Wish You Were Here: Former Oakland A's Currently on Other Teams

The A's have had plenty of talent leave Oakland over the years.

Regardless of the fact that the team has had a three-peat of World Series wins in the 1970s, and remains competitive in a small-market, it seems that the Athletics get lost in a league that is dominated by big-market teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The departure of talent from the East Bay can be attributed to three things:

1) The city of Oakland. The A's need to separate themselves from the Raiders and Mt. Davis. The Coliseum is not suitable for baseball and should San Jose allow the A's to build a stadium the franchise should jump on the opportunity to rejuvenate fan interest.

2) Management. Owners Jeff Fisher and Lew Wolff need to take advantage of general manager Billy Beane's expertise and spend money on the team. The Athletics do a great job of developing players, but they need to keep players in green and gold when they hit their prime.

3) Major League Baseball. The league is designed so that it can be dominated by big-market teams that can throw large amounts of money at free agents and draft picks.

A mammoth payroll like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Angels dole out every year is not economically reasonable in Oakland. The team must build through the draft and sign cost-effective free agents in order to compete. In order to make the league more competitive and generate more interest in baseball from people in cities of all sizes.

The following are eight players that made an impact while in Oakland but no longer have an elephant on their sleeve. All of these players, with the exception of Mark Mulder, are on other major league baseball clubs.

Many of these players were in their prime when they left Oakland. Often these players were traded or left in free agency because Oakland could not afford to pay them what other big-market clubs were offering.

Changes must be made in order for teams like the A's, who choose to build wins rather than buy them, can compete with teams who have the money to chase expensive proven talent.

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