One of the feel-good stories of the 2006 baseball season is the Oakland Athletics winning the American League West.
You have to feel good for a team with payroll that is less than twice Alex Rodriguez’s salary; with a 38-year-old slugger left on the scrap heap by the defending World Series champions, and with a roster that people who don’t live in the Bay area would be hard-pressed to name more than three or four players.
So how are the A’s one of the more successful franchises in the AL, ranking with the low-budget Minnesota Twins? It starts with Billy Beane. I am not sure I subscribe to “Moneyballl” or all the statistical analysis (mumbo-jumbo?) that Beane uses. But as one who watched the Sacramento River Cats eight times a season for three years, I know that the minor league system is solid.
The ‘Cats and other A’s minor league teams are big believers in the one stat all of us can agree is most important offensively – on-base-percentage. Baseball in its simplest form is outscoring the opposition. If you lack a Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols or Jim Thome in your lineup, you learn to win with “small ball.”
There was a time not long ago when the A’s could hand the ball to Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, and watch their Big 3 shut down the opposition. Only Zito remains from that trifecta and it’s a good bet that this is his last year in an Oakland uniform. Miguel Tejada, Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi have all reaped the rewards of wearing an A’s uniform
When you can’t afford to pay A-Rod-type salaries, you had better be diligent in making certain your minor league system is well stocked with young talent and that when you get something in return for your free agents-to-be, or make a budget-minded free agent pickup, that you are correct with your thinking.
Otherwise, you are doomed to being the Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates or Tampa Bay Devil Rays, teams whose annual mantra of wait-until-next-year usually begins around June 1.
The A’s prescription for success this year has been nurturing talented young pitchers, a breakout season by Nick Swisher, and gambling and winning with mid-priced free agents Esteban Loaiza, Milton Bradley and, most of all, Thomas.
Thomas is the most interesting case. Die-hard A’s fans look at him as a feel-good story himself, but hard-core baseball people know better. Frankly, Big Frank wore out his welcome in Chicago after two injury-filled seasons, and shoveled dirt on the White Sox on his way out the door.
He needed to polish his image or be seen as a sulking former superstar. So he pulled a George Foreman with his attitude change. Of course, it didn’t hurt that his power numbers returned to the way they were in the 1990s, and that he remained injury-free.
Give Beane and the A’s credit for a remarkable season, no matter how far it goes. They have made life much more interesting than the Giant Geezers, their better paid brethren across the Bay.
