When you hear the name Billy Beane, what comes to mind?
When I think of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, I think about a man who finds talent and cultivates it until it's ripe. Beane enjoys his crop for a few choice years, and then when the maintenance costs get too high, he has a yard sale, or he takes his commodities to the bargaining table and tries to get as much value for them as he can.
In the minds of most fans, this isn't a bad thing. Beane is actually very good at what he does. He has won four AL West Championships and has been to the playoffs five times since he took over for Sandy Alderson in 1998. It's also worth noting that in 2001, the only year under Beane that the A's made the playoffs without winning the division, they won 102 games as a wild card team.
If you had to determine Beane's strongest attribute, would it be his skill at scouting talent, or his knack for making the right trades and signings at the right time? I'd say it's the former, but with that being said, I do believe that Beane has done an impressive job of making the right moves when he needs to.
Keep in mind that Beane almost always thinks in the now, so when you browse this list you'll notice that the players the A's picked up sometimes didn't stick around for long. They were there to do a job, and just like with home-grown talent, they can also become too expensive. In addition, some of the players on the list ended up moving on because of injuries or a lack of production.
For the purposes of this article, we're going to determine the best trades by looking at the following: Did the player perform well with the A's? Did the trade have a positive effect on the team? It can be both, but it doesn't have to be.
Here are the top ten trades the Oakland A's have made under Billy Beane.
Samantha Mathis Samantha Morton Grace Park Jill Wagner Susie Castillo
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