The ever cost/value-parsing Oakland A's have traded for All-Star outfielder Matt Holliday, one of the finest young offensive players in baseball.

Wait, what?!

Uh... uhm... should lay down down... feelin' confused and distressed......

We just found out the answer to the question of whether the A's were going to go for it and make a run at the playoffs or fold their tents for awhile-- they're folding. Just this afternoon it was announced that the A's traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Cubbies for right-handed pitcher Sean Gallagher, catcher Josh Donaldson, infielder Eric Patterson, outfielder Matt Murton, and a bag of beans. Citing injuries, Beane said it was a move he had to do-- the recent eight game losing streak probably forced his hand....

Here's todays sports news...

-So with the passage of Prop. G., a Proposition designed to try and keep the Niners in San Francisco, the question now is what the hell does it mean? Maybe something, maybe nothing. The whole thing has to be built and the Niners haven't made a decision as to where they're going to move. Even worse for the Niners is that with the economy as it is, it's even harder to convince some place to build them a stadium as there's not a lot of money to throw the team's way. Why should a city give a team money to build a stadium when they have no money to throw around? And it's not just a problem the Niners' face, but the A's too....

Let's check in with our local teams while the rest of the world is searching for Ronaldo......

Here's a roundup of sports news...

It appears that the Billy Beane Player Emporium is still open for business as Beane just traded traded Nick Swisher to the White Sox for a bunch of prospects. The house-cleaning continues....

Here's todays sports news...

After all the hype and after all the expectations, we have to admit the steroid report was pretty much a yawner. We wanted names, damnit, lots and lots of names. Juicy names. Big names. Super Colossus Names. Instead we got Gregg Zaun. Bo-ring. The list was mainly a bunch of journeymen and never-were's from the 90's and who cares about them? Wasn't this whole thing about nailing the big boys? ...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

SFist Christy, our Oakland A's correspondent, gives it to you American League style! Read SFist Christy's Part I analysis of the A's catchers and infield here. You want wild cards? We’ve got wild cards. Just about every player in this category is a wild card; by that we mean you would have to be an awfully good seer to predict, with any certainty, their upcoming numbers for the season. Eric Chavez - 2006 Stats:......

In a surprising move today, Oakland A’s brass fired manager Ken Macha with two years remaining on his contract. Many A's fans are scratching their heads this afternoon, wondering when the A's headquarters had become drama central. Despite leading the team to its first ALCS since 1992, Macha’s inability to communicate effectively with players was foremost on the list of complaints levied by key personnel. His time with the A's was always tenuous at best; his on-again, off-again merry go-round with Billy Beane subject to intense annual review, with Macha barely surviving the cut each year. His job would typically come down to key veteran players vouching for him, despite his obvious lack of social skills. This year, no such veteran dared throw him a life jacket. Not Kotsay, not Chavez and definitely not Milton Bradley. ...

Everyone loves a redemption story and the A's this year might have baseball's best redemption story as Frank Thomas put the Big Hurt on the Twins, leading the A's to a 3-2 victory. He started things off with a home run in the 1st and then added a crucial insurance run in the top of the ninth to give the A's a one run lead. That became crucial when the Twins lead off the bottom of the ninth with a triple that Milton Bradley lost in the Metrodome ceiling (everyone who plays there has done it-- it's one of the reasons playing in the Metrodome just flat-out sucks for visiting teams). ...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... A's 4 White Sox 2- Esteban Loaiza held the White Sox to just enough runs to allow a pretty week A's O to win the game. The A's were 0 for 16 with runners in scoring position but still scraped together four runs. How'd they do it-- aggressive base running, defense, situational hitting-- small ball. Now how about that? The game so pissed off Sox manager Ozzie Guillen that after the game he launched into a profanity filled tirade about the lack of booze in the visiting locker room. Anyways, the Angels won so the A's remain five up but the magic number is now 11....

Barry Zito outpitched Curt Schilling this afternoon to lead the Athletics to a 7-2 beat down of the Dead Sox. That's what they in the business call a "sweep." The A's have won 15 of 19 games and were 21-6 in August and the Chron notes that the A's are an amazing 124-45 in August since 2001. Crikey. ...

Remember during that hot streak the Giants were on when their pitching was pretty much airtight? Remember how they didn't give up many runs and pitched until late in the game? Those were good times. And not these times as the Giants started off a nine game road trip to Atlanta getting shellacked 13-8. The pitcher getting the shellacking? Staff ace Jason Schmidt. Of note, however, is the Barry sticking it to Hammerin' Hank's Hometown fans and hitting two home runs and robbing Jeff Francouer of a three run home run. Barry is getting hot of late and a hot Barry means good things for the Giants and we're just going to stop right there before we hurt ourselves. ...

We read an interesting story today on ESPN.com about how the A's are somehow winning despite being everything Moneyball is supposed to be against. You know, things like pitching and defense and situational hitting. Which basically means that somewhere out there, some Stat Head in Stat Head Land is desperately crunching numbers and running spread sheets to try and proof that God is Not Dead....

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express. More letters about Cody's? Okay, ew: there's cockroaches on AC Transits, and they had a lice infestation on BART. We are totally standing up on BART for the indefinite future. Also -- Ann Coulter is accused of plagiarizing from Jane Ganahl. Is Ann Coulter also feeling bad about being single? Spider bites. A new group encouraging more people to refuse to testify before grand juries. Will SFist Jackson......

Shards of what remain of Barry Zito and the rest of Oakland A's pitching staff are still being recovered after yesterday's 14-0 threshing at the hands of the Texas Rangers. We're certain the Arlington faithful are downright giddy about their latent power display, as well they should be. This beating reminded everyone that there is-indeed--a real pennant race fomenting in the AL West. However, the Rangers should take a very hard look at the all-encompassing big picture scoreboard-the Athletics won that series by dominating the small things. And they beat Texas by going toe-to-toe with one of the best offenses in the American League. Moreover, the real battle was won in the trenches-through superior bullpen action, sans Joe Kennedy, Scott Sauerbeck and the rest of the DL boys, a smothering defense and timely hitting from Jay Payton, not through caveman-like hacking at off-speed pitches that Ranger batters have mastered. ...

The Oakland A's will win the American League West. Yes, this year! We (SFist) are not accustomed to making barrel-chested predictions that eventually turn to fool's gold as it often does on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" -- we're merely pointing out the obvious: the Oakland A's will win the AL West this year. Despite their anemic, Milton Bradley-less performance last night at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels and Joe Saunders-- who they made seem like a young Ron Guidry than the junk-ball throwing Tommy John clone that he is-- the A's will win more of those tightly-sewn games than the Angels, or god forbid, the perennial flame-out Texas Rangers. And they'll do it without resident genius Billy Beane making a nano-move during the trade deadline frenzy. ...

Frank Thomas has hit 448 home runs, and has hit .307/.427/.568, over his 16-year career. That's pretty impressive, but in the last 2 seasons, Frank Thomas has been mostly injured: he's appeared in a total of 108 major league baseball games. Whatever Frank Thomas does in the 2006 baseball season, he'll do in the uniform of the Oakland A's. Thursday, the A's signed Thomas to a $500,000 contract, which reportedly includes $2.6 million in......

ESPN the Magazine (as opposed to ESPN the occasionally showing sports TV channel, ESPN the Web site, ESPN the restaurant chain, and ESPN the movie studio) recently decided to put together a poll that ranks every franchise of the Big Three sports (hockey isn't included as it wasn't playing last year). The ninety-two teams are ranked based on online survey questions and the magazines' own research and are based on things like
wins, management, fan relations, and cost. The top five franchises? The Spurs, Pistons, Steelers, Colts, and the Anahiem LA Angels. So much for sports life in the big cities. The worst five teams? The Knicks, Trail Blazers, Vikings, Bobcats (still too young of a franchise to decide) and coming in last, the poor homeless N'Awlins Saints. So how did our local teams do? In short, meh (we would link to the article in question, but for whatever reason, IT"S NOT ONLINE! This is the 21st Century-- everything should be online. We mean, we can find naked pictures of Natalee Holloway out there, but we can't find a damn ESPN article? What's up with that?) As befitting our no longer regal status in the sporting universe, most of the Bay Area teams came in somewhere in the middle with the Oakland A's deemed the best Bay Area franchise, at 42. Praise was given for it's inexpensive tickets, players (12), and value (17) but were given demerits for management (too cheap) and locale (the dumpy Coliseum, or the Stadium Al Ruined). ...

New SFist Jake gets us up to speed on what the A's have in store for us this season....

In breaking news, Billy Beane has shipped the Oakland A's ace, Tim Hudson, to the Atlanta Braves for three young players who, well, won't cost so much. From Atlanta's point of view, we think this may have something to do with the Mets signing Pedro Martinez. So the "Big Three" is now down to two, and since Mulder seems to have problems with his back and shoulder and Zito with his head, the days of......

Five games left, three back of the Dodgers, tied with the Cubs, a half game up on the Astros, and Milton Bradley losing his mind in LA. Does that say it all? Not if you're an A's fan. Then it's five games left, tied with the Angels, three distant games ahead of the Rangers, and Ichiro getting ready set a major record on the home turf. The Giants edged the Padres 7-5 in a nail......

Things aren't looking good for professional sports in San Jose. It seems that because of dismal attendance and the lack of a new stadium, the Anschutz Group is looking to sell the San Jose Earthquakes to Mexico's Club America [Espanol], who would then shop them to cities in Texas - including Houston, San Antonio and Dallas....