2011: St. Louis Cardinals
You want former A’s who passed through town while Beane was in charge? St. Louis’ 2011 championship team has plenty. Matt Holliday? Octavio Dotel? Arthur Rhodes? Even backup catcher Gerald Laird traces back to Beane because Laird was drafted by the Athletics in 1998 (he was traded to the Rangers in 2002 in the deal that briefly brought slugging first baseman Carlos Pena to Oakland). Congrats to the Cards for reaping the benefits of Beane’s frenetic front office moves and excuse me while I try to forget all about the Holliday trade. Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen and Shane Peterson for Holliday? That one still hurts. Beane probably never should have traded Carlos Gonzalez to the Colorado Rockies for Holliday in the first place.