As AN is debating the enviable quandaries of too many good pitchers and how to rebuild & contend simultaneously, over at Lookout Landing they're already trying to figure out what went wrong.  Mostly, it's just funny, but this post caught my attention.

The main conclusion is pretty clear: building a team around free agents is expensive and risky at best.  Not exactly groundbreaking around these parts; a good example nonetheless.

So I threw this together for the A's, using baseball reference and my own memory.

How the A's got to Oakland

Draft

Travis Buck
Kurt Suzuki
Joe Blanton   
Richard Harden
Huston Street
Eric Chavez
Bobby Crosby

Trade

Ryan Sweeney
Rob Bowen
Mark Ellis
Kiko Calero
Justin Duchscherer
Joey Devine
Jack Hannahan
Jack Cust (purchased)
Greg Smith
Donnie Murphy (purchased/waivers)
Daric Barton
Dana Eveland
Chris Denorfia
Chad Gaudin (waivers)
Andrew Brown

Free Agent

Mike Sweeney
Keith Foulke
Emil Brown
Alan Embree
Rajai Davis (waivers)
Frank Thomas

Int'l Free Agent

Santiago Casilla

Obvious conclusion that we all know: Beane is an exceptional trader.  I wonder how sustainable that team-building approach is -- some GM's have publicly announced that they won't trade with BB anymore.  I was particularly surprised at how many of our guys came from KC. (Maybe there's a dangerous conclusion to that.)

Most of the traded players were acquired as minor leaguers.  Is it possible that the A's have a great system for "finishing" top prospect AA and AAA players?  Or is there nothing to this--CarGon will be what he is, in Oakland or anywhere else?  Everybody knows the story of how Beane himself was rushed into the majors.  Likely that experience informs his handling of minor leaguers.

[Note by phastphill, 05/10/08 3:21 PM PDT ] I'm humbled that my fanpost was turned into a staturday! (thanks grover)  Some folks have pointed out mistakes in my research, so I edited some of the details.  Hopefully it's all accurate (if not 100% thorough) now.