In the news: Donald Trump and his xenophobic rhetoric and unrealistic, infantile threats of massive bombing have been dominating the attention span of talking heads recently. I am a member of one of the most pessimistic and ironic generations that has ever roamed the earth–Generation X — so all of this is difficult to process as I can’t get past Trump’s silver-spoon-since-birth shitty bourgeoise attitude and makes me laugh/makes me want to kill someone psychedelic hairpiece. It’s also offensive that the man is using death, suffering and a public existential crisis to further his own political agenda; not caring a lick about working class struggles or fears. Truly a sickening individual with no ability to conceive the reality that average Americans face everyday. “Condemnation without investigation is the highest form of ignorance.” – Albert Einstein
MLB’s alcoholic circle jerk known as the Winter Meetings took place in Nashville and new Oakland G.M. David Forst harkened back to the early days when teams would try to find the drunkest guy in the room and then proceed to pilfer him for great players on the cheap. Forst recently lived up to that generalization when he traded Brett Lawrie to the White Sox and in exchange the South-Siders sent minor leaguers RHP J.B. Wendelken (AAA) and LHP Zack Erwin (A) to the A’s. Neither was on the Sox’s list of Top-30 prospects. This trade was a head-scratcher because of its insignificance.You would think that the Oakland ball-club would try to squeeze something more appetizing out of the Sox because of their desperate attempt to pick up ANYONE better than Mike Olt
at third base. Let us take a pause… we’ve now traded Josh Donaldson for 3 minor league pitchers, 1 major league pitcher, and a very young (albeit in theory future superstar)short stop. Forst just pushed the button on the evaluation of the that ill-fated trade even further. Lawrie? who knows…he probably called out Beane for not stocking the vending machine with free sodas. (this may be an inside joke to the clueless, hello Dave Justice!) Joking aside, the trade may have been a desperate attempt at dumping “Tweaker” as there have been whispers about Lawrie being a clubhouse nuisance after not one teammate stepped up when was drilled early in the season by Kansas City.
Something tells me the A’s will be okay without Lawrie, and that moving on was the hard-boiled thing to do. Lawrie will always be seen by this blog as a hard-nosed player with a serious hitch in his swing, horrible plate approach and is partial to tattoos and copious amounts of energy drinks. With Lawrie you see the sweat, blood, tears, screams, anger, defeat, triumph, joy, sadness and a .299 OBP. (probably the real reason why he was traded.) You see every bit of it. But unfortunately individuals with freakish athleticism don’t always translate well to the baseball field. Just ask Michael Jordan.
Coco Crisp's Afro 
“partial to tattoos and copious amounts of energy drinks.” … isn’t that all of them?
And, I think that every blog post should begin with a good pound-your-head-on-the-keyboard venting about what we’ve come to as a nation when Donald Trump and his mean-spiritedness and fear-mongering are suddenly valued as something “presidential.” I think it would be good therapy for all of us. Well done!
thanks Bloggess. As you know I have received criticism daily (and almost love!) Doesn’t change my stance and never will.
It’s a long way down from the classic Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola commercial down to the David Justice Pepsi fiasco (portrayed so effectively in “MoneyBall.”
As for Trump, I knew Fascism would one day rare its ugly head in America, but I didn’t think that on the top of that head would be some sort of roadkill.
The only thing scarier than Trump are his supporters, many of whom reside right here in lovely S.C., where I now live.
The Mets got Neil Walker from the Pirates, though, so I’ll have to take that as a small blip of brightness in our otherwise desolate world.
Nicely done,
Bill
Yes, Neil Walker should work out nicely for the Mets, and I don’t think you guys are done yet.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Brett!
Since Lawrie and Reddick were the only things remotely exciting about the A’s last year perhaps they will be (gasp!) boring in 2016.
Trump. Rhymes with Chump.
v
Ha! 🙂
Sad that Lawrie didn’t work out for the A’s, or anywhere so far. As a Jays fan and a Canadian, I have a soft spot for him, and enjoy his competitive fire, while slightly embarrassed by his erratic behavior. Donaldson totally made me forget about him almost instantly, but I hoped he’d have a good career there. I could just picture him going after those foul balls in that ridiculously roomy ballpark. Oh well. Too bad you got shit all for him.
Thanks for commenting. You have a great blog and I would hope than anyone reading this would check it out!
As far as “the trade” is concerned; I think most A’s fans realize that we were only going to have JD for one more season anyway. Sports fans tend to be dramatic and not that very smart. A dangerous combination.
Thanks man. At the time I honestly thought we gave up too much, but I didn’t consider what a hitter friendly ballpark would do for JD’s #s. Career year.
I’m not in favor of the Lawrie trade. It seems the A’s could have done better. I could be waiting forever, but I think Lawrie will someday get things on track and be the star everyone thought he would be when the Brewers brought him up. We’ll see. I don’t know anything about the clubhouse matter, but if he was a problem, then he had to go. That’s rule one (broken only when absolutely necessary – B. Bonds, for example).
Gary – I’m on my Rule One alert with the Giants signing Cueto. It seems so at odds with the team’s standard bearers the past few years – Posey, Bochy, Cain, others.
I think Cueto is a pretty solid signing. Samardzija not so much. If you look at his stats since he became a starter they are pretty average. Cain is a question mark. All in all the Giants look pretty scary on paper. The N.L. West is going to be highly competitive.
There used to be pro and con discussions over the Brewers trading Lawrie for Shawn Marcum. I loved that trade, mainly because I knew who Marcum was, had seen him pitch a number of times. I feel generally stupid these days after a trade is is made because the build for the future mentality brings back players I’ve never heard of. Makes me mute.