Another defense of Billy Beane and his “strategy” for 2012 is presented by Richard Justice MLB.com—link.
Let’s deal in facts, shall we?
Here are the players the Athletics have acquired this winter and their 2012 salaries:
Seth Smith: $2.415 million.
Bartolo Colon: $2 million.
This is a total of $4.415 million for two exceedingly mediocre “name” new additions.
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Here are the departures:
Trevor Cahill: $3.5 million (guaranteed through 2015 at $29 million with options in 2016 and 2017).
Gio Gonzalez: $3.25 million (arbitration eligible for the first time).
Craig Breslow: filed for arbitration and asked for $2.1 million; was offered $1.5 million.
Andrew Bailey: arbitration eligible for the first time; figure a contract of $1.5 million.
David DeJesus: $4.25 million (2-years, $10 million guaranteed from the Cubs).
Josh Willingham: $7 million (3-years, $21 million guaranteed from the Twins).
Hideki Matsui: was paid $4.25 million in 2011 and is unsigned for 2012.
Michael Wuertz: was paid $2.8 million in 2011 and is unsigned for 2012.
Rich Harden: was paid $1.5 million in 2011 and is unsigned for 2012.
All for a total of $29.85 million based on what they’re guaranteed for 2012 or what they were paid in 2011.
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These are the raises for players they’ve kept:
Kurt Suzuki: $1.6 million.
Coco Crisp: $250,000.
Brandon McCarthy: $3.275 million.
Grant Balfour: $25,000.
Brett Anderson: $2 million.
Daric Barton: $675,000
Joey Devine: $180,000
Adam Rosales: $175,000
That’s a total of $8.18 million.
Adding $8.18 million+$4.415=$12.33 million.
Subtracting $12.33 million from $29.85 million comes to $17.52 million.
So from a payroll of $55 million in 2011, the A’s have slashed a total of $17.52 million.
Justice writes:
When (Beane) looked at the A’s after the 2011 season, he saw a third-place club that had neither the payroll nor the Minor League talent to make a dramatic improvement. He had $51 million in contract commitments for 2012 and a $55 million budget even before attempting to re-sign his starting outfield of David DeJesus, Josh Willingham and Coco Crisp (only Crisp will be back).
“I had to look at it honestly,” he said. “Look at the moves the Angels and Rangers have made. They’re going to have payrolls rivaling the Red Sox and Yankees. It just seemed foolish to go forward with a third-place team that was losing significant parts. We felt we had to do something dramatic.”
“Honestly”? Beane uses the word “honestly”?
Where is he getting these numbers from?
They could’ve dumped Crisp’s $5.75 million and found another, cheaper center fielder somewhere who would do pretty much the same things Crisp does. Or they could’ve just stuck Josh Reddick out there and given him the chance to play every day. What did they need Crisp for?
McCarthy just had his first season of moderate health after bouncing from the White Sox to the Rangers and having repeated shoulder problems—which also cost him eight starts in 2011—and failing as a top prospect. The only way the Athletics were able to sign him was because he was short of options for a rotation spot. He’s their new ace?
Someone would take Balfour and his fastball.
Barton was acquired in the Mark Mulder trade (one of the prior teardowns) and Beane clings to him as if he’s hoping against hope that someday he’ll fulfill that potential.
The mischaracterizations and fabrications inherent in Moneyball—the book and the movie—are continuing unabated and unchallenged. Replete with salable buzzwords implying the same party line for his constituency, it goes on and on.
There’s a separation from rebuilding and collecting prospects and ratcheting up the rhetoric to maintain the veneer of knowing what one’s doing, having a plan and executing it.
Are you seeing what I’m seeing?
Lies.
Fabrications.
Political-style calculations.
And the masses are still buying it.
Under no circumstances am I questioning the prospects nor the basis for making the trades of Cahill, Gonzalez and Bailey. We don’t know about the players he received and won’t know for awhile.
That’s not the point.
The point is that he’s spewing the same garbage he’s been spewing for years in a self-interested, self-absolving manner to shun the responsibility for the failures of the teams he built.
They’ve failed to meet expectations when they were supposed to contend and now they’re going to meet expectations by falling to 95 losses.
But it’s not Billy’s fault.
I don’t want to be sold something by a clever marketer/con-artist who’s still clutching and using this nonsensical and faulty biography.
Beane’s become a “means to an end” executive and that end is to hold onto that aura of “genius” that was created by Moneyball. There are still those that believe it and take his word for why he does what he does—they don’t bother to check.
Is it because they trust him? That they want to protect him? Or is it because they’re afraid of what they might find if they dig for facts?
The A’s are going to have a lower payroll and they’re going to be much worse than they could’ve been with worse players than they had because of this “strategy” that is played up in the latest piece about Beane.
When does this stop?
When will the true objective reality be examined and cited?
When?
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PAULLEBOWITZ.COM 