Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has made moving the Oakland Athletics to San Jose a priority.According to the Associated Press, Selig says that MLB is working "at a rather quick pace" to figure out a way to put the A's in a new ballpark in San Jose. He says the issue is "very much on the front burner."The key hold-up in a move to San Jose for the A's is the fact that the San Francisco Giants hold territorial rights to the San Jose area. These are rights they've had since 1993, and they don't want to give them up.Peter Magowan, ...
To most people, it would be presumed that baseball owners do not have such a difficult job. After all, their business is a baseball team. The ownership can be viewed as work but is more visualized as just a really awesome fantasy. And that’s essentially how the fans perceive the wealthy men who whimsically dump their exorbitant amount of disposable income on a sports franchise. These principal owners simply have the means to put into a sports team. But does that make them truly good business owners? Obviously not. True, some of them are heavily involved with the performance of ...
The Oakland A's and GM Billy Beane did their normal offseason sell-off to get ready for a championship run in 2012. Part of that sell-off was trading away former ROY closer Andrew Bailey to the Boston Red Sox. That now leaves the A's with filling the closer role with someone on their roster or by signing a player. The possible current roster pitchers that could close are: Joey Devine, Brian Fuentes, Jordan Norberto, Neil Wagner. Going into spring training I see Brain Fuentes getting the best chance to close and likely open the season as the closer. That is assuming the A's ...
Do not buy the Oakland Athletics 2012 team calendar for anything other than humorous reasons. As an avid fan, let me explain why. Recently, I was at a Barnes and Noble doing some last-minute holiday shopping, along with what seemed like everyone else in the Bay Area. The store was packed and the shelves barren. I found myself wandering into the calendar section, the only place that didn't look destroyed by Hurricane Procrastination. Scanning the available stock, I was sorely disappointed with myself—socks and calendars rival each other as the most thoughtless gift to give someone. But on Christmas Eve, anything becomes a possibility. Top ...
It isn't often when a baseball team gives up on a season in December. But the Oakland Athletics merrily threw in the towel on the 2012 campaign earlier than most teams. The trade of closer Andrew Bailey and outfielder Ryan Sweeney last week is the most recent example of the Athletics' surrender on the upcoming year. Last month, they began their winter cleaning by trading All-Star starters Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez. In clearing their basement, Athletics management is turning the page on 2012. Before even flipping the calendar, they’re looking at 2013 and beyond. After watching their division rivals make huge free agent signings this offseason, A's general ...
In the very near future, the Oakland Athletics will be packing up and moving to San Jose.Well, maybe.Actually, maybe not.The A's have been dancing around a possible exodus to San Jose for a while now, but the move seems to have fallen into a weird purgatory-like state where it is still within reason but far from reality.The San Francisco Giants would prefer that things stay this way. After all, San Jose is technically part of their turf.The ins and outs of the A's move (or non-move) to San Jose are detailed in a lengthy piece in the San Francisco Chronicle penned ...
Baseball history has seldom seen a series of pocket pickings as disgraceful as the A’s recent trades of Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Andrew Bailey. Were David Stern at the head of MLB and not the ever-cautious Bud Selig, the trades would never have been allowed. At one time the A’s, under Billy Beane’s "moneyball" scheme, acquired solid but undervalued major leaguers at bargain-basement rates. Now they trade their best players and get no major leaguers at all.Expect a once-loyal fan base to continue to desert the team next year as the team’s ownership, headed by Lew Wolff, continues to ...
Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted this morning that the MLB is very much leaning towards allowing the Oakland A's to move to San Jose, overriding the San Francisco Giants' territorial rights to Santa Clara County that the team has had since the 1990's.This is the potential first step of a two-step program in getting the A's to San Jose, as the team reportedly prefers.Mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, is adamant in her stance to keep the A's—and the Warriors for that matter—in Oakland, and even went as far as to propose a location for a future A's ballpark near Jack ...
With the Oakland Athletics operating under a $55 million budget and losing two of their top starters, Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez, they've been adamant about moving to a new stadium, using the Cleveland Indians as a blueprint.Until now, they haven't been able to set things in motion because MLB hadn't approved a move to San Jose, the Athletics' desired destination.Well, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today on Saturday, the Athletics will be granted permission by February to move.The Athletics went 74-88 last season, ending up 22 games behind the AL West champions, the Texas Rangers.In 1994, when the ...
Last season everyone was talking about the Kansas City Royals. All you have to do is look at Baseball America's list of top 10 prospects for 2011 and you'll know why: That was one deep farm system.But over the course of 2011, the farm diminished. Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Aaron Crow and Lorenzo Cain all saw a lot of time at the major league level. Kansas City still boasts a deep system, but four of their top prospects are moving on (with Hosmer and Moustakas being two of their best).As we head in to 2012, it is time for another ...