Moneyball

WAR Horse: The Rick Reuschel Story.

No explosions or high speed chases :::: not going all Hollywood

"Punch it, Billy, Art Howe's gaining on us!"

A League of Their Own is a million times better than this shit

That movie with Matt LeBlanc and the monkey was roughly on par with it.

I liked this and the monkey movie, but anything dealing with baseball or Matt LeBlanc I'll give a pass to.

I do think it was weird that they made the end of a 20-game winning streak into "the big game" as Morbs said, but I guess in the absence of success in the playoffs that's how they planned to sell it to the masses.

thought this was pretty entertaining fluff. the stuff with the daughter was far and away the worst part of it.

I didn't think the daughter part was that bad, just trying to humanize the guy and show why he didn't join the Red Sox - family more important than $$$ and fixing broken dreams of youth. I'm pretty sentimental though, so I guess they got me.

circa otm. For the most part this felt like a generic baseball movie that threw some of the more concrete aspects of the "Moneyball" events against the "rag tag losers who suck but then win" backdrop.

It was perfect for passing time on a plane ride. Not sure I'd have cared about it if I went to an actual theatre to see it.

It probably didn't help that I watched pretty much every A's game that season. I really struggled with how divorced the movie was from reality. But the movie really failed on its own terms. I never got the impression that the ragtag bunch of guys were partipants in the success of the team, but instead some sort of magic was happening, somewhere offscreen while Beane and Brand are in an office. We didn't see how Bradford, Justice, or Rincon helped the team win, and barely saw what Hatteberg did, let alone what the GOOD players on the team did.

very good point. I noticed that too. there was like a huge gap of time between the visit to Hatteberg's house and his next appearance in the movie.

The scene with David Justice ("I'm just trying to milk you") was tacked on, too.

A League of Their Own is a million times better than this shit

THIS.

Face it, Morbs. Baseball would be a better sport if only women played it.

When Peter Brand suggested that the A's acquire Jeremy Giambi, the scouts were probably only confused and dismissive because he had been on the roster for the previous two seasons.

It was cool when Beane traded Pena on a whim and got nothing in return. I'm sure when Ted Lilly watched that part he threw down his glove in disgust.

When they were talking about Hatteberg do you think the scouts were like "Oh, you mean the guy who just started 13 times in September for the Red Sox? That guy? He isn't even a BASEBALL PLAYER! He is literally a goof who is afraid of baseballs!!"

I still haven't seen this, but I re-watched "A League of Their Own" about a year ago and it's aged a lot better than I expected.

Eric, women's baseball is a notch above gay softball

r we still talking about sports here, or is 'gay softball' a euphemism

No, I think we're still talking about the A's here.

1. Best Picture: “The Artist,” ‘’The Descendants,” ‘’Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” ‘’The Help,” ‘’Hugo,” ‘’Midnight in Paris,” ‘’Moneyball,” ‘’The Tree of Life,” ‘’War Horse.”

2. Actor: Demian Bichir, “A Better Life”; George Clooney, “The Descendants”; Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”; Gary Oldman, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”; Brad Pitt, “Moneyball.”

4. Supporting Actor: Kenneth Branagh, “My Week With Marilyn”; Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”; Nick Nolte, “Warrior”; Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”; Max von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”

8. Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, “The Descendants”; John Logan, “Hugo”; George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon, “The Ides of March”; Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, “Moneyball”; Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

13. Sound Mixing: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” ‘’Hugo,” ‘’Moneyball,” ‘’Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” ‘’War Horse.”

20. Film Editing: “The Artist,” ‘’The Descendants,” ‘’The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” ‘’Hugo,” ‘’Moneyball.”

yes, it was THAT mediocre

ha ha!

that sound mixing nom is a little O_o
like - it did *have* sounds, i guess.

that was for the crack of the bat! crowd noise!

uggh i keep forgetting how they stretched it to 9 or 10 picture noms instead of 5. pisses me off.

hey sanskrit

i don't think it's that strange. Moneyball did have kind of a weird sound atmosphere around it. Large chunks of silence, lots of strange breaks in action - not sure if that should get a nom but what does?

"action"

same level of thinking that got Fight Club nominated only for... sound effects editing

skrit, if it had been 5 nominees two of the 3 films that don't stink would've been left off.

When they run through the list of player names near the beginning, I saw Matt Cain - Giants. He wasn't drafted until the next summer. GET IT RIGHT, HOLLYWOOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4WBv2f8XWU

In retrospect, I think I might have enjoyed this movie if it had been a German film.

"When they run through the list of player names near the beginning, I saw Matt Cain - Giants. He wasn't drafted until the next summer. GET IT RIGHT, HOLLYWOOD"

He was in the infamous Moneyball draft wasn't he? He went right after Blanton, I think.

Those early scenes were from the winter/spring before the 2002 season, though.

OK so explain me why it makes any sense to make these dudes train for a position they have no obvious experience/skill at playing.

Maybe this is clearer in the book but in the movie it totally went over my head.

converting catchers to 1st isnt that uncommon, if you're talking about hatteberg

I am. I don't watch baseball so I don't know.

Because it isn't that difficult. There are countless examples of players who have switched positions successfully.

There are some players who never adjust to how fast the ball comes at them, but for the most part any guy who is an athletic catcher tends to perform pretty well when they move to the infield. Craig Biggio and Brandon Inge both played well in the infield after a position switch.

And then there are utility guys who play as many as seven positions, but obviously there was a point in their career when they were focused on one position and learned new skills.

Hatteberg was sort of a special example because he wasn't used to the velocity and unpredictability of batted balls, but eventually he became an above average defender at first.

But the larger idea is that Beane et al. believed that defense was overvalued or hard to measure. That has changed since the book was written, as he has subsequently tried to target defense as an undervalued resource.

OK but why sign this guy in the first place? I'm sure there's something totally elementary I'm not getting

because he was a good player that other teams didnt see any value in. thats the point of the movie!

yeah yeah but a good player at another position, right?

At catcher, yes.

He couldn't catch anymore because he suffered an injury that made it tough for him to throw to second, but the first baseman doesn't have to make throws like that for the most part.

1st base is one of the least demanding positions to field, aside from the fact that you get a shitload of balls your way. its usually where you switch a guy to if he has a good bat but is having trouble fielding his current position.

Ah ok I see, thanks!

And they were paying him only 900k, whereas every other 1B in the league who outperformed him made significantly more money, so he provided great financial value.

What is the average age at which baseball players retire? Assuming it isn't as different by position as it is in "soccer", i.e. goalkeepers playing into their 40s, etc

i dont know what the actual age is, but pitchers seem to age the best with a fair number of them playing into their 40s.

fair amount /= average imho. average MLB career has got to be something like 2-3 years right? pulled that outta my ass, lolgtfo.

hatteburg had never played 1B in his life, but beane didn't care. the film/book tries to elevate this as drama: "I DON'T CARE IF YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED 1B, WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU CAN GET ON BASE AND YOU ARE CHEAP." In economics, this is called exploiting market inefficiencies. In essence that's what Moneyball the film tries to do: "we only have this much money so we have to get creative in order to win games."

thanks you guys,
peter grasswich
a/k/a "queequeg" or "peter g."

hi

why it makes any sense to make these dudes train for a position they have no obvious experience/skill at playing.

On an individual basis, defense is less important than offense. Casey Stengel, regarded as one of the greatest managers, played guys "out of position" ALL THE TIME. There are loads of guys with bad gloves in the Hall of Fame; bad bats, very few.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/video-essay-moneyball-and-ways-of-seeing-presented-by-seventh-art#