Red Sox

Red Sox are a better team. Thanks Lester class act I will be cheering for the A's. I wish Lackey well the last 2 years he has given us everything he has. Webster, Ranuado, de la Russo. its time to see if these kids are big league pitchers, bring up Owens also!
If you have Lester Cespedes or Allen you should be excited, Cespy and Allen should love Fenway and Lester pitching in Oakland should help his stats

Stunned to say the least. I can't ever remember a contending team trading it's best all-around player--with 1+1/2 years left on his contract--in the middle of the season. However, Hammel was getting rocked, and Beane and the A's are clearly going all in this year. A Lester-Gray-Kazmir-Samardzija top four will be filthy in the playoffs. Losing Cespedes will hurt a bit, but Beane and Melvin should do fine shifting Crisp, Moss, Gentry, Gomes, Reddick, Vogt, and Fuld around the outfield.


P.s. Cespedes, Joe Kelly, Craig, and Eduardo Rodriguez is an excellent return cache for 1/2 a year of Lester, Lackey (who might retire) and Andrew Miller.


+

Update:
Well, Beane, Melvin, and the A's aren't doing "fine" at all. They were 63-41 when they made the Cespedes-Lester trade, and they are only 17-21 since. Their offense has been terrible, and they clearly miss Cespedes' presence in the lineup. Gomes has been a non-factor, and their other hitters have mostly regressed. They have been beaten up on by the surging Mariners, who could pass them, and even the lowly Astros.

I'm definitely on the Billy Beane train and always be. He's still the best modern GM ever. However, if the A's do miss the playoffs, the Cespedes deal will be a significant tarnish on his established "genius." It will make the Addison Russell trade look worse, and will be his greatest error, even worse than trading CarGo to Colorado for half a year of Matt Holliday.

I like Beane as well, but he got the worst of the deal on Holliday twice. First giving up Cargo to get him and secondly for trading him for the package of Brett Wallace, Shane Peterson and Clayton Mortensen and throwing in $1.5 million to boot.

I also think Beane is one of the top GM's, but IMO he is not any better than Mozeliak for the Cardinals who actually has been able to produce in the playoffs, whereas Billy has had his success mostly limited to the regular season.

Eventhough Beanes trades this year do not seem to be working, I like the gamble he took as he clearly was looking ahead to the playoffs with this years moves.

Red Sox moves look good on paper. Grabbing some nice offensive pieces for Lester & Lackey and signing the Cuban FA. They are depending on their young pitching to produce in the near future(next year) and trading the vets gives the young pitchers some invaluable experience this year when there is no pressure. However, like Beane's moves which looked good on paper, if the young pitchers aren't what they think they are or do not mature quickly, the Red Sox will obviously have some problems. At least they have what seems like a good plan though.