Moneyball the Art of Winning an Unfair Game Michael Lewis

2003 book by Michael Lewis

Moneyball
The Fine art of Winning an Unfair Game

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Author	Michael Lewis
State	United States
Linguistic communication	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Due west. West. Norton & Visitor
Publication date	June 17, 2003
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	288 pp.
ISBN	978-0-393-05765-two
OCLC	51817522
Dewey Decimal	796.357/06/91
LC Class	GV880 .L49 2003
Preceded by	Next: The Future But Happened
Followed past	Bus: Lessons on the Game of Life

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, nigh the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general director Billy Beane. Its focus is the team'south belittling, prove-based, sabermetric arroyo to assembling a competitive baseball team despite Oakland's pocket-sized budget. A film based on Lewis' book, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, was released in 2011.

Synopsis [edit]

The cardinal premise of Moneyball is that the collective wisdom of baseball insiders (including players, managers, coaches, scouts, and the front office) over the by century is outdated, subjective, and often flawed. Statistics such as stolen bases, runs batted in, and batting average, typically used to gauge players, are relics of a 19th-century view of the game and the statistics available at that fourth dimension. Before sabermetrics was introduced to baseball, teams were dependent on the skills of their scouts to discover and evaluate players. Scouts are experienced in the sport, ordinarily having been players or coaches.^[1] The book argues that the Oakland A's' front part took advantage of more analytical gauges of player functioning to field a team that could outsmart and better compete against richer competitors in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Rigorous statistical analysis had demonstrated that on-base percentage and slugging percent are better indicators of offensive success, and the A's became convinced that these qualities were cheaper to obtain on the open up market place than more historically valued qualities such as running speed and defense. These observations often flew in the confront of conventional baseball wisdom and the beliefs of many baseball scouts and executives.

By re-evaluating their strategy in this way, the 2002 Athletics, with approximately $44 million in bacon, were competitive with larger market place teams such equally the New York Yankees, who spent over $125 meg in payroll that season. Considering of its smaller budget, Oakland had to find players undervalued by the market, and their arrangement has proven itself thus far. The arroyo brought the A's to the playoffs in 2002 and 2003.

Lewis explored several themes in the volume, such as insiders vs. outsiders (established traditionalists vs. upstart proponents of sabermetrics), the democratization of information causing a flattening of hierarchies, and "the ruthless drive for efficiency that capitalism demands".

Distribution of team salaries in 2002. Team salaries ranged from about $35 million (the Tampa Bay Devil Rays) to about $120 meg (the New York Yankees)
The Oakland Athletics had the third-everyman team payroll in the league (about $40 million) marginally college than that of the Montreal Expos, whose franchise was transferred to the Washington Nationals in 2005.

Moneyball also touches on the A's' methods of prospect choice. Sabermetricians argue that a higher baseball player's hazard of MLB success is much higher than the more than traditional loftier school draft pick. Beane maintains that high draft picks spent on high school prospects, regardless of talent or physical potential as evaluated by traditional scouting, are riskier than those spent on more than polished college players. Adding on, college players take played more games and thus there is a larger mass of statistical data to base expensive decisions off. Lewis cites A's small leaguer Jeremy Bonderman, drafted out of high school in 2001 over Beane's objections, equally an example of the type of draft pick Beane would avert. Bonderman had all of the traditional "tools" that scouts look for, merely thousands of such players take been signed by MLB organizations out of loftier schoolhouse over the years and failed to develop as anticipated. Lewis explores the A's approach to the 2002 MLB draft, when the team had a run of early on picks. The volume documents Beane'south frequently tense discussions with his scouting staff (who favored traditional subjective evaluation of potential rather than objective sabermetrics) in training for the draft to the actual typhoon, which defied all expectations and was considered at the fourth dimension a wildly successful (if unorthodox) effort by Beane.

Moneyball traces the history of the sabermetric motion back to such people as Neb James (then a fellow member of the Boston Ruby-red Sox front end office) and Craig R. Wright. Lewis explores how James'due south seminal Baseball Abstract, published annually from the late 1970s through the late 1980s, influenced many of the immature, up-and-coming baseball minds that are at present joining the ranks of baseball game management.

Influence [edit]

Moneyball has entered baseball's lexicon; teams that value sabermetrics are often said to exist playing "Moneyball." Baseball traditionalists, in item some scouts and media members, decry the sabermetric revolution and have disparaged Moneyball for emphasizing sabermetrics over more traditional methods of thespian evaluation. Nevertheless, Moneyball changed the way many major league front offices exercise business concern. In its wake, teams such as the New York Mets, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians,^[2] and the Toronto Blue Jays have hired total-fourth dimension sabermetric analysts.

When the Mets hired Sandy Alderson – Beane's predecessor and mentor with the A'southward – as their general director after the 2010 flavour, and hired Beane'due south quondam associates Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi to the forepart office, the team was jokingly referred to as the "Moneyball Mets".^[3] Like the Oakland A'south in the 1990s, the Mets have been directed by their buying to slash payroll. Under Alderson's tenure, the team payroll dropped below $100 million per twelvemonth from 2012 to 2014, and the Mets reached the 2015 Earth Serial (defeating MLB's highest-payroll team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, en route).

In the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the Tampa Bay Rays were considered masters of Moneyball, reaching the 2020 World Series with a payroll prorated at The states$28.two one thousand thousand, third-everyman out of Major League Baseball'due south 30 teams.^{[four] [5]}

Lewis has best-selling that the book's success may have hurt the Athletics' fortunes every bit other teams accepted sabermetrics, reducing Oakland's edge.^[6]

Daryl Morey'due south analytical approach in the NBA has been chosen "Moreyball".

Since the book'southward publication and success, Lewis has discussed plans for a sequel to Moneyball chosen Underdogs, revisiting the players and their relative success several years into their careers, although only iv players from the 2002 typhoon played much at the Major League level.

Moneyball has also influenced and been influenced by other professional sports teams including European order association football (soccer). Beane has regarded Arsenal'southward sometime manager Arsène Wenger as a personal idol. Beane has held discussions with Wenger, former Manchester United F.C. director Sir Alex Ferguson, and Liverpool F.C. owner John W. Henry.^[seven] His friendship with ex-Arsenal spotter Damien Comolli and Arsenal possessor Stan Kroenke allowed him to delve deep into the globe of English football.^[8] Co-ordinate to El País, Liverpool F.C. co-owner John Westward. Henry did not trust public stance and so he looked for a mathematical method similar to the one used for the Boston Scarlet Sox (in guiding them to three Globe Series wins) which he also owns via Fenway Sports Grouping.^[nine] The mathematical model turned out to be that of Cambridge physicist Ian Graham, which was used to select the manager (Jürgen Klopp) and players essential for Liverpool to win the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League.^{[10] [xi]}

People discussed in the book [edit]

Moneyball covers the lives and careers of several baseball personalities. The key 1 is Billy Beane, whose failed playing career is contrasted with wildly optimistic predictions by scouts.

Players and people discussed in Moneyball:

Oakland farm organisation [edit]

Nick Swisher, the prospect the traditional scouts and statisticians agreed upon.

• Barry Zito – 2002 AL Cy Immature winner, function of the "Big 3" with Mulder and Hudson (below)
• Marking Mulder – role of the "Large three" with Zito and Hudson
• Tim Hudson – Not drafted by Beane; part of the "Big 3" with Mulder and Zito
• Kirk Saarloos
• John Baker
• Joe Blanton
• Jason Giambi – Not drafted by Beane. 2000 AL MVP, signed with the New York Yankees in 2002 for $120 one thousand thousand over vii years
• Miguel Tejada – Non drafted by Beane; 2002 AL MVP
• Eric Chavez – Not drafted by Beane; six-time AL Gold Glove winner
• Jeremy Brown
• Nick Swisher
• Bobby Crosby
• Marker Teahen
• Jeremy Bonderman – traded to the Detroit Tigers in 2002

Oakland bullpen [edit]

• Jason Isringhausen – signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2001–02 offseason
• Baton Koch – 2002 AL Relief Pitcher of the Twelvemonth
• Chad Bradford
• Jim Mecir
• Ricardo Rincón
• Mike Magnante

Other players [edit]

• Kevin Youkilis – referred to in the book as the "Greek God of Walks". Youkilis was drafted in 2001 by the Boston Red Sox and heavily desired past Beane, who tried to snare him via a failed three-team trade discussed in the book.
• Prince Fielder – son of former slugger Cecil Fielder, drafted in 2002 past the Milwaukee Brewers. Claimed by Beane to exist "as well fat" fifty-fifty for the A'south.
• B. J. Upton, now known by his birth name of Melvin Upton, Jr. – cited as an example of "bad high schoolhouse" draft pick.
• Scott Kazmir – cited as an example of teams' – in this case the New York Mets – foolishness in drafting loftier school pitchers because of the difficulty in projecting their hereafter, as opposed to college players.
• Jamie Moyer – so with the Seattle Mariners
• Ray Durham – traded to the Oakland A's in the center of 2002, cited as a potent base-stealer and "rent-a-player": an impending costless amanuensis who would likely attract large offers from other clubs with larger available payrolls than Oakland's while leaving Oakland with draft picks in the next year's draft, a dominion since abolished with the 2011 Major League Baseball Commonage Bargaining Agreement. Durham would somewhen sign with the San Francisco Giants.
• Terrence Long
• Erik Hiljus
• David Justice
• Jeremy Giambi
• Alex Rodriguez – Beane compares A-Rod's stats to those of Eric Chavez.
• Greg Maddux
• Cliff Floyd
• Alfonso Soriano
• Jeff Francis
• Zack Greinke – drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2002
• Scott Hatteberg

Scouts, management, and journalists [edit]

• Baton Beane – GM
• Paul DePodesta – Assistant GM
• David Forst – scout
• Grady Fuson – Head of scouting
• Ron "Hoppy" Hopkins – National cross-checker sentry
• Chris Pittaro – lookout
• J. P. Ricciardi – worked nether Beane and DePodesta as Managing director of Thespian Personnel
• Sandy Alderson – Beane'due south predecessor and mentor with the Athletics
• Peter Gammons – Sportswriter
• Art Howe – Oakland manager
• Ron Washington – Athletics coach
• Joe Morgan – Hall of Fame second baseman and ESPN broadcaster
• Steve Phillips – New York Mets GM
• Bill James – baseball game author and statistician whose Baseball Abstract books greatly influenced Beane
• Omar Minaya – Montreal Expos GM

Analysis of the 2002 Major League Baseball draft [edit]

Beane's list [edit]

Beane assembled a list of xx players they would draft in a "perfect world"; meaning if money was no object and they did not have to compete with the other 20-nine teams.

The listing, and the teams who drafted them:

Pitchers

• Jeremy Guthrie – Cleveland, #22 (1st circular)
• Joe Blanton – Oakland, #24 (1st round Marin)
• Jeff Francis – Colorado, #ix (1st circular)
• Luke Hagerty – Chicago Cubs, #32 (1st round)
• Ben Fritz – Oakland, #thirty (1st round)
• Robert Brownlie – Chicago Cubs, #21 (1st round)
• Stephen Obenchain – Oakland, #37 (1st round)
• Bill Irish potato – Oakland, #98 (3rd circular)

Hitters

• Nick Swisher – Oakland, #16 (1st round)
• Russ Adams – Toronto, #fourteen (1st round)
• Khalil Greene – San Diego, #13 (1st circular)
• John McCurdy – Oakland, #26 (1st circular)
• Mark Teahen – Oakland, #39 (1st round)
• Jeremy Brownish – Oakland, #35 (1st round)
• Steve Stanley – Oakland, #67 (2nd circular)
• John Baker – Oakland, #128 (4th round)
• Mark Kiger – Oakland, #158 (5th round)
• Brian Stavisky – Oakland, #188 (6th round)
• Shaun Larkin – Cleveland, #274 (9th round)
• Brant Colamarino – Oakland, #218 (7th round)

Oakland's picks [edit]

• #16 – Nick Swisher – successful major leaguer, traded to Chicago White Sox afterwards 2007
• #24 – Joe Blanton – successful major leaguer, traded to Philadelphia Phillies in 2008
• #26 – John McCurdy – never made MLB. Last played minor league ball in 2006.
• #30 – Ben Fritz – never fabricated MLB. Concluding played pocket-size league ball in 2010.
• #35 – Jeremy Brownish – MLB experience consists of 11 plate appearances for Oakland in 2006. Last played minor league ball in 2007.
• #37 – Stephen Obenchain – never fabricated MLB. Last played pocket-size league ball in 2006.
• #39 – Marking Teahen – spent parts of viii seasons in MLB, played only in the minors in 2012 and 2013.
• #67 – Steve Stanley – never made MLB. Concluding played minor league ball in 2006.
• #98 – Bill Spud – MLB debut in 2007, pitched approximately xviii innings in MLB. Has played simply in foreign and minor leagues since 2009.
• #128 – John Baker – traded to the Florida Marlins and has played around 300 total games in six MLB seasons.
• #158 – Mark Kiger – MLB feel consists of 1+ 2⁄iii innings at second base for Oakland in the 2006 American League Championship Serial. Never played in the MLB regular flavour. Last played minor league ball in 2009.
• #188 – Brian Stavisky – never made MLB. Terminal played modest league ball in 2010.
• #218 – Brant Colamarino – never made MLB. Last played minor league brawl in 2007.

Reception [edit]

Richard H. Thaler of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business organization and Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago Law School described the book as a "sensation... Lewis has a wonderful story to tell, and he tells it wonderfully... Lewis as well raises some serious puzzles that he does not resolve, and his business relationship has some large and perchance profound implications that he does not much explore."^[12]

David Haglund of Slate and Jonah Keri of Grantland have both criticized the book for glossing over primal young talent caused through the typhoon and signed internationally. Specifically, they have argued that the book ignores the pitching trio of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito, likewise every bit position players such as Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada, all of whom were discovered via traditional scouting methodology and were key contributors to the success of the 2002 Athletics. In 2002, Barry Zito received the AL Cy Young Laurels and Miguel Tejada received the AL MVP Accolade. ^{[13] [14]}

Film [edit]

A movie based on the book was released in 2011. Actor Brad Pitt stars equally Billy Beane, while Jonah Hill plays a fictional graphic symbol based on Paul DePodesta; Philip Seymour Hoffman plays A's manager Art Howe. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian was hired to write the script, and Steven Soderbergh was slated to straight, replacing David Frankel.^[xv] Merely in June 2009, considering of conflicts over a revised script by Soderbergh, Sony put the movie on hold just days earlier it was scheduled to begin shooting.^[16] Soderbergh was eventually allow get.

Bennett Miller took over directing duties,^[17] and Aaron Sorkin rewrote the script.^[17] Shooting began in July 2010 at Blair Field, the Sports Stadium for Wilson High School (Long Beach, California), Sony Studios in Culver City, Dodger Stadium, and the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum.^{[eighteen] [xix]} The film was released in theaters on September 23, 2011. Moneyball was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Thespian and Best Picture.

In pop civilization [edit]

The volume is parodied in the 2010 Simpsons episode "MoneyBART", in which Lisa manages Bart'south Little League baseball game squad using sabermetric principles. Bill James fabricated an appearance in this episode. The film accommodation is mentioned in Brooklyn Nine-Nine equally being Captain Raymond Holt's favourite pic because of the beauty of its statistical analysis.

See also [edit]

• Evidence-based practices
• Casey Award
• Brawl Four
• Bull Durham
• Nate Silver who developed PECOTA, the Actor Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, to predict baseball role player performance

References [edit]

Notes

1. ^ "A Written report of Sabermetrics in Major League Baseball game: The Bear on of Moneyball on Free Agent Salaries" (PDF).
2. ^ Woolner, Keith (2007-05-04). "Manufactures | Aim For The Head: Aim For the Front end Office". Baseball game Prospectus. Retrieved 2011-09-24 .
3. ^ "The Moneyball Mets". New York. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-06 .
4. ^ Rogers, Martin (Oct ten, 2019). "The Tampa Bay Rays are the undisputed kings of Moneyball" – via www.foxsports.com.
5. ^ Rubin, Shayna (Oct 20, 2020). "World Series: Why Tampa Bay Rays do 'Moneyball' improve than Oakland A's" – via www.mercurynews.com.
   Northward.B. While this reference uses "28th lowest", it clearly means 28th highest (out of 30), aka third-everyman.
6. ^ "Michael Lewis on A's 'Moneyball' legacy". San Francisco Chronicle. eighteen September 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-23 .
7. ^ Lyttleton, Ben (March 26, 2015). "Why Billy Beane was right to avert the EPL and work with AZ Alkmaar" – via world wide web.theguardian.com.
8. ^ Bascombe, Chris (October 13, 2011). "Arsenal managing director Arsène Wenger is an idol of mine, says revered baseball jitney Billy Beane". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved June eighteen, 2012.
9. ^ O'Connor, Luke (two Nov 2015). "Jurgen Klopp & Liverpool'southward 'Moneyball' Policy". PunditArena.com . Retrieved four June 2019.
10. ^ Maupomé, Ana Paulina (3 June 2019). "Moneyball, Liverpool's reason behind Jürgen Klopp'southward hiring". as.com . Retrieved 4 June 2019.
11. ^ Prentice, David (May 24, 2019). "Unknown LFC backroom male child who convinced Klopp to sign Salah & Keita". liverpoolecho.
12. ^ "Who'southward On First". New Republic. 2003-09-01. Retrieved 2017-02-09 .
13. ^ "More than Moneyball, Same Issues". Slate. 2011-09-21. Retrieved 2017-05-22 .
14. ^ "Baseball game's Big Three: A Look Back at Tim Hudson, Marker Mulder, and Barry Zito in Oakland". Grantland. 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2017-05-22 .
15. ^ Siegel, Tatiana. "Columbia pitches Moneyball to Pitt", Variety (October 16, 2008).
16. ^ ""Benched: 'Moneyball' Flick on Concur at Last Minute", Associated Press (June 22, 2009)". Sports.espn.go.com. 2009-06-22. Retrieved 2011-09-24 .
17. ^ ^{a b} Fleming, Mike (12 Apr 2010). ""Finally, It's Concoction Up For 'Moneyball,'" Deadline.com (April 12, 2010)". Borderline.com. Retrieved 2011-09-24 .
18. ^ ""'Moneyball' begins filming in Oakland", ABC7 KGO-TV San Francisco, California (July 27, 2010)". Abclocal.go.com. 2010-07-27. Retrieved 2011-09-24 .
19. ^ "'Moneyball' films scenes in Dodger Stadium". Los Angeles Times. 2010-09-14. Retrieved 2011-09-24 .

External links [edit]

• Moneyball (book details) – The Official Michael Lewis website
• Majoring In Moneyball past John Manuel
• Billy Beane'due south Perfect Typhoon: A Baseball game Revolution? by Richard van Zandt – guest cavalcade at BaseballEvolution.com (April 13, 2006)
• Roberts, Russ (January 29, 2007). "Michael Lewis on the Hidden Economic science of Baseball game and Football". EconTalk. Library of Economics and Freedom.

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