as an appropriate rebuttal to what I wrote down below as well, and there's some things about the future of the team they have right now that I'm not really being fair to.

The problem I've had hasn't been necessarily that they've had such high relative turnover from the Big Three/Tejada/Etc. days, but that there were some players with longterm value who could have conceivably been affordable without ruining the team, who they just shuttled away without a second thought. I guess it's that treatment, the frequency of it, and the problem of a team that I don't follow fanatically with players who I don't recognize.

But the future of this core of players coming together in the last year or two does seem pretty bright, and I look forward to being able to root them on through divisin title after division title and I hope, I just hope, that they don't get dismantled at the first sign of market competition.

And things are going to start to get extremely nice for A's fans (and me, I guess) when they do get the new stadium that they so desperately need.

I'd like to think the Giants would be smart enough to NOT have Sabean around in a couple years.  Sure he's made some decent deals in the past, but I really don't think a Giants fan can ever forgive him for the AJ Pierzynski/Nathan, Liriano and Boof...If Liriano makes it back from Tommy John it's all the worse.

I do think that some of those guys are big cases of retrospect. Giambi they couldn't have signed if they tried, so whatever. I'm surprised Zito lasted as long as he did (and I actually commend that they kept him that long). Mulder and udson are big cases of retrospect here. Hudson's decline was predictable, I think, and they couldn't have kept both of them, but it would have been a small stretch at best to keep one of them at the time. Tejada was likely out of price range, but he seemed willing to talk and they lowballed him just for the sake of looking like they cared to make an offer. There's other guys, too. Jermain Dye, Johnny Damon, Eric Byrned, guys like those with value who barely got a wink from Beane and Co. because of strict organization philosophy.

But also, I think if they keep Mulder a little longer, if they get lucky with a competitive offer to Tejada for a couple years, maybe hold on to Dye one more year, stretch the pockets just a little for the sake of recognizability without damaging the rest of the product, sales would have been better (not just ticket sales, too, but merchandise), the team would have more money now, the payroll would be even more turnover friendly today, and they'd have more to offer in terms of possible stadiums.

I am really happy to note, having been shown here, that today's core group of players seems to have a bright future together. I think that's the best way to go. Beane will never stop making shrewd roster moves, but I do hope that with a little more payrol wiggle room he'll be willing to make a few more shrewd business moves for the roster.

But until I see it not happen I'll always wonder when the blockbuster Haren deal or Street deal or Swisher deal or Harden deal is going to go down because I've come to expect roster shedding from the A's the same way you've come to expect aged, inflated, backloaded (ouch) signings of mediocre but recognizable talent from the Giants.

I could point to a million reasons why things are changing for the G's, and even why keeping B Sabean through the rebuild might not be as bad as everybody knee jerks to think it will be.

I am glad (thrilled) to see things might be changing for the better for the A's. I just hope people can recognize that things are coming around quite nicely for the Giants too, just in a much different way (and at the expense of a few more years of losing).

But my main kind of pseudo point to begin with wasn't exactly winning with new players over losing with the same players. I'd take winning any damn day of the week (just, let me watch Bonds finish his junk first). But in terms of business I'd rather have a team with players who sell tickets and merchandise over players who don't sell tickets or merchandise - and in basic terms that means either player retention or Free Agent splashes, which for the A's means it has to be player retention because the payroll isn't there for FA splashes) because even if the ticket sellers aren't winning this year, the money they bring to the team gives that team a better chance of winning over the next, say, ten years because the money will be there to support a good team when it does come along, whereas the guys who aren't selling make it harder financially to grow as a market and consistently field top level talent.

That said, what Beane has done without the recognizable faces has been damn near impossible in it's unbelievability, and my jaw drops at the thought of it. I still think it's flawed, but it is staggering. but I do believe that non-marketability has been, second only to stadium (and second by far, don't get me wrong), the biggest reason that the team has been taking so long to develop financially despite an almost unprecedented level of success over the last ten years in what should be a rich area in terms of interest and fanbase. And I say this because I've personally turned down going to A's games based strictly on the fact that I didn't care enough about any faces on the team to want to spend five hours of my night getting to, watching, and getting back from the ballpark.

That ended up being a lot more complex than I set out for it to be. But that's pretty much my feelings on it in total. If I have anything wrong - and it's likely since I don't track the A's as well as you do, and not nearly as well as I track the Giants - or if my thinking is just somehow cracked, I would absolutely love to be corrected. The more I know, especially about teams I'm fans of, the better.

Just don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be vicious about the A's. I am a fan, and unless they're playing teh Giants I will always pull for them and be happy for their success. I'm just more of a casual A's fan than you or, say, Fooch. I just don't want anybody to think this is falling under some kind of malicious pseudo-rivlry place in our heads. These are a fans opinions, not anybody else's.