Show Me The Money: The A's are putting their spending on hold until a stadium decision is made (Photo Credit: www.jimvesting.com)

The title above shouldn’t surprise anyone. The A’s head into the offseason with some serious, and I mean serious, questions regarding the team’s spending on free agents this winter. A’s fans shouldn’t expect a repeat of last winter, where the A’s went all crazy and made several attempts at landing 3B Adrian Beltre. Spending money, so it seems, is not on Oakland’s agenda this winter.

General manager Billy Beane and team co-owner Lew Wolff will be busy waiting around for a decision from MLB and Commissioner Bud Selig regarding the team’s request to build a stadium in San Jose. No one is holding their breath, though. Beane and Wolff have been waiting nearly three years for a decision that, in mind, won’t benefit the A’s organization. I just don’t see MLB or Selig being gutsy enough to allow the A’s into San Jose, which falls within San Francisco’s “territorial” rights.

All of this waiting, as most of you can probably imagine, is not doing Beane or the rest of the A’s front office any good. The longer the A’s sit around and wait for a decision that’s never going to come, the more and more they fall behind the rest of the teams actually taking part in this year’s free agent market. Oakland have not made any offers to its five free agents, and now guys like Josh Willingham and Coco Crisp are free to chat with other teams.

The A’s simply took a “pass” on their five free agents, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle so eloquently puts it in a recent article about team’s failure to offer contract extensions. In the article, Slusser notes that the A’s missed out on their window of exclusivity with their five free agents and that it now appears highly unlikely that Willingham and Crisp will return to the team next year. (more…)

Oakland’s entire starting outfield group is up for free agency and with richer teams moving in on guys like Willingham and Crisp, the A’s may feature a completely different outfield setup in 2012.

Willingham, Oakland’s leader in home runs (29) and RBIs (98), is figured to receive a few offers from various teams throughout the league this offseason. But for Oakland, keeping a guy like Willingham should be their number one priority.

 Not since Frank Thomas have the A’s had a powerful presence in their lineup, and Willingham, who set career highs in home runs and RBIs, is a guy who can hit for power. (more…)

Time To Sell: Oakland will likely be sellers at this year's trade deadline (Photo Credit: bayareasportsguy.com)

Entering the break with relatively no signs of life, the Oakland Athletics are slipping out of the AL West and are looking more and more like sellers.

General Manager Billy Beane tried to upgrade the offense—the team’s biggest problem heading into the season—but even with the additions of Josh Willingham, Hideki Matsui, and David DeJesus, the A’s find themselves ranking 28th in the majors in runs scored (315), and 28th in batting average (.233).

The Athletics have been a disappointment for some time now, and haven’t really been relevant since, well, since Michael Lewis wrote Moneyball. The A’s were a consistent playoff contender in the early 2000′s, but after getting swept in the 2006 ALCS, the A’s have gone four straight seasons without a winning record. (more…)