BA Goes Deep With Billy Beane

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Alan Schwarz sat down with Billy Beane:

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/majors/features/262668.html

 

You have to have a subscription to read it, so I'll leave you with the intro - it looks like Beane has made Schwarz a believer:

 

With all the hoopla surrounding Billy Beane and his management of the Athletics several years ago, I tended to be more reserved, saying, "The scouts gave him cheap stars like Hudson, Mulder and Tejada. Re-tooling the club will be the real trick." Now he's turned it. The A's just won 93 games and went deeper into the postseason than any Oakland club since the team went to the World Series in 1990, fueled mostly by the Danny Harens, Frank Thomases and Mark Kotsays he acquired without the draft. I sat down with Beane a few days after the Tigers swept Oakland from the playoffs to talk about his evolving shopping lists, what he wants from his next manager and how--gasp!--his A's might one day lead the league in steals.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

Interesting read, sucks that I can't afford to read it.

 

And it's not like Beane knows anything anyway. He thinks a WALK is better than a HOME RUN. What a loser. His teams are chokers too.

[RichHillIsABeast]

Sounds like Baker would be a good fit for Oakland. :lol:

[Guest]

One key excerpt...

 

SCHWARZ: You've used compensation draft picks very well to make up for losing free agents. What are you hearing about whether compensation picks will be gone from the upcoming Basic Agreement?

 

BEANE: I'm hearing the same thing everybody else is. I have to operate under the assumption that it's still going to be there, but I think it's been well discussed that there's a possibility that it could be gone.

 

Sounds like compensation is still in at this point.

[Monco]

Interesting read, sucks that I can't afford to read it.

 

And it's not like Beane knows anything anyway. He thinks a WALK is better than a HOME RUN. What a loser. His teams are chokers too.

 

If Beanes teams are chokers,whats yours?

[1908]

Interesting read, sucks that I can't afford to read it.

 

And it's not like Beane knows anything anyway. He thinks a WALK is better than a HOME RUN. What a loser. His teams are chokers too.

 

If Beanes teams are chokers,whats yours?

He was being sarcastic.

[Monco]

As a fan of a team that considers 2 consecutive years of 500 baseball a success,I can't bring myself to insult a team that makes the playoffs nearly every year.

[SouthSideRyan]

Perhaps you need to check out the definition for sarcastic then.

[the splendid splinter]

Was Beane looking in the mirror when he made the comment?

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

Perhaps you need to check out the definition for sarcastic then.

 

Yea...I'm far from a non-Beane fan.

 

It was meant to be tongue in cheek, from every other post I've ever made on this board I would hope that would be obvious.

[frostwyrm]

If Beane had a $95M payroll he'd win 100 games easily. We had $95M and almost LOST 100.

[the splendid splinter]

Does that mean that with the Yanks payroll Beane would win 125 games?

[frostwyrm]

Does that mean that with the Yanks payroll Beane would win 125 games?

Nah, you get steadily diminishing returns on every dollar above ~120M. Even if you spend $300M it would be hard to win 125 games.

[the splendid splinter]

Aflac!!!