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Billy Beane: These days? Not so Much

When I first read Moneyball, I thought, like many other people, that Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane had discovered a fresh new way to evaluate talent. I was excited at a new way to look at baseball, and I’ve looked at Sabermetrics ever since. And in the early part of the 21st century, Beane’s plan was working. The A’s had a solid pitching core of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. They also had Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, Jermaine Dye, Eric Byrnes, Miguel Tejada, and a core of young players and multiple playoff appearances from 2000-2004 and in 2006.

Beane is highly regarded for his talent evaluation in addition to his statistical evaluation, which in the early part of the 2000s allowed the Athletics to field a competitive team without spending lavishly like some other teams in baseball. In the 2008 offseason, Beane acquired Matt Holliday from the Rockies for Houston Street (the A’s closer), a 23-year-old Carlos Gonzalez, and starting pitcher Greg Smith. This trade was a roll of the dice for Beane to acquire a bat for a playoff push after two mediocre seasons in which the A’s finished 10 games under .500 in 2007 and 2008. Beane’s logic was this: acquire Holliday and compete in 2009, or, if the A’s don’t compete, trade Holliday at the trade deadline for a king’s ransom. The A’s didn’t compete, and the king’s ransom that Holliday brought was Brett Wallace, Shane Peterson, and Clayton Mortensen. The centerpiece of the deal for the A’s was Brett Wallace, who was traded to the Blue Jays for Michael Taylor. Mortensen is pitching for AAA Sacramento, and has made one start for the A’s this season. Michael Taylor is still a top centerfield prospect playing for Sacramento. It’s still too early to tell ultimately who won or lost in the Holliday deals, but it’s fairly safe to say the Rockies faired pretty well by acquiring Gonzalez and Street.

These days? Not so much.

In 2010, the A’s finished at .500 in the AL West, and made some moves last off-season to upgrade the roster by trade and free agency by acquiring Grant Balfour, Brian Fuentes, Hideki Matsui, Josh Willingham, and David DeJesus. The pieces seemed to be there with solid young starting pitching, the makings of a dominant bullpen and an upgraded offense. On paper, at least. But, as the saying goes, games aren’t played on paper, they’re played on the field. And the field hasn’t been overly kind to the A’s.

As of August 1, the A’s are 10 games under .500 and 18 games out of first place. They changed managers mid-season after Bob Geren lost the team, and the Disabled List has its fair share of regulars on it. Like 40% of the starting rotation, and some minor leaguers who have contributed (Tyson Ross). While it’s hard to pin the disappointments of one season on injuries, Beane has a history of identifying talented arms that break down. Hudson was traded in 2005 and had Tommy John surgery 2008 (he wasn’t pitching with the A’s, but he still broke down); Mulder made his Major League debut in 2000, and, as was reported, was limited by injuries in 2003. He was traded (sensing a theme here?) to the Cardinals in 2004 for Dan Haren, Daric Barton, and Kiko Calero. This season, Brett Anderson started 13 games before going down with an injury and undergoing Tommy John surgery. Dallas Braden tore a capsule in his throwing shoulder, underwent surgery to repair it, and is lost for the 2011 season. Tyson Ross, Dallas Braden’s injury replacement, went down with an oblique strain. There’s also reliever Joey Devine, who missed the 2009 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

These injuries are too numerous to be coincidental. Either Beane has a way of identifying arms that have a propensity of breaking down or the organization has a way of overworking or mismanaging young arms causing them to break down. And this is where Beane’s impact is felt the most. At the core, the A’s are Beane’s organization, and it goes beyond talent evaluation and acquisition. His fingerprints are all over the coaching staff (recently fired Bob Geren was the best man at Beane’s wedding. AWKWARD!), and it’s even been rumored that Beane tells his manager which lineup card to fill out. But Beane’s influence goes even further than the everyday baseball operations; Beane signed a contract extension in 2005 extending him as GM through 2012 which has a clause in it that gives Beane a small ownership stake in the Athletics organization.

And this is where things can get sticky for the A’s. If the A’s wanted to get rid of Beane, how could they? He’s part owner of the team.

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