Billy Beane can be as arrogant as he wants to be right now. Because when those off- season moves of getting rid of Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder where made, it seemed like every baseball analysis and their fathers were thinking Beane's self-assurance of evaluating talent and keeping his budget low had finally gone deep to his head. And when the first two and a half month of the season was over, when the A's where 15 games under .500, it seemed that Beane has outsmarted himself at the least. Bubby Crosby was hurt, the offense was Triple A bad, Eric Chavez couldn't do anything but play bad baseball, Octavio Dotel was blowing save after blown save, Dan Meyer wasn't ready for pitching big games and Barry Zito, the one pitcher out of the A's former "big three" who many thought should have been the one to go, was already a shadow of his 2003 CY Young form.

But even if this season wasn't a success, Beane laid down the foundation for the future once again just like he did six years ago for the A's. Either way, whether he would win now or not, it would be mute, because this team was built for the future. For him to expect them to contend right away, however, seemed like he had lost his mind.

Now, once again, we are humbled by the latest mid season turnaround this Oakland team annually has. Its flat ridiculous how the Athletics are playing, because this team is a 179.999 degree difference from the atrocious team it was just a month and a half ago. The clutch hitting has been timely, the pitching of Zito, Harden, Haren, and Joe Blanton has been terrific, and Hudson Street in the bullpen is already one of the better closers in the game. But if Beane is to get approbation once again for this team's unreal success, then Ken Mecha has to be with Ozzie Guillen as AL manager of the year. He kept this team having fun every day when it seemed this season would be one full of learning curbs.

They play the Yankees this week, a chance to show the entire country why they are a team to not be played with, just like the White Sox sort of did this week.   The Yankees put their season at the total nadir this season with the smack fest they gave them in Oakland this year. Now, it's the A's chance to give back the pain. This could possibly be the Yankee's season this week.

But then again, with how the Red Sox have been playing, and how up and down the Yankees have been, it seems like every week since the beginning of May is their season