Moneyball+Revolution

=**Moneyball** =

 The moneyball revolution began in 2002 when the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics attempted to, and succeeded in winning games by using sabermetrics to find players who have hidden value to a team (Wikipedia). Sabermetrics are a set of stats that show how much a player actually helps his team win instead of using traditional stats such as batting average and homerun numbers (Woodrum).

Since 2002, many teams have hired sabermetric analysts. For this reason teams with a very low payroll can be successful. A perfect example of this is the Tampa Bay Rays. In 2013 they have the 28th highest payroll in the MLB out of 30 teams (MLB Salaries). Someone could expect them to finish somewhere around 28th in wins. However, the Rays played in the playoffs (lost to the Red Sox) while a team like the Philadelphia Phillies (ranked 3rd in payroll) was not playing in October (MLB Salaries). Over the last 10 years, many teams have gone to the moneyball strategy and more often than not have been extremely successful. The Pittsburgh Pirates clinched not only a playoff spot, but also a winning season for the first time in 20 years using moneyball in 2013. More and more teams are beginning to use this strategy.

The Film Moneyball is a movie that was based on the true story of the beginning of the Moneyball Revolution. The Moneyball revolution finally became a real movement in the MLB in 2002 when the Oakland Athletics began using the philosophy. Both the book and movie by the name of Moneyball were based on this story.

media type="file" key="Moneyball - New Way of Thinking.mov" width="407" height="407" align="left"This video was produced by ESPN just before the Moneyball movie was released. The movie explains very well how the moneyball revolution was innovative. In the video, they say that the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who the movie is based on is a "pioneer." He was a pioneer for a very important and lasting innovation in the game of baseball.

In the Moneyball book it says “There was but one question he left unasked, and it vibrated between his lines: if gross miscalculations of a person's value could occur on a baseball field, before a live audience of thirty thousand, and a television audience of millions more, what did that say about the measurement of performance in other lines of work? If professional baseball players could be over- or under valued, who couldn't?” (Lewis). This suggests that a moneyball-like philosophy could possibly be used in all facets of life. Obviously, sabermetrics would not be useful in most people's everyday life, but it is possible that people are over and undervalued in life. In another part of the book it says “The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win. The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don’t know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired” (Lewis). Rooting for David is the whole basis of the moneyball revolution. The moneyball revolution also made it possible for David to win in a game where for a very long time Goliath was overwhelmingly dominant.

Sources: ESPN. "Moneyball - New Way of Thinking." //YouTube//. YouTube, 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Lewis, Michael. //Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game//. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. Print.

"MLB Salaries." //CBSSports.com//. CBS, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Wikipedia Contributors. "Moneyball." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

Woodrum, Bradley. "What Is Sabermetrics? And Which Teams Use It? | FanGraphs Baseball." //What Is Sabermetrics? And Which Teams Use It? | FanGraphs Baseball//. Fan Graphs, 12 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.