My thoughts on Ken Macha are this.  Somebody had to be blamed for Oakland failing to get to the World Series and for the team's collective no-show against Detroit.  You had a fan base that is hovering between disappointed and angry paired with an owner and GM who feel like the team on paper was good enough to win the Series.  The only three A's players not under a contract for next season are Barry Zito, Frank Thomas, and Jay Payton so shaking up the team and bringing in new blood wasn't an option.  Therefore the only move you could really make was firing the manager.  It sends the signal you want to send to the team, which is that their performance in the ALCS was both embarrassing and unacceptable.

You are going to hear some stuff about how certain A's players didn't like Macha.  I think that is more a P.R. deflection than anything.  If the A's hadn't lost to the Tigers, Macha would have kept his job.

This is the biggest managerial hire of Billy Beane's tenure and is probably his most important.  Especially because of the flack he is already getting from the national media.  It'll be interesting to see which way he goes.  Conventional wisdom would say Ron Washington or Bob Geren, however I wouldn't be completely taken offguard if he tried to shake things up and bring in somebody with fire (i.e. a Bobby Valentine or Joe Girardi).

"No, cause it ain't sh*t. Ain't nothing but 10 grand. What's 10 grand to me? Ain't sh*t ... Next time I might shake my d*ck." --Randy Moss
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