Beane count Part 4: A playoff appearance but only three trades

Trade number 14: Jimmy Haynes for Justin Miller
This trade was actually part of a three way…the Athletics ended up with cash from Milwaukee and Miller from Colorado. Haynes had made his way through 3 inconsequential seasons with the Athletics where he gave them a lot of league average or below average (ERA+: 102, 90, 76) innings. He continued to do the same in Milwaukee, throwing over 170 innings for the next two seasons with ERA+ of 84 and 91 along with a record of 20-30. The 22 year old Miller would never throw a pitch for Oakland but would be traded to Toronto in 2001 in a package with Eric Hinske (acquired for Miguel Cairo) for Billy Koch.

Trade number 15 : To Kansas City: Brett Laxton, Received Jeremy Giambi
One Giambi apparently wasn’t enough for the Oakland Athletics, as Billy Beane went out and acquired Jeremy to play with his brother Jason. The plump outfielder was a somewhat effective hitter during his three seasons with the Athletics establishing VORPs of 2.7, 27.6 and 11.2 with OPS+ of 96, 125 and 125 before being traded during the 2002 season to the Phillies in exchange for John Mabry. The trade is talked about in Moneyball as not as much a trade for something the A’s coveted as much as it was to help cleanse the locker room.
Laxton never became a regular major league of any significant value for the Royals.

Trade number 16: To Tampa Bay: Jesus Colome, Received Todd Belitz and Jim Mecir
In need of some bullpen depth and only 4 games away from the lead in their division, the Athletics trade 22 year old prospect reliever Jesus Colome in exchange for veteran reliever Jim Mecir and young pitcher Todd Belitz. Colome would join the Tampa bullpen the next season and was a mainstay until his release in 2006. He was inconsistent as shown by his VORPs and ERA+:
VORPs: 2001: 9.7, 2002: -14.1, 2003: 13.1, 2004: 12.8, 2005: 0.1
ERA+: 2001: 135, 2002: 54, 2003: 101, 2004: 136, 2005: 95
Mecir stayed with the A’s until the end of the 2004 season and would give them above average performance coming out of the bullpen. His VORP was never below replacement level for those seasons and his ERA+ dipped under 100 only once. His performance for the 2000 team that eventually made the post-season made this trade a great one as he gave the Athletics 35.3 innings out of the bullpen with an ERA+ of 169 and an ERA of 2.80. He also did not allow a run in over 5 innings during the post-season against the Yankees that season. Belitz would only throw 3.3 innings for Oakland before being packaged with two others in the Jermaine Dye deal.