"If"
An Angel fan's favorite word.
The A's had their share of injuries... Jermaine Dye, Tim Hudson, Eric Chavez, Mark Ellis, Damian Miller, Erubiel Durazo, Chad Bradford, Kirk Saarloos, Chris Hammond, Billy McMillon, etc. etc.... Injuries are no excuse. The team is what matters. If someone goes down, someone should be able to pick up the slack.
The A's hardly have "cheap" players, i.e. Eric Chavez- 6 years, $66 million, I think Dye is getting like $10 million... They just know how to develop talent. They have the best GM in the business (Billy Beane,) someone even wrote a book about it (Moneyball) which was picked up by Sony earlier this year for a movie. I'd rather watch a player come up through the organization, from the draft to the majors and become contenders than have the team hire "superstar" players that still can't get the job done right.