More Late Hot-Stoving
With Nomar coming on board, the A’s feel a lot deeper and more mature than they have in a while. Hopefully, some of these elder statesmen (Orlando Cabrera, Giambi, Nomar) can help the younger guys develop a bit faster. While Nomar doesn’t really make the A’s that much better, I somehow feel more optimistic today than I did after the OC signing. This offseason has seen the A’s bring in a lot of new and recognizable faces/names. I wonder if Beane & co are optimizing not just for on-field performance but for revenue. The idea that “winning brings revenue” is often thrown around, but baseball is basically in the entertainment business. This year’s team promises to be more entertaining than last years, in terms of offense and in terms of “stars”. Will that translate into more revenue, which will lead to more acquired talent and then finally winning? So, the more basic questions are (1) Does winning drive revenue or does revenue drive winning? And (2) have the A’s changed their answer to that question over the last couple years?