Did Barako do an Oakland?

THERE are a number of things to consider in the avalanche of criticism that has fallen upon Barako Bull after its PBA Draft Day moves.

First, how a team can give up so many first round draft choices?  Second, how can a team not build for the long term?  And third, why all the silence from the Barako camp?

On the first point, PBA commissioner Chito Salud was perfectly right in saying that teams have the prerogative to decide on players and, subsequently, the fortunes of their roster.  But fans and basketball followers do have questions when such intriguing moves happen.

The opportunity to build with a new crop of young players presented itself to Barako Bull but they opted to go another route.

The financial aspects of the franchise, which we will never fully gain access to, have probably helped shape their decisions not to build for the long haul with young stars. The team probably could not foresee offering escalating salaries in the long term to young players and ended up dealing with existing contracts or terms of the veterans.

Being silent on the decisions is probably understandable because even the simplest explanation on Barako Bull’s part could lead to opening up issues that the company may not want to discuss in public.

And yet, there should be some explanation done because the PBA is a public domain and the fans need to gain some understanding on why certain decisions were made.

With this development, one cannot help but recall Moneyball, the sports movie based on the 2002 Oakland Athletics in baseball that had limited finances but clearly wanted to stay in the game.

General manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) connives with his Ivy League economics graduate and numbers fanatic assistant Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) to shake up baseball tradition.

They agree to use statistics more than the gut feel and experience of scouts and coaches to determine the value of players.  They rid the team of players who have star value but have been performing below par getting on base and scoring runs.  The old scouts of the game scoff at their ways and clash with this bold approach.

Beane and Brand played their cards under the financial circumstances they were in. After a rocky start, their gamble pays off with a 20-game winning streak and a spot in the playoffs.

Beane gets offered $12.5 million to manage the Boston Red Sox but refuses. The Red Sox go on to win the World Series two years later using Beane’s approach.

The actual PBA conferences will tell whether Barako Bull’s decisions were worth it or not. Just like the Oakland A’s, they will have to survive the tide when losses start piling up and the inevitable I-told-you-sos surface.

Their decision to go the routes they have chosen was clearly the big story of the draft. It was unavoidable that the limelight would turn on them.