Why I'm Glad the A's Lost

Who or what does one root for when one roots for a baseball team? My first instinct is to say the players, because they're the ones who actually make up the team. They're the ones that you cheer on the field and it's their level of play that determines whether the team wins or loses. But it's also more than that, because most fans of a specific team will support any player who wears that team's uniform. In fact I know there are some fans who root for the more abstract concept of organizational identity regardless of who's on the field. But behind every organization is another group of people: there's an owner who makes the financial decisions, a whole suite of front office executives who make the personnel decisions, and a coaching staff to make the on-the-field strategic decisions.

So now that we've identified three distinct aspects that make up a baseball team - the roster, the franchise, and the management - the question is, can someone be considered a true fan of a "team" if one or more of these aspects are completely at odds with each other in that person's mind?

This is the question that I - and hopefully many Oakland Athletics fans - are asking themselves this morning, after the A's suffered a heartbreaking(ly mismanaged) loss to the Kansas City Royals in last night's AL Wild Card Game. If you've followed the A's for the past couple years, you'd see an extremely likable group of guys on the field every day. The home run tunnel they do in the dugout? Pure class! That All-Star Game video that Josh Donaldson, Sean Doolittle, and Derek Norris did? Hilarious! Josh Reddick exposing himself in a celebratory picture when they finally clinched a playoff spot? You can't teach this stuff in the minor leagues and it makes them a heckuva lot of fun to watch.

I have all the respect and affection in the world for the A's players and they deserve a heckuva lot better than the managerial situation they had to endure last night. I find Monday-morning-quarterbacking to be a fruitless and frustrating venture for the most part, but when there were this many outrage-inducing decisions in a win-or-go-home playoff game, a little second guessing is in order. I would like to talk about two such decisions, the first of which is the obvious elephant (or perhaps donkey?) in the room: why didn't Adam Dunn start this game? I know he has hit poorly against James Shields (.586 OPS against him with 5 walks and 16 strikeouts), but Brandon Moss's OPS vs. Shields was even worse (.429) and he ended up hitting two home runs. It was a head scratcher to say the least, especially when all anyone could talk about before the game was how 14-year veteran Adam Dunn had finally made it to the playoffs for the first time in his last season before retirement.

It seemed as though this move would be overlooked, however, when the A's took a commanding four run lead into the 8th inning. That lead became three runs when Jon Lester started to struggle and was pulled after 7 1/3 innings, leaving two runners on base. And who should come in to pitch? Not lights out closer Sean Doolittle - who is perfectly capable of a five-out save, as he proved by pitching two full innings later in this game - but setup man Luke Gregerson who blew 8 (eight [EIGHT]) saves this season. As you hear all the time when you listen to investors, "past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results," but this guy pitched in 11 save opportunities in 2014 and fucked up in nearly three quarters of them. What's more, he allowed 43% of his inherited runners to score this year (14% higher than league average). And what did he do? Allowed two more runs, cutting the lead to one. Big surprise. Welcome to free agency, dude.

Sean Doolittle gave up the tying run in the ninth (which of course would have still resulted in a save had Gregerson somehow not been so Gregerson-esque), which at least provided the promise of seeing Adam Dunn get a pinch hitting appearance. But when light-hitting second baseman Eric Sogard came up to bat in the bottom of the 10th with two outs and nobody on base, who should step up to the on-deck circle but ... light-hitting second baseman Nick Punto. I figuratively lost my shit when I saw this move take place. Literally, that's the figurative reaction I had. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Puntissimo, but he's a clubhouse presence/defensive replacement kind of guy, not the one you bring up to pinch hit with the season on the line.

Punto strikes out looking, but that's not necessarily terrible (even though Sogard could have done that himself) since the A's weren't threatening and you want to save your best weapon for when you have the best chance to score. The A's had just that chance in the 12th inning with Josh Reddick on third and a righty coming up against a righty pitcher... and Alberto Callaspo comes in to pinch hit. It's hard to second guess this move since Callaspo got a base hit to give the A's the lead - and because Bob Melvin claimed he thought Dunn would just have been walked in that situation, setting up a double play for Derek Norris (who hit into 12 of them this year). But after Norris struck out, first base was not open for Nick Punto... who was allowed to bat a second time. Against a right handed pitcher (Jason Frasor) who has given up a .500 lifetime batting average to... Adam Dunn (albeit in only two at bats - one RBI single and one strikeout).

To not start Dunn against a pitcher who has owned him in the past, I can almost understand. But to not even give him a pinch hitting appearance, against a right handed pitcher, in the middle of a game-altering rally, in the only chance he would ever have to play in a postseason game, is indefensible and unconscionable. It's a complete and utter lack of respect for a player who was acquired FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE of playing in this one game. Not only that, it's a slap in the face to all of Dunn's fans, anyone who tweeted that he had played in 2,001 games without a playoff appearance, and anyone who enjoys watching games in which a team's best players actually get a chance to play. It bespeaks a smug, dismissive attitude toward any decision-making process, either analytical or emotional. So unless it comes out that Adam Dunn had a legitimate reason for being unavailable last night - he was injured, he was sick, he made a Brad Pitt joke within earshot of Billy Beane - there has got to be some serious explanation and accountability for this ignominious end to his career.

"What are we going to do tonight, Breane?"
"Same thing we do every night, Melvy:
LEAVE OUR BEST PLAYERS ON THE BENCH!"

But as much flack as Bob Melvin took last night - and trust me, he deserved all of it and more - it's simply not possible that he was the sole person responsible for this fiasco. It's well documented that Billy Beane is an aggressively hands-on general manager, and I don't believe for a minute that Melvin was able to make such a controversial starting lineup decision before running it upstairs. If he didn't, you can bet the next press release coming out of Oakland will be announcing the second managerial firing in three days. If he did and it turns out that Beane was behind it all, maybe we should see a press release announcing the second general managerial firing in nine days. Even before last night, I would argue that the A's need some new leadership. Billy Beane has stated before that his "shit doesn't work in the playoffs" and that was true even when he had sound strategies, such as pursuing on-base percentage. The pitching-and-defense kick resulted in a long fallow period, and two years into the platoon-split obsession, we've seen nothing but heartbreaking losses so far. Of course the one constant obsession Beane has had throughout his tenure was trading away all his best players for the sake of making headlines and cementing his legacy as the most electrifying general manager in all of sports. ("Watch closely as I turn Matt Holliday into... Michael Taylor!") So why am I happy the A's lost? Beyond the usual sour grapes reasons - an offense with a one-legged Josh Donaldson, a one-handed Geovany Soto, and minus Coco Crisp altogether would not get far in the upcoming tournament - I think it's important that people take notice of this farce that's going on in Oakland's front office right now (most aspects of which would be overlooked had the A's won last night), which will hopefully inspire some changes for next season.

Keep in mind, these are all the angry ramblings of a heartbroken and disgruntled fan, and after a few months of obsessing over the rest of the playoffs, the winter meetings, the hot stove season, and spring training, I'll be ready to cheer on the green and gold again. I just need some time to grieve.