King for a lifetime, fool for a... lifetime...

It's the offseason in baseball and no one is shaking things up more on their roster than my boys, the Oakland A's. The last couple moves have been a little distressing -- that being breaking up the "big 3" rotation of Zito, Hudson, and Mulder. Trading away Hudson, I can live with, but Mulder too? And just two days later? We're talking about a 27 year old who just finished runner-up in the Cy Young balloting. Ah, but the man pulling the strings is none other than Mr. Moneyball himself, Billy Beane. So while I'm getting nervous seeing this kind of talent exit Oakland, I have faith that the other shoe will drop soon. After all, this is the heart of Beane's genius: discovering overlooked talent while shipping big names at their highest possible trade value. ESPN has some analysis on the sitch in Oak-town (notice that Joe Blanton -- one of Beane's steals in the 2002 draft -- figures to be in the starting rotation now). Also, a big thanks to Alex for dialing me into the enemy's perspective via this write-up from U.S.S. Mariner.