April 20, 2005
Say It Ain’t So, Joe
For those who’ve missed the latest chapter in Joe Morgan’s brave public battle against common sense, the grumpy, old “in-my-day-we-always-bunted-in-runs-and-we-liked-it” baseball analyst turned his keen powers of analysis on the Oakland A’s. Gaze with fearful wonderment at the portions of the transcript related to Oakland here.
Among the highlights:
• The A’s don’t care about winning anymore.
• No one’s ever won anything using a sabermetric-influenced philosophy.
• The Red Sox might have won using a sabermetric-influenced philosophy, but that doesn’t count.
• Mark Mulder apparently won the Cy Young Award, but forget to make a big deal about it.
My responses:
• Huh?
• What?
• Come again?
• Can I have some of whatever you’re drinking?
For a more in-depth rebuttal, however, turn to Dodger Thoughts and Jon Weisman’s excellent point-by-point analysis.
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Comments
Reading the Dodger Thoughts threads simply reminds me how "Moneyball" has messed with people's minds. Whoever came up with the title was a genius.
Being a *cough* occasional gambler, Beane's approach brought to mind a lesson I learned watching the ponies: overlay, overlay, overlay.
Moneyball = finding overlays. Sabermetrics = a way to find overlays. That doesn't necessarily translate to Moneyball = Sabermetrics. But that's what people want to see.
If the Yankees started paying for the stats Beane covets, Beane will switch to something else. He's got to find value to compete.
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