Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
Right, but how do you go to the fans in Oakland and say "Come out pay money to watch us play when since the trade deadline last year we've traded away our two best offensive players on the team, and the top higher end pitchers we traded for are also going to be gone". It's a difficult sell right?
And that's before you remember they play in the worst or second worst (the Big O) sports stadium in North America. I get that Billy is always playing the long game because of their budget constraints, but it's pretty impossible to build a fanbase when any time you might have a window to win, it gets slammed shut by your owners.
This case seems particularly odd as Donaldson is on a very good contract for a few years yet. This just seems like making moves for the sake of making moves. Or maybe Billy saw the second half collapse last year and decided this team wasn't anywhere close to winning anything and is re-tooling for a few years from now. But that's still not going to help build their fanbase.
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If you ask me, there are two things that Beane could be thinking with the deal. Firstly, he's thinking long term. If the A's next timeline to win is 2 years down the road, then dealing for Lawrie makes sense to him. If Lawrie doesn't work out he probably figures he can deal him, and he hauled enough prospects to hope one or more work out. Second thing he could be thinking, is that because Donaldson was a late bloomer, perhaps he'll somehow regress to where he was before. I hope not, but these guys sometimes have a keen eye and he Beane seen something wrong about Donaldson's swing, maybe he thought he could deal him for some value now.