AS LONG AS YOU HAVE NOT SEEN VULNERABLE FORMATIONS IN OPPONENTS, YOU HIDE YOUR FORM, PREPARING YOURSELF IN SUCH A WAY AS TO BE INVINCIBLE, IN ORDER TO PRESERVE YOURSELF.
WHEN OPPONENTS HAVE VULNERABLE FORMATIONS, THEN IT IS TIME TO GO OUT TO ATTACK THEM.

- The Art of War -

If there is a better example of serendipity, you tell me. Gary Huckabay penned his last 6-4-3 for Baseball Prospectus this morning, (un)officially ending his tenure with BP. It's been a long drought without a semi-daily Huckabay column and it looks like it will last. Unless you have a little imagination.

Why is Gary Huckabay 'leaving' BP? To take a position with some MLB team...

Yup.

Which is tremendous. Gary Huckabay strolling through the Coliseum offices is another off season move by Billy Beane that will reap benefits for many years.

That is horrible. No more 6-4-3 columns, no more Huckabay humor in round tables, in the annual (due to drop February 22nd) - what's worse is that Gary won't be able to offer juicy tidbits and stories about the A's from his vantage point of straddling the doorway. He's been yanked through to the other side.

As baseball fans, we should not mourn this passing of print analysis to actuality. We should grieve for the many who were given a thrill when Gary took over a small Round Table pizza restaurant during a BP Pizza Feed, banging away at the formica table to drive his point home above the thick laughter spilling out of the room.

As A's fans we should rejoice. Last year the A's lost their data miner in Paul DePodesta. Many would think losing Paul as an Assistant General manager is bad enough, but what most failed to recognize is that Paul did a lot of analytical research on his own, developing new ways to looks at data and refining existing formulas to fit the needs of the Oakland A's.

Now that Gary is fully under the A's umbrella, fans can only hope that there's a new echo in the Coliseum meeting rooms of Gary pounding away on a much, much nicer table but still driving his point home. There's going to be a silent revolution going on in the East Bay. Less than five people are going to able to witness the unfurling of its flag. But, six months from now, the rest of MLB will watch as new sets of fingerprints make their appearance on the A's puzzle. If you were even a casual A's fan, prepare to be dipped deep in the green and gold. You're going to witness history as an AL pennant takes the place of the flag of revolution.

Coming soon to an October near you.