NHRHS period 6 English 9 discussion

Moneyball

When I came across this quote, I thought that it was completely accurate. “The ability to get on base- to avoid making outs- was underpriced compared to the ability to hit with power. The one attribute most critical to the success of a baseball team was an attribute they could afford to buy,”(pg 125). All the teams are overlooking what it takes to win games. Manager, owners, GM’s, and everybody else all seem to have an imperfect understanding of where runs come from. It’s not about paying a player like Jason Giambi $100 million dollars to hit home runs. It’s about getting on base little by little, and chipping away to the win. Hitting for power and home runs is much more inconsistent than getting on base. Only the really poor teams, such as the Oakland A’s, are looking at this undervalued stat, mostly because that’s all that they can afford.

Question: Why is Billy so confident in his method of assembling a team?
I think Billy is doing this for a simple reason. Change. All his life, baseball has been the same, the whole process is so predictable. He thought, why not? If he has low cap space and is looking for the best of his money. Offensive production is what he’s seeking in a player. I think that Billy is looking to make a splash somewhere. When you’re new some place and your team isn’t the best, you have to risk what you have and make a name for yourself. Thats what Billy is trying to do. I find it so risky since he doesn’t have the best reputation in the big leagues and is know to be a hot head.
(pg 120-122)

Connection: This chapter discusses how the Billy Beane cant compete with richer teams. Billy Beanes team has only $40 million dollars to spend on players unlike other teams that have much more money to spend. This makes it harder to get good players so he has to settle for players that aren't as good. I connect this to when i go shopping at the mall. Sometimes I don't have that much money with me and that makes it harder to buy clothes that i want and i will wear.

Quotation: “I made one decision based on money in my life: when I signed with the Mets rather than go to Stanford,” Beane tells the media, “and I promised I'd never do it again.” Over the course of the book, “Moneyball”, Billy learns that money isn’t that important. The team he organized his team didn’t involve a lot of money. Yet, he brought together a great team. Money doesn’t buy happiness. When Billy got a huge contract and stunk for the mets, he wasn’t happy.

Question: Even after the great season that the Oakland A's were able to put together, why is everybody still criticizing the way Billy's doing things? At first I agree, it looked like a long shot that the A's could do something with the way Billy put things together. But now everything came together and people are still looking at Billy as someone who has no understanding of baseball. I think that if other teams looked at baseball the way Billy did, they could have much more success. I think that the teams criticizing Billy's antics really need to adopt the new way of doing things. It could truly revolutionize the game of baseball.

The ending of the book shows the true value of people. Billy Beane was going to be offered 12.5 million dollars to be a general manager for the red sox but turned down the offer. He would have been the highest paid general manager in the league if he would have accepted he. He though accepting that offer would be like putting a certain amount of money on how well he can manage his team. “for a brief moment, he was right and the world was wrong.” Billy Beane based his decisions off what he thought was right not what the rest of the world would have done.