WELL, IT COULD BE WORSE

It could be worse. We could be sitting here just debating the 9th inning of game five. Instead we’ll be debating game one, two, three, four and five and whether the A’s are going to be raped of their front office staff, coaches, players at the major league and at the minor league level in the next two weeks.

Okay. Let’s start and the beginning, not skip bits, and when we come to the end, we’ll stop.

Billy Beane will be (or has visited) with the Los Angeles Dodgers and their new owner, Frank McCourt. This will be different from last year’s dry run at Boston. Billy will opt out of the race entirely. Basically, Billy Beane is prepping the Dodgers for their interview with Paul DePodesta. Whether Paul and the Dodgers can come to terms on a deal is between Paul and the Dodgers. But, the Seattle GM gig is closed up and the Cincinnati GM gig is still two GM’s and new ownership away from being worth even interviewing for.

Los Angeles would be a good situation for Billy Beane as it is close to San Diego, the media is rather lax and not interested in sports and there’s some payroll flexibility. However, the Dodgers just don’t scream Billy Beane. There’s no ‘challenge’. The Dodgers have a very good pitching rotation and are two to three hitters away from owning the NL West (the Sacramento River Cats could have taken the NL West this year). But, Kevin Towers is rumored to be a friend of Beane’s and it’s debatable whether he would go head to head with a friend in the same division. With Theo Epstein in Boston and JP Ricciardi in Toronto, it’s the same league, but a different division.

In short, the 2003 version of game Five has put a burden on Billy Beane: he has to win a World Series in Oakland. In order for Beane to be respected in baseball, or regain the respect of all of baseball, even the slack-jawed ‘baseball men’, he needs to put a stamp on Oakland before he can move on. Billy may have felt that twinge last year when he came back after the Boston flirtation. Now that twinge has flared up into a complete spasm and is threatening to tear the muscle from the bone.

Paul, on the other hand, is more even-keeled and could be a great addition to the L.A. landscape. Bland, calculated and fit. Sort of like 80% of the executives in L.A. Give him a Lexus SUV and a cell phone to attach to his skull and he should be fine.

Rick Peterson; Svengali

With the odds of Paul DePodesta relocating South via Highway 101 in the pretty good range, what are the odds of Rick Peterson relocating East on I-80? Average. There’s more to the Rick Peterson issue than most would think;

True, Rick is a New Jersey guy, but why did he go to college in Florida, then?
Why did he take a job in California as a pitching coach?
Why did he go through the hassle of getting a new multi-year deal done last year with the A’s when he knew he could leave with Art Howe if he wanted to?
Why are the media hacks reporting that Rick wants to return to New Jersey and be close to home, and land with Art Howe and the Mets?
Besides. Aaron Heilman, do the Mets have any young pitchers worth mentioning let alone stapling a career to?
Why would anyone want to live in New Jersey, anyway?

So, many questions still remain at large.

One of which is why people keep ripping off our blog entries and then recycling them in the ‘traditional’ media outlets. Susan Slusser is ‘reporting’ that the should Peterson be let out of his three year deal two years early a caveat of the deal might be the Mets taking back Terrence Long. Nice try, Susan, we suggested that when Art Howe left in the off-season several times.

We would rather see the A’s pick up a player like Rodney Nye in a coaching trade if Eric Chavez can’t be bothered to hit left-handers.

Rodney Nye, 3rd base
DOB 12/2/1976
6’4” 215lbs.
2003 AA Binghamton
56 extra base hits (41 doubles, 5 triples, 10 HR)
.312 ave/.387 OBP/.483 slugging

Too old for a prospect, but he can hit and field.

Funny, two months ago we would have been scalped for suggesting Terrence Long sucked or that Eric Chavez is less than par (as we have since we started this blog). Suddenly after the 2003 ALDS we won’t hear a thing.

Anyway.

Peterson may just be trying to better his position within the organization. Or he might be looking for a Payday (Halloween is close, though Payday’s are usually a second tier candy bar at best). Though, we have to admit the body language between Ken Macha and Rick Peterson never seemed like they were on the same dance floor.

Then again, they are both white males. So, it’s up in the air.

The situation may be that Billy Beane has his work cut out for him. If Peterson truly does want out the focus then turns to Ken Macha. This would be the third coach the A’s lost in a little over a year (Mike Quade and Thad Bosley). Seems like there’s more than a communication problem, Ken might be a jerk.

The larger issue is what the A’s can afford to pay and could they plug the vacancy with Curt Young their minor league Rick Peterson. The answer is no on both. The A’s would be wise to relocate the Peterson family to Berkley no matter what the cost. Peterson is as valuable as any manager in baseball and his teaching techniques could make a handful of AA has-beens a decent major league staff. Yes, he is that good. He’s what they call in football a “mine’n and your’n” coach. He could take your pitching staff while you take his and he would still beat you.