...Chris Uhle 11-17-2014 Global Sports Business Moneyball When Michael Lewis’ Moneyball was released it officially announced Billy Beane’s new way of thinking to the rest of the world. Before the book was written, only a small group of people really had a full understanding of how analytics were changing the evaluation process in the sport of baseball. Billy Beane had always been using unconventional ways in finding undervalued players, but Lewis’ book brought his in depth strategy to the forefront of the sport. In 2011, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill starred in the film Moneyball. The movie did keep the same basic storyline as the book, however there were many differences between the two. One of the biggest disparities between the book and the film that I saw was in the way the film portrayed how the idea of Moneyball started. One of the first scenes in the movie has Billy Beane in Cleveland to discuss trade possibilities with the Indians. Beane notices that one of Shapiro’s (Cleveland GM) assistants is dictating who is tradable and confronts him after the meeting. The movie says this is the first time Beane is introduced to the world of sabermetrics and advanced analytics. While this makes for a good storyline, Billy Beane actually got the idea from former A’s GM, Sandy Alderson, not Peter Brand like in movie. This is a great exaggeration from the book as Brand is basically credited with the entire idea. In fact, Peter Brand was not even the real name of Beane’s assistant GM...
Words: 1214 - Pages: 5
...Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game The Oakland A's, under the management of Billy Beane, found a gap in the baseball skills market that existed because most baseball scouts and managers used traditional methods of selecting players that were outdated and had little relationship with skills that brought success to teams. Traditionally, baseball scouts mainly used batting averages (BA) and Runs batted in (RBI) to sign new players. On-base percentage (OBP) was used too, but it was not given as much premium as RBI and BA. Thus, when looking for players, almost all scouts went for players that scored highly on BA and RBI while ignoring those that scored highly on OBP but had low scores in BA and RBI. However, through analysis of massive amounts of data and reading Bill James’ series of baseball books Baseball Abstracts, Beane and his assistant, Paul DePodesta, found that OBP was the most important factor that determined a team’s success and not BA or RBI. Since OBP was not valued highly in players by most baseball scouts, Beane and DePodesta discovered that they could build a successful team of players with high OBP score but whom, because most top baseball teams had ignored them, could be paid much lower salaries than their counterparts could in big teams such as New York Yankees. Therefore, they could create a successful team on a much smaller budget than their competitors. Thus, the opportunity that Oakland A discovered was set up by scouts placing less premium on...
Words: 1139 - Pages: 5
...Contents Introduction - 5 - Leadership - 6 - Transformation - 8 - Innovation - 9 - 3-Bias Theory - 10 - Conclusion - 13 - References - 14 - Introduction ❖ Book (Non-Fiction) – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game ❖ Author - Michael Lewis ❖ Publication Year - 2003 ❖ Key Learnings – Leadership, Innovation, Change Management, Organizational Culture, Risk-taking, Transformation, Strategising ❖ Synopsis – The book is about a US baseball team, Oakland Athletics and its performance in the year 2002. It is a real-life account of how despite financial constraints, the protagonist, Billy Beane assembles a strong baseball team using innovative techniques and strategies. It is the story of how Billy Beane changed the organizational culture of his organization, and influenced that of his competitors’. He re-invented a system that was working for years. Beane and his assistant concluded that by hiring under-valued players, it was possible to win with less than 40% of the budget of their competitors. They applied analytical, evidence-based, sabermetric approach and thus selected a competitive team. As a result, in the 2001-02 season, the team struck an all-time record with a 20 game-winning streak. Exposing himself and his team to ridicule, how he ignored his detractors and went ahead with his unorthodox strategies to ultimately achieve the winning combination...
Words: 3304 - Pages: 14
...Sandra Baah Business Statistics Dale Matheny February 29 2012 The book Moneyball by Michael Lewis is about a former major league baseball player who became the manager of the Oakland A’s. It tells the story of how he led the team to success despite their low budget by using computer based analytics to draft players. With the help of Bill James, the Oakland A’s came up with a new plan based on statistics to draft players. He went after players nobody wanted due to their low budget and his new plan. Billy led the Oakland Athletics to a successive win seasons by changing the way he measured players. He abandoned the traditional 5 “tool” the other scouts used and adopted empirical analytics. The abandonment of the traditional assessment of players for the analytical approach led to high victory for the Oakland A’s despite their low budget. By applying sabermetrics to baseball the Oakland Athletics found a way to defeat rich teams. Billy Beane had a different approach, he had metrics he used particular metrics to evaluate and pick players. Those metrics are, on base plus slugging, walks and hits per innings pitched, and base runs. James thought the statistics for baseball were inaccurate. James stated that “statistics were not merely inadequate; they lied. And the lies they told led the people who ran major league baseball teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their games” (Lewis 67). By recognizing this, it helped the Oakland A’s find undervalued players because the other...
Words: 662 - Pages: 3
...data collection is part of the question, your paper should include the data collected in a neat and organized manner. Read the December 3, 2012 Sports Illustrated article entitled “Moneyballsy”. The article was sent to your email address 1. (3 pts) Research Daryl Morey’s career beyond what was written in the article and write a ½ page on how his experiences and education led him to understand the importance of statistics in his career 2. (3 pts) Describe in detail (1/2 page) what Bill James’s Pythagorean expectation formula is and how Morey applied it to basketball. 3. (3 pts) How has Oakland A’s (baseball) General Manager Billy Beane influenced Morey’s career? Recall that Billy Beane was the focus of the motion picture Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt. 4. (3 pts) What was the principle statistical reasons Morey acquired James Harden, Jeremy Lin, and Shane Battier? 5. (3 pts) What are the drawbacks of using only statistics to make critical decisions? What other factors are important for success? How would you balance all of these factors if you were a NBA general manager?...
Words: 263 - Pages: 2
...GMAN 311 – Moneyball Writeup What was the organizational goal? -The goal of the organization was to build a successful/competitive baseball team with the very limited payroll the executive staff had to work with. What was the decision criteria in the opening scene? The decision criteria in the opening scene of Moneyball was to formulate a team using more of a traditional system of qualifying players by there batting average, RBIs, etc. What was the conviction that haunted the general manager? -Billy Beane Loved the game of baseball and would do anything to stay involved with the sport. He was considered to be one of the best baseball players coming out of high school and decided play professional baseball instead of developing his skills in college. He was haunted by the fact that his ability was hyped and his playing career ultimately became a bust. What did the economist from Yale say should be the criteria? -The economist recommended taking a “sabermetric” approach. This was considered to be an unconventional way of prospecting players at the time because it focused on statistics that were though of as pointless to consider by many scouts at the time. How did the gm implement it? -Amongst much resistance, Beane forced this new method on Art Howe by trading away their really good players. This left Howe with no choice but to play the newly signed, inexperienced players. Was it perfect? -The system was most certainly not perfect, but did prove to be effective...
Words: 333 - Pages: 2
...“MONEYBALL” SINOPSIS “Moneyball” mengisahkan tentang seorang manajer klub baseball dari tim Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt). Film ini dibuat berdasarkan kisah nyata yang dialami oleh klub Oakland Athletics pada tahun 2002 yang menggemparkan negeri Paman Sam. Kala itu klub A’s (julukan Oakland) telah ditinggal beberapa pemain bintangnya ke klub yang lebih memiliki reputasi tinggi dan A's kewalahan untuk mencari pengganti pemain bintangnya karena klub tersebut sedang mengalami krisis keuangan, Beane melakukan berbagai usaha untuk bisa membuat tim binaannya bangkit sampai-sampai Beane rela harus berhutang untuk membeli pemain-pemain bintang demi mendongkrak prestasi tim. Di tengah perjuangannya itu, pertemuan tak disengaja dengan Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), sarjana ekonomi yang saat itu masih bekerja di tim saingannya, membuka mata Beane akan sebuah cara baru dalam merekrut pemain. Sebuah cara baru dengan menggunakan pendekatan yang belum pernah dipakai tim lain, statistika. Tak perlu pemain bintang, asal data statistiknya bagus, pemain tersebut layak direkrut. Akhirnya Billy dan Peter berduet untuk merombak manajemen di tim Oackland Athletics. Alhasil, sistem ini membuat para senior tim geram dengan perombakan ini salah satunya kepala pelatih Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Billy berani mengambil langkah tersebut walaupun tidak pernah tau persentasi keberhasilannya dan membuat hubungannya dengan kepala pelatih menjadi dingin. Tim baru yang di manajeri...
Words: 565 - Pages: 3
...Moneyball Katy Hansen Argosy University Management Decision Models B6025 Dr. Mathew Kuofie May 11, 2016 Moneyball In the article, “Who’s On First by Richard H. Thaler and Cass Rosenstein”, they examine why sabermetric-based player evaluation is such a shock to other executives in baseball. Billy Beane’s effectiveness is evaluated by constructing a matrix of pitfalls and practicalities that highlight the differences between Beane’s team and other executives. In addition, a personal decision that highlights a partiality resulting in loss will be discussed. The authors examine Michael Lewis’s new book: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. They scrutinize the charming General Manager Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics baseball club, and explain how he turns his baseball team around primarily by using statistics instead of relying on baseball’s conventional wisdom to win. (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). Lewis’s book points out the extraordinary success of Beane’s baseball team despite the fact that the payroll for the team is consistently in the bottom two or three spots in the league. (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003) Thaler and Sunstein make the case that “the limits on human rationality and efficiency of labor markets” make for blunders and confusion with those who run baseball teams and ultimately correlates to similar blunders and confusions in many other fields. (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003) Lewis describes how Beane is heavily recruited primarily...
Words: 845 - Pages: 4
...Money Ball Essay In today’s business world, any decision made by a manager can have serious implications on the progress of the organization. In addition to the intense pressure, the manager is also under constant scrutiny from his peers and supervisors. Keeping all this in mind, any soon-to-be business manager needs to be fully prepared to defend his decision making abilities. The book Moneyball gives a fair idea of this process, as the manager of the featured baseball team is faced with similar kinds of challenges. Q) With the limited resources in hand, how can a manger make the most effective decision? Every manager in modern world is faced with the limitation of resources. Organizations expect the manager to make effective decisions with a limited amount of resources on hand. This was the case with Billy, the manager of Oakland A’s baseball team. He had to select the best possible players for the club with only a limited amount of money at his disposal. It is very important for a manager to think outside the box in these situations. The manager has to understand that all his competitors have access to the same information and therefore, in order to outperform his competitors, the manager needs to be creative. By thinking outside of the box a manager is engaging in integrative thinking. As in the case of Billy, the manager needs to understand that market perception is not always right. The manager also has to learn from the experience of others. People learn with experience...
Words: 1752 - Pages: 8
...English Mini-Assignment Theme | Elements of Fiction/Film Techniques | “In the right circumstances, the underdogs can also be the winner.” | * Theme, Characterization * Lighting, Audio, Setting, Editing | Thesis: The film version of the multi-award winning novel, Moneyball, is a strong adaptation of the story. The director, Bennett Miller, has succeeded in matching author Michael Lewis’ style by using a great sense of lighting, audio, characterisation, setting and editing to help capture the theme; underdogs can be winners in the right circumstances. Just like the book, the movie symbolized hope, unfairness and to never give up. List of 10 Passages: 1. ISU Novel Passage: " There was the bias toward what people saw with their own eyes, or thought they had seen... There was a lot you couldn't see when you watched a baseball game.” (Lewis 19) Elements of Fiction: Setting, Characterization and Conflict between what baseball managers see in baseball players. Film Adaptation: Billy and Paul (his name is Peter in the movie) are in the garage of the Cleveland Indians baseball team and they are both wearing a suit, and there are cars in the background. (Time: 0:20:39) Film Techniques: - Medium-Bright lighting to show enthusiasm - Over-the-shoulder shots - Inspirational music in the background to show inspiration of what Paul (Peter) is saying Analysis/Connection to Thesis: This passage and movie scene relates to the thesis because the thesis is about how...
Words: 2172 - Pages: 9
...best move.” – Michael Lewis, Money ball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. That was the quote that came to my mind when and while I was reading this article. But before reading this article, I had no idea how marketing can just like baseball in many ways. Let alone, did I think or believe that you can use the “Moneyball,” method within marketing. But just like baseball, I think you can use that method because at the end you are trying save tons of money while trying to market your product the best out in the field. In order to have your marketing team use a “Moneyball” method you need to able to trust your team, trust your gut and trust your data. I personally believe now after reading the article and seeing the movie marketing and baseball are so likely in many ways. In baseball and marketing, you got to be able to trust your team with the decisions that you guys make. As well as that in both you have to be able to trust your gut with either what player you decide to sign or what you want to market. As well as in both you have to trust your data that you have on either players or what the market tells you about the products that are being marketed out there. In Moneyball, Beane was success in what he did because he trusted his team. He put the right people on his staff and allowed each one of them to develop themselves within the organization that ends up helping him out in the long run. Just in marketing, the most successful marketers are teaming up with IT counterparts. So...
Words: 768 - Pages: 4
...Moneyball Critique YJean Ligon Argosy University, Tampa October 17, 2014 Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation Shock In the movie Moneyball, the use of sabermetric-based player evaluation was a shock to other executives in baseball because it was not the rule of thumb for evaluating player performance at the time. The executives where accustom to using their personal biases, human rationale, gut instinct and tying things to performance that made no sense such as an ugly player’s girlfriend. Beane relied on objective evidence, explicitly ignoring anything that could be dismissed as "subjective” (Thaler and Sunstein, 2003). They also treat mere coincidences as facts in which a high probability was applied. According to Belkin (2002), the true meaning of the word, coincidence is "a surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, with no apparent causal connection." In other words, pure happenstance. Yet by merely noticing a coincidence, we elevate it to something that transcends its definition as pure chance. We are discomforted by the idea of a random universe. Beane’s effectiveness in His Success Beane was more effective in his success because he abandoned the baseball heuristics of his day. He applied a non-conventional method that was not widely used. Since his methodology was not popular he was looked upon as being crazy because he was not using the same old method of that time. He valued winning. Therefore he was always evaluating the...
Words: 1081 - Pages: 5
...Module 1, Assignment 3: Moneyball Wednesday January 8, 2014 B6025 Management Decision Models Adhering to the belief that the success of a major league baseball player is dependent not on their ability to score runs and win games but on a subjective collection of characteristics and misleading statistics seems preposterous. But as illustrated by Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, this seems to be how most major league baseball players have been scouted for decades. In Richard Thaler’s review of the bestselling novel, he explores how the common mistakes made by most scouts when making decisions are not unique to the sport of baseball. An overarching belief in baseball is that experts accurately predict the success of a player. It seems traditional baseball scouting has developed specific heuristics to decide which players to draft. But this scouting method can be subject to biases when not used properly as each expert has his/her own biases which, if not carefully checked, can color their decisions in subtle ways. As Thaler notes, many player were simply ignored because “they did not match up with the scouts' mental prototype of a successful ballplayer”. What followers of sabermetrics – the practice of using empirical analysis to measure in-game activity- proposed was that “reliable statistical evidence will outperform … heuristic(s) every time” and is a far better indicator of a player’s success. (Thaler, 2003) When Billy Beane, the main focus of Moneyball, “relied on objective...
Words: 1685 - Pages: 7
...review An inspiring movie that can relate to entrepreneurial content that I have chosen is Moneyball. A true based story, Moneyball is a movie for anybody who has ever visualised of taking on the system. Its about realistic sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller from a script written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. The film is based on Michael Lewis's 2003 non-fiction book of the unchanged name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's challenges to assemble a competitive team. In the film, Beane (Brad Pitt) and assistant GM Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), faced with the franchise's critical financial situation, take a sophisticated sabermetric approach towards scouting and evaluating players, acquiring "submarine" pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond) and former catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt), and winning 20 consecutive games, an American League record. Columbia Pictures bought the copyrights to Lewis's book in 2004. After a number of years in advance, the film was presented at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on September 23, 2011 to a box office success and positive reviews. The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards together with Best Actor and Best Picture. This movie inspiring me in the way ofWhy entrepreneurs should see it: Bootstrapping is Based on a true story, Moneyball is a movie for anybody who has ever dreamed of taking on the system. Brad Pitt stars as Billy...
Words: 392 - Pages: 2
...Course Project: Leadership Review of Moneyball (2011) Introduction: Moneyball (2011) is a movie based on the truth story for Mr Billy Beane and his attempted to have the perfect team to achieve the baseball game win. Based on Moneyball: The art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis 2003. The lead actor in this movie is Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) and his assistant Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). This story changes a lot of concepts in management especially in the recruitment process. On this article I will write down the leadership skills that Billy Beane got it and also a brief talk about his personality. Leadership: * Negative: Introducing a new member in your team is a must, letting your team knows what you are planning to is a very must. As a leader you must make everyone of your team member on board so it will be easy for all to share common goals. Hiding team member activity or your strategy as a leader is mistake that you need as a leader. What we are facing in most of Saudis companies that we deal with new employees as they know the company inch by inch, while actually they don’t know anything. An orientation program is necessary tool for new joiner. In the movie Beane didn’t communicate the new strategy to his team. They have no idea what he is doing and why he is doing it. How can your employees help you if they don’t know what you are up to? Beane and Brand are trying to do one thing, and the rest of the recruiting team is trying to do something different. * Positive:...
Words: 1595 - Pages: 7
