he liked Mrs. Cowley just fine.

OC’s taking credit for the sox’s turnaround from 07 to 08

With Orlando, we’ve gone head-to-head with him for years. I mean every time you turn on the TV in October he’s playing for somebody, whether it’s the Angels, Boston or Chicago. So we’ve seen quite a bit of him. He’s a gold glove caliber shortstop. He can hit. He can steal bases. He brings a real upbeat personality to the field, a little bit like Tejada was when he was here. He enjoys playing the game and he enjoys going out there every day. He’s a workhorse. He’s been one of the steady performers at that position for years. We felt like it was an opportunity we had to jump on given what the cost was, so we feel pretty fortunate.
,,,
Blez: I know you love your draft picks. If anything these interviews have taught me, it’s that you love your picks. What made Cabrera such a priority to sign for one year and have to give up a second round pick?

Beane: Second round isn’t easy to give up. We got Trevor Cahill there a couple of years ago. It can be a pretty fruitful draft position so it wasn’t easy. We felt like we had Giambi. We got Holliday. He was too good a player out there and he was worth giving up a draft choice for. With the team we had, we felt he was too good a player at that cost. Listen, it’s not easy to give up that second round pick, but we felt that having Orlando this year was worth it to us. Because of where our draft position was, we weren’t going to lose that first round pick and having that pick in a relatively decent slot sort of eased the pain a little bit. But having Orlando seems worth it to us.

Blez: The big knock on Cabrera is that he doesn’t get on base enough.

Beane: He’s still a 40 doubles guy who is capable of double-digit homers. He’ll steal you 20 bases and if you go back, he’s a gold glove defender. He’s won a couple of gold gloves in his career so that’s a pretty good package right there. He’s consistently been one of the best shortstops in the league year in and year out.

Blez: I think it will be fun to watch him and Ellis work the middle of the infield together.

Beane: Yeah. He brings a certain energy to the park. He’s a grinder who is out there every single day and loves to play.

the whole interview series is interesting.

http://www.athleticsnation.com/2009/3/24/806413/an-interviews-oakland-a-s