The 'Moneyball' Myth
By ALLEN BARRA
WSJ
Did Billy Beane really discover a game changer?
The story was about a good-looking former jock, Billy Beane, whose enormous talent wasn't enough for him to make it as a ballplayer, so he made up his mind to succeed as a baseball executive. He went with the Oakland A's, the last team he played for and one of the smallest-market teams in the major leagues, as an advance scout in 1990, working his way up to general manager in eight years.
Lacking the resources of big-market clubs, Mr. Beane found a way to win with brains, using "sabermetrics"—statistics championed by the hugely influential analyst Bill James and by members of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. The key stat was on-base percentage, which measures a hitter's ability to reach base by hit or walk (as opposed to batting average, which includes only hits).
OBP was dear to Mr. Beane's heart because players who excelled at simply reaching base were often overlooked by scouts and managers and thus could be purchased at bargain prices.
With very nearly the lowest payroll in baseball, Mr. Beane, armed with this knowledge, put together a team that fought its way to the top—or near the top. In 2002, as Mr. Lewis observed the team up close for his book, the A's won 103 games, despite having lost their major stars to free agency. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, but changed baseball in the process.
(More here.)
WSJ
Did Billy Beane really discover a game changer?
The story was about a good-looking former jock, Billy Beane, whose enormous talent wasn't enough for him to make it as a ballplayer, so he made up his mind to succeed as a baseball executive. He went with the Oakland A's, the last team he played for and one of the smallest-market teams in the major leagues, as an advance scout in 1990, working his way up to general manager in eight years.
Lacking the resources of big-market clubs, Mr. Beane found a way to win with brains, using "sabermetrics"—statistics championed by the hugely influential analyst Bill James and by members of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. The key stat was on-base percentage, which measures a hitter's ability to reach base by hit or walk (as opposed to batting average, which includes only hits).
OBP was dear to Mr. Beane's heart because players who excelled at simply reaching base were often overlooked by scouts and managers and thus could be purchased at bargain prices.
With very nearly the lowest payroll in baseball, Mr. Beane, armed with this knowledge, put together a team that fought its way to the top—or near the top. In 2002, as Mr. Lewis observed the team up close for his book, the A's won 103 games, despite having lost their major stars to free agency. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, but changed baseball in the process.
(More here.)
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