Beane Ball Will Reign in Oakland Through 2014

Moneyball aficionados rejoice! Oakland A's owner and managing partner Lew Wolff has extended team president Michael Crowley and General Manager Billy Beane's contracts through the 2014 season. Of course, an extension for Beane was hardly a pressing matter -- his old contract had him locked up through 2012 -- but simply finding Jack Cust off the scrap heap earlier this year was probably worth a couple of years itself.

Beane's trademark is making a lot out of a little, and that's continued so far this year. Case in point? Finding Cust; having the foresight to sign Alan Embree, who's held the bullpen together as the interim closer in place of the injured Huston Street; and inking Lenny DiNardo, who's pitched even better in three starts (0.52 ERA) than he has in relief (1.83 ERA), just to name a few.

The A's currently sit in third place in the AL West, which is misleading considering they're also five games above .500 and have won eight of their last 10. They're still operating on a shoestring budget, though hopefully that will change before the end of Beane's contract whenever the team moves into the eventually-to-be constructed Cisco Field. Can you imagine what this guy could do if he hand the financial freedom to routinely make $40 million mistakes like Brian Cashman can?

Update: Some sites are reporting this as a "seven-year extension" for Beane. That's flat-out wrong -- his current deal wasn't going to expire at the end of this year, but rather in 2012 as part of an extension he first signed when Wolff first took control of the team in 2005.