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Mojo sez,

If there were a baseball doctor, (heh) and he diagnosed Felix with malaise or August swoon or dog days or dead arm, his best perscription would be: "Destroy nine orcs then call me in the morning".  Hammering these loathsome green creatures rejuvenates Felix.  He lives to slay Orcs!  

Conspiracy Theory: Adam Dunn and John Lester were acquired for the specific purpose of beating Felix in the wild card game.  Here's the evidence:  1. Dunn has the best stats against Felix of any Orc.  1.188 OPS lifetime against Felix, not counting today's stats.  The other Orcs? divide Dunn's productivity by two or three.  You see this play out in today's teaser for the Wild Card Game.  Felix mows down Orcs, except for Big Donkey solo shot.  

2. The Mariners are uniquely vulnerable against tough lefties.  check out their stats against Chris Sale or David Price.  Or better yet, don't if you don't want to ruin your win-buzz.  

3.  The Orcs lined up Lester vs. Hernandez on purpose to see how they matched against their old enemy.

Is acquiring Lester and Price too big of an investment to defeat only one opponent and win only one game?

Not so.  There will always be an astericks next to Billy Beane's legacy if he doesn't get some post season W's under his belt, and he has pushed all of his chips into the center.  (Hey, motive evidence!).  The Felix monkey is hard to get off your green back, and the Wild Card Game rule is simple:

Loser walks. 

...

Adam Dunn's OPS against Felix ... :: he stops short ::   That, and the Jon Lester add, certainly make it look like Beane was going for anti-Mariner moves, right?

Why would this be farfetched?  Sounds like the Jets going out and getting Darelle Revis as the anti-Moss chess move, or the 49ers and Seahawks going tit for tat, or don't NBA teams make "matchup" adds against their bitter rivals?

These counter-moves are good, even in a vacuum, but the anti-rival maneuvers ... there is where we are talking about Franchise Wars that stir the blood.

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Gordon's got yet another front-page article buried in the comments.  :-)  That's cool.  We all used to do that, at Mariner Central...

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However - the Oakland offense is nowhere near what it was with Cespedes in it.  Can one dude make that much of a difference?  

Sandy and I used to go round and round on the straw-that-stirs-the-drink idea.  The Ms went all-in this offseason on the most expensive straw in their history, by a hundred+ million bucks.  The As bet on their system of no-name hitters with OBP.  Cespedes is not an on-base guy and never will be.  He was not an Oakland-style hitter, and Beane moved him for a TOR arm - and got exactly what he wanted.  Lester has been brilliant for them.

But Lester doesn't play every day, and the As are suddenly missing their most dangerous hitter...

- See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/comment/148181#comment-148181

...a

Is the A's offense another "critical mass" issue?  Or just a synergy issue?

That thing about +150 runs in just half* a year (!?), followed by =0 for the last six weeks ... directly coinciding with the new TOR ... what would be the precendent?  It's amazing!

Stop and meditate, for a couple of minutes, on exactly how you would feel if you were Billy Beane.  Think about the excitement of landing two Cy Young aces, and the puzzlement and despair as this implodes your team.  So you wanna be a General Manager.

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Dr. D has nothing but admiration over Billy Beane's thirst for victory.  He has to admit, though, that Beane's move "was not a move I would make in first place," as a roto sensei once told him.  It's the underdog who wants to muddy the water, create randomness.

It's one thing to improve your team at the trade deadline.  It's another thing to "rob Peter to pay Paul" ... the A's had terrific pitching (115 ERA+) and fairly good offense (103 ERA+).  They gut-kicked their offense in order to add pitching?!  

In general terms, it's a violation of Game Theory.  But general principles give way to specific application.  Samardzija, Lester and Hammels may yet win the A's an Oktoberfest.

SSI simply marvels at the fact that the Orcs --- > had this rotation:

... All of these pitchers, except Milone, fanning 7.5 to 8.5 men per game with nice walk rates.  And then they went out and got an entire new 1-2-3 Top of the Rotation (TOR).

Can you even begin to fathom the Mariners doing this?  Getting 3.30 ERA's from a couple of "great find!" super cheap pitchers, and then swapping them out for well-paid legitimate Stars?

Billy Beane's thirst for victory knows no bounds.  A competitive team and a nice night at the ballpark, that ain't his deal-io.  To him, you don't raise the trophy in exultation on your 85th win.

You go amig-O,

Dr D