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Summary: Moneyball
Review: Great book!Even for kids it is an incredible glimpse into professional baseball and baseball management.
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Summary: The Tom Wolfe of his generation takes on modern baseball
Review: Tom Wolfe had hippies, Black panthers and astronauts, Michael Lewis had wall street, entrepreneurs and now...baseball. This is a hilarious, almost too wierd to be true dive into modern baseball with a focus on Billy Beane, a new kind of general manager and outrageous character. It's about a lot more than baseball and is for anyone interested in how people think outside the box and revolutionize a sport, or business, or anything. Lewis has improved his stuff since Liars Poker and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Great stuff!
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Summary: 4 Line Review
Review: One of my favorite books in 2003. Michael Lewis could write about lint and make it interesting, he's that good a writer. He weaves stories seamlessly. Still this book is only for readers with at least a passing interest in baseball.
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Summary: Organizations devoted to baseball lore will hate this one...
Review: Any organization that is dedicated to preserving the idea of baseball as a mythic game and flourishes on celebrating its' tradition will attack "Moneyball" like Michael Moore does Bush. "Moneyball" is the kind of book that will have thoughtful baseball fans wondering two things: 1. Is it really this simple to find undervalued guys based on one or two traditionally overlooked stats? 2. When will people stop criticizing the Oakland GM Billy Beane for things like his arrogance and aggresivness and actually look at what that has accomplished?In this age of players holding out for huge contracts before they've even played one inning, Beane is a great anecdote, refusing to draft players that have all the right aesthetics, baseball-related or otherwise. It's very funny, in a sad way, that Billy Beane seems to be the only baseball guy who actaully looks at what a player has accomplished so far. Everyone else, he correctly claims, looks at what a guy MIGHT become, as opposed to what he has done. Why take a high school golden boy who statistics say has an overwhelmingly low chance of high major league success and has spent his last 2 years mowing down skinny future engineering majors named Scooter over a proven college player who has posted good numbers against much stiffer competition and has much more experience? When I was in high school, everyone was drooling over our shortstop who could hit the ball a mile and run like the wind, but could do nothing in between. At the same time I knew a guy that played for a local college that routinely posted great numbers and had great showings agasint other guys being scouted, but he didn't fit the traditional baseball paradigm and was therefore forgotten about and I always wondered why. This book finally gave me my answer. This is exactly Beane's strategy, to find guys who fit the stats that he thinks are important and let the numbers and odds dictate the rest. Something should be said too about not just the content of this book, but the way it is written. The most interesting story is, bar none, the story of Beane's own personal failure as a can't miss prospect. Everyone else who speaks of players talk fondly of a player who reminds them of themselves in their glory years, but Beane picks people who are the exact opposite of what he was, a high school golden boy who had all the potential in the world, but had not accomplished much stat-wise. There is even a story in the book in which Beane talks with a scout who once scouted him and loved him, despite admitting he never looked at a single stat of his. The way this book punches a hole through not only traditional baseball and strategy but the real psychological makeup of those who run it is nothing short of amazing. You'll be fascinated by every single story in the book, even though they are all about guys who you probably never heard of and might not for years. And that's exactly Billy Beane's idea of a great #1 draft pick.
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Summary: A new perspective; for Baseball and more
Review: Though the topic of Moneyball centers around Baseball its scope has a much broader reach. In the same manner that Lewis's Next examines how the Internet has toppled several societal barriers, Moneyball takes a look at how statistics and information question our understanding of value. In a nutshell it all boils down to this; don't be fooled by what you see. Over time its the small and undetected things which can make a big difference. Baseball serves as a perfect proving ground for this expanded perspective. A baseball season is 162 games long. Over that period the difference between a .275 hitter and a .310 is just one hit a week. As a fan you could watch a whole season and, unless you followed a team's statistics, you would find it hard to discern who was the better hitter. But we already have mechanisms for tracking batting average along a whole host of other hitting statistics. With free agency the best hitters are rewarded accordingly. The question for Baseball becomes - how accurate is our current system of valuation? How much more valuable is a slugger like Sammy Sosa than good on base man like Jason Kendall? Moneyball tracks the path of the Oakland A's and their maverick GM Billy Beane. Beane and his crew employ all of the latest statistical analysis for evaluating players, much to the chagrin of the old time scouts who know a ball player when they see one. Through their studies, Beane and his staff recognize that on base percentage is highly undervalued in the current market. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom but the results bare them out. Over the 2000-2003 seasons the Oakland A's with a payroll roughly a third the size of the New York Yankees won more games than the Yankees during that period. While this book is a must read for all baseball fans it also carries with it a much broader value. We make millions of assumptions everyday based on appearances. But it's not always the brightest or the most articulate who gets the job done. Sometimes its the little guy, slugging away, who has a much larger impact. The challenge is to be able look beyond what the eye can see and focus on the bottom line. If you can, then you're playing Moneyball.
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Summary: Beane¿s got it
Review: I read a lot; a lot of different books in a lot of different genres. But I put this and Make every girl want you above all others because both make you think about what you've read. Most books I buy just rehash old info, with a little bit of new stuff. These books, however, make you think about everything in there, and make you question everything you've been taught - this book about baseball, that book about dating. Let's start by saying that Billy Beane is the man. It's unbelievable how Beane used statistical analysis to consistently build winning teams out of players with - for example - high on-base percentages. I am now a huge A's fan, and very excited to follow and root for the A's in the pennant chase over these next few weeks. My only question is why Beane wrote this book. Why Beane felt the need to make such an incredible strategy public knowledge, especially since it works so well.
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Summary: Very good for those in "objectively managed" workplaces
Review: A number of business have moved to an objective management approach using Six Sigma and similar methodologies. What Lewis describes here is exactly that - an organization managed by fact and some very candid successes and failures with this approach. Insightful reading for anyone in a similar environemnt (or anyone interested in creating such an environment!). As a note, I agree whole-heartedly with the previous comments on this title - even if you don't like baseball, you'll find yourself more interested (and perhaps more respectful) in the sport.
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Summary: A New Approach To The Grand Old Game...And It Works!
Review: To every rule, there is always the exception. Take the world of major league baseball. With free agency driving player salaries to unbelievable heights, it's an accepted piece of conventional wisdom that only rich teams can be successful today. If that's really true, then why have the Oakland A's, with one of the lowest payrolls in the game, been one of sport's most consistent winners these past few years? That's the question that Michael Lewis answers in this fascinating book. At the heart of the story is the general manager of the A's, Billy Beane. Beane was once a major leaguer himself. He was labeled a "can't miss" star by those who are supposed to be able to predict such things, but ended up achieving marginal success. How Beane is turning the game's accepted notions upside down is the heart of this story. The 2002 season looked like an impossible one for the A's...they had lost three of their best players to free agency. Everyone thought the game was over them...everyone but Billy Beane. As the book opens, we join Beane and his staff on the day of baseball's amateur draft. We witness the A's enjoy an almost magical success in getting the players they want; in part because few, if any other teams want them. Does Beane know something no one else does? The answer is a qualified yes. It turns out he's putting to work statistical models that have been developed by the writer Bill James and others over the past two decades, This information is widely available and widely known to fans...but given little credence by most of the men who still run the game. As we read on, we learn the logic behind the A's decision to hand their starting first base job to Scott Hatteberg, a former Red Sox catcher who could no longer catch due to an injury; why they coveted Chad Bradford, a pitcher buried in the minors by the White Sox, but who they knew would develop into one of the game's best relievers; why they were willing to trade for all-star second baseman Ray Durham, even though there was no chance they would be able to re-sign him at the end of the season. Lewis' narrative is engaging and vivid. He puts us in the board room and the locker room as the season unfolds. It's a great story, especially for baseball fans, but really worthwhile for anyone intrigued by the idea of what fresh approaches and unconventional thought can bring to an individual or an organization. A grand slam all the way!
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Summary: Interesting but ultimately disappointing
Review: Too much of a Liar's Poker view of the world. Billy Beane is like the guy on Salomon's mortgage desk in the 80's who was brilliant because he realized the Ivy Leaguers must rule the world. The OBP deal is only valid because Tejada needs people on base so he can drive them in. But surprise - "Miggy swings at everything" and rarely walks! He's from the Dominican Republic and those guys swing baby because nobody walks off the island.
Chavez is a slugger and not a walker as well. You need guys with high OBP's so the high slugging percentage guys can drive them in. The real secret to the A's regular season success isn't Beane or any Ivy League number cruncher but the ZHM formula - starting pitching Zito, Hudson and Mulder. Their lack of success in the post season is due to a shaky bullpen and poor baserunning and an incredibly poor decision not to offer Jason Giambi the no-trade clause on the contract extension that met the rest of his demands. The A's blew the chance to lock Giambi at much lower price than the Yankees ultimately paid. Hmmm - the best combination slugging + on base percentage player in the game at below market value - That's inconceivable but the A's let Giambi walk. Anybody out there think the A's would have lost to the Twins if Giambi were wearin' the yellow, white & green in 1992. The name of the game is to win. The most wins for lowest payroll is still a loser's game.
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Summary: Bigger than baseball.
Review: While Mr. Lewis deserves much credit for making 'Moneyball' a page turner, the story itself, which the author professes to have fallen in love with, is irresistable. You may read this book because you like baseball, but the thinking man will savor it for its celebration of innovation, and the triumph of the intellect it depicts. In fact, 'Moneyball' goes even further. It champions the individual, repudiates collectivism, and offers hope to upright men who despair a lack of justice in this world. Folks, Billy Beane (the book's hero) is you modern day, scaled down, none of the frills but all of the appeal, John Galt. Enjoy it.
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