Why bad teams are bad every year, and why good teams don't win championships.
This Weeks Episode: The Tragedy of the Athletics
The A's, envy of the leauge during numerous points in MLB history, have lost there swagger as of late. The team has not won a championship since 1989 and they have not reached the ALCS in any of the last 20 years. Most recently, the Athletics have had difficulty even putting together a roster that can play above 500 baseball. Fans, yes there are a few remaining, are slowly losing hope as each new wave of prospects fail to live up to their inflated hype.
The current roster, filled with no name roster call ups and over the hill veterans, have failed to make a splash in arguably the leagues weakest divsion.
Gneral Manager Billy Beane has attracted a plethera of media attention over the years. The book "Moneyball" glorified the GM as a statistical revolutionist and even drew Brad Pitt to tryout for the part of Beane in the upcoming movie based on the same book. So if Beane really is all that and a bag of chips, how come the A's suck right now?
Lets take a look:
1.It has become evident over the years that nearly every high profile A's star over the last 20 years was on the juice. Big-Mac, Canseco, Tejada and both Giambi's. It has become clear that Beane turned a blind eye towards steroid use in order to play the guerilla ball style that the A's made popular in the early part of this decade.
The current roster, filled with no name roster call ups and over the hill veterans, have failed to make a splash in arguably the leagues weakest divsion.
Gneral Manager Billy Beane has attracted a plethera of media attention over the years. The book "Moneyball" glorified the GM as a statistical revolutionist and even drew Brad Pitt to tryout for the part of Beane in the upcoming movie based on the same book. So if Beane really is all that and a bag of chips, how come the A's suck right now?
Lets take a look:
1.It has become evident over the years that nearly every high profile A's star over the last 20 years was on the juice. Big-Mac, Canseco, Tejada and both Giambi's. It has become clear that Beane turned a blind eye towards steroid use in order to play the guerilla ball style that the A's made popular in the early part of this decade.
2. Money, Money, Money. Billy gets a little over 50 million to field a team that will put enough butts in seats that the owner can make money. This means that rookies that sign a 7 year contract, play 3-4 in the miners, have a partial year in the big leagues, only start for 2-3 years before there up for re-signing. Every big budget team knows that Billy is a scary judge of talent, but they also know he cant resign anyone, so the big boys hover around like vultures, picking off any player that shows promise, or the A's trade for 4 more prospects, one of them get good, gets traded, circular logic.
3. NO ONE WANTS TO PLAY FOR THE A'S. Only kids who have been in the farm system and made some friends who all get called up together actually give a damn about winning. I don't know what the recent obsession with signing crippled, almost hall of famers came from, but it leaves me scratching my head. Mike Piazza? Ben Sheets? Frank Thomas? Matt Holliday looked like he had been sent to death row when ESPN interviewed him after getting traded. He stunk up for a while, got traded to the Cards, and finished with all-star numbers. Thanks Matt.
So how can the A's return to glory?
1. New stadium
2. Higher budget
3. Keep players that came from the A's system to build chemistry
4. Lock em up
5. Trust in Billy
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