After all the off-season trades that Billy Beane orchestrated, it’s been an interesting season so for the Oakland Athletics. Very few experts (including myself :-)) had rightly predicted that Billy’s long-term plan was to replace the A’s big-3 pitching stars with a new big-3 that would be younger and cheaper. As Huddy, Zito and Mulder were growing up and becoming super-stars, it should have been obvious to even casual A’s fans that Billy can’t keep all of them. Given their payroll constraints, the A’s would have been lucky to retain even one let alone 2 of the 3. So when Tim Hudson was entering the last year of his contract, people were expecting Billy to trade him But I guess what surprised most was the trade of Mark Mulder just a few days later. Billy traded both of them for an assortment of assets. He got some big-league ready pitching, pitching prospects, hitting prospects and big-league ready hitters.
While I am a BIG fan of Huddy, and I was hoping and praying that Billy would keep him even if he lets the other two go, the fact is, the A’s pitching is doing just fine. It’s their horrendous hitting that’s killing them. This only proves Billy’s point that the A’s would have had to gut his roster to keep Huddy and Mulder even at their current salaries, not to talk about extending their contracts. Even with the “cheap” pitching, the lineup is pretty impotent and you take a salary or two away from this lineup, they might actually score in the negative!
With all that said, the story of this young season has been A’s pitching. Billy might very well be ahead of schedule as far as building the next big 3. Rich Harden is virtually untouchable and Joe Blanton is not bad either with his 1.75 ERA. Both these guys are home-grown successors to the big 3. Danny Haren, who was acquired in the Mulder trade, has been up and down, but has looked good overall and has lot of potential. The bullpen, which was a major headache last year, is vastly improved because of the trades. Overall, the A’s pitching is solid in-spite of Zito struggling just like last year. So Billy is essentially putting together a stellar pitching staff even without any help from Barry Zito. The only question we should be asking Billy about the trade is not “why did you trade Huddy and Mulder?”, but “why didn’t you trade Barry Zito?”! That’s saying something. To be fair to Zito, he has pitched better lately and yesterday he was working on a scoreless game when he got shelled in the 7-th inning. The pitching could be even better if they were not making every pitch under great pressure because the A’s lineup can’t put up even a single run. Joe Blanton does not even have a win yet!
The A’s lost the division last year by a game. They then traded away 2 of their best players while the rest of their division rivals, namely the Angels and the Mariners, got better. A’s did get a lot of young talent, but 22 and 23 year olds don’t win you the division in the big leagues. So it’s crazy to expect the A’s to win the division this season. But this is sports and anything can happen. But seriously, who would be shocked if they do stay in the race all season given Billy Beane’s track record. So far, their pitching has definitely been on the right track. It’s early and I know Harden’s 0.44 ERA and Blanton’s 1.75 ERA is going to go up, but still what’s happening here on Apr 26-th is pretty impressive. If the hitting turns around, they might actually stay in this race deep into September.
I know some people are waiting for an opportunity to criticize Billy. Even they have to accept that Billy knew exactly what he was doing with these trades. If you still feel the need to rap Billy, here’s the one complaint I have that I think is valid. That’s his decision to let Miguel Tejada go and sign Eric Chavez. Billy will tell you that they loved Tejada, that he was too expensive for them, that they had no shot at signing him and that Crosby was waiting in the wings while they had nobody to replace Chavvy. While there’s some truth to all of that, especially the fact that Crosby is real good and cheap, the reality is that the Oakland front-office was never as high on Tejada as they were on Chavez. They liked Chavvy’s upside much more. Now that we have seen both for a couple of years, even they have to accept that while Chavez is a nice player, he is no Tejada. Tejada is an absolute stud. He is a centerpiece guy in a lineup much like a Manny or a Bonds or a Pujols or a Chipper Jones. Chavez on the other hand seems to me like one of the guys who should be protecting a Tejada or a Manny or a Chipper Jones in the lineup. Kind of like a Andrew Jones or a Scott Rolen or a David Ortiz. Chavvy is a typical Pippen while Tejada is your Jordon of an everyday big-league lineup. Tejada would have been more expensive than Chavez even with any potential “home-town discounts”. But he might have been well worth it, given all the hitting troubles the A’s are going through the last couple of years.
I’ll always wonder if Billy could have signed Tejada if he wanted to. Remember, the A’s did not even try to offer him a deal. As for the trade of the big-2, I can’t wait for Billy to trade Zito away and load up on some young hitting. Are the Yankees listening?
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