Beane and A's Build Potential Contender, if Nothing Else It is now an annual tradition at the baseball writers" All-Star lunch with Commissioner Bud Selig. Someone asks Selig about his committee to study a new stadium for the Oakland Athletics - while pointing out how many months it has been since the study began. The current count is 39, but Selig offered no hope for a resolution, saying only that he still needed answers regarding the complicated turf war between San Francisco and Oakland. So the Athletics remain in limbo, blocked from moving to San Jose, Calif., forever preparing for a ballpark opening somewhere in the distance. "We're just sitting here waiting," said Billy Beane, the A's general manager since 1997. I've been through these cycles quite a few times. I'm not sure if I can go through it again. It is a bit disheartening. But a funny thing has happened at the start of this latest cycle of trading established players for prospects. The A's are contending. They arrived at the All-Star break with a .500 record, only two and a half games short of the second wild-card spot in the American League. They are almost accidental contenders, a product of the expanded playoff field and the unexpected maturity of the prospects Beane acquired last winter for his last three All-Stars: pitchers Andrew Bailey, Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez. Oakland Manager Bob Melvin said he would rather his players not even notice the standings. "Based on everything that we've gone through with the personnel, the turnover and so forth, that's the last thing we need to worry about," said Melvin, who was a coach at the All-Star Game. In September, you're very aware of that, so we'd like to get to September trying to get better and better. I think that's just a distraction that we don't need. Early in Beane's tenure, he typically kept players until they were eligible for free agency - Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Barry Zito - and collected draft picks when they left. Then, Beane said, he began to trade players a year before free agency. But in Bailey, Cahill and Gonzalez, Beane dealt players who were all at least three years from free agency. By sending Bailey to Boston, Cahill to Arizona and Gonzalez to Washington, he acquired 10 players. The goal, Beane said, was to stockpile young talent that could coalesce when (and if) the A's moved to San Jose. Yet four of the new players - closer Ryan Cook, starters Tommy Milone and Jarrod Parker, and outfielder Josh Reddick - have been among the team's best producers. The deals saved money for the A's, to be sure, but Bailey, Cahill and Gonzalez each earn less than $4 million this season. Their low salaries increased their trade value. "The fact of the matter is that in today's game, it's no longer only small- or midmarket teams that value young players," Beane said. It's just as necessary for the Yankees to have young players with a few years of control as it is for the Twins or the A's. Gonzalez, for example, appealed greatly to many teams, including the large-market Red Sox. The widespread interest helped Beane extract four players from the Nationals, who quickly signed Gonzalez to a contract extension that could keep him in Washington through 2018. Gonzalez was an All-Star this season, but so was Cook, who came from Arizona with modest expectations but had a 1.41 earned run average and eight saves in the first half. "I was just trying to make the squad out of camp, and all this happened," said Cook, who struck out Bryce Harper and David Wright while working a scoreless seventh inning in the All-Star Game in Kansas City, Mo. This whole ride, coming so unexpected, I'm just trying to hang on and enjoy it. So are the A's, who are not quite sure if they are for real. That is Beane's job to decide before the July 31 deadline for trades without waivers. He may try to add to the team, or he may hold off. "Listen, in this business, if you're ever presented with an opportunity, particularly in a small market, you have to take advantage of it," Beane said. But then again, you also have to be realistic, too. Are you good enough for the long haul? The young Athletics, who never expected to be in a playoff race, are about to find out.