His name is Andy Larouche. His brother is Adam Larouche. Andy is a failed prospect who couldn't cut it with the Pirates. He recently signed a minor league deal with the A's. Gio Gonzalez may end up being the best of the A's young starting pitchers. Ryan Sweeney is really good when he's between stints on the disabled list. I'm glad that William Lamar Beane III didn't pull the trigger on that deal. I'll be even more happy if Larouche suddenly figures out how to hit, but I'm not banking on it. He's basically Kevin Kouzmanoff without the awesome glove. We already have one Kevin Kouzmanoff, which is probably one too many. Oh well, it's another year of trotting a sub-replacement level 3rd baseman out there.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
A Couple Years Ago William Lamar Beane III Nearly Traded Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeney For This Guy
His name is Andy Larouche. His brother is Adam Larouche. Andy is a failed prospect who couldn't cut it with the Pirates. He recently signed a minor league deal with the A's. Gio Gonzalez may end up being the best of the A's young starting pitchers. Ryan Sweeney is really good when he's between stints on the disabled list. I'm glad that William Lamar Beane III didn't pull the trigger on that deal. I'll be even more happy if Larouche suddenly figures out how to hit, but I'm not banking on it. He's basically Kevin Kouzmanoff without the awesome glove. We already have one Kevin Kouzmanoff, which is probably one too many. Oh well, it's another year of trotting a sub-replacement level 3rd baseman out there.
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eric chavez: still available
ReplyDeleteHarpo, at what point exactly do you think Billy Beane went from "Billy Beane, shrewd, astute dude on the hunt for bargains and underrated players" to "Billy Beane, Billy Beane fetishist?" Was it just after the publication of Moneyball? Sometime before? I mean, I think we can all agree that at some point the dude just fell in love with the idea of being Billy Beane and all the dumb bullshit that is associated with that name. I'm just curious to know when you, a loyal Oakland A's fan, think that happened.
ReplyDeleteI too totally await this response.
ReplyDeleteIf it is true that Billy Beane has become overly enamoured with himself -- I'm not saying this is true or that I even really suspect it and in fact there is of course no way I could know it even if it was true; I'm just totally talking out of my ass here -- IMAGINE how out of control that could get once he is portrayed onscreen by Brad Pitt. Like, you probably think you did a pretty good job at work today, but if you saw a movie of your day at work starring BRAD PITT you would be like fuck yeah I was awesome at work today AND I looked like Brad Pitt while doing it fuck literally everybody else I am changing NOTHING EVER.
again this is all speculation
You know, the first two times I was all like OK, DUDE IS FUCKING LOSING IT was the Esteban Loiza signing and the Milton Bradley for Andre Ethier trade. Contrary to popular belief and historical revision, there were PLENTY of scouts who thought Andre Ethier would develop into exactly the player he is. A couple of years after that, when ownership told him they would be willing to open up the purse strings to bring in some free agents he politely said LOL, NAH, I GOT THIS and stood pat for another year. In fact, on the surface it's pretty obvious that he got hosed on both Matt Holliday deals, which is making it more and more obvious that he kinda sucks at blockbuster deals. The initial Holliday deal was dog shit because, regardless of the home/away splits and what Billy apologists like to say, there were TONS of baseball people who thought Carlos Gonzalez was going to be a really good player. It's not like he was some throw in to the deal. He was the centerpiece. So after it becomes obvious that Holliday A: Hated Oakland, B: Hated Bob Geren C: Hated the AL and D: Hated Billy, he realized he had to trade him. So this started the whole thing where Holliday became Brett Wallace who became Michael Taylor who now is looking like he might not be a good player at all. And while it would be reaaaaaaaally easy to just hate the guy, I always find myself falling back on the Mulder for Dan Haren and Daric Barton trade and then years later turning Haren into Chris Carter, Brett Anderson and Carlos Gonzalez. He's also starting to show some flexibility in his dogma, as evidenced by his recent willingness to spend higher picks on high school hitters. I'm really concerned that him being played by Brad Pitt is just going to turn him into an absolute maniac, but at this point it's not like there's a whole lot else he can possibly do that he hasn't already done in the "things a person with an out of control ego would do" department.
ReplyDeleteEsteban Loaiza was so bad that my wife (of all people) is like "you couldn't help but feel contempt for just how beneath contempt he was." She has also referred to him as a scrub.
ReplyDeleteAlso, among the several amazingest parts in THE YANKEE YEARS (which is a top-ten all-time baseball book imo) is when the wheels really fall of in the mid 00s and they start bringing in guys that you completely forgot they brought in, Esteban Loaiza and Tanyon Sturtze foremost among them. I don't care if Sturtze actually pitched alright for them. Totally not the point.
Yeah, the Loaiza signing kinda took the sting out of the eventual Ben Sheets signing because by that point it was like, Oh? This again? with the exception of it being for only one year, which I guess is the one lesson Billy's failed free agent signings have taught him. The other thing that really, really irks me is how he built his name and rep on having this awesome eye for talent, yet the A's farm system has been shitty for the last 5 years or so.
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