Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Michael Lewis

[Majordave]

I got this book back in September while I was on leave in the States. My son asked for it as a birthday present. When I was buying his I decided it looked interesting, I had heard of it and so....

This is the story of Billy Beane, GM of the Oakland A's and the 2002 season. Beane essentially put the traditional way of evaluating and thus, the monetary value of baseball players on its proverbial ear. Beane, an ex-Major Leaguer, was labeled a "Can't Miss" prospect and was drafted by the Mets along with Daryl Strawberry in 1980 and played in a minor league outfield with Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra. Beane at the earliest days of his professional career was considered more valuable and more of a prospect than both of them based upon his body, "tools" and the essentially universal opinions of many scouts and many old baseball men. Although he did make a major league roster for a while his career never flourished like projected. His head just wasn't in it.

Beane knew that the mental makeup of a player and that certain intangible factors that were largely overlooked by almost everyone in baseball such as; on-base percentage, batting average with runners in scoring position and walks, were valuable to a team whereas certain things like the traditional defensive statistics were not all that important. He also threw away the usual premise or opinion that certain players had "bad bodies" and thus couldn't be a major league prospect while others had "great athletic bodies" and thus, like Billy, were a "can't miss" prospect. Beane sought to prove that the traditional scouting and baseball player evaluation metrics were not reliable or accurate.

Although the Oakland A's have not won a World Series since Beane took over they are still one of the most wins per dollar spent franchises. (or were at the time the book was written- I didn't update or compare as I am not a big stats guy.)

The biggest thing I learned from the book was the rise of the baseball statistics masters like Bill James and his various disciples in SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and the focus on the tremendous amount of statistics and analysis available that is familiar to many fantasy team junkies. It was very interesting to me. But, I must formally admit that I am not that big of a numbers guy. I don't play fantasy baseball or any other game but it was still interesting to learn how the seemingly arcane and esoteric statistics analysis can affect a team's business decision making. Even more fascinating to me was how such a gifted natural athlete like Beane, who made it as far as he did because of the traditional way baseball talent scouts and executives think and work, would rely upon those "numbers geeks" that everyone else hated to hear from and be around and take their analysis and advice to make decisions about seriously "undervalued" players and win with them.

This book was well worth the read in my opinion IF you love the game and want to see some of the inner workings from a business perspective instead of the usual anecdotal war story, humorous tales point of view we usually get to see/hear/read.

[midmoump]

I enjoyed this book also. I grew up playing ball in an era in which stereotypes abounded. No black quarterbacks, pitchers must be over 6', muscular kids aren't good baseball players. . . what horses*@t!

We still have many stereotypes that are being challenged. For instance, the stereotype that a left-hander can't catch. This notion is being challenged by college softball players with great success. There is also a good article on the subject if you are interested: http://www.hardballt...chers-for-2006/

Another stereotype that is flourishing is the "pitching mechanics" myth. Walter Johnson may have been the greatest and fastest pitcher to ever live and he pitched (with amazing control) like he was skipping rocks on his neighbor's pond. Notice in the video that he has no follow through. If he showed up today a pitching coach would first have a coronary and second change everything about his delivery.