Oakland A's thread, or, How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Future Holliday Trade

[MartyFunkhouser]

This happened when I was on the cruise. I didn't even see about Braden's perfect game until today. Very happy for Braden. He has the talent, but he has trouble staying healthy. Hopefully we can get a full year out of him.

[Parrot Head]

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on an A's pitcher living with his parents.

Kind of cool to see him just playing video games with the guys in the room he spent the last 10 years in.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Tabs%3Darticle

Video (that apparently I can't get to display)http://online.wsj.com/video/major-le...8D9A22A72.html

[MartyFunkhouser]

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on an A's pitcher living with his parents.

Kind of cool to see him just playing video games with the guys in the room he spent the last 10 years in.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Tabs%3Darticle

Video (that apparently I can't get to display)http://online.wsj.com/video/major-le...8D9A22A72.html

Interesting video and watching his delivery, again, makes me concerned about his arm falling off.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Still no word on the MLB report from Bud Selig on the A's stadium situation and San Jose. Really how long should this damn thing take and how long should the A's continue to die a slow death while Bud keeps investigating this thing.

Give us an answer one way or the other. The A's really need to start aggressively looking at Las Vegas or Portland.

[MartyFunkhouser]

You think the A's were bad last year, well you haven't seen anything yet.

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111025&content_id=25791572&vkey=news_oak&c_id=oak

Selig needs to make a damn decision one way or the other on San Jose. I don't even give a damn about the outcome, but we need an outcome. A's need to know if San Jose is possible or if they need to look at Portland or Las Vegas.

If Selig really wants to kill off the franchise, just go ahead and contract the A's. Cutting them and letting them bleed out is just cruel.

[cougjunkie]

You think the A's were bad last year, well you haven't seen anything yet.

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111025&content_id=25791572&vkey=news_oak&c_id=oak

Selig needs to make a damn decision one way or the other on San Jose. I don't even give a damn about the outcome, but we need an outcome. A's need to know if San Jose is possible or if they need to look at Portland or Las Vegas.

If Selig really wants to kill off the franchise, just go ahead and contract the A's. Cutting them and letting them bleed out is just cruel.

You will never get San Jose!

[MartyFunkhouser]

You will never get San Jose!

Burn in Hell you Giant bastards. We will take your San Jose and laugh as we do it.

[Parrot Head]

Outside of staying in the Bay Area, I can't really see which other markets in the US would actually be viable candidates for an MLB team. They couldn't survive in PDX, Vegas a few years ago may have been an option, but how would they fund a stadium now because I can't see ownership ponying up for it? San Antonio is a good-sized market, but I don't know if TX wants to support another team. I'd be tempted to have a few games in Puerto Rico, but it's a little far to make the comparison of the Bills games being played in Toronto.

So... I don't know where else they could go, but I agree that any decision is better than the limbo they're in now.

[Maximus]

So how much does Beane hate himself for not taking the redsox job?

[Maximus]

Outside of staying in the Bay Area, I can't really see which other markets in the US would actually be viable candidates for an MLB team. They couldn't survive in PDX, Vegas a few years ago may have been an option, but how would they fund a stadium now because I can't see ownership ponying up for it? San Antonio is a good-sized market, but I don't know if TX wants to support another team. I'd be tempted to have a few games in Puerto Rico, but it's a little far to make the comparison of the Bills games being played in Toronto.

So... I don't know where else they could go, but I agree that any decision is better than the limbo they're in now.

SLC could support one, or no?

[Parrot Head]

SLC could support one, or no?

I don't think they'd have the massive corporate $$ to support an 81-game home schedule.

[LiveCoug]

I don't think they'd have the massive corporate $$ to support an 81-game home schedule.

I agree with that. I think fan support would be fine, but corporate sponsorship would be severely lacking.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Outside of staying in the Bay Area, I can't really see which other markets in the US would actually be viable candidates for an MLB team. They couldn't survive in PDX, Vegas a few years ago may have been an option, but how would they fund a stadium now because I can't see ownership ponying up for it? San Antonio is a good-sized market, but I don't know if TX wants to support another team. I'd be tempted to have a few games in Puerto Rico, but it's a little far to make the comparison of the Bills games being played in Toronto.

So... I don't know where else they could go, but I agree that any decision is better than the limbo they're in now.

Why don't you think that Portland could support a baseball team? It is decent size city that is even passionate about awful professional sports like their MLS team. They already have a standing conditional bond approved for a stadium and several proposed places for a stadium. Portland could absolutely make it work. Of course, I may be biased from hearing from the head of the Portland baseball group telling me all the ways it would work.

[MartyFunkhouser]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index..._in_portl.html

http://www.oregonstadiumcampaign.com/

[Parrot Head]

I think PDX falls in line with SLC in that it won't have the massive corporate $$ needed for MLB. The NBA is less demanding -- shorter schedule, smaller venues -- and MLS seems to be a great fit for the area. PDX didn't even support the Beavers that well, did they?

With the economics of sports in recent years, there are hardly any cities left that could support an NFL, MLB or NBA team that don't already have one. LA and the NFL being the one glaring exception. Each league could stand to lose 2-5 teams and life would go on as normal except for the players affected by contraction.

And I recognized the Oregon Stadium link when I saw it in your post because I worked with them some several years ago. I can't believe the site is still up, yet unchanged. PDX has made a great move with MLS and some of the niche sports like LAX could survive there if the money doesn't get out of hand, but I can't see why PDX would be more viable than, say, Sac-town.

Back to the A's, though... San Jose would be the option where they could thrive. Send BART right to Cisco Field in Fremont.