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Wow, Billy Beane doesn't fuck around, does he?
I must say, I love what the A's are doing. Every team has a time period where they are at the bottom of the success cycle ... the dark years so to speak, but I think Beane has somewhat eliminated that from happening by trading his players at their highest value instead of letting them walk for nothing when they're contracts are up.
The A's figure to be above average next year (they still have Zito, Harden, Chavez, Durazo, and Crosby. Plus they'll have Jason Kendall, a full season of Nick Swisher and a much bette bullpen.) And AWESOME in 2006-2008. No dark years. No period of time where they're a laughingstock.
Really, it seems like a brilliant plan. Draft a bunch of awesome young players, ride them for a couple years, then, before they get too expensive/old, cash them in for new batch of awesome young players. It must be painful as an A's fan, but as an objective observer, I'm loving it.
As I mentioned earlie though, I think people are foolish to count out the A's next year. Last year Mulder was pretty awful in the 2nd half, and Zito in the 1st half, and yet they almost made the playoffs. I think Haren should be at least as good as Mulder was last year, and John Sickels thinks Dan Meyer can be ROY. Plus, they still have Zito, and of course Rich Harden is the MAN. Their offense is about the same as last year, and their bullpen is MUCH better. I think the A's will win at least 85 games next year, and be back in the playoffs by 2006.
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