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The Oakland Telegraph
25 June 2029
A's take charge in American League West
By Lee Dingtheway, midseason correspondent
Oakland GM Paulie Beane stepped away from his ongoing behind-the-scenes work to reshape his roster for next year and beyond, to talk to reporters about the excellent performance of the 2029 vintage. He was speaking after last night's 8-6 win over Texas, which completed a 5-2 week for the club including a series win over local rivals San Francisco, who are challenging to win their eighth consecutive National League West title. That win moved the A's to 47-23 for the season. They have the best record in the majors now, and have built up a commanding 7 game lead over Seattle in the race to raise the American League West division trophy.
This season's success just makes Beane's roster reshaping decisions all the more tricky. Does he keep the squad as it is, and push on to try and challenge for a sixth World Series title this year? The risk of that, he points out, is that impending free agents Alejandro Gusman and Patrick Snel may or may not qualify as Type A, and even if they did, could sign for teams with protected first round picks. In this game, when any decent prospects are usually gone before the second round of the draft, that in all likelihood means these key players will depart for effectively no compensation. That would severely damage the team's hopes in future seasons. But trading the players before the deadline for younger, cheaper players risks derailing their shot at glory this year.
"It's a pain in the brain, all right", Beane said yesterday. "Beane's bean is really getting a workout at the moment!", he said, curiously using the technique of referring to himself in the third person that is so beloved by sports coaches who have overinflated opinions of their own ability and think attempting a clever way with words might distract colleagues and fans from their poor performance. In his case, it was just a means to allow him to do that silly piece of wordplay.
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