March 30, 2010

One-Hoppers

First A's-to-San Jose Rumor Hits the Fan

by Neil deMause

This barely rises to the level of rumor, but this morning, former Oakland city economic advisor-turned-San Francisco Chronicle blogger Zennie Abraham reports that Bud Selig's Oakland A's stadium commission will report back within three days, and will recommend that the team be moved to San Jose.

Abraham's source? "A source." No indication even of whether this source is "close to the negotiations" or anything, as Abraham spends most of his blog item arguing that moving the A's would be a mistake, given their "worldwide" fan base. (Which would make sense, as the franchise has already played just about everywhere in the world.)

That Selig's Gang of Three would recommend San Jose as an A's destination, if true, wouldn't be surprising, given its further-ahead stadium deal and relatively untapped market; the bigger question remains what price Selig will make A's owner Lew Wolff have to pay to the San Francisco Giants if he wants to get a deal done. Is Rob Neyer right that the commission report won't be released until Selig has worked out a deal acceptable to all parties? We could maybe find out this week—unless, as Abraham insists, "MLB elects to delay the release of the report after this blog post." It takes a clever blogger to take credit for predicting things that don't happen...

Neil deMause is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 
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