Oakland A’s make rookie mistake

The 2014 Oakland Athletics baseball team had a really solid team throughout the whole year. They A’s leading the MLB in wins throughout much of the season, but after they made the Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester trade, the A’s played under .500 baseball, which was something no one was used to from the A’s.

Billy Beane, the A’s General Manager, said Lester helped the team get to the playoffs, but the numbers show that Cespedes’ win above replacement (the total value of a player to the team) was one of the highest in all of Major League Baseball. Cespedes had a huge presence on the team. He was a fan favorite and he was driving in runs, the leader in the team in that category, so all A’s fans were disappointed by his departure.

Another trade that no one seems to be able to wrap their head around is Josh Donaldson for Brett Lawrie. Donaldson was a supreme third baseman that carried the whole A’s team and he was also the starting third baseman for the American League in the 2014 All-Star Game. Donaldson hit for power and contact. He was the backbone of the A’s, so trading him for another third baseman that didn’t perform as well as Donaldson doesn’t make sense.

Beane just blew my mind with this next trade. A couple of weeks ago he traded Jeff Samardzija to the White Sox for a Double A shortstop with no MLB experience and a .250 batting average, a right handed pitcher who doesn’t have nearly as much experience, a catcher, and a first baseman. Samardzija was an All-Star this year and had a good record, so I definitely think he was worth more just a couple of minor leaguers.

I don’t know where the A’s are going with all this but I definitely don’t think they are going to the playoffs this year with all their ridiculous moves. Hopefully everything goes as smoothly as Beane thinks it will.

The A’s also traded away their top power threat, Brandon Moss, to the Cleveland Indians for just a minor league second baseman! He needs to stop rebuilding and start adding on instead of subtracting and waiting for the future. Now the A’s don’t have any power on the left side of the plate.

All-Star catcher Derek Norris has been dealt to the San Diego Padres for right handed pitcher Jesse Hahn and R.J. Alvarez. These are the ninth and tenth pitchers the A’s have gotten this season in trade for All-Stars! People can say that Beane knows what he is doing, but there are fans out there that focus on the present rather than the future.