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Billy Beane And Moneyball

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“Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” by Michael Lewis is a book that discusses how the Oakland Athletics became a baseball powerhouse despite having one of the smallest budgets. The man who is the architect of this franchise is Billy Beane, an ex-player turned general manager. Beane was a player who had all of the physical tools old school scouts look for, however he turned out to be a disappointment; instead of falling into the trap other general managers fell into, he looked for a competitive edge, a new market inefficiency. He was not afraid to go against the norm, he made a team with the second smallest budget into a powerhouse, and he inspired an entire new era of successful general managers, as well as impacting people in other …show more content…

One of the most notable executives inspired by Beane is Theo Epstein, a Yale graduate who talked with Beane as much as possible when he was the assistant general manager in the Red Sox franchise and due to his frequent conversations with Beane, Epstein becomes obsessed with high on-base percentage players, such as Kevin Youkilis (Lewis 211). Inspired by Billy Beane, Theo Epstein leads the Boston Red Sox to two World Series titles in nine years, placing a heavy emphasis on on-base percentage; The Red Sox never placed below second in annual on-base percentage during Epstein’s tenure as general manager, and now Epstein is recreating the same philosophy in Chicago (ESPN). Another baseball general manager who was tremendously influenced by Billy Beane was Andrew Friedman; facing a tight budget in Tampa Bay much like Beane in Oakland, he drafted many college players and he led a mediocre franchise to four playoff appearances through following Billy Beane’s philosophy (Vice Sports). The Pittsburgh Pirates and their general manager, Neal Huntington have taken Beane’s philosophy to a whole different level; he hired people out of Ivy League schools just like Beane, however Huntington hired many more specific analysts. Huntington hired Baseball Prospectus’s Dan Fox to build the structure of their proprietary database, while also being an analyst for the Pirates, also Mike Fitzgerald was hired as an analyst who even traveled with the team on the road; over the years the Pirates’ analytical team built a relationship with the players and the coaching staff, to the point where the analytical group became a key part of the team, even more so than the Oakland A’s and Billy Beane (Sloan Sports Conference). Billy Beane’s impact has spread even beyond baseball; it has spread to soccer, american football, and basketball, one example of a soccer team following Beane’s philosophy is FC

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