By Jon Morrill
We all know, or at least should know, by now that Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane is one of the best, if not the best, in baseball. The only argument one would have against him is that he hasn’t won anything yet; and sure, winning is the biggest criteria when judging the performance of just about anything in sports. Whether it be playing the game, coaching, managing, anything–the first thing people look at are the wins and the championships. While Beane obviously doesn’t have any rings or trophies just yet, the one thing Beane can claim is the fact that he’s perennially put together a young, exciting team that has finished no worse than second in the AL West since 1999, Beane’s second year on the job; winning the division 3 times in 4 years. What’s more is that Beane has done this with a payroll of practically peanuts; forcing Beane to try and squeeze what he can out of all his players in the 3 to 4, sometimes 5 year timeframe–often having to either trade away his prized superstars for younger, more raw talent or just let it walk when the time comes for the respective player’s big payday (see: Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Tim
Hudson, Mark Mulder, Keith Foulke, Johnny Damon).