FanPost

17 months: Krivsky vs. Beane.

I'll start by saying I very much like Billy Beane's philosophy of how to run a small-market ballclub. In fact, the more I learn about him, the better I like him.

If all of us here were A's fans, however, would we have been calling for Beane's head 17 months into his tenure as GM? Why 17 months? That's how long Krivsky has been on the job.

In Beane's first 17 months, he traded for one impact player -- Kenny Rogers -- one fairly effective player -- Tim Worrell -- and two marginal players -- Mike Macfarlane and Bip Roberts. During that same period, he traded away one impact player -- Steve Karsay -- a pair of fairly effective players -- Jay Witasick and Mike Fetters -- and marginal players Scott Brosius, David Newhan and Shane Mack.

Of course, Beane had sense enough to hang on to Oakland's good young players at the time and his body of work since has been solid, to say the least. And he selected guys named Mulder and Zito in the first two rounds of his first two drafts.

Based on the first 17 months of each GM's tenure, however, which guy would you rather have? Or better yet, back to the original question, would you have called for Beane's head if you had been an A's fan those first 17 months?