That's just for free agents. Unlike Tampa or Miami or Atlants, his draft picks haven't put his team in the World Series. Neither has the trading of the players for prospects before they entered free agency. Is he fleecing poor Latin players with below market long-term contracts like most teams? No. He's great because he told you he was really smart. That greatness hasn't led to a World Series appearance or win. He probably would get the same results if he was with the Dodgers money printing outfit.

Kenny Williams likely provided you with one of your top 5 happiest days in your life. You probably cried tears of joy. He did it with a lot of clearance aisle players. Have some respect!

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Tampa, yes.
The good Miami teams had payroll. They won and gutted and went to shit. Yes, they draft well, but they also spent when they won. They haven't won without spending.

Atlanta has not been the payroll bottom feeder like Tampa and Oakland. They're not a valid comp.

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I think this is a trolling post, but I will state that I give Kenny full credit for 2005 although his performance before and since suggest it was an anomaly wherein he got lucky.

In any case, a person would have to be insane to believe Kenny is better at the job than Beane.

And it really doesn't matter how the successful team is assembled. There isn't extra credit for having homegrown players.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

No, I don't think Beane sucks, but I'm not willing to believe that you're a genius if you never win a championship. Especially when others have been able to win with similar constraints.

My frustration as a fan comes from our continued desire to wish we did things like everyone else. Player development appears to be an essential ingredient for sustained regular season success. However, there's no perfect formula for winning a championship in baseball. The Dodgers print money, have a great minor league system, and have an all star team, but all they have to show for it is a covid championship.

I am not impressed by other teams losing in the playoffs more often than we do. Maybe I'm spoiled as a Chicago fan. We may not make the playoffs a lot, but when we make it to the championship, we almost always win. The 90's Hawks and the Bears are the only teams in my lifetime to lose a championship.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Kenny walks into Hahn's office

KW: Hey, did you do those manager evaluations I asked you to do?
Hahn: Yeah(hands over some papers)
KW: This is a lot
Hahn: Yeah
KW: How many did you do?
Hahn: 47
KW: 47??
Hahn: Yeah
KW: I asked you to do 3
Hahn: Yeah
KW: Hmmm
Hahn: Actually, it's 51. I don't know why I lied just then.

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Wattabout Kodak Black?

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Those facts just show how difficult it is to win a championship and how much luck goes into and how to a great degree it's really out of the hands of the people assembling the team.

This year's Mets are a good example. They were a pretty great team. They won 101 games. If they had faced the Padres in a three game series at home at most junctures of the season, the odds of them winning would have been overwhelming. But they were built around starting pithcing and it just happened that that pitching wasn't at its best at the most important time of the season. I don't think you can blame the GM for that. He did a great job, built a great team, and unfortunately things just didn't break their way.

If you look at the chances Beane gives his team- the times he puts them in a position to be able to win a championship- with the budget he is working with, it's really pretty damn amazing.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

If only there was a way for Beane to have been able to build a team with a higher payroll instead of winning the moral victory cost analysis World Series every year that no one else is playing for.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think you would agree that it's an unfair game when the budgets of the teams are so drastically different. If not, let's try it this way: Imagine you and I open competing businesses and I start with $100 million and you start with $20 million. Who do you think has a better chance for success? And when I have success and you go under, I'm sure you wouldn't think it was because I was a genius and you were a dope. But if it went the other way, I'm gonna say you'd be pretty proud of your accomplishment.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Mets starters ranked 7th, had 4 hitters, and an adequate bullpen. I contend the more rounded Padres are better and would beat them in however many game series you choose.

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Wattabout Kodak Black?

Aces are unaffordable to small markets. Small markets have to grow them(see Cleveland). It's extremely hard(Cleveland makes it look easy).

_________________
Wattabout Kodak Black?

The Padres won 89 games. They obviously weren't a better team than the Mets over 162 games. The Mets never had a losing month.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I'm not sure what you mean by "ace." The 2019 A's won 97 games. Was Mike Fiers an ace? Was Brett Anderson an ace? I guess they were that season.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

There are career aces and yearly aces.

_________________
Wattabout Kodak Black?

It's an unbalanced schedule. We don't know for sure who is the best over 162. We have a pretty good idea though.

_________________
Wattabout Kodak Black?

The thing is it doesn't have to be an unfair game. People are allowed to switch jobs. Why should any other team feel bad that Beane outperformed them when he chooses to set the bar so low? It's like if you and me had a bike race, and I rode a $200 bike from Wal-Mart and you had whatever fancy bike you have, you beat me by a huge margin and I say "Well, I did pretty good and it cost me less per mile than you so I basically also won".

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I've never heard Beane brag about how great he is. I guess he likes Oakland. I think they gave him a small ownership interest. The A's are his team. And it's pretty obvious that he does the job better than Kenny Williams or Rick Hahn.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

A lot of other people do and I also think it's hard to put Beane in as the reluctant smart guy when he had no problem with a book and movie about how much smarter he is than everyone else in baseball.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think the thing is Beane realizes the playground he belongs in and knows not that much will change any time soon. He is okay doing the best he can in that playground. Other teams are there with him in small markets or second teams in huge markets. The Pirates' fans would give their left nut for his performance with the resources he gets.

In the end baseball like all sports has thirty something teams and only one per year can win it all. There are many ways to not be number one.

_________________
Elections have consequences.

I'm not sure how Beane feels about Moneyball. I agree that Michael Lewis wrote a hagiography. If you're the subject it's probably pretty tough not to like it.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I suspect he feels like he's done as well as anyone and it just hasn't broken his way in the short series that are played in the postseason and that if he keeps doing what he's doing he'll eventually win a World Series. I think he feels that winning a World Series isn't the definitive measure of his performance.

The Braves won 14 consecutive division titles and only won World Series and that could have gone the other way. If it had I wouldn't consider their GM to be less successful than he was, let alone a failure.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Kenny and Hahn won a World Series, and Billy Beane won the Fiscal Bob the Builder championship. Kenny and Hahn end 90 year curses. Beane starts them.

Maybe a Bob Welch bobblehead giveaway will get Beane the resources that will put Oakland over the top.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

JOrr seems to be going the Packers fan route favoring a bunch of regular season win and Wild Card losses.

Beane has been in Oakland 20+ years and his team has never played on the world series. That's a lot less successful in Joe Biden, and Jorr rails on him here on a daily basis.

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He's in the wrong business. When I become the GM of the Sox or the Cubs on The Show, I'm trying to win multiple World Series.

I suspect the Braves GM and Cox would trade 10 of those division championships for another World Series.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

JOrr is being completely disingenuous. The Braves played in four consecutive world series. That is no small feat in MLB. Sure they went 1-3, but if a JERRY or Ricketts owned team played in the fall classic four consecutive years, they would absolutely be lauded. And rightly so.

Im not sure Beane has even watched four straight WS on TV.

Edit: pardon me, Braves won 4 out of 5 pennants, not in a row. My overall point stands though

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It's been great for him. He's the most popular GM in history that hasn't ever won a World Series. He's viewed similarly to Theo Epstein and better than Brian Cashman(sky point to stoneroses) because he made the playoffs a lot.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

This is the best way to approach those jobs. If you fail to 30 other teams through no blunders of your own have you failed flat out? Or just unlucky? Probably people would think you did your best most of the time.

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Baseball may be the only team sport where winning a championship is "luck". You can have the best hitters and pitchers and lose to this year's Oakland or Washington team. The Braves and Nationals won a World Series without their best player. You could argue the Sox did as well.

If you still haven't won a title in 30 years, it's failure. There's no way around it.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

The old bernstein philosophy. "ALL. THAT. MATTERS. IS. WINNING. A. CHAMPIONSHIP."

I'd prefer my team win the division every year and then take my chances. Of course, you don't have the luxury of hindsight.

I certainly don't consider the 90-00s Marlins more successful than the Braves. Do you?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

As a Chicago fan? No. Give me the championships. I've lived and died with a lot of disappointing and heart breaking baseball teams in my life. Shed far too many tears. The payoff was 2005 and 2016. I would be sick the payoff was just division titles and maybe a championship series.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!