A book that’s obsessed with baseball stats might not sound particularly gripping, even if you spend a lot of time watching MLB games. «…I really enjoyed this book. It’s just a great read. A great story.» Read more «great book with a lot of fascinating insight into the world of professional baseball and how Sabermetrics has changed the game.» Read more
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Lewis has acknowledged that the book’s success may have hurt the Athletics’ fortunes as other teams accepted sabermetrics, reducing Oakland’s edge. Given the heavily publicized salaries of players for teams like the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees, baseball insiders and fans assume that the biggest talents deserve and get the biggest salaries. How did one of the poorest teams in baseball win so many games?
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We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first). In the June player draft, Beane acquired nearly every prospect he coveted (few of whom were coveted by other teams) and at the July trading deadline he engaged in a tense battle of nerves to acquire a lefty reliever. In the Epilogue, Lewis describes catcher Jeremy Brown’s success with the A’s and how he perfectly embodies their approach to the game. The next chapter shows Billy Beane’s approach to trades, which he used effectively to position his team better for the second half of the season.
To conduct an astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted.In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. In a quest to discover the answer, Michael Lewis delivers not only “the single most influential baseball book ever” (Rob Neyer, Slate) but also what “may be the best book ever written on business” (Weekly Standard). «Fascinating story about the development of a statistical system for choosing professional baseball athletes from a large pool of talented wannabes…» Read more «I was looking for more analytical content and ideas. The book is a good read as to behind the scenes of things fans don’t normal get to see.» Read more Customers find the content fantastic, saying it’s a great book for anyone who has some sort of interest in baseball.
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Lewis describes his background and his unlikely ascent in the major leagues, explaining why he fit in perfectly with the A’s unorthodox approach. Beane works the phones constantly right up until the deadline, fishing out information from other general managers, planting rumors—anything he can do to get the players he wants. As Lewis notes, the A’s were often a different team after the mid-season trading deadline because of all the different players that had joined. Lewis explains their approach and why Beane and his assistant like the players they have chosen. Customers find the book worth the price, with one mentioning it combines value investing with baseball insights.
He calls this method sabermetrics. In Chapter 4, Lewis details the work of the baseball writer and analyst Bill James. Despite his promising start—and the conviction of the baseball insiders that he had the right stuff—his career was rather disappointing. Chapter 1 describes Beane as a sports star in high school and his road to signing with the New York Mets right after graduation.
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Customers find the book engaging and entertaining, particularly for baseball fans, with one customer noting it’s fun to read about sabermetrics. Since the book’s publication and success, Lewis has discussed plans for a sequel to Moneyball called Underdogs, revisiting the players and their relative success several years into their careers, although only four players from the 2002 draft played much at the Major League level. «Moneyball» has entered baseball’s lexicon; teams that value sabermetrics are often said to be playing Moneyball.
- «This was a great book. It has been a long time since I read a book that was hard to put down but this definitely qualifies as being in that category….» Read more
- Lewis explores the A’s approach to the 2002 MLB draft, when the team had a run of early picks.
- The first few chapters alternate between Billy Beane’s story as a young player in the 1980s and the year 2002, when most of the book takes place.
The Oakland A’s began seeking players who were «undervalued in the market»—that is, who were receiving lower salaries relative to their ability to contribute to winning, as measured by these advanced statistics.
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- Besides being one of the most insider accounts ever written about baseball, Moneyball is populated with fascinating characters.
- Bonderman had all of the traditional «tools» that scouts look for, but thousands of such players have been signed by MLB organizations out of high school over the years and failed to develop as anticipated.
- They argued that the book ignores the pitching trio of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito, and position players such as Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada, all of whom were discovered via traditional scouting methodology and were key contributors to the success of the 2002 Athletics.
- «True story about true people and true events and a lot of baseball! Inspiring to think differently and to not be afraid to stand out.» Read more
- We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first).
Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required. The final chapter details how the A’s lost to the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the playoffs despite having the better record and better team overall. He writes how they expect their rational approach through sabermetrics to play out methodically.
«Interesting and detailed, but unlike what I heard from some people before reading it, it is largely the same as the movie…so if you have seen the…» Read more Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge―insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money.
«…This is the best so far. Informative and funny, easy to read, and enjoyable. Oh I’ve seen the movie, Well you still have to read this book….» Read more «You will need an understanding of Baseball but very interesting read about how MLB works and different approaches to decision making» Read more «…Not very pretty but very interesting. This book is a wonderful read both the 1st and the second time around.» Read more
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The author explains why this success has been so unlikely given the small budget the team has to work with compared to other teams like the New York Yankees. The next chapter presents an overview of the A’s success in the several years since Beane became general manager. The basic tension between the approach of the old-school baseball scouts and Beane’s method is introduced. The next chapter jumps to 2002, when Beane is the general manager of the Oakland A’s the summer before the draft.
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Lewis discusses Bill James and his annual stats newsletter, Baseball Abstract, along with other mathematical analysis of the game. He captures this against-all-odds underdog story with wit and sharp clarity. With the second-lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to? And then came Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Readers also mention that Michael Lewis did a good job balancing the main storyline with flashbacks that described us. They say the author has a way to tell the story that makes every subject interesting.
David Haglund of Slate and Jonah Keri of Grantland criticized the book for glossing over key young talent acquired through the draft and signed internationally. The mathematical model turned out to be that of Cambridge physicist Ian Graham, which was used to select the manager (Jürgen Klopp) and players essential for Liverpool to win the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. Moneyball has also influenced and been influenced by other professional sports teams including European club association football (soccer).
In the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the Tampa Bay Rays were considered masters of Moneyball, reaching the 2020 World Series with a payroll prorated at $28.2 million, the third-lowest of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. In its wake, teams such as the New York Mets, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, and Toronto Blue Jays have hired full-time sabermetric analysts. Bonderman had all of the traditional «tools» that scouts look for, but thousands of such players have been signed by MLB organizations out of high school over the years and failed to develop as anticipated. College players have played more games and thus there is a larger mass of statistical data on which to base expensive decisions. Lewis explored several themes in the book, such as insiders vs. outsiders (established traditionalists vs. upstart proponents of sabermetrics), the democratization of information causing a flattening of hierarchies, and «the ruthless drive for efficiency that capitalism demands». By re-evaluating their strategy in this way, the 2002 Athletics, with a budget of $44 million for player salaries, were competitive with larger-market teams such as the New York Yankees, whose payroll exceeded $125 million that season.
The first few chapters alternate between Billy Beane’s story as a young player in the 1980s and the year 2002, when most of the book takes place. This background prepared him for Moneyball, a book about how statistics is moneyball the art of winning an unfair game applied to baseball in a method known as sabermetrics. «Many baseball books seem to be fiction. This one is worth the read.» Read more «This is a good book! I greatly enjoyed it! Fast shipping, good price, great product! It is a must read for all baseball fans.» Read more
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Lewis was in the room with the A’s top management as they spent the summer of 2002 adding and subtracting players and he provides outstanding play-by-play. This is because Beane’s method doesn’t work in playoff series, when so few games are played. The last part of the book reveals the second half of the 2002 season. Chapter 8 details how he changed from a catcher to a first-baseman when he joined the team. One of those players is Scott Hatteberg, who Beane acquired for his hitting. Chapter 5 returns to 2002, covering Oakland’s picks when the draft gets underway.
In the next chapter, he narrates a game in September 2002, in which the team is attempting to win their 20th consecutive game, which would be a major league record. «…Just a great story about how The Oakland A’s with a tiny budget was able to consistently outperform teams with tons more money to spend on players…» Read more «…is baseball, this book and this story are a great read and a great lesson.» Read more