Yoenis Cespedes hit a 14th inning game tying home run in Oakland today. I think more people are reading this post than there were people in O.Co Coliseum today.
I hope people start calling him El Talento, his nickname, because Yoenis just isn't cutting it as a cool name.
That being said, the A's won a thriller today. And Oakland is an even 10-10 after 20 games. Not great, but they are holding their own this month.
But most interestingly for me is some of the contributors to the A's wins.
Cespedes has shown some great power and a flair for the dramatic.
Today's starter, Jarrod Parker, made his A's debut today and pitched into the 7th letting up only one run.
Kila Ka'aihue had the walk off hit today.
Tommy Milone, who already has 3 wins, pitched 8 shutout innings yesterday for the win.
Ryan Cook has given the A's 9 shutout innings from the bullpen.
What do they all have in common? They were all off season pick ups by Billy Beane.
Parker and Cook came over in the Trevor Cahill trade that everyone screamed about.
Milone was part of the Gio Gonzalez haul that everyone thought was bad for baseball.
Ka'aihue was picked up just as last season ended from the Royals.
And of course Cespedes was a Cuban national star who stunned everyone by coming to the East Bay.
Maybe something positive happened for Beane this winter other than Moneyball being nominated for Best Picture.
Now I'm not getting carried away (like I did in 2009 when I picked the A's to win the World Series.) But if the idea was to get talented players while slashing the payroll, one month in it kinda sorta looks like they are doing that.
Maybe by the time they have an actual stadium to play in, the A's might actually be a cool fun team.
Maybe by then, the sequel to Moneyball will be in production.
