Billy Beane’s A’s strategy for ‘good young team that’s sustainable’
Suddenly, the baseball department has a new strategy, and it’s geared toward the opening of a new park, whenever (or if) that day comes.
“Given where we are at the major-league level, I’m not sure there’s one silver-bullet player out there who jumps you from where you are to where you want to be,” Beane said Tuesday at the winter meetings.
[...] I think right now, our focus, the investment that we have, is not so much in the major-league payroll but in the rest of the operation that has a long-term benefit.
The A’s vice president of baseball operations said the team will beef up its scouting department and international operations, which would strongly enhance player development.
The A’s rank last in the majors in manpower, said Beane, who credited scouting director Eric Kubota and former scouting director Grady Fuson, now Beane’s special assistant, for doing “an amazing job with very little.”
Beane said the plan was implemented after he and general manager David Forst made the recommendation to owner John Fisher with an eye on a new stadium in Oakland that would generate handsome revenues.
Kaval said he’s in the process of identifying a site and claimed every dollar generated from the team will go to “the on-field product and the fan experience.”
Beane cited the successful model of the 1990s Indians, who built a foundation with promising young players and signed them long term before their peak years.
The Indians had a complete tear-down, and they were disciplined.
Fans are tired of rooting for young players and seeing them dealt before free agency, and the question must be asked: