Scan barcode
A review by ricksilva
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Michael Lewis recounts the 2002 season of Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's, and his (at the time) unique approach to putting together a winning MLB team on (by MLB standards) a shoestring budget.
The book traces Beane's own struggles as a player, and how he was driven to take nearly the opposite approach to scouting and drafting as the outlook that originally brought him to the Big Leagues. Beane's search for a different way of doing business led him to new approaches to looking at baseball statistics that upended the traditional ways of evaluating players.
This is a fun blend of baseball lore, mathematics, and profiles of the outlandish personalities that are playing the game at its highest level. There's also a lot of intrigue on the business end of things, as Beane attempts to get the best of his competitors and often finds himself at odds with people in his own organization.
While Beane is the star here, the author does not shy away from Beane's significant shortcomings as a player and as a general manager. The book does a nice job of circling back at the end to give a glimpse of the players that Beane drafted in 2002, as seen in a dramatic early chapter, although I would have enjoyed even more follow-up on their ongoing stories.
The book traces Beane's own struggles as a player, and how he was driven to take nearly the opposite approach to scouting and drafting as the outlook that originally brought him to the Big Leagues. Beane's search for a different way of doing business led him to new approaches to looking at baseball statistics that upended the traditional ways of evaluating players.
This is a fun blend of baseball lore, mathematics, and profiles of the outlandish personalities that are playing the game at its highest level. There's also a lot of intrigue on the business end of things, as Beane attempts to get the best of his competitors and often finds himself at odds with people in his own organization.
While Beane is the star here, the author does not shy away from Beane's significant shortcomings as a player and as a general manager. The book does a nice job of circling back at the end to give a glimpse of the players that Beane drafted in 2002, as seen in a dramatic early chapter, although I would have enjoyed even more follow-up on their ongoing stories.