by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ftw.usatoday.com photo: Houston Astros Carlos Correa who singled in the game winning run in the 12th inning off the Oakland A’s at Minute Maid Field on Saturday night

Wonder why the Oakland Athletics never have a player like Carlos Correa? He was the Rookie of the Year last season and one of the most talented and exciting players in the game. Why can’t the Athletics draft young players like that? You have to ask Billy Beane, he is supposed to be a genius in many people’s minds, not in my mind, to be a genius a General Manager he has to at least win consistently and I mean take the team to the World Series. That Billy Beane has not done, since he arrived as the Athletics General Manager and part owner(small part).

Bay Area baseball media in general, is very lame when it comes to criticizing Beane, some are probably star struck, they believe the propaganda, like the movie Moneyball, that is out there about how much money does he save the owners, by signing basically marginal players, trading them frequently, and then when he gets real star players like Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Donaldson, last year’s Most Valuable Player of the American League, with the Toronto Blue Jays; he let them go on deals or just do not re-sign them.

It is an interesting system of management, that of Mr Beane, and obviously one that the main owners agree with, or he would have been fired long time ago. Taking his 3% and his marbles and gone home.  I never expected much from the A’s of this 2016, in my predictions I actually picked them to finish last again, what else could I have done? Should I be honest, or should I be like a regular politician, always spinning the truth. I hope to be proven wrong, but I could not pick the A’s to finish any higher.

I sympathize with the Athletics fans, there’s not that many anymore, because in today’s sports world (especially here in the Bay Area) you must win so you can recruit new young fans,as we have seen with other local professional teams recently, in all sports, not only baseball. If the A’s do not move (like they want) and do not build a new park, the only other way they could fill the Oakland Coliseum (aside when the Yankees, Cubs, Giants, Red Sox come to town or on opening night) is on a bobblehead  or fireworks night.

The Bay Area market is a very competitive one when it comes to entertainment. This is not Kansas City or Cincinnatti, there are many things to do in the beautiful Bay Area and people are not obliged to go to a baseball game consistently to support a losing proposition. Here in the Bay Area there are many options on where you can spent your entertainment dollars.

There are only two ways in baseball to build a winning team, by trading smart or by developing smart. If you are a team like the A’s, who doesn’t pay high salaries, the only other way is to develop young players. The problem for the A’s is basically a “catch 22′; they do not buy big free agent players, they have developed good players, but when they become established stars, they let them go, because they do not want to pay them.

I think Charlie O. Finley in a way would have been proud of Billy Beane, because Charlie was cheap, but on-the-other-hand remember under Charlie Finley (who also didn’t paid anybody the big bucks),the Oakland Athletics were one of the few teams to win three consecutive World Series, 1972-73-74.

Yes, I know this is a different time. Also I know a very old American saying in history that I learned when I was teenager; “you get what you pay for.”

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish play by play voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com