Billy Beane on Hot Seat

Here we go. Monday morning quarterbacks are at it with Billy Beane over the Lester/Cespedes trade. If you win, you're a genius. If you lose, you're a goat. The trade didn't work for Oakland, but it did for Boston as Ortiz/Cespedes proved to be a nice 3-4 combination in the lineup. Get Mike Napoli & Dustin Pedroia healthy, get Rusney Castillo going, get Allen Craig back into form & you have a very nice long lineup from top to bottom. In my opinion you can't mess with team chemistry. And the A's had chemistry when they were the best team in the AL before the trade. I wouldn't have given up a middle-of-the-order bat. As it turns out, the A's could have used more bullpen help as we saw in the wild card game. But it's hard to fault a GM for doing what he thinks is best for the team at the time. It's going to be a long off-season for Billy Beane, especially when Lester signs with another team.