The A's have a very low budget and very little fan support. This forces management to trade players once they attain good market value for low paid, promising palyers and restructure the team every year. If you consider what they are able to do, year after year, with new players (often minor league call ups) they should be touted as a success. Every year the A's are not supposed to be in the playoffs, but every year they seem to be there. The Yankees have to spend triple, if not more, the A's payroll to make it to playoffs.