Moneyball

Don't forget the Red Sox to some degree took more performance-analysis-related shit than the A's: the bullpen-by-committee [sic] feeding frenzy in early 2003, the hiring of Bill James, the defense issues around the Nomar trade, etc.

i don't think i could stomach it.

also
"Jim Baker on why star players shouldn’t hurl themselves into the stands"

fuck that shit. i mean seroiusly, what the fuck. ppl seem to have forgotten just how important that out was.

Shanks then ends the book with a direct assault on Moneyball:

There are two differences that set the A's and the other 'Moneyballers' apart from the rest of baseball. First, their use of statistics is extreme, believing that on-base percentage is the primary indication of big-league success, and that stats override makeup in determining who will make it to the show. Also, speed and defense are trivial. It's all about OBP.

Secondly, due to their financial restrictions, the A's claim that if they're going to spend money on draft picks, they must not miss. They feel the best way to get a value pick is to emphasize college players and to almost ignore talent from the high school level.

(i don't know what's said after this in the piece so i might be redundant here)

shanks is essentially arguing with michael lewis here. this may've been the model put forth in Moneyball (but i'm not certain and it's almost certainly even further oversimplified here), and it might well've been the a's model at the time, but it's got almost nothing to do w/ how the a's have won games over the past 3 years (or drafted this year). obv central thesis = finding undervalued quantities. those quantities of the moment, in beane's view, seem to be defense, and high school arms. beane's ability to adapt and the fluidity of his sytem are things everyone should be able to respect, and shanks not even bothering to take a deeper, or at least current, look at what's going on in oakland is telling.

Yes! in the book (and in your friendly neighborhood MBA-program), this is referred to as "exploiting inefficiencies in the market".

I seem to recall NYY & BOS both made the playoffs comfortably, ie not so important. And Jeetz was lionized for a week.

i mean is anyone calling torii hunter a jackass for banging into those garbagebag-lined twindome walls all the time?

[Reyes'] OBP is currently ranked 152nd among major-league qualifiers and yet he has been the lead-off man for the Mets in 85 games to date. I think there comes a point when a manager gets so sick of hearing a criticism that he digs in his heels and refuses to budge in spite of overwhelming evidence that he's been making a mistake. At this point, Willie Randolph probably thinks it would be a sign of weakness to give in to his critics and drop Reyes to the eighth spot in the order where he belongs. The only other explanation would be that he thinks batting Reyes leadoff helps the team. That can't possibly be the case, though, can it?

basically blows, but i'm a sucker for profiles.

by Gary Richards
Mercury News

Magical moments in life can pop up most unexpectedly.

Like on an airplane trip from Oakland to Chicago last December for my 13-year-old son, Matt, and my wife, Jan.

The seat next to Matt was empty, the last one on the flight. The plane was about to take off when a young man wearing a baseball hat, his wrist clearly healing from some injury, dashed down the aisle, asking if he could take the vacant seat.

As they settled in for the four-hour trip, Jan asked what happened to his hand. He said he got hit by a pitch. It didn't look like a rec league injury, so she asked more about it. ``It happened in spring training,'' he said.

``Oh, really? Who do you play for?'' she replied.

``The A's,'' said the young guy with the engaging smile.

His name: ``Nick Swisher. My dad, Steve, played for the Cubs for a few years.''

Matt sat silently. Later, he would say: ``Mom, when he said his name, my spine froze.''

Matt had devoured ``Moneyball,'' the book on the A's the year after they drafted Swisher. For nearly four hours, they talked baseball, about Nick's upbringing as the son of a big leaguer, more baseball, and his love for his grandmother who would pass away this summer.

They were like two kids, talking about their passion for the game. Only one had just graduated from Little League, and the other had just joined the big leagues.

Matt asked what time players got to the park for a night game. Nick said around midafternoon. They would hit, field and stretch, then head back to the clubhouse.

``Then guess what,'' Nick said. ``You ought to see the neat video games we play.''

For Matt, that plane ride was Christmas.

But the story gets better.

We went early to a game in June and headed toward the A's dugout. Matt wanted to say hi to Swisher. I feared Nick might not remember him. Just before the first pitch, Swisher started out of the dugout. ``Nick!'' Matt yelled.

Swisher began an obligatory wave, then spotted Matt. A big grin came over the face of the rookie right fielder, who cheerfully trotted over and chatted with the boy he remembered.

A few nights later, our daughter, Anne, called from the restaurant in Berkeley where she worked and said Swisher would be there for a radio show. Did Matt want to come?

For nearly half an hour, the two chatted like the pals they had become, Swisher excitedly telling his girlfriend, ``This is the kid from the airplane, the one I told you about!''

I came later to pick Matt up, and over the din of the crowd I whispered to Swisher, ``You have made a young boy very happy.''

And a Mom and Dad, too.

what teams players are on average underpaid? i got twins, indians, marlins (but not d-rays or royals)(trim them payrolls boys! trim that fat!), who else?

Albert Pujols
1B, St. Louis Cardinals
Contract Salary: $14,000,000
Moneyball Salary: $24,563,308

Brad Thompson
P, St. Louis Cardinals
Contract Salary: $334,000
Moneyball Salary: $8,550,189

Adam Wainwright
P, St. Louis Cardinals
Contract Salary: $327,000
Moneyball Salary: $8,526,061

A) wonder why Brad Thompson is worth as much as Adam Wainwright?
B) wonder who on earth would pay closer salaries for middle relief?

where are they now

Hey this reminds me, can someone repost the link to that page with a fancy chart that links a team's performance to its salary?

-- INSANE CLOWN FOSSE (Adrian Langston), Monday, June 12, 2006 8:46 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

i found that fancy fuccn chart btw

http://benfry.com/salaryper/index.html

whoa that is awesome

how the fuck is CHI above STL

by virtue of a better record? by having a higher team salary?

i don't understand the question.

The Bosox have "the Greek God of Walks," don't they? I wanna see him play!!

-- Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 01:58 (4 years ago) Link
Not at Bill Mueller's expense I hope!

-- Leee Majors (Leee), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 22:01 (4 years ago)

hahahahahahaha

funny. on an o's bb i post on, someone has a sig "nick markakis: the REAL greek god of walks."

(youkilis is romanian)

i found that fancy fuccn chart btw

http://benfry.com/salaryper/index.html

<3 the Rays!!!

The chart's nifty but active player salary is a poor indicator of true franchise roi, as it omits dead weight salaries, deferred compensation, bonus, etc.

http://www.azsnakepit.com/2008/6/16/553164/interesting-statistics#comments

The Diamondbacks are paying Russ Ortiz $8M!?!?! Jesus that's awful.

Can you imagine how depressing that would be? The Dbacks people call him the Huge Manatee.

That's why salary charts are kind of misleading.

Well that's why this particular chart is misleading. You could make one at the end of the year that calculated bonuses and debited salary you took on or sloughed off, I guess.

You could have signed eight Mark Priors having season-ending surgery for the price of one Manatee.

Well "misleading" is a bit strong. It is a good indicator of how the paid employees who are actually working are performing. But it probably does not indicate which franchises are spending wisely or anything like that.

supposedly beane is prepared to spend $4M plus on 16 year old superfreak pitcher michael inoa - previous bonus baby record for a pitcher was a little over 1 mil i believe

amazing how much baseball hasa changed in 5 years

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/06/gm-trade-histor.html

Beane doesn't like to spend money on high school players, only jr. high school players.

This Inoa kid is a freak apparently.

"amazing how much baseball hasa changed in 5 years"

I assume you are talking about how well off it is financially, not some change in Beane's modus operandi (which hasn't really changed.)

Ricciardi should really not pick up the phone when Beane calls.