tommie317;842370235 said:

---

Thanks hammel. You're the best

---

Hammel?.....Let's talk about Lester. Guy is supposed to be lights out in the playoffs and chokes up a 4 run lead..sure, our bullpen sucked and Norris can't throw out a turtle let alone dropping the pitch out, but Lester was the first one to screw the pooch big time....

OneKeg;842370237 said:

---

Win or lose with Jason Hammel. Really?

---

Yeah, I didn't get it. Have Abad throw one pitch so Hammel can come in and blow it?

Also, of course the guys the A's had to bring in for injured players let them down on defense. Gomes doesn't back up the play and crashes into the wall. Norris drops the pitch-out. This is pretty much their season in a nutshell.

sycasey;842370247 said:

---

Yeah, I didn't get it. Have Abad throw one pitch so Hammel can come in and blow it?

Also, of course the guys the A's had to bring in for injured players let them down on defense. Gomes doesn't back up the play and crashes into the wall. Norris drops the pitch-out. This is pretty much their season in a nutshell.

---

Actually it is their 2nd half of the season....before August, they were the damned best team in baseball....then choked it all away with mental mistakes and lack of mental toughness.

Never expected to win until 7-3 in the 8th, Lester has to close that out. I'm not going to miss him and certainly won't miss Hammel. Just happy for Moss and glad nobody will be able to pin any blame on him.

People wanted Sabean fired 10 times before he put the Giants into position to win 2+ World Series. All you can do as a GM is give your guys a chance which Beane has arguably done. Fire him at your peril.

Unit2Sucks;842370253 said:

---

People wanted Sabean fired 10 times before he put the Giants into position to win 2+ World Series. All you can do as a GM is give your guys a chance which Beane has arguably done. Fire him at your peril. B

---

This.

The Royals scored in so many dumb ways in this game:

-Bloop hit
-Wild pitch
-Infield single
-Catcher drops a pitchout to let a runner into scoring position

I think they used up a whole year's worth of baseball luck in one game.

Unit2Sucks;842370253 said:

---

People wanted Sabean fired 10 times before he put the Giants into position to win 2+ World Series. All you can do as a GM is give your guys a chance which Beane has arguably done. Fire him at your peril.

---

At least sabaen made the world series in 2002. Beane made a movie about not making the World Series.

tommie317;842370243 said:

---

Thank you Norris for dropping the pitchout. That is a very interesting way to choke

---

Lots of chokes tonight by the A's:
Lester blowing a good lead
A's bullpen blowing the lead 3 times
A's pitchers/catchers allowing 7 stolen bases
Norris dropping a pitchout and allowing a critical runner to advance
A's left fielder and center fielder running into each other and letting the ball fall for a triple
Lots of runners left on base

The A's had this game won 4 times tonight and just blew it--kind of like the A's team of August and early September.

thx billy bean ... great job

Somebody please tell me why the east bay is cursed .... A's, Raiders, Warriors, Cal ...

It make no sense ... Even when they go get a big game pitcher, he blows it. Also, with Adam Dunn never playing in the post season and being a big bat, why not use it??? So sad really

Exactly. The Red Sox have won 3 WS with a variant of his system, they just have a lot more to spend. I really doubt Beane will even be under consideration for firing, mostly because Wolfe couldn't care less that this happened. What's really surprising is how out of touch with the clubhouse chemistry Beane was. I really think it was a combination of Cespedes being a crucial component and Lester being a horrible fit. And I can't imagine there weren't a LOT of ruffled feathers when 3/5 of the starting rotation that got them to the best record in baseball at the break was instantly demoted for newcomers from horrible teams.

calgldnbear;842370274 said:

---

Somebody please tell me why the east bay is cursed .... A's, Raiders, Warriors, Cal ...

---

It's Buh's fault!

Firing Beane would be the silliest move the A's could make. There's no way they would have been relevant the past decade without him.

I'd be shocked if it even enters Lew's brain for a second.

When I was younger I use to love the A's and going to A's games. Watching Stewart and Eck work was so fun. Beane took over and I was done. Some may think what Beane has done is genius. Well..enjoy your team.

75bear;842370290 said:

---

Firing Beane would be the silliest move the A's could make. There's no way they would have been relevant the past decade without him.

I'd be shocked if it even enters Lew's brain for a second.

---

well if you have a HOT team and he chooses to _______ it off not by injury etc ... its time he must go

only thing bean has ever been good at was getting rickey's shoes

bearister;842370038 said:

---

....he jacks a 2 run homer. F@ck them.

---

Tsk tsk.

75bear;842370290 said:

---

Firing Beane would be the silliest move the A's could make. There's no way they would have been relevant the past decade without him.

I'd be shocked if it even enters Lew's brain for a second.

---

Sounds exactly like what people said about firing Tedford..

going4roses;842370313 said:

---

well if you have a HOT team and he chooses to _______ it off not by injury etc ... its time he must go

---

Yes, the A's were hot. Insanely hot. Like the Giants were in May. And then they both regressed to the mean and won 88 games. Nice seasons.
It is hard to feel bad for A's fans when reading these kinds of threads.

i am not an A's fan but since bean took over i suffer from a lack of interest ... but i do live in oakland born in berkeley ... so i take notice.. but BB truth still remains his only benefit to the a's was being the go fer for RH...

a regular person like me , makes a terrible decision at work im FIRED on the spot see ya .. i knew this was terrible trade backwards and forwards anyway you put it and i dont know much about baseball

calling a spade what it is a spade .

MinotStateBeav;842370297 said:

---

When I was younger I use to love the A's and going to A's games. Watching Stewart and Eck work was so fun. Beane took over and I was done. Some may think what Beane has done is genius. Well..enjoy your team.

---

What do you expect Beane to do with what he's given? Honest question.

going4roses;842370394 said:

---

i am not an A's fan but since bean took over i suffer from a lack of interest ... but i do live in oakland born in berkeley ... so i take notice.. but BB truth still remains his only benefit to the a's was being the go fer for RH...

a regular person like me , makes a terrible decision at work im FIRED on the spot see ya .. i knew this was terrible trade backwards and forwards anyway you put it and i dont know much about baseball

calling a spade what it is a spade .

---

Beane is asked to run a marathon on one leg. Miraculously, he hops 25 miles and is in contention. When he can't quite make it, you want him fired? He'd get hired IMMEDIATELY and be given an Oscar Pistorius leg and life will be easier for him.

And you're wrong that it was a bad deal. They were not going to be able to resign Cespedes after 2015 and he's seriously overrated. He's a .260 hitter with 20 homers. The way A's fans talk you'd think he was an MVP candidate.

75bear;842370290 said:

---

Firing Beane would be the silliest move the A's could make. There's no way they would have been relevant the past decade without him.

I'd be shocked if it even enters Lew's brain for a second.

---

The good news for Beane is that Wolff doesn't really care about winning. He cares about making as much money as possible while spending as little as possible.

soefeil;842370399 said:

---

What do you expect Beane to do with what he's given? Honest question.

---

Look I don't HATE Beane...but what Beane does is enables a bad owner to be bad. Fans aren't idiots, there's a reason the A's have bad attendance and it has nothing to do with where they're playing.

sycasey;842370440 said:

---

The good news for Beane is that Wolff doesn't really care about winning. He cares about making as much money as possible while spending as little as possible.

---

This x 1000 internetz

grandmastapoop;842370386 said:

---

Yes, the A's were hot. Insanely hot. Like the Giants were in May. And then they both regressed to the mean and won 88 games. Nice seasons.
It is hard to feel bad for A's fans when reading these kinds of threads.

---

Yeah, I think the real issue is that guys like Moss and Norris were playing WAY over their heads in the early part of the season. Very unlikely they were going to keep up that pace. And Crisp getting hurt didn't help either. Cespedes was about at his base level and remained there after being traded, so he may have helped a bit . . . but still not enough for them to stay ahead of the Angels.

Unfortunately these things played out the same way in this game: they started out well before fading. Norris was forced to play catcher because of an injury and was overmatched against the Royals' running game. Crisp injured himself in extra innings and was replaced by Jonny Gomes, who played a ball at the wall about as badly as possible and turned a double into a triple.

EDIT: Another thing to consider is that the A's seemed really unlucky with run distribution. Even with the horrible second half, they still finished with the best run differential in the majors. A team that scores 729 runs while allowing 572 can usually be expected to win 99 games. The A's were way under that, which suggests a lot of games lost by 1 or 2 runs, followed by an 8-run blowout win. Usually over the course of a long season those things even out, but the A's were way on the extreme negative end of the spectrum, a full 11 games worse than their "expected" record based on run totals.

You guys do know beane is part owner of the A's so doubt he's going anywhere any time soon

The east bay is not cursed, only Cal. All those teams have won 'world' titles in my lifetime ...except Cal.

calgldnbear;842370274 said:

---

Somebody please tell me why the east bay is cursed .... A's, Raiders, Warriors, Cal ...

It make no sense ... Even when they go get a big game pitcher, he blows it. Also, with Adam Dunn never playing in the post season and being a big bat, why not use it??? So sad really

---

You and Moraga have made great, funny analogies: McGyver has more to work with than Beane and this hopping marathon. Very good and very funny.

grandmastapoop;842370416 said:

---

Beane is asked to run a marathon on one leg. Miraculously, he hops 25 miles and is in contention. When he can't quite make it, you want him fired? He'd get hired IMMEDIATELY and be given an Oscar Pistorius leg and life will be easier for him.

And you're wrong that it was a bad deal. They were not going to be able to resign Cespedes after 2015 and he's seriously overrated. He's a .260 hitter with 20 homers. The way A's fans talk you'd think he was an MVP candidate.

---

82gradDLSdad;842370460 said:

---

The east bay is not cursed, only Cal. All those teams have won 'world' titles in my lifetime ...except Cal.

---

The Warriors went through a long drought of playoff appearances too, but they weren't really cursed, they just had a horrible owner.