Shawn Bernard sends this letter in response to the previous post.

I can see where Bleacher Dave is coming from, but I don't think a team should keep, and overpay, a player just to show the fans you care. You have to keep the RIGHT players. Is Tejada worth the $10-$15M/yr that he's going to command? I enjoyed Rob Neyer's article on the subject: http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/neyer_rob/1525111.html.

I think that a big part of not keeping Tejada, while some of it may be money, is also about them not thinking he's worth it. Plain and simple. Even with his "great" season last year (in which he was the MVP), his OPS was only .862, not really an All-Star number. Yeah, he plays shortstop, but still, is he really worth it? Of course A's management (and owner) can't come out and say, "We're not going to sign him because we don't think he's worth it." Talk about a PR nightmare! Plus there *IS* the whole age issue which is hanging over Tejeda's head. I think Caple has it closer to right with his article: http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/caple_jim/1524983.html.

Great debate going on about Tejada. Fans want to keep their stars. The Sabremetricians look for cost effective solutions. Tejada just wants to stay in Oakland. How this turns out comes down to two things, in my opinion:

1. What will the market be for Tejada? Off the top of my head, there aren't that many rich teams that need a shortstop (unless Baltimore wants him). Maybe he won't command $15 million in this market, and the A's actually can resign him.


2. How will Beane replace him? Beane has proven a great judge of talent, and if he has a number of shortstop prospects in the system, it's possible that Oakland fans won't even notice that Tejada is gone.

I believe that as long as Beane is GM, this will be a very good team. Will the fans come out, however, if they think ownership does not have the fan's best interests at heart?