Moneyball by Michael Lewis

[jaybird2001wi]

I just got Moneyball for Christmas from my parents and my brother, who is also a big time baseball fan, said I will love the book. I have not had that much time to read a ton yet but have read up to page 65 in a matter of an hour and a half.

Does this book get better? I especially loved Chapter 2 when Billy Beane and his scouts were weeding out the problem players: "Put a Milo on him."

Another favorite quote was by Beane in the book, "Who was the freaking guy we had to release last year because he robbed a bank?"

 

So far the book has been so coincidental. The scouts wanted the A's to draft Ben Sheets instead of Barry Zito. Beane ignored his scouts and drafted Zito. Another interesting thing is, the Athletics were set on drafting Nick Swisher while the White Sox showed interest in him. Lo and behold, Swisher was traded to the White Sox this winter. Makes me wonder if some of these teams continually follow the players they wanted in the draft for quite some time and wait to pounce even when they are in the Majors to acquire in a trade.

[cweber39]

Ok, but maybe you don't want to give away what the book is about

[brewerjamie15]

I sorta forgot some of the stuff you mention. I read the book. It made for light reading that was pretty interesting. Wait 'till ya get to the Kevin Youkillis stuff. He's the Greek God of Walks ya know...

I may have to go back and re-read that puppy sometime.

[RobertR]

Michael Lewis's premature fawning over the A's draft of that year is likely to read as comedy now. Much of the book is still relevant, although through a combination of Lewis's writing and pigheadishness by some readers, I think the basic point of looking for and exploiting economic inefficiencies has been misunderstood. In retrospect, the part that talks about defense probably said more about the immediate future of the A's than even Lewis knew.

 

Robert

[Hart Of Milwaukee]

I agree that it is somewhat comedical, but you have to read the part about Chad Bradford and how he learned to pitch, it is just an amazing story (don't want to give away the details).

[davego]

I loved that book. Good points about what it really was addressing; undervalued assists.

[rluzinski]

Defense doesn't matter and Fielder is too fat. Opps. Still a decent read but Lewis really didn't play "fair", IMO.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Haven't plugged it in awhile, so I'll say again Alan Schwarz' The Numbers Game is a must read to fill in the Moneyball holes.

 

Sandy Alderson and Eric Walker live.

[Oldcity]

Wait, I thought Billy Beane wrote this?

[dogs with bees in their mo]

The book is a good read, has some excellent human-interest type of angles, and is a nice introduction to the background behind sabermetrics. But I think others have stated it well to say that some of Lewis' conclusions are ill-founded. The problem is that throughout the book, likely because of the access he was given, he unapologetically jumps on the A's bandwagon and basically becomes Billy Beane's disciple and prophet.

[dadofandrew]

What loses many people, including Jim Sickels, who I'm sure just ignores it, is Beane did not have the cash available to just draft the highest rated player with all his picks...so, he found an out-of-the-box way to draft. The Twins did the same thing last year, to save money.

 

Beane's entire philosophy has been to look for undervalued players or talents. He signed Emil Brown to a contract about 40% of Craig Monroe's for example, as Gleeman pointed out yesterday. His run of success with his payroll limitations is beyond compare.