LAS VEGAS — Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane pointed his aggressive more to add Matt Holliday and some of the other “bigger-name” deals his club has linked to as proof that the A’s have some payroll to play with. What he didn’t agree with was a term used in the question about how small-market teams — like Tampa Bay, Oakland, et. al. — get competitive and then stay competitive.

He didn’t accept the definition of Oakland as small market.

“We’re a micromarket,” Beane said. “That’s the new term. There’s small market and there’s micromarket.”

Asked to define the new term he joked was just started then and there, Beane said.

“It’s small market only smaller.”

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Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, was seen in a hoodie around the lobby at the Bellagio with one of his now-famous sayings. Underneath a Rays logo, his pullover read: “regurgitation” with a bright red circle and slash through it. Maddon was asked Monday about former St. Louis Cardinals reliever Troy Percival’s recovery from back surgery: “I talked to Percy before and after the surgery, and he felt really good. He throught it went really well. Somehow I guess cleaned things out a bit to relieve some of the pressure in the lower half there. He was very optimistic. According to him, I don’t know if he would be ready right for the opening of the season, but it could be something relatively close. He was really optimistic.”