Would they be tied for the one Wildcard spot or have run away with the division and clinched by now?

I can’t say the Angels will catch them or that Baltimore won’t flip with them for the last Wilcard spot before the season is done…

But you have to admit that the trade of Gio could have denied them from being the best team in baseball! Thier best starter has no more than 13 wins!

Does that really make Beane a smart guy?
For determining he didn’t need his best pitcher cause his team was so good to win he didn’t need a Cy Young pitcher to make the playoffs he could just slide in under Selig’s expanded playoff system?

Is that really what your trying to say here?

Anyway you slice it he was wrong!
Either he KNEW he had a 100 win roster and decided to make it a 90 win roster by trading Gio cause he didn’t need him….
Or he was wrong to think he didn’t have a good team and made it worse by trading Gio.

I agree to an extent with you on the sustained losing creates opportunity. But, a few things about that.

Tampa Bay – TB actually lost for a while because of poor decisions. Look back at their roster moves, they tried to go with the George Foster approach of “sell tickets first, win games last.” and signed a bunch of aging superstars in hopes it would attract fans.

They didn’t get better until the change in ownership which lead to the changes in front office. The key to that was the change in their development program.

Tampa is a great example though, I love watching that franchise (partially because of my background)

They weren’t just drafting top players,

They were also developing guys and getting value out of trades from guys like
John Jaso a 12th rounder,
sean rodriguez (traded from laa in kazmir deal),
ben zobrist (acquired from houston in aubrey huff deal),
matt joyce (edwin jackson trade),
matt garza (delmon young trade),
jason bartlett (delmon young trade),
james shields (16th rounder)
rafael soriano (traded from atlanta)

and then they were finding a bullpen while not spending a ton of money on it. Look at their 2010 bullpen: Soriano, Lance Cormier, Joaquin Benoit, Dan Wheeler and Randy Choate.

They get the most out of their players when they are on the field because they have a great Manager – and they get the most out of their players off the field as well.

Drafting players is a crapshoot not because the picking is hard – its because the developing is difficult but Tampa took it a step further and found ways to trade for players that would later earn them an AL pennant.

Proactivity and creativity go hand in hand with spending smartly. This is why people are frustrated. Our front office has failed on all three fronts in the last two years.

Last year’s Games 162 was amazing.

To answer your question, I believe the answer is yes.

Currently, Oakland is tied in the loss column for the wildcard if there is only 1 spot.

I’m sorry but you can’t tell me that any critics, or even his supporters would have said he has a 90 win roster in April. You can’t deny that a roster that looked like a 60-70 win roster is competing against Texas and the Angels and is right in the thick of things.

The issue I personally have with Beane critics is they take it to such extremes. They look for ways to poo poo anything about him. I’m not suggesting he’s my favorite executive, or I root for Oakland regularly. I don’t. I will tell you what though (and this is my words not somebody telling me what I think).

I respect the heck out of what he does with limited resources. I respect that he has an owner who doesn’t want to spend money and plays in a city that doesn’t care about his team and yet once again with a fraction of what most teams spend – he’s in a playoff race.

I respect him because fans are constantly looking to spend spend spend as though that is the only way to get a competitive team on the field, and once again you turn to Oakland and he shows you another way.

I don’t need to read a book or watch a movie to tell me the 2012 A’s are not a significant achievement for that front office.

How often did we as Mets fans (everybody) complain about where the money was spent or not reinvesting KRod’s contract or only signing small budget contracts.

Oakland proved it works. It is just about finding the right pieces at the right time. That’s as much a judgment on SA right now as it is praise for Beane.

But you can’t tell me it doesn’t work. Would you trade our 2012 season for Oakland’s? I would in a heartbeat.

Bud did a great thing by expanding the Playoffs by two teams because it validates the Oakland Build Philosophy as one that works!

LouisCK couldn’t write better stuff!

You know if Selig expanded the teams that make the playoffs to 30 we could validate everyone’s philosophy as genius!

Question: Would Beane look so smart for trading Gio if Selig had NOT expanded the wildcard this year?

I have to admit that extra WC does lend to a longer race deep into September and many more teams still playing meaningful games. Just wish we were one of them.

but, it also puts a premium on the division. Remember the years where the Red Sox were a couple of games behind the Yankees in September, but locked into the WC? And they started resting guys, setting up for the playoffs, basically conceding the division and being good as the WC/ Well, that sure as heck isn’t happening with this system.