More Moneyball
Joe Schick (who briefly threatened to limit his posts to the New York Jets but has, I am happy to report, backed off), had two posts on the pathetic management of the Mets that inspired me to pick up one of my all time favorite books on baseball, "Moneyball: the Art of Winning An Unfair Game", by Michael Lewis.
As Joe points out, the Mets are making what seem to be astoundingly bad moves, both on and off the field, for example, batting David Wright, perhaps their best hitter, eighth, replacing two good-hitting back up catchers for a guy who is not hitting his weight, and trading a very viable 5th starter for a guy with an ERA almost 200 points higher.
One of the most interesting parts of Moneyball was when the author asked Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, a team that, despite having one of the two lowest payrolls in all of baseball, consistently won more games than almost any other franchise (including those with payrolls four times that of the A's) why he was willing to go public with his methods. Beane responded that most of the GMs and managers of the other teams are dopes from the 'old boys club' and will not accept the new methododlogy, continuing to rely, instead, on old, tired, baseball 'lore'.
There appears to be no better example of this than the 'New Mets'.
Prediction: 81 - 81. At best.
Joe Schick (who briefly threatened to limit his posts to the New York Jets but has, I am happy to report, backed off), had two posts on the pathetic management of the Mets that inspired me to pick up one of my all time favorite books on baseball, "Moneyball: the Art of Winning An Unfair Game", by Michael Lewis.
As Joe points out, the Mets are making what seem to be astoundingly bad moves, both on and off the field, for example, batting David Wright, perhaps their best hitter, eighth, replacing two good-hitting back up catchers for a guy who is not hitting his weight, and trading a very viable 5th starter for a guy with an ERA almost 200 points higher.
One of the most interesting parts of Moneyball was when the author asked Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, a team that, despite having one of the two lowest payrolls in all of baseball, consistently won more games than almost any other franchise (including those with payrolls four times that of the A's) why he was willing to go public with his methods. Beane responded that most of the GMs and managers of the other teams are dopes from the 'old boys club' and will not accept the new methododlogy, continuing to rely, instead, on old, tired, baseball 'lore'.
There appears to be no better example of this than the 'New Mets'.
Prediction: 81 - 81. At best.
posted by MoChassid @ 10:34 AM
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