The Oakland A's Clearly Don't Care About Their Fans, But Tearing Their Roster Down Was The Only Option
Daniel Shirey. Getty Images.The way the Oakland A's ownership has treated fans has been absolutely shitty. It's the movie Major League come to life. Instead of an owner trying to lose with Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger so she can move, you have the A's intentionally putting a lousy team out there so MLB will let them go to Las Vegas. I genuinely feel bad for any fan of the A's. It must be awful to a have team you love move away and maybe even worse seeing them stripped down to the bone.
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Having said all of that, I really like how the A's are tanking. The ownership and player personnel team are absolutely right that if they can't compete, the best path to success is to be as terrible as possible. I've been advocating for tanking for another AL West team in this blog and the A's are in even worse shape. Houston would not have won the World Series this season if they hadn't tanked from 2011-13. It allowed them to not only draft stars like Alex Bregman but also time to create organizational depth. They didn't rush players and have created a assembly line of pitching talent.
It's not the only example either. The Chicago Cubs finally won a World Series because they were allowed to bottom out in 2012. Even the Baltimore Orioles finally turned the tide last season after years of horrible baseball. In pro sports, it's much better to be awful than bad.
The A's made this move on Monday trading one of the few players left on the team that have any sort of real current value.
Big T went over the trade here and I agree with his assessment that the Braves overpaid and the Brewers won the trade. However, I think the A's made the right move choosing a bevy of prospects instead of William Contreras. That's nothing against Contreras, it's more that he helps the A's win now and by the time the A's are ready to win (move to Vegas), he might start getting expensive.
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The way the A's have treated the few fans that they do have has been really shitty…but can Oakland support a major league baseball team? They have made the playoffs seven times since 2006. They didn't once average 25,000 attendance/game in any season during that 17 year stretch and more than half of those years didn't even crack 20,000. I know some Oakland fans will say that people don't want to come out to the shabby Oakland Coliseum that has literally had sewage leak all over the team clubhouse on multiple occasions. That's not the only problem with the place.
SOURCE- Feces from feral cats, a moth infestation, mold, a nearby homeless encampment, broken seats, and plumbing and water leaks all made the checklist of problems Vice President of Stadium Operations David Rinetti sent to Coliseum Authority Executive Director Henry Gardner in a letter on May 12.
It's the last stadium that is used by a MLB team that was built to be used by an NFL team. I've never been there but by all accounts, it's a lousy place to watch a baseball game. But building a new stadium doesn't automatically fix a fan base. Look at Marlins Park. It's both very nice and often empty. That's not to say you can't see a initial spike but cities like Baltimore and Pittsburgh will tell you that even building a great park doesn't mean it will stay new forever. Even the best baseball parks can struggle to draw fans. It's not enough.
Moving to Las Vegas does make sense for the A's. The city wants them there and it's likely a much better market. The Golden Knights and Raiders have both gotten a lot of fan support. It's the lying to the fans that is especially shitty. You want to go to Las Vegas? Just come out and say that. Say you are moving (or offer to buy out the lease) and let people know when. They didn't even average 8,000 fans/game last year anyway. If no one is believing the lie, why not just tell the truth?
Until then, stock up on prospects. Trade away anything with value. Lose 110 games. Do it again. And again after that. Invest in the farm system. Hopefully ownership is saving money for when they move and then are willing to invest in the team heavily with that money that they haven't been spending.
I'll always support a team rebuilding if they can't win a title. In this situation, it may be the wrong way to treat the city you called home for over 50 years but it's still the right thing for the team.