Oakland

Grizzly sez,

.....

I honestly cannot remember such a vanilla defense being this great. Maybe those 70's Steeler defenses, I guess, but I was so young that I don't remember. Very little blitzing and few gimmicks - they pretty much play a plain 4-3 with some substitutions on passing downs. It'll be interesting to see if Quinn can repeat it with the Falcons or if he can only do it in Seattle because of the extreme level of talent and speed. 

.....

The 1971-73 Dolphins played a base 4-3 defense, and relied on an all-world secondary, freeing up the front 7 to "cheat" on stunts, stacks, etc.  Their front 7 was good, but not super intimidating.

By a strange coincidence, that team also had a power tailback* who advanced the state-of-the-art in terms of being hard to tackle.  Larry Csonka would veer towards defenders in the secondary, sometimes literally throwing punches at them as he arrived.  He was flagged in a Super Bowl for illegal contact.  "Illegal contact, my left cleat," he thundered, "It was a right cross."

Jack Tatum, in They Call Me Assassin, gave props to Csonka and only Csonka among offensive players.  "He warded tacklers off with those elbows," Tatum said.  "I was never able to sting him."  But Marshawn is an improved version of Csonka, faster and more elusive.

They had a super-efficient and super-unassuming quarterback, Bob Griese, whose stats were derided, but whose "percentage play" was off the charts.  It created a synchonicity that led to the last undefeated season in the NFL.  I don't relish the comparison, but the fact is that the 2014 Seahawks are an eerily-close comp for the Csonka Dolphins.

Sometimes you need three legs in place, if a stool isn't going to fall over.  Secondary-based defense, unstoppable power runner, quarterback who plays chess.

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The Oakland A's winter has been confusing.  Mass confusing.  How about we put a stub here, and youse guys can help Dr. D clear his head.

Point 1, stipulated:  SSI isn't especially interested in "grading" a major league GM.  Not with the intent of establishing that we're smarter than he is.  Once in a while, it can be interesting to ask if a GM has botched it, like my man Zduriencik definitely did with Doug Fister.  This (the A's winter) might be one of those times!

Point 2, stipulated:  the A's aren't rebuilding.  They never rebuild.  They "re-tool."  Here is a Bay Area guy who defines re-tooling.  Beane wants to be good, every year, and set up his future, every year.  That's all.

Point 3, stipulated:  the loss of Cespedes, Addison Russell, etc., is dee-lish for M's fans.  But it wouldn't factor into any "grade" for 2015.  It was part of an attempt to win in 2014.

That said, we as M's fans are dee-lited that the Orcs won't be winning 98 games again.

Point 4, stipulated:  the A's went through one of pro sports' epic mental collapses last year, comparable to that of the 1964 Phillies or 1995 Angels.  If I were Beane, I'd have ripped up the paper too.  The imperative towards a mass re-shuffle was legit..

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This MLB Trade Rumors' article is fun.  As is always the case, the comments are even more fun.  

(And as is currently the case, no baseball comments thread could ever be as fun as a NinersNation thread entitled "It Is Time for the Airing of Grievances."  Of which the Seahawks' rampage is number one, of course.