Philosophy on young players

So we are fast approaching the "play the kids" portion of the season. In fact we are already there, its just a matter of when the M's braintrust wakes up and sees it.

I saw this quote from Billy Beane on Athletics Nation:

We think Daric is going to be a great major league hitter and we just have to exercise patience. If a time comes that we feel that a young player needs to go down to get some more experience, we will. But in Daric’s case part of becoming a good major league player is being allowed to go through some struggles. Very few guys come up and hit their whole career. That’s just part of becoming a major league player.

Of course it is folly to compare the A's front office to the Mariners. Sheer folly. But the M's as an organization are completely inconsistent about how they handle young players.

As minor leaguers, they are rushed up the ladder to the point of foolishness. Bavasi has said, on a number of occaisions, that they want to challenge their prospects, get them to face adversity at an early level and learn from it.

Yet when young players come up, they are not given the chance to learn from adversity at the big league level. They are generally given about a week to prove themselves, and if they do not kick ass in that week they are sent back down. And then usually traded for veteran dreck.

Just another way our front office totally doesn't get it. And its frustrating.