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You are under the false impression that players are willing to sign contract extensions during the season. If you're Miguel Tejada and you're in the prime of your career with an MVP already under your belt, are you gonna sign Beane's so-so deal in the middle of the season or wait till after the season when Baltimore, Boston and Anaheim can all try to outbid eachother. The owners were not going to stretch the payroll to let Beane sign Tejada, and he was clearly more interested in money (Baltimore) than winning (Oakland). I don't know what more people wanted Billy Beane to do.
I will agree that he is overrated in the sense that he gets too much credit for the moves the A's made from 2001-2003. I think those moves were to the tribute of the team of Billy Beane, JP Ricciardi, Paul DePodesta, Dwayne Fuson etc. Now that those three guys are gone, Beane's moves haven't been nearly as good.
And Beane does way much more for the A's than Leyland does for the Tigers
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