I'm Not Dead Yet!

Over at THT, Aaron talks about how all the Moneyball foes are sharpening their knives in the wake of Oakland's demise. This does seem to be a bit premature considering their one game loss to a team that outspent them by $42 million.

In addition, you have to give Oakland so much credit for their scouting and talent assessment. Imagine if Oakland had signed Jason Giambi, who may not even make the postseason roster this year, to a monster contract instead of letting him walk to the Yankees? While the Yankees can absorb a mistake of that magnitude, Oakland would have been hamstrung by it for years.

The A's, in many respects, are the anti-Mets: They sign good players to reasonable contracts, take few risks on injury prone players, and let expensive, replaceable free-agents sucker some other team. We should all get Fred Wilpon a little plaque to put on his office wall that says WWBBD: What Would Billy Beane Do?

Of course, Fred would then simply do the opposite but at least he'd think about it.