Billy Beane and the Art of the Deadline Deal

What comes to your mind when you think of the trade deadline? Buyers? Sellers? Hopes for playoff contention? Building for the future?

More often than not, the words that enters many a GM's minds during this time of year is impatience, or desperation.

Just ask the New York Yankees, who have vowed to restructure the organization around strong scouting and drafting, and utilizing the deepest pockets in baseball, keep any and all of their burgeoning stars for as long as they wish, along with complementing them with the usual big-name free agents.

This, they hope, will make the Yankees about as close as they can get to becoming a "perfect organization."

But, after GM Brian Cashman showed restraint this offseason by not trading any of his top-three pitching prospects for arguably the best pitcher in the game, the Yankee fans have started to get nervous. Especially after being in the unusual position of third place in the AL East at the All-Star break.

They've been calling for Cashman to bring in Matt Holiday, CC Sabathia, or anybody that would save the Yankees from having a mediocre season. So far, it seems, Cashman is holding firm, but even if his plan for the future does seem possible, how long will it take until the Steinbrenner family, and Yankee fans, run him out of town?

On the other side of the spectrum, and the other side of the country, Oakland Athletic's GM Billy Beane isn't feeling pressured at all. From the past offseason up to this point, the A's have deemed four different pitchers as their team's ace, and not necessarily because of performance.

Beane first traded ace Dan Haren to the Diamondbacks, Rich Harden to the Cubs, and recently Joe Blanton to the Phillies. This isn't anything out of the ordinary for Beane, who is best known for trading two of his big-three starting pitchers during the 2004 season while the A's were still playoff contenders.

Because of their shallow pockets, the A's have been playing the way Cashman wants, but because of their low budget, cannot keep their players around with long-term deals. Year after year, they've seen homegrown players go to other teams, such as Jason Giambi to the Yankees or Barry Zito to the Giants.

This is why Beane is known as a magician for making trades. Using his Moneyball technique of finding undervalued players, Beane has brought in players such as Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon, Jason Isringhousen, Keith Foulke, Billy Koch, Chad Bradford, and countless more.

Seeing some of these names now may make you cringe and wonder why they are so special, but when you think of many of these players started, you think back to the A's.

Many of them left via free agency to wealthier teams (Dye, Damon, Isringhousen, Bradford, Foulke), while Koch was traded for, put in as a closer and compiled a few nice seasons, then was traded away for Foulke, who, in turn, was put in the closers role and had a few nice seasons before becoming a free agent, giving the A's two first-round draft picks.

Now to the present.

Beane has traded away Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Cubs for four prospects, and Blanton to the Phillies for three prospects. With the A's in a rebuilding process and aiming to re-surge when they move into their new stadium in a few years, these players would have become free agents and moved on by the time the stadium is built.

Though most of the players Beane received in the trades do not seem like anything to be hyped about, remember that most of the previously named players Beane has brought in were once undervalued by teams. The Cubs and Phillies are both playoff hopeful, but are being pushed by other teams, and their GMs believed that they needed a few extra players to help them push for October.

Harden, who has been plagued by injuries for most of his career, had finally been able to string a relatively long stretch of starts together, but because an injury could occur at any time, his trade value was as high as Beane could hope for. The Cub's divisional rival Brewers had just brought in the A.L.'s strikeouts leader, and reigning Cy Young winner, CC Sabathia.

Cubs GM Jim Hendry needed to make a deal, and his impatience was there, due to the gain in talent by his rivals. Beane seemed to have received the players he wanted in this deal, which is all he can hope for.

Blanton is almost a complete reverse story of Harden. He has the label of being durable, rarely missing a start, and being consistent. This year though, Blanton was having one of the worst years of his career, with an ERA just below five, and a W-L record magnified by the lack of run support. 

The Phillies, desperate for pitching, traded their second best prospect, along with two questionable players. Though Blanton was having a poor year and his trade value was at its lowest, Beane could not afford to hope that he would have a strong second half and have stronger value in the offseason.

The reason Beane made this deal was because of the Phillies desperation, and due to the high price of pitchers, could not afford any higher quality starter on the market.

At the present time, these deals look like fair trades or even leaning away from the A's, but when a trade factors in a magician like Billy Beane, only time will tell.