Moneyball

Matt Emerson

English 1A

Moneyball: How to Even Out the Odds in Baseball

            There’s a universal concept in the business world that “Cash is King.!” To quote the great Shaolin style hip hop masters the Wu Tang Clan who said “Cash rules everything around me, “C.R.E.A.M” get the money, dolla dolla bill ya’ll.”  Our society defines business success and failures in terms of equity and assets, revenue over expendures (i.e., the amount of money you gain each year vs. money lost) and the bottom dollar amount after a balance sheet has been published.

            In sports, the business equivalent of the “cash is king” is “Moneyball”—a concept that was the theme of a recent movie box office hit starring Brad Pitt.  A business model developed by Bill James, made famous by Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane, Moneyball basically establishes the idea that an average or run of the mill ball club with a less than modest payroll can obtain players that are paid “reasonable” to “bear bones” wages and compete effectively against the few teams that command giant payrolls, big business and superstar athletes, and achieve that ultimate and universal goal of all athletics: score.

            In baseball, teams are built to accomplish one universal goal-- to win a championship. It stands to reason that to be the best in the entire league takes the best effort and the best players. In accordance with the laws of supply and demand, a few teams such as the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have successfully created  dominant business structures that control mass amounts of monies which are then used to outbid their competition to “buy” the “best” ball players…just like any other business.  Moneyball challenges the idea that the team with the most money wins. The concept suggests that competent players being paid average league salaries can come together as a team to compete with players that make possibly 10 to 50 times what the average player makes, in some cases even 100 times what the average player is being paid!  Moneyball is grounded on the principle that a team of players who have an average hits and reach base can compete against a team of one or two superstars who have a high average reaching base many times or have a more frequent home-run success. How well an average player gets on base is one main rule that holds this idea together in the baseball world.  

Rather than trying to buy huge superstars who in some cases may not even continue to play well or be the best anymore (for example, Alex Rodriguez with a $275M contract) Moneyball says a team of with a mix of decent players who all can get on base well and can throw a certain way that doesn’t allow batters to reach base can build on the small things and average out over the course of a game in order to accomplish bigger tasks. Throwing money away on hyped players who don’t end up performing and losing in the playoffs or not making them at all has always been the main reasons why the monied teams do not accomplish their goals of winning a championship. Perhaps, in the end, it seems, it is the old tortoise and the hare concept repackaged in a freshly minted 21^st century package.

            Moneyball states that the small guys like the Oakland A’s with a second to last payroll of $55 million  can successfully compete athletically against superstar teams like the Yankees that that have $200M dollars to spend each year. It is ironic and to some ardent baseball fans tantamount to criminal that some superstar players make more in their contracts than whole teams have to spend in 5 years. The Moneyball strategy has led the A’s to win enough games to make it to the playoffs 2 of the last 7 years and keeps fans coming back even though the coaches do not go out during the offseason and pursue the highly paid and over-paid athletes. The A’s won’t even bring back players who exceed expectations and have years where they put up exceptional stats that give them the ability to ask for more money when the time comes. Instead, the A’s would rather trade these players who proved themselves for a year or two. Players sought out from these trades are young talents that have the upside and potential to equal the player that they have let go and in many times these players exceed the amount of talent that the one player provided to the team.

Through the acquisition of young players, the amount of total contracts can equal the amount of one veteran player. Young talent can be used to also acquire some mid-level veterans that give the team someone who is cheap but has the experience to handle certain situations that the club will inevitably face. The constant revolving door of players makes it hard for fans to continue their loyalty to the club which may trade or release fan favorites. But with the old going out it brings the opportunity for someone who is unproved to step into that role, thrive and make a name for them or fail and never reach their hype or potential.  Some might think it hard to continue success when the team has a good year but no “big” moves are made to possibly put them over the edge. In fact, some moves might appear to some that the team is unloading their roster as if they had not been close to winning enough games to make it to the postseason.

This business concept that the Athletics’ use has been adopted by a few teams across the league, who try to follow the success that Oakland has been having but the process of moneyball can take a year maybe even five years to acquire either enough talent or good enough players to compete. Plus, there is the team element that no one ever talks about which is team chemistry, liking the guy next to you or the guys who you don’t really have anything in common with at another position. The A’s find a way to get past the egos and the attitude of these athletes who make hundreds of thousands to millions a year and focus on the bigger picture to help the team while helping themselves. To make the system work, there are a lot of little things that have to go right and sometime things can go wrong too, but the way that the Athletics can come into a new season every year and not be given any respect for their abilities must be hard to deal with. But, while analysts say the team could set a new record for losses, proving them wrong is probably one of their greatest feelings of accomplishment besides winning the World Series.