Billy Beane
Billy Beane
William Lamar "Billy" Beane IIIis an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. Prior to his front office career, he played in MLB as an outfielder between 1984 and 1989 for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics. He joined the Athletics front office as a scout in 1990. He was named general...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth29 March 1962
CityOrlando, FL
CountryUnited States of America
Some teams can absorb another guy's contract to get a great player, and we can't do that. It's a huge advantage when you can do stuff like that. Every year I'm asked if we're buyers or sellers, and every year we're both. Just once, it would be nice to buy without selling.
Deals are always ongoing things. So now, in that respect, Brad is part of the deal. But I'm not the reflective sort when it comes to that kind of thing.
This is the first time since I've been here that we haven't spent the off-season replacing what we've lost. We felt like we were very competitive last year. . . . In particular, when we were healthy, it was a very, very good team. So the idea that we were adding to this group . . . it's a first for us since I've been here as the general manager.
It was an emotional time for the family, a life decision for them. The fact that we didn't agree right away wasn't unusual, given the magnitude of the decision.
Obviously we're pleased, we're very excited about having someone with his talent. We look forward to seeing him in Oakland very soon.
But we've always been obsessed in Oakland with not being the cute small-market story that came and went.
(Macha) did a fine job. We obviously had significant player turnover and injuries. The end result was good. It was great to see the young guys make the progress they did.
Lenny was so perfectly designed, emotionally, to play the game of baseball. He was able to instantly forget any failure and draw strength from every success. He had no concept of failure. And he had no idea of where he was.
It's surreal not having him here. I miss the person as much as the voice.
This is ultimately what we were trying to do during the season and in the days after it. Unfortunately we weren't able to do that and we parted ways last week. This is the outcome we wanted.
Do I wish everybody in baseball had the same amount to spend? Absolutely. At some point, the disadvantage of being a small-market team is that the inefficiencies will be weeded out. Having less than your competitor is never an advantage.
That'll be a real shot in the arm for us.
It's like having calculus first period. You are not real happy when the alarm goes off, but by second period it's already over and you are running off to wood shop.
We're fine with Joe as the only lefty down there. He was a very good reliever for us before Rich got hurt, and I expect him to be a very good reliever for us again. He has all the tools for success.