Billy Beane 接受 MLB.com 的專訪 (2012 OAKLAND A's, Moneyball)

當Oakland A's落入ALDS背水一戰的第三戰開打之前， MLB.com的Barry M. Bloom刊出了本週他專訪運動家GM Billy Beane的內容。

其中包括Billy Beane與總教練Bob Melvin的關係、2012的運動家以及電影Moneyball所帶來人們對他的誤解等等

A's GM Billy Beane於場邊觀看球隊封王 (Jose Luis Villegas, Associated Press SF)

原文為Beane on A's playoff run, 'Moneyball' and more by Barry M. Bloom

MLB.com: How does this playoff experience differ for you among the other ones in your long career here?

對你而言，這次的季後賽經驗與以往有何不同? 

Beane: Because so little from the outside was expected of us, there was a lot of satisfaction among Bob, the front office and myself. We enjoyed this year a lot. I think we felt like we were better in Spring Training than everybody thought we were. And to see this come together and for these guys to be better than anybody thought -- maybe a lot better -- it was fun to watch that on a daily basis, especially the maturation of the young guys.

因為外界極少預期我們有此表現，Bob (總教練Melvin的名字)、制服組和我都相當滿意，我們相當喜歡今年。我認為，我們現在的感覺就像是在今年春訓表現地比每個人所認為的還要來的好。看著季後賽來到、這些球員比任何人認為的還要更棒，每天看著這些很有趣，特別是在年輕選手們的成熟



MLB.com: What about Bob as a manager?

總教練Bob如何?

Beane: First of all, we're almost peers. We came up and played together in the same era. He was a better player than I was. When he was managing in Seattle and Arizona we stayed in touch. We were pretty close friends. Whenever he was in town we'd always take time to have conversations. That's one of the best things. We get along. We're like friends. I think we enjoy each other's company. That helps when you're working together because not only do I like him, but I respect him. So it's been great, not only from my standpoint, but the whole front office. Not only have we had a good year on the field, but it's been a lot of fun because when you're around each other 162 days a year it always helps to get along so well.

首先，我們要算是同儕。我們在同一個年代打球，他是個比我優秀的球員。當他執掌西雅圖水手隊與亞利桑納響尾蛇隊時，我們仍保持聯絡。我們是相當親近的朋友。當他在城裡時，我們總會找時間聊聊。我認為我們喜愛彼此的球團。我喜歡他，也尊敬他，這對我們共事上有所幫助。我跟整個制服組都覺得很棒



MLB.com: Well, you were pretty good friends with Bob Geren, too, weren't you?

你跟 Bob Geren (A's上一任總教練)也是相當好的朋友，不是嗎?

Beane: Yeah, Bob [Geren] and I were just fine. But when you combine the friendship Bob [Melvin] and I have with the year we've had on the field, it kind of all comes together.

是的，我跟Bob (Geren)很好。但當你將我跟 Bob (Melvin)今年在場上培養起的友誼做比較，兩者差不多



MLB.com: It seems that you've built this team a little differently than you have in the past. It has some speed. You steal bases. Bob hits and runs. Isn't that counter to the old Moneyball philosophy that you used?

你建這支球隊似乎與你過去的球隊有些不同。現在這支隊伍有些速度，你盜壘，Bob打帶跑。這沒有違背你過去的Moneyball哲學嗎?

Beane: Bob actually doesn't hit and run that much, and with the stolen bases he's very selective. Bob does a great job knowing when to send guys. He does it in the high-risk situations. The other thing that helps is that we're hitting homers. We haven't hit homers in the recent past. That's always been my favorite offensive play, the home run. We've done both, which is great.

事實上，Bob沒有常使用打帶跑戰術，在盜壘戰術上他也是有所選擇。Bob知道何時對選手發動戰術，這做得很好。他在高風險的情況下執行。另外，我們能擊出全壘打，這是過去幾年所沒有的。我最愛的攻擊表現一直以來就是全壘打。我們在這兩方面都做到了，那很棒



MLB.com: Has that been a change in philosophy?

錢球/魔球的哲學有所更動嗎?

Beane: No, it's always about your personnel. It's what's available to you. The manager has what he has, and he tries to use that in the best way that he can. Bob did that brilliantly. We have Coco Crisp at the top of the order, who can run. Bob's not going to send somebody just to randomly send him. He sort of manages to the guys' strengths, and once again, when you have a few guys who can run and a few guys who hit home runs you're going to score some runs.

不，那總與人事有關，你有哪些可用之兵。總教練擁有他所擁有的，他試著盡可能以最佳方式使用它。Bob做得極為出色。我們在打線的一開始有Coco Crisp，他很能跑。Bob也不會隨意地要誰往前推進。他依照選手的能力去管理他們，一次又一次。當你有些選手能跑能打全壘打，你將會得到一些分數



MLB.com: Do you feel there have been misconceptions about the way you build a ballclub?

你覺得一直以來人們對你建立球團的方式有所誤解嗎?

Beane: I've never really cared. What people feel about how we build a team is none of my business. I enjoy doing this job, and whatever narrative someone wants to create out there is something I've never concerned myself with.

我從未真正在意此事。人們對於我們建軍的感想不是我的事。我享受從事這項工作，誰怎麼描述，我從不關心



MLB.com: That must be tough, considering that a book and a movie have been done about it.

那可能很艱難，在意書或電影 (意指Moneyball)所描述的

Beane: Nah, I'm good. I've never really gotten caught up in that narrative. I've always sort of ignored what I consider to be the noise out there. It's not hard. There are so many more interesting things to listen to and read out there than about me.

我很好。我從未真的受描述所影響。我總忽略那些，那不辛苦。(在錢球/魔球電影與書籍當中) 有更多比我有趣的事物可以去視聽、閱讀



MLB.com: This team is eerily similar to Bob's 2007 D-backs team, which was swept by the Rockies in the National League Championship Series. Both had low expectations and won their respective playoff spots and division titles at the end of the season.

這支球隊與Bob 07年的響尾蛇隊異常地像，當年他們在國聯冠軍系列戰被洛磯隊橫掃。同樣都在外界低期待下贏得季後賽資格與分區王座

Beane: I would agree with that. We have some young pitchers. They had some young position players. Stephen Drew was there. The thing I was most proud of our guys is, let's face it, for 161 games Texas was the best team in our division. It's a fact. To be able to go toe to toe with them to the end was incredible. We have a lot of respect for that group. We won a very difficult division. The Angels are in that division. Seattle is a very, very good competitive club, too. I mean, it was a grind getting here and these guys had to earn it.

我同意，我們有些年輕投手，他們有一些年輕野手，Stephen Drew當時也在。我們這一隊最讓我感到驕傲的是，在161場比賽期間，德州遊騎兵是我們這一區最好的隊伍，能與他們激烈地競爭到最後相當令人無法置信。我們相當尊敬對手。我們在相當困難的分區中勝出。天使在這一區，水手也是支相當相當具有競爭力的球隊



MLB.com: What did you see in Drew coming back from last year's serious ankle injury that you thought would fit in here? You made the deal with the D-backs and GM Kevin Towers so late in the season, on Aug. 20.

你如何看待Drew正從去年嚴重的踝傷回到球場，你想過他會適合這嗎?你和響尾蛇GM Kevin Towers很晚才達成交易，今年8月20日

Beane: Stephen's always been a guy people respect. As a shortstop, he has great ability. Kevin and I have a great relationship. At first, Kevin wasn't going to move him to us. We talked before the July 31 deadline, but we stayed in touch and as the season went on, we were able to make a deal. Stephen is a great talent. We needed a little help in the middle of the infield. Bob had some experience with him. Bob is a big fan of his. It was a little bit of a perfect storm with me and Kevin's relationship and what they were trying to do in Arizona. So it worked out for both sides.

Stephen (Drew)一直以來都是人們尊敬的傢伙。身為游擊手，他有很傑出的能力。Kevin (小蛇GM)與我有良好關係。起初，Kevin不想讓他來我們這。我們在731大限前談過，我們保持聯絡，隨著球季繼續進行下去，我們達成交易。Stephen有很棒的天賦。我們在內野中線這塊需要一些幫助。Bob (Melvin)與他合作過，Bob也是他的大粉絲



MLB.com: Are you going to pick up his option? There's a $10 million mutual option in his contract for next season.

你會撿他 (指Stephen Drew)的option嗎?他合約關於下一季的部份是1千萬美元的option，雙方都可提

Beane: We don't have to make that decision for awhile. He's a guy, looking down the road, we were aware the option was on there. That's a position we're going to have to fill moving forward so we'll figure it out at the end.

我們這一陣子不會做出決定。我們知道有option。我們將必須在將來填補(游擊)這個位置，所以我們會在最後做出判斷



MLB.com: You had two distinct offseasons. The first part, you moved Gio Gonzalez, Andrew Bailey and Trevor Cahill in trades, and then you later signed Crisp, Yoenis Cespedes and Bartolo Colon and traded for Seth Smith. What was the whole philosophy behind what you did?

你有兩個不同的休兵期。第一部分，你把 Gio Gonzalez, Andrew Bailey跟Trevor Cahill交易掉，接著你簽下Crisp, Yoenis Cespedes與Bartolo Colon，並將Seth Smith交易過來。這背後的哲學為何?

Beane: It's a good question, because people have a tendency to look at what we did during the winter, and we really didn't spend the whole winter tearing down. We traded guys and received 10 players back, and then, because of the financial flexibility, proceeded to build from there. There were just a number of things that were done. It's just that out of the gate we traded our three best players. When we were doing all our heavy lifting at that point people were watching the NFL playoffs and they weren't paying attention to what we were doing, which was kind of by design.

這是個好問題，因為人們有個趨勢，會看我們在冬天做什麼，我們並未花了整個冬天進行重組。我們將選手交易掉，並獲得10名選手，因為有財務彈性 (個人譯註: 達拉斯小牛在今年夏天也是出現了"flexibility"這個概念)，球隊則因此建立。僅完成了幾件事，只有將我們最好的三位球員進行交易。我們在人們觀看NFL季後賽時做了些繁重的事情，他們並未注意我們做了些什麼，一切都在計畫中



MLB.com: What did you see in Cespedes that other teams didn't?

你在Cespedes身上看到了些什麼別隊沒看到的?

Beane: Well, he's a great talent. Anytime you see him on a field, you can see that. And he's also the type of talent and player we don't usually have access to unless we happen to draft him. Certainly, that type of free agent is very difficult to bring into our place. And the timing helped us. A lot of teams, I think, had interest in him. But the fact that it was January and many teams had spent most their money and there were only a few that had any left probably helped us, too.

他有絕佳的天份，任何時候你看著球場上的他，你便能看到。他也是我們經常無法取得的那種有天份的選手，除非透過選秀。當然，這類的自由球員很難來到我們隊上，機緣幫了我們。我認為很多球隊對他有興趣。但事實是，今年一月，許多球隊已花了大筆的錢，所剩無幾，或許幫了我們



MLB.com: A $38 million contract is pretty out there for you guys. How did you get your managing partner, Lew Wolff, to go along with that?

一張3千8百萬的合約擺在那，你如何讓你的合夥人Lew Wolff同意?

Beane: Woo. He pats on the back now, but there was some risk. There's risk in any of those big deals. I thought as much as we could we did a good job with our homework, and it worked out. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

他目前相當讚揚，雖然當初是有些風險。任何大合約都有風險存在。我認為我們的功課做的很足，也做的很好，也成功了



MLB.com: The A's were 82-46 this year with Cespedes in your lineup, so he had to have the biggest impact on your club.

今年Cespedes出現在你們打線時，成績是82勝46敗，他對你們球團有重大影響

Beane: If you look at one guy, I guess that's true. But there's definitely a sum of the parts here. You look at each guy on our club -- Sean Doolittle, for example -- he's turned into one of the best setup guys in the league, and Ryan Cook, too. As you go through each guy, what you realize is that even though you might not have heard of them before, they're pretty good players. The Cahill deal worked out well for Arizona, and so did Gio in Washington. I've never viewed trades as a zero sum proposition. The idea is that both sides are trying to achieve certain things. In most cases this year that's the way it worked out, other than Bailey's injury. It was a disappointment that he got hurt.

如果你只看一名球員，我猜你說的對。但很明顯地是由許多部份所組成。你看看我們隊上每一名球員--拿Sean Doolittle來說--他變成聯盟最佳的setup投手之一，Ryan Cook也是。當你一一檢視每個人，你會了解即便你之前沒有聽過他們，他們(其實)都是相當棒的選手。Cahill交易案對於響尾蛇來說是成功的，Gio之於華盛頓國民隊也是。我從來不會將交易視為一樁零合的提案。兩邊都試著得到些什麼。今年除了Bailey受傷之外，大部分的交易案是成功的。他受傷令人有些失望



MLB.com: Really, since the All-Star break you have almost an entirely new team on the field.

明星賽後，你有一支幾近全新的隊伍在場上

Beane: We've had injuries. We've had to make changes on the fly. Brandon Moss was an outfielder. We converted him to a first baseman down at Triple-A for a week and brought him up. We picked up Brandon Inge after Scott Sizemore blew out his knee. Inge got hurt, so we brought Josh Donaldson back up to play third base. He was a catcher last year. That's the kind of season it's been.

我們有傷兵問題，我們必須做出改變。Brandon Moss曾是名外野手，我們在3A把他轉成一壘手一週 (BR上標示為13場)，再將他升上來。我們在Scott Sizemore傷了膝蓋後，將Brandon Inge撿來。Inge受傷後，我們將Josh Donaldson再度升上來守三壘。他去年是捕手。今年一直以來就是這樣子的球季



MLB.com: The other thing about this team that's different from the teams of a decade ago is that back then, you had the core of Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson. But this team ...

關於這支球隊的另一方面，它與十年前的那幾隊(A's)不同，那時候球隊核心有Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder與Tim Hudson等人，那這支球隊...

Beane: Is a blank canvas. Eighteen of the 25 guys weren't even with us last year. It's nice, though, when it comes together in one season like this.

空空的一幅畫，25人名單中有18人去年不在我們陣中。當它交織成今年的這般情景也不錯



MLB.com: And you won't have that kind of turnover this offseason.

這個休兵季你不會有像去年那樣 (大量)的球員流動了  (感謝天使的tunababy大指正)

Beane: That's the nice thing. I've already booked my Hawaii vacation. So it will be a little better for us.

那是件很棒的事情，我已預定好我的夏威夷假期


附註: 
去年曾簡單整理過懸而未決的球場議題可能會讓Billy Beane離去 (以本文進行相關更新，避免球迷疑惑到底Biilly Beane人還在不在運動家)；又一年過去了，球場仍未有著落 (AL West封王後，傳出A's要與奧克蘭當地政府協商延長球場租約)，不過豆爺目前仍是奧克蘭運動家的GM



延伸閱讀
你/妳怎能不愛A's ? (How can you not be romantic about A's ?)

Moneyball電影 (錢球/魔球)以及A's 2002年選秀回顧