Quote Originally Posted by clayamtion View Post
Billy Beane was still playing baseball when Oakland won their championship in '89.

They received 2 picks for losing Reyes.

The Giants were 6th in the NL in runs scored and 5th in ERA.
Very true, but the huge difference is that at that time Alderson was allowed to spend money and he was trading for veteran players that were pretty good. When the money stop coming in it was not so good anymore. Beane was the one that started winning again with the low payroll. Not trying to take away from what he did in Oakland, but at that time the A's did spend money.