Fraley: A’s GM Beane not so far ahead of the pack

Fraley is some quarters of Garbool Sector 12-NEEB is pronounced Paullebowitz.com

This will also be Oakland’s fourth consecutive losing season. The Athletics’ progress is more the stuff of a comedy than a celebration of big brains with laptops, but the “Major League” franchise cornered that market years ago.

The Beane-led Athletics had good ideas, but the organization was not as far ahead of the pack as the book would have had readers believe. Six years after the publication of “Moneyball,” Oakland is nowhere close to being a playoff club. The Athletics’ new-wave plan is to develop young pitchers and trade them, an approach that keeps the club trapped in a down cycle.

...The irony of “Moneyball” is that while the book relentlessly paints the Athletics as discovering the hidden value of on-base percentage, their lineup has been terrible in that area.

Through June, Oakland ranked last in the AL for on-base percentage at .312. A year ago, the Athletics tied Seattle for last in on-base percentage at .318.

Who would want to watch a movie about that?

Goldstein: Sony’s Amy Pascal speaks out about ‘Moneyball’

Zaillian’s script was anchored by on-screen monologues by Bill James, the oddball guru of modern-day baseball statistics (who today works in the Boston Red Sox front office). James functioned as a Greek chorus for the film, offering wry, Yoda-like explanations about the complexity of the game.

Zaillian’s deft renditions of James’ maxims were funny and always to the point, allowing the audience the opportunity to see inside the game. In one monologue, James says: “If you score three runs and the other team scores four, you can be inspired as all hell but you still lost. The numbers represent the ineluctable sum of victories and defeats, and that cannot be made one iota larger or smaller than it is by PR campaigns, personal animosities or any of the greater and lesser forms of B.S.” But in Soderbergh’s draft, the James material had all vanished, presumably to be replaced by interviews with Beane’s real-life associates.

...Sony would also have to find a new director who is not only a good fit for the material but would pass muster with Pitt, who has director approval on his films. To find a director with enough stature or buzz to attract Pitt won’t be easy. The most likely options would be for the studio to go in more of a comic direction—possibilities being Jay Roach or Jason Reitman—or toward a more dramatic choice, like Gary Ross or even George Clooney, who is putting the finishing touches on a two-year production deal with the studio. (My own pick would be someone with a sharp, subversive edge, like Pete Berg.)

Pascal insists there’s no bad blood between her and Soderbergh, saying the two plan to meet in the coming days to discuss other possible projects. In the meanwhile, she remains an ardent believer in the film. “We love this movie, we always have and we still want to make it. It’s a completely innovative way to tell a baseball story. It’s about wanting to believe in magic, which is what baseball is all about.”

Thanks to Matt Welch.

NBC Sports/Gleeman: Frank Thomas is the most underrated hitter of all time

A 6-foot-5, 250-pound mountain of a man who played tight end at Auburn and was a massive slugger from the moment that he arrived in the majors as a 22-year-old in 1990, the sheer magnitude of Thomas’ physical size and offensive numbers made a fan in me immediately. And now, two decades later, I’m here to tell you that he’s the most underrated hitter in the history of baseball. Seriously.

Because of what has happened to power numbers and power hitters during the past decade or so Thomas is often talked about as just another great slugger from this era, but that misses the boat in a big way. Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball and surely everyone would agree that at 29 years old he’s on track to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but look at his numbers compared to Thomas’ stats at the same age:

               G       PA      AVG      OBP      SLG     OPS+
Pujols      1312     5696     .334     .426     .628     171
Thomas      1076     4789     .330     .452     .600     182

Pujols has hit .334 with a 1.054 OPS, whereas Thomas hit .330 with a 1.052 OPS through the age of 29. Plus, Thomas’ twenties came in a slightly lower-scoring era, which is why his adjusted OPS+ of 182 tops Pujols at 171. Pujols has two MVPs and one batting title while twice leading the league in OPS. Before his 30th birthday Thomas had two MVPs and one batting title while leading the league in OPS four times.

Miller: Moneyball: The script actually sort of works

One Thousand and One Afternoons in Hollywood...Go find Hecht! Pronto!

What does work is the underlying idea that baseball is frustrating, especially for a perfectionist like Beane. We all hear the cliche that the best hitters fail 7 out of 10 times, but making smart decisions about baseball players is nearly as difficult. Players don’t behave predictably; if they did, we’d have no Raul Ibanez this year, no Cliff Lee last year, no Howie Kendrick and Vlad Guerrero scuffling, no Chone Figgins rebirth, no Scot Shields (career), no Scot Shields (2009 disaster). What we’re talking about is really a game of margins, where you’re likely to be wrong 51 percent of the time but you’re hoping to be right 51 percent of the time, and if you pull it off you might win a lot of regular season games. And here we have a whole movie that’s supposed to be about this great genius who was competing against the world’s dumbest idiots, and he STILL can’t win a World Series, and STILL a bunch of his draft picks go bust, and STILL he trades Carlos Pena and Jeremy Bonderman for one year of Ted Lilly, and STILL within a couple years he can’t even stay above .500.

Moneyball: The Movie was to be a portrait of an easily frustrated man who found a genie in a bottle, but none of his wishes came out quite like he’d hoped. And I still wish they’d made it.

Canseco responds to Lansford

Jose Canseco responded to Carney Lansford’s comments in The Chronicle that players from the A’s 1989 championship team wouldn’t have attended Tuesday’s reunion at the Coliseum if Jose Canseco were on hand.

Canseco was interviewed by SportsNet Central, which will air the interview on its newscast tonight at 6.

Canseco: “All the other players that were mentioned in my book, or have come out, tested positive for steroids, have gotten multiyear contracts, are millionaires and still in the game of baseball. So obviously, Carney Lansford is one of the most ignorant individuals I’ve ever met to say that I’ve ruined other people’s lives.”

Thanks to Barnald the Barker.

Fletcher: Dave Stewart Rips Jose Canseco at Reunion for 1989 A’s

Only an Ashton, Gardner and Dyke reunion could be more disastrous…

A day after *Carney Lansford said he was still upset at Canseco for writing a tell-all book (* “I don’t believe there’s a guy on the ‘89 team who’d show up. Not after his book and all the lives he ruined. It’s selfishness, basically. I hate to say that, really. I played with him and thought he was a nice guy, but I don’t know how you can do that to people."), Dave Stewart said the A’s distaste for Canseco started long before that.

“This book had nothing to do with it, he was a bad teammate,” Stewart said.

Stewart said Canseco “concentrated more on himself than the team. I don’t think Canseco ever said ‘we.’ “

Stewart, who was one of the leaders of the A’s playoff teams of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, said the team was nearly unanimous in disliking Canseco.

“Truth be told, I’m glad Canseco is not here,” Stewart said. “I think anybody, if they were being honest, would say that.”

...When Stewart was asked if he thought McGwire should be in the Hall of Fame, he said: “I don’t know. I don’t really know the circumstances behind McGwire. I can tell you what I think. Do I think McGwire used [steroids]? No. Do I know that for a fact? No. He’s not denied it and he’s not affirmed it. Probably what the voters are waiting to see or hear is for him to say I didn’t do it. I don’t know whether he belongs or not. Shoot, I think I belong in the Hall of Fame, and I’m not.”

Inman: Rickey rants at A’s reunion

Rickey Henderson as you’ve never seen him! (much like Inspector Henderson’s eye-shredoozy take as Parisian police Inspector Lona!)

ON TODAY’S PLAYERS’ LOVE OF THE GAME

I don’t think they love the game like they should. If you love the game and feel like you’re going out there doing your best, you can’t have any pressure. Because you can’t do anything else, as long as you’re trying your best and having fun.

ON ANYONE TODAY THAT REMINDS HIM OF HIMSELF

I can’t say there’s a guy out there that reminds me of myself. I was not a one-dimensional guy. Players out there can’t do as many things as I could do on the ballfield. You got some fast guys out there I like. Jimmy Rollins is from here and I like him as a ballplayer. He used to follow me, and some of the stuff he carries out on the field, I see it in me. He has the heart. The ballplayers, to me, is lacking that, or lacking ‘Where do I want to go as a ballplayer? What do I want to be and achieve?’ Not, ‘What did I get?’ I don’t think you dig deep and say, ‘Can I accomplish what Willie Mays did? Can I accomplish what Ty and Willie did? What Babe Ruth did? What do we shoot for? We used to have films. We used to have to go to a room to look at film of the great ballplayers, to give you an idea of: ‘I want to be like that. I want to be like him. I want to be like Ty Cobb. Ty was crazy but stealing all kinds of bases. I wanted to be like Ty because he was aggressive. I don’t think the kids, I don’t think we teach them that. And I don’t think we teach them fundamentals. Now it’s one-dimensional. All we do is hit home runs. I played with Billy (Martin) and the BillyBall. We squeezed. We bunted ‘em over. We hit and run. We stole. We did the little things.

Moneyball Script—December ‘08 Draft (.pdf)

From Jeffrey Wells, who says:

...I can kinda see why a producer-manager friend passed along word about it being “terrific, and why Brad Pitt signed on. But the entire Sony staff, Amy Pascal included, was shocked to read the new script which had been substantially rewritten—a whole different movie.”

Sony scraps Soderbergh’s ‘Moneyball’

Columbia Pictures has dropped the ball on “Moneyball,” the Steven Soderbergh-directed Brad Pitt-starrer that was supposed to begin production Monday in Phoenix.

On Friday, Columbia Pictures topper Amy Pascal placed the picture into “limited turnaround,” giving the filmmaker the chance to set it up at another studio, with Warner Bros. and Paramount the prime targets.

The move came after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steve Zaillian and Steven Soderbergh and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Steven Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes.

Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get another studio to play ball in a game that will play out until Monday. If a new financier doesn’t emerge by tomorrow, Columbia will re-examine options that include replacing Soderbergh (and hoping that Pitt doesn’t ankle), delaying the film until she and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script, or pulling the plug.

Even in the climate of heightened studio caution, the turnaround news on “Moneyball” is surprising, given that had reached the equivalent of third base. The picture was just 96 hours before the participants were ready to take the field, following three months of prep and with camera tests completed and cast and budget in place.

A’s Settle Class Action Brought By Male Lawyer Irked At Mother’s Day Giveaway

Grrr...Back in ‘68 I was at Fan Appreciation Day...and I was appreciated with a Ray Culp one-hitter! Where’s my damn settlement?!

Just in time for Father’s Day this weekend, a San Diego lawyer and the Oakland A’s have settled a controversial class-action lawsuit over a Mother’s Day giveaway in 2004.

The $500,000 accord ends a five-year sex discrimination suit in which lawyer Alfred Rava complained he and other men couldn’t get a free plaid reversible hat offered to women who attended the May 8, 2004, game, the Oakland Tribune reports.

Rava, who draws the ire of tort reformers, also has sued Macy’s department stores, the sponsor of the giveaway.

The settlement, which is expected to be made final in August, allows payment of up to $250,000 for 2,500 men who can prove they were at the game. Each individual can receive up to $100. A remaining $260,000 is being set aside for court-approved attorney fees and includes an enhancement fee” up to $20,000 for Rava for representing the class.

Rava is no stranger to this type of litigation, according to numerous press accounts. The Oakland Tribune notes that Rava has acted as counsel or plaintiff in several Southern California actions against restaurants, nightclubs and other businesses that offer Ladies’ Night promotions.

Gleeman: Quote of the Day: ‘I suck. For real. I’m getting old.’

Don’t be so hard on yourself Aar...oh, ####!.

Orlando Cabrera, after making two defensive mistakes yesterday:

I suck. I don’t even know how to describe it. I suck. For real. I’m getting old, maybe. Maybe a day off is what I need. I’ll take it if there’s a spot they want me to do that.

Normally I’d say that Cabrera is being overly hard on himself, but that’s a tough argument to make for someone who’s hitting .234/.285/.295 with 11 errors and an Ultimate Zone Rating of -5.2 runs in 65 games.

And yes, maybe he is just getting old. Not many shortstops have remained Gold Glove-caliber defenders in their mid-30s and he’ll be 35 years old in November. Luckily he has hugs from Jason Giambi to lighten his mood.

SF Chronicle/Shea: Garciaparra has love for the game still

Nomar Garciaparra, a six-time All-Star who once was the face of the Boston Red Sox and among the game’s elite shortstops, now is a utilityman on a last-place team.

He’s cool with that. The role. Not the place in the standings.

“It’s what I signed up for,” said Garciaparra, who picked the A’s over retirement and signed a one-year deal in March.

Garciaparra, who was activated Friday from his latest stint on the disabled list, is home the next few days as the A’s play three games in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. He was born in Whittier, went to St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, an L.A. suburb, and calls Dodger Stadium a “cathedral on a hill.”

It’ll be his first games at Chavez Ravine since he played there last year, and he said he’s looking forward to visiting with old teammates as well as friends and family members. Last year was his third with the Dodgers, and injuries (hand, knee, calf) limited him to 55 games.

In fact, this year, he has appeared in only 17 of Oakland’s 62 games, thanks to twice going on the DL with a strained right calf. That makes five DL stints in two years and 14 in his career. No wonder he nearly retired in the offseason, dreading more time in the trainers’ room, but he’s in uniform again as a backup corner infielder and designated hitter and being closely monitored.

MLB: Back surgery to end Chavez’s season

Just as filming begins. Interesting.

A’s third baseman Eric Chavez is scheduled to undergo season-ending back surgery June 23 in Los Angeles, manager Bob Geren announced before Sunday’s game against the Giants.

This will be Chavez’s fifth overall surgery since Sept. 5, 2007, and his second microdiscectomy on his back, this time on a different spot, Geren said.

“This is his best chance to play again. ... It’s been tough for him personally,” Geren said. “He’s a big-time player, Gold Glover that we miss. I still keep the hope and stay positive that he’s going to contribute next year.”

...Now the question is whether Chavez’s teammates will ever get a chance to see him play again.

“He’s been a real tough guy throughout it,” Geren said. “He’s battled real hard. He’s had to overcome numerous surgeries. Unfortunately, another setback for him. One thing he does do, he works really hard. He came in in great shape and strong. He rehabbed real hard. You have to give him all the credit for really working hard.”

Demetri Martin on the ‘Moneyball’ team

DEMETRIC!

Martin plays Paul DePodesta, now an executive for the San Diego Padres. “He changed the Oakland A’s with sabermetrics, which, loosely, is the application of statistics to baseball to determine the worth a of a player and build a team.”

The film is set for release in 2011.

“I’m excited about it because I love stats and math,” Martin says. “I’m not particularly good at math, but I do like it.”

NBC Sports/Pouliot: Five managers on the hot seat

5. Bud Black (Padres) - Truly a pleasant surprise, San Diego is just four games under .500 despite possessing what looked like baseball’s weakest collection of talent at the beginning of the year. Only the Nationals and Orioles have worse run differentials than the Padres, who have scored 221 runs and given up 271. That Black has coaxed the team to a 26-30 record is quite an achievement. Still, Black is managing a team that is expected to eventually have a new owner in Jeff Moorad. CEO Sandy Alderson is gone, and it seems likely that more changes will come after the year. Black will likely survive the season, but if the Padres opt to go in a different direction at GM over the winter, then they may bring in a new manager as well.

Others - Fredi Gonzalez has my vote for baseball’s worst manager, but the Marlins won’t want to have to pay two managers at once again. … Jerry Manuel’s Mets are playing better lately, so he should be safe unless his mouth gets him in trouble. … A’s manager Bob Geren has plenty of support from good friend Billy Beane and can’t be blamed for assembling baseball’s most injury-prone team.

Murray Chass On Baseball: BEANE BAG OF YOUNG PITCHERS

And it’s the longest lasting, most versatile, best looking beane bag in the biz!

But even if a team develops good young pitchers, it doesn’t have long to compete with them on the pitching staff.

“Once you get these kids up and they establish themselves, the clock starts ticking,” Beane said in a telephone interview. When I mentioned a six-year window because players can become free agents after six years in the majors, Beane said,
“That’s not true. You don’t really have six years. For small-market teams to maintain success for six, seven years is pretty hard to do.”

Beane alluded to players’ becoming eligible for salary arbitration after three years. Salaries start escalating significantly at that juncture.

“There is a narrower window now than before,” he said. “It gets shorter and shorter. If you have something in place, you want to take advantage of it as soon as you can.”

The Athletics won four division titles and the wild card once in a seven-year span, from 2000 through 2006. They followed that stretch, though, with two losing seasons going on three. The division has turned upside down with the Texas Rangers, long a loser, catapulting to the top. The Rangers, Beane said, are legitimate.

“Texas has done a great job of securing good young talent the last four, five years,” he said. “They’ve been aggressive internationally, and they signed all their draft choices regardless of cost. This is a good year for them. The Angels have injury problems. I think they’re for real and I think they’re going to get better as the year goes along and the years go along.”

A’s beat: Top pitching prospect has sore elbow

Ynoa a place where he can go...the DL.

Oakland’s non-stop injury parade isn’t limited to the big-league level. Now top pitching prospect Michael Ynoa, the 17-year-old sensation from the Dominican Republic, is out of action because of elbow soreness.

According to assistant general manager David Forst, Ynoa had an MRI exam last week that will be reviewed by Drs. Doug Freedberg and John Frazier. Ynoa had been doing a throwing program at the A’s minor-league complex in Phoenix and there was hope he would pitch in the Arizona Rookie League this summer.

“We’re in the process of determining how severe it is,” Forst said.

The A’s gave Ynoa a record-setting $4.25 million signing bonus in July.

NY Times (Schwarz): Pitching’s Bright Stars Sometimes Flame Out

Scouts have generally called Strasburg the best amateur pitching prospect they have seen. This is the rough equivalent of being rated the world’s No. 1 hydrogen dirigible. For all the promise Strasburg has shown, having names like McDonald, Prior and Taylor in one’s family tree would leave any pitcher digging for adoption papers.

Twenty years ago, Louisiana State’s Ben McDonald was roundly hailed as the best college pitching prospect ever; he won 78 major league games before retiring at 30 with a bum shoulder. No one took McDonald’s consensus best-ever tag until 2001, when Mark Prior of the University of Southern California was such a steely-eyed, bazooka-armed, strike-throwing machine that he was nicknamed Robopitcher. Prior won 18 games for the Chicago Cubs two years later before an avalanche of injuries left him pitching’s Venus de Milo.

Three high school pitchers during this period also were electric enough to prompt best-ever hyperbole: Todd Van Poppel in 1990, Brien Taylor in 1991 and Matt White in 1996. Van Poppel won just 40 games in a meandering career, and Taylor and White descended into the moat of the minor leagues, never to be heard from again.

Strasburg, who turns 21 next month, is in fact the sixth once-in-a-lifetime pitcher of his own short lifetime. But this has barely distracted the raving scouts, whose job is to look forward, not back. This time, they mean it. Really.

ESPN: Holliday OK if A’s trade him away

No specific rumors yet, but I wonder who might be interested and what the A’s could get…

“I’m not going to be mad either way, let’s just say that,” he said, according to the Contra Costa Times. “I’ll be OK to stay and play it out and see what happens. Or, if [general manager] Billy [Beane] thinks he can get a couple good players for me and give me a chance to go play in the postseason, I’ll be OK with that too.”

Poole: Movie’s ‘Money’ question: Why make it?

Monte, hell man...you’re against the shooting?

Losing to the Twins, a candidate for contraction for crying out loud, sucked the spin right out of Beane. I’ve never seen his spirits lower than after the decisive Game 5 loss at the Coliseum. More than an hour later, with a few zombies staggering about the clubhouse, he sat in a corner, shoulders slumped, eyes vacant, voice drained of conviction, looking as if he wanted to cry. Or surrender.

Instead, Billy questioned whether his team would ever experience the satisfaction of winning a playoff series. It was the first time I’ve heard him second-guess himself, his baseball principles and philosophies.

Beane now concedes the winning seasons after the turn of the millennium were attributed to the likes of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada.

Which implies the “Moneyball” theory is overrated, effectively tossing it on the abundant heap of failed scientific experiments. This is quite the flaw, eh?

Athletics Nation: Geren’s Ineptitude Exposed Again In Doubleheader Sweep

All of a sudden Hank Bauer looks like a genius! Ok...maybe not.

What’s remarkable to me is that a decision Bob Geren made in New York, to bring the infield in with runners at second and third and nobody out in the 2nd inning of a 0-0 game (Brett Gardner vs. Dana Eveland), which I thought was evidence of a manager who had no strategic understanding of the game, is now only the THIRD dumbest decision that I think Geren has made. I thought walking Russell Branyan in Seattle (ahead of Jose Lopez’ game-winning hit) to load the bases was even more moronic, but tonight Geren outdid even himself, ordering an intentional walk to Chris Davis to load the bases in the 1st inning of Game 2.

Chris Davis had struck out all four ABs in Game 1, and finished the double-header 0-7 with 6 Ks. He has now struck out a major league leading 77 times, including 23 times in his last 34 ABs. He is batting .194 and will likely be optioned to AAA. In sum, he is essentially, this season and especially right now, the equivalent of a pitcher batting. I was truly in disbelief when I saw this move being made.

I’m sorry. Bob Geren is simply not fit to manage a major league baseball team. Even stupid managers don’t make some of the decisions he has made - and it’s not like his team plays good fundamental baseball, or exudes any noticeable intensity or joy in the dugout or on the field. A’s players - who are both young and limited in talent and need every advantage they can get - and A’s fans, deserve better.

WFAN: Hagin: Rickey

We learn three things here: Rickey Henderson was a stand-up guy, Billy Martin ruled dickdom, and Wayne Hagin finally has value.

This is a Rickey Henderson story that very few people know about. Being a single man my first four years of broadcasting major league baseball meant that I took in the “sights” on the road. Quincys was the name of the bar downstairs in the Kansas City hotel where most visiting teams stay. It was closing time and that meant that I was going to walk up the stairs to the lobby and catch the elevator and retire for the night. I was walking up the stairs next to Brian Kingman, one of the A’s starting pitchers. Infamous for losing 20 games two years before, there was a constant friction between A’s manager Billy Martin and Kingman. Little did I know, that I would be thrust into that friction within seconds of reaching the hotel lobby. At the top of the stairs stood Billy , with that black cowboy hat he was so fond of wearing . Standing with him were his coaches. I whispered to Kingman, “what is that about”? As we approached the top step, Kingman told me that Billy was waiting for him! Billy simply did not understand the cerebral Kingman and the two had knocked heads about his pitching style, effort, and results. Now, they were going to knock heads literally. When we had reached the Martin party of five, waiting like vultures for Kingman, the words started spewing. After several minutes of verbal jabs, Billy stated that they were going outside to rumble. I pleaded with Billy that he didn’t want to do this and he told me to step aside. This was going to happen and happen right now.

Billy always had his coaches by his side. We all know why. Billy stepped outside the hotel and into the warm, humid Kansas City night. Brian Kingman would walk through the same door, knowing that fight time was near. Then, something happened that I will never forget. As the two men exited through the door, one of Billy’s coaches stood at the door and blocked anyone else from joining in. Billy and his four other coaches were outside with Kingman with this other coach making sure there was wasn’t any backup. What you need to know is that several of the A’s players were in that lobby when this unfolded. Only one player went to the door to aid his teammate. When that player got to the door, the coach said ,” You don’t want to get involved”. That player said that if Billy had his coaches outside then he needed to provide support for his teammate.

That player was none other than Rickey Henderson! While the other players turned their heads and , in essence, their backs on Kingman, it was Rickey, the star of the team, who went outside to be a peacmaker. Billy and Brian did scrap and yes, there were some pretty good punches thrown between the two. It was ruled a draw and the miserable 1982 season would end with Billy being fired during the World Series. I will always remember Rickey Henderson that night because he was the sole player to challenge what was happening between his manager, coaches, and his teammate. Rickey felt Kingman was outnumbered and went to his rescue. I know Rickey Henderson will be remembered for a lot of things during his time in the big leagues. Some of it funny, some of it historical. What I will remember is his courage to stand up for a teammate and try to right a wrong.

Fletcher: Billy Beane Sees the Silver Lining

Indiana Beane and the Kingdom of the Crystal Meth.

Billy Beane, whose team hit Memorial Day in last place, with the second worst record in the American League, is willing to overlook such pesky details.

“The most important thing we had to do this year was to start to develop the youngest rotation in the big leagues,” Beane told FanHouse. “I think some of those young guys are starting to show some progress and that’s ultimately where our future lies.”

The A’s general manager spent most of the winter trying to beef up the offense with acquisitions like Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera and Nomar Garciaparra. The point was not so much to get the A’s to the playoffs in 2009 as it was to help provide an offensive cushion to support the pitchers who the A’s hope will get them to the promised land in 2010 and beyond.

Business Pundit: 25 Rich Athletes Who Went Broke

It seems that baseball players are a better bet to keep hold of their money than football or basketball stars, but are not immune to foolish profligacy:

22. Jack Clark

MLB player since 1975
Estimated lifetime earnings: $20 million

When Jack Clark declared bankruptcy on listed debts of $11.4 million and assets of $4.8 million, his lawyer made a statement. “He had some expensive hobbies, and I think they got ahead of him.”

Ya think? The man owned 18 automobiles, including a 1990 Ferrari that cost $717k alone. His three customized, tricked out 1992 Mercedes Benzes cost around $125k each. All in all, he still owes money of 17 of his cars, as well as the failed drag racing course he meant to race them on. Add to that half a mil in back taxes, and you have some expensive hobbies, indeed.

I don’t remember hearing about Eyre, either…

MLB.com: Kendall records 2,000th career hit

Brewers catcher Jason Kendall reached the 2,000-hit plateau with a single in the second inning of Monday night’s game against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Kendall, who ranks eighth all-time among catchers on the hits list with at least 1,000 career games played, lined a one-out single up the middle off the Cardinals’ Kyle Lohse. The ball was tossed into the Brewers’ dugout for Kendall to have as a keepsake.
...
Ivan Rodriguez leads all catchers who have played at least 1,000 games with 2,637 career hits.

Rubino: A’s ignore Campaneris

The movement to retire Bert Campaneris’ number lagrows and lagrows!

But there’s a name and a number missing: Bert Campaneris, No. 19.

I understand that the retired numbers and even the displayed manager’s name all represent men in the Hall of Fame, and Campaneris isn’t. He might be if he had played in New York, as did fellow shortstops Pee Wee Reese and Phil Rizzuto, who are immortalized in Cooperstown but weren’t better than Campy.

But it’s not like there’s a law, or even a baseball tradition, that says only the numbers of Hall of Famers are to be retired and proudly displayed. The Mets have retired Gil Hodges’ No. 14; and the White Sox retired Billy Pierce’s No. 19 and Minnie Minoso’s No. 9. All deserve the honor. None are in the Hall of Fame.

Frankly, it’s a mystery to me why Campy seems to bethe forgotten Athletic when it comes to honoring and celebrating the team’s past.

Page 2: “Moneyball” moves to the big screen

In which the question is answered of what “Moneyball” would look like if George Lucas, George Romero, Spielberg and others were directing instead of Soderbergh.

Ex-players, coaches taking hack at acting in ‘MONEYBALL’

They don’t quit. They keep acting until the end. Act, act, act...that’s all we can do!

That season will be celebrated on the big screen in 2011, when Steven Soderbergh’s “Moneyball” movie is released - with Brad Pitt playing Oakland general manager Billy Beane but many of the other principals playing themselves. Former Oakland manager Art Howe is on board, as are pitching coach Rick Peterson, several scouts, ex-scouting director Grady Fuson and first baseman Scott Hatteberg.

“Unless I’m being punked,” Hatteberg said with a laugh. “I talked to the casting director, and I’m just blown away. I’m a big movie guy, and Soderbergh - are you kidding me? It doesn’t get much better than that. But if they’re going to run us out there with Brad Pitt ... I don’t know how you can screw up playing yourself, but I’m afraid I will.”

“I told them, ‘I don’t want to ruin your movie,’ “ Howe said. “But it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and Steven is one of the best in the business, so what the heck?”

In Michael Lewis’ 2003 bestseller, which is the basis for the movie, Howe is not portrayed in a flattering light, so Soderbergh went to Howe’s home in Houston to persuade him to join the production. Howe said he and his wife, Betty, had some initial reservations, but “talking to Steven, I’m comfortable with how everything will be handled.”

San Jose to outline parameters for park

With the San Jose City Council scheduled to vote Tuesday on a short list of principles designed to outline any future negotiations with the A’s for a new ballpark, the city’s mayor said such a ballpark must make San Jose “millions of dollars” and that team owner Lew Wolff “needs to pay for his own stadium.”

“We’ve seen it with” HP Pavilion, mayor Chuck Reed told the San Jose Mercury News, referring to the arena where the NHL’s San Jose Sharks play, “so we know it can be done.”

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency spent $135 million in the early 1990s to build the arena, which brings the city’s general fund an estimated $5.8 million a year, according to the Mercury News.

While the provisions that will be voted on will likely make it possible for there to be some form of city contribution, such as providing land and infrastructure, they will also make clear that such an investment would require a citywide referendum and can’t include the city’s operating funds.

Reached for comment Monday morning, two A’s officials, including vice president and general manager Billy Beane, who also is a part owner of the club, cited Wolff"s policy against publicly discussing stadium issues. That policy was adopted after a flurry of stadium stories during Spring Training.

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Paul Lebowitz: When Does Billy Beane Start Getting Criticized?

Uhh...when he starts complaing about having Beangelina fever?

Much is made of Beane’s running the entire show from his executive box, and while he’s been quick to dispatch managers who were declared fungible to the team’s success, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, Ken Macha is doing a brilliant job with the Brewers as he’s steered them to a stunning 18-14 record. Beane’s gotten by for years with his slick talk; his forceful personality; his adherence to ruthless and rapid decisionmaking; and that book which is a validation of the stat geek (except, IT HASN’T WORKED!!!!!!!); but eventually someone has to look at the Athletics bottom line----and I don’t mean how much money the organization’s making because of Beane’s skill at manipulating payroll----I mean wins and losses and come to a different conclusion than the one that’s currently out there of no criticism, ever, for the genius Billy Beane.

People are quick to ridicule other executives whose clubs have failed on the field as they’ve made head-scratching personnel decisions that are based on aspects other than numbers, but there’s a reluctance to criticize Beane either because of Moneyball or that they’re afraid to experience his wrath, The results are what they are and the results of the Oakland Athletics on May 11th----11-18 and last place in their division----are exactly as they appear; and there’s no way to dress that up and make it presentable.