Moneyball

Rating:
Summary: One of the best baseball books of all time
Review: Lewis has written what is one of the top 5 baseball books of all time.
The book, unlike what some baseball broadcasters have said, is not exclusively about Billy Beane. It focuses on the Oakland A's and their different way of viewing the potential of baseball players by using statistics such as on base percentage and not simply using scouts to provide judgements based upon watching the player play in a few games. The book if it was written a couple years later could have just as easily been written about the Boston Red Sox, which adopted this statistics based approach after Theo Epstein took over as general manager. Lo and behold, the Red Sox after 84 years of futility, won a World Series largely because of this new way of looking at baseball.

The book also provides a wonderful historical background for this approach and isn't written like the reader has a degree in mathmatics. Every theory is well explained for the average person who hated and struggled through high school statistics to understand. A historical background for the theories used by Beane and the Red Sox, and as mentioned briefly in the end of paperback edition, later the Blue Jays and the Red Sox, is provided. One of the main characters in the book, Bill James, is the father of many of these statistics and the way of looking at baseball used by Beane.

The book also isn't just about boring baseball statistics either. Lewis goes into depth about why Beane looks at baseball the way he does. According to Lewis, it's because Beane was a player that, according to the old way of looking at baseball using scouts and data such as 40 yd dash times, was a can't miss prospect. The scouts ignored statistics that would have raised red flags about Beane's major league prospect status. Beane never rose above a major league bench player. This experience, according to Lewis, drives Beane to never make the same mistake that major league general managers made in drafting him so high.

If you're a baseball fan and want to understand how the Oakland A's have won all those games in recent years even after losing players like Miguel Tejada and Jason Giambi, read this book. After reading this book, you'll also come away with some idea of why Beane traded away two of his best pitchers this offseason too.

Rating:
Summary: A book that's made its mark on pro ball
Review: Rarely do you come across a book on pro sports like this one, that manages to infuriate one group, enlighten another, and, at the end of the day, have a significant impact on the sport it covered. Moneyball essentially is a baseball how-to guide on constructing a team through maximizing the talents and abilities of low- to medium-cost players, rather than building one by overpaying for high-priced talent or marquee names. It is also a study of how one man -- Oakland A's GM Billy Beane -- and his followers go about finding these low- cost players, and what qualities and statistics they look for and value the most. Overall, it brings to the forefront a debate that has already played itself out in Major League Baseball in the 1-2 years since this book hit the shelves -- old-time, traditional scouting vs. statistical analysis and theories.

Michael Lewis is provided a great deal of access to the Oakland A's mid-season, and it's surprising to me that Beane allowed so many of his ideas to be publicized while he is still in a competitive position. Lewis portrays Beane as restless, not satisfied with mere wins, but seemingly moreso with constant tinkering with and improving the team. The actual game on the field is of little use to him, but the numbers that flow in once the games are over are his main course. Beane challenges what he perceives as the outdated scouting machine across the league, the idea that a player's value can be assessed by watching him throw or hit, looking at his frame and how he can fill out physically, and "meaningless" stats like batting average and RBI. Instead Beane ignores a prospect's physical attributes (see Jeremy Brown), and focuses instead on a player's ability to draw walks and get on base. Lewis deserves a great deal of credit in taking all this information, analysis, and statistics and writing it all in a way that readers can easily understand.

As for Beane's theories themselves, several of them have worked their way into the game already. The Red Sox built their 2004 squad with Moneyball in mind (GM Theo Epstein is one of Beane's disciples) and won the World Series employing OBP guys like Mark Bellhorn, and buying low on plenty of middle-tier free agents in the past two years, most notably slugger David Ortiz. But there are also a bunch of his ideas that are a little puzzling, and quickly have been tossed aside by baseball minds. The idea that the dominant closer is a myth (and that any journeyman can close out something like 98% of leads in the 9th inning) has quickly gone by the wayside -- even by Beane and his followers (Oakland and Boston have both invested in high-priced closers in the past two seasons). And Florida quickly disspelled Beane's staunch belief that bunting and stealing bases are counterproductive and meaningless, by merely winning the World Series in 2003 through speed and aggressive baserunning. And I wonder what Beane has to say about the impact of Dave Roberts on last year's ALCS.

Whether you buy into what Beane is selling or not, whether the introduction of "rotisserie"-type analysis and team-building is upsetting to you or not, the book is great, and on top of that, it's had a significant and increasing impact on Major League Baseball.

Rating:
Summary: Has This Changed Baseball?
Review: That answer of course is yes. This was a great book that changed how baseball teams are runned. One of Billy Beane's follewers Theo Epstien has just won a World Series with the redsox. Billy Beane made stats like OBP and OPS more popular for teams to look into when putting together teams. now that sounds like a book for just baseball stat geeks but this is a book for everyone.
Michael Lewis writes about following the Oakland A's for a season and does it in an entertaining way for the stat geeks and a casual fan. From Billy Beanes new way of drafting to his way of implementing stats into finding cheap talent on the free agent market. It even gets one to know Billy Beanne as a failed baseball prospect turned Gm. This book was a terrific read and I would recommend it to anyone.