I try not to get carried away with the optimism. I will say that I haven't been this pumped since Donahoe was GM and we had that offseason where we got Adams, Spikes etc. and had Bledsoe, then got Milloy just before the opener.
In retrospect Donahoe was one of those GMs who was partly out to show how smart he was and to make a splash. I think that's why he got McGahee when we didn't really need him. It came across as a 'smart' move that would get the media buzzing, which it did.
You could say that's what Beane was trying to do in going after AB but I don't see that as the same, and the guys he's got in FA I see as intelligent moves that are under the radar a bit, sort of like Poyer and Hyde were