Ray Ratto of the SF Chronicle praises Steve Schott for his candor. Sort of:

You have to give credit to Steve Schott, because if nothing else, he has shown yet again how utterly guileless he is. He doesn't like to spend money, and he really doesn't mind you knowing it.

It wasn't always that way, of course, if you remember the vision of him holding the charred remains of the Great Giambi Charade of Ought-One. He plainly did not want to make the same mistake with Miguel Tejada.

So Schott announced Saturday that he would not insult his Most Valuable Player by making him a representative contract offer, leaving him instead to find an owner who isn't allergic to talent.

He will be criticized in many corners for this, because an owner is supposed to want to put out the best product possible. This, though, has always been a secondary concern for Li'l Stevie, and we owe him a debt of grudging gratitude for being so open about it.

Ultimately, though, the winners will be the fans themselves. Not because their team is giving up Tejada without a fight -- you can't make a yearly habit of giving up your best player and survive -- but because they said so before any of you committed yourselves fully to the idea that he might come back.

So Steve Schott lost relatively little by spilling the three-bean salad on Tejada. His public image wasn't warm, let alone fuzzy, and, for a change, he isn't lying to the ticket holders the way he did with Giambi. In time, they will realize this, probably on their way to something other than an A's game.

It's a weird version of Customer Relations 101, true, and Schott may find eventually that he would have been better off lying through his teeth. Some hallucination junkies, after all, still think he wanted Giambi to come back.

But for now, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. We knew he wasn't going to sign Miguel Tejada, and now he's confirmed it. You owe him a debt of gratitude . . . although not necessarily that season ticket check. I mean, the truth can only take you so far, right?