Moneyball - Michael Lewis

Before going into my review, an introduction is needed for those of you who have never heard the phrase 'Moneyball', don't know who Billy Beane is, and think that sabermetrics involves crafting or wielding swords. This book is about the methods that Billy Beane, the general manager (GM) of the Oakland A's, uses to level the playing field against teams such as the Yankees that can afford to have a payroll of at least 3 times that of the A's. Considering that the Yankees can pay vast sums of money for free agents, there is no way that the A's (or other financially strapped teams) can compete with them using similar tactics. The Oakland A's are the first team that starts to take advantage of the development of sabermetrics, an increased study of baseball through existing and new statistics. Written in 2003, Moneyball follows Billy Beane's attempt to field a competitive team with one of the smallest payrolls in the league. He goes after players with 'bad bodies' and other flaws that can be had at the right price, but still fit into his system. Interwoven is a brief history and explanation of sabermetrics, and personal stories about Beane and some of the players the Moneyball approach helps him target.

Although this book has been pretty famous for a while, especially in the baseball community, I had yet to even think about reading it until now. I enjoy sports, but am not really a 'fanatic', and I never considered myself someone who read books about sports. That being said this was a fantastic read (after getting past the first 3 pages where he twice compared baseball prospects working out for scouts as 'sports cars being tested'). It was interesting, intellectually stimulating and had some great characters. I'm not sure how appealing it would be for someone who doesn't follow or enjoy baseball, but even for a casual baseball fan it's at least entertaining and makes you question everything you've ever learned about how to play baseball.

The Moneyball approach, as it is called now, emphasizes getting on base, avoiding outs, and scoring runs. This may sound like obvious way to play baseball, but as the statistical and analytical analysis done by sabermetrics has shown, many of the time honored baseball strategies don't follow this scheme. The starting point for this approach is 'which statistical measure is most highly coordinated with scoring the most amount of runs'. Suprisingly this is not batting average, steals, RBIs or any of the traditional ways offensive players are judged. The answer lies is on-base-percentage (OBP). Essentially the OBP modifies the batting average by including walks. Traditionally walks were thought to be mistakes by the pitcher, rather than something that batters can use in their arsenal to get on base. Also included in the Moneyball approach is de-emphasizing steals, discouraging sacrifice bunts, and from the managerial piont of view, drafting college players instead of high school 'phenoms' and sacrificing fielding ability for OBP.

Whether or not this results in compelling or fun baseball is another matter. Personally I find the American League strategy (perfected by Earl Weaver of the 70's Baltimore Orioles) of getting on base and waiting for a 3 run homerun dull. Hit and runs, stealing bases, and 'small ball' are exciting to watch! However Billy Beane and other baseball executives are in the business of winning games, not making them more fun. Another criticism I have of the method is that this book focused on an American League team, and thus it's approach the game involves the designated hitter. I imagine the statistical advantage of sacrifice bunting and stealing changes when there is an extremely deficient hitter at the plate.

However this book is not meant to be an all encompassing in terms of sabermetrics or baseball strategy. It's mostly the story of someone who went against the established way of thinking and the baseball 'insiders' to become very successful at evaluating players and putting a team together in quite an unorthodox fashion.

In terms of history, it's slightly disappointing how all of this has turned out. Because of the moderate success of Beane, many teams have started to take a similar approach, eliminating Oakland's advantage. More specifically, the Boston Red Sox have hired many people who invented, and obsess over sabermetrics and have combined this method with their huge payroll to become a modern baseball dynasty. At least the Yankees are still overpaying free agents with flashy numbers but little substance.