Belly Butler Gets in a Fight with Danny Valencia

[gblowfish]

Two ex-Royals fighting in the Oakland Clubhouse. Reporters said it was over "a pair of cleats"...but I think they misunderstood Belly in the fracas...he was asking Valencia "When we eat?"... Belly gets grumpy when he's hungry. A's are 19 1/2 games out of first.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/mlb/b...ays/ar-BBvTC5B

[PunkinDrublic]

How's that money ball working for you choke land? What saber metrics told you to overpay for Billy Butler?

[Buehler445]

Radio said Butler does indeed have a concussion.

[Gadzooks]

[Fish]

Bye bye Billy.... you can wipe that nasty BBQ sauce off your jersey now.....

Oakland A’s release Billy Butler weeks after clubhouse fight

Just weeks after being involved in a brawl in the Oakland clubhouse, Billy Butler was released by the A’s on Sunday.

The A’s didn’t sugarcoat the news:



Butler, who was with the Royals from 2008-2014, suffered concussion-like symptoms when he was hit in the temple after a dispute with Danny Valencia, another former Royal.

Days after the incident, Butler apologized for his actions. On Sunday, Butler told reporters that he didn’t think the fight influenced Oakland’s decision.

In six games after returning to the team, Butler batted .091 (1 for 11) with two walks and an RBI. For the season, Butler has a slash line of .276/.331/.403 in 242 plate appearances over 85 games.

Butler signed a three-year, $30 million contract with Oakland a few weeks after the Royals advanced to the World Series in 2014. USA Today’s Jorge L. Ortiz reported that the A’s still owe Butler $11.67 million

The A’s made the move a day before the team is set to open a four-game series against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Butler told reporters he was happy for the timing.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...#storylink=cpy

[Chiefspants]

As stated before, this was a bad month for Billy.

He narcs on a teammate, gets punched out. Gets fined and has to apologize to the team after getting his bell rung. Eric Hosmer takes Valencia's side in the matter. Mike Sweeney then goes on the air and calls him a clubhouse cancer and says the Royals were happy to be rid of him, and to top it off he gets released.

I'll always appreciate his clutch hits in the WC game. We would not have won that game without him. It was like Beane only watched Billy in that game and decided to give him 30 million.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

As stated before, this was a bad month for Billy.

He narcs on a teammate, gets punched out. Gets fined and has to apologize to the team after getting his bell rung. Eric Hosmer takes Valencia's side in the matter. Mike Sweeney then goes on the air and calls him a clubhouse cancer and says the Royals were happy to be rid of him, and to top it off he gets released.

I'll always appreciate his clutch hits in the WC game. We would not have won that game without him. It was like Beane only watched Billy in that game and decided to give him 30 million.

Billy Beane is the most overrated GM in the history of sports. What he has done to the A's the last 3 years is brutal.

The Moneyball teams were good because the pitching staff had three aces: Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito. Billy Beane's "genius" was not the cause. When the big three left, the A's became very ordinary.

[gblowfish]

I wonder what Belly's gonna do with $10 million and no job next year??

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

Billy Beane is the most overrated GM in the history of sports. What he has done to the A's the last 3 years is brutal.

The Moneyball teams were good because the pitching staff had three aces: Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito. Billy Beane's "genius" was not the cause. When the big three left, the A's became very ordinary.

He DID have a great system in place for finding under valued players. The problem was Beane refused to adjust. MLB now probably OVERVALUES those fat guys who cant field, but walk, K, and hit for reasonable power. The Royals and DM basically ARE moneyball but moneyball 2.0 because they find and use undervalued players based on park adjustment factors. Its cheaper & more effective to get guys with good OF Defense, speed, and contact hitting. They did the exact same thing that Beane did 15 years ago, they found MLB market flaws & exploited it to their advantage. Problem is just that Beane refuses to adjust. The game is constantly evolving

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

Billy Beane is the most overrated GM in the history of sports. What he has done to the A's the last 3 years is brutal.

The Moneyball teams were good because the pitching staff had three aces: Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito. Billy Beane's "genius" was not the cause. When the big three left, the A's became very ordinary.

I think Beane's revival from 2012-2014 showed that his ideas weren't a flash in the pan. He adjusted, added speed, scouted our undervalued prospects (Donaldson) and added his tested and true 3 outcome players (Moss) to build WS caliber teams again.

...Which makes his moves 2014 onward all the more perplexing. Why would you make the equivalent of the Wil Myers trade type haul for pitchers worse than Shields and who only had control of for a half season? Why would you trade your cleanup hitter in the middle of a pennant race? Why would you trade an MVP caliber player for the sad haul he got for Donaldson. Why would you pay $30 million to landlock your DH on a team famous for keeping it in a floating capacity?
Why would you then commit 22 millions to Ryan Madson on a team in rebuilding mode?

Don't get me wrong, he's still made savvy moves in the process. Nabbing Manaea for a half season of Zo was a money move (he even threw shade at Moore for pulling that off, saying he didn't think Moore would give him away for 80 games of Zo). But his moves since 2014 suggest that the chase for the wild card game and it's result broke him for a while, or he may be falling out of touch with the game.

A recent article by Neyer shed light on the fact that he may be falling behind today's analytics driven movement. While teams are adding whole departments for analytics, he has relatively few people who research with him or who can overrule him on his decisions.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

I wonder what Belly's gonna do with $10 million and no job next year??

Technically he can draw unemployment and bring in another $957 every two weeks.