Here is the opening to my Sunday column about Billy Beane, wheeler-dealer:

We were talking about Oakland A’s closer Grant Balfour the other night on CSN Bay Area and how Balfour needed surgery and won’t be ready for another month or so. Host Jim Kozimor asked the relevant question: If Balfour can’t return in four weeks, is Oakland in a pickle — not that he used the word “pickle.”

Kozimor, Barry Tompkins and I batted around — bunted around? — the idea that the A’s already have two potential closers in Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle, so there’s no need for an SOS.

And then it occurred to me. The A’s are in no trouble at all. This is Billy Beane’s team. He thinks closers are overrated and refuses to pay big bucks for them.

But that’s not even the point. The main point is Beane himself, the kind of man he is, and he will get a closer if he needs one.

To read the full column, click here.

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