Billy Beane

The start of spring training is getting closer, but is your enthusiasm level at an all-time low like mine? Do you find yourself frustrated by the fact that the A’s are doomed to suffer through an excruciating long season filled with disappointment? The frequent assembling, dismantling, and inconsistent youth movements have grown stale. The A’s are on the brink of falling off the map completely, especially if the team is denied its bid to relocate to the tech-savy city of San Jose. A’s co-owner Lew Wolff and company are, according to popular opinion, running this organization into the ground…on purpose. [...]

Wow!  Did Coco Crisp just resign with the Oakland A’s?  Well, yeah it look like he will be coming back. For those of you that don’t know or have just been on hiatus from your favorite A’s team, kind of like me, then you where thrown off guard.  Crisp apparently resigned with the A’s for $14 million.   Now, for those of you who knew that already, and I am sure there are many of you, shouldn’t you be asking yourself why? I personally was surprised, due to the fact that Billy Beane and the A’s organization said that no one would be safe [...]

Over the next couple of days Swingin’ A’s will take a closer look at some of the prospects the Athletics scored in the Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, and Andrew Bailey trades. Next we look at Collin Cowgill, the small-framed, but potentially power-slugging outfielder the A’s acquired in the Cahill deal. The A’s enter 2012 with a completely overhauled outfield, well, almost completely overhauled. The A’s retained their center fielder Coco Crisp for a cool $14 million and the deal finally reveals that Billy Beane has gone cuckoo for Coco Puffs. Other than Crisp, however, Oakland’s outfield makeup figures to be much, much different this year. Josh Willingham [...]

I’ll just say it. The Oakland Athletics have absolutely no shot at competing next year in the American League West. No chance at all. Zip. Nada. Forget about it. The front office, starting with owner Lew Wolff and General manager Billy Beane, is already waving the white flag of surrender. The recent trades of Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill, Craig Breslow, Andrew Bailey, and Ryan Sweeney suggest that the A’s are not aiming to win in 2012, 2013, or any time soon for that matter. Beane is off rebuilding for the future and Wolff is consumed by his team’s bid for [...]

Given the fact that the A’s are already waving the white flag of surrender before the start of the season, are you putting much faith into the 2012 season? If so, why? The A’s haven’t been relevant for a few years now and Billy Beane has seemingly started yet another massive overhaul with no plans of winning until 2014 at the very earliest. There are no big time players on the A’s current roster and with relatively no star-power, what will bring you, the fan, to the ballpark this season? Is your love of the A’s and the game of baseball [...]

There wasn’t a whole lot to celebrate this season if you were an A’s fan. Sure, the team added a few new faces in David DeJesus, Hideki Matsui, and Josh Willingham before the start of the season, but those additions proved ineffective for the most part. The A’s failed to make the playoffs for yet another season and the team’s chances at a postseason appearance in 2012 are even worse than they were last year. Still, it is important for the sake of your sanity to remain as upbeat and positive as humanly possible. There were a few things about [...]

The A’s 2011 season was supposed to be full of excitement, but in the end, Billy Beane’s green-and-gold crew put together a season marked by inconsistencies on both offense and defense. Despite the additions of some key players like Hideki Matsui, David DeJesus, Josh Willingham, Grant Balfour, and Brian Fuentes, the A’s failed to reach the playoffs for the fifth-consecutive season and finished the season 22 games out of first place in the AL West. Oh, and the whole Bob Geren drama also put a damper on the A’s 2011 season as well. The offense actually performed worse than it [...]

After trading his three All-Star pitchers Trevor Cahill, Andrew Bailey, and Gio Gonzalez, A’s general manager Billy Beane could also end up trading the guy who helped in the development of those pitchers. Kurt Suzuki, the A’s solid backstop for the past five seasons, could find himself playing for another team at some point next season. According to a recent rumor from Buster Olney, the A’s catcher could be dealt before next season’s trade deadline. Olney might not be in the wrong when saying that Oakland could move on from Suzuki sometime next season. Trading Suzuki, 28, makes sense since the [...]

The A’s entered the 2011 season with a renewed sense of optimism after posting an encouraging 81-81 record in 2010 under manager Bob Geren. Following Geren’s first .500 season as A’s skipper, the A’s front office made it a priority to give Geren, a close friend of GM Billy Beane, the tools necessary to compete in the American League West. The additions of David DeJesus, Hideki Matsui, Josh Willingham, Grant Balfour, and Brian Fuentes were supposed to help make the Athletics a contender during the 2011 season. The A’s efforts to retool their team, however, were met with some very [...]

Well, it looks like Athletics might actually get the necessary approval from MLB to build a new ballpark in the city of San Jose. The A’s, mired in a three-year stadium debacle, might have some clarity in regards to their bid for a new venue relatively soon. According to a tweet released on Twitter by USA Today writer Bob Nightengale, the A’s will be granted approval for a new ballpark by February. Rumors are rumors, but given the fact that the A’s have waited nearly three years for an answer, the team should be nearing a resolution to their stadium problem. [...]