Billy Beane

Billy Beane needs to take a play out of the Colorado Rockies playbook. The Rockies were playing uninspired and painfully poor baseball under manager Clint Hurdle. So, what did the Rockies management do?

The Rockies did not subscribe to Beane's theory that firing a manager during the season is a sign of weakness for a team. Instead the Rockies fired Hurdle and offered him a job in the organization, which he turned down and is now an announcer for MLB TV.

From the start of Bob Geren's tenure as manager of the Oakland A's, he was doomed to fail.

The reason being is the style of managing he employs and it has nothing to do with the trades that Billy Beane has made during the time he's been manager.

The excuse of injuries as well isn't an easily bought excuse either because every team in baseball has to deal with injuries at some point during a season.

The difference is a good-to-great manager knows how to motivate and get the most from his players.

Sony Studios has decided to shelve the production of a movie by Steven Soderbergh, starring Brad Pitt and about the baseball book Moneyball only days before the production was set to begin.  Sony has given Soderbergh permission to find another studio.

Let the speculation ensue.

Soderbergh, who directed Traffic and Che, had reportedly turned in a script that was substantially different from the one written by Steven Zaillian. 

I am a die-hard A's fan.

I also think like a general manager.

Balancing the two can be awfully difficult. As much as I don't want to fold at this point, the chances of the A's rallying against all odds and winning their division this year are  as likely as me becoming the next baseball commisioner. Yes, I know the A's have a history over having great second-half seasons, but this I just don't see that happening this year.

Remember when Billy Beane traded for Matt Holliday? Or when he signed Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra and Orlando Cabrera in an attempt to boost an anemic offense?

Remember when the A's were said to be the darkhorse team in the American League?

With the month of June half over, the A's trail the first place Rangers by nine games. How can a team with Matt Holliday, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Giambi be nine games out of first?

Although many refer to baseball's current generation as the "steroid era," far from the only changes in the game can be traced to medically enhanced physiques. Pitcher wins, losses, and saves, batting average, RBI, errors and bunting all seem to be on the way out in favor of adjusted ERA, BABIP, VORP, range factors, and pitch counts, all leading to a newer era in baseball influenced by the work of sabermetrics—trying to measure objectively what leads to wins and losses, challenging the conventional wisdom, and often upending it.

Billy Beane used too make great decisions and make trades that benefited the Oakland A's, but lately, Beane's genius has backfired on him, and it hasn't been pretty for the Oakland A's.

No one could make the argument that the hiring of Ken Macha was the beginning of the end for the A's run, but at least Macha had teams that made the playoffs and had a winning record.

Billy Beane is the only general manager that would allow personal feelings to get in the way of the team's success. The hiring of Bob Geren was the worst decision Beane has ever made and now, Beane does not have the fortitude do fix it.

Here's an easy thought for Beane: It's time to get rid of whatever personal feelings you have for Geren, and get rid of him. Then to save yourself call a press conference explaining why you had to fire Geren.

Billy Beane needs to take responsibility for his putrid hiring of Bob Geren he should say "I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for the hire and now I'm going to fix the problem."

What this really means is that Beane should be firing manager Geren as soon as the A's return home on Monday. Geren could go down as the worst manager in Oakland history.

The A's pathetic play continues and it is time to make some major changes. It starts with the manager because these plays are all based on him.

Poor baserunning decisions continue to plague the A's. This time it was Kurt Suzuki not paying attention to what was going on and running just on contact on a ball hit directly to Mark Teixeira for an easy double play.