I was just recently reading the post by FlashFire about what the minors are like for the players.  Well as we can all imagine, its tough.  They aren't paid well, they work sometimes 2-3 weeks straight.  They work oftentimes 8-10 hours a day.  Then travel, by bus, everywhere (AAA is the only level that doesn't at times).  Doesn't matter that its an 8 hour drive and your leaving the ballpark at midnight, have a nice drive fellas.  Hope you can sleep on the bus, cause your getting to Bakersfield at 6AM and gotta be back at the BP at 1.

 

Well I wanted to post something a little different concerning the plight of those in the minors.  If it weren't for all the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes, these minor league players and organizations wouldn't have a viable location to work and learn.  As a front office member of a Cal League Team for the past 4 years, I've seen many players and FO members burned out by the extreme involvement and sometimes crushing time requirements that the jobs entail.  90 to 100 hour work weeks are common in the minor leagues.

 

Check out this video attached.  It is a quick 10 minute documentary filmed recently in Lancaster, and it showcases some of the "others" out there that make minor league baseball viable.  This video has been out for a couple weeks, but MILB just today posted an article today and link for you to see.

 

Listen to the Radio guy.  He tells it exactly how it is.  

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100818&content_id=13593818&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp 

 

Those of you still interested in working in the minor leagues, check out the Baseball Winter Meetings.  Most don't realize that while all the Free Agents and GM's are making deals, hundreds of young and old college grads/professionals are fighting for a handful of minor league jobs.  It is the definition of a meat market, but if you want in, you go to the meetings.  Sometimes 500 people for 150 jobs.  But hey, I had no experience...

PBEO.com is the Professional Baseball Employment Organization, and they will set you up, but you've gotta do the rest.

Anyone looking to get into the business, that isn't scared away after hearing all this, message me.

 

Enjoy.

Ok, I understand the Moneyball movie is a topic of conversation today in other fanposts, but I thought I'd take the discussion in another direction.

 

My anticipation of this film is not in question.  I humbly pledge to see this movie when it comes out, and subsequently purchase it once it comes out for my home movie viewing pleasure.  I'm sure I will love it.

However my skepticism over this film has many fronts.  Most people in this country are in agreement about the book MoneyBall--It was prolific, no doubt.  The skeptics tend to be of the "I haven't read it but I heard" category, that had seemed to make a lot of noise when the book first came out. Remember the Joe Morgan comments about how "Billy Beane should be ashamed for writing this book," yet he'd never read it and acknowledged that (and Billy obviously didn't write it, a common misconception).  I'm sure we all will agree that Joe Morgan has an IQ just north of the short bus, but the "overrated" mentality that is subsequently implied with these comments are sure to start coming back and bugging Billy and the A's. 

 

Honestly, I don't think Billy cares about the backlash.  But the A's will be once again an open ground for "stat" talk about how really affective Billy has been in his career.  How is Jeremy Brown going to be involved?  How anticlimactic that story is going to be.  He came up for a cup of coffee, then retired.  Yikes!  There were like 3 chapters on him.  Swisher?  Blanton?  People are going to want to dig. 

 

I really don't understand how this will be made into a movie.  How does it end?  Moneyball 2 - The Rebuildening?

 

This will be a niche movie ( I hope not!), but I'm afraid it will.  Maybe a cult classic business movie, like Boiler room.  That'd be cool.  But where will it go.  Will it end in the ALCS loss to the Tigers ( a sweep, yikes)?

 

It will be cool to see how the inner office dynamics of the A's will be presented.  That will be the most fascinating aspect for me, but overall, I'm not sure how this will work.

 

All in all, Billy is a dynamic individual, no doubt.  It seems he is more and more respected as a business man as time moves on (MLB Front Office Manager!).  His perspectives on business transcend beyond baseball into the greater business world, and people have taken notice.

 

What do other people think?  What do you anticipate from this film?  What are you looking for?  How do you see the national public reaction to this?

Will the "haven't read" people be at it again?

Discuss.

 

It's been a long while since I have posted anything on A's Nation.

Man, I really love the fact that our #1 power-ranked A's are playing America's sport this weekend.  They've played fantastically to this point.  They've legitimized themselves this season, and continue to wow and disprove mainstream predictions of dire straits.

Which is where my disgust comes from.

 

Yesterday, our Green and Gold  Brethren encountered a foe on their territory.  In Arlington, physically 1,706 miles away. 

Now, we all know the A's television broadcasting system is second to all, and last to many.  But, I was absolutely amazed last night when I got home from my game (I work in minor league baseball) and found my DVR recording black, nothing but black.

 

Why?

 

Can anyone explain to me, why the Oakland Athletics game, that is taking place 1,700 miles away from Oakland, without a provided A's broadcast, is still being blacked out?

 

There is no, zero, competition for that telecast.  None!!  Yet it is still blacked out.  This blows me away, and proves to me once again, that MLB is all about cash, and cares only for the fans as much as they can cram them into their seats, and push their merchandise onto them.

How can this policy be good for baseball? 

 

As I mentioned before, I myself actually work for a minor league baseball front office.  And take part in all the amazing perks provided through my affiliation, yet the regular fan is left out in the black, so to speak.

 

MLB does not think Oakland has fans.  As proven by the whole, red sox only apology by ESPN, or whoever, after the blacked out, pre-season, opening day, middle of spring training garbage. (Emil Brown, first player in MLB history to hit a regular season home run before his first spring training home run?! What?)

Now, I hope I don't get in trouble for not towing the line on this, but this black out stuff is ridiculous.

 

If anyone cares to expell their disgust for this weekends horrible coverage, nows the time. 

 

I honestly think we should start a petition to MLB to restructure the black out rules.

 

 

The first thing I think, without reading the article is, who?  Byrnes?  Has Stephen Cannella actually watched a game of his, or has he just seen highlights.

Cause the highlights alone would warrant a Mr. Excitement, but the 0fer's are a bit disconcerting.  Although he is heating up a bit, and we need it bad!!!!!!!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/stephen_cannella/05/13/byrnes.athletics/index.html

A good quote

Then there are players such as A's outfielder Eric Byrnes, who bears watching in a torch-juggler-riding-a-unicycle-along-a-jagged-cliff kind of way. Every play is a potential Hall of Fame moment, but it's also equally likely to end in a flaming tangle of limbs and metal,

What do you think?

5.Today
4.Tommorrow
3.Friday
2.Next Monday....I could go on

The number 1 Reason.

For those poor souls who live out of range for KICU, but not far enough away to be considered out of market where there is mlb.com, there is no game for you.  You've been deemed to have no interest in these games.  This coming Friday you have been deemed as not interested in the A's first game vs. the Yankees.  Next Friday and Saturday the same.

Why can we not have one network.  One that is shown outside of the East Bay.  I think as A's fans we need to let the new owners know that they are fulfulling their promise to stay a small-market team.  They are intentionally handcuffing themselves by not allowing their product to be seen by those who, despite their best efforts, have no ability to physically be at a game.

In the next two weeks we have 12 games in primetime, considered by me games in the evening during the weekdays and anything on the weekend.  Of those twelve games, 7 are on KICU, including two fridays and a saturday.

Three this week alone, and not a single one on FSN until saturday.

Am I the only person upset about these stupid rules and decisions?

Or am I just kidding myself?

Just thought that I'd point out this little note that was on the CNNSI.com MLB homepage.  

Apparently Wright is hurt, big surprise, so that kid Wang who they refused to bring up from AAA, but are now forced to and still owe 21$ mil.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/

That is probably the funniest thing I've read on si.com in a long time.  

What are they thinking?

It'll probably only be up until thursday morning.

I have a cold today, so no work.

But I began reading an article mentioning a new stadium coming along with our new ownership group.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/sports/baseball/mlb/oakland_athletics/11256301.htm

Then theres this quote at the end.

"As for Wolff, he's expected to devote himself primarily to finding a new stadium. The A's lease with McAfee Coliseum expires after the 2007 season (the team has three one-year options after that), and Wolff was brought into the A's organization in November 2003 to oversee the club's efforts to secure a new venue."

"The stadium issue is going to be the major focus of this ownership group," Young (A's PR guy) said. "But that's no surprise there."

Anyways I started thinking, what could this mean to the A's.  We have a payroll of what $55-60 million.  Now a mere 15% increase in profits per year, with the team we already have in place, and the others in the minors with potential, I see few more trades needed, other then the current high dollar contracts already on hand, for any significant moves for at least 5 years.

2010

After our three one year options and the lease running out in 2007, we get, 2010.  

15% at that point will end up being more like 18-19. Money able to keep contracts on hand that are wanted, ie Chavy, who will be in his last year of his contract, added to the increased revenue, we can resign people like Harden, Blanton, Crosby, Swisher, Haren, Meyer, you name it.  We can have a set core for the next 10 years.

I believe this sort of logical opportunity has already been thought up by BB, at least setting us up for a great run when maturity hits.  

Summary

Increase fan attention, means increase in revenues.
New stadium, with a good view of the Oakland Hills, again, means increase in revenues.

Higher payroll.

More money to play with.

This year, 05 may be a transition, we may be great, we may have a few rookies show why they call them that, but we have the tools put together to move and transition seamlessly for the next ten years.  Like I said, Majors and Minors.  

And of course this is a highly optimistic view of the A's current standing, but the mere fact that we are in this position is a result of the intellect of BB.  Long-term.  Of course there will be trades taking part during those last years, cause BB needs to have some fun.

From Si.com

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/mlb/03/15/bc.bbo.blue.dui.ap/index.html

Former Oakland A's star Vida Blue was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence following a minor traffic accident.

Blue, the 1971 American League MVP and Cy Young winner, was arrested early Sunday after officers called to the accident scene noticed he was impaired, Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said Tuesday.

The 55-year-old Blue was booked for investigation of DUI and released several hours later. The results of the blood alcohol test were not available Tuesday.

No one was injured in the accident, Clark said.

Blue, a six-time All-Star, played 17 seasons with Oakland, San Francisco and Kansas City before retiring in 1986.

Happens to everyone.  They'll get you someday.

I was perusing ESPN.com during work, as I often do, and I found this clip of Mulder interviewed on ESPN.

Some good comments on the breakup of the trio, and such.  He pridicts the A's at 90 wins.

http://espn.go.com/

To view, get a video player of some sort.  The ESPN MOTION video will start on the right, underneath will say Videos For: click on MLB, and there is Mulder.

enjoy

[EDITOR'S NOTE] Tim Hudson signed a three-year extension today. I can't give anything away, but I think once you read the Mychael Urban book Aces, you'll understand why the A's resigning him wasn't likely. Even if Beane and company were willing to designate a huge chunk of the payroll to two players, Hudson and Chavez, they would've had to surround them with a roster of unproven players for the next five years and judging from Hudson's comments throughout the book, that wouldn't have worked for Tim. -Blez

Here is a link to the page.

3 Years, $33 million, with possibility of two vesting years based on innings pitched.  Now I have a question, why couldn't we afford that.

Upside is we traded him and have a few potential greats to fill in, or potential flops.

Downside is, if we signed we would have had $22 million invested in two players, and the question is how are they going to divide the rest of the $33 million leftover.

Financially it was a good move, we can't put our all our eggs in one basket.

I recently bought a copy of 2005 Major League Baseball Yearbook and Fantasy Guide at a local establishment and thought it would be interesting to post the predicted stats for (just about) every player on the A's for next season.
Here they are:

1. Jason Kendall (.305, 5Hr, 48Rbi, 74 runs, 163 hits.)#4 ranked catcher
   
2. Mark Kotsay  (.295, 14Hr, 55Rbi, 75 runs, 168 hits.)  #56 ranked outfielder
   
3. Eric Chavez (.283, 31Hr, 93Rbi, 92 runs, 153, Hits)  #11 ranked Third Baseman
   
4. Erubial Durazo  (.293, 24Hr, 86Rbi, 87 runs, 154 Hits)  #2 ranked DH
   
5. Bobby Crosby (.265, 22Hr, 75Rbi, 81 runs, 147 Hits)  #16 ranked shortstop
   
6. Nick Swisher (.253, 23Hr, 87Rbi, 90 runs, 133 Hits)
   
7. Eric Byrnes (.280, 17Hr, 63Rbi, 80 runs, 137 Hits)
   
8. Charles Thomas (.292, 4Hr, 26Rbi, 27 runs, 54 Hits)
   
9.  Keith Ginter (.263, 17Hr, 50Rbi, 45 runs, 92 Hits)
   
10.  Scott Hatteberg (12Hr, 62Rbi, 66 runs, 131 Hits)  
    
11. Bobby Kielty  (7Hr, 34Rbi, 35 runs, 54 Hits)

Pitchers.

1. Rich Harden (3.65  15-8) Ranked #16 (Hudson #12)
   
2. Barry Zito (3.85 16-10) Ranked #24
   
3. Dan Haren (4.01, 12-10, 29GS) Ranked #43 (Mulder #44)
   
4. Joe Blanton (4.28, 11-9, 26GS)
   
5. Dan Meyer (4.02, 9-6)
   
6. Octavio Dotel ( 3.07, 6-4, 43-49SVs) Ranked #5 Reliever
   
7. Kiko Calero (2.91)
   
8. Juan Cruz (3.09)
   
9. Justin Duchscherer (3.49 85 Inn)
   
10. Chad Bradford (3.34)
    
11. Huston Street (3.42, 4-0, 2 SVs, 50 Ips)

Ok, well thats about all I can find.  Remember these are just predictions from a fantasy baseball guide and are supposed to be based on the strength of the team as much as the strength of the hitter.

What do ya think?