Moneyball

Rating:
Summary: Great fun to read....
Review: While this book does seem to put Billy Beane on a much loftier pedastal than his peers in the business, his track record so far as the general manager of one of the most financially constrained teams in baseball cannot be argued. I found it interesting to see what a minor role the manager and the players seem to play in the whole scheme of baseball. The author portrays Beane as a grand (and somewhat imbalanced) puppeteer, pulling all the strings according to his whim. So far he's managed to keep the strings from tangling, but whether this has been attributable more to luck or skill remains to be seen, and ten years from now we'll probably be able to more clearly evaluate his talent as a GM.

In any case, the author does paint a fascinting picture of daily life in the front office for his readers. Wefeel like we're in the same room with Beane and his compatriots, eavesdropping on their unique style of approaching the business. The stress and triumphs of the environment are brought to life, and we definitely feel like we're part of the action.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: A totally engrossing read. Players are nothing but parts of a machine. Baseball is really played -- and championships won and lost -- in the front office.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Study on Economics and Baseball
Review: For all those hours spent cursing at Tony La Russa and his misguided philosophies on hitting, this book is quite the antidote for any Cardinals fan. At last there is a solution!

In all seriousness, it's wrong to criticize Mr. La Russa that much -- he's brought the Cardinals into the playoffs two years in a row and three out of four. But in many ways, he simply is archetypical of a thinking that this book points out to be -- if not wrong -- as substantially incorrect. Michael Lewis, in a taut 288 pages, details Billy Beane's playing career, Sandy Alderson's influence, and the slowly creeping and intelligent theories of Bill James eventually being realized by the Oakland Athletics.

In sum, Lewis deconstructs baseball strategies to a measurable science, to an economic study, really. It's not at all surprising that most of the principals -- James, DePodesta, Cramer -- have backgrounds in economics because that's all they're doing with the national pastime. Yet, this book and this new way, as James astutely points out, is not about statistics. It's about the proper usage of them. Instead of the five tool scheme so adored by scouts, these gentlemen decide to use the tools that their computers develop. And while it is true the A's have no World Series ring to show for it, it's by no fault of the strategy.

It seems rather unfortunate that Lewis chose to focus a large chunk of the book on Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford rather than the Big Three -- Zito, Mulder, and Hudson. Not taking anything away from these role-players -- their stories are woven beautifully into "Moneyball" --they are just not as important to the A's success as the pitchers. It may have been more convenient for Lewis to focus on Hatty and a relief pitcher, but it would have been more satisfying if he would given the pitchers the ink they deserve as well.

That said, this large omission does nothing really to hurt the quality of the study, which is fabulous. A gift to baseball and my Cardinals like no other, if only the men in charge would listen.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read business book about baseball
Review: I'm not much of a baseball fan and rarely pay attention to it until the playoffs. However, I'm a fan of Michael Lewis's ability to explore the nuances of business and the people who engage in it. I'll leave it to others to argue the contribution this book makes to the literature of the sport of baseball. There is no question, however, that it is one of the best business books I've read in recent memory. Like his previous books, Moneyball is a fascinating story filled with colorful, textured characters in which we are amazed to discover the paradox of business success: that winners are always flawed, their success not always as it appears at first. The book has given me a new appreciation of baseball, but more importantly a new appreciation of the need to always challenge the conventional wisdom of experts. Success comes not from having the right answers but by asking the right questions.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting look inside the business of baseball
Review: Moneyball is an incisive and fascinating look inside the operations of the Oakland Athletics and their G.M., Billy Beane. The book focuses on how a "small market" team such as the A's can compete with sports behemoths such as the New York Yankees and their free-spending owner, George Steinbrenner. I have doubts that Beane is as much of a genius as portrayed here but he has certainly developed a lot of home-grown talent and made pretty decent trades which have enabled his team to have one of the better winning percentages in baseball over the last few seasons. This book is a must for any baseball fan or for any sports fan interested in the behind the scenes operations of a major sports franchise. Well written and absorbing, highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Fine book with a serious flaw
Review: As ever, Michael Lewis manages to make obscure financial/sports analysis and management practices accessible and interesting to the lay reader. But his great gift is to make the obsessions and particularities of his subjects compelling. The human process of baseball is at the heart of 'Moneyball,' and baseball and the Oakland A's are the perfect vehicle for Lewis's talents. Beane comes across as a kind of Ahab figure, forever driven to find the next undervalued prospect while nearly unable to watch his current team play. There is a lot of ego to him, which is odd coming from someone with so many regrets about his own life decisions. But that is exactly what makes him so worthwhile to be the subject of 'Moneyball.' Lewis is so talented a writer you come to believe he could make anyone's life a bestseller.

The considerable problem with 'Moneyball' is how it neglects the extent to which the A's Big 3 starters have made the team successful. I recall that a method was devised by which a pitcher's effectiveness could be evaluated by the kinds of balls the opposing hitters put in play. Stunningly, none of this analysis is applied to Mulder, Zito or Hudson. Perhaps they are all so dominant (Mulder's season is fast approaching that of Pedro's 1999 campaign) that the author didn't consider it necessary to mention. However, it would have really added a lot to the reader's understanding of what effective pitching really means. It just struck me as odd that this opportunity was passed over - it would have added a great deal to the book. Nevertheless, 'Moneyball' must be the best of the current batch of new baseball titles.

Rating:
Summary: Michael Lewis does it again
Review: What a pleasure it was to see my favorite author, Michael Lewis, taking a hard look at my favorite subject, baseball. Lewis won me over w/ Liar's Poker a decade over, and I've been thrilled w/ his progress as a writer and his Crichton-like ability to master new subjects.

I found astonishing about this book was how Lewis could take a mathematical formula, OBP, and weave it w/ astonishing personal stories. Lewis and Beane seem to stick w/ hitters, who seem a little easier to pigeonhole numerically.

Enjoy as Lewis describes and unveils an adult statistician who still lives at home, the shock of an "undraftable" catcher going in the first two rounds, a hilarious encounter between a weary pitcher and a hitter waiting on "his pitch" and the story of a "can't miss" prospect -- Billy Beane -- who self-destructs and lives his life proving he won't do it again.

What a joy it was to follow Lewis down this road, and I'm eagerly awaiting his next journey.

Tom Sakell
Baltimore, MD

Rating:
Summary: Goes 7 Innings - Wanted a Stronger Finish
Review: I thought the book was a fascinating look inside the Oakland A's and Billy Beane's methods of staying on top despite the market realities of being a small market team.

However, the book left me wanting more detail or just a longer story, but that in and of itself, says I was enjoying what I was reading....even if it ended too quickly

Rating:
Summary: Right on the Money
Review: As an amateur Sabrmetrician and devotee of Baseball Prospectus, I was very excited to hear of Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball." I've always admired the A's of the contemporary small-market days and how they are comprehensively a better team (except in power) than my own Texas Rangers, who have almost bottomless pockets.

I was not aware of Beane's playing career and found that part of the book particularly interesting. Lewis seems to indicate that much of what has motivated Beane to utilize a sabrmetrically-based approach to baseball are his own demons from his playing career.

Whatever the reason for the A's (and now Jays) systems of operations, the results speak for themselves. Hopefully the rest of the league will be as flinty and resistant as they have so far so we can see the dinosaurs taken to the cleaners a few more years before they are rendered extinct.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and troubling
Review: The only negative review so far at this site seemed to confuse the author's craftmanship with his subject. This is a well-written, quick read, which, if you are any kind of baseball fan, will cause you to stop repeatedly and think about what you've just read.

Every baseball fan has asked themselves over and over, why are marginal players overpaid? Why are millions invested in ONE player to the detriment of the team? Why does ownership seem trapped in some preconceived notion of what a ballplayer should look like? This book seeks to answer those questions and present an alternative view of how to run a winning team. And here, in a nutshell is that answer:

Position players should be signed based on the On Base Percentage. Pitchers should be signed based on Strikeouts, Walks, Home runs allowed and groundballs.

There. That's it. Time to go home and enjoy your vast savings, Mr. Steinbrenner.

Of course it's more complex than that, but perversely, Major League Baseball seems to have based its criteria for quality on a completely subjective and error-prone system: Wins, earned run average, batting average, runs batted in.

The book does a wonderful job of demonstrating how a small germ of an idea took hold, slowly grew, and then became embraced by people with the position to do something about it. It's the Revenge of the Nerds and it's positively engaging.

Billy Beane comes off as some 21st Century tortured prince, except he's not Hamlet trying to avenge his father's death, he's every jerk high school jock you ever met who, as an adult, hates himself. Freud wouldn't even get out of bed for this one.

It's sad because he and his computer geeks could actually save baseball from itself. But there is not one incident of joy reported in this book. It would be nice to read that he turned down the Red Sox job because he wanted to stay close to his daughter, but she is never mentioned as a consideration. It's just a shame that someone whose eyes were opened to the real value of ballplayers doesn't carry the exhileration of someone lost, now found, but rather wields it like some terrible weapon.

And objectivity, statistics and mathematics notwithstanding, the fact is that nine Miggy Tejadas are preferable to nine Scott Heddeburg (sp?).