dagblog - Comments for "Moneyball & Smooth Strokes"

The Many Problems With

Donal — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:39:25 +0000

In reply to Moneyball & Smooth Strokes

The Many Problems With 'Moneyball', a review in the Atlantic:

The film Moneyball is—just like the 2003 bestseller by Michael Lewis it's based on—an idealized version of what happened with Billy Beane and the Oakland A's in the early part of the last decade. Beane is credited with adapting baseball analyst Bill James's statistical concepts into practical application. James, a lucid and witty writer with a refreshingly iconoclastic view of baseball history, had argued for years that on-base percentage (OBP, which measure a batter's ability to reach base by hit or walk) was much more significant than mere batting average (BA, which only measures hits). James also stressed the relative value of slugging average (SLG, which measures a batter's total bases per at-bat) and dismissed the more traditional baseball stats such as stolen bases and bunts.

James long ago won over the smart guys, in whose ranks this writer regards himself. The cult of professional statisticians that followed in James's wake came to be known as "sabermatricians" as nearly all of them are members of SABR, the Society for American Baseball research. But a myth has built up around Moneyball the book, a myth largely propagated by the smart guys who want to see their most cherished beliefs about baseball transformed into hard reality. The myth says Beane single-handedly changed the game by recognizing the value of sabermetrics. But the myth doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

So popular has Moneyball proved since its publication that few have bothered to notice some of its very fundamental flaws. Throughout the book, Lewis makes it clear that he doesn't understand baseball.

Mr. Day, as always, says the

Barth — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:30:00 +0000

In reply to Moneyball & Smooth Strokes

Mr. Day, as always, says the right things.

I loved the book Moneyball and have not seen the movie yet. I will. Unlike Donal, I love baseball and could not actually ride by Camden Yards without going in, unless the Orioles were on the road or it was winter.

The baseball proletariat, as stupid as the Beltway wise owls, are back at it debunking Beane by pointing to the A's record. They know, as all honest baseball fans know, that the A's inability to win is because if baseball's continued inability to effectively deal with the huge advantages that a team with money has over those without (oddly, though not really, the same problem as our political system seems unable to resolve).

The real meaning of the book, at least to this reader is, as bombastically pronounced a year or so ago and actually something written by the current owner of my beloved Red Sox, talking as much about how he became wealthy as about baseball:

Many people think they are smarter than others in baseball and that the game in the field is simply what they think it is through their set of images/beliefs. Actual data from the market means more than individual perception/belief. The same is true in baseball.

The same is true everywhere, but that is not accepted by the culture in which we exist. Many of us watched as John Glenn orbited the earth 38 years ago today and wondered what other magnificent sights we would see as the hard work and thought which resulted in that achievement are applied to the world we live in but our hopes have been dashed by people who tell us that government is not the answer but the problem and to whom facts and data are just soooooo---boring---or irrelevant.

I have followed the Twins for

Richard Day — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:51:01 +0000

In reply to Moneyball & Smooth Strokes

I have followed the Twins for fifty one years.

Well fifty, this last year has been too painful to watch. ha

I have written before about sitting in the bleachers watching Harmon Killibrew, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle all hitting home runs whilst the Yankees killed us 22-5 (or something like that)

The miracle Twinkies in 1987 and 1991 just amazed me.

We are of course the old Washington Senators (I guess on this date there have been several Washington Senators, hahahahah)

We, Minnesotans who could never win anything but Gophers football in 60 or 61, won a world series not once but twice on a budget that was less than a third of the Yankees Payroll.

Yeah, it sounds like fun to watch this new film.

But Oakland never got to the World Series with this fellow.

And Minnesota has been working with minimarkets forever.

But the concept:

Beat the rich is a wonderful theme.

the end