He needed more five tool players, guys with good bodies, who really know how to play the game.
Remember folks, that Elvis still maintains that Billy Beane was never offered the GM position by the Boston Red Sox, despite all the contemporary newspaper reports that reported the offer, and despite the fact that the owner of the actual team and his deputy both stated publicly that the offer was made, and was turned down by Beane.
We’re talking denial on a truly religious level here.
Pittsburgh-San Francisco. Here’s my fearless prediction; it won’t be quite as good a game as last night’s.
If it’s half as exciting, that will still be good.
I have to root for the Bucs in this one. I like the Giants fine, and they’re my wife’s team (she’s a San Francisco native), but they’ve won the WS twice in recent years, while the Pirates have had nothing but misery.
Similarly, i was happy to see the Royals celebrate last night. I would really like to see Oakland get some playoff success one of these days, but over the last couple of months it became clear that this was just not going to be their year, and it’s great to have Kansas City in the ALDS. I really hope they can beat the Angels, who are probably the team i would most like to see bundled out quickly.
And I believe they only won 1 LDS.
Oh, god…I hope it’s not. I’m not as young as I once was; I don’t know if I would survive a game like last night’s.
Billy Beane became Oakland GM in 1998. Since then:
2000: Lost ALDS to the Yankees, 3-1
2001: Lost ALDS to the Yankees, 3-1
2002: Lost ALDS to Minnesota, 3-2
2003: Lost ALDS to the Red Sox, 3-2
2006: Won ALDS over Minnesota, 3-0
2006: Lost ALCS to Detroit, 4-0
2012: Lost ALDS to Detroit, 3-2
2013: Lost ALDS to Detroit, 3-2
2014: Lost Wild Card to Kansas City
Pirates 5-0.
Ah, fall. The time of year when the leaves turn, hot cider warms a cold body, football tailgating sweeps the nation and Billy Beane dominates baseball discussions.
DC will light up city hall Nats red each night for the playoff run. It’s been pretty cool to see DC develop a baseball fanbase over the years (myself included). N-A-T-S, NATS, NATS, NATS, WOO!
Already? I knew McCutchen was good, but I didn’t know he was *that *good!
Except just before a mid-season players’ strike. Or is that just a football thing?
13-24 total.
It’s a conundrum. If the goal of a GM is to win ballgames and make the playoffs, he’s a phenomenal success. If the goal is to win championships, he’s a total failure.
So are there two different kinds of ballclubs – Type A that can win lots of regular season games, and Type B that can win playoff games? If there is, then he keeps building the wrong kinds of team. But I don’t think there is – there’s just good, winning teams, and he’s built plenty of those.
Rating Beane as a failure because his teams haven’t won in the postseason - yet - is akin to saying Willie Mays, Ted Williams and Ty Cobb were failures becuse they didn’t hit in the postseason.
Well, actually, it’s even lamer than that. Mays, Williams and Cobb actually didn’t hit well in the postseason. A GM basically puts a team together that can win ballgames, or can’t. There isn’t a lot a GM can do to specifically gear a team to win in the playoffs. Certain kinds of teams ARE better in the playoffs than others (teams that are frontloaded with talent tend to beat teams with depth, for instance) but trying to design a team around that principle is difficult because the resources aren’t that cheap. Basically you try to put together a team that wins. So there IS a Type A and a Type B, but in truth, you play the cards you get dealt.
Sometimes, like the A’s, they flake out in October a lot. The Braves dynasty was almost as bad; they did win one WS but had a lot of playoff chock jobs. Sometimes they do better than you’d expect.
The funny thing is, of course, that Beane has moved towards Type A teams - strong front end pitching, strong bullpens, and more defense, rather tahn the previous emphasis on walks and depth. But Melvin left Lester in too long. Shit happens.
Gotten better players, especially ones with a record of performing at their best when under pressure. It looked like he had an idea he needed to do that when he got Lester, as if he finally understood that building a team to win in October is a real thing, but he gave up one of the few good hitters he had to do it.
You know all that, right?
Brilliant advice!
So… he should’ve done exactly what he did…
…except he should’ve traded a top pitcher or a scrub hitter instead. Makes sense. I don’t think a lack of offense was their problem last night, though.
And without a single blessed win past the ALDS level.
At some point you have to accept that it isn’t just bad luck. Some folks will never reach that point, though.
Statements like this are supposed to have “because” in the middle, and then some stuff afterward that explains the “because.” Like “You have to accept that it isn’t just bad luck because…” and then something about how the stupid GM should’ve gotten better players- players just like the ones he got, except more gooder.
And then you arrive at Detroit, who got all the more gooder players, but just didn’t have the drive to win. Because wishing makes it so.
So you’re saying that you can make a baseball team better by acquiring better baseball players? And you believe Major League general managers are unaware of this? This doesn’t seem like much insight. It seems like something even a Cubs GM would know. Really, it’s a stupid, tautological answer. It’s like asking what a person should do to increase their income and responding “Make more money.” Yes, but how? What, specifically, should Beane have done, given the players he had? Should he not have done the LEster trade? The Cubs trade? What other resources or trade targets should he have gone after? Do they have AAA players they could have made better use of? Different coaching staff? He doesn’t have the money to get big free agents, but were there deals in the 2013-2014 offseason he should have known about and gone after?
Also, just for the record, you believe that Oakland’s problem in a game they lost 9-8 was hitting?