The Oakland A’s jumped at the chance to play the Ben Sheets lottery — signing the former Brewer to what amounts to a 1-year, $10 million Powerball ticket. Baseball fans everywhere were a little befuddled by the signing — not the least of which were Brewers and A’s fans — and the general consensus is that the move is a bit a gamble.
But here’s where even casual A’s and Brewers fans can pick up a decent logic at work. If Billy Beane, the original Moneyball manager, wants to give Sheets a shot at $10, he very well may be worth it. Brewers fans have seen firsthand that he can be worth it (see: the first three-quarters of the 2008 season).
Brewers fans are relieved that the Cubs didn’t sign Sheets, which would have set up sort of a Brett Favre redux. Here he is playing in the American League on the West Coast, where we will not see or hear much of him aside from some highlights on television. We’ll be vaguely aware of the A’s pitching success, without even knowing how the team is doing in the AL West, which could be a tough division. We’ll see Big Ben’s power curve in sun-soaked highlights from the Coliseum, with no implications for the day-to-day life-and-death of the NL Central, à la Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, Keith Foulke, Dan Haren, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.
The only time Sheets could possibly face-off against Brewers batters is in the All-Star Game or the World Series (the Brewers actually get the other three AL West teams in Interleague play). So if Sheeter finally gets it together for a full season, we will gladly be cheering “former Brewer” and “Olympic Gold Medalist” Ben Sheets for his Cy Young chances.
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