Quote:
| Try Looking at the Bright Side "There was a creepy inevitability during these past two nights -- the crowd smelling blood, the Sox falling apart in sections, the Yankees going for the kill. They just have a better team. Last year it was debatable; that's what made the ALCS so special. Not this year. These Red Sox give away outs, butcher easy plays, suck the life from their pitchers. Other than Pokey Reese and Jason Varitek, none of the defensive players on the roster could even be called "average." It's like a talented softball team, Billy Beane's "Moneyball" vision sprung to life. Just keep getting guys on base and everything will be fine. Or so they say." - Bill Simmons |
Anyone that's actually read the now infamous Moneyball knows that the point wasn't that defense is meaningless, or that closers are interchangable, or that the stolen base serves no purpose. The whole point was value, and figuring out what can be sacrificed while still being successful.
Does anybody argue that an out isn't the most valuable thing in Baseball? So, obviously players that make fewer outs are a boon (read: High on base percentage). Not only are players that make fewer outs a benefit to a teams offense, statistics like on base percentage and number of pitches per plate appearances were undervalued. So, to simplify Beane's position on hitters, the reason he focused on players with high on base percentages is because they're an undervalued commodity that his small market team could afford. I gaurantee you, if another statistic is found to be undervalued while having a significant impact on the outcome of the game, Billy Beane will be the first to embrace it.
On top of this, Billy Beane's outlook on things like speed and defense is that they were overpriced, and thus a luxury he could not afford. I'm sure if he could afford a GG calibur player that produced offensively at an affordable rate, he would. But this is a league where a hitter with a league average OBP (Mike Cameron) can get a $20 million dollar contract because of his defense and speed. That's simply something Billy Beane can't afford.
It was never about bucking the system, or blindly following Bill James' every word, it was about finding value where other teams don't and trying to exploit said value as best as he could. How someone can cite Oakland's performance in the postseason as a slight on Beane's record is mind boggling, the mans been given the lowest payroll in the AL West and has still managed to get the A's into the playoffs every year since 2000.
Does anybody out there want to bet against them doing it again?
