MLB: Beane to pursue youth rather than spending on free agents

I don’t wanna put no money down
I don’t wanna grow up

Those players, he suggested, would have to be up-and-comers. He seems to have little to no interest in down-siders such as Vladimir Guerrero, Miguel Tejada and Carlos Delgado.

Only if Plans A and B fall through will Beane dive into what’s considered a fairly shallow free-agent pool.

“I think our first goal this winter is, the positions we need to fill, fill them with young guys,” he said. “If we get into January and we haven’t acquired a young player, then we’ll consider a guy to fill in temporarily. The first goal is to find a young guy. Our long-term goal is to create a team with continuity that is going to be here for a number of years

...“We’ve always been proud of our player development history here,” Beane said. “Really, if you look at when the club has been good, this has been a precursor to many of those good years. This is the fourth [Rookie of the Year] we’ve had since ‘98, and usually following that we’ve had some pretty good success.”

With success, of course, comes excitement. And Beane knows that the patience of Oakland’s small but passionate fan base is wearing thin on the heels of three consecutive losing seasons.

“Ultimately when you start winning games is when they get really interested. I’m aware of that,” Beane said. “So the next step is to continue to bring guys like Andrew up here. That’s our responsibility, and I know the deal.

“To sign a couple free agents and have three or four press conferences during the winter doesn’t get it done,” Beane said. “We’re going to be disciplined.”