Shane's review
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
by Michael M. Lewis
Shane's review
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael M. Lewis
Shane's review
rating:
bookshelves:
non-fiction,
owned-and-read
Moneyball is a book that shook the world of professional baseball, but not necessarily in the way it should have. Let me explain...
Moneyball is framed around the story of Billy Beane, a hot prospect who never panned out in the majors, who became general manager of the Oakland A's in 1997. Since that time, the A's, while consistently having one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, have been one of the best teams in the game. How is this possible? The book details how Beane and a few trusted associates began looking at the game in a different way. Instead of trusting scouting intuition and traditional baseball thinking, the A's began focusing on particular assets of players that were being undervalued by other teams. In this way, they were able to build winning teams using players that were overlooked or discarded by wealthier or less skilled organizations.
While straightforward statistical analysis is interesting enough to me (see my review of Baseball Between The Numbers), where ...more
Moneyball is framed around the story of Billy Beane, a hot prospect who never panned out in the majors, who became general manager of the Oakland A's in 1997. Since that time, the A's, while consistently having one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, have been one of the best teams in the game. How is this possible? The book details how Beane and a few trusted associates began looking at the game in a different way. Instead of trusting scouting intuition and traditional baseball thinking, the A's began focusing on particular assets of players that were being undervalued by other teams. In this way, they were able to build winning teams using players that were overlooked or discarded by wealthier or less skilled organizations.
While straightforward statistical analysis is interesting enough to me (see my review of Baseball Between The Numbers), where ...more
