After reading Chapter 1 of Moneyball, watch the interview below with Billy Beane. Beane's desire to turn his team from a perennial doormat in the 90s to a year-in year-out contender pushed him to look into the teachings of Bill James and Saber metrics. Task 1
Go to the following link and select the Click Here article in the middle of the page about Dan Okrent and Bill James "Doing It By the Numbers". Dan Okrent and Bill James: http://sabr.org/about/bill-james
Task 2
Watch the Billy Beane Interview. Billy Beane Interview: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000152865
Task 3 (Graded Task)
Then, respond to this question on the blog.
In what way has Billy Beane created legitimacy around the more cost efficient approach that he has employed with the Oakland Athletics?
Billy Beane has legitimized the cost efficient approach by proving that it could work in the MLB and wasn't just an interesting theory. In the last two years they have had a very minimal pay roll and have made the playoffs both years with over 90 wins in each. He has proven that teams don't need to be like the Yankees and spend millions you just need to approach the game differently. If the A's had tried to compete with the Yankees in getting the "all-stars" they would fail, but rather Billy Beane found a new way to look at it. With Bill James' strategy Billy Beane has proved that you can win games without having the all-stars who require multi-million dollar contracts.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane has legitimized the cost-effiicent approach to baseball by taking something that everyone in baseball dismissed as stupid and proving that it actually works. The Athletics' record shows that you don't need a big payroll to get results. Teams like the Yankees are only good because they have enough money to pay for a full roster of all stars. But teams like the A's are good because each one of their players contributes to their wins. Billy Beane has proven that the key to success in baseball is not through money, but through strategy.
ReplyDeleteBilly created a well respected, cost efficient approach to making a baseball team by success. He legitimized his style of making a team by creating teams that make the playoffs and have good records. Another very important way he legitimized his way of creating teams is that many other MLB teams are trying to copycat his meathod. Because his meathod is producing success, people and teams are going to try to copy what he does in order for their ball club to have success as well.
ReplyDeleteBilly Bean changed the game of baseball in a big way. Billy Bean created a way to have a very effective team that competes every year, at an extremely cheap rate. He proved that you don't necessarily need all the money the really rich teams have to compete with them. He created a new way to put a team together. Opposed to paying big names big money, he would pay small names, that could get in base, small money. He realizes that those big names aren't really worth the amount they're being paid.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane proved that the more money you have doesn't always mean the more successful you are. The Yankees spent over 100 million dollars on their team and the A's spent around 40 million. He showed the world that you don't need the best players in baseball to win the most games. You just need players that can make the plays on the field, and get on base. It worked very well considering they won 103 of 162 games. They just needed someone to step up in the playoffs and make a play.
ReplyDeleteBilly legitimized the cost efficient approach to baseball by showing not only the fans but also the MLB as a whole, that you don't need to dish out millions of dollars to all star players to win games. With the amount of money the A's had compared to the Yankees was ridiculous. Billy Beane showed that no matter how much each player on that field is making, if you don't have team chemistry, you're not going to win. Instead of picking up guys that could make the Web Gem catch or hit homer runs all the time, he looked at the little things. He looked at how many times people get on base, what people bat if all they do is just wait for their pitch, he changed the game and because of Billy, baseball has been looked at in a lot of different ways.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane changed the game by forming a playoff team without spending as much money, in fact basically no money compared to the other franchises in baseball. He tried to show Major League Baseball that it is not about buying players it is about buying wins. It is not always the caliber of players that gets you the wins, it's the team chemistry that you have. Billy built a team based off a crucial stat, on base percentage. He said over and over that he wants guys that get on base and score runs. That is the key to winning ball games. Billy looked at all the little things, not the guys who could hit 450 foot homers, or rob homers, he played small ball, and wanted guys to get on base. That works, yes, but every team has a "franchise player" that carries them through the playoffs, and in my opinion the A's did not have that or those guys. That is why their success was short-lived.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane has changed the way of the game for many players and has been able to prove it to the other teams. By picking the players that maybe are not the best all around players, but are really good at one of the aspects of the game, he has been able to create some of the most efficient teams for baseball. The importance of his way in choosing his team is by looking at the wins, not the price and business side of it. If it'll get him a win, it works. Beane looked at more than just the homerun players. He would go deep into the records to see how the athlete has built himself up.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane was revolutionary for baseball. He picked players that were not necessarily wanted by other teams and bought them for cheap. He was able to strategically place these players in a way where their certain skills flourish. How the win happened was not important to him, as long as they got the win. Billy did not care what people thought of what he was doing with the Oakland A's because he knew that he could accomplish it. He created legitimacy to the cost efficient approach to baseball by proving that it is possible. It is possible to spend little money and win big.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane changed the whole ball game. He took something that has been following tradition for so many years and took it in a whole other direction. The fact that he was able to win all of those games at around only 200k per win is just incredible. Sure, the Yankees were better but they spent around 1.4 million per win. to bring up this idea into the realm of baseball is just giving more opportunity to the teams with a much lower budget. he not only legitimized this technique but he revolutionized baseball in a whole.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane brought major emphasis upon the numbers aspect of baseball. Despite being doubted throughout the entire process of putting together the moneyball team, Billy managed to change the game. Because of Billy everybody realized that winning doesn't require paying big time players big money. Bringing math and statistics into the MLB was a huge step towards the baseball we see today. Beane proved to all of baseball that his theroy wasn't crazy and was a legitimate solution to having little money to throw at players.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane definitely created legitimacy around the "moneyball" approach to building a team. The way he did this was by actually proving that it could work in the MLB. Although the success was somewhat short-lived, the method he introduced into the league was proven effective (or at least tried out) for/by other teams. Beane believed in compiling a team based on stats necessary to score runs, which ultimately wins games. This drove his concept of "buying wins, not players." The most important stat used was runs scored and on base percentage. Beane looked past all of the home run hitters and big shot superstars, and dug for fundamental players. Not only did Beane legitimize a more cost-efficient approach to building a team, but also sought out a greater appreciation for the small ball players and the kids that play their hearts out even if they don't crank homers every game.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane wanted to change the way baseball was played. He knew he couldn't compete with the high pay roll teams such as the Yankees and Red Sox so he thought of a new way to be competitive. Instead of paying big contracts to the big name players, Beane wanted to buy wins with players that cost a penny. His main focus was on base percentage. He wanted to buy runs and not buy big name players. With the help of Paul DePodesta, Peter Brand in Moneyball, Beane succesfully replaced three big name players with players that struggled to stay on a team. The team put together by Beane came up short to the World Series although they did accomplish something amazing with the winning streak record. His cost efficient method proved to not be a joke. Beane is still searching for his first world series victory with this method.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane has legitimized the cost efficient approach to creating a baseball team simply because he proved that it works. Billy proved that a team can not only survive but thrive without having a single allstar player. he proved that when you have a cheap team that works well together and can get runs than you can be competitive with other high budget teams.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane looked at how the game of baseball was played. He saw so much more potential in players that were otherwise just written off but other teams. Billy, along side of Peter, analysed players strengths and strategically placed them on the field to help them achieve that 20 win streak. And he did this all with a very limited budget.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane has changed the way that Baseball works. Instead of going for players that just looked like they would perform well, he made a system to analyze players for desirable statistics that would also show how valuable the player is to the team. The success of this method started to show itself and other teams started to adapt and adopt this method of his. With his method, he has changed how recruiting in baseball really works.
ReplyDeleteBilly beans showed the world that no matter how bad the players you have on your team, you cN still win. Even if it took extra practice and a lot of time, you can still win even without an allstar baseball player.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane created legitimacy around the more cost efficient approach and made it successful. He chose players that weren't that great but didn't cost a lot and made it work. I don't think any coach would have done this. And even after so many people doubted what he was doing he still went along with his game plan. Billy Beane was able to win all those games and didn't have to spend so much on the players. I think that just proves that everyone does have talent even though it may seem like they don't. Not everything cheap is bad.
ReplyDeleteBeane took on a new approach to "reinvent" the american game of baseball. Instead of gathering the most expensive athletes around, he based his team off of statistics that they held and went from there. He saw more potential in players that were more often than not, overlooked and passed by because of a physical problem, they're not consistent with averages or they were just told they're too old to keep playing. Peter and Billy took in these kind of athletes and created something that's too great to possibly never come true again.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane has legitimized the cost efficient approach by proving that it could work in major league baseball. In the last two years they have had a very small pay roll and have made the playoffs both years with over 90 wins in each. His theory has proven to work to be a good baseball team. It just hasnt proven to be able to briung home a world series yet. If the A's had tried to compete with the Yankees in getting the "all-stars" they would fail, they would fail solely on the fact that they dont have the capital to compete.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane went with a bold new approach in putting together a roster that would save the A's organization millions. It was hard enough for him to get by since his owner wouldn't give him more money. He studied the numbers when it came to scouting and instead of just taking the best athletes he brought in the best ball players. His teams still produced wins and they still made the postseason a couple seasons, and everyone knows once you're in the postseason anything can happen.
ReplyDeleteBilly bean wanted to have a different perspective on how baseball should be run. His method to creating a baseball team proved to be succsesfull. he focused on the base percentage. he wanted to "buy wins, not players" billy bean acomplished something that was impossible at the time.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane was a low budget GM for the Oakland Athletics unable to purchase big money players so he got the cheapest players he could find that were still able to produce nearly the same numbers as the allstars in the MLB. He won his division with a mlb record win streak. He beat the game through numbers which nobody ever thought possible.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane changed the whole game of baseball. However, it was hard for Billy to form the Moneyball team. But Billy had his ways and worked around it. Big time players and a big salary for the players doesnt necessarily mean they will help the team. Billy revolutionized baseball but introdcuing math and statistics to the game. Billy realized that big money doesnt mean jack, but knowing the statistics in the game is key.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane changed the way baseball can be looked at forever. As the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, he knew that he couldn't compete with the Yankees for the big name all stars in the free agency. By acknowledging this fact he was able to look at the game in a new way for the first time, a cost effective approach. He took a bunch of "scrubs" who had mediocre statistics at best alone but collectively were able to compete as a team. By doing so the team started to click and began winning their games with a different approach. This approach, although different lead the athletics to the playoffs that year proving this method can be applied to win games and save money.
ReplyDeleteBilly Beane made the cost efficient approach to creating a baseball team very legitimate, although it'd be hard to win a world series with that approach, the games they win could earn them more fans, thereby creating more revenue too buy players that would win them a world series. The fact that he created this system was an amazing feat and may well have changed the game for small market teams forever. Being able to compete with the Yankees and not even having half of their payroll was an amazing feat. Billy Beane's introduction of math to the game was truly an amazing and genious idea.
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