Billy Beane's Spending and Oakland's Future

Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's, has become synonymous with successful small market spending to field competitive teams. This off-season it appears that Beane has strayed from the norm. Beane has made serious pushes for high priced free agents Rafael Furcal, Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi and Garrett Anderson.

Oakland's payroll is currently just over $47 million which ranks 28th in the majors right now. Below are the Oakland's payroll rankings since Beane was appointed GM in 1997:

1997 - 28th
1998 - 28th
1999 - 24th
2000 - 25th
2001 - 29th
2002 - 28th
2003 - 23rd
2004 - 16th
2005 - 22nd
2006 - 21st
2007 - 17th
2008 - 28th

The A's have never been in the top half of the league in terms of payroll so why are they making a push now?

Cisco Field, Oakland's new stadium will be ready in two years which means the the A's revenue will drastically increase, providing Beane with more money to spend on players.

Oakland's farm system currently rates as one of the top three in baseball, which is not new for the A's. However there is large difference in how they have been acquiring players this season. The A's signed Michael Inoa, the top Latin-American prospect on the market, for $4.25 million, the highest signing bonus to any non-Cuban international player in history. Beane also broke away from his trend of selecting college players in the first round of the Amateur Draft when he selected pitcher Trevor Cahill in the 2006 draft. Cahill is expected to make his major league debut sometime this season.

This off-season Beane traded away highly touted rookie Carlos Gonzalez to the Colorado Rockies for all star outfielder Matt Holliday. Holliday will be a free agent next year, which means Oakland will probably try to re-sign him.

All of the pieces are in place for Beane and the A's to go on a huge spending spree over the next two off-seasons. With Beane's talent recognition that helped the A's make the playoffs with inferior payrolls, the A's could be very dangerous with his hands on big market money.