The Oakland A’s did nothing at the trade deadline and by doing this general manager pretty much said “screw you” to Oakland A’s fans. This year will be another wasted season for the A’s.
What’s sad is if Beane had gotten some deals together the A’s could have made a run at the Texas Rangers even if the Rangers went out and got Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina, Cristian Guzman, and Jorge Cantu.
At the deadline the A’s could have made some noise. Ryan Ludwick was traded to the San Diego Padres for practically nothing, Miguel Tejada was also acquired for practically nothing from the Baltimore Orioles, and the same can be said about Lance Berkman heading to the New York Yankees from Houston.
Houston itself agreed to pay 11 million of Berkman’s salary for the Yankees.
Even some lesser trades could have helped such as how the Braves traded for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth.
There were ways that Beane could have improved the team, but instead A’s fans are stuck watching another year of anemic offense and what’s even worse is the fact that the A’s have the second best ERA in the American League.
If the A’s had any offense they’d be much closer to the Texas Rangers then the eight games they are out right now. This is counting both games tonight in which the Rangers and A’s both suffered losses.
If you look at the schedule for the A’s they could make some significant ground on the Rangers, but they cannot give away easy wins like the team did tonight losing 3-2 to the Kansas City Royals.
Let’s say the Rangers beat the Mariners on Wednesday and Thursday with the A’s winning on Wednesday as well and Thursday is an offday for the A’s.
That means the A’s would be eight and a half games back of the Rangers. How do the A’s inch closer to the Rangers? Well in the next two series it will be huge because it’s two division teams.
One is the division leader the Rangers and the other is the last place Seattle Mariners. The Rangers next six games include the final two games of the series against the Mariners, two games against the new York Yankees, and two of the three games against the Boston Red Sox.
Like I said before the Rangers most likely will win the next two games of the series leaving the A’s eight and a half games back. If the A’s take two of the three games at home against the Rangers they’ll be six and a half back and the A’s should no doubt sweep the Mariners.
Meaning that if the Rangers lose the two game series to the Yankees and the first two games of the Red Sox series the A’s would be three and a half games back of the Rangers and there would be a division race.
This of course is wishful thinking for any A’s fan. The reality is it could have happened if the A’s brought in a couple of bats and traded away some prospects.
The sad part is Beane has never been the one to shy away from deals. It’s not like him to just stand pat. Regardless of his intentions for the offseason, the truth is the A’s did have a shot at the division, but that door was slammed shut when the A’s didn’t do anything to improve the offense.
When Matt Holliday was acquired before the start of the 2009 season it was the belief he was going to anchor the middle of the A’s lineup instead he was a constant disappointment with very little effort until he knew he was going to be traded.
Yet, for Beane it was the worst trade he’s made as general manager. Trading away Carlos Gonzalez, Huston Street, and Greg Smith. No one is going to debate that Smith was a huge loss, but Street and Gonzalez were.
Street found his way back for the Rockies after struggling the year before with the A’s and Gonzalez is hitting third in the Rockies lineup and it looks like he’s got that pretty much locked up for a while.
For the A’s now by the time Chris Carter and Michael Taylor could be possibly brought up it will be far too late for the A’s and another season that has passed with the A’s showing nothing for the outstanding pitching and again it’s another year of wait till next season.
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