Futures Game and, obviously, that's just one inning of work so you can't really extrapolate too much over that. Like I mentioned above, he's made a big step forward with his 2008 season and I think opinions are changing about what his ceiling might be. That will continue to evolve if his second half continues the way his first half went. I think he probably is a No. 2 or probably more likely a No. 3 and that's nothing to sneeze at. But just what he's done this year shows how difficult -- and risky -- it can be to try and project pitching prospects, especially those who are that young.

 

Blez:  How would you rank the A's top 5 hitting prospects and can you give me a short blurb about them?

 

Mayo:  I'd start with Carlos Gonzalez if this were the beginning of the year, but since he's in the bigs, I won't count him...

 

Sean Doolittle -- Those U.Va. guys... you think they don't have power and then they turn pro. A .560 SLG isn't too shabby and he's a guy who'll hit .300 every year. Nice to see him get promoted to Double-A... and start out so well.

 

Chris Carter -- Yes, he swings and misses quite a bit, but he's got the most power in the system, leading the organization with 25 homers at age 21 in High-A ball. Looks like he's made some adjustments and has his average up over .260 now.

 

Aaron Cunningham -- Certainly doesn't seem to be fazed by switching organizations. Can hit for power, average and can run. And he'll run through a wall for you.

 

Matt Sulentic -- He's still only 20 and he seems to have a pretty good handle on how to swing the bat in the California League. Not sure how much power he'll develop, but there's more there, but he's going to be a guy who hits for average and gets on base.

 

Jesus Guzman -- I know he's "older" at age 24 and he hasn't done much in Triple-A thus far, but he is leading the organization in average and RBIs. He plays all over the infield and even has seen time in the outfield in the past, so maybe he's a super-sub with pop.

 

Blez:  How good does the Dan Haren deal look to you since you're a guy that focuses so much on prospects?

 

Mayo:  It was hard not to love the deal immediately and the performances of those players certainly makes it look even better. C-Gon's already producing in the big leagues, Greg Smith and Dana Eveland are contributing big-time as well, Anderson has moved up a level, Cunningham's hitting well in Double-A at a young age and Carter, as mentioned above, leads the organization in homers. Not too shabby.

 

Blez:  Are you surprised to see Greg Smith and Dana Eveland have this much success, this soon?

 

Mayo:  No on Smith, a little on Eveland. After seeing Smith pitch in the Arizona Fall League, I really thought he'd be a real good big-league pitcher, and soon. He kind of is what he is, you know? A lefty who commands and mixes speeds well. But he's so smart on the mound and goes right after hitters and even if he doesn't have a huge ceiling, he's plenty good right now. As for Eveland, I guess I thought it might take him a little time to settle in. He kind of had been shuttled back and forth between starting and the pen

 

Blez:  What do you think of the A's draft this year? 

 

Mayo:  I always have a hard time evaluating a draft class this soon after the draft, especially since the signing deadline isn't for another month. They were kind of conservative up top, though Ross has the potential to provide a big arm if he's healthy and Weeks is a nice player. They did take some chances later on with some guys who slipped because of signability concerns (strong college commitments). If they actually get some of those in the system, then I'd grade it as a good draft, up from just OK.

 

Blez:  There was much angst on AN about the Weeks selection where he went.  Was it too high?  What kind of player does he project to?

 

Mayo:  I think it was a little too high, but I also know that if they were looking for a leadoff, speedy type, there weren't many other options. And Weeks would not have been there had they waited for the second round. The other college bats available were of the power, 1B/maybe corner OF variety and if the A's scouts weren't thrilled with them, then taking Weeks there might have made more sense. I think they would've taken Aaron Hicks had they been able to convince him to give pitching a try. I think Weeks can be a good leadoff hitter, maybe a No. 2 guy. He showed some surprising pop this past season, but I don't know if that'll translate to wood and the pro game. He definitely doesn't have the power his brother has, but he can run and make contact and should be a pretty good offensive-minded 2B or could possibly make a move to CF.

 

Blez:  Javier Herrera has seemingly been in the A's system since I think he was born.  He's always been regarded as a raw talent.  Do you think we'll ever see him blossom?

 

Mayo:  For as long as he's been in the system, he's still only 23. If he could stay healthy for more than 10 minutes, maybe things would start coming together. But he's never even had a 400-AB season. It's kind of hard to turn that kind of potential into performance if you can't get on the field. I think he's got the chance to still blossom if he can play consistently and the A's don't give up on him. He's still on the 40-man roster, but he's also only got another year before he could be a six-year free agent. The clock is ticking, but I think he still has a future.

 

Blez:  How quickly do you think the A's rotation will turn over from what it is now to something more like Anderson, Cahill, Gonzalez, Rodriguez and Inoa?  Are we looking at when the team moves into the new ballpark in 2012 or sooner?

 

Mayo:  I think the first three will be in the rotation by then, barring injuries. Rodriguez still could end up a reliever, so we'll have to wait and see on that one. Inoa? Who knows -- he maybe one of the largest wild cards the game has ever seen. The good news is the A's have so many other good young arms they can afford to let him develop at the rate he needs to. No rush jobs will be needed there.

 

Blez:  Thank you very much for your time.  AN appreciates it.

 

About Jonathan

Mayo covers the Minor Leagues and the draft for MLB.com. He's got two blogs there, one on the Minors (minors.mlblogs.com) and one on the draft (draft.mlblogs.com). He's also the author of the book Facing Clemens, a pre-Mitchell Report look at the right-hander through the eyes of hitters who have faced him. More information on that can be found at www.jonathanmayo.net.

Over the course of a 162-game schedule there are games that you're going to win that you probably shouldn't.  Especially if you have good pitching and defense and play solid fundamental baseball.  The A's did that tonight despite the rough night from Dana Eveland.  He somehow made it through 5 1/3 innings despite giving up nine hits, four walks and zero strikeouts.  He only gave up three runs because of some stellar defense behind him.

I think the difference often between a team that can hang close to a division leader and the last place team is easy.  The Mariners made some very crucial mistakes tonight, possibly none bigger than Adrian Beltre not touching third base after a fly ball was caught by the A's and he scrambled to get back to second.  It was the top of the fifth and at the time the M's had Beltre on second and Sexson on first with one out.  Johjima flew out to Carlos Gonzalez and the A's dugout noticed that Beltre missed touching third on his way back to second.  The bottom of that same inning the A's took the lead thanks to a Wes Bankston home run, a Gregorio Petit double and a Ryan Sweeney single. Then in the top of the sixth, when Eveland was in trouble again and loaded the bases with one out, The Terminator, I mean Brad Ziegler came in to induce an inning-ending double play on two pitches.  Congratulations to Ziggy who will now be in the A's record books as the pitcher to go the longest to start his career in Oakland history without allowing a run.  

The A's squeezed a win out Eveland, who was lucky to come out of his outing with a victory.  By the way, it wasn't all that surprising that the Mariners whacked Eveland around a bit.  I was looking at their stats during the game and they're hitting .283 as a team versus lefties and .248 against righties. I also wasn't surprised that the A's were getting dominated by Jarrod Washburn since they're the opposite way around, hitting better against righties than lefties.  They just seem to face quite a few lefties and they're a lot more vulnerable to them since they lost Frank Thomas and Mike Sweeney.

Huston Street did make it interesting at the end with Ichiro ending the game in scoring position just itching to tie the game.  But Street closed the door.

Impressively, the A's are having success with names that I didn't anticipate having a great impact on their year.  Wes Bankston, Ryan Sweeney and even Ziggy.  Regardless, let's make this very interesting for Billy Beane and company at the end of July.

Over the course of a 162-game schedule there are games that you're going to win that you probably shouldn't.  Especially if you have good pitching and defense and play solid fundamental baseball.  The A's did that tonight despite the rough night from Dana Eveland.  He somehow made it through 5 1/3 innings despite giving up nine hits, four walks and zero strikeouts.  He only gave up three runs because of some stellar defense behind him.

I think the difference often between a team that can hang close to a division leader and the last place team is easy.  The Mariners made some very crucial mistakes tonight, possibly none bigger than Adrian Beltre not touching third base after a fly ball was caught by the A's and he scrambled to get back to second.  It was the top of the fifth and at the time the M's had Beltre on second and Sexson on first with one out.  Johjima flew out to Carlos Gonzalez and the A's dugout noticed that Beltre missed touching third on his way back to second.  The bottom of that same inning the A's took the lead thanks to a Wes Bankston home run, a Gregorio Petit double and a Ryan Sweeney single. Then in the top of the sixth, when Eveland was in trouble again and loaded the bases with one out, The Terminator, I mean Brad Ziegler came in to induce an inning-ending double play on two pitches.  Congratulations to Ziggy who will now be in the A's record books as the pitcher to go the longest to start his career in Oakland history without allowing a run.  

The A's squeezed a win out Eveland, who was lucky to come out of his outing with a victory.  By the way, it wasn't all that surprising that the Mariners whacked Eveland around a bit.  I was looking at their stats during the game and they're hitting .283 as a team versus lefties and .248 against righties. I also wasn't surprised that the A's were getting dominated by Jarrod Washburn since they're the opposite way around, hitting better against righties than lefties.  They just seem to face quite a few lefties and they're a lot more vulnerable to them since they lost Frank Thomas and Mike Sweeney.

Huston Street did make it interesting at the end with Ichiro ending the game in scoring position just itching to tie the game.  But Street closed the door.

Impressively, the A's are having success with names that I didn't anticipate having a great impact on their year.  Wes Bankston, Ryan Sweeney and even Ziggy.  Regardless, let's make this very interesting for Billy Beane and company at the end of July.

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.

You've already read Part I .  Yesterday you read Part II .  Now, comes the conclusion of one of the longest interviews with Billy Beane I've ever conducted.

One note.  I meant to ask Billy about AN favorite and contributor Brad Ziegler but I forgot, so I sent him an email to ask him and his reply was, "On Ziegler we have definitely noticed how well he has performed and at some point, if he continues,  deserves an opportunity"  So keep up the great work, Brad and hopefully we'll see you with the big club sooner rather than later. 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I do conducting it.  I feel extremely lucky that I get the opportunity to do this and I take the responsibility very, very seriously.

Enjoy the conclusion. 

 

Blez:  Back to the big league club for a moment.  Bobby Crosby had one of the best months he’s had in a long time in April.  What do you think he’s doing differently in the box to make him so much more effective?

Beane:  Well he’s staying in the box.  I mean he’s healthy and that’s helpful.  I’ve said this many times with you but he’s missed so much development time and people tend to get frustrated with injuries.  People expect him to come back and play like a veteran of four or five years and that’s really not the case.  One of the things Bobby is doing much better this year is that he’s going to right field much better.  He’s shortening up with two strikes.  He still opens up a little bit, but he’s had streaks this year where he’s really cut down on his strikeouts and done a great job with two strikes.  He did it just the other day with a double down the line.  When he goes to right field and he thinks that way with two strikes, he’s a dangerous hitter.  To me that’s the biggest thing.  He’ll still fall back a little and it’s something he’s aware of.  It’s something he knew he had an adjustment to make and at times he’s done a good job of making that adjustment.

Blez:  It’s funny because this past weekend, I heard a couple of Atlanta broadcasts and both times they were praising what a great player Crosby could be.  They said it twice how well-rounded a player Crosby was.  They mentioned it several times and I just thought it was funny how the people on AN and people who see him everyday just don’t have that same perception.  There seems to be nothing but frustration with Bobby.

Beane:  The first of it came with his injuries.  What comes hand-in-hand with those injuries was missing that development time and the frustration level also comes from the fact that at times, he’s very good.  People see him put it together.

Blez:  A’s fans have had that same frustration with Eric Chavez for quite a while.

Beane:  Exactly. The frustration comes from everyone realizing the ability is there and wondering when the consistency might come with the performance.  We’re not even two months into the season and this year I think he’s been pretty consistent.  I’ve said it to you many times but I’m a big Bobby Crosby fan because it’s hard to find that kind of talent.  You know someone who plays good defense, can run and have power and speed.  Especially in the middle of the diamond.  The one thing I’m privy to is how much he cares.  All those guys care, but some of them care a lot.  And Bobby is one of those guys that takes every game to heart.  Whether or not people are frustrated with him, if they saw the kid on a day-to-day basis like I do and knew how much he cared, I think he’d quickly become one of their favorites.  For me it hurts when we lose physically and when I see Bobby, I see how I feel in his face if he doesn’t perform well.  And he’s a competitor.  You talk about a god awful mood and a guy you don’t want to speak to if he doesn’t perform well, he’s one of them.  And I like that.  He wears his performance on his sleeve.  If he’s not playing well and the team isn’t playing well, you don’t want to be around him which is good because you want guys to care.  I know how much Bobby cares.

Blez:   How concerned were you with Jack Cust’s early season slump?  He seems to have gotten out of it.

Beane:  Yeah, he became player of the week and given where he started and where he is now, he’s made amazing progress.  He was still getting on base and was a little behind home run-wise.  But that’s the thing that has happened to Jack over his career.  People have pulled the plug on him when he’s struggled.  They’ve never allowed him to struggle and the guy hit 26 home runs last year when he came to us at the end of May.  He deserves the opportunity to struggle.  So to answer your question about how concerned I was, I believed he would get it going.  He was still taking some of his walks and Jack has been hitting since he was 18 years old.  I didn’t think that all of a sudden the bubble had burst.  That was why we kept him out there.

Blez:  Did you think it might’ve been one of those situations where people might’ve gotten a better book on him?  It seemed like they were throwing him nothing but offspeed, offspeed, offspeed.

Beane:  When you’re struggling, every guy looks bad on offspeed stuff.  Jack’s going to strike out there.  We know that.

Blez:  Do you mind all those strike outs from him?

Beane:  Well, we don’t like them (laughing).  But that’s who he is.  But the idea that Jack is going to turn into (former Pirate and A) Manny Sanguillen or a guy that makes a lot of contact just isn’t going to happen.  He does have a great strike zone and walks a lot and he has a lot of power.  That’s just part of the deal with Jack.

Blez:  Were you fascinated by Jack’s season last year in which he seemed to have three true outcomes any time Jack came up last year and that was a walk, home run or strike out?  Had you ever seen anything like that before?

Beane:  When (Mark) McGwire was here, it was kind of like that.  He actually had a tough year in 89 or 90, but you saw a little bit of it there.  But listen if you had nine Jack Custs in your lineup, you’d have a lot of home runs and a lot of guys on base. 

Blez:  You’d win a lot of games.

Beane:  Exactly, you’d win a lot of games. 

Blez:  Kind of like the concept of having nine Scott Hattebergs.

Beane:  But that was the beauty of Hatte, that he would take a walk or likely be able to make contact. 

Blez:  What I was saying was a reference to the concept of the winning team from Moneyball with nine Scott Hattebergs.

Beane:  Yeah, if you had nine Jack Custs, you’d have a pretty good offensive club.  That’s a lot of walks and home runs.

Blez:  I know Eric Chavez has been rehabbing in Sacramento.  Do you think we’ll see him on the field in 2008?  Mark Kotsay had a similar back surgery and he had stated that he never felt good all year long last year. Kotsay has been better since he’s been in Atlanta, but do you think it’s realistic that we’ll see Chavez this year?

Beane:  Oh yeah, I’d be surprised if we didn’t.  He’s felt great up until this point.  Given what Eric has gone through, everyone is going to be cautious and even cautiously optimistic.  He’s eligible to come off on May 27th.  That doesn’t mean we’re going to pull him off but I think the fact that he’s playing games in Sacramento is the best indicator. 

Blez:  Is he playing full games down there?

Beane:  He had four at bats and went two for four last night.  He’s DHed and done some field work.  It’s a very detailed plan on how to get him back out there.  It’s a long program.  The 60-day DL was the best thing for him because early on he was trying so hard to get out there as soon as possible.  When we pushed it so far out into May, I think it forced him to take a deep breath and say, well I can’t come back until the 27th of May any way.  He had to come out the other night but not because it had anything to do with his back or anything but his shoulder and leg was just dead.  He hasn’t been out in the field a lot so his legs were just crushed.  But so far so good, he hit a home run yesterday.

Blez:  I meant to ask this earlier when we were talking about him, but how does the situation work with his contract?  Do you have a chance to pick up the option on him that the Jays had?

Beane:  He was released so the option is wiped clean and we don’t have a chance to pick it up.

Blez:  We’ve talked a lot about the starting pitching and surprises like Dana Eveland and Greg Smith, but did you expect the bullpen to be as good as it has been so far?  Casilla in particular up until his arm injury the other day.  He was having an Eckersley-like season..  Andrew Brown was also great up until his recent struggles.

Beane:  Yeah, Casilla looked great.  I actually thought we were pretty good.  But the guy who has come up and been pretty good as a surprise has been Joey Devine.  We wanted him to get his feet wet with the organization and we knew we were going to call him up at some point but we didn’t expect it this early.  But he’s really taken off since he’s been here.  In Andrew and Casilla’s case, I don’t think we were really surprised.  Santiago’s always had that ability.

Blez:  He’s throwing 96 and 97 miles per hour.

Beane:  He’s had times, depending on his workload in the minor leagues, where he’s hit 95, 97 at times and depending on workload he’ll drop down to 90, 92.  And Andrew has been the same way.  I thought we had the makings of a pretty deep bullpen.  Keith (Foulke) has been a pretty nice addition too.  He’s pitched really well.  So to answer your question, I thought we’d have a shot at pretty good bullpen quite frankly.

Blez:  I’ll raise my hand and say I was down on the Emil Brown signing at the beginning just because I thought he was going to take some playing time away from the younger guys like Travis Buck and maybe even blocking Carlos Gonzalez had he broken with the team.  But Brown has proven to do something well that the A’s haven’t had the last few years and that’s hitting with runners in scoring position, although he has hit a little slump recently. 

Beane:  He’s not the only one, we had a tough offensive road trip.

Blez:  What exactly made him an appealing signing for you and does it make sense that a guy who may not be as patient as the rest of the lineup to force opposition pitchers to approach them differently.  Someone like Jay Payton comes to mind because I thought he was a nice fit for the lineup because everyone else would see a lot of pitchers and…

Beane:  He’d jump on the first pitch or something?

Blez:  Yeah, exactly.

Beane:  That’s a very good comparison actually.  Jay and Emil are a very good comparison.  They’re both aggressive in the strike zone.

Blez:  And they’ll lay off on occasion too.

Beane:  Yeah and that’s a pretty interesting comparison.  In Emil’s case, he’s played a lot too.  The last week you mentioned, he struggled a little bit.  But the thought was that he was going to give some of the young left handers a break against some left-handed pitching.  He’s swung the bat well though so he’s been in there every day.  I do think he could use a couple days off as well at some point.  With Emil, we drafted him so we had a background with him.  And originally when the season ended we thought there was a chance we were going to bring Shannon (Stewart) back.  Then Shannon wanted a longer contract than we wanted to give at the time.  It then looked like he was going to get it and Emil became available.  We didn’t have a right-handed bat so we needed a right-handed bat to offset all those young left-handed hitters.  And Emil’s always been a good RBI guy.  So we thought at the time we should jump on him because it was good value for us similar to what Shannon was the previous year.  We got him to replace Shannon, bring a veteran presence to the team and a guy who could hit left-handers. 

Blez:  He could also play center field.

Beane:  Yeah, in a pinch he could play center and all three outfield positions.  So far we’ve been happy and he’s a good guy too.  But we knew that since we had some background on him since he started in the organization.

Blez:  Talking about Emil leads to an interesting discussion that we always have on AN and many other places online.  It’s the notion of clutch hitting.  I don’t know if I ever asked you about it and I wanted to see where you come down on the fence on this one.  Do you believe in clutch hitting?

Beane:  Do I believe in clutch hitting?

Blez:  Yeah, is there such a thing as a guy who can be called a clutch hitter?

Beane:  I think there’s a better way to answer that.  I think ultimately most guys are going to, given if they have enough at bats, will probably hit close to what they hit for their career. 

Blez:  In other words, guys who are usually good hitters are going to excel in each situation regardless?

Beane:  Yeah, I think people have a tendency to define a guy as a clutch hitter because of a couple of at bats.  But I’m not sure that a couple of at bats are defining enough.  You need a lot of events or at bats and usually their stats will be what they normally are.

Blez:  Is there a way to quantify it?

Beane:  I know people are trying to.

Blez:  Emil seems to be one of those guys who has had good at bats when he has runners in scoring position. 

Beane:  His RBIs reflect that, but I still think that from a macro standpoint we’re still looking at a small sample size.  ‘Course every time I say this I think of those years where the Angels were incredible with runners in scoring position.  The Twins were always historically good.  I do think there is a certain style that lends itself to being good in those situations.  Obviously contact hitters are going to be good.  And those two teams because they had a lot of contact hitters were very good.  I remember when Ichiro, one the first years he was over here, he hit something ridiculous with runners in scoring position.  Now for a whole season it was remarkable what he did, but I think the next year he came down closer to what his career average was.  Every once in a while you have an aberration where an individual or team will keep it up for a whole year.  But by and large, I think a team or the individual are going to return to their level.

Blez:  You don’t sound like you’re a believer in clutch hitting then.

Beane:  I’ll tell you what, I used to rib my assistants more than anything whenever Marco (Scutaro) would come through.  I would tell them that we’d need to put Marco in for any of those situations. 

Blez:  He’s a really good example of a lot of A’s fans believing in clutch hitting because he seemed to prove himself a better hitter in those situations.

Beane:  I think his style of hitting worked well in those situations.  He was a good high fastball hitter and usually at the end of the game you have guys who have good arms and aren’t afraid to challenge guys.  That fit Marco as a hitter because he was a good high fastball hitter with a nice short stroke.  I think after a while you do start to believe in yourself in that situation, so yeah, he actually was a guy that I wanted up at the end of the game.

Blez:  This is my last question, but it’s a big one.  I know you probably don’t want to jinx yourself, but if this team somehow wins the AL West or even remains in contention for the AL West crown down to the final days of the season, is this your Sistine Chapel or Ninth Symphony?

Beane:  (laughing)  Oh God you can’t ask me that.  You’re probably right in that I don’t want to answer that in that we have so far to go. 

Blez:  I’m just saying hypothetically that if you guys are right there at the end of the season would you stand back and say, “This is my masterpiece.” 

Beane:  No, no, no.  I think a few people would be laughing at that comparison.  There is nothing in sports that can compare. 

Blez:  I’ve actually been there and it is breathtaking. 

Beane:  You were the guy flashing pictures, weren’t you?  (laughing)

Blez:  No but my wife’s aunt was trying to sneak some pictures and a small Italian lady came over and yelled at her.  (laughing)

Beane:  If I see a photo appear on AN, I’m going to know that you were the guy.  (laughing)  It’s been a balance.  We started out well, we have to respect that.  And we’re a major league franchise.  If there are opportunities, you have to seize them.  You mentioned the signing of Frank.  I have a responsibility to grab those opportunities but we’re really trying to build something that has legs and is long-term. 

Blez:  So let’s say you get closer to the July 31st trading deadline and you realize this team has hung with the Angels and even the Rangers as they suddenly appear to be making a climb, but you’ve hung right in there with those two teams and you’re right in the thick of things.  Do you make a decision to go for it?

Beane:  If we have a chance to win, we always have to take that opportunity.  But if it’s there you’re foolish not to do that.  Getting back to your original question, Tyler, it’s a ridiculous comparison (laughs).  We’ve accomplished nothing.  We’ve had a nice start and we’ve put some really nice players in the system.  We’ve had a positive start to the beginning of the season.  People who might not have been optimistic about the franchise or at least seen the situation we’re trying to create when we started this whole thing…

Blez:  Maybe are having their eyes opened?

Beane:  Yeah, exactly.  And that’s all that we’ve really accomplished.  We have so far to go.  We have so many things to go through and such a difficult road ahead of us that that’s the farthest thing from my mind.  I should say that I’ve very happy where we’re headed and the direction that we’re going in.  And there’s going to be some changes along the way and if somewhere along the way there’s an opportunity to win now or next year, it’s my personality to go ahead and grab that opportunity.  But we have a long way to go.

Blez:  I’ll just say this.  If the A’s wind up winning the AL West this year, my only post the day they win it will be a photo of the Sistine Chapel and an embedded MP3 of the Ode to Joy. 

Beane:  We do have a long way to go and I did say at the beginning that we didn’t have any expectations, but we also don’t have any limitations.  And that still stands now.  Our debate and you guys have it as well, is that we say that we’re going with young players and if we sign some veterans it throws everyone for a loop.  But if there’s a gap there we want to fill it up.  We’re trying to create an organization that gets back to having a group of young players who come through.  But if that group of young players comes along and there’s an opportunity out there tomorrow, you know what, you put yourself in a position to trade some young guys if you think you can win.  Then you have tough decisions to make.

Blez:  Good tough decisions though.

Beane:  Yeah because that means your team is playing well and the decision on whether to move a young player or not isn’t always easy, because we’ve moved some really good ones.  But in looking back and viewing those opportunities that it created for us, it’s something we’d do again. 

Blez:  I appreciate your time as always.

Beane:  Always my pleasure, Tyler.  And never compare anything I do to the Sistine Chapel.  (laughs)


[EDITOR'S NOTE:  I didn't do a good job of phrasing that last question to Beane.  What I meant when I asked him the question was more along the lines of, "If the A's win the the West, would this be the biggest accomplishment in your professional career?"  I essentially was making the comparison that the Sistine Chapel was Michelangelo's masterpiece of his life's work as was the Ninth Symphony for Beethoven (although music historians would argue the Fifth or possibly the Seventh as being better).  I explained what I meant to Beane after I'd shut the recorder off.  Bad phrasing on my part. Hope you enjoyed regardless of my poor phrasing.  - Blez]

Yesterday you read part I .  Today is part II of Athletics Nation's exclusive interview with A's GM Billy Beane.

Enjoy.

 

Blez:  You brought something up earlier that I want to go back to.  You mentioned how this team is so founded on pitching.  It’s really been the success of this team with first The Big Three and then Haren and Blanton and now this year you have Eveland and Smith added to that mix.  Harden is…(Beane gestures for me to silence myself for fear of the jinx)

Beane:  Yes, he’s doing good.  When he’s out there it’s a beautiful thing. The thing about Rich, when you watch him pitch…

Blez:  Do you hold your breath every time?

Beane:  No, he’s such a great talent and in fairness to him, everyone knows how good he is and what an impact he can have on this team that everyone gets impatient with him as if it’s something he can control.  He knows how good he is.  He really is special.  He’s the one guy in the league when you talk to any GM or any hitter and they’ll tell you that when he’s on, he’s the best in the game.  I look at a guy like Josh Beckett who is still a great package.  He’s got great stuff.  A big imposing presence on the mound, but there are two guys that when they’re on you feel like you have no chance.  Felix (Hernandez), up in Seattle, is the other one that if he’s on and he has it that day, that’s it.  He’s dominating. 

Blez:  Rich seems to be throwing, and this is something I’ve observed, but he seems to be throwing exclusively fastballs and change ups. 

Beane:  He’s been a lot like that the last couple of years which should give you an idea as to how good those two pitches are. 

Blez:  In other words, to be able to go out there and get out major leagues hitters with two pitches exclusively is astounding.

Beane:  Yeah, that being said, those two pitches are pretty remarkable.  (Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher) Mario Soto was a bit like that back in the mid-80s.  He had a dominating fastball and an excellent changeup.

Blez:  Is he sticking with that mostly to try and avoid injury issues? 

Beane:  He’s been like that the last couple of years.  He’s really gotten away from the other stuff.

Blez:  He used to throw a pretty nasty splitter too.

Beane:  Yeah, but his changeup moves so much…

Blez:  That it can behave like a split.

Beane:  Yeah.  You know watching him this last Saturday, you just admire what he does.  It’s just so overwhelming with those two pitches you wonder ,why bother to mess around with anything else?

Blez:  I guess so.  What I was trying to get to earlier was talking about the offense.  The offense is a sore spot with this team.  It’s better this year, but it has those seemingly wild spells, and you and I were chatting about the Angels’ series when they scored something like 14 in one game, zero runs in the next one, one in the following game and then 15 in the final game.  I know you obviously value pitching quite a bit because that was something you pursued in the trades, but is there a point where you think, “I have to do something to improve this offense a little bit because if I can just improve the offense a little bit to complement the fine pitching, then this team is really formidable right now without even really thinking ahead.”

Beane:  I agree, but it’s not very easy.  You think about this last road trip which was a difficult road trip.  But we could’ve easily won every single game.

Blez:  If you’d had a little bit more offense.

Beane:  Yeah, but the reason you’re in that position is because of the pitching.  The fact that you can have a frustration level (and I have it too) is…well, we played three very good teams on the road trip and the fact is that every single one of those games we could’ve won.  That’s why you want to make sure you have a foundation of great pitching and that’s why you want to be careful in taking away from it.  But to get on your point, yeah we have some young players who are just coming into their own.  Ryan Sweeney is just getting his sea legs underneath him.  I mentioned Travis earlier and Daric has gotten off to a slow start, so with some of these younger players you’re just going to have to be patient with them.  You’ve got Eric (Chavez) coming back soon off his injury rehab, which I’m sure you’re aware of.  But Jack (Hannahan) has been great in his absence.  He had a tough start but he’s battled back nicely.  Having Eric out has had a big impact, and hopefully he’ll come back to the level he was in previous years. 

Blez:  Not to belabor this point, but when you decided to pick up Frank Thomas and Daric is struggling a little bit, do you pause for a second and think, maybe he should be given some more time in the minors and he starts to feel more comfortable.  You know that a lot of success in the majors has to do with a guy feeling confident at the plate.  Maybe he then gets more confident in Sacramento while you get to field the best possible team up here by having Mike Sweeney play first, Frank Thomas as DH and Jack Cust in left field.  Have you thought about that possibly being the best option right now for the big club?

Beane:  Playing first base might be difficult for Mike on an everyday basis, so that kind of rules that out.  We’ve always been hesitant to just send guys down once they’ve gotten here when we feel they’re long-term answers.

Blez:  Because it can be deflating psychologically?

Beane:  Yeah and I just don’t like that up and down yo-yo.  We’ve been pretty good about avoiding that over the last 10 years.  It’s not that it hasn’t happened.  I’m not convinced that it’s a good idea.  We’re just not convinced that’s the best option at this point.  Daric’s done a good job defensively.  He’s played good defense and I think I saw somewhere that one of the defensive fielding bibles had him as the best defensive fielding first baseman in the league. 

Blez:  Someone on AN wrote a post about that.

Beane:  Yeah and some of the numbers that we use in-house are really good too.  We think Daric is going to be a great major league hitter and we just have to exercise patience.  If a time comes that we feel that a young player needs to go down to get some more experience, we will.  But in Daric’s case part of becoming a good major league player is being allowed to go through some struggles.  Very few guys come up and hit their whole career.  That’s just part of becoming a major league player.  And then there’s an organizational balance too when maybe you say perhaps sending someone down would be best for the player.  I think in Travis’ case, we felt that was the right thing to do at that time.  We do think he’ll be back soon because we think so highly of him.

Blez:  The minor league system for the A’s is stacked and has gone from mediocre to poor ratings. Now you’re rated near the top by most of the experts.  It also now appears like the major league team is a lot better than people might have suspected.  Did you honestly believe that you could accomplish the goals of remaining very competitive in the AL West while completely rebuilding a barren farm system?

Beane:  The goal was to restock the farm system and the second part, we didn’t really know.  I wasn’t convinced that we were going to be a terrible team, which is what some people thought.  I wasn’t also ready to run up a hill and say we were going to be the best team in the league either.  We weren’t really sure.  There were a lot of what ifs there that didn’t really allow us to get a gauge on where we were.  I was looking forward to rebuilding this thing and making it really good for a long time, but it makes it a lot more pleasurable when you’re winning at the major league level.  So you find yourself getting used to winning after a while and then when you lose a few games in a row, you have to remind yourself that you have a young team.  Then you have to stop and appreciate where you’re at and what you’ve accomplished and be pretty happy.

Blez:  Part of that improved minor league system is Henry Rodriguez, someone you wouldn’t have found in years past.  But because you’ve added revenue to the Latin American scouting program, Rodriguez turned into a gem you were able to unearth.   Is that an area of great market opportunity for you to exploit moving forward?

Beane:  I don’t know that you can exploit it anymore.  It isn’t like it’s any great secret. The fact of the matter is is that 15 to 20 years ago we had a lot of success down there.  We kind of coat-tailed the first big clubs going in there, like the Dodgers, Blue Jays and they were the best at it.  We kind of followed them and had a nice little run signing a lot of guys.  It didn’t cost us a lot of money.  What ended up happening was that the cost of doing business there ended up going up significantly.  We tried to do business the way we used to do it and we spent less than anyone down there and it just wasn’t going to work any more.  In international signings over the last decade, we were last in all of baseball.  We thought that the way we did business before was going to work and it just didn’t.  And the proof was showing up at the major league level because Casilla was really the only one we got out of there in the last decade.  If we were going to go down there and have an academy and get something out of it, and the fact is you need to get something out of there because 30 percent of major league players are coming from there, then we needed to go in there like everyone else.  We started in the fall.  We’ve now signed a number of players out of there since the fall, out of Venezuela, the Dominican (Republic) and a kid from Mexico named (Arnold) Leon who has been excellent.  We just missed on signing a great kid out of Australia.  And the reason I recently went down to the Dominican was that we had a huge try out camp and I was seeing a bunch of kids from there.  It’s an area of focus, we’ve gotten off to a good start and we’re going to continue to be aggressive down there.

Blez:  How excited are you about Rodriguez?  Peter Gammons wrote during spring training that a few of the scouts he talked to said that he had one of the best arms they’ve seen in a while.  He’s struggled a bit since being promoted to Double-A.

Beane:  We were hesitant to move him up because he is so young but we felt like even during the earliest times of the season that he was so dominant that we had to consider it.  He’s actually getting better and learning some things.  We hesitated sending a 21-year-old up there, but people in the organization felt like it was best that he go up there and start learning some of the things he need to learn like throwing his offspeed pitches a little more.  We had almost needed to clear the Stockton team out because we had some kids in Kane County who needed to be up there like (Trevor) Cahill and (Brett) Anderson.  We thought it was good to create some mobility for those guys coming through.  Rodriguez has had a few ugly lines, but some of them have been deceiving.  We usually get pretty detailed reports and even though he hasn’t dominated there he’s still striking guys out which is usually a good indicator of future success.

Blez:  In general, the scouting budget has been increased.  Some of the old-school baseball minds might call this a bit of “backpedaling” from the philosophy Michael Lewis outlined in Moneyball.  The A’s were trying to get by on the shoestring budget.

Beane:  I don’t know that Michael necessarily wrote about that when it came to the draft.  We did spend a lot less in terms of the draft and there were a lot of dynamics in play there.

Blez:  What I’m saying is that, rightly or wrongly, Moneyball is always sort of seen as the scouts versus computer geeks lightning rod.  I don’t think that’s the best way to represent the book, but for better or worse, it seems to have taken on that popular view. 

Beane:  When was Moneyball published?  What 2002, so that’s six years ago now and we’re still talking about it?  I usually let Michael and others define what they thought what the book was about.  The bottom line is that I don’t there was anywhere in the book where we sat down and gave a manifesto on how to do things so I think that’s the most misinterpreted thing.  But as far as how we do business in the draft, the more you do this job, and this can apply to almost any business job, the more you realize you don’t know.  The idea that you are going to create a template that is going to work forever in a very competitive business just doesn’t happen.  Are there some things we still believe in?  Absolutely.  There are also some things where we say, “Maybe we need to take a look at this.”  But that’s the evolution of any business if you’re going to stay on top and try and be successful.  I’m glad we’re like that.  Maybe seven, eight, nine years ago I wouldn’t have been so much like that.  Successes and failures are things you can learn from.  For us, we’re constantly trying to evolve.  Just because we do something different that we didn’t necessarily do a previous year doesn’t mean it’s something we don’t believe in.  Someone will inevitably say that’s blasphemy compared to how we used to do business.  We’re constantly checking ourselves.  And the business is changing.  The people running teams now, in my opinion, are as good as they ever have been.  There are some really smart guys running businesses.  It’s incredibly competitive and the idea that you’re going to have an “intellectual edge” anymore is, and I not sure that there ever was, but I’m not sure it exists any more.  I can tell you the guys running teams now have some really, really smart guys working for them.  You’re not going to outsmart too many people.  We all have the same information available to us.

Blez:  Is (the influx of young talent in front offices) the result of Moneyball?

Beane:  No, you know what I think it’s a result of, is that it’s a result of being big business so the people who are really successful buy baseball teams.  Very smart people buy baseball teams and they expect results so the more money pumped into the business, the better people are going to be attracted to it. 

Blez:  You’ve taken a lot of steps to change the organizational processes in relation to keeping players healthier.  Yet injury problems already cropped up again a little bit with Duke and Harden, Chavez, Denorfia, Ellis, Buck and even Mike Sweeney.  Granted many of these guys have injury histories, but do you think that you have possibly turned the corner with the injury issues with some of the changes you have made?

Beane:  One of the things I’ve noticed with the injuries is that you really, really notice them when you don’t have depth.  We all get anxious, including fans, when you’re waiting for a player to come back, but when you can bring up a Greg Smith to replace Rich in the rotation and he pitches the way he does it allows you to go through the due process of a guy who is injured normally so you aren’t pushing them out there too early.  It becomes a vicious cycle if you don’t have depth.  You get a guy hurt and you push him back early and he might get hurt again and be out for a longer period of time.  The process is more than just being about looking at the team doctors and how you do things. That’s certainly part of it, but our responsibility on the baseball side is providing enough depth in understanding that you’re playing a sport where you’re going to have injuries.  If they are injured then we give our guys the proper time they need to heal and don’t expect them to play half way through the injury, then expect them to be healthy.  The less depth we had, if you noticed, the more injuries we started to have because we kept pushing those guys out there.  To some extent, like Eric (Chavez), who busted his rear end to get out there in time for spring training.  We all said, we really want him out there and need him out there and then we took a step back and said, wait a second let’s do this the right way.  He’s almost there now and has had a very detailed program since the end of spring training.  He’s out playing in games right now.  But the fact that Jack has performed so admirably up here allows that process to happen.  I think that part of our medical problem has been not having the depth in the organization that we probably should’ve had and each year it got tougher and tougher.  I am happy with the new process though.  Soup (Head Trainer Steve Sayles) has done a phenomenal job.  Meanwhile, Steve commands a lot of respect as a trainer because he has a great presence.  He’s conservative by nature.  Our rehabs are longer but he’s also had the advantage of having depth.  He’s very conservative.  If I’m thinking something is going to be 2-3 days, he’ll probably say it should be 7-8.  That’s just the way he is. 

Blez:  And perhaps that will help the guys stay on the field longer too once they get back.

Beane:  Yeah, exactly.  He’s definitely showed great leadership since we hired him which is something I think we all expected.

Blez:  There is going to be a roster crunch coming.  Especially with Chavez coming back and you mentioned that you want to get Buck back in there.  I know you can’t really say what you’re going to do with all the extra players and the first base, DH and left field shuffle, but how much does a win-now mentality affect that decision compared to giving those young players a chance to develop and mature?

Beane:  It’s one of those questions that I say that you’ll probably have to check with me at the time.  The press is always asking those questions…you know, what are you going to do in two weeks when this happens?  Well, when we get to two weeks we’ll let you know.  Inevitably something always seems to happen in between.  Not to avoid your question because those are all fair points, but I think it will be something we’ll be better equipped to answer when the time comes.  Right now it’s just too early to speculate.

Blez:  Speaking of the upcoming roster crunch, what did you like about Rajai Davis so much to go ahead and pick him up?

Beane:  He’s got unique speed.  It’s hard to find that kind of speed you can pick up for $20,000.  He’s right handed and one guy we’ve never had is someone to come in in the seventh inning to pinch run and steal a base.  He’s actually handled left handers well in the past and we thought he was a great complement and dimension that we didn’t have.  We felt like he was too good of an athlete to pass up for the cost.

Blez:  How close did you come at the beginning of the season to keeping both of the Gonzalezes (Gio and Carlos) with the big club coming out of camp?

Beane:  They’re both so very young.  They’re both only 22 years old.  So we had pretty much made up our mind up that they would need some time down in the minors.  And then when Carlos had the hamstring injury, it kind of impacted it in that it wasn’t as though we couldn’t have had that conversation in the spring.  We would’ve liked to have taken Carlos to Japan for the exhibition games but it would’ve taken quite a bit for us to break camp with them.  They’re still both very, very young even for the level they’re at now, which is Triple-A.

Blez:  Did the number of years you could have them under contract control factor into the decision?  I believe some media sources out there reported that some veterans on the team, and they were unnamed sources I believe, wanted Carlos to remain on the club. 

Beane:  That means they might not have been here then (laughs).  But no, that’s not the case at all.  Spring training is not a good judge.  I think I hit .400 one year in the Cactus League which will tell you it doesn’t mean a whole lot.  That happens every year.  I remember one year the veterans wanted to keep Mark Mulder.  He promptly went out and had like a 5.00 ERA in Triple-A that year.  Just because you have a good spring training doesn’t mean you’re ready for the big leagues.  I think in both of those kids (Carlos and Gio) they’re still both cutting their teeth at Triple-A.  Carlos got off to a good start and then went through a little lull and now he’s back over .300.  And Gio has had some great games, but he’s also had games in which he’s struggled.  They still need some time.

Blez:  The pitching staff down in Stockton and Kane County seem to almost unfairly loaded with pitchers like James Simmons, Cahill, Anderson and de los Santos.  I know you don’t like to make predictions about what players are going to be but do you think that we’re going to see some true major league aces come out of this crop of talent?

Beane:  (without hesitation and emphatically) Yes. 

Blez:  And when I say aces I mean, number one starter ability.

Beane:  Number twos do everything the number one does, but the number one is the guy.  It’s like when Stew (Dave Stewart) was here.  We had Mike Moore and Dave Stewart and when you look at them it was hard to say who was actually better on the mound but Stew was number one and Mike was number two because of the presence factor and the cache.  The number one label is based on presence.  I’ll say this, there are a lot of guys down there who have the ability to be good number twos and threes.  But we’ll just see if they have the cult of personality there after a couple of years. 

Blez:  How much research do you on the personality when it comes to trying to decide if they might evolve into that type of guy?

Beane:  Personality may be the wrong word.  It’s more like a swagger.  (Tim) Hudson had it when he was here. 

Blez:  Would you have called him the number one out of the Big Three?

Beane:  When he came up, Tim seemed like this nice quiet kid from the south, but then after a few years in a major league clubhouse he became a very self confident guy.  The way a GM knows a kid versus the way a kid really is takes a few years.  And in order to be a number one, you have to develop a track record too.

Blez:  I often ask you this question when we get together, but since the minor league clubs have changed so much since we last got together, I’m interested to hear what you think now.  Tell me about some unheralded gem in the A’s system that the fans might want to keep a close eye on.

Beane:  Yes, you do always ask me that (laughs).  There is nothing win-win for me in this one because I’ll inevitably have to single someone out which means excluding a number of others.  How do I answer that?

Blez:  In the past, you’ve given me names.  Sulentic was someone you gave me one year.

Beane:  David (Forst) actually saw him in high school and I can remember when he saw him in high school.  I’m going to take the fifth because there’s a lot of guys.

Blez:  Is it because the system is stacked so it’s harder to choose someone?

Beane:  I’m trying to do the proper thing in a leadership role.  You know what, Aaron Cunningham has come back and he wasn’t one of the heralded guys in the Haren deal but he’s a guy that we like quite a bit.  He’s a right-handed bat, plays all three outfield positions and he had a real good start to camp.  Then he broke his hand and just got back.  It’s fun seeing him and he’s played pretty well since he got back.