Billy Beane Wants You To Be Patient

Before the 2008 season started it was a well known fact that the Oakland Athletics were in a full-blown rebuilding process. They'd traded away both Dan Haren and Nick Swisher for prospects as general manager Billy Beane felt it was necessary to restock the shelves of Oakland's farm system. Then the season started, and a team that was supposed to struggle was playing surprisingly well, and even in the playoff hunt.

Still, this did not sway Beane from his vision, and he traded away Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, and Chad Gaudin at the deadline. Since then, Oakland has not been winning much. In fact, they've lost 21 of their last 27 games, and it doesn't look like things will get too much better over the final weeks.

Beane knows this, and though he realizes it's tough to watch at times, he doesn't want Athletics fans to abandon ship just yet. Land will be ho some day, he promises.

"Listen, the performance lately has been a little rougher than anyone would like to go through," Beane said by phone before the A's 2-0 victory over the Mariners on Thursday. "But we didn't make any bones about what we were going to do when we said we were going to go through a rebuilding.

"For people who watch the team on a day-to-day basis, that might seem like a long way away, but our goal first and foremost was to rebuild our system, and we have done that. I'm very pleased by that, very pleased. When I see the young players we have in our system, to go from where we were this time last year to where we are now is amazing."

Of course, it's pretty easy for Beane to say that the talent he's amassed this season is impressive. I mean, he traded for the guys, what's he gonna say? They suck, that's why he wanted them? That's why A's fans will be happy to hear this assessment from another MLB scout.

"I've seen all of their minor-league guys and believe me when I say this: Billy did a good thing," the scout said. "Of all the organizations I've seen, they have the best talent I've seen this year. He has a plan."

He does, in fact, have a plan. It's just too bad that that plan is to let the youth blossom in Oakland and then trade them away in six years once they start asking to get paid for their performance.