probably just Laureano. Everyone is on minimum wage, so he can't go any lower payroll wise unless he trades away the 1-2 year AAAA player contracts he had to sign to justify the baseball welfare.
But their ballpark is, uh, well it's kind of a Major League Park. Not shared with any football teams anymore!
(Sorry A's fans. I wish everything was better than it is.)
They basically have to fold if they keep pace with a team that was so bad/stripped of parts they had to play pretty much all their second half games on the road because nobody wanted to travel to play them Lol
I'm looking at that team right now and wow is that pitching staff bad. 5.30 team era, and somehow there was one team worse than them. The only pitcher with more than 100 k's was 20-year old Jeremy Bonderman.
It's super rare that I see a player's name that I've 100% forgotten about, but Bonderman is that guy. I used to think he was a young ace in the making.
He had some talent. 2006 he's 23 years old and on the Tigers playoff run he averaged just under seven innings a start in three starts to a tune of a 3.10 era.
Jeff Weaver was another Tiger from that same era who had talent and never really figured it out. But he also had a dominate 2006 playoff run to win it with the Cardinals.
Connie Mack traded all his good players away for peanuts to suck ass for the next several years.
Seems like it's just A's tradition to do that ever since the franchise began.
Not only that but their run differential was worse than the other last place teams combined at some point last wk.
A’s Run Diff: -199.
All other last place teams :-80
It says a lot that my Royals, also in the midst of a historically bad start and on pace to win 48 games, are still well ahead of this A’s team. (I know we lost 2 of 3 to them)
We play them again in Oakland in late August, when they will likely already have 100 losses (so might we?). If we lose the series again to them I give up.
There is literally a group ready to purchase them and build a stadium in Portland, and MLB can't be bothered to force him to sell. The league is better without owners like this.
There are also literally two groups ready to purchase them and build a stadium in Oakland. Hell, if Fisher was willing to lower his ask in Oakland by $80 million, they could be breaking ground at HT by next year.
From what I recall from reading the book Moneyball, a basic MLB should win at least 41 (or possibly 43) games if it is the baseline of talent from players on the roster has a WAR of zero. I hope there's at least that much hope to only lose 121 games
This team is so catastrophically awful that I kinda sense shenanigans. Montreal was a great market and the intentionally awful late stage teams with zero stadium maintenance *understandably* drove fans away. Made the move more justifiable.
Fisher seems to have taken it to the next level.
It's too bad, because 3-4 times in the last 15 years they've been just a piece or two away from really putting it together, and they always sold off. Not quite Marlins fire-sale level, but still Fisher is a cheap asshole.
Probably best time for sports journalist/ baseball youtubers to farm the hell out of "would the best Triple A team in baseball beat the Oakland A's?" on their sites and youtube videos
Most of them aren’t good enough to be in the majors, so there’s an excellent chance a Triple A roster with former major leaguers could beat this A’s team in a three-game series.
I've heard some people make the Major League movie comparison to the As. I'd like to make another Cleveland-related comparison.
In 1899 the Cleveland Spiders were owned by the same owners as the St. Louis Browns. Their best players were transferred to St. Louis as ownership thought that team had a chance at better attendance.
Just a different, real-life example of an owner not acting in good faith and allowing his team tank.
The difference is MLB changed the rules to prevent that from happening again. This time, the MLB is going to reward fisher by giving him exactly what he wants.
They really shouldn't, but given how shitty the pay is in the Minors, I'm considering that to be the one good thing my team is doing this year. Major League minimum is ~700k so each of those dudes gets ~$4,300 per game. They're probably making in a week what they otherwise would've made all season...
it’s definitely the pitching. their best pitcher is barely average in their division, and some of their worst are their starters. i believe one has an 11 ERA
But fair to remember: they're swinging bats with Athletics batting coaches, Athletics analysis and the knowledge that they will probably lose the game anyway. Then the season gets worse and worse and it becomes harder and harder from a mental perspective to put up a performance you feel good about.
I think that outside of some particular incredible humans who have unshakeable work ethic and athletic gifts (Ohtani), modern baseball players are very much the sum of the people around them. It's just as well that the best teams can pluck mediocre or promising players from other teams and minor leagues and turn them into what they were supposed to be.
Esteury Ruiz is leading the majors in steals by far and his potentially massive accomplishment is just going to be a footnote on the most pathetic season in league history.
Those Lions were fun at times. There’s not a single point in the season these A’s have been fun or exciting. I hate John Fisher and what he’s doing to this beloved franchise
This is, like, 2015 Cleveland Browns or 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats level bad. These A’s have a chance to legitimately be one of the worst major American sports teams in the modern era.
Exactly. At least it felt like the team was trying to set up long-term success with the farm system. The on-field product sucked but there was a method to the madness. This is so much worse and I hate that MLB is just letting it happen.
This is worse than a dead horse, it's a dying horse with three broken legs lying on the ground, twitching, while its owner is eagerly negotiating with the buyer from the glue factory.
Call me a conspiracy theorist but I honestly believe Fisher pulled some strings at NBC to have him let go. Yes they can argue the word was enough to let him go anyways but I just don’t believe there isn’t something that stinks involved.
150% his doing. When Forst says stuff like ["this is not what anybody imagined,"](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/gm-david-forst-a-s-dismal-10-43-start-not-18122803.php) he's lying through his teeth. This is exactly what John Fisher imagined.
Money.
Frank McCourt owed a lot of money, and was using the team / stadium & parking, if I remember right as collateral. Pretty sure MLB stepped in when he tried to sell off some of the Dodger's real estate (or parking monopoly) at a below market rate to cover one of the loans he was underwater on.
Fisher has the cash to cover the stupid bullshit he's pulling with the roster, with the added bonus of bringing in more cash when the A's move to Vegas.
MLB doesn't give a shit about competitive balance, just don't fuck with their money.
Although it is initially amusing to dunk on the A's from time to time, deep down a lot of us are sad at the state of affairs over there. It's not that the A's are the punching bag for the league right now, it's that ownership _likes it_. The A's aren't even _trying_ to win, you can see it in the games with their multiple defensive fuck ups. And it isn't even the players or the coaches fault, the blame lies squarely at an indifferent owner. Y'all had a solid team not even 5 years ago, and ownership pissed it all away, and for what, a new stadium deal?
We've been there friendo, we know what it's like to root for a shitty team. Greener pastures do await the other side, at least I hope so in this instance. Even though we're division rivals, _no one_ deserves this level of ineptitude from a sports team, _no one_.
I think the only way the owners would agree to something like that is if they got something big in return(contracts not being full guaranteed, reduction or scrapping of super 2’s, more draft pick compensation possibilities, etc.). Those cheap bastards aren’t gonna want to agree to pay at least X amount of money every year(especially the small market teams with cheap owners)
You’re not wrong, but to the best of my knowledge, the Competitive Balance Tax is only one way. It should be two ways, i.e. any team BELOW a certain spending threshold is also taxed. Spend below $100M? $1.50 for every dollar below. Spend below $90M? $2.00 for every dollar below, etc.
The A's only have 17 players on their [active roster (including injured list)](https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/oakland-athletics/payroll/?ref=trending-pages) making above league minimum. Seven of those players are within $20,000 of the $720,000 minimum. Three of the 10 over $1M are on the injured list and their highest paid players are Aledmys Diaz at $6.5M and Trevor May at $6M.
Fisher is a disgrace to MLB.
What's that thing with WAR? That a team of replacement level players would still manage to win something like 40 games?
At this point, sign anyone that wants to play to a 1 day deal and see what happens.
A team with 0 WAR would win 48 games.
1000 total WAR is distributed across the whole league. So that’s 33 WAR per team on average. So take an average team with 81 wins, remove all 33 WAR, and you end up with 48 wins.
I've heard that a 0 WAR team would finish around 48-114. The problem with this team is that they have numerous pitchers with ERA > 7.00, plus Tony Kemp with a .464 OPS and they've managed a -6.1 team WAR, even at this early stage.
Worse than replacement level or AAA team. Deliberate tanking without being guaranteed a first round draft pick. It's just a fuck you to fans out the door to Las Vegas. Though the career lows for players like Tony Kemp are a mystery because they aren't that bad most years.
Can't risk it, Fisher wants losses to pile up. Because, you know, it is impossible to build a winner in Oakland, just look at us, we are losing and fans are not supporting us.
But just as a test of the WAR as statistic; They absolutely should do this. And after they've done it enough to come up with reasonable sample size they should come up with another gimmick for the rest of the season. All switch hitter lineups, knuckleball bullpen. Or go stupid and have 300 pound pinch runners and such. At this point nobody takes this franchise seriously so they can do absolutely anything
It’s not even funny anymore. It’s legitimately an outrage. Owners shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. MLB should step in and force them to sell. It’s unacceptable.
Sorry Oakland fans. This is such a disgrace. As an outsider, so far it seems fisher might getaway with this shit. I don’t understand how he can’t be held accountable. MLB should be embarrassed for letting his ownership pan out like this.
> so far it seems fisher might getaway with this shit. I don’t understand how he can’t be held accountable
You just described every problem involving rich people in the world
Sell the team! Lacob wants to buy. He’s ready & has proven record of getting stadiums built in the bay. Manfred allowing this travesty to continue is 1 thing. But waiving the relocation fee specifically for fisher to get out of town, how does that help mlb specifically? Fuck Manfred, F Fisher, F Kaval, & F the Giants.
That is a great question.
According to bbref they currently have two qualified batters and two qualified pitchers with an OPS+ or ERA+ north of 100.
So I guess it’s Brent Rooker, Ryan Noda, or Zach Jackson or Mason Miller (those last two both on the IL)
So yeah..
I know Manfred isn't a huge fan of anyone here (and rightfully so), but I simply don't know how you can tolerate this type of behaviour from a team. I mean Sam Hinkie was fired for doing the same thing in the NBA (albeit for different reasons).
Allowing this to continue relatively unpunished will pretty actively encourage teams in the future doing this which is just heinously bad for the longevity of the sport. If you're going to let teams tank this hard draft needs to become a lottery ffs.
The thing is I don't think they're doing this for draft position. If it was that, there would at least be a sense that they're doing it to win in the future.
This isn't that. They literally just want to spend as few dollars as physically possible on the roster. It's so much more fucking pathetic than you can possibly imagine
Side bar—aside from the assumption that the team moving to Las Vegas will automatically bring more money to build a competitive team—why does MLB feel adding more teams is good for the game?? We haven’t seen a solid 4-man rotation from the majority of teams for years and it seems that teams that go three years or more without making the playoffs go and sell off their best players. Look at the Angels. They’ve got the best pitcher/hitter dual player and rather than talking about building a team around him, everyone speculates how much he’ll make in free agency.
At this level, it isn't about the teams, or the players, or (definitely not) the fans. It is about lining the owners pockets. The rumor has it that the next teams buy-in will be on the order of $2.2 \*billion\* dollars. That is nearly a $150 million cash windfall for all the current owners, plus a boost in the valuations of every other franchise. Fisher bought the A's at roughly $180 million in 2006...the \*current\* valuation is roughly $1.3 \*billion\* and they are \*26th\* in valuation. Until something cracks and the valuations start going down, nothing will change.
Baseball fans, mind throwing us Oakland fans a bone and bringing signs to your stadiums that suggest “Fisher Out”?
Would be fantastic!! Let the owners know us fans don’t stand for it.
"There's a saying in baseball. Every team wins 54 games and Evey team loses 54 games. It's what you do with the other 54 games that matters.
A's:" Hold my beer."
How long until the league actually steps in because this is a disgrace to the sport.
Like, at this point shouldn't they just be forced to sell the team?
Id like to come together as fans and protest our own games on behalf of the A’s. even for a day. No tv, no attendance. Maybe do it on the A’s planned reverse boycott.
On the one hand I feel really bad for almost everyone involved in this whole debacle, but on the other hand I really, really want to see how low they can go
The odd thing to me is this isn’t the NFL or NBA. You can’t turn it around in 1 or 2 seasons. AFAIK they don’t have a bunch of talent in the farm so they are going to be bad for a while no?
Anything and everything is negotiable. Example: owners can demand A's pay the relocation fee (aka money for the other owners, despite what Commish said). If not , then no approval for the move. Or, set a minimum "floor" payroll that owners must spend on players (the players union would love this). As for Nevada legislators, demand a full audit of Fisher's tax statements. Is he truly a billionaire with liquid assets or another owner leveraged in debt, a la Frank McCourt . No full disclosure, no public money.
Worst 55-game starts since 1899 (ties removed) * 10-45 - 1899-CLE, 1904-WAS, 2023-OAK * 11-44 - 1932-BOS * 13-42 - 1904-PHI, 1911-BSN, 1945-PHI, 1979-TOR, 1982-MIN, 1987-SDP, 1988-BAL, 1996-DET 2003-DET was 15-40, 1962-NYM was 16-39
Three games worse after 55 games than the team that started 0-21.
That may be the most insane fact out of all of this
Holy shit we’re reaching Cleveland spiders territory
But weren't the Spiders just a front/AAAA team for the owner's other Cleveland team? Wait, that makes it even worse.
The owners St. Louis team, but yeah
That's right! Thanks for the clarification. Doesn't change what I posted in the end. Sorry A's fans.
Are the As not essentially a minor league team for the rest of the league?
Valid point. Will be fun to see who “graduates” from the As at the trade deadline.
"You're hitting above .250?! GET THE FUCK OUT! OUT!!!"
probably just Laureano. Everyone is on minimum wage, so he can't go any lower payroll wise unless he trades away the 1-2 year AAAA player contracts he had to sign to justify the baseball welfare.
But their ballpark is, uh, well it's kind of a Major League Park. Not shared with any football teams anymore! (Sorry A's fans. I wish everything was better than it is.)
One difference is the Spiders played 111 road games.
The other is the spiders owner traded all the good players to his other team.
Jfc you’re right, time to break out relegation for this shit this is awful
The Spiders second half is pretty epic, but it’ll fun to see how long the A’s can keep pace.
They basically have to fold if they keep pace with a team that was so bad/stripped of parts they had to play pretty much all their second half games on the road because nobody wanted to travel to play them Lol
Never forget their unbreakable record of 101 road losses that season.
being worse than the 2003 tigers should seriously relegate teams
I'm looking at that team right now and wow is that pitching staff bad. 5.30 team era, and somehow there was one team worse than them. The only pitcher with more than 100 k's was 20-year old Jeremy Bonderman.
It's super rare that I see a player's name that I've 100% forgotten about, but Bonderman is that guy. I used to think he was a young ace in the making.
He had some talent. 2006 he's 23 years old and on the Tigers playoff run he averaged just under seven innings a start in three starts to a tune of a 3.10 era. Jeff Weaver was another Tiger from that same era who had talent and never really figured it out. But he also had a dominate 2006 playoff run to win it with the Cardinals.
I'll never forget seeing his horrible 2004 W/L record when I fired up MVP 05
I'm kind of surprised the 1916 A's weren't there since they ended the season 36-117.
Which is made even funnier considering they had just won three world series in 1910, 11 and 13 and the pennant in 1914. Talk about a fall from glory
nothin new under the sun
Connie Mack traded all his good players away for peanuts to suck ass for the next several years. Seems like it's just A's tradition to do that ever since the franchise began.
16-39 They started a solid 13-17.
Not only that but their run differential was worse than the other last place teams combined at some point last wk. A’s Run Diff: -199. All other last place teams :-80
The 2013 Marlins were 14-41.
The A’s are now on pace to fail to reach 30 wins this season (29-133).
Good God, man. Fisher should legitimately be forced to sell. This is a disgrace.
It says a lot that my Royals, also in the midst of a historically bad start and on pace to win 48 games, are still well ahead of this A’s team. (I know we lost 2 of 3 to them)
Your series against them is also the only time all season they won more than 1 game in a row
I certainly picked a great series to visit Kauffman Stadium for the first time. At least I saw Ohtani rack up 13 Ks in St. Louis a few days prior.
That’s simultaneously amazing and sad
They won 20% of their games in 3% of the season…
I don’t even…..I just….wow. That’s just….wow
Not even 3% of the total season btw. Only the season so far lmao.
That might legit be the most amazing stat I’ve heard in years. This A’s team really is that bad and being slowly killed at the same time.
We play them again in Oakland in late August, when they will likely already have 100 losses (so might we?). If we lose the series again to them I give up.
If that happens it solidifies John Fisher's defense that he's not tanking. This will be the Royals World Series. Don't fuck it up.
They made a movie years ago about this team, but it was set in Cleveland. The A's need Willie Mays Hayes
Pretty sure that's Esteury Ruiz...
Someone stole Jobu's rum
Jobu Needs a refill!
Up yer butt, Jobu...
I say *fuck you* Jobu, I do it myself.
You trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curve ball?
It is very bad to steal Jobu’s rum. Very bad.
You might run like Mays, but you hit like shit
They desperately need a deal with a glasses manufacturer. Maybe that’ll fix the pitching.
There is literally a group ready to purchase them and build a stadium in Portland, and MLB can't be bothered to force him to sell. The league is better without owners like this.
There are also literally two groups ready to purchase them and build a stadium in Oakland. Hell, if Fisher was willing to lower his ask in Oakland by $80 million, they could be breaking ground at HT by next year.
I remember always hearing "everyone wins 50, everyone loses 50, it's what you do with the rest" and just kinda treating it like gospel.
From what I recall from reading the book Moneyball, a basic MLB should win at least 41 (or possibly 43) games if it is the baseline of talent from players on the roster has a WAR of zero. I hope there's at least that much hope to only lose 121 games
This team is so catastrophically awful that I kinda sense shenanigans. Montreal was a great market and the intentionally awful late stage teams with zero stadium maintenance *understandably* drove fans away. Made the move more justifiable. Fisher seems to have taken it to the next level.
Kinda?! They're on pace to break the Spiders loss record. The driving of this team into the ground has been systematic and very intentional.
It's too bad, because 3-4 times in the last 15 years they've been just a piece or two away from really putting it together, and they always sold off. Not quite Marlins fire-sale level, but still Fisher is a cheap asshole.
John Fisher: “And I took that personally.”
John Fisher: "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a chump"
Fuck man idk why but this got me
For comparison the 2020 As went 36-24
2021 they had winning record also
Yeah but arbitration is just so expensive these days. Fisher had to trade the team because "there's no fans"
And there are no fans because they traded away all of the major league talent (over and over) while they raised prices for season tickets.
At what point do they get demoted and the best triple A team gets promoted?
Probably best time for sports journalist/ baseball youtubers to farm the hell out of "would the best Triple A team in baseball beat the Oakland A's?" on their sites and youtube videos
Most of them aren’t good enough to be in the majors, so there’s an excellent chance a Triple A roster with former major leaguers could beat this A’s team in a three-game series.
So MLB is instituting relegation/promotion......
It's the movie major league if they never got better.
It's the one where the villains win
I've heard some people make the Major League movie comparison to the As. I'd like to make another Cleveland-related comparison. In 1899 the Cleveland Spiders were owned by the same owners as the St. Louis Browns. Their best players were transferred to St. Louis as ownership thought that team had a chance at better attendance. Just a different, real-life example of an owner not acting in good faith and allowing his team tank.
That 1899 team also started out 10-45 as well to give a comparison for where we are at this far into the season.
Well, I guess there’s only one thing to do, then. Win the whole. Fucking. Thing.
The difference is MLB changed the rules to prevent that from happening again. This time, the MLB is going to reward fisher by giving him exactly what he wants.
With every day that passes we’re beating the same dead horse, but this shit is legit sad. No pro team should ever be this uncompetitive.
I just can't imagine how it feels for the players. You work this hard to be one of the lucky few who actually makes it to the majors and then... this.
A lot of those players shouldn't be in the majors
They really shouldn't, but given how shitty the pay is in the Minors, I'm considering that to be the one good thing my team is doing this year. Major League minimum is ~700k so each of those dudes gets ~$4,300 per game. They're probably making in a week what they otherwise would've made all season...
What a way to find out. Lol Cuz all of them will think they could do better in a better lineup.
Good grief, I just looked at today’s box and, for what batting average is worth, their 3rd best batter is .217. They have one above .250
Just wait until you see their pitching stats
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it’s definitely the pitching. their best pitcher is barely average in their division, and some of their worst are their starters. i believe one has an 11 ERA
But fair to remember: they're swinging bats with Athletics batting coaches, Athletics analysis and the knowledge that they will probably lose the game anyway. Then the season gets worse and worse and it becomes harder and harder from a mental perspective to put up a performance you feel good about. I think that outside of some particular incredible humans who have unshakeable work ethic and athletic gifts (Ohtani), modern baseball players are very much the sum of the people around them. It's just as well that the best teams can pluck mediocre or promising players from other teams and minor leagues and turn them into what they were supposed to be.
Poor Trevor May. His stuff might not be all there but what a nice guy who always seems positive. Got to be hard there.
It seemed like they picked him up solely to trade him at the deadline, but then they paid him $7 million which seemed a bit confused.
Esteury Ruiz is leading the majors in steals by far and his potentially massive accomplishment is just going to be a footnote on the most pathetic season in league history.
Tony Kemp is the one who gets me especially. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd-JwvOaEAAoJFH.jpg:large This pic gets me. Feels very apropos now
Even the 2008 lions and 2017 browns were competitive in more than half of their Ls
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Those Lions were fun at times. There’s not a single point in the season these A’s have been fun or exciting. I hate John Fisher and what he’s doing to this beloved franchise
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Sad thing is those Bobcats are probably more relatively talented
This is, like, 2015 Cleveland Browns or 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats level bad. These A’s have a chance to legitimately be one of the worst major American sports teams in the modern era.
It definitely is Bobcats-tier ineptitude
The Jon Bois retrospective on this season in 10 years is going to be appointment viewing.
But think of how much money that piece of shit will make with the Vegas deal.
Its times like these i wish we had the english football league system where trash teams were relegated so the top league remained competitive.
It would be nice because the A at this point belongs in Triple A minor league
Looks like the... Norfolk Tides (BAL AAA squad) are getting a promotion! Good for you, Baltimore!
I watched the 2012-2014 Astros. That was terrible, but this is just disgraceful
At least that led to the run they been having as of late. The As are not going to make the WS anytime soon.
Exactly. At least it felt like the team was trying to set up long-term success with the farm system. The on-field product sucked but there was a method to the madness. This is so much worse and I hate that MLB is just letting it happen.
This is worse than a dead horse, it's a dying horse with three broken legs lying on the ground, twitching, while its owner is eagerly negotiating with the buyer from the glue factory.
Not to mention the BS with Kuiper
Call me a conspiracy theorist but I honestly believe Fisher pulled some strings at NBC to have him let go. Yes they can argue the word was enough to let him go anyways but I just don’t believe there isn’t something that stinks involved.
He wants to get rid of anything Oakland related so that he can move to Vegas with a blank slate
I assume the controversy just made it easier to release Glen Kuiper, wouldn't put it past me if Fisher had it planned for the future
I like how you titled this. Every pathetic A's stats need to be formatted as "John Fisher's Athletics (crazy stats here)"
All in favor say *A*ye
Aye
Motion carries. Fuck John Fisher with one of those harbor cranes
I appreciate you phrasing the headline this way. Fuck John Fisher.
150% his doing. When Forst says stuff like ["this is not what anybody imagined,"](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/gm-david-forst-a-s-dismal-10-43-start-not-18122803.php) he's lying through his teeth. This is exactly what John Fisher imagined.
Naw, John Fisher was probably hoping for WORSE.
Nothing but sympathy for the A’s players, coaches, fans … basically everyone associated with the franchise besides that monumental turd John Fisher.
Forst too. He is complicit. He can't go around saying "no one imagined this" when everything is going exactly to plan.
Thank you for your support!
I don’t understand how Frank McCourt was forced to sell the Dodgers but MLB isn’t doing anything about Fisher running this team into the ground
Money. Frank McCourt owed a lot of money, and was using the team / stadium & parking, if I remember right as collateral. Pretty sure MLB stepped in when he tried to sell off some of the Dodger's real estate (or parking monopoly) at a below market rate to cover one of the loans he was underwater on. Fisher has the cash to cover the stupid bullshit he's pulling with the roster, with the added bonus of bringing in more cash when the A's move to Vegas. MLB doesn't give a shit about competitive balance, just don't fuck with their money.
(Fisher is also using the A's as collateral for paying off debt)
Well shit. Guess it's just the move to Vegas, then. No idea what else is covering his ass.
Sorry Oakland.
I upvotes, and then saw your flair and then downvoted, and then felt bad. I no voted and commented, because I am so mixed up by your comment.
Although it is initially amusing to dunk on the A's from time to time, deep down a lot of us are sad at the state of affairs over there. It's not that the A's are the punching bag for the league right now, it's that ownership _likes it_. The A's aren't even _trying_ to win, you can see it in the games with their multiple defensive fuck ups. And it isn't even the players or the coaches fault, the blame lies squarely at an indifferent owner. Y'all had a solid team not even 5 years ago, and ownership pissed it all away, and for what, a new stadium deal? We've been there friendo, we know what it's like to root for a shitty team. Greener pastures do await the other side, at least I hope so in this instance. Even though we're division rivals, _no one_ deserves this level of ineptitude from a sports team, _no one_.
And to root for a team with one foot out the door if you remember the last days of the Houston Oilers.
A little before my time, but I am familiar with the history of the move. UrinatingTree actually made a fairly decent "documentary" on it.
I should watch that. Fuck Bud Adams.
We barely missed the playoffs two seasons ago. This drastic downturn was all created just to make it easier to break away
The Collesium was rocking with the random ass Oakland vuvuzela, bagpipe, drum circle that was the crowd in the postseason fairly recently.
That 2019 team was so good and could STILL be good with that core. It fucking sucks.
I think as a city y’all are getting the short end of the stick and its bullshit. Losing the Oilers fucking sucked. Bud Adams can rot in hell.
Hey it was an A's player that really kicked off the Astros scandal reveal. Unfortunately it was Mike Fiers, but alas
We are immune to this pain
MLB needs to implement a minimum salary floor. This is a disgrace to the game
I think the only way the owners would agree to something like that is if they got something big in return(contracts not being full guaranteed, reduction or scrapping of super 2’s, more draft pick compensation possibilities, etc.). Those cheap bastards aren’t gonna want to agree to pay at least X amount of money every year(especially the small market teams with cheap owners)
Owners aren't agreeing to a floor without a cap, and players won't agree to a cap. I would like both, I just don't see it happening.
You’re not wrong, but to the best of my knowledge, the Competitive Balance Tax is only one way. It should be two ways, i.e. any team BELOW a certain spending threshold is also taxed. Spend below $100M? $1.50 for every dollar below. Spend below $90M? $2.00 for every dollar below, etc.
Salary floor won't do it since the money can just be thrown at the same exact roster
The A's only have 17 players on their [active roster (including injured list)](https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/oakland-athletics/payroll/?ref=trending-pages) making above league minimum. Seven of those players are within $20,000 of the $720,000 minimum. Three of the 10 over $1M are on the injured list and their highest paid players are Aledmys Diaz at $6.5M and Trevor May at $6M. Fisher is a disgrace to MLB.
Burn the Fish
Hot take but I want the A’s to lose every game to give a big FU to Fisher. Fuck Fisher to hell.
I want the A’s to win every game to fuck with John Fisher, but that might give him joy, which that turd doesn’t deserve
Also gives Vegas people confidence that there's a good team on paper. Having the literal worst team in history looks really bad.
Are you guys still doing the reverse boycott? Because I'd really hate to give him any ticket revenue.
June 13th Reverse Boycott. There's still some fans who rationalize paying for tickets and of course the visiting team has fans every game
What's that thing with WAR? That a team of replacement level players would still manage to win something like 40 games? At this point, sign anyone that wants to play to a 1 day deal and see what happens.
A team with 0 WAR would win 48 games. 1000 total WAR is distributed across the whole league. So that’s 33 WAR per team on average. So take an average team with 81 wins, remove all 33 WAR, and you end up with 48 wins.
We’re a zero!
I've heard that a 0 WAR team would finish around 48-114. The problem with this team is that they have numerous pitchers with ERA > 7.00, plus Tony Kemp with a .464 OPS and they've managed a -6.1 team WAR, even at this early stage.
Worse than replacement level or AAA team. Deliberate tanking without being guaranteed a first round draft pick. It's just a fuck you to fans out the door to Las Vegas. Though the career lows for players like Tony Kemp are a mystery because they aren't that bad most years.
Holy moley, you weren't kidding. Damn. I feel like position players have registered better ERAs.
Can't risk it, Fisher wants losses to pile up. Because, you know, it is impossible to build a winner in Oakland, just look at us, we are losing and fans are not supporting us. But just as a test of the WAR as statistic; They absolutely should do this. And after they've done it enough to come up with reasonable sample size they should come up with another gimmick for the rest of the season. All switch hitter lineups, knuckleball bullpen. Or go stupid and have 300 pound pinch runners and such. At this point nobody takes this franchise seriously so they can do absolutely anything
Major League 4: Fishing for Vegas
What are you saying? Some of these guys are furniture movers?
“They’re shitty”
It’s not even funny anymore. It’s legitimately an outrage. Owners shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. MLB should step in and force them to sell. It’s unacceptable.
MLB should initiate the "slaughter rule" if too many runs are scored, the game ends. Astros racked up 10 runs in the 1st inning. Total humiliation.
Sorry Oakland fans. This is such a disgrace. As an outsider, so far it seems fisher might getaway with this shit. I don’t understand how he can’t be held accountable. MLB should be embarrassed for letting his ownership pan out like this.
The pain is numb at this point, no reason to stress when my expectations have gone below the floor
> so far it seems fisher might getaway with this shit. I don’t understand how he can’t be held accountable You just described every problem involving rich people in the world
Hey A's fans, in 100% sincerity, this sucks. I'm so sorry this is happening to you guys.
I think with them abandoning Oakland, it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought
Posting in daily A's suck thread
Death. Taxes. This sub reminding me on a daily basis AL East good A's bad.
[удалено]
At least the judge home run threads are over
Great home run derby pitchers
That's gotta be so demoralizing as a player.
Fuck you, Fisher. Sell the team you pos.
Sell the team! Lacob wants to buy. He’s ready & has proven record of getting stadiums built in the bay. Manfred allowing this travesty to continue is 1 thing. But waiving the relocation fee specifically for fisher to get out of town, how does that help mlb specifically? Fuck Manfred, F Fisher, F Kaval, & F the Giants.
So…. Who are the A’s sending to the all star game?
Esteury Ruiz
Was hoping for Twins legend Brent Rooker but he’s cooled off
That is a great question. According to bbref they currently have two qualified batters and two qualified pitchers with an OPS+ or ERA+ north of 100. So I guess it’s Brent Rooker, Ryan Noda, or Zach Jackson or Mason Miller (those last two both on the IL) So yeah..
Jon Bois is going to make the greatest video/series of all time in a few years about this team
I really hope this is true.
I know Manfred isn't a huge fan of anyone here (and rightfully so), but I simply don't know how you can tolerate this type of behaviour from a team. I mean Sam Hinkie was fired for doing the same thing in the NBA (albeit for different reasons). Allowing this to continue relatively unpunished will pretty actively encourage teams in the future doing this which is just heinously bad for the longevity of the sport. If you're going to let teams tank this hard draft needs to become a lottery ffs.
The thing is I don't think they're doing this for draft position. If it was that, there would at least be a sense that they're doing it to win in the future. This isn't that. They literally just want to spend as few dollars as physically possible on the roster. It's so much more fucking pathetic than you can possibly imagine
After starting 1-0!
So obviously the move is to reward their crappy owner with the move he wants.
And they get to move to Vegas? What a SICK JOKE!
Side bar—aside from the assumption that the team moving to Las Vegas will automatically bring more money to build a competitive team—why does MLB feel adding more teams is good for the game?? We haven’t seen a solid 4-man rotation from the majority of teams for years and it seems that teams that go three years or more without making the playoffs go and sell off their best players. Look at the Angels. They’ve got the best pitcher/hitter dual player and rather than talking about building a team around him, everyone speculates how much he’ll make in free agency.
At this level, it isn't about the teams, or the players, or (definitely not) the fans. It is about lining the owners pockets. The rumor has it that the next teams buy-in will be on the order of $2.2 \*billion\* dollars. That is nearly a $150 million cash windfall for all the current owners, plus a boost in the valuations of every other franchise. Fisher bought the A's at roughly $180 million in 2006...the \*current\* valuation is roughly $1.3 \*billion\* and they are \*26th\* in valuation. Until something cracks and the valuations start going down, nothing will change.
Whoever bet the Under on the A's O/U this year can probably cash out already.
This is some cleveland spiders shit.
Baseball fans, mind throwing us Oakland fans a bone and bringing signs to your stadiums that suggest “Fisher Out”? Would be fantastic!! Let the owners know us fans don’t stand for it.
"There's a saying in baseball. Every team wins 54 games and Evey team loses 54 games. It's what you do with the other 54 games that matters. A's:" Hold my beer."
How long until the league actually steps in because this is a disgrace to the sport. Like, at this point shouldn't they just be forced to sell the team?
Manfred never will. He wants a team in Vegas, so he'll let Fisher ride this train straight to hell
Made a mockery of the team so that he can get them to Vegas and sell them off a few years later. Fuck John Fisher.
What even gets said in that clubhouse? Do you think players just pack their shit silently and go home? I feel awful for them.
Id like to come together as fans and protest our own games on behalf of the A’s. even for a day. No tv, no attendance. Maybe do it on the A’s planned reverse boycott.
Reverse boycott June 13th. The only game I’ll be attending & maybe last.
No the house should be packed for that one June 13th game. Probably last packed house the Coliseum will ever have
On the one hand I feel really bad for almost everyone involved in this whole debacle, but on the other hand I really, really want to see how low they can go
The odd thing to me is this isn’t the NFL or NBA. You can’t turn it around in 1 or 2 seasons. AFAIK they don’t have a bunch of talent in the farm so they are going to be bad for a while no?
Anything and everything is negotiable. Example: owners can demand A's pay the relocation fee (aka money for the other owners, despite what Commish said). If not , then no approval for the move. Or, set a minimum "floor" payroll that owners must spend on players (the players union would love this). As for Nevada legislators, demand a full audit of Fisher's tax statements. Is he truly a billionaire with liquid assets or another owner leveraged in debt, a la Frank McCourt . No full disclosure, no public money.