Well, I was partly right anyway. The A's did send a collection of top-tier minor-league players to Kansas City for Carlos Beltran, and Beltran did then go to a contending NL team which gave Oakland a closer plus money. But I got the wrong team and the wrong closer. Instead of Atlanta's John Smoltz, we got Houston's Octavio Dotel.

Third baseman Mark Teahen was indeed among the minor-leaguers sent to Kansas City, but I missed on the others: Mike Wood, a starting pitcher from Oakland's AAA club who goes straight into the Royals rotation, and John Buck, a catcher from Houston. Another thing I missed is that with Dotel is arbitration eligible at the end of the year, so Oakland might be abel to afford to have him back for 2005 as well.

According to the news reports it was Billy Beane who designed the trade and did most of the early negotiating, but when it fell through, he moved on and started pursuing other options. Then a day later it was Houston's GM Gerry Hunsicker who revived the idea and worked out the final round of negotiation.

11:18:04 PM  [permalink]  comment []