preview

Review of 'Moneyball'

Decent Essays

Moneyball Introduction Those who follow Major League Baseball closely were aware of the unconventional way the Oakland A's went about re-building a ball club into a winner in 2002, after three superstars left the team as free agents en route to multi-million dollar paydays. Indeed, when Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen the biggest stars on the 2001 team head for the big bucks, general manager Billy Beane figures out a new way to win. This paper reviews the movie and moreover, what Beane did to change the game. How Baseball was Changed to a Degree Anyway It may be a stretch to say Billy Beane's style of management "changed baseball," but Beane did and does, off and on, to this day produce competitive teams based on far different values and on less expensive talent than the typical general manager would seek to acquire. First, it should be said that while this is certainly a baseball movie, it is also a story about an iconoclastic executive (Beane) out to prove some of his employees wrong by innovating a radically different style of management. The scouts who were paid to find the best talent out there the players that could hit for high average, could hit home runs, could throw a ball home on the fly from deep in centerfield, could steal bases and make sensational defensive plays were shocked and angered when Beane changed the usual strategies. What Beane was looking for, and continues to seek today as GM of the A's, is players that statistics shows

Get Access