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[QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2621890, member: 289"]
Frankly, that diatribe is misdirected. Alderson was the A's GM from 1981-98. Wikipedia: "In 1981, Alderson joined Eisenhardt to become the Athletics' general counsel and in 1983 was named the team's general manager, a position he held through 1997. Under Alderson, the Athletics' minor league system was rebuilt, which bore fruit later that decade as José Canseco (1986), Mark McGwire (1987), and Walt Weiss (1988) were chosen as American League Rookies of the Year. The Athletics won four division titles, three pennants and the 1989 World Series during Alderson's tenure.

In 1995, team owner Walter A. Haas, Jr. died and new owners Stephen Schott and Ken Hofmann ordered Alderson to slash payroll. As a result, Alderson began focusing on sabermetric principles toward obtaining relatively undervalued players.[4] He was a mentor to his eventual successor as general manager, Billy Beane."

Much of what you saw in "Moneyball" was actually Alderson's work being credited to Beane. He's not responsible for all the injuries or for choosing the wrong re-treads to fill in.  He's also not responsible for Las Vegas being so far away: they've already fixed that by buying  the Chiefs. The real problem is the Wilpons, who run a big market team like it was a small market team because they gave all money to Bernie Madoff. That the Mets made it to World Series was a miracle and we don't know what this team would be like fully healthy.

If anything, it's the writer who came off like an "Arrogant, pompous jackass".
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