Billy Beane and Oakland A's Play a Dangerous Game in AL West

After trading their best (most attractive) talent this offseason, it's safe to say that the 2012 season is going to be a long one for Oakland A's fans.  It's a fate GM Billy Beane seems comfortable with, but why shouldn't he be?  He only did the same thing after the '04 season, and again in '08. 

The only difference being that this year there seems to be a bleak glimmer of hope that these trades will bring players who actually wear the green and gold for more than the usual five- to six-year stay—if they're any good, that is.

No, this year Billy Beane has an actual agenda behind shipping off his young, yet extremely talented players.  He hopes that an oh-so-elusive new ballpark is on its way, and with it the necessary income to retain the young players he's just acquired.  It's a cause-and-effect scenario that is paying (no pun intended) big dividends for the Miami Marlins right now. 

In past years, this process has brought torment to A's fans, but not this year!  This time Jarrod Parker and Brad Peacock are going to stick around for the long haul, and with them Oakland will finally be relevant again in the AL.  But what if Beane's plan doesn't come to fruition as it has in the past?

The problem with Beane's latest scheme is that there are too many unknowns involved.  It's not like in years past where the "moneyball" philosophy has come to save them with the substitution of one or two players like a Scott Hatteberg or Frank Thomas.  No, this offseason Beane is taking a legitimate gamble. 

First off, you can never know for sure how a prospect will produce at the major league level.  If either Parker or Peacock were to stumble then serious issues would arise in the rotation, and trading front-end starter Trevor Cahill or Gio Gonzalez would've been for naught.  If these young players were to falter then it's hard to believe that fans would flock to this new ballpark without a winning product on the field, and that's if there's even going to be a new ballpark.

Apparently there's "optimism" this year that the team will be able to move, this time to San Jose.  Previously the team was to remain in Oakland, and after that move to Fremont.  The only roadblock apparently is that the San Francisco Giants currently control the rights to the San Jose area.  

Ultimately, if this new stadium is never built then Beane and the A's find themselves in the exact same dilemma a few years from now, stuck with talented young players without the means to keep them.

Sadly for A's fans, the feeling they are currently experiencing is as good as it's going to get for a while, but hey—at least it's one they're used to.  It's the hope that these young players will one day in the not-so-distant future lead them to the promised land.  Quite frankly, it's the only thing they have to hold onto at the moment.  

This isn't New York or Boston, where one lost superstar is quickly replaced with another.  An Oakland fan's faith is more thoroughly tested than maybe any other's in the sport.  There's no guarantee that their players will pan out, or live up to the hype bestowed upon them.  They can only sit and watch in an almost-empty ballpark, waiting for that assured success to finally be realized.  

In Beane they trust.