Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

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A brilliant book. It talks about sport in it's widest application - which to my mind is the only reason we truly love sport. Billy Beane clearly is a maniac, but he just makes the other GM's of Baseball teams appear certifiably insane. How do you justify, as a business person, giving a rookie, who's created no financial return on his effort thus far, millions of dollars? It's a Capitalist oxymoron! It's no wonder Joe(the poison dwarf)Morgan yells foul. He, along with the Women's Auxiliary Club members, want to continue to be overpaid for their old ideas and insist on regurgitated them into the present. 'The Good old times are over, Joe!' Get a real job!

The real hero of this story is Bill James who has the true American spirit to challenge the sacred cows of Baseball. I'm not a follower of Baseball, but this book and the work of Bill James, Paul DePodesta, Voros McCracken, Dick Cramer and others, reinforces the American spirit of innovation that we dearly need in this time of our history. A great thanks to Michael Lewis who had the talent, courage and persistence to see this project through. He's done a great service to the American people by offering a way we can take back our national sport from the hypocrites and bottom feeders. I can't wait until the movie comes out and these worms of incompetence are exposed for the lice that they really are.

I was never a fan of baseball for many reasons. One reason that hit me hard at a young age was the lack of a salary cap. This made me feel like winning could be bought with millions of dollars. Thankfully the teams with the most money also had the most archaic way of interpreting how to build an efficient baseball team. The teams that took a scientific approach to building a winning team while also abandoning the traditional scouting techniques began winning. Voilà, moneyball is created. The best part of this book is not how the teams with less money reinvented the game, it's how the insiders of baseball openly deny fact, science, and the possibility that they could be wrong without even blinking. These people are so afraid of losing their jobs to number-crunching nerds they won't even try to understand this alternative approach because they are getting paid for being ignorant. Therefore If they allowed the approach to become accepted they would be quickly cycled out for people who could pick teams from stats instead of sheer "gut feelings". True underdog story of intellect being able to compete with dumb money. Like usual, Lewis writes this book like a well told story while also documenting endless amounts of facts to strengthen his arguments.

Indicative of his best-selling ability, Michael Lewis is a wonderful storyteller. Even non-sports fans or non-baseball fans could enjoy the fascinating story about how a MLB underdog finds a way to win. In this case it's the Oakland A's competing, and often beating, the deep-pocketed MLB teams like the NY Yankees. Billy Beane is a strange character who runs the A's team (as General Manager) more like a science experiment than a traditional baseball franchise and the players are his unsuspecting lab rats. Interestingly, the dynamic personality of Billy Beane is set to be played by Brad Pitt in the off-again, on-again movie production of Moneyball.

Money Ball is an excellent evaluation of the use of statistics in persuing baseball players; as well as personalities, writers, critics, etc. of the "game". Being rather a novice in sports, I just enjoyed watching and cheering for teams/players, this book gave me a lot to think about and made watching that much better. This book will give you a more intense look at not only the GAME but also what might constitute prospective players, at all levels.

I have stated here in the past that I am not a big fan of non-fiction. I had received this novel as a gift and felt obligated to give it a try. Once I got into it nobody had to twist my arm to finish it. Moneyball was my first exposure to Michael Lewis but it will not be my last. He brought life to a very dull subject. Baseball stats are boring at best, unless you have a deep interest in them. Maybe it is your favorite player, favorite team, etc., but he created an entire novel on a system nobody really paid attention to. That is part of the reason I was so taken by the whole novel.
Here is part of the blurb from the back cover of the novel:" Michael Lewis follows the low budget Oakland A's ,visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball theorists. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge-insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money."
I was amazed at how quickly I read this. It was so interesting ,it was hard to put down. I love baseball and always wondered how they drafted players. What was the process, what was going through the scout's minds, what was the war room like on draft day, what factors were there in defining player contracts. All this and more was gone over at length. It is amazing to read how a team like the A's can compete with the deep pocket teams year after year. Just the background on Billy Beane, the general manager of the A's, and what made him think the way he does is interesting in and of itself.
Moneyball for me is just an amazing read. The way Lewis writes and brings to life a subject that could be as boring as an economics textbook is amazing. I would say this would be an excellent gift for Fathers Day even if Dad isn't interested in sports too much, it is that strong a read. Michael Lewis takes the reader deep into the heart of baseball's backrooms and truly enlightens and helps us understand the mindset of the modern baseball executives. There is plenty of humor, great player stories, and plenty of math. I was glad I gave it a try. Believe it or not, this is going too be made into a movie. Then again another of his novels struck it big with The Blind Side.
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I read a lot, on many subjects. I enjoyed The Big Short (which is good, but not as great as Fool's Gold at explaining its subject), so I thought I'd try Moneyball. This is an excellent book. It explained a complex subject at a level that was perfect for me as a person who just enjoys watching baseball. The book is very engaging and well-written. I'll still enjoy baseball as much as I always have, but I'll look at it a little differently now. I'll appreciate the hitter (if he's on my team) who can wear down a pitcher, and a pitcher (if he's on my team) who can get a hitter to hit ground balls. Even though this book totally dismisses the manager's value in strategy and motivation during the game, I'll still appreciate those qualities.

This week I felt like an inverted Cassandra running around wanting to talk about a book that seemingly every sports fan read years ago. Outside of the Hang Up and Listen podcast I don't ruminate on sportz, and refuse to watch any game when multiple friends aren't present, but I was jonesing for more Michael Lewis and his detailing of Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager, and the On Base Percentage revolution had me obsessing over MLB like I hadn't done since the sophomore summer when I had four fantasy teams, or the three months in 1994 when all I thought about were Collector's Choice Silver Signature inserts. It's amazing and will change your life. If there is anybody who can make Moneyball into an awesome movie it's Steven Soderbergh. Yeah I know that first sentence doesn't work at all, "friend that just now saw The Hangover" would have been more legitimate. AUDIOBOOKED

A fascinating, paradigm shifting book for die-hard baseball fans. You cannot argue with the facts this book explains--nor can you argue with the long-term success the Oakland A's have had by defying "conventional wisdom." More importantly, as a fan of a "small market" unsuccessful team, I'm amazed more Major League teams aren't following the model explained by Mr. Lewis in this book. I'm certain the general manager of the Kansas City Royals couldn't do worse if he'd take a look at this book. If you're a serious fan of baseball, you MUST read this book. You may not agree with Lewis' conclusions, but you'll definitely re-think how you evaluate what you're watching on the TV.

It's hard to believe a book about baseball statistics could be so good. Michael Lewis' excellent humor and journalism really goes a long way. Very informative about baseball operations as well. This would probably be appealing to non-baseball enthusiasts even due to the study of the people and the many laughs throughout the book.

Lewis does a fantastic job at writing about objective sports management theory. Although the book focuses on baseball, the principles he writes about can actually be applied to any type of management. Lewis also is great at taking a potentially boring topic (general management of a professional baseball team) and making it very interesting.

The only inappropriateness of this book for anyone would be the language. There are multiple uses of "F" words, and other various swear words. Overall though, it's not over the top and it is always used in quotes.

This is a book I just couldn't put down, usually reserved for a good piece of fiction. But Michael Lewis' in-depth account of the paradigm shift coming to baseball in America is a fascinating story of a few individuals challenging conventional wisdom and, in an unorthodox way, building a winning team from castoffs and unlikely heroes. The cast of real-life characters is central to the story itself, from Bill James to Billy Beane. The results are also very real; the Oakland A's prove a low budget operation can consistently produce winning teams. I've since started tracking the A's just to watch the genius revealed.

As a self-professed math geek and a baseball fan, this book is amazing. It will really open your eyes to the way baseball could be run and in some cases is. Lewis is an amazing writer who makes you laugh out loud (which totally startles the sleeping cat!) and keeps you going until the last page. It will make you rethink baseball every time you watch whether you are in a stadium or your living room. It might even make you an Oakland A's fan.

The book is great; it follows the Davids in the MLB. They are continually competing against the Yankees who are trying to buy their best players. Yet year after year they continue to make the playoffs and have a similar amount of wins. It shows how people can take an idea that is highly critized and make it work for them.

"We take fifty guys (in the draft) and we celebrate if two of them make it. In what other business is two for fifty a success? If you did that in the stock market, you'd go broke." Billy Beane.

Billy Beane was a supremely talented major league prospect who somehow never made it to the big leauges. However, his contribution to baseball is far reaching. The volatile and enigmatic Beane, as GM of the Oakland Athletics, brings analytics and economics into the mainstream operations of running a ball club. This new management approach represented a sea change in baseball philosophy and is the basis of Michael Lewis' dynamic page-turner, Moneyball.

Lewis has a financial analyst background (his latest book, The Big Short, about the free fall of the US economy, was just released) and is able to describe Beane's thought process in economic terms. Specifically, that some player statistics (for example, On Base Percentage) were undervalued relative to other statistics (for instance, Slugging Percentage) and that created market inefficiencies, read buying opportunities, for small-market teams like the Oakland Athletics. The market inefficiencies allowed Oakland to compete across a number of years with the likes of large-market teams like the Yankees and the Red Sox.

The book documents the " religious war" between traditional scouting, which has been goverened mainly by a scout's gut instinct, and a new methodology, based on rigorous statistical analysis. Some of Beane's operational principles cut against the grain of conventional wisdom.

--On Base Percentage is more important than Slugging Percentage in determining a player's worth,
--Drafting college prospects has a demonstrably higher chance of success than drafting high school prospects.
--Sacrifice bunting and stealing bases are, statistically-speaking, poor moves.

After his fledgling playing career came to an end, Beane got his start with Oakland from then current GM Sandy Alderson - an Ivy---League educated, military trained disciple of little known baseball statistical guru Bill James. Alderson told Billy to go out and find undervalued players. However, Alderson's charge needed some intellectual firepower. For that, Beane hired Ivy-league educated Paul DePodesta as his statistical right-hand-man.

The analytical, objective lineage was passed from Bill James (and his ilk) to Alderson to Beane to DePodesta carried on to other teams with the hiring of J.P. Ricciardi by Toronto and Theo Epstein by Boston. The Moneyball philosophy is now embraced by almost all MLB teams.

Moneyball however is more than just a statistics lesson. It is a fascinating personality study of Billy Beane and an inside look at the entire front office operations of the Oakland A's. The book makes readers feel as if they are inside the draft room when decisions are being made. Readers will no longer think about the annual baseball draft or, for that matter, watch a baseball game in quite the same way.

[...] Rating Home Run (a fantastic read, whether you are a baseball fan, a historian, a Sabremetrician, or a MBA student)

Excellent book! Even if your not a baseball fan you will love this book.

Have you ever felt like everyone one around you is dumb and they are doing things the most inefficient way possible? Even when you or others try to show them the error in their ways with cold hard facts to back it up, but they continue doing it their way saying things like "we've always done it this way" "if it's not broke don't fix it" etc.... Billy Beane felt the same way, so he went out and showed everyone just how efficiently he could run a baseball team. He had less money, assistants with ivy league degrees instead of baseball pedigree, discarded/has-been/no-name players, and he some how found a way to win tons of games over multiple seasons and get tons of value out of seemingly nowhere.

I really liked this book!

MONEYBALL is a great book. Michael Lewis is a writer who knows how to keep the reader moving through the book. There is a lot of detail in this text and it is written with excitement that keeps you flipping the pages. There is a constant sense of, "What is going to happen next?" or "Why did they do that?" and Lewis is able to present already interesting information in an even more interesting format that keeps your eyes glued to the page: "All he saw was that one major league baseball team treated him like a used carpet in a Moroccan garage sale..." When you have language such as this, coupled with information as to how an under-bankrolled baseball team produces winning records, you have one awesome book.

Statistical information proves that numbers are better at determining what is successful than what the eye can see. Purchase this book if you want to learn a few things and, simultaneously, be entertained in the process.

In the early 1990s Billy Beane, the GM of the Oakland A's, combined Bill James statistical data for baseball junkies, hired Harvard graduates and brought the power of technology to baseball.

Neccessity is the mother to invention. The Oakland A's ownership did not have the money to compete for players in a league with no salary caps. And he figured out a way to build a competitive baseball team using statistical analysis.

Up to that point, baseball relied on having 100s of scouts watch players and rate them numerically with KPI's like hitting, hitting for power, speed, arm stregth and fielding ability. The rating's input was only as good as the amount of times the scout saw the the High School or College player. And the ratings were subjective, unique to each scout, so there was no way to compare ALL scouted players. Scouting main objective was to provide a GM input in the amateur draft.

Beene did not have the money to employ enough scouts to cover the country. So he decided to only draft college players as opposed to HS players because the former had a rich and accurate database of statistics.

It is more complicated than this - but Beene believed that the most important hitting skill was "on base percentage". So he drafted players in each round based on this object number

He went on to use Harvard graduates to refine the objective number. One iteresting refinement was actually divided each ball park into a gride using thousands and thousands of rows and columns. By doing this he deducted hits that an average fielder should have made an out and added hits that an exeptional fielder denied a hit.

His concepts now are widely used. So much in fact that the "playing field" has been leveled and the richer teams now again have the advantage.

Michael Lewis is a great writer. His other books have all been successful. The latest of which was called "Blind Side" that was made into a movie and Sandra Bullock just one a Golden Globe for here performance in the movie.

I hate watching baseball. I was so glad when my kids stopped playing. So I was surprised to find this book so riveting. It is a masterpiece of non-fiction writing. Billy Beane would be a great character to play, although the role needs someone like a young George Clooney, rather than Brad Pitt. The fact that Billy Beane claimed to be the best athlete in the A's workout room says it all.

This book burst on the scene in 2003 to spark an intense debate about how and why some Major League Baseball teams succeed and others seem hapless in their efforts to build a winning franchise. Using as his model the Oakland A's, author Michael Lewis emphasizes the efforts of General Manager Billy Beane to use sophisticated statistical models to draft, trade for, and employ talent on a tight budget. This approach asserts that baseball is a business and that the conventional wisdom of how to create a successful MLB franchise is incorrect for teams without extensive monetary resources. At the time Lewis was writing, of course, the A's were an exceptionally successful team, making the playoffs each year between 2000 and 2003, and again in 2006, with one of the lowest payrolls in MLB. The message of "Moneyball" was clear: the old adage that large market teams would dominate was outmoded--read the New York Yankees as the poster child for large market teams and the Kansas City Royals as the poster child for small market franchises--and the A's broke the mold.

Of course, the "Moneyball" approach of cagey signings, clever trades, and strategic dumping of established stars for handfuls of prospects became the cause célèbre of MLB management in the middle part of the decade just passed. It all seemed so new and remarkable. Indeed, the fact that a number of small market teams won the World Series between 2001 and 2009 suggested this approach might have salience. After all, during that period the small market Diamondbacks (2001), Marlins (2003), and Cardinals (2006) won the World Series. But then so did the Angels (2002), Red Sox (2004 and 2007), White Sox (2005), Phillies (2008), and Yankees (2009), certainly not small market teams.

No question Michael Lewis pinpointed an important trend in the strategic processes of building winning MLB teams. "Moneyball" has received considerable discussion, appropriately so, but was what Lewis describes all that new? Let me suggest that much of what "Moneyball" documented had been pioneered nearly three decades earlier by Charlie Finley, owner of the Oakland A's, who with the rise of free agency in the 1970s sold and traded his star players to restock his farm system with excellent prospects. While the A's won three straight World Series between 1972 and 1974, his team collapsed as he sold off or saw players leave through free agency thereafter. Then by 1980 he was back with a new crop of players just off the farm, the great of them was Rickey Henderson.

Charlie Finley probably deserves some credit for pioneering the "moneyball" approach of small market teams in putting winners on the field in the 1970s. Like the later celebrated A's management, Finley scouted, signed, and developed young talent that can then compete successfully against richer competitors. Using the rules of player compensation established in MLB, he grew young superstars and pay them only modestly until the players' seniority in the system allowed them to depart as free agents. Before their departure, however, he often dealt them for top prospects to restock their farm system. Absent the emphasis on ornate statistical analysis undertaken in the more recent "moneyball" era, Charlie Finley was the godfather of this approach to running his franchise as free agency became the norm. He deserves credit for pioneering this approach.

"Moneyball" is a fascinating book; a benchmark in the study of history of MLB as a business. Enjoy!

Realize I'm about 5 years late with this book but wow, what a great read.

A must read for any sports fan and those interested in the business of baseball.

Highly recommended.

"Moneyball" captures the world of baseball from the inside -- deep inside. But it catches the sport at a critical moment, the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the old rules for picking players were about to give way to the new. In the old days, baseball scouts would watch countless young ballplayers, in high school and in college, trying to get a feel for how well they could perform years later in the big leagues. The scouts tended to rely on pitchers with scorching fast balls, fielders with fast times on the base path, and both with Adonis-like good looks. Rich teams could afford to lure these sports gods onto their overpaid rosters, giving the poorer teams few options but to scrape the bottom of the barrel and pray.

Billy Bean, manager of the Oakland As, was one of those Adonis players that the scouts thought was a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. But his temperament got the best of him, and he could never get used to being less than perfect. Washing out of the big leagues, he became a manager, but a manager with a visceral distrust of the system that had all but ruined him. Bean turned to a newly-formed gaggle of baseball statisticians like Bill James, who began to try to quantify what it was about winning teams that made them win. Interestingly, the number crunchers realized that many talented and useful players were being ignored by the rich teams for not fitting some pre-defined profile. Kevin Youklis, later known as the God of Walks, was a fat third baseman who didn't need to hit to get on base. Walks (!) for crying out loud, when everyone knew that hitting meant winning.

In "Moneyball" Michael Lewis takes us on an insider's look at the way ballplayers are selected, and on the hidden game of poaching good players from other unsuspecting managers. It's a great book that describes the group of sabermetricians (baseball statisticians) who questioned the game's stats and gave a shot to countless great players who would never been picked on looks alone. The chapter trashing batting average and RBI are worthwhile in themselves. Thank these backroom boys and girls for inserting on-base percentage and slugging percentage and other now-common metrics into the day-to-day chatter about America's pastime.

One sad part of then book is that it does not end with the glory of the As winning a World Series, somewhat undercutting the notion that money doesn't matter. Also sad is that now even rich teams have caught onto Billy Bean's little secret. And now that the cat is out of the rosin bag, the old money game goes on. At least, that is, until another Billy Bean can exploit, even for a few years, a loophole in the standard expectations of the big boys.

Great book, even if you are not a big baseball fan.

This is such a great book. From an Australian's perspective I've always marvelled at the level of statistical detail and analysis that goes into American sport and this is surely the ultimate example. It is incredible how a book largely about stats and a sport I don't really understand can be so incredibly interesting.

Not sure how they'll make a move about it though!

This book is a must-read for baseball fans and non-baseball fans alike. Riveting stuff. An inside look at the sports world that will change the way you look at baseball and sports generally.

I am not even a baseball fan, but I read this book because it was recommended by Joel Greenblatt, a value investor, in one of his interviews. At first I had no idea why Greenblatt would recommend a book on baseball. What does it have to do with picking stocks? After reading it, I realized that it everything to do with stocks.

Billy Beane, who was a general manager for a baseball team, searched for players the way the best money managers search for stocks. Because he did not depend on scouts, just like great money managers do not depend on analysts, he was able to get players very cheap compared with the traditional methods. In other words, he was able to find inefficiencies in the market for baseball players. Good for him that he did not follow the efficient market theory like many money managers in the investment arena do. He was not only able to win games, but also the team operated with lower expenses because in the end, a baseball team is nothing but a business collecting revenues and incurring expenses. Lewis did a fabulous job writing this book. I loved it.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

It's pretty amazing, when you think about it, just how much time and money and energy and brain power have been invested in professional sports over the past hundred years or so, and none more than major-league baseball. Tracking and evaluating individual and team statistics has become an entire industry, and it's an established enough industry that it can support heated debates about methodology and best practices. Moneyball is a fascinating peek into that world. It examines some of the arguments and grudges that have sprung up over the years among analysts and baseball insiders, and it somehow manages to do it in a way that will pique the interest of even non-baseball fans.

In 2002, the Oakland Athletics had the second lowest payroll in baseball, yet they managed to acquire more wins than all but one other team. According to conventional baseball wisdom, this was an impossible feat. So how did they do it? Michael Lewis answers this question by telling the story of A's general manager Billy Beane.

Beane, drawing on very unconventional analysis by a baseball scholar named Bill James, believed that winning games depended far less than commonly believed on things like hitters' batting average and fielders' number of errors and relief pitchers' saves. Instead, the most telling indicators of success were things like a batter's ability to get on base with or without a hit and a pitcher's strikeout percentage. Through the course of the 2002 season, Beane's scrappy team won game after game while acquiring players everyone else thought were worthless and emphasizing strategies most other teams scoffed at. It seemed Beane was being proven right.

Of course, not everyone agreed. The 2002 A's were an anomaly, some argued. But the numbers speak for themselves. Even readers with little or no interest in baseball will be intrigued by Lewis's ability to describe and analyze statistical trends. Billy Bean comes off looking like a heroic David fighting against the Goliath of major-league baseball's institutions. Traditional baseball scouts and others who hold fast to supposedly time-tested "truths" about America's favorite game come across as naïve at best and downright foolish at worst. Through it all, the background stories of players--some whom no one but the most ardent baseball fans have ever heard of--add a delightful element of human interest, and the team's ultimate success gives the book an almost epic hero's-journey feel.

One word of caution: baseball is a dangerous sport to become interested in. With 162 games per season, not including the playoffs, loyally following even one team is a time-consuming enterprise. If you're a baseball fan already, Moneyball will make you watch and think about games differently. If you're not a fan, reading this book just might make you one.

I won a car because I read Moneyball. I'd been playing fantasy baseball for many years with mixed success. While I was already very familiar with the ideas of Bill James and other Sabermetric researchers, somehow it never occurred to me that their discoveries were the blueprint for success for fantasy baseball, just as much as for 'real' baseball. That changed after I read Moneyball. While it didn't contain any major new insights, reading it provided the inspiration I needed. As I read the book, I had one of those 'light bulb' moments...suddenly realizing that I already knew everything I needed to win at fantasy baseball. I happened to be entered in a national fantasy baseball competition with over 40,000 people that had a grand prize of a car. Using my newfound inspiration, I applies the following lessons that Moneyball had driven home for me:
1. Use every edge you can. Work harder and smarter. Consider more factors than other people when rating players, and make more accurate adjustments for each factor.
2. Rather than rely in intuition, rely on calculation. Don't think that a given player is more likely to do well on a given day, KNOW it because you've 'done the math'.
That may not seem like any great insight, but for me it was what I needed to make a breakthrough. I came in first in the contest, and won the grand prize. While the contest unfortunately no longer offers such large prizes, I've continued to use the same lessons to win substantial amounts of money at daily fantasy contests, such as Draftbug ([...]).

For anyone seeking to improve at fantasy sports and/or sports betting, I would suggest becoming intimately familiar with each of the following concepts:

1. Defense Independent Pitching Statistics (DIPS) and other predictors of future ERA such as FIP, xFIP, and LIPS. All are better than looking at ERA itself.

2. Park Factors - don't assume that the ones provided on mainstream sites like ESPN are accurate. Learn what goes into creating them, and why some are better than others.

3. Platoon Advantages and Match-up History - Learn what research has been done in these areas. Make sure you know to what degree you can use past history as a guide, and how much the data needs to be 'regressed to the mean' to be an effective predictor of the future.

Never been a baseball fan, but picked up "Moneyball" based on the prior and very enjoyable experience of reading Michael Lewis's work - happy to say that the book did not disappoint! The author sets out to answer a simple question: how did the Oakland A's, one of the poorest teams in the league, manage to win so many games against much better funded opponents? Of course, money is not everything, but great talent costs money, so how did they do it?

Turns out, the baseball talent market was inefficient (in a technical sense), meaning that by virtue of history and established practices, often times the scouts would pay for attributes that had little to do with the success of the team. Michael Lewis provides a number of interesting insights into the birth of "sabremetrics" (statistical analysis of baseball), and how it has changed the game within a short span of the past few years.

A fantastic read and an illustrative case study, regardless if you are a baseball fan or not.

I read the whole thing at once!!!!! I could not stop. It is a great real story and great insight into what baseball is all about.

This is a fantastic look of baseball that takes the reader beyond the inside of the managers office, but inside the managers head. It won't give you any secret tips that will put you over the edge, but it'll teach you how to think about the game in a smarter, more concrete way.

Lewis doesn't forget that he's writing a book meant to be enjoyed - either. It is fun to read, giving real stories to players and letting them grow into characters. The individual stories in it are told in their voice, with the author simply pulling the tale along rather than jamming his thoughts into a book.

The modern era of business analytics will be forced to address the harnessing of never-before-seen data storage and processing capabilities. "Moneyball" may focus on applications confined to a kid's game, but the lessons drawn from Billy Beane and company's success can be extended throughout modern business.

This book made me believe in the power of statistical analysis.

I would disagree with some other reviewers... this is a fantastic baseball book, now a few years old (they discuss the 2002 MLB season in detail) but still very, very pertinent to the current baseball climate, and explains a LOT, not only with the way the game is played on the field, but off as well. It is a good business book as well. without laying it on too thick.
However, one really needs to have more than a passing interest in baseball. It helps to already know what on-base and slugging stats means from the beginning of the book, for example. There is a lot of discussion of the minor league life, which tends not to appeal to people just looking for a business book and just go to games occasionally. So, this is a terrific book, but one needs to have some interest in the subject matter first.

Perhaps I'm a bit behind the times, but I had intended on reading this book for many years. As we approach the start of another baseball season, I finally remembered to get a copy of Moneyball. I loved it! I couldn't put the book down. It was a quick read, and great look at the mind of Billy Beane. Frankly, I think I may have become a bit of an Oakland Athletics fan...or Billy Beane fan. I would recommend this book to anyone that has even a casual enjoyment of the game. Its a must read for any true baseball fan.

I am not a huge baseball fan, and I didn't expect to love this book. I ended up falling in love with it. Why?

Moneyball isn't about baseball, baseball is merely the setting. It is a business story, in which the protagonists champion an unpopular idea and exploit the inefficient player market. Lewis' financial background is a great boon to the book, the language of finance describes the market for players perfectly.

It also enriched me as a casual fan of the game. Who knew I'd overvalued fast runners, good fielding, and the stolen base? And, like the other teams in the story, I'd never bothered to ask "Why?"

The previous Michael Lewis books I have read were all very well written, Moneyball is too. This is a well told story about an interesting topic. The fact that the actual topic of the story is arcane and normally quite dull makes the fact that the book was entertaining and engaging even more of an accomplishment.

Moneyball is about how the Oakland A's were able to compete as one of the top teams in baseball even though they had a much smaller budget for player salaries then their competitors. Since the best players are the most expensive, that should not have been possible.

The A's were able to do it by having better information then the other teams. They did a better job of evaluating prospective players then other teams. So they were able to find players who would be good, but that were not wanted by other teams.

They were able to find those undervalued players by better use so statistics. Moneyball tells the story of how those statistics were noticed and how they were used. Lewis also tells the story is how the new ideas and information was put into use in the Oakland A's organization, which was not initially receptive to those ideas.

So the story is about data and how it can be used, but it is also about how organizations change. The author tells the story from the perspective of the people involved which makes it an interesting and engaging book.

This book was a good read. I am a sports management major, and I found it very helpful and insightful on how the business work. Billy Beane did wonders for the Oakland Athletics, however is that system actually enough to win a World Series.

Fantastic book on the economics of baseball. Michael Lewis uncovers how a few small market teams with the emphasis on the Oakland A's stay competitive with there larger market counterparts.

Once you start to read this book. You wont want to put it down until the
end. It's a fast and enjoyable read from a first class writer.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Phil
Reading Room Bookshop

I am not much of a reader, but this was truly entertaining. I became a Michael Lewis fan after reading Moneyball.

Michael Lewis is a fine writer and Billy Beane is a man of genius. This book puts the lie to Bud Selig's assertion that money alone creates competetiveness, and further describes the new realities of power offense vs. "little ball," and how a relief pitcher can be found to fill holes for one season.

I must confess - I'm not a huge fan of baseball. Indeed I purchased this book for my father. However, once I began skimming the book - I became hooked. I read it cover to cover in only a couple days. This book showed 21st century statistical methodology as it is brought kicking and screaming into the game of baseball. I find it amazing to believe that any major league operation would not have changed its system of evaluating talent after this book became published, and yet given the entrenchment of old fashion beliefs, its probably still the case. Even if you are not a fan of the game - but have an appreciation for excellence in operational management - this book is an excellent read.

Pain Killer Marketing: How to Turn Customer Pain into Market Gain

This baseball book does a great job of asking and answering the question: What are the hidden benefits and values that others do not see? The book explains why decisions should be based upon predictive metrics, not emotion. This is the same message from our book about business. Great stories and enough explanation to relate the lessons from each story to a business situation. A great read!

Aristotle once argued that there are three main purposes to art and writing: to teach, to delight, and to inspire. Rare is the book that accomplishes all three but Michael Lewis's "Moneyball" does exactly that: it is all at once a readable economics textbook, a classic good guys versus bad guys page-turner, and an edifying epic.

"Moneyball" is the story of three obsessive-compulsives -- Bill James, Billy Beane, and Paul DePodesta -- who re-imagined baseball from a game of stars and heroics into one of numbers and discipline.

An unemployed self-declared baseball critic Bill James understood that baseball statistics weren't just numbers and trivia: they were fundamentally a myth and a morality that sought to explain the game. Consider the statistic "error" which sought to eliminate luck from the game, and is a moral statement on who is at fault. This statistic, like most statistics in baseball, Bill James argued, was pig-headed, wrong, and irrelevant: it neither discounted luck from the game nor properly accounted for why a team won nor helped predict if they would win.

So what does? Here Bill James turned from critic to metaphysic: what really is baseball? It's a game where each team must score as many runs as possible without getting three outs. In other words, while great fielding is beautiful to watch, baseball is fundamentally an offensive game, and Bill James discovered that "on-base percentage" (the times a hitter gets on base divided by the times a hitter goes to bat) and "slugging percentage" (the number of runs a team generates each inning divided by the number of batters a team sends to the plate each inning) were the best indicators of a team's future performance.

Of course it didn't matter if Bill James was right or wrong because he was irrelevant. Baseball was a club that was dominated by those who played the game. Players became coaches and general managers and sports commentators, and they all thought alike and treated baseball as a sacred temple only they could access. Since the mid-eighties fantasy baseball players had taken James and made him into a self-publishing phenomenon, and amateur baseball theorists who counted among them expensively-educated and expensively-paid statisticians were constantly proving and refining James' theories -- but who listened to geeks anyway? The revolution needed to come from within, and it did.

Billy Beane should have been a baseball Hall of Famer -- with his build and athletic prowess he could have been the baseball Hall of Famer. That's what baseball scouts kept on telling him, and while Billy Beane did make the major league his heart really wasn't into baseball, and he was only a little above mediocre. At age 28 -- usually the prime of a baseball player's career -- he did the unthinkable, quit playing, and asked for a scouting job in the Athletic A's organization. And while Billy Beane was a member of baseball's sacred fraternity he had first-hand experience that they could at times be all wrong, and when he became the Oakland A's general manager he began systemically to prove that they were in fact all wrong.

As general manager Billy Beane hired a Harvard number-cruncher Paul DePodesta to implement and refine Bill James' theories. DePodesta made the critical insight that "on-base percentage" was three times as important as "slugging percentage," and used this new knowledge to draft college baseball's most undervalued players. What Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta found was what Bill James had long argued: that the market for baseball players was incredibly inefficient. Players who could get on base and wear out an opposing pitcher -- a team's most important contributors -- were underpriced, and the players who could hit jaw-dropping home-runs after striking out many times and make terrific catches that nevertheless did not alter the inexorable logic of the game were overpriced. By exploiting this market inefficiency Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta created one of baseball's most winning teams on one of baseball's smallest budgets.

And Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta saved some of baseball's best players from obscurity. Take, for example, Chad Bradford, one of baseball's most consistent closers. But why did no teams want him? He threw underhanded. Baseball teams couldn't dispute the facts -- Chad Bradford was a winner -- but in the end they decided aesthetics were more important than facts.

Then there's Scott Hatteberg, one of baseball's smartest players, and definitely the most patient and disciplined: for him baseball was a mental game, and as the game's most consistent hitter he wore down opposing pitchers by raising the ball count, gleaming valuable information in the process. What was his problem? He wasn't man enough -- not aggressive and reckless enough in the batter's box. In other words he didn't strike out enough -- and it was again Billy Beane who saw the absurdity of mainstream baseball's reasoning and snapped up Scott Hatteberg as soon as he could.

In many ways "Moneyball" is even more "Fountainhead" than Ann Rayn's best-selling classic. Like Howard Roark Billy Beane is not a person you'd like to meet. Nevertheless, motivated by his insatiable need to win, he is fighting against the forces of stupidity and unreason, and in so doing making a world a better place. And it is a credit to Michael Lewis's patience and discipline as a writer to just let this great story tell itself.

"Moneyball" is a brilliant achievement.

Lewis's MONEYBALL is impossible to put down because it is speaks as much to leadership as it does to baseball. The key premise is that instead of worrying about what you do not have, do all you can with the resources you do have.

Worthy of its praise and glowing reviews. A great read.

CDs were in great shape. I got them within a few days of ordering.

More than baseball, Moneyball is about questioning assumptions - challenging everything you know to be true about your situation and asking yourself if maybe it "ain't necessarily so." How did Billy Beane and the Oakland A's achieve so many wins with such a limited budget?

1. They questioned assumptions (about the valuation of players).
2. They determined that various time-honored metrics metrics (for determining a player's value or worth) did not hold up under scrutiny.
3. Because no one ELSE did 1 and 2, they were able to invest their limited resources on players who were clearly undervalued.

What happens when you question assumptions? You often arrive at winning solutions! Discussed in detail (along with other great examples) in:Shake That Brain: How to Create Winning Solutions and Have Fun While You're At It

I found this book fascinating. I had read Michael Lewis' earlier book "Liar's Poker", about his dealings on Wall Street. What struck me most was how he brought his free-market capitalism frame of reference to the world of Major League Baseball and found that for a small group avant-garde managers, the same basic rules apply. Buy low, sell high, don't listen to market hype, and never get emotional. This book might be disturbing to people who have a lifetime love of the pure game, but Major League Baseball is also a business and has to be acknowledged as such.

I love sports. I love business, finance, and statistics. I've never been a baseball fan. This book was very well written to appeal to a very broad audience with a wide variety of backgrounds on the topic. The principle observations are delivered through expert story telling around very compelling central figures.

Without flowery language or paragraph after paragraph of adjectives - Lewis recounts experiences and conversations with such clarity that you can almost see, smell, and hear the scenes unfolding.

I won't look at baseball or the exploitation of market inefficiencies the same after having read this book. I'd recommend this book to anyone with intellectual curiosity.

So I'm a big fan of fantasy baseball. And for those that are as well, you know that playing the fantasy game changes the way you look at everything. Moneyball has the same effect. It just revolutionizes your outlook on the game of baseball. The "important" stats like RBIs and runs are replaced with really important ones, like OBP and pitches per at bat. No name guys like Scott Hatteberg become cogs that make teams great.

Michael Lewis crafts a book that is engaging on several levels -- to the baseball fan, the economist, and the statistician.

Ever wonder why we give more credit statistically to a guy that bloops a single just out of a poor fielder's reach vs. the guy that smashes a homerun, but is robbed by an amazing leaping catch? This book answers those sorts of questions. And it does so through the amazingly in depth looks at the mind of Billy Beane, the genius that built the A's, renowned for their ability to find talent that other teams miss.

I would highly recommend this book to any fan of baseball on any level. It's a truly great book, and one that will leave you feeling a bit like you stumbled upon a little known secret. You'll suddenly rush and start analyzing the latest pickups of your favorite team. You'll feel compelled to run out and follow the career of guys you'd never heard of before reading the book (and hint...they don't get on SportsCenter that often...). No regrets after reading this, and I promise it will be staying on my shelf for a long time.

Baseball is a game that nerds can really enjoy, largely because of the availability of abundant and meaningful statistics. Back in the 1970s the basic numbers could be obtained through books that were published every year, but a small group of super-geeks began looking more deeply into the mathematics of the game and developing their own metrics for rating players. These guys were mostly self-taught statisticians and motivated entirely by an obsessive passion for the game. I'm talking about people like Bill James, who a few decades ago was a security guard who began publishing really interesting and well-written analyses of baseball statistics in his famous Bill James Baseball Abstracts.

Of course baseball is also fun to watch, even for those who don't enjoy crunching numbers in their spare time. That's why it's a multibillion dollar business, and that's where the influence of the Jamesians gets really interesting. The thing is that for the sport's first 100 or so years the process of locating and recruiting talented players was based entirely on the gut instinct of the scouts employed by each team. These guys were mostly ex-players who made decisions based on notions that had nothing to do with (and often conflicted completely with) the available evidence. (The fact that the world is run almost entirely by people who think this way makes this book all the more insightful.)

Moneyball highlights the success of General Manager Billy Beane, who was able to run a very successful team for many years on a low budget by adapting the statistical approach. Interestingly, Beane was a player who was highly touted by the old-school scouts who employed the conventional criteria (which apparently amounted to something like imagining how the player would look on a baseball card). Beane's struggled throughout the 1990s to bring baseball into the 20th century, and he has had a substantial impact on the game, although any fan who watches the sport in 2008 will tell you that old habits die hard.

My 15 yr. old son is currently reading it. He can't put it down and he is not an avid reader. He is a baseball nut who not only follows the sport but plays it in high school and hopefully college in a few years. Everyone who catches a glimpse of him reading Moneyball raves about the book themselves. It's an A+ in this mom's book.

The first time I read this book I couldn't put it down from start to finish -- it was the book on the business of baseball that I had been waiting for but it was written in a narrative that draws you in, first to Billy Beane, then to the Oakland A's, then to the plight of baseball today.

In the years since I read this, many have cited Moneyball while building their franchises but have come to realize Beane is some sort of baseball divining rod.

Brilliant book if you are at all interested in a unique way of looking at baseball -- and management -- you won't see either the same way ever again.

The beauty of Moneyball is Michael Lewis' ability to communicate an excellent baseball story that satisfies hard-nosed Sabermetricians, but do in a way that doesn't alienate non-numbers oriented baseball fans. The story of how Billy Beane got to where he is today (as GM of the Oakland As) is quite compelling, and clearly of key importance to the main question Lewis sets out to answer -- how the Oakland As manage to be successful despite their (relative) lack of salary. The politics of Sabermetrics aside, this is a terrific read and a book all baseball enthusiasts should read at least once (if not once a season).

For many years, I walked by this book on the shelf of my local library and gave it no notice, as the "Moneyball" title gave me the false impression that it was all about economics. I should have heeded the book-readers creed: Never judge a book by its cover. From the very first chapter, I was hooked by the unique philosophy of the text and fascinated by its divergence from traditional baseball maxims. Essentially, Michael Lewis (essentially a conduit for Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane) discusses two subjects:

First, there is the radically different method, started by Bill James, of evaluating players. Instead of the traditional home runs and RBI stats, James (and later Beane) determined that on-base and slugging percentages were the best predictors of successful performance. Instead of looking at factors beyond the batters control (like RBI), one must look at how the batter controls each plate appearance. I could go on and on about the theories developed in this book, but suffice it to say that they are (or at least were in 2001) a complete digression from traditional baseball wisdom, thus are generally scoffed at by "real" baseball people.

The second portion of the books discusses how Billy Beane uses those new scouting methods to keep his small-market A's viable in the baseball market. Though fans moaned when Beane traded away such stars as Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, and Jason Giambi, Beane contends in this book that those trades were necessary in order to reduce payroll, plus he was able to find comparable (if not better) players through his new "sabermetric" scouting method. Being a fan of the small-market Minnesota Twins, I was most fascinated with this portion of the book, trying to determine if the Twins were following a Beane model of business.

Overall, I have absolutely no answers (being neither a baseball insider nor a statistician) as to whether or not James and Beane's theories have merit. However, they do make a very convincing argument filled with valid examples to prove their points. Plus, no baseball fan can argue with the results, as the small-market A's always seem to be in contention.

If you are a die-hard baseball lifer like myself, this is a must-read book. Even if you scoff at every single idea (though I don't think you will) it is worth being exposed to.

Michael Lewis' Moneyball, is a great introduction to the increasing role statistics play creating a winning baseball team. Lewis profiles the A's owner, Billy Beane, and shows how Beane has managed to create a winning team despite a small budget. It begins to put to rest the use of worthless stats, such as RBI, which is really only a measure of how good the batters are in front of you.

As a former baseball coach, I was interested in the chapter on how Beane selects players from the amateur draft. He creates a strong case for players attending college before entering the draft, especially if one's life long dream is to play for the A's.

If you enjoy Moneyball, I would suggest reading other similar books such as Baseball Between the Numbers, The Fielding Bible, Mind Games, and The Baseball Economist. In general, anything by the Baseball Prospectus people is a great choice.

It's simple: If you are a fan of baseball-meaning you go to more than 2-3 games a year, or watch a lot of games on TV-then you need to read Moneyball.

Moneyball tells the story of how the Oakland A's, with a limited budget, manage to out smart almost every other team in baseball. Basically, in a nutshell-they use science instead of old baseball adages, and apply statistics to better analyze a players ability to get on base and avoid making an out-the key to winning games in the long-run.

Great book, well written. Highly recommended to all baseball fans.

Michael Lewis made his name writing books describing the people behind our financial system -- books that were inevitably described, for some reason, as "funny" or "hilarious." Perhaps these same reviewers were in stitches while reading Javascript technical manuals or the Kyoto Accords. Truly, I saw neither any humor nor any attempts to be funny in these books, which were, sadly, just dull.

How refreshing, then, to have him find a topic better suited to his tone. Yes, money plays a role, but what's described here is the pursuit of excellence, and the courage to flout conventional wisdom in the pursuit of a competitive edge.

A fascinating subject about dedicated professionals. True, these people may come off as a little singleminded, but they have to be (as this book demonstrates) in order to compete against people equally dedicated to finding an edge.

I so love the work of Michael Lewis because this story, and another favorite, Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street, are essentially about stepping back to consider groupthink. Groupthink is a topic that fascinates me. I haven't read The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, but it's about startups and silicon valley? Hmmmm... it might be about groupthink too. I'll check it out this weekend.

In Moneyball, Lewis examines the effects an outsider can have on the group, in this case, Major League Baseball. That's an extremely high level but, if you're like me, that's about all you need to know. Even if you don't care for baseball, I think you'll enjoy Moneyball. You might even be angry that Congress and the media give so much time to baseball. Since baseball is hard to avoid in America, I think people should try to understand it better. And even the most die hard, stat-loving baseball geek I know learned things from reading Moneyball. So whether you're a total insider to baseball, or a complete outsider to baseball, I think you should read, and that you'll enjoy, Moneyball.

This book has become the cliche for the transformation of the way that baseball is approached over the last decade or so. This book explains in a detailed but highly readable manner how baseball went from simply a business to a quantitatively analyzed (and analyzable) science. Given the large amounts of money in baseball over the past 20 years or so, it isn't surprising that baseball has undergone a transformation so that the computer nerds have taken over. I'm a fairly big baseball fan, and was turned off from reading this book for so long because it has become a `cliche' and I believed that it would be shallow and trite. It is anything but. This book is an absolute must read for anyone who wants to understand how `professionals` view the game today. It is easy to read, but packed with details about the new way of looking at baseball. There are also detailed character studies of some of the players (like Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford) and front office people (primarily Billy Beane and John DePodesta of the As).

The central theme of this book is why the As were able to remain competitive year after year even though they had a total team salary that was 1/3 or 1/4 of the big players like the Yankees and Red Sox. Judging from the reviews I've read on the Amazon sights, many of the reviewers still don't fully appreciate the arguments in this book. The goal of Beane and his cohorts was to bring a mathematical approach to the game and find out which aspects of the game were overvalued (from a mathematical and financial perspective) and which were undervalued. Beane wanted to quantitatively determine which traits were most important (and not rely simply on scouts judgment), but also determine how these traits were compensated in the market. Many have said that Beane and company look at OBP, slugging, OPS, etc., and disregard batting average and defense. This is true, but the key point here is that these traits were also undervalued by the market (at least when Beane got started). It is this point that allowed the As to remain competitive. They could trade players who were overvalued (like closers) and pick up inexpensive, undervalued, but highly productive, players in return.

The first part of the this book details the development of Bill James and his mathematical approach to baseball. There was apparently a small community of baseball fanatics who had, in the 70s and 80s, analyzed the mathematical details of baseball and determined that things like OBP were key factors, and not BA or defense. It took the major league clubs another decade or more to realize (or accept) this. Subsequent chapters deal with Beane's maneuvering to get players that fit into his philosophy, detailed accounts of some of the players Beane acquired (like Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford), and lots of inside details about the messy business of the day to day workings of a baseball front office.

One of the thing that is stress over and over again in this book is that Beane and his cohorts stress process over outcome. They don't care if, in any individual case, their decision works out. They are confident however that over the long haul they will be right. They are playing the averages, and this is what is keeping them competitive with the big-payroll clubs (it is also why they really can't compete in the playoffs with the big payroll clubs - they are beating the `league average' in the long run, but the teams in the playoffs are far from `league average'). Beane and his cohorts have often been wrong (one obvious example taken from the book is Scott Kazmir - they wanted nothing to do with him in the draft as he was a high school pitcher and their process said that the risk on high school pitchers was too high - I wonder if they would like to have a do-over on that pick?), but because they are playing the averages, their system keeps them in contention year after year.

This is a MUST READ for any baseball fan, whether you agree with the conclusions or not. It is well written, contains lots of detail (and will keep the nerdiest computer geek happy), but is also highly readable and doesn't get bogged down in minutiae. There is so much fascinating info in this book, I couldn't put it down (read through it in a day).

I thought this was going to be a rant about how free agency killed the game of baseball, but it ended up surprising me by pretty much being just the opposite: how free agency has opened the door for innovative leaders who leverage technology and analytics to capitalize on market bias to beat the other teams. It completely changed the way I watch and assess baseball. I only wish there were updates available on what ultimately happened to all the people who played a role in the story. Highly recommended for anyone with an open mind and a love of baseball and/or markets.

You always hear about the vast amounts of money that are spent in the world of baseball, but are teams getting their money's worth? Conventional wisdom would have us believe that teams that spend the most money get the best results. However, in the world of baseball this is not the case. This book focuses on the Oakland Athletics, one of the best performing teams in major league baseball, and also one of the lowest paid teams. How do they do it?

According to this book, this is possible through exploiting inefficiencies in the market. Baseball, through its years of tradition, has built up a way of evaluating players that doesn't really address how they actually perform. This leads to undervaluing talent and skills that actually lead to success. The trick is to be objective and look at things as they really are. There are many things that people take for granted in every field, and this leads to market inefficiencies.

This is more of a baseball book than a business book. It is not presented as a road map to success, but rather as a story of a baseball team fighting against the odds. If you're a fan of baseball, you'll be able to enjoy the story and learn a few things that you might be able to apply to your own business. However, if you don't like baseball, you many not find this to your liking.

I've never followed baseball much, but have always been fascinated by the obsession with statistics in the game. The curious disconnect, which Lewis addresses in fascinating detail, is how it's taken so long for those managing the teams to put all of this raw data to use.

So much of the spirit of baseball is romance, intuition and emotion. But these days the stakes are too high with many millions invested in a team to compete without every edge available at your disposal. Billy Beane and the A's have forever changed the game of baseball, and it's great to read about when and how the revolution started.

A true investigator, Lewis also recognizes the weaknesses of Beane's breakthrough approach to baseball and how, even though it may greatly increase the odds for a winning season, the strategy comes somewhat unraveled at playoff time.

Lewis somehow manages to make a book about statistics and payrolls interesting by turning it into a character piece. Makes me wish Billy Beane was the GM of my favorite team. My only criticism is that the book applauds the Oakland A's for signing players who overperform, but in hindsight, we know half the Bay Area was juicing during the period the book was written.

This was just a terrific book, putting an incredibly human face on a game and a financial analysis of success.

This book is an awesome story of how the Oakland A's produced great teams on little money. Take baseball out of the story and you will learn some solid business principals! In the midst of telling the story of how a team can compete with or without much money is the story of some great men fighting to become the best they can be. Michael Lewis did a incredible job of telling the story of life in business and how sometimes unpopular decisions bring the best results. Great book for any baseball fan or any business man trying to compete with giants. Great Book

My father-in-law gave me Moneyball for Chirstmas. I took it to White Sox spring training in Tucson, Arizona in March 2008. What a great way to spend a week. Solid baseball, great baseball reading and no snow.

Others have gone into great detail, so I will make my review short. I have a new found respect for the A's, Billy Beane & Paul DePodesta. They have taken baseball to a new level and built some great teams. The White Sox now have Beane favorite Nick Swisher, but in return Beane extracted solid pitching prospects from the Sox organization.

If you love baseball read this book. You won't regret it.

Finally, as I have suspected for a long time, ESPN analyst & baseball hall of famer Joe Morgan is truly nothing but a gas bag. Good player, but a worthless analyst.

For a former baseball player Billy Beane is a rare bird as a baseball GM. He used real baseball statistics, the kind the sabermetricians use to make great trade and bring a strong team back to Oakland. He had a great advantage over other GMs because he took advantage of their ignorance and tendencies to rely on the somewhat biased eyes of basebll scouts. What Michael Lewis did with this book was to show the world of baseball how Billy Beane did it and now I am sure that other GMs like Brian Cashman at New York and Theo Epstein in Boston are catching on. I don't know how much Steve Phillips put into action when he was the Mets GM. His lack of great success there indicates that he [robably didn't follow it enough. But now as an ESPN commentator he definitely mentions it. This book si so good that the term moneyball now means the strategy that Billy Beane used. So the title of this book became a baseball term! This book is a must for managers, general managers and owners of professional baseball teams. It is also great for the fans and the fantasy baseball enthusiasts.

Along with Mike Schell's books and the ones like "Curve Ball" written by Albert and Bennett this is one of the most thoughtful and scientific books on the game of baseball, how to win at it and how to build a successful team. The other books I mentioned were written by professional statisticians. It is the great success of the statistical science of sports, sabermetrics that we are now witnessing a scientific and statistical approach to baseball and other sports that had been lacking for many years. What Beane proved with regard to money was that a small market team like Oakland without the big money of a Steinbrenner could build a great team through smart trades and drafts based on looking at the right statistics on the players, the statistics that determine value in terms of run production for offense and run prevention for pitchers and defense.

The amazon reviews of this book are almost unanymous in their praise of Lewis' book. Read it and enjoy it. If I haven't convinced you, read some of the other fine reviews here.

First, Moneyball was not written by Billy Beane, as many people who have not yet read it (myself included) often describe it in a convenient but incorrect form of shorthand.

Second, Moneyball isn't about Billy Beane, although he is a prominent character who certainly deserves a full-length biography or could write his own fascinating memoir.

Third, Moneyball isn't about Bill James and sabremetrics, although the new genre of statistics-based baseball writing and thinking created single-handedly (almost; Lewis cites a few other sources) in the last 30 years is covered here.

Moneyball is about "The art of winning an unfair game", as its subtitle (not on the cover of this paperback edition, interestingly enough) succinctly describes it. It is about a small-payroll baseball team that wants to compete, and about how failed major-leaguer Billy Beane was perfectly-placed and given free rein by the Oakland A's owner to figure out a better way to evaluate and valuate baseball players both current and prospective.

This is where James' statistics came into play, as Beane and his Harvard educated assistant Paul Depodesta developed and then applied this rational approach to player selection, overcoming years of baseball "intuition" and scouting, to turn the Oakland As into the most efficient winning organization in MLB over the last seven years. For a 4 year period the A's won more games than any other team except the Yankees, at a "cost per win" typically a quarter to a third of the irrational-spending Yankees.

Moneyball is justly famous (and infamous) inside the social club that is MLB. Lewis theorizes that this reaction by the social club (as well as those of a number of players) is driven by a fear of public humiliation. If members of the Club stick together, and continue to manage the organization by the "book", they can't be publicly blamed and humiliated for failure; they just move to a new branch of the Club and keep on repeating the failures of the past.

Despite resistance from within the club, the market for rational thinking is growing. The Toronto Blue jays were the second team to understand and want to apply the tactics, hiring away the A's third in line (when Beane and Depodesta wouldn't leave Oakland) to begin winning efficiently (it takes one year to get cheap, it takes two years to get better, according to this GM, and the trend line of Toronto's recent seasons confirms this. Look for Toronto to compete for a playoff spot in the AL east in 2008). The grandchild of the experiment is the Boston Red Sox, who had a verbal agreement from Beane to take their GM job but were left to hire Theo Epstein (a young Ivy-Leaguer with no baseball background) instead when Beane backed out of the contract that would have increased his salary many times over.

And in an action that inspires hope for the future, the Pittsburgh Pirates new GM just made a move described by Beane as "Selling the Closer", based on the theory that the save is an overvalued statistics that does not accurately predict the success of a relief pitcher. In this model, a team either sells its closer for an inflated price, or lets the closer go as a free agent, garnering two compensatory draft picks. With the money or picks, the team selects a young undervalued pitcher based on statistics that do predict success (keeping runners off base and limiting pitches per at-bat) to turn into the next "Sell the Closer" candidate, PLUS an other prospect who together add more value to the team (statistically-significant contributions to winning baseball games) than the closer just sold. Lets hope the Pirates trade was made with rational forethought and not dumb luck.

In fact, one side benefit of the Moneyball theory is that it provides rational components for evaluating the contributions of pitchers and hitters (not so much fielding, as Lewis explains) to winning baseball games in such a way that their relative worth can be compared and evaluated against each other. No wonder the Club is so upset; this is light years ahead of the old "book".

While baseball is the nominal subject of this book, it really isn't a "baseball" book. It is more a book about applied rational thinking and statistics, and has been justly and highly praised by critics, as by this one, who rates Moneyball as a classic (just like Les Miserables which he just read and reviewed). Never judge a book by its subject.

Les Miserables (Penguin Classics)

Mr. Lewis observes that the persistence of Sacred Cows and inaccurate thinking in a market as lucrative as MLB has sobering implications. The reader is encouraged to reflect on the likely discrepancy between his own perceived and actual value in the workplace.
Billy Beane's story of redemption adds to the evidence that Baseball is indeed the manliest and most heartbreaking of games. A good read, especially for a fan.

Think you know baseball? Think again. This book follows the 2002 season of the Oakland A's, the team with the second lowest payroll in baseball, but one which managed to win more games than any other team in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Moneyball is a fascinating study in how baseball's Old Order, its Established Way of Doing Things, clashed with a new, more rational, data-driven method of making decisions. It's full of the colorful personalities and gripping roller coaster you'll find in any great baseball book. But Moneyball takes you deeper. It takes you "into the numbers" to show how advanced statistics, game theory, and the laws of probability are harnessed by really smart people to make better baseball decisions.

You don't have to be a long-suffering small market fan (like me) to enjoy this book. It's a universal story of how change happens in a change-resistant institution. A great read not only for baseball fans, but for those who are interested in the dynamics of change in many different kinds of organizations.

I thought I knew baseball, but it's a new day, baby. Moneyball is actually the biography of one Billy Beane, a former major leaguer and now General Manager of the Oakland Athletics.

The new baseball is a game of numbers where statistics like stolen bases and home runs, don't matter as much as on-base percentage. The title is misleading. Baseball is becoming more of a science than an art.

As a result of Moneyball, nearly every major league baseball team now employs a full-time actuary. The book is an easy read and won't overwhelm you with statistics.

As a long time baseball fan, I have been a keen follower of how the Oakland A's have consistently been so good despite having an incredibly small payroll while big-spending teams like the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles consistently flounder. This book helped me understand why.

The use of statistics to predict future behavior is not a new practice. Hedge fund models use these statistics every day. Moneyball shows how statistics can be used in the most unusual places.

One thing that befuddled me throughout the entire book was how a sport so in love with statistics did not use statistics to judge and select players for teams. I know Lewis "fell in love" with the story, but the story is still a good one. How could so many teams consistently spend so much money for such poor results while the A's won on a comparative shoestring budget? The sports world is the greatest example of imitation in the world, but no one seemed to bother benchmarking how the A's won so efficiently.

As for the story, it moves very quickly. Lewis does a good job of explaining the history of sabermetrics and showing how Billy Beane learned from the writings of Bill James. The interplay between the A's "old-school" scouts and the "quant jocks" like Beane and Paul DePodesta shows how hard it was for the quants to gain acceptance.

Baseball is the ultimate endurance test, and 162 games usually shows the true nature of teams and systems. If you are a sports fan with an understanding of business, you'll be able to understand how the use of statistics in baseball can be applied to other business settings. If you know business but have a passing interest in sports, you'll wonder why more teams didn't try the A's approach. If you are a fan of both sports and business, you'll make the connection. All in all, a fantastic and enlightening read.

An excellent, well-written book examining the use of statistics and analysis to create a winning, baseball team with the smallest possible salary. Michael Lewis is an anomaly, for he is able to deftly weave personal history and technical insight to create an intellectually and emotionally engrossing read. Any lover of baseball, business analysis, or economics will love this book.

Moneyball made me more interested in baseball. Part of the reason I hadn't appreciated baseball was due to the fact that it always seemed like big market teams can buy championships. While that still remains true to a point, this book sheds light on what it takes to win baseball games, and that the statistics historically used aren't necessarily indicative of the value of a player. There are lots of lessons to be learned, but the book itself is an entertaining read. If you are a fan of business, value, statistics, or baseball, I can't recommend this book enough.

Also, if you are reading this review, you should read Michael's masterpiece, Liars Poker.

What a great book. Michael Lewis really put the picture together. Game and who PLAYS it.

Not much I can add that has not already been mentioned about this revolutionary book. It does get a tad repetitive and wordy in the economic theory portions, but the fact that pro baseball teams, their scouts, and other top brass utilize Lewis and Beane's theories prove this book has merit. Moneyball is an indictment of all the socialist baseball haters who think money wins baseball games. This is clearly proven false each year, starting with the Athletics nearly a decade ago.

If you love baseball and have any kind of appreciation for statistics, you'll love this book.

Read Michael Lewis' Moneyball before the playoffs get too far along. As Lewis quotes someone in the book "Up till I was 14 years old, everything I learned about baseball came from broadcasters. And it was all b------t!" So before Joe Morgan et al start waxing eloquently about "manufacturing runs, etc." (which means abandoning the game that got you to the playoffs), you better immunize yourself with this book. It's simply the best baseball book ever.

Provides intriguing insight into the real skills that are required by a major leaguer and those coaching decisions that do and don't make sense.

Anyone who considers themselves a die-hard baseball fan must read this book.... but you knew that already.

First off, this is not a book by Billy Beane, or anyone in the Oakland Athletics organization. This is a look at the use of Sabermetrics in baseball, originally thought up by Bill James, and how it can be used to help evaluate talent, and give you an edge in an unfair game, as the title states.

Reading this book, whether you are a casual or avid baseball fan, gives you a whole new look at the game of baseball, the way it is played, and the way teams are run. It breaks away from the norm, and shows that it is not the size of the payroll you have on your team, but how you use the money you have. Also, it is set a few years back, and it mentions some of the players that were scouted and drafted by Beane and his staff. It is nice now to read it, and see how these players have panned out.

Again, great book, flows very well, and I would recommend that if you are even a little interested, you pick this book up in a second.

Moneyball changed the face of professional baseball and pro sports in general. It is a very compelling portrait of A's general manager Billy Beane and how he explits market inefficiencies to create a winning baseball team, despite having a small payroll. Highly recommended to all readers.

Michael Lewis's "Moneyball" tells the incredible story of how rationality was brought to bear on the management of a Major League Baseball team, the Oakland A's. By rationality I mean that the A's made staffing decisions based not on the gut feelings of their scouts, but on objective evidence that allowed them to predict how much each potential player could be expected to contribute to a winning season. You'd think every team in MLB would be run that way, but there you'd be very wrong.

At it's heart, "Moneyball" is the story of the clash within MLB between the insiders (the coaches, scouts, and managers that use traditional "soft" measures to evaluate players) and the sabermetricians (those who base players' worth solely on hard statistics that correlate with their ability to win baseball games). The A's general manager, Billy Beane, and his assistant, Paul DePodesta, were the first MLB insiders to adopt sabermetrics, a scientific approach to baseball invented by Bill James in the late 1970's. What sets the A's front office apart is that they saw the value of sabermetrics, adopted it as their sole criterion for picking players, and somehow managed to force it on the rest of their organization. Lewis shows how this approach allowed the A's to sign players that all the other teams were uninterested in at incredibly low prices. Yet despite their low payroll, the A's achieved win/loss records comparable to teams spending three or more times as much.

Based on the book's afterward and some of the other reviews I've read here, I think a lot of people have missed the book's main point. It's not that Billy Beane and his assistants invented sabermetrics, that they have found a guaranteed way to win, or even that all the players they picked should be expected to become stars. Rather, "Moneyball" makes a compelling argument that their approach allows them to exploit the inefficiencies of the market to staff a team that has the highest likelihood of winning given the relatively limited dollars available for players' salaries. Baseball is a game of odds. Beane and company have simply found a way to maximize the expected wins-per-dollar ratio.

I'm no baseball fan, but I found "Moneyball" engrossing. I learned a lot from this book -- not only about baseball, but also about the often irrational ways people assign value to things. Perhaps due to his own Wall Street background (see Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street), Lewis draws illuminating analogies between financial markets and the market for baseball players.

This is the book that should have changed Major League Baseball, but instead the baseball establishment reacted with outrage and derision. How irrational.

An intelligent sports book, a bit of a rare thing oftentimes.

It takes a look at a team with less money trying to find ways to get the most out of what they have. This involved an executive looking to do things differently and an assistant with some statistical acumen, and willingness to research.

Basically, they find out that drafting young teenagers is silly, drafting grown men with proven skills from college or other leagues makes more sense, and that a lot of drafting is handled in an amateur fashion.

It gives some player examples, but basically he found that defensive ability and speed was overvalued, so went looking for hitting and strikes.

For better or worse, more and more teams are playing "moneyball" these days. This is the book that started the game's changing focus from batting average to on-base-percentage. Most teams have statisticians on payroll now, and old school managers who don't play "the numbers" are becoming dinosaurs. You don't need to be a baseball fan to enjoy this book, however--statisticians, managers, and sabermetricians will all find the book fascinating.

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but still enjoy watching the sport. I found this book fascinating. A great story about how the game is managed and what makes teams successful.

I picked this book up, thinking it would be a great sports read. It turned out to be one of the most insightful business books I've ever read - whose principles can be applied to valuing businesses, real estate, individuals (baseball, in this case - but also football recruiting, which is my passion).
Michael Lewis captured so much in this great book!

Mr. Lewis has really created a gem in "Moneyball." It's hard to imagine a book about sabermetrics and statistics becoming an interesting and compelling story. Lewis has someone melded together a character study of Billy Beane along with the revolution of objective statistics in baseball in a way that doen't make people roll their eyes. This book is truly wonderful and probably one of the most important books on baseball since Bill Jame's baseball extracts.

On top of the interesting bits regarding the behind the scenes workings of a major league ball club is something even more substantial. This book can change the way the reader views all levels of baseball. What should high school coaches teach regarding hitting? This book suggests patience and knowing one's strike zone. Should pitcher's be worried about arm strength or deception? The book could easily be used to help coaches of all levels of baseball groom young players to be more effective ballplayers. It will even help those coaches with game strategy. In that sense this book is revolutionary. Sabermetrics used to be for a special class of baseball fan who spent more time at their computers than actually watching or playing baseball.

Now sabermetrics belongs to the masses.

And just imagine if this book sparked interest in applying objective criteria in other areas of life. What's the best way to manage a group of office workers, who is the best candidate to hire for a particular job, how can a business owner use previous sales numbers to formulate a strategy for the future? It may seem like a stretch but this book could change the way readers think about a whole host of issues, some not even close to relating to baseball.

Everyone can learn a lesson from this book and no baseball fan or businessmen should go without reading it.

Even if you don't watch baseball, this insightful look at one player's love for the game will captivate you. You'll also learn how to pick winning players for any kind of team.

In 1989 I saw the movie Field of Dreams and it changed my life forever, making me a baseball fan with its love for the game. Moneyball by Michael Lewis would be the second life changing event in my baseball evolution, teaching me aspects of the game that I never even knew existed. Lewis presents how the Oakland As, with one of the lowest payroles in the game, continually make the playoffs with underrated talent and intelligence.

Lewis introduces such things as Bill James, SABR, on base percentage, and other concepts that have opened a treasure trove of information for making a person a more complete fan. I promise if you read this book you will never look at the game the same way again and for the better.

I've cited this book, and passages and ideas from it for many years since my first reading.
In a world starving for great analogies, this book helps to draw relevant and interesting connections from MLB to outside world.

I basically picked this book up based on reviews I read here about it. Not being an overly interested baseball fan but a stats nut I had to see what the hype was about. I DO NOT REGRET GETTING THIS BOOK. If you have only ever flirted with baseball as a potential point of interest in your life this book will make you think stronger about it. Being a stats nut and aware that baseball is a stat junkies "sport crack" watching a game still caused me to snooze after the first inning. After reading this book this is not the case as it identified how potentially deep you can go with statistics to creating a winning team full of players who are not big money players. To me it was like reading the proof of a theorem. Granted the depth is not there for the true analysis type but the overall picture is (in my opinion.) In the end it will cause me to take time out and actually watch a game or two or more and delve further in to this 2007 season.

Outside of baseball there are some lessons for the buisness manager and company CEO that can be applied as far as picking the right personnel for a company or project. I draw my own conclusions based on what I have read as you will.

In closing, if you are a baseball fan or just want to get in to the game this is an incredible 5 star read. Michael Lewis did an awsome job to the point where I will pick up his other well known book Liar's Poker. Can't go wrong here.

I literally could not put it down. I spent all afternoon reading this book with a laptop in front of me--occasionally checking current stats on players and teams mentioned throughout the book. It's 2007, and it's interesting time to read this book--as we are beginning to see the results of the 2002 draft.

I'm a baseball fan who has basically learned about baseball through watching games, listening to broadcasters, and reading box scores. I've often thought there were intangibles behind baseball numbers and commentaries that I didn't understand, that I would often defer to "experts" to explain. This book opened my eyes to a whole new way of understanding baseball.

Baseball is a game best remembered by fan's casual observations: defining moments, oddities, streaks, records, superstitions, etc. To say this all doesn't matter seems more than anything, rude. But I understand that I have to separate our subjective memories from an objective measurement of a game from a standpoint of the front office. After all, baseball is business, with billions of dollars involved. This book talks about how one front office is treating baseball like it's all business. It's different, it's refershing, and I can't believe I've watched baseball without this knowledge so far.

It's difficult for me to filter out a judgement of this book based solely from a literary standpoint, because the subject itself was so interesting for me. But weaving between biographical narrative and real time events and actions, it was cohesive, and it held my attention. It told a story about numbers, using excerpt, events, quotes, and colorful characters.

This book is about narrative, not actual analysis. I'm not 100% sold on the ideas behind this book, as I've yet to see the numbers and the regressions for myself. But it's given me new ways to learn from a different perspective. It's definitely gotten me looking more forward to this coming season of major league baseball.

If you're fascinated by baseball and can't figure out how underdogs, like the Oakland 'A's and Minnesota Twins, consistently make it into the playoffs... If you're a sales executive trying to figure out why your incentive compensation structure isn't working... If you're in management getting ready to interview another horde of candidates for a job with a revolving door... If you just happen to recognize that human behavior is frequently illogical and wonder if there are any sane people left on the planet... THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU.

I'm not a baseball fan. I'm not a data jockey. But I heard Michael Lewis speak at a business conference, and was hooked. In fact, after reading this book, I went out and bought three copies - one to give to my boss, a copy for his boss' boss, and one for my library.

Great read. Funny. Intriguing. Good stories. A number of slippery insights. No preaching. Do yourself a favor and read it.

This is a dramatic case-study in how information management is changing our world. What is happening in this book is occuring with a vengance in credit and equity markets world-wide. Both baseball and finance are worlds that have been swimming in context-less information for decades. But both were dominated by "personalities" who worked more on prejudice than objective analysis.

But as shown in this book, it is now possible to collect and analyze a vast supply of information, and find relative value in the oddest places. Those that operate in the old way have no idea how completely los they are. Those operating in the new way are only finding worthy competition amongst others like themselves.

So in fact this book is (in my humble opinion) not really about baseball. It is about how information management and statistical analysis are changing business in general, particularly the "money" business, and therefore changing our world.

Better than Ball Four. If you are interested in the "game within the game" - please read this book. It's everything I hoped it would be and more. Lewis' lessons can be applied to life (and business) outside baseball. It is hilarious, informative, and eye opening. More pitches.

This book gives provides a great look into the statistical analysis that has seemingly taken over player evaluations in the grueling task that is scouting prospects. A very light, enjoyable read.

Michael Lewis isn't only a great sports journalist, but one of the greatest writers of my generation. He has created a new way to showcase the secret lives of sports by going behind the scenes and telling us a story of the puppeteers that control certain aspects of their game. In Moneyball, we dive in head first into the life of Oakland A's GM, Billy Beane, and how he used Bill James' analysis of baseball to create a winning team season after season. It's hard to do that today in this ever-increasing world of high contracts and young kids making millions of dollars, not knowing what to do with it. Lewis' journey amasses one season with the Oakland A's but really makes you feel like you've been there the whole time. Great book, excellent read, highly recommended!

Great baseball book for the baseball lover! Heard it was a great book from some friends of mine and decided to get it for gifts for the holiday. Both people who received it were thrilled to get it and more excited to finally read it.

I used to wonder how it was that Billy Beane is such a great manager or coach or whatever he is and now I know why: communications skills. Beane is not only baseball-smart, he's book-smart. And not just "I read a book once" smart either. This is one of the few men in any field smart enough to write a book without the help of a ghost writer.

This is no faint praise. Throughout the book you will learn about such true-life travails and characters as Jeremy Brown, the catcher drafted in the 16th round because the Oakland A's value fatness in their backstops, or Paul DePodesta, who went on after this book was written to get fired by no greater team than the Los Angeles Dodgers (no, not the one with both the Los Angeles and the Anaheim in their name, the ones who actually play in Los Angeles). Beane himself makes an appearance, although it's rather off-putting that he refers to himself in the third person a la Bob Dole or Barry Bonds.

One thing that should be clear though: there is no such thing as "Moneyball", and the sport Beane is actually referring to is baseball, not the lottery. Sadly, he does not give up the secret clues on how to win or even have a better chance at winning the lottery. I do not know these clues either (which is why I originally bought the book) but I did see a software program once so I know they exist.

I have been professionally managing money for 20 years and rate this as one of the "must read" books for wannabee investors. Just substitute all references to baseball players with "stocks". In so many things in life we use the emotional side (which leads us astray) instead of the analytical side of our brains. Moneyball is just one application of looking at facts before making judgements.

I now look at baseball in a different light. A's may not have been in the World Series every year - but every year they are competitive. More than many teams can say.

For an amateur female lover of baseball, this was highly informative and entertaining to the max.A must read!

This is a perfect example of edutainment at its best. Terrfic fun while simultaneously teaching you a great deal about the key factors that determine a teams win rate. Aside from the style and the analysis this book also does something even more valuable: It highlights a management approach that is truly based on merit, as opposed to how "pretty" an athelete is or how much charisma they have. For people who believe that the USA is as close as any country to being a meritocracy - this book is a shining example of just that. I am truly astonished and dismayed by the negative reviews I have read. I can't wait for Lewis to write his next book.

If you are a fan, this is a great read. If you are not a fan, but just interested in the game, it is still a great read. What I find most amusing are the baseball "experts" who poo-poo Billy Bean's approach to fielding and running a baseball team. "The proof of the pudding is in the eatin'" and the cognocenti appear to dislike the taste. The Oakland A's have been one of the stellar teams, yet, it appears that success is not what is important. What is important is success based on the recipe that the "experts" write.

How is it that the Oakland A's have won the AL West in 2000, 2002, 2003 (and are all but assured of winning this year, 2006), as well as the wild card in 2001, even though they are in the bottom third of all major league baseball teams in total payroll? That is the narrative that Michael Lewis uses to tell the story of his book Moneyball. One of the central tenets of Moneyball is that there are objective statistics that although often ignored and undervalued, can, with some specificity, predict certain players' performances in certain areas. It is, however, only half the story, and as your rotisserie league friends will no doubt tell you, old news. The real story that Moneyball drives home is the challenge in getting people who actually make the decisions about the baseball teams to listen up. Lewis repeatedly describes how the Old Boys Club of major league owners (who Lewis affectionately refers to as The Women's Auxiliary), players, and journalists (former Cincinnati Red and current ESPN commentator Joe Morgan is appropriately skewered) reject this statistical approach that has sometimes been referred to as sabermetrics and the teachings of sabermetricians like Billy Beane (the book's main protagonist and current A's GM), Bill James, Dick Cramer, and others. And on the Old Boys Club the point is lost: that objective statistics have the potential to give small-market teams who cannot afford to compete financially with larger market teams for key players, the best chance of winning. When people point to the fact that the A's have not won the World Series since 1989 in spite their almost unparalleled success over the past eight years (roughly since 1999) is when Moneyball makes its point.

I'm not a baseball fan. Hockey is the game of my heart. Baseball? No way. But, I loved this book. The only other baseball book that I've ever read that comes close to this high-water mark is Ball Four by Jim Bouton. Funny and interesting in its own right. A real joy to read.

Great characters and insight to management. A wonderful story about tearing down a culture from the inside. And who can argue with the Oakland A's success? Here it is September 2006 and they're once again leading their division, 5 games up on the Angels ... and this is the inside track on how they've done it with one of the worst payrolls in baseball.

When I was growing up I devoured any book written about baseball. As I've gotten older, my passion for the game has waned. Though still a fan, I'd not read a baseball book in several years until I finally got around to reading this one.

Reading Moneyball four years after the events occured sheds new light on things. The first portion of the book focuses on the personality and playing history of general manager Billy Beane and then has an inside look at the 2002 amateur draft, where many of Beane's philosophies are put into action. Beane is ecstatic when Scott Kazmir and Prince Fielder are selected by other teams thus allowing him to get the player he covets, Nick Swisher. Swisher has panned out nicely for the A's. Jeremy Brown, the other draftee Lewis focuses on, has not had the success anticipated (he had his first big league at bat just last night).

The rest of the book has some interesting moments as well. There is a lengthy discussion of sabrmetrics and the role Bill James and others have played in shaping the A's philosophy. Also, a couple of really interesting profiles of Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford which shed some light on the strange paths some people take on their way to major league baseball.

Lewis focuses a lot of attention on Paul DePodesta, the assistant GM for the A's. In fact, without saying so directly, I get the impression that Lewis feels he's at least equally responsible for the A's successes. DePodesta has since gone on to an unsuccessful sting with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Reading the book a few years after the fact gives some perspective on some of the mistakes that Beane and the A's have made with some player decisions, but despite those mistakes, the bottom line is that the franchise has continued to excel despite being dramatically outspent and despite the fact that the rest of baseball has been "clued in" to the A's thinking.

As an aside...I find it interesting that all of the attention has been paid to Beane and the A's. This is well deserved, for sure, but lost in all of this is the fact that the Minnesota Twins have been equally frugal and nearly equally successful. How have THEY done it? It might make for an interesting book itself.

Any true baseball fan, even a somewhat lapsed baseball fan such as myself, should do him/herself a favor and pick up this book. It may even rekindle some interest in the game we grew up loving...

Field of Stats

Although the steroid scandal may have eventually accomplished the same thing, "Moneyball" destroys any persistent romance surrounding professional baseball. It's an antidote to all those paeans glorifying the love of the game: "The Natural," "Field of Dreams," even the raunchy lens of "Bull Durham." Players don't rise and fall due to the nobility of their character, the sheer beauty of their swing, the sage advice of a wizened baseball scout, or even their batting average, per se. What Moneyball does is show how the Oakland A's, and a few emulators, dismissed all this lore and culture in favor of multiple regressions and other advanced statistical tools. It's a fascinating book that could have been a dry one--full of detailed statistics and equations--except that Lewis cleverly balances the mathematical perspective with the same character studies that have graced sports biographies for years.

The book centers around former big league prospect Billy Beane, a man with great athletic ability who didn't make it in the bigs, partly because of his perfectionism and resulting temper. Years later, Beane is the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, a team with stingy owners who'd rather save some bucks than buy a pennant (see "Yankees, The"). Faced with a shoestring budget, and enamored with the new baseball analysis cultivated by Bill James in his "Baseball Digest" system, Beane and his advisors invest in players as if they're brokers on Wall Street. James and other highly-educated baseball fanatics (often from Harvard, often lawyers or scientists with a mathematical bent) discover that the old wisdom wasn't all that smart: Their analyses yield cold, objective facts, and suddenly, as in the old "Firesign Theater" skit, "Everything You Know Is Wrong." It's not batting average and RBIs that are most important, it's on-base and slugging percentage that predict the one thing, the only outcome that matters--who wins. Throw out fielding statistics--these are too dependent on luck and the kind of pitches served up. Furthermore, invest in bargains: Overlooked players who get to first through walks rather than singles (the phrase, "a walk is good as a hit," was never so true as it is here), guys who aren't great all-around players but who fill complete missing elements in your roster (sort of like diversifying your portfolio, Beane and others take their cue from a market mechanism known as "derivatives"), and those who otherwise don't fit into other GMs' and scouts atheoretical notion of what makes a great player.

The results are convincing. With one of the least expensive teams in baseball, the A's repeatedly make the playoffs. Beane acquires college players and castoffs from other teams like a man who collects trashy art, and XXX shows how his "I must be insane to offer you these bargains" style of purchasing ball players pays off, mostly through chapters devoted to one particular exemplar of Beane's philosophy.

There are a few problems with the book, as there are a few problems with the stats-driven approach to building your team. The most egregious of these is Lewis' concentration on the successes predicted by statistics. For a book driven by science, Lewis ignores the other 3 cells of the implicit 2x2 table of success/failure by "uses Beane method"/"doesn't use method." The most significant is the failure/Beane method cell; Lewis just doesn't write about those players who didn't pan out as mathematically predicted. The only examination of failure is Beane's rather clinical excuse for never advancing very far in the playoffs--in a short series (I.e., when N is small), luck (i.e., the statistical error) tends to become more powerful and empirical "truths" suffer as a result. The fans suffer too, but their enjoyment of the game is always secondary to winning. Therefore, Athletics almost never steal bases (the percentages dictate no), and managerial and player judgment is minimized in favor of the all mighty victory. You have to admit it works, but when Beane shrugs off the post-season failure question almost with a "that's not my job," you have to wonder whether "Moneyball" is enough. Maybe it's just the best oine can do on a budget. (On the other hand, XXX Lewis to mention--even in his most recently written epilogue--that Beane's right hand man Paul DePodesta was fired after 2 seasons with the well-financed Dodgers.(A 71-91, 4th place finish in 2005 didn't help DePodesta.) Along with this bias towards success stories, XXX reveals a few bad writing habits. He'll sometimes describe something with sentences repeatedly beginning with the word "that." As in: "That the book doesn't look enough at failures. That the book was a best seller. That the book was reportedly misunderstood by many when published." Lewis also lapses into a high-falutin' prose style, somewhat emulating "King James"--Bill James of the pioneering Baseball Digest school of analysis.

Still, "Moneyball" deserves its reputation and its sales. Beane's number-crunching, myth-busting approach isn't always pretty, but it makes sense and meets the bottom line of both winning and preserving capital. An excellent and accessible book that has it both ways, an argument for using "cold" higher math in sports, and a spirited study of the ballplayers who add value to the original purchase, and the GMs who know what it takes to buy low and sell high.

Lewis has written a fascinating study of the bean counter approach ,used by Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics to construct a team of moderately priced players chosen on the basis of ,primarily, on base percentage for everyday players and the number of groundball outs and strikeouts for selecting pitchers.
This approach generated a number of divisional championships for Oakland in the weakest American League division,but no pennants and world championships.There are omitted variables and misspecification problems in the sabermetrics(statistics) approach of Bill James used by Beane.First,James's system totally ignores the number of batter strikeouts.All outs are not equal.Hitting flyouts and groundball outs will many times advance the baserunner if any previous batters got on base.Hitting the ball also allows the baserunner to get on on an error.Strikeouts are thus the worst type of out.This omitted variables problem can be dealt with by simply deducting 1 to 1.25 points from the on base percentage for every strikeout over,say,100 for a regular,everyday player who gets 600 official at bats over the course of the season.The second problem is that the James system does not differentiate between walks due to the hitting skill of the batter and walks used by the pitcher to set up forceplays and double plays,especially if he is a pitcher who gets a lot of ground ball outs.Another category is needed-walks that are not followed by forceouts or double play groundouts and/or walks where the runner is able to steal second base.These walks are different from the walks given to a 40 homer player who strikes out 150+ times a year and hits .250 but has a .375 OBP.
James's system needs to be adjusted to take into account these two factors.

I bought this book for my 84 year-old baseball fan mom for mother's day. She loved it. Said it was the best book she'd ever read.

Moneyball is a fine book, a must-read for any serious baseball fan. What I found most interesting was the organizational conflict between Beane's "Laptoppers" and the computer-phobic scouts, who rely on instinct and experienced judgment to spot talent. It seemed to me that in some ways Beane used his young brainiac computer jockeys to subvert power from the old guard scouts, the traditional power base of a baseball franchise. However, I think the author tends to exaggerate the prowess of Beane's computer-based approach. My sense is that Beane's had his share of missed opportunities, and has similarly erred by picking future duds who looked great on a spreadsheet. Beane's tactic of using smart people with new sophisticated tools to gain and hold power in an organization is not new, but superbly documented in this absorbing and well-written book.

Contrary to what Moneyball impies, drafting future baseball players is like buying IPO stocks--it looks easy in hindsight, but in reality, scouting is like baseball itself--failure is far more common than success.

This book is a wonderful ode to objectivity. Specifically, objectivity in baseball. Whatever profession you're in, you'll read this book and start to think about what you're currently overvaluing and undervaluing. Plus, its a quck read. two plane trips for me. I highly recommend it.

Michael Lewis really excels in Moneyball. The book is so much more than merely insight on the occupation of a baseball General Manager. It is a book about innovation and change. Taking the risk to challenge traditional practices in life and somehow come out successful.

It is very important to understand that this is not a biography of Oakland A's GM Billy Beane. Lewis simply uses him as the prime example of using change to be successful. All of the opinions slated in the book are of Lewis and not Beane. Many turned away from this read feeling that it was an egotistical portrait of Beane...they couldnt have been more wrong.

Basically, Lewis describes the business moves made by the A's at the start of the new millennium. They are a team with a stingy budget that somehow continues to make the playoffs over much more wealthy teams. The recepie to their success lies in using a new, statistical approach to finding and keeping low budget players. This is the primary message of the book.

However this is merely a parable telling us that change is paramount to succeeding. Beane, agaisnt much opposition, changes the way that teams can become successful. Similiarly, the modern business world must continually be apt to innovation to remain competitive as the world becomes more globalized.

This book is both a great summer read for your average baseball fan, yet it also is great for someone looking for some change in their life. Whether you want to read into the depth the book carries or just read about baseball, this is an excellent book.

Whether or not you like baseball, Moneyball is an excellent read. Out of obscure statistics and management minutia, Lewis creates an absolutely thrilling, thoroughly American account of market economics and how the smart little guy can conquer giants.

While the business side of the book is very interesting, the account transcends management techniques and market theory to focus on several individuals whose careers are transformed by Billy Beane's unorthodox baseball reckoning. This human touch rounds out the story and provides a needed counterweight to Billy Beane's rather cold, calculating personality. However, the greatest quality of this book is the melding of economics, business and sports to create a highly readable account that is sure to appeal to a wide audience.

I have been a serious baseball fan for over 25 years. I thought I knew the sport pretty well. Moneyball changed all of that. The book really opened my eyes on the real inner workings of building a MLB team. Like many other baseball buffs I have built many fantasy baseball teams, but the book describes how building a real team is vastly more complex. The chapters that describe the limited use of traditional scouts are fascinating. While I love baseball stats and scouting reports, I now look at them very differently than before. The book proves that baseball truly is a thinking man's sport. Moneyball will go down as one of the most influential baseball books of all time.

An insightful tome to the game within a game, how "small" market teams inspire ruthless attention to statistical detail, with prolific results. Billy's A's will long be remembered and imitated long after he and his partners invent a new math to give the fat cats reason to lose more sleep. Deep access gives the author an insider's viewpoint of the daily operations of the GM's office, though a respectful distance is maintained throughout the book. Part philosophy, part mathematic, all entertaining.

Baseball is a funny game, Joe Garagiola wrote. Also upsetting, thrilling, boring, redeeming, and traditional, often all in one nine-inning stretch. Something you don't hear so often is that baseball is scientific, not at least until Michael Lewis blew the lid off this dirty secret in his 2003 book, "Moneyball."

Lewis follows one Billy Beane, a one-time hot prospect for the New York Mets who unaccountably never found success in the big leagues until he even more unaccountably wound up the GM for the cash-poor Oakland As. There he began looking for bargain players who looked less like he did and more like his onetime teammate Lenny Dykstra, who looked all wrong for the game but was a star all the same.

"In his own mind he ceased to be a guy who should have made it and became a guy upon whom had been heaped a lot of irrational hopes and dreams," Lewis writes of Beane. "He had reason to feel some distaste for baseball's mystical nature. He would soon be handed a weapon to destroy it."

One wants to jump in here and observe that one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. But Beane's apostasy is covered with such unflinching zeal by Lewis it becomes hard to say where the subject ends and writer begins in "Moneyball's" colorful musings about the economic and strategic inefficiencies of the game.

There are arguments to be made for tradition, for keeping players around even at the cost of paying them a market wage. But "Moneyball's" iconoclasm is so enjoyably presented, with Lewis's love for telling anecdotes and drop-dead quotes, it emerges as the first great baseball book of the 21st century, and the best anti-baseball book in its snarky, rebellious way since Jim Bouton's "Ball Four."

First of all, Lewis presents some bracing concepts, such as the importance of on-base percentage above batting average and RBIs, in a way that makes such knowledge fun to learn even if you are not predisposed to learn from it. He shines a light on the arcane science of sabermetrics, which breaks down how baseball works, in such a way you find yourself laughing at what is at heart a statistical analysis.

And he does find a human side to the equation, in the stories of players conventional wisdom has given up on and Beane has rescued with an eye for a bargain:

"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."

Inspiring? I don't think so. But "Moneyball" is certainly illuminating, and if Beane comes across in retrospect as a manic somewhat tied down by his own dogmas, Lewis emerges as the leading practitioner of the New New Journalism, writing about the most arcane facts in a way akin to the breeziest fiction read. Whatever critics may say, fiction this is not.

Assuming Michael Lewis set out to blend a detailed explanation of modern statistical analysis with revealing accounts of the people driving and being impacted by the revolution, he succeeded masterfully. As the book's protagonist, Oakland A's GM Billy Beane is not infallible (many of his statistically superior 2002 draft picks chronicled in this book have not panned out as expected), but his approach has spawned a gaggle of like-minded young executives who have forced a complex business model into the game's formerly archaic structure. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how Major League Baseball is evolving at the dawn of the 21st century.

The reviews for this book consist largely of high praise, but mixed with occasionally scathing attack. I think that these negative posts are very telling, in the sense that they often underscore everything that Moneyball represents.

For example, the main point of a number of these negative reviews is that it isn't fair praise the Oakland A's teams of the early 21st century without giving due credit to the alternatively achieved successes of the Minnesota Twins over the same period (for the uninitiated, the Twins espoused a theory of baseball contrary to the A's, and also made the playoffs in 2002 and 2003 with a low payroll similar to the A's).

Now here's the problem with that "analysis". It overlooks the fact that even though the Twins made the playoffs in 2002 and 2003 they were a significantly worse team than the A's. In 2002 and 2003, Minnesota scored 56 and 43 runs more than they surrendered, respectively. In 2002 and 2003, Oakland scored 155 and 125 runs more than they surrendered, respectively. This a huge difference. Indeed, in 2003 Minnesota had the 5th best record in the American League and only made the playoffs by nature of their relatively weak division.

This pro-Twins argument put forth by many critics goes right to the heart of the matter of Moneyball - that acceptance of conventional wisdom and commonly held beliefs without reviewing the facts will lead one to terrible misconceptions and false conclusions. In this case, the commonly held belief is that the Twins, by making the playoffs in 2002 and 2003 (just like Oakland) were having success (just like Oakland) despite using a different overall strategy. The reality is that, even though Minnesota enjoyed some modest success over 2002 and 2003, Oakland dramatically outperformed them, which can easily be seen if you ANALYZE THE FACTS. This is the whole message of Moneyball, and it obviously sailed right over the head of many of the reviewers who attack this book.

I highly recommend this book. For those of you that are having second thoughts based on certain negative reviews, in my opinion this book will help you to learn to THINK about how the world around you works. In fact, many of these negative reviews are the result of the type of misguided thinking that Moneyball can help us to avoid.

If you manage a business, you will like this book
If you like math, you will like this book
If you like figuring out how things work, you will like this book.
If you're a financial guru, you'll like this book.
Even though I am Yankee fan (ok, I know a number of people have just said that the review is not helpful and refuse to read further, but)...I loved this book

Michael Lewis, with candor and feeling tells us why Oakland was consistently able to beat the odds - despite the best "talent" in the business not understanding why. He simply solved a different problem. Contrary to taking the heart of the game, he opens your eyes to new levels of enlightenment. (As Spirng training starts, I am looking at the players through a totally different lens).

The writing is solid, the approach, uncluttered. A simply great read - before you go to Opening Day

After reading this book twice over, I am surprised that Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane decided to reveal his operations and modus operandi to Michael Lewis. This is especially since the book exposes some unflattering portrayals of other teams, GM Beane's views on how make trades (illuminating how he operationalizes who to trade for, motivations, tactical and strategic intentions, etc.), organizational management style, which will likely encourage future GMs with Billy Beane's ambitions to keep journalists with masters degrees in economics at shoulder length distance.

Lewis's book can be delineated in two parts. One, a semi-historical breakdown of the rise of "moneyball," which is an adaptation of the theories of baseball historian and statistician Bill James. This is an approach, something we baseball stats geeks call `sabermetrics,' that concentrates heavily on the use of objective, quantitative analysis of baseball talent, based on a faith in statistics, and the privileging of certain statistics (like on-base percentage, OPS [on-base percentage plus slugging percentage], strike-out-to-walk ratios [for both hitters and pitchers]), which supposedly gives baseball executives and managers a better way of assessing players' skills. Lewis does an excellent job of chronicling the problems that James' quantitative approach experienced in becoming accepted in the mainstream (something I can attest to, since I was one of those who read James' Baseball Abstracts back in the 1980s and remember my own baseball coaches warning in those days against taking too many pitches), how there still exists an old-boys club amongst baseball's elite against moneyball, and how people like Sandy Alderson and Billy Beane helped in breaking down those barriers and employ James' theories on a small market team.

Basically, the moneyball approach is a euphemism for the way small market teams like the Oakland A's can stay competitive by drafting smart, expending what resources it has on player development, with a strong organizational encouragement for hitters to concentrate on home runs and on-base percentage (and pitchers to record outs). In essence, it is a baseball application of the old market investment strategy of buying low and selling high. You buy low by looking not for the five-tool players all the other teams want. Instead, you look for the player who may be a little slower, but who has excellent plate discipline, a little home run power, and a pitcher that simply gets people out (without focusing solely on the speed of that prospect's fastball). You sell high by trading these commodities you've drafted, developed, and allowed to blossom over to large market teams for new talent, money, extra draft picks, and the kind of other resources you can not depend on when your team ranks near the bottom of the league's payroll.

The second part of the book is a dissection of the day-to-day operations of the Oakland Athletics under GM Beane. This includes numerous stories on Beane's idiosyncrasies (he doesn't like watching the games his team plays in), his borderline egomania, and how he utilizes the moneyball approach in the everyday functions of his team--in how the front office judges talent, the manner in which it attempts to manipulate hitting styles on its minor league teams (with a focus on walks for batters and use of other teams' reclamation projects on its pitching staffs), judging minor league talent before the draft, etc.

In hindsight, Beane's forthrightness was the most refreshing and surprising part of this book. It's not every day that you hear a baseball GM declare that they only attended church on Sundays because they were hedging their bets. The portrayal of the front office of the Mets and Orioles take a hit in this book (with big market teams who constantly trade for overpriced players seen as a cash cow for clubs like Beane's A's). The draft was also an interesting foray into something that is often ignored in Major League Baseball, as opposed to the extravaganzas that the NFL and NBA drafts have become (this is due in part because the MLB draft is conducted during the season).

:Observations:

Overall, this is an excellent book, although I have one reservation, and that is while Lewis does a remarkable job of illustrating the moneyball vs. old boys club split in baseball, in the process he gives short thrift to the old boys club (again, presumably because of his obvious sympathetic portrayal of the A's and those like-minded believers in the moneyball approach). However, there are numerous criticisms of moneyball, even from a quantitative perspective, which deserves credit. For starters, moneyball ignores or does not give much credence to the importance of the fundamentals of the game (such as bunting, base running [since people like GM Beane consider the stolen base to be generally detrimental], and defense [just read the travails of Ron Washington in trying to turn guys like Jeremy Giambi and Scott Hatteberg into a passable fielders]). Lewis defended the A's post-season ineptitude as a statistical aberration, but you can not ignore how fatal this was for them in the 2003 ALDS against the Red Sox (a series the A's could've easily won had several of its players knew how to adequately field the ball and run the bases). This does not mean you have to go back to the 1985 Cardinals and the era of small ball to win in post-season play, but you only have to look at the way Eric Byrnes ran the bases in the 2003 ALDS to understand the cost of not stressing your players being able to take an extra base, or at least run them properly.

Moreover, by ignoring defense and base running, moneyball underestimates the value of running speed. As ex-St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog notes, running speed is one of those few attributes a player can use on both offense and defense. This goes into the other big weakness of the quantitative approach in baseball. While the use of statistics in baseball is pretty effective, albeit not perfect, in measuring offense, it is less than admirable and complete in aptly measuring the value of defense and pitching. Lewis does try to answer some of this by showing how the A's even attempted to quantify the number of runs it was surrendering by giving up centerfielder Johnny Damon (yes, Red Sox fans, yours is not the only team he's ever played for). The problem with fielding and pitching, though, is that it is purely dependent on where the pitcher pitches the ball and where the hitter hits it. Zone Rating may do a good job of measuring the fielder's ability to get to a ball hit in (at least to this point) his fielding zone, but we have yet to solve the problem of who dictates how that baseball arrives there (and how hard or softly that ball is hit in a particular zone, its angle, etc., the kind of information that can possibly skew statistics). Is the game being determined by the pitcher (at which point pitching statistics become more important) or the hitter? Moneyball implicitly sides with the hitter, but only because pitching statistics are still rudimentary and dependent on variables with numerous externalities (and with sample sizes that are sometimes much too small and subject to non-randomized circumstances).

Still, on the whole, Moneyball is a fantastic book in its in depth coverage of the subjects, Lewis's insider access into the daily lives and workings of a baseball team, as well as knowledgeable explanations of the statistical components to the game (and by extension the moneyball approach). Also appreciated is that this book shows the rise of a method that was for over two decades outside of the mainstream, but is now every bit a part of the game of baseball (with the A's, Blue Jays, Red Sox, even the hated Yankees, employing fellow moneyball enthusiasts in its front offices). If anything, one can only wonder about the possible future of moneyball in Oakland, as more teams begin to apply Beane's successful approach, thereby sapping the talent pool of those gems in the rough his organization was so successful at developing over the years.

If you are at all interested in baseball you need to read this book. Michael Lewis does fantastic job of explaining the Billy Beane/Bill James theory of statistical analysis and contrasting it to the traditional ways of evaluating baseball talent and traditional game strategies. It is amazing how resistant Major League Baseball (and most of those around it) is to consider alternative ways of doing things. Not everyone will agree with the theories of Mr. Beane, Mr. James, etc., but anyone who enjoys watching baseball and isn't afraid to try looking at things in a non-traditional way should definitely read this book.

This is a very fun book to read -- the first 2/3 are awesome for everyone, and the final 1/3 is good for baseball afficianados (though the general population might get a bit bored). I totally recommend!

MONEYBALL takes us inside the office of general manager (GM) Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics for the 2002 season. Beane needs to compete for talented free agent players, but his small-market team has lower ticket and broadcast revenues than most other clubs. Despite the financial disadvantage, Beane manages to compete successfully against George Steinbrenner's Yankees and other big-market teams. How? By astute scouting, measuring player performance against price, and by judging player worth with oft-ignored but highly significant statistics like on base and slugging percentages. The result? At this writing, the Athletics have made the playoffs or at least contended every year since 1999, despite losing top players like Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon. Ironically, the book knocks GM Ken Williams of the White Sox, whose team won the World Series in 2005 on a moderate player payroll. There is also a discussion about scouting, and how many scouts prefer chiseled young prospects and reject those kids that are too thick or thin. Guess they never heard of Babe Ruth or Ted Williams.

Author Michael Lewis' flowing prose makes this a very appealing read. MONEY BALL should be of great interest to fans, rotisserie/fantasy league players, and anybody with an interest in the economics of the game.

The main reason I'm giving this book five stars is that I believe it will strongly appeal to a wide range of different types of baseball book readers, including: Those who like "inside the wars" books, amateur statistical analysts, even fans of those How Brilliant Investor X Beat Wall Street type books. The book has a strong streak along those latter lines: it's a profile of someone who figured out inefficiencies in the baseball market, and how to exploit them to compensate for other structural disadvantages his team faced.

The book reads very briskly and engagingly. To the extent that it covers statistical issues, it does it in a way that is accessible to the layperson, and it never disrupts the flow of the narrative.

The author consistently finds an involving story to demonstrate each point he wants to make. For example, there's a chapter on amateur draft day: there's something exciting about such drafts, even if it's in a Rotisserie league or a tabletop league; the fun of determining which players you think are most valuable, and spending your picks as best you can. In another chapter, when the author wants to explain how to value pitchers, he charts the career of the undervalued Chad Bradford.

The essence of the book is really a single story: how an undercapitalized team remained competitive with baseball's strongest powers simply by internalizing many of the lessons learned by an army of amateur statistical analysts over the past 20 years. The focus is especially on the lessons that collide with conventional baseball wisdom: because that's where the good buying and selling opportunities come, when your competition doesn't recognize something that you do.

Among those lessons: the importance of on-base percentage (including the ability to draw walks), the predictive value of minor league and college level batting stats, when it's foolish to run yourself out of innings or to bunt, and how a pitcher's "defense-independent" stats are the best indicator of future performance.

The other side of the coin is the stuff that doesn't matter as much as baseball scouts think it does: raw physical tools, athleticism, speed, strength, etc. Just because you're swift and strong doesn't mean you can reliably read the location of a pitch and can consistently hit a baseball moving 95 mph. Or, as one wag once well put it, "If you want to produce a big canteloupe, the best thing to start with is a small canteloupe, not a collection of big canteloupe parts." In other words, pay attention to what the guy did in the minors.

I myself am loosely part of that stathead community; I've published a few articles and used to have e-mail correspondence relationships with at least three of the people mentioned in the book. So I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did; I expected to feel a bit of a "seen it before" reaction to the statistical insights.

But I didn't; what made the book work for me is that it's not about guys like me, it's about someone on the inside, actually applying that knowledge, and building that knowledge, in the crucible of major league competition. That's exciting and fun to read about.

Just one word of caution: while the author does, I believe, accurately describe some of the analysis that has enabled the A's to prosper despite their small payroll, occasionally the author makes it sound a little more determinative than it all really is. A few cautions I'd sound: the bunt isn't quite as bad as the author makes it seem, because the bunt often increases the probability of scoring one run, even as it significantly decreases the probability of scoring three runs. Not every run in baseball is equally valuable, the first few increase your win probability much more than do the 7th and 8th. Also, while walks are important and do have predictive value, you won't keep walking if you can't hit. You can't really base a major league offense solely on walks, because the other teams won't keep walking you if you don't hit. So some of the players cited in the book with gaudy OBPs have had trouble maintaining even the walk totals that they had before.

I liked the book mainly because it fueled my fantasies of being a baseball GM. Any book that well feeds such pleasant idle ruminations is, for me, a very fun read.

Moneyball is the Moby Dick of baseball, but it takes lots less time to read. When was the last time you read a "sports" book with all star writing equal to the best being done in any genre? When was the last time you learned how a big time business really worked? When was the last time you witnessed dinosaur thinkers exposed and humiliated? When was the last time you saw innovation trump accepted dogma? Michael Lewis does all this, weaving together the different pieces of his narrative into a seamless whole packed with humor, insights, and multiple layers. This is a terrific creation: hats off to the author. It's a great read and a great gift. Even if you think baseball is dull as dishwater or worse, you will love this. P.S. The Afterword alone is worth the price of admission.

This is one of the best sports books I have ever read, and I really liked the way that it described the part of baseball that fans don't usually see. I think that the book portrayed Athletics General Manager Billy Beane in a great way as a smart man. This book showed that you need technology to be a General Manager, and it takes someone smart, not just any regular Joe. It showed that the GM isn't the only one who does something, his assistants are important. This is one of the greatest sports books of our time.

Mid-Prairie Teen who likes sports very much.

Michael Lewis' interest covering outliers (trailblazers later) brings him to the land of baseball, where the old guard is well entrenched and the barriers to entry of new philosophies high.

In the middle of it all is the Oakland A's manager Billy Beane, the strongest proponent of statistics-based evaluation of players (a.k.a "Moneyball"). Ironically, Beane's baseball career is Exhibit A of the foibles of the "if it stands like a ball player, looks like a ball player then it is a baseball player" school of baseball thought.

The central theme of this book is not at all new as Bill James published his theories of sabermetrics way back in 1977. However, this has only been recently been put to practice not only by the A's but the Dodgers (ex-GM Paul de Podesta), Blue Jays (JP Ricciardi) - Beane disciplies all.

The theory is quite interesting as it attempts not to reverse but to extend current baseball thought. ERA for instance, long held as the metric for which pitchers are judged, is not that accurate as it may be padded by inherited runs. A more apt metric is the no. of home runs, strikeouts and walks (not hits) - stats that a pitcher has direct control over. The book provides quite a convincing argument as to why the no. of hits given up by the pitcher are not influenced by factors other than, get this - LUCK!

Batters on the other hand should be judged by one stat alone - On Base Percentage (OBP). The book provides a good argument as to why steals, sacrifice bunts and flies are anathema to winning baseball.

All in all, Billy Beane's practices do end up making winning teams out of a limited budget but up to a certain extent only as former diamonds in the rough tend to command large free agent contracts thereafter and the GM has to rebuild from scratch. I'd characterize it more as the art of treading water with a limited budget as it still needs a large financial commitment from the ownership to create dynasties.

It would be interesting to see the Yankees employ Moneyball for the moneyed. Still, if all of baseball would finally get it then we're back to square one - being that money-laden teams having the advantage.

I am the biggest Redsox fan and i thought this book was without a dougt the best book i have ever read. I you don't even like sports you will love this book. Clearly the best book ever.

Let's get one thing straight. This is not a book about baseball.

America's pastime, they call it. But to our national psyche it's much, much more. It's a metaphor for heroism, hope, innocence, youth--the movies don't talk about fields of dreams for nothing. But dreams are about emotion, and emotions can deceive in cruel and powerful ways. And nowhere, according to Michael Lewis' intriguing premise in "Moneyball", does emotion distort with more pernicious force than in the sport of baseball.

Billy Beane found this out the hard way. As an up and coming minor leaguer in the late 80s he fielded with Dykstra and Strawberry for the Mets. Mesmerizing baseball scouts nationwide, he found himself heralded as the sport's perfect man, a power hitter, a nimble fielder, a natural headed for greatness with effortless grace. But after spurning college at Stanford to take the seductive bait of the major league draft, Billy Beane found himself falling a lot faster and deeper than he'd climbed.

Billy was an emotional guy. His minor league teams spent significant sums on the bats he broke when he struck out, the sinks he pulled out from their moorings when his genius failed. In hindsight, years later, he saw how his own nature had been his undoing. And he vowed to bend it to his own will, and define for himself a new and spectacular brand of success in the sport that so spurned him.

No author in America was better suited to bring Billy Beane's story to print than Michael Lewis. There's not another writer at work today with the uncanny ability to bring literary style and journalistic discipline to the world of numbers with such concise and forceful effect. He showed this talent for fusion in his previous blockbuster, "Liar's Poker". But he here he eclipses himself in an investigative masterpiece as informative as it is compelling.

Billy Beane's epiphany about his own failures in the early '90s came in tandem with a radical new school of thought in baseball, one founded in stark statistical analysis, devoid of the trappings of subjectivity and emotion. As Billy followed a new career path in baseball management these new ideas took firm and deep root in his thinking, and he set out on a course to prove them right. Let the old school scouts evaluate players based on gut instinct and showy play. Billy was sure he knew a different way.

Baseball, the chastened Beane began to perceive, was living in the dark ages. Player were culled, and paid, based on subjective premises that had little to do with their ultimate ability to get on base and score runs. The old fashioned scouting system, rooted as it was in intuition, was rife with inefficiencies and distortions. With the advent of free agency, the imperfections of the scouting system were magnified without mercy. In olden times a sub-par player brought up through the scouting system might set a team back 150K. After free agency, it was more like 15M.

All this did Billy Beane learn, through the prism of his own previous failures. And where there is inefficiency, as any Wall St. trader will tell you, there is huge opportunity. A general manager's challenge, Billy's challenge, was to construct a team of professionals stripped down to the barest, and most relevant, essence of their unique individual abilities, with no intrusion from internal doubt or external second guessing. This was the team that would win games, making little boys' dreams come true and a few shrewd men's wallets explode with cash.

The body of "Moneyball" lays out the tale of Billy's tenure as the general manager of the Oakland A's, guiding the reader through the arcane processes of free agency and the psychology of trading. But baseball is only a vehicle for the development of much larger themes. It's man's fundamental struggle in every endeavor he undertakes to strip out emotions from decision making. The quest for the optimum exists in everything. But it's an uphill battle, against the way human beings are wired. Lewis' tale of one man's determination to win, using only the stark truth of mathematical analysis, is filled with countless insights and journalistic jewels. It's like watching one very exciting baseball game, where the win is about something much more than a game.

Moneyball is a phenomenal book about the game and business of baseball, but it is also an insightful look, in the context of innovation, into the historical background and institutional framework of baseball along with the traits that made Billy Beane a successful innovator.

Bill James, Sandy Alderson, and Paul Depodesta are just some of the individuals mentioned in this book that deserve credit for their creative ability to see the game in a different light, the light of the scientific method.

Although Billy didn't have the statistical and formulaic expertise of some of these other individuals, he acted as the creative catalyst in bringing the ideas developed via the scientific method, sabermetrics (the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball statistics), to fruition i.e. implementing them into the game of professional baseball.

Billy's experience as a ballplayer plays a crucial role in his willingness to adopt the values of the scientific method. He is able to come at the problem of ballplayer valuation with a firsthand understanding of why some of the established methods of ballplayer valuation are flawed; His fearlessness of mistakes is another attribute that allows him to innovate so successfully.

I think my favorite segment of the book is the discussion of Billy as a trader; he has an uncanny ability to get what he wants for much less than its worth - part of this is due to his more accurate understanding of the intrinsic worth of baseball players, but much is due to his shrewd negotiating ability and trading techniques. One technique Billy uses is "trawling" - the constant search for information critical to other GMs - which helps him to find creative solutions to effectively craft deals that other GMs would find agreeable.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed this book, but I would like to have seen a discussion, possibly just a chapter, devoted to the evolution of the A's model and whether or not other teams would be wise to adopt it. There is no question in my mind that sabermetrics is an incredibly valuable tool to be utilized by baseball front offices, but chemistry also has its place. I think a comparison with the model used by the Atlanta Braves' front office, one that does not neglect the value of an analytic approach, but also places emphasis on the value-based/observational approach used by many scouts, would have served this topic well.

Baseball runs a distant 4th in my pantheon of sports behind football, basketball and boxing, but I was still impresssed by the profundity of his arguement on the true nature of the game. That said, this is not just a baseball book. Baseball & the aberrant success of the Oakland A's vis a vis their free market competitors is only the medium for a broader discussion about how we assess and assign value. This is a book for those who champion the rational, the scientific method, the slaying of myth, the quantifiable & demonstrable vs. those who champion mysticism, lazy tradition, and the sequestering of knowledge to "the properly credentialed."

The depth of the parallels that can be drawn from this book to financial markets, geopolitics, and government/business are limited only by the capacity of the reader.

Nice book. Easy to read and some swell stories in here. Not just about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's, also about Bill James and plenty of others. Good book.

Only complaint is the rather poor copy editing job. At one point, the book says the A's are "looking for more Barry Zito's." Looking for more OF Barry's Zito's somethings? Looking for more Barry Zitoes? Zitos? Sheesh. I don't know. Just some goofy things like that in here that are like that little piece of napkin on the edge of your glass when you're drinking some really good scotch. Not a deal-breaker, but kind of a pain nonetheless.

OK - I'm not a baseball person. I'm a rugby person.

But that's ok, because to my mind what we have here is a brilliant book on business and investing. In fact I'd go as far as to say that this is one of the best books on business and investing that I've read. And I thought it was going to be a baseball book. Pretty cool huh!

Moneyball is a story about how the Oakland A's have managed to win so many baseball games. Conventional baseball wisdom would have you believe that they shouldn't win very many games because they don't have much money and therefore can't afford the best players.

But the way the A's have won so many games is by finding value in players that other people have overlooked. The way they manage that is by looking at and interpreting the statistics that are used to measure a player's performance in a new way. What the A's have done (primarily out of economic necessity, as they are a small-market team) is to question all the traditional statistics that get used to evaluate players. They've challenged the traditional measures and asked if they really are a good way to measure what a particular player brings to a team and how much that player contributes to winning.

Now the interesting thing is that it turns out that the traditional measures are not very accurate. It turns out that you can find much better ways to measure value if you are prepared to think about the game contrary to conventional wisdom. In this way you can find value that other people have missed.

Imagine that!! A game like baseball that has been played for 100 years or more in full view of everyone. There are plenty of people in the game who know what they're doing (or think they do). Books have been written. Players have been studied. And baseball being baseball, there is a statistic for just about every move that a player makes. Everyone thinks they know everything there is to know about the game. But no - it turns out that there are new ways to look at things and new ways to evaluate what contributes to winning. And it turns out there are better ways to do things.

Ok, so what's the connection between this and an investor buying shares?

Well, investors are trying to do exactly the same thing that the Oakland A's have done. Investors are looking to find value that the market has not seen.

Let me give just one example.

In baseball, people have been told forever that batting average is the most important metric for a hitter. Well, as we learn in Moneyball, it turns out that when you actually look at history and determine what is the thing that is the most highly correlated with the number of runs that a team scores, batting average is very low on the list. Talk about a revelation. There are a lot of teams that have high batting averages who never get on base with walks and who don't hit for power. Compare that to a team that gets on base more often with a lower batting average but more walks and that also hits plenty of home runs. Who do you think scores the most runs at the end of the day? A big deal was made of the wrong number. It's been that way for decades in baseball and persists even today. And this created a huge opportunity for the Oakland A's. Players with high on-base percentages (made up of a decent, but not spectacular, batting average plus loads of walks) are mispriced by the market.

The lesson is that there are plenty of magic numbers that a big fuss is made over in the financial markets also. For example, many investors and analysts focus on things like earnings targets or the price/earnings ratios. Of course, many of these metrics are important and do help to accurately measure the health of a company. But is possible to think about things differently?

Investors, just like baseball's general managers, have to start asking if there is some better number, some better way to measure how a company is doing. Is there another way to think about things? Investors who like to look for the unloved, unknown and undervalued companies will find plenty here to think about.

And I bet these lessons are applicable to a great many things other than baseball and investing - always take the time to consider if what you are doing makes sense; don't do it just because "this is the way things have always been done"; don't be afraid to ask "why"?; and be curious about the unwanted and the unloved because if nobody else wants them then they are probably undervalued.

Don't judge a book by its cover. Ostensibly the title and cover of this book would lead you to conclude that this book is all about baseball. It isn't. When I was handed this book I was expecting a dreary George Will book about the symmetry of motion in baseball or how baseball is the smart man's sport. My expectations were very low. The first few pages quickly put that concern to rest. This is a page-turner that you will not put down.

Have you ever wondered how the Oakland A's with a team that looks so unlike other major league teams can be a consistent winner? The A's General Manager Billy Beane found market inefficiencies and effectively exploited them. He recognized that other teams religiously used subjective measures and the wrong statistical measures in evaluating a player's worth to the team. Billy Beane found the right measures. And, he recognized that the measures being used by every other team inflated player's salaries not because they contributed to the team's bottom line but because they looked the part or their stats looked good on paper. He looked for talent where others were simply not looking and he found it. This allowed him to field a winning team for far less than others.

He developed a strategy to exploit the system by seeking out players not deemed worthy by conventional measures. For instance, short stocky players did not fit the image of a baseball player. Because of their smaller strike zone they walk more frequently, meaning they get on base more often. While other teams were looking at batting average or RBIs, Billy Beane was using statistical measure such as on-base percentage to measure a player's contribution to a winning. He focused on what's important.

Billy Beane recognized that using the traditional measures of a play's worth and the scout's reliance upon subject measures didn't match up with what really matter to winning. He leveraged this market inefficiency to build a winning team year in and year out. The key is in proper valuation as it relates to measuring what directly contributes to your bottom line or, in the case of the A's, winning.

Some investors want the most glamorous growth stocks, no matter what the price. Likewise, some baseball coaches and managers are willing to "pay up" for an Alex Rodriguez or Jason Giambi. And if you are fortunate enough to head up the New York Yankees, you can.

Others have to do it differently or not at all, according to "Moneyball." Chief among these are Billy Beane, who manages to take his Oakland A's to the play-offs year after year, despite being the general manager of the second most impoverished team in baseball. How does he do it?

His central insight is that some baseball skills are much more valuable than others. A related insight is that other managers overpay for less essential skills such as fielding, stealing bases, and "legging out" singles into doubles. Hitting is genuinely important, but everyone knows that. What others generally overlook is the importance of walks. A walk is as good as a single, yet most managers pay for batting averages, not on base percentages (OBPs, or hits plus walks divided by plate appearances), even though statistical analysis shows that the latter ratio correlates much better with runs and wins. Hence the trick is to hire low-paid hitters with mediocre batting averages and other perceived deficits, who are good at drawing walks, and thus get high OBPs through the "back door."

Beane takes a similar approach to pitching. To him, a pitcher's main job is to "deceive" good batters, not overpower them with fastballs. So he hires Jim Mecir, who has a club foot and a "slow" pitch, with spins and angles that most hitters can't handle. Warren Buffett was similarly good at investing in companies with good "franchises," and stock prices beaten down by serious, but not "career-limiting," problems such as American Express, GEICO, and even Coca-cola.

The book's main fault is that it overdraws Beane's prowess in order to capture the reader's attention. Some of the players acquired by the A's in 2002 didn't do so well in retrospect, and some of the players rejected by Oakland did fine elsewhere. But Beane and his staff have done enough right to make the team a perennial contender--and on a tight budget at that.

Moneyball is a hard book to put down, even though it's all about statistics. In a real twist, Lewis shows how the best baseball isn't the stuff of Field of Dreams or The Natural or Bull Durham, but of your college intro to statistics class. Lewis provides fascinating stories about how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's, has bucked the conventional wisdom and made one of the poorest teams in baseball one of the winningest teams by evaluating players on a myriad or performance data, not on physical appearance, hunches, or traditional scouting measures. This book is sure to please the baseball fan, statistics nerd, or anyone who just likes a good story.

I was surprised by how sophisticated baseball has become with the application of measurement in some areas and by a few teams. For example, Michael Lewis described how a TV camera from center field was able to evaluate a hitter's performance by marking out the strike zone on the screen and identifying areas in the strike zone where he was unable to hit.

More interesting to me was the modeling that the Oakland A's were able to do to predict success over a season. They were able to predict the number of runs that needed to be scored in order to win a pennant and then determine the staff that would be able to produce that number of runs on the basis of performance metrics.

While it may sound dull to many people, i.e., modeling performance, Michael Lewis was able to present the statistical basis clearly in a manner that wasn't oft putting within a story line that maintains interest. I read the book in a little over a day.

While the book is about how the perceptions of old line baseball people is often wrong and that Billy Bean was able to introduce more accurate statistical methods to value player, it also has value for businesses. Some the errors made by other businesses would benefit from the methods used by the Oakland A's in pursuing success in baseball.

I will NEVER observe a baseball game the same way ever again.It Dispells the Myths that stagnated the game for 100 years. Thee best baseball book I ever read. The proof is in the A's Win Loss Record for the past 5 years and producing 2 MVP's, A Cy Young Award Winner and 2004 Rookie of the Year. How'd they do that??? Find Out How.

This is a combination of a detailed insider's perspective (Billy Beane) on the great American game and an explanation of how one of the winningest franchises manages to put a winner on the field with little money. This book explains how the A's evaluated players and broke the mold, hiring newly minted Ivy League grads to line the front offices. These grads used evalution techniques first noticed by Bill James, to draft, sign and trade for players that fit the system and were undervalued by the "market". Anyone who keeps baseball or business as a hobby would enjoy this book.

Even though I enjoyed Lewis' Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and Money Culture, I wasn't planning to read Moneyball. I like to read about money and about baseball, but I don't really care about the economics of baseball. Then I found out that Moneyball is about the Oakland A's, computers, and statistics. I had to read it.

Lewis reveals how the A's became a top team even though they have one of the smallest payrolls in baseball. Billy Beane's (the general manager) method of using massive amounts of statistical information tells him what players to draft and what plays to execute under different conditions. The scouts and even the manager have become less important than his small staff of number-crunchers.

By following certain statistically-determined rules such as "never sacrifice bunt," (the numbers show that historically, it doesn't pay off) the A's have gone to the playoffs year after year. Beane refuses to draft players out of high school, because they haven't faced enough real competition to determine, statistically, if they will be any good. It's only in college and the minor leagues that players compile meaningful stats.

There isn't much money in Moneyball, but there is a lot of baseball and a terrific story about an underdog team that beats the odds by using the odds.

This is a very well-written and engaging book about a new approach to building a baseball team. Some of the theories presented in this book are simply mind-blowing! I came into reading this book with an open mind and found myself agreeing with a lot of what was presented. However, I also disagreed with some aspects of the book and now I'm off to read its "counterpart," Scout's Honor (a Braves-centric book!).

The point is not, how many World Series have the Oakland A's won with their revolutionary approach. The point is, what are they getting for their modest investment? They're getting a great deal - for their team's budget you'd expect them to be permanently camped out in last place. But instead here they are making a run for it yet another year. Money alone can't buy a winning team or a World Series ring.

Don't believe me? Go ask George Steinbrenner.

Michael Lewis didn't start off looking for the work he presented with "Moneyball," but couldn't have done better otherwise. He meticulously lays out the career of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's.

Beane, as you learn early on, was an absolute can't miss prospect when he was drafted by the Mets. He had all the tools, and some considered taking him ahead of Darryl Strawberry. Mentally, he never quite put it together and was a career backup hitting about .280.

Beane learns from his own disappointing career and bases his choices not on who looks good and has the tools, but instead who gets on base and who avoids making outs.

Lewis' analysis of the system answers the question of how the A's have consistently won so much while spending so little. Where the book shines, though, is its generous space to tell the stories of these ballplayers who are castoffs in every MLB city other than Oakland.

Beane's not perfect as a GM, and he never claimed to discover on-base percentage. He's just somebody who uses a different system, trading away the skills he feels are overrated and stocking up on the skills that are undervalued, in order to tip the odds in his team's favor.

If the other 300 positive reviews haven't persuaded you to buy this book, you're truly missing out on a great sports story.

I do not know what took me so long to read this book. Lewis is one of the better writers and this book did not disappoint.

I am a huge sports fan. One of the issues that is ALWAYS discussed is how the little teams (small market teams) are getting screwed and how they will never be able to compete with the big money teams. At first glance, this notion makes sense. Big market teams have the money to go after any player they want while the small market teams are stuck picking up the cheap scraps. Every commissioner talks about how this is going to ruin the sport because the small market teams will never be able to compete.

This book begins to change that thought process. It is tiring to hear Bud Selig and others talk of how all teams are doomed simply because New York spends a lot of money. I love how Lewis explains to the reader why that does not need to be the case. Billy Beane and others have seen how if they try and compete with the New Yorks, LAs, etc...with the same thought process as these teams, they will be waging a losing battle. THey will be gobbled up and lose. And lose often. There are many small market teams that are still of that mindset.

Billy Beane and his group knew that was a losing battle so they went after another way. This book is fascinating how it tracks the evolution of a new way of thinking...and why it was such a problem to the tradition filled baseball minds. 100 years of thinking one way and that was being challenged. How dare they?

It was fascinating to read that even when Beane and the As were having success, it was easy to just ignore them or call them an aberration. Instead of trying to figure out why it worked for Oakland...they were simply dismissed or labeled as 'lucky.'

The book is a great read. It was well reported and well done. Though it was basically a research study...it read like a novel and kept you interested and bothered by how others were not seeing why it was working. Kudos to Lewis and heres hoping that other small markets will take a new approach to tackling their losing battle.

Where does one start with the excellence of this book. From the stories of Billy Beane's playing days in the minors with Lenny Dykstra (the dude) to the inside view of a MLB draft and the role of a GM of a team at the deadline in July. This book delivers like no other, with one chapter after another, one subject after another, with no let up in interest or intensity.
Fascinating is the info on Bill James and baseball statistics and the engaging stories about Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg, and other Moneyballers.

I have read all the current business books, but Moneyball was definitely among the best.

For one thing, I thought that the book was going to be about baseball. It is more like an MBA project study ... " Your assignment is to build a major league baseball team with a payroll of $40M that will compete with, and defeat, the New York Yankees with a payroll more than three times higher."

Only, it is a real case.

And the results are in the paper every morning.

For another, I thought that it was a book about Billy Beane. Frankly, it is more of a book about the repudiation of all the past, present and future Billy Beanes - the talented "5 tool" teenagers, most failures - as they become a lesser part of the overall strategy to building a successful, and sustainable, business model.

And finally, Moneyball is a book from which you can learn - and use in your daily business, even if it is not baseball.

For those of us who must put together strategies, this book is a must-read primer. Beane relies on different sets of data to make decisions, identifies new metrics on which to evaluate talent, eliminates "old school" thinking from cigar chomping talent scouts who previously had made the recommendations that resulted in more misses than hits over the years, and develops a methodology for determining the relative value of players before cashing them in for developmental (e.g., lower cost) opportunities.

Not only does his strategy work (as evidenced by copy cat GMs in recent years), his Oakland team makes money - and lots of it. And, he did it by allowing two MVPs and other "name" players to move to other teams because their cost-to-value no longer fit within the Oakland value proposition.

What this book has given me is the curiosity to seek different data to investigate and evaluate facts in order to find new answers to old questions. Actually, when it is read with Freakonomics as part of a day-night double-header, Moneyball will get your brain working with every turn of the page.

Great book, can't believe I waited a couple years to read it! Especially valuable is the afterwords with the nonsense from the "club" - sportscasters (e.g. Joe MOrgan), pundits (like the Toronto press who tried to make a racial issue out of J. Ricciardi's renovation of the blue jays (by saying they were the "whitest" team in the majors even though they still had twice the "diversity" of the city of Toronto!)

I would recommend this book to everyone who loves baseball. Actually, you don't even have to be a fan of baseball to enjoy it. If you appreciate logic and reasoning, this book is for you too. The baseball background makes it more entertaining. I honestly could not lay this down till the very end.
Lewis writes about a bizzare baseball franchise, the Oakland Athletics and about it's unorthodox front-office headed by GM Billy Beane. Beane and his Harvard assistants clash with the oldschool ex-ballplayer scouts over the potential draft picks. The former wants to make rational and objective picks based on stats while the latter on what they themselves have seen. Thats where it sort of starts off atleast. The story that follows will have you questioning the importance of pretty much every basbeall stat that you have been led to believe are important (batting average, RBI, stolen bases etc.) It is hard to believe that most of baseball continues to ignore the inefficiency in their methods even in the face of the hard evidence that has been circulating around as early as the 80's.
The eye-opening content coupled with the engaging prose of Michael Lewis provides a truly entertaining and educating read.

With that said, let's go RedSox.

I ignored the hype of this book and held off reading it for over a year - I could not have been more mistaken. The story of Billy Beane and the A's is a story of baseball's Little Engine that Could. (I thought it was about the Yankees buying their way to the baseball title. Whoops!)

Lewis takes you through Beane's background, a draft, subsequent player performance and ultimately how the A's performed. Through it, you are presented with the history of statistics in baseball (starting with the prodigal Bill James abstract) as well as explanations for why the league is so against a data based approach. Additionally, other attempts to apply more quantitative reason are explored, and their failures explained.

There are a couple public knocks on the book:
1 - The book is all about Billy Beane patting himself on the back. I think this isn't valid - the picture of Beane seems very balanced.

2 - That Billy Beane is portrayed as a nutcase. This is the opposite criticism of #1, but again I believe that the book is valid.

3 - All this baseball knowledge can't really be invalidated by math and statistics. Actually, many fields have been overthrown by good mathematical models - quality control, finance and poker are just three.

4 - The statistical techniques are not properly applied. This may have some merit. Could Beane and friends have been making mistakes? Is that why they're not doing as well? Or are other teams just catching up. The author of Freakonomics takes aim at Beane's over-reliance on hitting in his blog.

Desite these knocks, the book is a very interesting read for both baseball fans and people looking to apply statistical techniques to sort fact from fiction. (Traders would be well suited to read this too!) In a sense, this is an application of the Price Theory espoused in Freakonomics, even if the authors disagree on conclusions. In that sense, it's about much more than baseball.

Since I've work for a pro baseball team in my country i've been involved in the bussines, this book was made with two points of view, one could be baseball fans or anyone else who could reach good reading about sports, they could find a biography which could work as a hollywood script film like Jerry Maguire. Other point of view is that you could find as a complentary reading for a sport bussines course. Anyway whatever be the case this is an excellent book to learn more about this.
Daniel Figueroa

You need not be a baseball fan to appreciate Michael Lewis' MoneyBall. Lewis tracks Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, who built a series of powerhouse ballclubs with a major handicap. Despite having a payroll that was petty cash to teams like the Yankees, Beane's clubs excelled. A series of excellent finishes, culminating with a playoff series that took the Yankees to the limit, solidified Beane's reputation. But how did he do it?

Beane's unconventional methods were the key. Using Bill James (of Baseball Abstract fame) as an inspiration, the A's GM hired the best and brightest statisticians and dispensed with the conventional wisdom of opinionated scouts. So what if a college catcher had a "bad baseball body"? Beane didn't care. He was concerned with metrics like on-base-percentage, which turns out to be much better at predicting major league success than a scout's biased opinion.

Dealing with players as business units, each with measurable ROI (return on investment), Beane bought low and sold high. If a closer cranked out a bunch of saves, Beane figured he could trade the pitcher for higher value than he was really worth. Saves were a misleading statistic: strikeouts, walks, and home-runs-allowed were really the only true ways to measure a pitcher's performance. A "superstar" was simply a stat-generating machine and if the same amount of money could be leveraged on someone else that could yield similar stats, why not make a trade?

In retrospect, like all great ideas, Beane's tenets are remarkably simple. It's just interesting that it took baseball over a century to figure out that stats like ERA and RBI were pretty much meaningless. What mattered were stats that historically proved to be predictors of baseball victories: on-base-average and slugging average for batters, for instance. A quick, fascinating read, MoneyBall is an elegant look at a smart GM and his godfather: Bill James.

...we need to find space for Michael Lewis' "Moneyball"

This deservedly sits on my shelf alongside books by Kahn, Halberstam and Angell.

A brief description would be "the story of Billy Beane" and his tenure as GM of the Oakland A's.
That's selling it short. By a mile.

This book is educational, informative and inspiring. It is a book that makes you look at baseball with new eyes. It takes you, briefly but lucidly, into the world of the draft, high school sports, minor leagues, retired players, coaches at all levels, computers, the language of statistics...and above all, the inside world of major league baseball. But this time, from a point of view...from a manner of thinking...you have never considerd.

For some strange reason, it now makes me look at my world of medicine in new ways.

Here's the thing: it's more important to not make an out, than it is to get a hit.
It took a few minutes for that to really sink in, but that subtle shift in perspective makes an enormous amount of difference. It really does.

Lewis, through the tale of Billy Beane, makes this idea crystalline in clarity with statistics and theory, but not robbing the story of any of its' humanity.

Beane was a high school phenom; Lewis does some of his best work describing what it must be like to be one. He doesn't make it in the bigs, but through some pretty radical decision-making, ends up the GM of the A's.

You will follow a few players from their drafting to singular moments in their careers, and you will cheer. Out loud.
I did.
I read this entire book on a flight from Detroit to L.A., and many of my fellow passengers thought me daft. A loon. Here's this guy, in his window seat, woo-hooing while reading a hardcover book. Laughing out loud. Saying "Yesss!" like some bad Marv Albert impersonator.

Scott Hatteberg will stick with me for the rest of my life. I feel like I know the guy. I wanna have him over for dinner. As I do Billy Beane, and Mr. Lewis as well.

There are over a half dozen other people who spring to life, due to some terrific writing, but if you've read this far, I want you to discover them on your own.

How many times in your life will you read a book that changes fundamentally the way you look at something? Something that you have thought pretty much the same about since childhood.

Since Little League and watching my beloved Dodgers back in the 70's, stealing second was "good", a sacrifice bunt was "going by the book"...there are whole tenets of baseball wisdom that are challenged here, but challenged for the love of the game, not the contrary.

His quote from Bill James (a person I now feel I must seek out and buy all his books...) about errors being a statistic of "opinion" made total sense to me; I almost felt like an idiot that I never thought that way about it myself.

If you love baseball, if you only like baseball, if you like a great story well told, your next purchase NEEDS to be this book. I guarantee...guarantee, mind you...that you will not be disappointed.

I never understood nor really liked baseball. I bought the book mostly to read about the inspired use of statistics, and the creative thinking that went into looking for the real keys to victory. I can safely say that while I may not have fallen in love with baseball, I will never find it boring again. If you have someone you want to turn into a fan, this book a superb gift option. The amount of detail in this book--for example, just the description of the strike zone and what different pitches and batters do to narrow the zone, what can be known about specific individual propensities and vulnerabilities associated with that little box, are truly inspirational.

This is a really excellent book. If we managed the national security budget the way Billy Bean managed the Oakland A's, we'd have faster better cheaper military hardware, and a lot more plowshares. I was also impressed by the way in which Billy Bean built a team, in which players who might not have been individual stars excelled at setting up others in a true team effort where the group as a whole is stronger than the sum of the parts. Others have written better reviews from a baseball fans point of view--as a non-baseball fan, I can attest to this book's being an "aha" experience.

See also:
Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks

Lewis, who previously wrote some of the best books on Wall Street's go-go '80s (Liar's Poker) and Silicon Valley's go-go '90s (The New New Thing), here turns his attention to professional baseball. Now, I should preface this by saying that I used to love baseball and these days it doesn't interest me much at all. There was a time when I was a total stats geek, I bought all the Bill James abstracts, played tabletop games, etc., but a combination of playing in college and the escalating money completely turned me off to the game. I knew this was supposed to be a good book but had no intention of reading it until Nick Hornby's rave review in his column in The Believer. I figured if one of my favorite British novelists liked the book, there must be something to it. I picked it up and within ten pages I was totally hooked.

The basis for the book is the question of how the Oakland A's, one of baseball's poorest teams as measured by payroll, managed to win so many games in the first few years of the new millennium. Lewis's potentially boring answer revolves around inefficiencies in the market for players, but he weaves this story around the A's General Manager, Billy Beane. Now, if you have some axe to grind with Beane, you might as well not read the book, 'cause Lewis tends to be rather fawning in many places. Still, Beane's own background and mediocre career form the perfect framework upon which to build this story about evaluating baseball talent. Beane was a hugely athletic, "can't miss" prospect, who turned down a joint football/baseball scholarship from Stanford to sign with the New York Mets out of high school. His pro career turned out to be utterly undistinguished, and this disconnect is what drove him to seek new methods of scouting and evaluating baseball talent. It also helped matters that the A's new owners refused to spend any excess money, and demanded that the team be treated as a business. Beane jettisoned conventional scouting wisdom (and to a certain extent, methods), to focus on statistical indicators not widely followed inside baseball. Here, the book takes a detour into the realm of "sabremetrics" (the statistical analysis of baseball), and various attempts to arrive at more meaningful ways to calculating a player's offensive value.

The result of developing a criteria of player valuation that was radically at odds with the prevailing wisdom of the market was that Beane was able to get the players he liked for very cheap. The rest of the book is devoted to detailing this process. Chapter 5 is probably the best, detailing how the A's orchestrated the 2002 amateur draft so that they got an inordinate amount of players they coveted for below market value. Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the loss of their three star players after the 2001 season and how managed to compensate for this. To show the Beane methodology in action during the season, the reader is taken inside several trades and roster moves. This includes a chapter on the mid-season trade for relief pitcher Ricardo Rincon, bracketed by chapters detailing Beane's pursuit of certain players who were not considered major-league material (Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford). The book ends on a valedictory note, as the A's set a record by winning 20 games in a row and other teams start to buy in to their methods.

It should be noted that the book is far from perfect. Lewis has an unfortunately tendency for repetition when it comes to important points and themes, hammering them home, again and again. And although he does point out many of Beane's logical inconsistencies and emotional flaws, Lewis does often come across as more of an enamored fan than a strict journalist. Some critics feel that the A's success detailed in the book was based on several star players obtained the old-fashioned way, thus disproving the whole premise. However, it has to be understood that the practices detailed in the book can't really be proven to work one way or another for another decade or so. Still the insights into challenging conventional thinking and searching for alternative data or data patterns will likely appeal to readers of Lewis' other works and are applicable far beyond baseball. And while the jury is still out, several other teams have since hired general managers with the same basic philosophy as Beane. Ultimately, it's an interesting story, and one that Lewis tells very well -- even for non baseball fans.

there was a general manager of the A's. He had all the physical talent he needed to become a great professional baseball player, yet he was defeated by his own mind when he went up to bat. While those around him with less physical gifts rose to greatness, he took the less-travelled road of baseball administration. This book starts by contrasting the man's entry into professional baseball and his entry into a new paradigm in the art of picking the right players for a professional baseball team. It seems to be continuously answering the question: what makes a professional baseball player successful? In this book the author notes the attributes that made the main character falter whereas his peers (e.g. Daryl Strawberry) went on to greatness. Wonderfully entertaining book for which I made time to read every night.

After reading this book it is evident that Beane et al. have incorporated statistics and technology into baseball. Having a background in math and computers (and a huge baseball fan), this is of great interest to me. It is always nice to see the intellectuals unventing and incorporating a new paradigm to essentially 'break' the game. It actually amazes me that Beane allowed this to be published. He reveals a bit of his 'tech'. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, read it ASAP!

This is one of those books that had me thinking about it days after I finished it. It is a rare look inside the business of baseball, but even more, a look inside the mind of a true independent thinker (Billy Beane). The book is extremely well written and well researched and an all around great read.

Then I read "Moneyball." Michael Lewis opened my eyes to nuances of the game I had not even considered. I played
the game, watched the game, and read every baseball book
I could find. This one challenged me to consider the
absurd way players are valued in the imperfect baseball
marketplace, and to question the very statistics I thought
defined excellence in the game. I am giving this book
to my Father because he's both a former ballplayer and
an economist. He will love this book.

Rarely do you come across a book on pro sports like this one, that manages to infuriate one group, enlighten another, and, at the end of the day, have a significant impact on the sport it covered. Moneyball essentially is a baseball how-to guide on constructing a team through maximizing the talents and abilities of low- to medium-cost players, rather than building one by overpaying for high-priced talent or marquee names. It is also a study of how one man -- Oakland A's GM Billy Beane -- and his followers go about finding these low- cost players, and what qualities and statistics they look for and value the most. Overall, it brings to the forefront a debate that has already played itself out in Major League Baseball in the 1-2 years since this book hit the shelves -- old-time, traditional scouting vs. statistical analysis and theories.

Michael Lewis is provided a great deal of access to the Oakland A's mid-season, and it's surprising to me that Beane allowed so many of his ideas to be publicized while he is still in a competitive position. Lewis portrays Beane as restless, not satisfied with mere wins, but seemingly moreso with constant tinkering with and improving the team. The actual game on the field is of little use to him, but the numbers that flow in once the games are over are his main course. Beane challenges what he perceives as the outdated scouting machine across the league, the idea that a player's value can be assessed by watching him throw or hit, looking at his frame and how he can fill out physically, and "meaningless" stats like batting average and RBI. Instead Beane ignores a prospect's physical attributes (see Jeremy Brown), and focuses instead on a player's ability to draw walks and get on base. Lewis deserves a great deal of credit in taking all this information, analysis, and statistics and writing it all in a way that readers can easily understand.

As for Beane's theories themselves, several of them have worked their way into the game already. The Red Sox built their 2004 squad with Moneyball in mind (GM Theo Epstein is one of Beane's disciples) and won the World Series employing OBP guys like Mark Bellhorn, and buying low on plenty of middle-tier free agents in the past two years, most notably slugger David Ortiz. But there are also a bunch of his ideas that are a little puzzling, and quickly have been tossed aside by baseball minds. The idea that the dominant closer is a myth (and that any journeyman can close out something like 98% of leads in the 9th inning) has quickly gone by the wayside -- even by Beane and his followers (Oakland and Boston have both invested in high-priced closers in the past two seasons). And Florida quickly disspelled Beane's staunch belief that bunting and stealing bases are counterproductive and meaningless, by merely winning the World Series in 2003 through speed and aggressive baserunning. And I wonder what Beane has to say about the impact of Dave Roberts on last year's ALCS.

Whether you buy into what Beane is selling or not, whether the introduction of "rotisserie"-type analysis and team-building is upsetting to you or not, the book is great, and on top of that, it's had a significant and increasing impact on Major League Baseball.

Here is a book that can be appreciated from so many different angles. For fans of baseball (which I'm not) the allure is obvious. For fans of statistics, this book offers amazing insight into how numbers can be employed in real life with very pwerful and very real results. For fans of human nature, this story offers a great look at how mistakes can be repeated and then perpetuated until someone with a strong mind and a stronger will comes along to break the cycle. And for fans of character-driven stories, Moneyball, like any Michael Lewis tale, has that in spades too.

If any of that sounds good to you, give this one a try.

Lewis has written what is one of the top 5 baseball books of all time.
The book, unlike what some baseball broadcasters have said, is not exclusively about Billy Beane. It focuses on the Oakland A's and their different way of viewing the potential of baseball players by using statistics such as on base percentage and not simply using scouts to provide judgements based upon watching the player play in a few games. The book if it was written a couple years later could have just as easily been written about the Boston Red Sox, which adopted this statistics based approach after Theo Epstein took over as general manager. Lo and behold, the Red Sox after 84 years of futility, won a World Series largely because of this new way of looking at baseball.

The book also provides a wonderful historical background for this approach and isn't written like the reader has a degree in mathmatics. Every theory is well explained for the average person who hated and struggled through high school statistics to understand. A historical background for the theories used by Beane and the Red Sox, and as mentioned briefly in the end of paperback edition, later the Blue Jays and the Red Sox, is provided. One of the main characters in the book, Bill James, is the father of many of these statistics and the way of looking at baseball used by Beane.

The book also isn't just about boring baseball statistics either. Lewis goes into depth about why Beane looks at baseball the way he does. According to Lewis, it's because Beane was a player that, according to the old way of looking at baseball using scouts and data such as 40 yd dash times, was a can't miss prospect. The scouts ignored statistics that would have raised red flags about Beane's major league prospect status. Beane never rose above a major league bench player. This experience, according to Lewis, drives Beane to never make the same mistake that major league general managers made in drafting him so high.

If you're a baseball fan and want to understand how the Oakland A's have won all those games in recent years even after losing players like Miguel Tejada and Jason Giambi, read this book. After reading this book, you'll also come away with some idea of why Beane traded away two of his best pitchers this offseason too.

This is an enjoyable read, whether you are a baseball fan or not. If you ever have to evaluate performance in any field, or if you are ever evaluated yourself (and this includes virtually all of us), then you should find this book fascinating. Lewis gives us an inside look at the evaluation of baseball talent, and shows us the many ways that people are under or over valued. Just imaging the difficulty of evaluating performance in fields where there are not dozens of objective statistics. How far off are your supervisors evaluations of you, or your evaluations of your subordinates. Raises interesting questions about defining the goals of an organization and analyzing the actions that further their achievement.

Any baseball fan must read this book. It's the story of former super-prospect and current super-GM Billy Beane, the low-budget but successful Oakland A's, and one interesting but not transcendent 2002 season, but it's not about the man or the team or the season. It's a basic philosophy that seems intuitive but is practiced too infrequently: a GM must seek out what is undervalued in the baseball market. So this is all about finding out what is valuable in baseball, defining this great game and what makes a good player. Sabermetrician or not, whether or not you agree, this book should be read by every baseball fan.

As the Boston Red Sox fan, I found this book to be utterly interesting. The book tells the story of how the money poor Oakland A's managed to fielded a winning team year after year on a budget which is only the third of the many of their rivals. Oakland's General Manager, Billy Beane have developed a new system of accessing talents and getting them cheap. In essence, it all about statistics, theories and possibilities that defied the traditional way for accessing baseball talent.

Of course, as a Red Sox fan, I found this book to be a great interest because the Boston General Manager, Theo Epstein, is the great believer and follower of Billy Beane School of Thought on accessing talents. But unlike Beane, Epstein can applied this concept with a big checkbook and the result I believed was the glorious Red Sox victory of 2004.

I think after reading the book, I believed someone like Epstein can applied the lessons of Beane and make it work more effectively with a big bankroll. Beane on the other hand, have to let go of players he developed as their demand for a larger paychecks continued. Thus lies Beane's great trap in life. He can maintained a winning team but probably never get to the next level because he can't hold on to what he have developed. The next level is, of course the World Series Championship.

A great book for any Red Sox fans out there. It may give us a clue on what Epstein is thinking about when he is giving out contracts, or rejecting a player or getting new player. If not a Red Sox fan, the book is still highly educational in the revolutionary way baseball is changing in front of us.

As a fan of books that you can learn something from, yet are fun to read, this is a winner. Michael Lewis does a great job of providing just the right amount of depth for the general public on sabermatrics and the data-driven approach to managing a baseball team. The result is an enlightening and amusing story that will make for a fun read.

Hidden in baseball's past statistics is the answer to the future of baseball. The Oakland A's have shown the way it can be done. Now one of the guys using this same approach has gone to Boston and erased the long time curse of the Red Sox. In a few years when the real stats that matter are used by baseball management it may not seem so important. But right now it is.

Fascinating reading, and hard to believe. Hard to believe how stuck in their ways, and how deep in the sand have been the heads of baseball management until now. And for the most part nearly all are still stuck. That will change as those who don't learn the new ways will not be able to compete.

In a way, it strips away some of the human fallible quality that pervades baseball. Even more so how it has been managed. But once the genie is out of the bottle you aren't going to put it back in. The world of baseball has changed. Learn why and how in this book.

That answer of course is yes. This was a great book that changed how baseball teams are runned. One of Billy Beane's follewers Theo Epstien has just won a World Series with the redsox. Billy Beane made stats like OBP and OPS more popular for teams to look into when putting together teams. now that sounds like a book for just baseball stat geeks but this is a book for everyone.
Michael Lewis writes about following the Oakland A's for a season and does it in an entertaining way for the stat geeks and a casual fan. From Billy Beanes new way of drafting to his way of implementing stats into finding cheap talent on the free agent market. It even gets one to know Billy Beanne as a failed baseball prospect turned Gm. This book was a terrific read and I would recommend it to anyone.

Okay, I admit I rarely watch baseball. Like many unknowledgeable viewers, I find the game slow. Sure, my friends say, there's lots of strategy. But it's not the kind of game you can just watch a few times a year, like football, and still get involved.

But this book is only secondarily about baseball. As a career consultant who helps clients navigate tough decisions, I'm fascinated by the psychology of decision-making, and I read everything I can find. All the research comes to the same conclusion: statistics win over experience, every time.

And that's the story of Money Ball. A contrarian GM looks at the numbers to choose undervalued players. To Billy Beane, each player is an asset in a portfolio. His goal is to buy undervalued assets and sell overvalued assets.

The difference: Investors just hold assets in their portfolio. Billy Beane is more like a real estate investor who fixes up houses or waits till the world comes to his small town. After buying undervalued players, he showcases their true value by setting them on the playing field. A pitcher who "looks funny" turns out to be a star. An over-the-hill player thrives in a new position.

So what's the lesson for the rest of us?

First, Lewis raises the question of valuing people who do different kinds of jobs, where results aren't measured as easily. Ultimately, we're all assets. Employees working for a large firm need to regard themselves and their employees with the same kind of detachment. Investments in HR programs either raise the value of their assets or they're a waste of money.

And there's an inadvertent lesson here, too. Statistics help Billy Beane choose undervalued players so he can win division titles with a smaller budget than the competition. But when Billy faced his own big decision -- accept a Stanford scholarship or go pro immediately -- he had no statistics. We still need a method to make those kinds of decisions, and that's why I enjoy working with my career changing clients. You need more than a comparison of pros and cons.

I'm not a sports book reader generally, but a friend recommended this one and it is truly outstanding. It's more of a business book than a sports book, focusing on the market inefficiency in baseball created by old-timers using intuition about how to draft and trade players.

It follows a great story line about the Oakland A's, who with 1/3 of the budget of the top spenders routinely finish up near the top, by taking a more statistically based approach to selecting players and spending their budget. It reads like a novel though, in part because Lewis is a good writer, and in part because of the material (Billy Beane, Oakland's GM, in particular is a character).

I enjoyed it thoroughly -- it heightened my interest in baseball, and it made me look at markets in general with an eye towards seeking inefficiencies and opportunities in a new light.

This is a great book to read, especially if you are an Oakland A's or Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Why a Dodger fan? Because, Paul DiPodesta, Billy Beane's assistant and the co-star of this book is now the Dodgers General Manager. He just made a huge trade that has left many "conventional" baseball thinkers shaking their heads. But having read "Moneyball", I can look at the moves he's made and at least understand where he's coming from. The majority of fans, writers, and his peers can't understand his moves and as you will find out in the book, that's perfectly fine with him!!

With Michael Lewis, everything begins with 'Liars Poker.' When experts compile the 100 seminal books of the last century, Lewis' Wall Street tale might well be on it. It's that good.

That's a lot to live up to here, but 'Moneyball' delivers. Even if you're not much of a baseball fan here (heck, even Lewis admits he's never been much of a fan), this is compelling, enjoyable reading. Maybe a bit too slavish in its admiration of Billy Beane, but other than that, its very insightful. It's obvious that Lewis sees the parallels between computer jocks like Beane's trusty right-hand man, Paul DePodesta and the young 'quants' who began to dominate Wall Street trading in the 80s. It's a very apropos analogy.

I do suggest that you get the paperback. The updated epilogue to the paperback edition was published as a standalone piece in Sports Illustrated and it recounts the brutal backlash to the book from lifetime baseball 'insiders.' There's a wonderful story Lewis recounts about Joe Morgan, who - in disparaging both the book and Beane - is recounted as saying in interviews 'When Billy Beane writes a book like that...'

Meaning, of course, Morgan - picking up the spiel of the insiders - hadn't even read the book before launching these intellectually dishonest attacks. Nice. Anyway, the epilogue lets you in on these wars, which are equally - if not more - fascinating as the original publication.

This is one of the most entertaining books I have read on any subject. I love baseball, so I may have enjoyed it more than most, but I do not believe a love for the game is necessary to appreciate MONEYBALL. My wife will judge a book's merits by opening it up and reading a random paragraph to see if it piques her interest. She declared this book a winner after reading about gaudy save totals and inefficiencies in the market for closers. Even someone who has only a cursory knowledge of the game can understand that concept.

Lewis gives a good overview of the history of Sabermetrics and all the characters who helped derive the new formulas for evaluating performance. He also invokes Jim Bouton's BALL FOUR by introducing us to some of the characters in the game. Scott Hatteberg comes out smelling like roses, and will be remembered long after his undistinguished playing career has ended.

Billy Beane is the main character in the book, and he is represented as a tortured revolutionary. The point is well drawn that as a general manager, Beane is consumed by the task of discovering his own antithesis, since Beane himself was a failed prospect of the antiquated methods of player evaluation.

MONEYBALL is a crash course in modern baseball and how the management of the game is changing during the present era. Scouts are being replaced by statisticians; field managers are sent to the top dugout step to appear commanding while awaiting orders from the general manager and his consortium of number crunchers. There is also a great analogy of the changing game of baseball in the '90's with the changes that Wall Street went through a decade prior, as the inefficiencies in the market were discovered and exploited.

There were several instances in reading this book that I was moved to laughter. Lewis has such a great command of his straightforward business style, that it comes as a surprise when he decides to point out an absurdity lurking just below the surface. This is a book for the shelf, to be enjoyed more than once. It will prove an enduring touchstone for future baseball executives, players, and fans, and possibly even stock brokers.

"Moneyball" is an oustanding read if your are interested in baseball, economics, and or statistics. Michael Lewis does a great job telling the story of the Oakland A's and just why a team with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball has compiled one of the best records. This was a book that I found almost impossible to put down and I know that everyone at work got sick of me talking about it, but it was fascinating!! Don't miss reading this one!!

One of the best books i've ever read its brilliant.Michael Lewis is a terrific writer.The way he analyzes everything done by smart yet maniacal Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane is excellent. Everything from ripping off other GM's to drafting 15th round prospects in the 1st round is described great.

A great book for the thinking baseball fan. Billy Beane built a contending team on a low budget by going against the grain. It is interesting that he himself was a promising baseball player who failed to pan out. It is rather coincidental that his style is quite similar to the Oakland Raiders football team's method of picking players that are not heralded by other teams. A team of misfits. Unlike many teams, including our Seattle Mariners, Beane does not sell player personalities to the fans. All of his players are movable parts and anyone can be dealt at any time. The one question that I have is why is he giving away all his secrets?

A great book for the thinking baseball fan. Billy Bean built a contending team on a low budget by going against the grain. It is interesting that he himself was a promising baseball player who failed to pan out. It is rather coincidental that his style is quite similar to the Oakland Raiders football team's method of picking players that are not heralded by other teams. A team of misfits. Unlike many teams, including our Seattle Mariners, Bean does not sell player personalities to the fans. All is players are movable parts and anyone can be dealt at any time. The one question that I have is why is he giving away all his secrets?

Beane and his disciples have prosecuted their edge in the draft and they have proven that they can win that way. It is new in some ways and channels an earlier time as well. The emphasis on team play is not an exclusively "moneyball" approach. The Rangers use this old approach in 2004 married to a traditional cadre of scouts that Beane would not use. The result for Texas has been winning baseball that is fun to watch. The play in the field (particularly the infield) is sparkling and they also put runs on the board. As of this writing the own 1st place in AL west. They have a higher payroll, but much of it is dead weight with Messrs Park and Nelson out with injuries.
It is interesting to note that at the All Star break 2004, only three of the league leaders in OBP (over weighted in the A's version of OPS) were A's and the highest ranked was 30th. Perhaps this Oakland secret isn't such a great secret after all. The other "moneyball" team, Boston, has 4 of the top 40. In 2002, the time frame in which the book was written, the A's only had 1 player in the top 40. Perhaps this shows they are progressing.
In 2002, Anaheim had a reputation for being "scrappy" at the plate and won the World Series. Between Anaheim and San Fran (the 2002 opponent) they only had 3 of the top 40 OBP. Does this mean that Oakland and Beane are on the wrong track? They are certainly competitive again this year. Perhaps it means that being obsessed with any thing in a liability in a multidimensional game such as baseball.
Pitching is another interesting area that Beane and Co. have attempted to set on its ear. The sabermetric DIPS ratio is what they like to measure their pitching talent with and it seems to be working. They have 2 of the top 20 pitchers rated using DIPS.
I chuckled under my breath when I read Beane said that Barry Bonds had "risen to a level where even talent can't take you". Was he talking about BALCO?

Being a bay area fan of sports I first picked up Moneyball out of sheer curiosity. I wanted to know how baseball is ran, and this book told me everything.
Michael Lewis travels as close to chronologically as he possibly can throght the A's 2002 season (the 20 wins season) from the draft you are captivated by the story and evaluation Billy Bean has put into play seen no where else in baseball. How these men intelligent men, Billy and Paul and other ivy league graduates have broken baseball sucess into numbers makes you review the box score a lot more differently. We learn the feel of a draft room (since we never seen the MLB draft which is done behind doors) the intense phone calls and interaction between everyone in the organization who assisted in evaluating prospects.
Lewis doesn't stop there, he also takes us into the baseball world on the last day of trading. Once again we are like people watching Billy like in a zoo, do his magic on numerous GM in the league.
The story is mostly about Billy Bean and how in hell was he able to get away with that he did to other GMs. Billy is very coercive and able to instigate trades to help himself. What astounds me is how no one caught onto him. In the book were are not only observing a process but also introduced to many characters that are valuable to the A's. From scouts to owners to managers, to the two underdogs of baseball Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford, (whom Lewis devotes whole chapters to)
What I enjoyed most was the brief look into the world of baseball, as a student who was considering a major in sports management this book facinated me every step of the way.

Awesome! The Oakland A's GM defies tradition and wins baseball games based on a different view of baseball stats and facts. This book has made me look at other sports, business, and life in general a little differently. I read the whole book over a weekend. . .something I almost never do. Fascinating! Read it. (I wish my home town ball club would wake up and read this book too.)

Billy Beane took Bill James' theory on baseball and applied it to the real world to build a winner. All of this on a low budget. What is very intersting about the book is that Beane rejects ballplayers who are "can't misses": tall, well built high school kids who can run and throw( basically the same type of player that Beane was when he was drafted in the first round by the Mets). Instead he opts for the fat, dumpy non-athletic looking guys who have high on-base percentages and who walk alot ( thereby tiring the pitchers). He'd rather play someone who can hit over someone who could field, he hates bunting, he hates sacrifices, he hates the hit and run, he dislikes stealing bases and he hates it when his pitchers walk batters.However, this type of baseball is not new. Earl Weaver used to manage the Baltimore Orioles this way for years.

Moneyball is the most captivating and interesting book I have ever read. It's a book that shows the secrets of success in baseball. Author Michael Lewis writes about Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, and his innovative method of scouting and management that changed the way baseball is played. Beane was able to maximize the market of talent with a minimum of spending. Alongside assistant Paul PoDesta, he broke down statistics to figure out how many games needed to be won to make the playoffs. A formula was created that evaluated every action on the field into a point system. What that point system determined was how many runs the A's would have to score to win. The Oakland Athletics, with the payroll worth nearly 1/3 of the mighty New York Yankees, are capable of competing every year for a championship and that's thanks to Beane. As a fan of a team with a low payroll, I get a thrill of them defeating the usual powerhouses. Moneyball gives the fans of small market teams a reason to believe that next year could be their year. This book is a must read for all baseball fans and I highly recommend it.

I was skeptical about the book in the beginning, but as I started to read it I was completely hooked. If you are a baseball fan this book is for you. It takes you behind the scenes into the thoughts of the scouts, managers, and players. I like how the book will dive into the story of how a player is picked/ranked among major league teams during the draft. Then go into details of why the A's went against the grain and selected players that had amazing OBA but had some flaw in the eyes of other major league teams. This flaw allowed the A's to pick up numerous players at below market value. The Warren Buffet approach applied to baseball players. After reading this book, it makes you wonder why are all the other teams not paying attention. Just look at the draft on 6/7/04 and the A's seemed to have done it again. I really enjoy the intellectual and statistical side the book presents. Definitely a book to pick up and get immersed in.

Let's get one thing straight: this book is *not* about baseball. Being a baseball fan I suppose it's easy for me to say this and having heard and read this work endlessly discussed by baseball fans and pundits over the last 18 months it would be simple to conclude the opposite. But make no mistake: baseball is incidental here. Mr. Lewis' work concerns itself much more with metaphysics.

For the uninitiated, metaphysics is (generally speaking) the science of existence: what *is* vs. what *is not*. This book is a beautifully written example of how a few men use ideas based on what *is* to consistently triumph over those who ignore and belittle these ideas. Because this book illustrates this dynamic with a popular sport and some colorful personalities--thereby spreading the gospel to an even wider audience--I would give the book six stars if I could.

The chief colorful personality is baseball executive Billy Beane, who runs an obscure and relatively poor (money-wise, thus the ironic title) team known as the Oakland A's (Athletics). To the astonishment--and occasional frustration and envy--of everyone from everyday fans to the commissioner's office, the A's consistently win more games than teams with several *times* their player payroll, reaching the league playoffs several years in a row. Beane accomplishes this extraordinary feat by acquiring players whose qualities other teams ignore. Leaving aside some crushing detail, these qualities are relatively simple: they've been *proven*--rationally, logically, statistically--to help a baseball team win games.

So given Beane's track record why don't more teams follow his lead? Lewis makes the answer plain: baseball doesn't function by reason. Teams routinely sign high school players to huge contracts--though history shows a frighteningly small chance of them ever reaching the majors. Scouts grow emotionally attached to prospects with "great stuff." Managers call certain plays not because they will help the team win, but out of fear, to be seen as "doing something" and not be second-guessed later. And the list goes on. Beane's counterparts display a consistent and vapid ignorance of metaphysics. They don't care what *is*; they play by baseball's century-old mythical and emotional rules. Using a more rational approach, Beane--incidentally a pretty emotional guy who admits to Lewis that he constantly fights being "subjective"--runs circles around them.

Michael Lewis entertains us with this tale so well that he often has to remind us of his central premise. But remind he surely does; probably the best aspect of the book is his relentless emphasis on the creativity and courage shown by Beane and his cohorts. Rather than simply relate the results, Lewis takes us into the A's locker room, giving us player and management interviews under almost every conceivable condition. He even listens in on a player and a few coaches questioning the team's system--thereby showing Beane's approach has hardly stifled debate. Even better, Lewis has done his homework: he shows how Beane relies heavily on an analysis method ungainly known as sabermetrics, initially developed by Bill James in the 1970s and later expanded by Voros McCracken and others. This rational approach to baseball analysis is nearly as historically rich as it is radical.

The only quibble I have with Mr. Lewis is perhaps an insufficient emphasis on the sheer novelty of sabermetrics--especially compared to the downplayed methods employed by baseball's richer teams. In a new afterword added for the paperback edition, Lewis explains how he was genuinely shocked at the reaction to his book among the sport's oligarchy. His response is hilarious--dubbing the baseball establishment "The Women's Auxiliary Club"--but he might have known better. Showing how one team (now up to a few, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, new employer of Beane's ex-right hand man, Paul DePodesta) bucked decades of subjective irrationality to become a resounding success was bound to ruffle some feathers.

'Moneyball' was a pleasure to read on many levels and while I rejoiced in the triumph of its rational premise I'll admit to my own subjectivity. I've been an Oakland A's fan for over thirty years and I can't help feeling positively giddy about my favorite team--poor, undervalued, and scrappy though they are--consistently beating the sport's arrogant royalty (including the clueless commissioner) at their own game. I'm eternally grateful to Mr. Beane for building the team and to Mr. Lewis for showing how it was done. A sincere 'bravo!' to both.

I have been a "roto geek" for a number of years now, so I have understood and appreciated the use of on-base-percentage as an important tool for judging the future production of ball players. Yet, I really had no idea!

That was until I read Moneyball! This book details the organizational structure of the Oakland A's, which is a team that is forced plays on a severely strapped budget. Yet, they continue to win. Basically, Oakland adheres to a philosophy of drafting college players that get on base, via the walk. This shows that the player has a god control of the strike zone and will most likely be able to hit on a professional level. This allows for Oakland to find value, in the market for players, that other teams have ignored.

This philosophy not only incorporates strong statistical analysis of players, it also takes a new way of seeing baseball. That is look not at what a player might be able to do, but look at what they have done! Read this book (which can easily be done in one or two sittings) and you will see baseball in a completely different light, you will be happy you did!

They used to call me "Moneyballs" in college so when I noticed this on the best seller list at the local independent, I got more than a little excited. Alas, I was to be surprised by yet another book NOT about Heavy Hop Dop. This is a book about my favorite sport! Baseball. And a good one too. It reads fast and even amuses in places. I'm not an A's fan (even if I did get all A's in school), but this "Moneyball" is an entertaining read. Play balls! HHD.

I am almost embarrassed at how much I enjoyed this book. I purposely avoided it for a long time annoyed at how much hype it was getting thinking surely it wasn't a 'real' baseball book for true fans. I gave in recently when the paperback came out and must admit that I am dumbfounded with delight. This is a GREAT book for true fans of the game and even for those who know next to nothing about baseball! Michael Lewis is a remarkably gifted author who can tell a great story, entertain, and inform with amazing ease while writing in excellent prose. His central focus in this book is "Why have the Oakland A's won so many baseball games lately with such a relatively low payroll and so few established stars?" You will quickly find out if you are a fan of "Old School" baseball or the "New Wave" thinking running through Oakland, Toronto, and even the Red Sox. Many will take strong stands along these sides and may even rate their opinion of this book solely upon that. Either way, this book is great entertainment and is very much worthy of a place on your bookshelf for "read it cover-to-cover keepers"!

It goes without saying - for baseball fans, numbers people, entrepeneurs, etc., this book is a must read. But unbeknownst to most, this book is a MUST READ for one demographic in particular: fantasy baseball enthusiasts.

If you are a fantasy baseball owner, please buy this book, because essentially, Billy Beane is running a real-life MLB team no differently than you are running your fantasy squad. Once you read this book, you will be compelled to (1) attempt to outsmart your buddies by drafting and acquiring players that you identify as more valuable than your competitors (assuming you trust your analyses, as Beane does), and (2) outwit your buddies by trading and trading some more, again for players that you identify as more valuable than your competitors

If you are a parent or of an obsessed fantasy baseball child, please buy them this book immediately. This book will capture their attention, thereby providing you way to get your sports/computer junkie child to pick up a book and read it cover to cover.....a task all too difficult all too often.

Michael Lewis is a fine writer and Billy Beane is a man of genius. This book puts the lie to Bud Selig's assertion that money alone creates competetiveness, and further describes the new realities of power offense vs. "little ball," and how a relief pitcher can be found to fill holes for one season.

Any veteran fan who is not a stat-head, will not agree with everything written in here. However, it is fascinating to consider. Beane is no hero, but certainly a hell of a GM. I'm fascinated to see how DePodesta does in LA with a bigger payroll. The book is at it's best when describes the stories of the players--Scott Hatteberg, Jeremy Brown and the trades (the chapter on Rincon is classic). It slows down when Lewis falls too much into his financial/math background. Still, anything that challenges the prevailing wisdom (I particularly loved the scene where Beane goes nuts on Art Howe for the lefty-Lefty, righty-righty bullpen match ups--it is one my own pet peeves) is worth 5 stars. Guys like Bill James get their just due. Overall, it is a fanastic read. Besides, anything that upsets that blowhard Joe Morgan this much MUST BE GENIUS!

Unbelievably compelling story about how the Oakland A's do more with less. Even if you like statistics and strategy and don't like baseball, it's an amazing read. To see how this book has effected MLB, simply look at what the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays have done over the last few years with regard to their rosters.

This book is full of both theory and anecdotes. I recommend it not just for serious baseball fans but also marginal fans who don't know much about the nitty-gritty of the game. Yet. It is totally entertaining.

Ever since free agency became integrated into baseball culture, the current wisdom has always been that the small-market teams must finish at the bottom because they don't have the resources to compete with larger market teams such as the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago White Sox. The 1997 Florida Marlins spent their way to winning the World Series, but had to conduct a fire sale the next year in order to avoid bankruptcy. This, say the pundits, is in keeping with the current wisdom.

But there is an exception, and a rather large one at that. The Oakland A's, for years the epitome of the small market team, sharing a small market with the National League San Francisco Giants, have managed to win more games (553) from 1998 through 2003 than any other team save for the large market New York Yankees (598) and the Atlanta Braves (594). Now here's the kicker: In 2002, Oakland won 103 games, as many as the Yankees and two more than the Braves, with a payroll ($42M) only one-third the size of the Yankees ($133M) and half that of the Braves ($94M). Is this merely the exception that proves the rule, or is something else going on here?

"Moneyball" provides some of the answers. It is an in-depth look at how the Oakland A's, without the money of the Yankees, managed to win as many games by just looking at the baseball universe in a different way. The old rule was "you gotta spend money to make money." The '97 Florida Marlins spent their way to the World Series, and lost about $30 million in the process. They were forced to dump salary the next year and ended up alienation an already small fan base, which cut attendance even further. Billy Beane, the GM of the Athletics, realized early on that you can't spend what you don't have; thus consistency is the ideal. In this case, consistency is gained by getting the best players for the least money. To achieve this, Beane just looked at the same thing in a different way. Judge players by the things they can control rather than the things they can't control.

This is vividly illustrated in the case of Jeremy Brown, a catcher with the University of Alabama who was pooh-poohed by major league scouts, including Oakland's, as a "bad body catcher." But when Beane and his staff looked at Brown, they saw the only player in the history of the SEC with three hundred hits and two hundred walks. For Beane, the ability to control the strike zone was the best predicator of future success, and the large number of walks was an indicator of how well Brown was able to control the strike zone. The same held true for a pitcher. The speed of his fastball wasn't as important as the ratio of walks to strikeouts. Brown may have been slightly overweight and slow afoot, but he understood the strike zone. The same with pitcher Barry Zito, another overlooked Beane discovery. Zito may not have had that blazing fastball, but he knew how to manipulate the strike zone. What Beane and his staff did was simple: take statistics that already exist and rank them differently. If the game from the hitter's view is not to make outs, then the stat of on-base percentage becomes the best indicator of plate success.

What Beane and his staff knew that the others didn't was that, when humans are involved, the physics of baseball changes dramatically. There are an almost endless variety of books on the physics of baseball, illustrating the Newtonian principles of the curve ball, but when the human factor is computed the game comes down to probabilities. Newton ceases to reign. Heisenberg rules. While Beane's methods do not assure absolute success they do cut down on the probabilities, and that for the serious baseball fan is what the game is all about.

The paperback edition contains a beautifully written postscript entitled "Inside Baseball's Religious War." It is a counter-attack against the critics of the book and at the same time a devastating example of why baseball is in the mess it's in. The critics missed the point, seeing "Moneyball" as an exaltation of Billy Beane instead of as an examination of his system and why it has worked as well as it has. If baseball is to prosper, it has to forego the myopia that plagues it, and that is the real point Lewis is making.

Being a British naturalised Kiwi, I could not possibly know (or, to be honest, care) less about baseball. Nonetheless, I found this to be a fascinating book, and have been recommending it to everyone I meet. It contains a fundamental truth of investing that anyone could use, useful precisely because most people (like the low-scoring reviewers on this site) think they know best.

If every armchair sports fans thinks they know better than the others, it stands to reason that most of them are wrong.

The fact that the Oakland A's never won the world series is absolutely not the point. If the market was functioning efficiently, on their budget, they should never have got within cooey of it: The buying power of behemoths like the Mets should have ensured that. What is remarkable - and what is important - is that the A's consistently, massively, exceeded their own expectations.

Sport is a business. I mean that figuratively as well as literally: profit can be measured in dollar terms but also in percentage of wins to losses. Fans seem to forget that. In business, consistently exceeding expectations is an even better thing than winning the World Series, because it necessarily means you've made MONEY. If you're the favourite and you win the World Series, you have only met expectations, and you may even have made a loss.

If baseball were a perfect market, it wouldn't be possible to exceed expectations over a long period. Over a few games, maybe - that could be a fluke. Over two seasons, it almost certainly couldn't be. That means two things: (a) conventional wisdom about the value of certain baseball players and certain attributes is wrong; and (b) The Oakland A's have worked out what is right, or at any rate their model is better than the conventional wisdom.

This is the sort of thing Billy Beane should have kept as quiet about as possible. Michael Lewis' book ought to be a Eureka moment for every baseball manager: if it is, then the market mis-pricing will disappear, everyone will acquire players on the strength of the new valuation methodology and the Oakland A's will gradually fall down the rankings to where they should have been in the first place, given their budget. I dare say that has already started to happen.

What it ought to do is open eyes of managers from other codes, and indeed other businesses: The key is in having sufficient data. If you have enough good quality data (like baseball does) then if your analysis of it is better than your competitors, then as long as your approach is disciplined and consistent, you will, over time, turn a virtually risk free profit. It's called arbitrage.

I haven't even got onto the fact that Michael Lewis is one of the most insightful and witty writers writing in business at the moment, and this book is a pleasure to read from start to finish, notwithstanding my ignorance of its subject. I have read a number of business titles recently, and compared to the rest of the pack Lewis is, if you'll excuse the pun, a major leaguer amongst amateurs.

Highly, highly recommended.

Olly Buxton

Moneyball is one of the most intriguing and insightful baseball novels we have ever read. The Oakland A's uncharacteristic approach to baseball is shown by the scouting and statisticians who have helped change the way the game is played. By drafting players who weren't seen fit to be picked in the first few rounds, the A's were able to sign them to a weaker contract than the normal players that got paid millions more for being a spot a head or behind in the draft.

In the novel, Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta use the statistical analysis to predict what the team would need to win for the A's to make it to the playoffs. With mind-boggling formulas, they where able to break down every action on the field into a point system and from there they were able to determine what exactly the team would need in runs to win.

In our opinion, it is the duty of every general manager and owner in baseball to pick up this book and learn about the genius that is Billy Beane. Any time a small market organization can turn into consistent powerhouse, the league and world should learn from their accomplishments.

I first was exposured to Bill James' logic in the early 80's with his commercially published baseball abstracts. I liked his analysis, but he's only recently getting the recognition he deserves (he's currently a consultant to the Boston Red Sox).

I vaguely remember Billy Beane as a player (he was drafted by the Mets over 20 years ago). His playing career never panned out, but he became a disciple of Bill James, and had a approach to baseball where winning teams don't have to spend a lot of money -- he took rejects from other teams with an outstanding characteristic -- on base percentage.

It seems now Bill James ideas are in vogue among some teams (Paul dePodesta is now the GM of the LA Dodgers, he was Beane's assistant int he book).

I've always rooted for teams which won without the highest payroll in the league -- this book discusses how Beane has been able to do it consistently -- even though he never won a championship yet.

The book traces Beane's career (or lack of it), and he ended up in a GM job, his statistical approach to baseball (which is currently unconventional, but very logical). A good behind the scenes look at an unconventional organization

Without a doubt one of the best books I've read in a long time. Michael Lewis has a tremendous gift for explaining complicated financial issues simply, elegantly, and succinctly. He is also a conceptual thinker of a high order, which is why his books seem more revolutionary than they are: he just explains things better and more provocatively than anyone else.

Moneyball is no exception. Drawing upon the work of a generation of new-age baseball statisticians, Michael Lewis chronicles the uncanny success of general manager Billy Beane and his budget-strapped Oakland A's. In a story that reads far more breazily and interestingly than you might think, Lewis explains how Beane used complex statistical analysis to revamp his organization and catapult the A's to the top of the American League. Beane's success demonstrates convincingly that "conventional baseball wisdom" is an oxymoron. That is, the stuff that really matters in terms of winning baseball games is not the stuff that baseball insiders have been focusing upon for the last hundred-plus years. Beane employs the cold calculation of a Wall Street maverick to the poetic, metaphoric, and staid world of baseball. And in the process, not surprisingly, he offends a helluva lot of baseball sensibilties. (You need only read some of the crappy reviews on this website to see that). But the fact remains that Beane is right, and the future of baseball is Beane & Co. No doubt Lewis' bestselling book will usher in that future far sooner than might have been the case-- which is precisely why Michael Lewis will go down as one of the most important and influential writers of this generation. He is Tom Wolfe and Warren Buffett wrapped into one, and his book is a true joy to read.

Moneyball is simply one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. It's primarily about baseball, but its lessons transcend sports. Through the examples of Bill James, Dick Cramer, Voros McCracken, and AVM Systems, it shows how Billy Beane has been able to maximize the market of talent with a minimum of spending. It also gives a great insight into Beane, a classic five-tool player in high school who couldn't convert it into a successful major league playing career. Beane took the lessons learned the hard way from his playing days and has applied them as the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. The point of this book is: Think For Yourselves! While most of Beane's philosophy makes sense, I disagree with his disdainment of stolen bases, and his idea of the manager as a figurehead with little independent decision-making ability. Otherwise, as I said, a very fascinating read.

I was very surprised when I read this book. I knew that the Oakland A's had a low payroll and an excellent team. I figured that it all had to do with management and thier decisions on players. But I had no idea of the elaborate system that the A's used to find players and how they were able to land them so cheaply. It is truely facinating. The tactics of getting good players for less money than they were worth was eye-opening. Some of the players on the A's were people who no one else wanted because they were not the "typical looking player." The A's took player who were sometimes too fat, too short, and too slow. Everyone continually writes them off becuase they don't do things the conventional way. The thing is, they can't do things the conventional way because they don't have the money.
They have come up with a system that is widely based on the use of statistics and computers and a very strict philosophy on the type of player to draft. This might sound strange now but it is so well explained that at the end you should become a ravid Billy Beane and Oakland A's fan. You will suddenly wish to follow everything that they do.You will understand that thier record 20 game winning streak was deserved and that all the critics were wrong. Moneyball shows that a small market team, when run in a unique way, can be incredibly sucsessful and can give its high priced oppentents all that they can handle.

Who knows baseball better - the jocks or geeks? Well, it appears that you can't rid the front office of jocks, but you're screwed if you don't let the geeks in. Lewis has written a book that ultimately proves that careful statistical analysis is often superior to conventional wisdom in finding out what makes good baseball players and teams.

Moneyball tells the story of the A's general manager Billy Beane and his assistant Harvard grad Paul DePodesta and their quest to build an A's team armed with the smallest budget in baseball and a new approach to baseball stats. The success that they achieve proves once again that people cannot accept the fact that science is superior to intuition and conventional wisdom in many circumstances. Beane is a former major leaguer whose promising career never really took flight despite everyone's high expectations. Fortunately, he found his niche in the front office of the Oakland A's, a team he transformed by deemphasizing the conventional wisdom that had falsely predicted the outcome of his own major league career.

Inspired by the sabermetrician Bill James whose Baseball Abstracts were appreciated by only a handful, Beane and DePodesta decided that the best way to spend the tiny A's budget was to draft or trade for players who were undervalued in the baseball market but whose stats told a different story. For example, they realized that on base percentage was worth more than home runs or batting average. They wanted players who could get on base whether by walk or hit. After all, a home run is worth a lot more if previous batters make it on base. Beane and DePodesta also realized among many other things that good fielding stats were overrated, errors were often meaningless, and luck plays a huge role in the outcome of a baseball game.

The beauty of this book is that it reminds us again and again that no matter how strong your subjective notions are, don't forget that statistical analysis is an objective enterprise largely devoid of emotional attachments and preconceived ideas. Of course, choosing players based completely on refined statistical analysis while ignoring other nonquantifiable factors is foolish, but the A's are proof that this new approach is extremely effective.

Very highly recommended.

Moneyball tells the story of Billy Beane and his radically different (and effective) understanding of baseball as a matter of statistics. The success of the Oakland A's, despite one of baseball's lowest payrolls, attests to the efficacy of the strategy. This book is about much more than Beane or baseball; it describes the uphill battle that truth fights against the safety of conventional wisdom. You do not need to know the difference between a fastball and a fly ball in order to enjoy this book, or find its message relevant.

Michael Lewis has written a phenomenal book here. Like all good non-fiction, Moneyball tells a slice-of-life story that has applications and implications for virtually all areas of life. The overarching theme--that what we know may just not be so, and that value in people, even in what some may consider a trivial pursuit, baseball, is not always subject to the "conventional wisdom"--resonates through every page and through every character. Having watched the Oakland-Kansas City game that capped the A's 20-game winning streak in 2002, but having known nothing of what went into that night, I found the story of Scott Hatteburg to be full of life truths. Ditto Jeremy Brown.

Despite its somewhat unfortunate title, Moneyball is not to be missed. You will put it down with a renewed determination to find the things YOU are undervaluing in life because of myths you have been taught. The most likely target of this refreshing approach is YOURSELF.

Who would have ever thought that taking the romance out of baseball would lead to one of the most engaging books of the year? Lewis is a skilled storyteller with a great gift for characterization. This book documents a fascinating revolution in the philosophy of building a professional baseball team. Moneyball is the best nonfiction I have read since Positively Fifth Street!

This is not (as I mistakenly assumed at first) one of those splenetic rants by a so-called baseball traditionalist, bemoaning how the great game has been destroyed by filthy lucre. It is instead a vastly entertaining account of how one extraordinary man (Billy Beane) used his grasp of the imprecision of conventional measures of possible future baseball prowess to overcome his teams comparative lack of cash and assemble an extremely effective bank of young talent (albeit one that has, so far, failed to triumph in the post-season). The best baseball book I've read since Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" nearly 25 years ago.

I picked up this book because it was recommended to me by a professor in a corporate strategy class. It brought issues of corporate strategy to life.
An enlightening book that brings theories to life in an enjoyable manner.

Michael Lewis is back in fine form with "Moneyball." The book explores two themes: the financial inequities of Major League Baseball, which force small-market clubs to take a unique approach to building their teams; and Billy Beane's passionate and idiosyncratic leadership of the 2002 Oakland A's, a low-budget success story with very few equals. Baseball fans will certainly enjoy the insider's perspective of the A's organization (e.g., why Hatteburg and Mabry were added to the team, why Art Howe was dumped). And non-fans should appreciate Lewis's folksy descriptions of the great American pastime, including both on-the-field and off-the-field anecdotes. My only quibble with "Moneyball" is that the book could benefit from an index, to help readers find references to important characters associated with the team. But that's just window dressing. There's plenty of meat to this well written story, proving that Michael Lewis, despite a couple of recent clunkers, hasn't lost his touch.

As a fantasy baseball devotee and a regular reader of Rob Neyer's columns on espn.com, I was excited to see how a non-specialist, Lewis, would react to the quirks of the baseball world. Lewis's reaction is the defining baseball book of this generation. Lewis masterfully weaves together A's GM Billy Beane's personal story and conversion to statistical analysis with theory and reasoning behind that analysis. Lewis also does a superlative job describing the other side: the baseball old timers who distain number-crunching and instead look for intangibles when scouting ballplayers. Why look into how well the hitter controls the strike zone if you can simply see if he has "the Good Face". Imagine an accountant eschewing numbers to see if a company just looked right, just felt right in her gut; well, that's how baseball did, and mostly still does, operate.

Not some esoteric tome, but a terrifically engrossing and informative book. I think even my mom would like it.

Moneyball is a great book, a no-doubter as a Finalist for Spitball Magazine's CASEY Award. It may not win the CASEY because the competition for Best Baseball Book of the Year is stiff; but anybody who gives this book less than 5 stars should write his own baseball book and show us all how it's done.

I avoided this book for a while because I had heard that Billy Bease came off as very arrogant. I had even heard that some general managers in baseball this past year were not going to trade with him because of the way he was presented in Moneyball. I didn't feel that the depiction of Beane was negative. He is a driven guy who has basically changed baseball-for the good of the game. He has proved that a team with lesser financial resources can compete. This book can be used to relate to any area of business or life in general. Be smart, be prudent, and think and you can be successful although the odds seem to be against you. I appreciated the discussion of the postseason failings of the team. Although, I do feel that this will even out eventually. This team (pitching in particular) is too good to not succeed on a grander scale. The story of sabermetricians may have been the best part. Amazing how a bunch of numbers guys can change a sport. An awesome book about an awesome guy. Beane deserves to be in the hall of fame one day.

This book is one of twists and turns, full of literary vehicles. I haven't felt this dizzy since I saw Pulp Fiction (to which I would not give 5 stars). It's great to see those that deserve to win in baseball win--especially against Steinbrenner--at least in the regular season, as the Oakland A's have done for the past several years. And this, on a budget that rivals what the Yankees' bullpen alone costs.

Given the buzz on the book, I was prepared for Lewis' discussion on how statistical science is changing the game, which he does so without losing the quick tempo he establishes from the leadoff page. However, his greatest achievement was a surprise to me--he gets us close in to meet the obscured, brilliant personalities that have contributed to the Little Paradigm Shift That Could, over the protestations of eight generations of baseball scouts and owners barking up the wrong mathematical trees to preserve traditions without foundation.

Most good baseball books are autobiographies, or written by insiders, or written by those obsessed with the game. Lewis is able to write effectively as an outsider, and also closely connect and earn the trust of the insiders.

Beyond the math, I hope that baseball insiders will use the truth of Moneyball to make MLB more competitive than it is today, instead of pleading with Congress to preserve a questionable status quo.

I am not much of a baseball fan, but after reading a review of this book I was compelled to borrow a copy. The story is set against the backdrop of baseball, but it reads more like the solving of a great scientific mystery.

Anyone growing up in America, whether or not they even watch baseball, knows the basic stats that ballplayers are judged by: Batting average, RBIs, ERA and so forth. You can't escape them. And these are the numbers that make or break careers. Want to improve your team? Sell that .280 hitter and bring in a .295 hitter. Get a pitcher with a lower ERA, an so on. This was the received wisdom. To everyone but players of "Rotissiere Baseball", that is.

"Rotissiere Baseball" is a paper-and-pencil version of the game popular with thousands of fans who trade players and play games based on the roll of the dice and statistics that they've compiled- statististics very different from the ones commonly reported. The players- many of them mathematicians, actuaries and others with a mind for numbers. These stats- termed "sabermetrics"- were empirically derived and then validated againt actual player performance. And yet they were completely ignored by the people who could most benifit from them- the owners and managers of the major league teams.

With one exception: The A's Billy Beane. An ex-player himself, Billy didn't have the math skills of those who compiled the sabermetric model, but he did have an uncommon amount of intelligence, and knew a good thing when he saw it. He used the sabermetric model to identify undervalued and overvalued players, and quickly traded his way to a top performing team with a relatively small budget.

Now that wasn't the only reason for the A's success, and Beane's skill went beyond just his utilization of the model, but it's the central issue in this story. The book isn't just about the math, of course; the portraits of Beane and the players he selects are every bit as fascinating. A good read for baseball fans, and a fascinating introduction to an arcane world for the math minded.

It seems that the hardcore baseball fan cannot go anywhere these days without seeing a reference to "The Billy Beane Book". Often, however, it seems as though the people discussing this book have not taken the time to account for the minute detail of actually reading the book before using it in discussion.

As a story-teller, author Lewis does a surperb job of piecing together a part of baseball's history that until recently has not been cast under the light that it truly deserves. The history I am refering to is the world of sabermetrics, the exploration of the truly fascinating world of baseball statistics. Even in discussing what to the average fan would surely be a truly boring topic at first glance, Lewis' writing abilities are more than capable of keeping the pages turning at a fervent pace.

For this reason alone the book is worth recommending, but for the avid baseball fan looking for a more in depth look at the American Pastime, there is surely another world readily available for discovery located within these pages.

You don't have to be a baseball fan to have fun reading MONEYBALL
by Michael Lewis, but if you are one, you'll find this to one of the best
sports books you'll ever come across . . . the subtitle says it all:
THE ART OF WINNING AN UNFAIR GAME.

It tells the story of how the Oakland Athletics compete successfully
with such big market teams as the Yankees and Braves, despite
having the second-lowest payroll in baseball . . . they do so by
paying attention to statistics that nobody had ever really cared
about; e.g., the walk--proving that taking a base on balls can often
be the difference between winning and losing a game.

I loved the wide range of characters, ranging from the team's
general manager (Billy Beane, a flop as a player) to statisticians
(such as Bill James) and including such low-paid athletes as Scott
Hatteberg and Chad Bradford who became stars when nobody
else even knew about them.

The writing was most captivating . . . among the passages that

caught my attention were the following:

* The next year went well enough for him-he was, after all, Billy Beane
and by the summer of 1982 he had been promoted to the Mets'
Double-A team in Jackson, Mississippi. He played left, Strawberry
played right, and the whole team played the field. For a lot of the
players it was their first exposure to the Southern female-the most
flagrant cheater in the mutual disarmament pact known as the feminism.
Lipstick! Hairdos! Submissiveness! Baseball was a game but chasing
women was a business, in which Billy Beane was designed to succeed
without even trying. Billy had the rap. Billy, said his old teammate
J.P. Ricciardi, "could talk a dog off a meat wagon." Billy was forever
having to explain to another teammate of his, Steve Springer, that
when you'd just met some girl, what you didn't do was tell her you
played pro ball. It wasn't fair to her; you had to give the girl a chance
to turn you down. Billy's way of giving her a chance was to tell her that
what he did for a living was collect roadkill off local highways. Springer
didn't have Billy's awesome God-given ability with women; he thought
he needed the Mets to stand a chance; and this need of his led to one
of those great little moments that make even the most dismal minor
league baseball careers worth remembering. They were leaving one of
the local burger joints when two pretty girls called after them, in their
fetching drawls: "You boys Yankees?" Springer turned around and
said, "No, we're the Mets."

* Fielder is the semi-aptly named Prince Fielder, son of Cecil Fielder,
who in 1990 hit fifty-one home runs for the Detroit Tigers, and who by
the end of his career could hardly waddle around the bases after one
of his mammoth shots into the upper deck, much less maneuver him-
self in front of a ground ball. "Cecil Fielder acknowledges a weight
of 261," Bill James once wrote, "leaving unanswered the question of
what he might weigh if he put his other foot on the scale." Cecil Fielder
could have swallowed Jeremy Brown whole and had room left for
dessert, and the son apparently has an even more troubling weight
problem than his father. Here's an astonishing fact: Prince Fielder is
too fat even for the Oakland A's. Of no other baseball player in the
whole of North America can this be said. Pittaro seems to think that
the Detroit Tigers might take Fielder anyway, for sentimental reasons.
And if the Tigers take him, they trigger a chain reaction that ends with
the Mets getting one of their first six choices.

* Having kept the team close enough to hope, Billy could now go out
and shop for whatever else he needed to get to the play-offs. When
he set off on this shopping spree, he kept in mind five simple rules:

1. "No matter how successful you are, change is always good.
There can never be a status quo. When you have no money
you can't afford long-term solutions, only short-term ones. You
have to always be upgrading. Otherwise you're fu*ked."

2. "The day you say you have to do something, you're screwed.
Because you are going to make a bad deal. You can always
recover from the player you didn't sign. You may never recover
from the player you signed at the wrong price."

3. "Know exactly what every player in baseball is worth to you. You
can put a dollar figure on it."

4. "Know exactly who you want and go after him." (Never mind who
they say they want to trade.)

5. "Every deal you do will be publicly scrutinized by subjective
opinion. If I'm (IBM CEO) Lou Gerstner, I'm not worried that
every personnel decision I make is going to wind up on the front
page of the business section. Not everyone believes that they know
everything about the personal computer. But everyone who ever
picked up a bat thinks he knows baseball. To do this well, you have
to ignore the newspapers."

This type of book, written the wrong way, can wind up only on the shelves of enthusiasts. Instead, Michael Lewis did an amazing job creating a book which will not only be interesting to baseball enthusiasts and statisticians, but also to anyone who even has a remote interest in sports or business. I agree with my local library's classification of this book as a non-fiction work that reads like fiction.

If I find a book that interests me, I read it in about 3 weeks. This one took 5 days. I couldn't put it down. If you are a baseball fan, even mildly so, you need to get this book. It almost made me an Oakland A's fan!

This book is almost impossible to put down. Billy Beane's belief of how to build a team is a glimmer of hope for anyone who is a fan of small-market ball.

This book provides a very interesting look behind the scenes of a big league club, and why the A's can't afford to maintain the status quo. Even if you aren't a baseball fan this book will grab your attention, because in the end it isn't so much about baseball as it about bucking trends and taking a risk on what you believe in.

I thought this book did a great job of comparing the two divergent schools of baseball thought - the dominant "old school" approach, exemplified by the old time baseball "lifers" who know what they know because they know it, and the up-and- coming objective, statistical based analysis of the game, embodied in this book by Billy Beane. The book, slanted towards the new wave of baseball men, does a superb job of punching holes into baseball truisms and dopey practices (I particularly loved the section regarding amateur draft day - why do teams continue to throw away high draft picks and millions of dollars on untested high schoolers - high schoolers!!! - when there are so many quality college players to choose from?). But, most of all, what this book does is prove that you don't necessarily need a lot of money to win - just good management, which is something that is apparently in short supply in baseball. Every baseball owner and general manager should be required to read this book.

I am not a baseball fan nor am I much of a sports fan at all, but I loved this book. I review mainly business books and the business principles of this book are well stated, easy to understand and truly innovative. If you are in a field that tracks statistics (especially the non-profit world) this book will make you think! But be careful, it will also make you question! Moneyball gets you outside the box (scores) of baseball and if you are a decent interpreter it will help you get out the box in your profession. Highly recommended!

man im a student and i just moved 2 texas from oakland. This book is so addicting! i came home 7:00 PM and read until 11:00. it's so kewl and talks about all the complexities of baseball. Author add's tons of humor and cuzz words. i went 2 the 20th STRAIGHT GAME for a dollar and the book depicts tht game like no other! EXCELLENT BOOK! Now i need 2 go finish mai hw tht i havent started...

Money Ball, by Michael Lewis, is a non-fiction story about the success of Billy Beane, the current manager of the Oakland Athletics. It tells the story of his failure trying to make it to the major leagues as a boy out of high school, and what caused his breakdown. He was one of the premiere draft prospects in the country out of high school. However, he didn't want his future from high school to be in the major leagues. He wanted to study at Stanford, but when he said he didn't want to play baseball there, his acceptance was revoked, and he ended up getting drafted into the big leagues in the first round. After struggling in the minors for years, and only starting a few games in the majors, he retired before turning thirty, and asked to work in the front office for the Oakland Athletics as an advance scout. His heart wasn't in playing baseball. "In the end, Billy proved what he had been trying to say at least since he was seventeen years old: he didn't want to play ball."- Michael Lewis. After being a scout for the Athletics for some time, Billy Beane became the manager of the team. New management caused the Athletics to go from their high payroll status to a low-budget team. He had learned that the key to running a cost efficient baseball team was to look at the players' statistics, and to look for players who had experience playing in college, even though scouts looked mostly at high school players. Billy Beane had learned from a famous sports writer, Bill James, that on-base percentage was the key statistic for baseball. From that point, Billy Beane was looking for players who had statistics to prove their worth, and the statistics he looked at were on-base percentage and slugging percentage, because Billy Beane wanted players who could get on base and hit.

The theme of the book is that, in life, you shouldn't always have to do what you're good at, you should do what you want and like to do. Billy Beane proves this by retiring as a baseball player, and going to work in the front office as a scout, because he still loved the game. His determination allowed him to quickly work his way into the manager position of the team, and from then he worked harder than ever to create a successful baseball team. This relates to my life because while I am good at punting and like to play football, I'm not really interested in going on to play in college. My friends and family are all encouraging me to play, but my heart really isn't in football.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially baseball fans, because it gives a good in-depth look into how baseball teams are run. It is especially intriguing because it shows how effectively Billy Beane runs the low-budget Oakland Athletics, which is one of the best teams in the majors currently.

This is a very readable, witty book, which on the surface is about baseball, and the application of statistical analysis (sabremetrics) to the evaluating of players and strategies (knowledge of statistics is not necessary; he doesn't get into that: it's all about people and ideas). A basic knowledge of baseball is certainly useful, as Lewis drops the names of many players and mentions certain types of plays (i.e., hit and run, sacrifice bunt, etc.) without pausing to explain them, but also probably not essential. The people, and the lively writing of Lewis, are at the center here.

Lewis nicely weaves together the personal stories of the A's general manager (GM), Billy Beane, other team execs and scouts, and the individual players who were often considered misfits by other teams for a very particular reason (a year or two too old, an odd pitching motion, etc.), but were considered bargains by the As. He gives good detail for anyone who has ever wondered how teams decide who to draft, or how a general manager negotiates player deals with other GMs (and, like Red Auerbach was for the Celtics in the 60s, is so good at picking the pockets of other teams that after a while they are reticent to deal with him). And it's very interesting how Beane, a promising high school player who could be a poster child for the failure of the old, scout-driven school, takes it upon himself to dismantle that establishment with sabremetrics.

At a deeper level, the book is about several other matters:
- how does any organization evaluate and hire people?
- how does a radically new way of approaching a business develop?
- what -- and how long -- does it take for the new method to displace the previous way of doing things, and -- more importantly -- the people who do it that way?

In the case of baseball, the development of sabremetrics -- which developed the new strategic insights based on detailed analyses of baseball's mother lode of stats -- has been ongoing for about 30 years. And the success of the Oakland As -- consistently making the playoffs with a payroll one-third of the Yankees -- is its first major test, and victory. (A few other teams, like the Red Sox, recently say they are heavily influenced by it, although paying huge dollars for 37-year-old veterans like Curt Schilling may not be the best proof.) But at most clubs the old-timers who run the game still prefer to rely on their subjective judgments.

In other fields, such as high tech, the head-in-the-sand approach taken by most baseball people would lead to the death of the company. And perhaps that is why some companies do die. Certainly plenty of studies have shown that most companies make hiring decisions in ways that -- like most baseball teams -- are highly subjective. And what other industry has the historical, objective stats on performance that baseball has to develop the strategies from? Other than, perhaps, investment banking and direct marketing, maybe none. So, few could duplicate the depth of analysis, but many could profit from the style of thinking involved.

In any case, a very enjoyable read -- I read it in a couple days over Thanksgiving -- and highly recommended.

I loved this book and when I finished the last page I was wishing that it had been twice as long. With unparalleled access to the innner workings of the Oakland A's front office, Michael Lewis gives a rare look at a baseball organization which has broken the paradigm of Major League Baseball. Great reading and a totally different type of baseball book. Throughly enjoyable.

i know baseball, or so i thought. to finally see sabremetrics applied by a GM was completely awesome. check this book out.

This book is very well written, it's an excellent, refreshing book on the inside workings of managing the drafting, signing and paying players. Billy Beane has turned the GM job into an art form. He has made trades, analyzed and critiqued them, and showed up other GMs. If I were another GM, and I saw Beane coming towards me, I'd cross the street. His approach is unique and amazing. Great title, and it's appropriate.

If you are a fan of the statistics of the game, then this is for you. See how Billy Beane and cast completely redevelop how players are scouted and drafted. Without a big payroll, the A's are always contenders. How does he do it ?

I don't care for sports, and never have. But this book is a GREAT STORY that just happens to be about sports. It is the classic story of the maverick who defies all the conventional wisdom but knows what he is doing and prevails. On yet another level, it is a terrific story about how one can think in an entirely new and different and above all USEFUL way about something that nearly every American (except me) knows something about has has strong opinions about. In this respect it's very similar to stories about incredible scientific discoveries. Either way, it's a great read that you won't want to miss.

If, like me, you're one of those hopeless stat geeks who never get tired of "who's better?" discussions, "Moneyball" may well be right up your alley. Chronicling how the cash-strapped Oakland A's regularly compete with the huge-spending likes of the Red Sox and Yankees, "Moneyball" sets out to demonstrate that how plentiful your resources are isn't as important as how you use them. In one sense, it's about how A's general manager Billy Beane, himself a washout as a player, manages to build successful teams on a tight budget with a bunch of guys even I haven't heard of. But in another, deeper sense, the book is about how any enterprise can be improved if it's remade along rational lines.

Beane's business plan for the A's rested on a bold premise, namely that much of the traditional "knowledge" accumulated by baseball insiders was, well, b.s.. After all, Beane had tanked in his professional career after being tagged as a can't miss prospect, so how much could scouts know? Beane's plan, while radical, was also so fiendishly simple it's hard to believe it wasn't more common. Under Beane, the A's started judging prospects not by how athletic they were, or how good they looked in a uniform, but by how well they had performed in games. And if that meant hiring a group of Harvard graduates like assistant GM Paul DePodesta to pull names of college players off a computer, so be it.

Of course, the A's also faced the problem of money, since their payroll had to be kept at about 40 million dollars, or 15 million less than Alex Rodriguez makes. The solution? Treating the team like any other business, Beane and co. used cutting-edge research and technology to break players and stats into parts. Since they couldn't afford highly desired players, the A's had to figure out what was most important and go after it. And if the research is to be believed, it's the ability to get on base by any means necessary. On-base percentage takes on an almost mythical importance in "Moneyball," with the A's searching relentlessly for guys who could get on base and do it cheaply.

It's this aspect of the book that gets the most attention, and quickly becomes the most fascinating. Lewis emphasizes how the A's front office, with plenty of help from stat guru (but don't call him a statistician) Bill James, was able to look at numbers and find the underlying truth. As Lewis makes clear, it's not just looking at numbers that determines a player's value, it's looking at the *right* numbers. Lewis often draws parallels to the business world, and these comparisons serve to illustrate how one can make a killing with superior knowledge and counterintuitive thinking. It was strategies derived from the research of stat geeks that enabled the A's to improve their record in 2002 despite losing three of their top players to free agency.

Lewis also takes some time out from the analytical stuff to paint a vivid portrait of Beane himself. Lewis lets us see him plying his craft in the draft room and at the trading desk, demonstrating the shrewdness of a swindler. He often appears to be playing a different game from his colleagues, which is exactly what Lewis wants us to think. And we get to see Beane's (sort of) human side while he works out, and stresses out, during games. His frequent profanity-laced tirades and incessant tobacco chewing may not be too savory, but Beane is clearly just like the rest of us in at least a few ways.

Lewis gives us snapshots of some other, secondary characters as well. There's Paul DePodesta, Billy's Harvard-educated sidekick. There's Jeremy Brown, the overweight college catcher who was scarcely rated as a prospect despite having set records at Alabama. There's Scott Hatteberg, who was cast off by the Red Sox but given a new life in Oakland thanks to his ability to get on base. Finally there's Chad Bradford, the submarine-throwing pitcher who became a premier setup man with an 84-mile-an-hour fastball and a delivery that scraped the mound. We get to know all of these guys, and why they fit so well into the A's scheme.

Lewis also happens to be a pretty damn good storyteller, with a an engaging and uber-readable style. Bill James said baseball statistics fascinated him because they had the power of language, and Lewis's discussion of this seemingly boring subject demonstrates why. By framing a book about baseball in the language of business, Lewis makes his story accessible to enthusiasts of both. Not to mention, the book is worth reading simply for Lewis's brutally hilarious description of Jeremy Giambi's outfield play. High comedy, friends, high comedy.

I don't think "unputdownable" is a word, but if it were it would definitely be applicable to "Moneyball." I could even be convinced to say this is the best sports book I've ever read, and I've read some good ones. You don't necessarily have to agree with the A's strategies to enjoy the book, but you may well find yourself turned into a stat geek by the end. And for all you dolts out there saying Billy Beane had nothing to do with drafting Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, and Mark Mulder, it's right there on page 39 from a member of the A's scouting department: "Billy made us take Zito." So that's one down right there.

I was finishing Moneyball during games 4 and 5 of the 2003 American League playoff series between the Sox and As and nothing could have been a more fitting ending to my combination reading/watching experience than the last at bat for the A's. Details below:

Lewis does a fine job of detailing how the A's GM ends up drafting players who walk a relatively high percentage of time in order to build a team that scores as much runs in the regular season as the Yankees on 1/4 the payroll. I was able to observe and appreciate many of the player decisions that Billy and Paul made empowered by sabermetrics. Hatteberge would walk; Tajeda would swing, etc. etc. Reading the book helped to reinvigorate my appreciate of baseball and each of 2003 playoff series.

If you recall the 8th and 9th innings of game 5 in Oakland, you will remember that the A's batters were successful in drawing a ton of walks. In the 9th inning the Sox had walked a couple more batters and the As had the bases loaded. The batter, Adam Melhuse does the job that Billy and Paul predict: he gets the pitcher to throw a ton of pitches until the pitcher either walks the batter or throws a strike (hopefully that the batter than handle). The count is 3-2; the batter, Melhuse gets a pitch in the strike zone...and watches it sail into the catcher's mit (another A was caught looking on the 2nd out of the inning as well--see below).

I sincerely respect the job Billy and Paul have done, but all things considered it seemed fitting to me that when it came down to the last 2 outs, the As died with 2 of their 3 batters betting on the opposing pitcher's willingness to throw a ball 4 rather than their own ability to successfully put the ball in play. I guess that's what you get for $40 million.

The Press Democrat
OAKLAND -- Adam Melhuse sat quietly at his locker, fielding wave after wave of questions about what he did -- or didn't do -- just moments earlier.

Melhuse had been caught looking at a third strike when he needed only to put the ball in play to tie up the decisive game of the Division Series against the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.

After Terrence Long also struck out looking, sending the A's to a 4-3 loss that ended their season and disappointed the Coliseum crowd of 49,397, Melhuse tried to put it in perspective.

"It's not life or death -- it's just a game," Melhuse said.

"That said, I'd have given my left foot to win that game. Literally, I would have chopped it off."

I give Moneyball on the basis that it's reader is either a devout student and fan of the game such as myself, or someone who is big into small-business ownership. Yes, Lewis does add some "filler" to his novel by adding life stories and background to Bradford and Hatteberg, but at the same time this builds the psychological models of what exactly it means to be an "Oakland A" in Beane's model. The only real complaint I have with the novel is wanting more. A must read for any true baseball fan.

In short, if you follow the oakland A's, you will love this book. If you follow baseball closely, you will love this book. A fan of baseball will like it. A casual observer may find parts boring.

How do you rate an amature baseball player? Up until several years ago, scouts would look for the "good face," or the lean body, or the fastest footspeed, or the 90 mph fastball. How about Statistical analysis? How about how well these high school and college kids actually play the game? Michael Lewis shows how the Oakland A's have been looking at the statistics of amature players in order to determine how they will perform in the future. The Result? The A's continue to win their division year after year with one of the lowest budgets in baseball.

This book is a great read that incorperates usefull statistical analysis with a wonderful story. You'll be routing Billy Bean and his Oakland A's on even if you're not an A's fan. But don't worry, the new statistical way to play the game will soon reach all of baseball. Be ahead of the game and pick up this book, and you'll wonder why no one ever had the common sense to think of this before.

I purchased the audio CD, while a baseball lover, had heard that this was a recommended "must read" from Bob Brinker (Money Talk), a National Radio Show host (of the show having the same name) and Financial Guru. Yes, this is going somewhere. I found myself looking forward to my commute, where I voraciously listened to this book. Mr. Bob Brinker and Mr. Billy Beane have both applied key methodologies to different markets (Stock Market and Baseball, respectively) but illustrate that discipline and statistical analysis - (i.e. a scientific approach) can help one have a 'winning' edge, but one must remain 'objective' and make decisions not realtime/gut, but trust the models and proven trends. I encourage you to explore the similiarities. Whether a baseball fanatic, financial guru, statatistican, or just want to have an enjoyable read, this is for you.

The importance of not making an out in any particular half inning of offensive baseball comes though load and clear and the ways to do this to get on base and keep the inning alive raises all kinds of questions about the conventional wisdom of the last 125 years until the Billy Beane Oakland Athletics era! The personalities of the managers, coaches, staff and players to carry out blue collar lunch box play by staying close to a discipline that favors the team and winning over personal/agent negotiated stats creates a dynamics of tension that causes those on the outside to second and third guess. When luck is evened out over a 162 game season the faithfulness is justified with results. Now for with a hopefully soon to be realized winning post season playoffs and world series victory, the exclamation point will be placed on the statement for all to see. Changes are coming thoughout baseball even down to the Little Leagues!

Baseball may never be the same, yet nothing is. Moneyball has taken a look at where the game is today and where it is headed in the near future. A must read book for all fans (past and present) of "America's National Past-Time."

Great book!Even for kids it is an incredible glimpse into professional baseball and baseball management.

Tom Wolfe had hippies, Black panthers and astronauts, Michael Lewis had wall street, entrepreneurs and now...baseball. This is a hilarious, almost too wierd to be true dive into modern baseball with a focus on Billy Beane, a new kind of general manager and outrageous character. It's about a lot more than baseball and is for anyone interested in how people think outside the box and revolutionize a sport, or business, or anything. Lewis has improved his stuff since Liars Poker and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Great stuff!

Any organization that is dedicated to preserving the idea of baseball as a mythic game and flourishes on celebrating its' tradition will attack "Moneyball" like Michael Moore does Bush. "Moneyball" is the kind of book that will have thoughtful baseball fans wondering two things: 1. Is it really this simple to find undervalued guys based on one or two traditionally overlooked stats? 2. When will people stop criticizing the Oakland GM Billy Beane for things like his arrogance and aggresivness and actually look at what that has accomplished?

In this age of players holding out for huge contracts before they've even played one inning, Beane is a great anecdote, refusing to draft players that have all the right aesthetics, baseball-related or otherwise. It's very funny, in a sad way, that Billy Beane seems to be the only baseball guy who actaully looks at what a player has accomplished so far. Everyone else, he correctly claims, looks at what a guy MIGHT become, as opposed to what he has done. Why take a high school golden boy who statistics say has an overwhelmingly low chance of high major league success and has spent his last 2 years mowing down skinny future engineering majors named Scooter over a proven college player who has posted good numbers against much stiffer competition and has much more experience? When I was in high school, everyone was drooling over our shortstop who could hit the ball a mile and run like the wind, but could do nothing in between. At the same time I knew a guy that played for a local college that routinely posted great numbers and had great showings agasint other guys being scouted, but he didn't fit the traditional baseball paradigm and was therefore forgotten about and I always wondered why. This book finally gave me my answer. This is exactly Beane's strategy, to find guys who fit the stats that he thinks are important and let the numbers and odds dictate the rest.

Something should be said too about not just the content of this book, but the way it is written. The most interesting story is, bar none, the story of Beane's own personal failure as a can't miss prospect. Everyone else who speaks of players talk fondly of a player who reminds them of themselves in their glory years, but Beane picks people who are the exact opposite of what he was, a high school golden boy who had all the potential in the world, but had not accomplished much stat-wise. There is even a story in the book in which Beane talks with a scout who once scouted him and loved him, despite admitting he never looked at a single stat of his.

The way this book punches a hole through not only traditional baseball and strategy but the real psychological makeup of those who run it is nothing short of amazing. You'll be fascinated by every single story in the book, even though they are all about guys who you probably never heard of and might not for years. And that's exactly Billy Beane's idea of a great #1 draft pick.

Though the topic of Moneyball centers around Baseball its scope has a much broader reach. In the same manner that Lewis's Next examines how the Internet has toppled several societal barriers, Moneyball takes a look at how statistics and information question our understanding of value. In a nutshell it all boils down to this; don't be fooled by what you see. Over time its the small and undetected things which can make a big difference.

Baseball serves as a perfect proving ground for this expanded perspective. A baseball season is 162 games long. Over that period the difference between a .275 hitter and a .310 is just one hit a week. As a fan you could watch a whole season and, unless you followed a team's statistics, you would find it hard to discern who was the better hitter.

But we already have mechanisms for tracking batting average along a whole host of other hitting statistics. With free agency the best hitters are rewarded accordingly. The question for Baseball becomes - how accurate is our current system of valuation? How much more valuable is a slugger like Sammy Sosa than good on base man like Jason Kendall?

Moneyball tracks the path of the Oakland A's and their maverick GM Billy Beane. Beane and his crew employ all of the latest statistical analysis for evaluating players, much to the chagrin of the old time scouts who know a ball player when they see one. Through their studies, Beane and his staff recognize that on base percentage is highly undervalued in the current market. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom but the results bare them out. Over the 2000-2003 seasons the Oakland A's with a payroll roughly a third the size of the New York Yankees won more games than the Yankees during that period.

While this book is a must read for all baseball fans it also carries with it a much broader value. We make millions of assumptions everyday based on appearances. But it's not always the brightest or the most articulate who gets the job done. Sometimes its the little guy, slugging away, who has a much larger impact. The challenge is to be able look beyond what the eye can see and focus on the bottom line. If you can, then you're playing Moneyball.

To every rule, there is always the exception. Take the world of major league baseball. With free agency driving player salaries to unbelievable heights, it's an accepted piece of conventional wisdom that only rich teams can be successful today.

If that's really true, then why have the Oakland A's, with one of the lowest payrolls in the game, been one of sport's most consistent winners these past few years? That's the question that Michael Lewis answers in this fascinating book. At the heart of the story is the general manager of the A's, Billy Beane. Beane was once a major leaguer himself. He was labeled a "can't miss" star by those who are supposed to be able to predict such things, but ended up achieving marginal success. How Beane is turning the game's accepted notions upside down is the heart of this story. The 2002 season looked like an impossible one for the A's...they had lost three of their best players to free agency.

Everyone thought the game was over them...everyone but Billy Beane.

As the book opens, we join Beane and his staff on the day of baseball's amateur draft. We witness the A's enjoy an almost magical success in getting the players they want; in part because few, if any other teams want them. Does Beane know something no one else does? The answer is a qualified yes. It turns out he's putting to work statistical models that have been developed by the writer Bill James and others over the past two decades, This information is widely available and widely known to fans...but given little credence by most of the men who still run the game.

As we read on, we learn the logic behind the A's decision to hand their starting first base job to Scott Hatteberg, a former Red Sox catcher who could no longer catch due to an injury; why they coveted Chad Bradford, a pitcher buried in the minors by the White Sox, but who they knew would develop into one of the game's best relievers; why they were willing to trade for all-star second baseman Ray Durham, even though there was no chance they would be able to re-sign him at the end of the season.

Lewis' narrative is engaging and vivid. He puts us in the board room and the locker room as the season unfolds. It's a great story, especially for baseball fans, but really worthwhile for anyone intrigued by the idea of what fresh approaches and unconventional thought can bring to an individual or an organization.

A grand slam all the way!

While Mr. Lewis deserves much credit for making 'Moneyball' a page turner, the story itself, which the author professes to have fallen in love with, is irresistable. You may read this book because you like baseball, but the thinking man will savor it for its celebration of innovation, and the triumph of the intellect it depicts. In fact, 'Moneyball' goes even further. It champions the individual, repudiates collectivism, and offers hope to upright men who despair a lack of justice in this world. Folks, Billy Beane (the book's hero) is you modern day, scaled down, none of the frills but all of the appeal, John Galt. Enjoy it.

Don't be confused, "Moneyball" is not just about baseball. It should not be viewed as a book about baseball, but about how one should think "outside the box" of conventional decision and policy making. Although you may not be a baseball fan, anyone who is a policy or decision maker, should read this book. The lessons that Michael Lewis beautifully crafts are applicable to many fields of endevour that have nothing to do with baseball including academia, business, and law. The momentum of decades of decision making based on convensional decision making has narrowed thinking in numerous area of learning. Let's use Lewis's "baseball" as a metaphor for expanding the creative thinking in our work.

Obivously, as a baseball fan, this is required reading for anyone wondering about how things work behind the scenes. We get interesting portraits of Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford, players who every other team thought were worthless, but are helping the A's win games. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how Jeremy Brown and the other draft picks discussed in the book pan out in the future. Throwing money at big name ballplayers is not a surefire way to win ball games (as Texas, the Mets and countless other teams know). People have been doing things in baseball for so long that it's hard for some to do it any other way. Hopefully, this book will inspire other teams to spend their money more wisely, which might revive the average fan's interest in a sport that is wildly unfair. As a teacher, I think Billy Beane's reexamination of how things are done could also help school districts as well. In times of great financial hardship, school districts should really EXAMINE what they spend their money on. Like the Oakland A's, they could get more bang for their buck if they learned to think in different ways.

I admit as I read this book I was a little disturbed. As a baseball fan, you want to believe that the closer and clutch hitter are of vital importance to the game, but not in the view of Billy Beane. A seemingly callous view of almost every romantic role in baseball leaves you wondering throughout the book, unable to put it down. This book sheds some light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of baseball, how do the cash strapped Oakland Athletics keep winning?

This book has something for everyone. It involves a lot of mathematics and statistics, but not to worry. I was a C- math student throughout high school, yet Michael Lewis' storytelling and explanations even made me understand. A must-read for baseball diehards who are ready to hear a view completely opposite from everything they've ever been told about the game.

Michael Lewis was great in getting access to Billy Beane and his staff. He does a great job is weaving a business and baseball story together. I love Billy for his passion and commitment to his method, never wavering in his goal. Ownership of the A's are very lucky to have a Billy Beane navigating the A's in this time of tremendous fiscal turmoil in baseball. Read it for every reason you would read both a baseball and business book.

I loved this book. You really get an inside look of how the small market team works. The Oakland A's are changing the way baseball works and this book explains why and how. If you are a baseball fan who loves to see the underdog win, this is the perfect book for you.

I consider myself a baseball fan. However, I indulge my interest by following the Boston Red Sox, which is to say that I have a love/hate relationship with the game depending on how things are going with the Old Towne Team. Recently a friend put me on to this book and I am eternally grateful for the recommendation as things have been going on in baseball that I have been blissfully unaware of and finding out about them was both entertaining and informative.

The recent success of the Oakland Athletics is something I knew about, if for no other reason than they raised hell with Boston's efforts to secure a wild card spot. Billy Beane? Never heard of him. Not as a baseball player (not many others did either) or as GM of the Oakland A's.

Michael Lewis has made sure that we all know about Billy in this eminently readable account of how a young general manager takes players that no one else wants or appreciates and using an approach that has been around for some time devised by Bill James turns the A's into a force to be reckoned with. And he does it with little or no money by the standards of the bigger franchises.

The part of the book where James's theories are explained can be a bit dry, but the book really sizzles when we get into the stories of the players. We are permitted into the drafting process and given an inside look into the acquisition of some of the A's key players and the mind of Billy Bean as he wheels and deals to trade for players whom he needs to fill in the blanks in an organization which appears to have many. It is funny, it is instructive, it is irreverant and it is very, very readable.

There are a lot of traditional wisdoms in baseball and this book exposes many of them. If you want to understand what is happening with teams such as the A's, the Red Sox and the Blue Jays, this book is required reading.

I came across this book to find out the answers to two question. 1) How did Billy Beane put together a good team with such little money? and 2) How is it like to be a General Manager for a major league team? The book does a good job at trying to answer these questions. You'll get an interesting perspective of how the author Lewis approached the material because he compares the building of a team to managing a stock portfolio. Beane took advantage of the traditional beliefs of baseball insiders and turned it on its head. You'll read his beliefs on how he believes the game should be managed, how a batter should approach his at bats, and how to make trades and draft players.

But aside from the methodology, I liked the stories about some of the players in the A's organization as well as the story about the life of Billy Beane before he became the general manager. Lewis gives a good angle about the players personal lives and makes you like the players because he makes them look like underdogs. Other scouts and insiders had passed up in drafting players the A's picked up because they didn't fit a certain stereotype. Beane didn't care if the player was too short or too fat or threw weirdly on the mound. He just cared about men who can play the game.

You'll get funny stories and some dramatic stories. My only regret was that I wished that there was more to read. It only takes a few reading sessions to read the book and its easy reading.

I confess that as a Giant's fan I have only admired (and despised) them from afar just across the bay but I have a newfound respect for the people in the organization from reading this book.

To anyone who has wondered why Oakland GM Billy Beane seems to perform miracles, or more importantly, anyone who truly values statistics and logic over Sportscenter highlights, this book is for you. To anyone who thinks the regular season shows true talent, while the playoffs are a crapshoot, this book is for you.

This book chronicles the Oakland A's in three aspects - Billy Beane's own personal history and style, his scientific and more accurate view on recruiting and trading, and the lives of a few A's players themselves. He also delves into the history and explanation of Sabrmatrics, the relatively new and better way of looking at baseball statistics.

Billy Beane's philosophy is based on high base percentage, good pitching statistics, and disregards speed, power, arm-strength, or any other characteristic that the typical recruits look for. While other teams only concentrates on potential and tools, Billy exploits this inefficiency and year after years constructs a great baseball team. Instead of game, he approaches it as if it was market, and reacts accordingly. Lewis does a great job expanding on this and paints Billy Beane as a man who can think outside the box.

The most intriguing part is when Lewis chronicles the A's draft. He follows them through this ordeal, and details the strategy of drafting and signing those players.

After reading this quick book, I can now say I'm Billy Beane fan. I cannot help but respect Billy Beane and the other statisticians that have revolutionized baseball. With all the insight and thought presented, it has helped me appreciate baseball as truly the greatest sport of them all.

Michael Lewis is not a name that comes to many people's minds when they discuss the best writers working today, but it should be. He's a great wit, has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and a clever mind for seeing behind the ruses and props of the traditional powers of everything from finance to politics to, now, baseball.

A recent hot topic that has engaged many baseball fans over the last several years is the relationship between payrolls and winning. More so than most professional sports, there is a lopsidedness to the size of payrolls between baseball's richest teams and its poorest. This is important because many of baseball's wealthiest teams are also its winningest.

One large exception to this pattern is the Oakland Athletics. With one of the smallest budgets in baseball, the A's have put together a team that also has one of the winningest records in the Major Leagues over the last five years. Why?

According to Lewis, the key to the A's success lies in both economics and psychology. The economics is that good, non-superstar baseball players have now become so expensive that there are financial constraints on small-market teams to acquiring them. This, in turn, has also pushed a few owners to hire creative management to find other ways to acquire talent rather than just purchasing it on the free agency market.

Still, many small-market teams remain stuck in the traditional ways. The A's have not largely because of the psychology of their General Manager, Billy Beane. Beane was once a baseball scout's wet dream; he could run, hit, field, throw, and was pretty level-headed for a young and talented kid. What's more, tall and slim, he looked like a baseball player. But Beane failed as a major-leaguer, and it was in his failure as a player that his genius as a General Manager was born.

Beane knew first-hand that scouts were often wrong and this intimate knowledge provided enough of an impetus for him to appreciate the new science of baseball statistics that other baseball people couldn't care less about. The new science basically argued that the traditional baseball stats did not accurately measure what was most important to winning baseball games, and that other, newer ways of looking at stats provided a more efficient way of measuring talent that would help teams to win.

While this science had been building up among fans for some time, it was having a difficult time penetrating the inner sanctum of baseball management and professional scouts. They had their traditional ways of figuring out what was a good baseball player and no fan was going to tell them differently.

Until Billy Beane arrived. While Beane was no statistician, he was smart enough to see what the new science had to offer, and his background ensured he would be sympathetic to it. After all, Beane had once been the scout's darling boy and he had suffered from overly high expectations because of it. He knew how wrong scouts could be. With Beane in charge, computer programs and Harvard grads were soon taking over the jobs of seasoned, professional scouts. What happened after that forms the main story behind this marvelous book.

Since this book has came out- some have questioned the accurracy of events and quotes in the book. I don't care about that. I also do not think Lewis is the greatest writer in the world.
I still gave this book FIVE STARS just for the information that I learned about Beane and how he goes about his business.

I am probably more knowledgeable than most Baseball fans, if for no other reason, because I have followed the game so closely for several decades. That said- I have had several paradigm shifts in how I look at the baseball business. I won't get specific because I do not want to ruin anything.

If you are a baseball fan- this is a MUST read just for what you will learn about baseball. It is a fascinating book, regardless of whether some or all events/quotes are true or false. The window into Beane's organization is so interesting. You will never look at the baseball business, or baseball for that matter, the same way again.

Simply put- the most important baseball book of this generation.

There are Beane sidekicks and clones such as the GM in Toronto (JP Ricciardi) and in Boston (Theo Epstein) using the same valuation methods and strategies. There will be more of these types running teams each year. The future of baseball will get alot more interesting if this trend keeps up. Who knows, maybe these guys will be the ones to bring financial sanity back to the game.

For close to a decade, baseball Commissioner-for-life Bud Selig has been wailing and gnashing his teeth over the 'fact' that only the richest teams have any hope of winning. After all, look at how well the Yankees do...the game's all about money, now. Except for those pesky Oakland Athletics. Despite one of the smallest payrolls in the majors, Oakland has been one of the best teams in baseball over the past five years. How can this be?

Michael Lewis explains the art of winning baseball Billy Beane style, with a book that's as beautifully written as it is informative. Lewis has a gift for prose that makes this nonfiction work read like a page-turning novel. His review of Oakland's transition from a traditional team to the standard-bearer for a new breed of baseball is a must read for anyone with the slightest interest in how a business can take advantage of their competitors through a better understanding of the game.

In other words, Moneyball isn't just for baseball fans, although they'll certainly love it. Billy Beane has brought the business equivalent of asymmetrical warfare to baseball, and Lewis's telling of the tale can help anyone involved in business. Are there necessarily always holes like those Beane exploited in baseball in every line of work? Probably not, but learning how to look for them is still a valuable skill for anyone.

As for baseball fans, the details Lewis unveils alone make this book worth the price of admission. Among the recounting of how Oakland succeeds, Lewis weaves a net of the short stories that make baseball such a wonderful game. And he's even given away the most basic secrets of how any General Manager can make their team better, if only your local nine will take the hint.

This was an excellent read. Once again, Lewis delivers an entertaining look at a what would likely be considered a dry subject, even by the standards of many baseball fans. However, in writing this book he has popularized a new way of looking the game, both in how it is measured and played. Can it be long before all teams begin to apply this system of statistical analysis to make their draft, trade and lineup decisions? If an average quality utility infielder can walk one out of every five at bats, hit .260 and earn $10 million a year, does this make ARod and Giambi worth $30 or $40 million a year?

In the end I'm not sure who to be rooting for - the clever general managers and their "savant quants" or the players previously considered too hapless and hopeless even to ride the bench for a big league team, who will soon, undoubtedly, be capable of earning salaries that might make ARod blush. Okay, so maybe that is an exaggeration. But clearly the proliferation of this way of thinking and the mad pursuit of "walkers", "clay pigeons" and club foot pitchers that will surely ensue, will elevate the financial stakes of a crop of players that a few years ago wouldn't have been able to play for Bill Veeck's St. Louis Browns.

So the secret is out. Draft the lame, the blind, even the toe-tagged as long as they can find an endless string of uninteresting ways to get on base. While this efficient approach clearly yields results that can't be disputed, it diminishes certain elements of the game that add excitement and ultimately nostalgia for many fans. The mystique of the underdog emerging triumphant over the Goliaths of the league will only last until the the current Davids, like the A's, become a smarter version of Goliath. Then it will be just as boring and predictable to see these teams win, even if they can do it with a smaller payroll.

The financial fortunes of the game notwithstanding, this book is a great read for anybody who is interested in innovative and unconventional methods of problem solving.

This was an excellent read. Once again, Lewis delivers an entertaining look at a what would likely be considered a dry subject, even by the standards of many baseball fans. However, in writing this book he has popularized a new way of looking the game, both in how it is measured and played. Can it be long before all teams begin to apply this system of statistical analysis to make their draft, trade and lineup decisions?

In the end I'm not sure who to be rooting for - the clever general managers and their "savant quants" or the players previously considered too hapless and hopeless even to ride the bench for a big league team, who will soon, undoubtedly, be capable of earning salaries that might make ARod blush. Okay, so maybe that is an exaggeration. But clearly the proliferation of this way of thinking and the mad pursuit of "walkers", "clay pigeons" and club foot pitchers that will surely ensue, will elevate the financial stakes of a crop of players that a few years ago wouldn't have been able to play for Bill Veeck's St. Louis Browns.

So the secret is out. Draft the [weak], the blind, even the toe-tagged as long as they can find an endless string of uninteresting ways to get on base. While this efficient approach clearly yields results that can't be disputed, it diminishes certain elements of the game that add excitement and ultimately nostalgia for many fans. The mystique of the underdog emerging triumphant over the Goliaths of the league will only last until the the current Davids, like the A's, become a smarter version of Goliath. Then it will be just as boring and predictable to see these teams win, even if they can do it with a smaller payroll.

However, if nothing else, this books goes a long way toward making Bud Selig look even more foolish -- if that is possible. I never thought I would long for the days of Bowie Kuhn or even Bart Giamatti.

Highly engaging, delightful and heartwarming read, especially for lapsed baseball fans and those who still appreciate baseball. Lewis blends a love of the game, with a desire to really understand what it takes to win and the lives of some of those who make it all happen.

Lewis makes a clear case for competent management in baseball or, as featured general manager Billie Beane points out: In what other organization do you let the show be run by middle management. Or as another wag says: At age fifteen, most of what you now about baseball comes from announcers and eighty percent of what they know is wrong.

Oakland GM Beane has studied baseball as a process that produces results. And rather than count on traditional statistics, he learned that many of the things ballplayers and managers think are important just aren't that important. Using much of the Bill James approach (a baseball fan and analyst from Lawrence, Kansas who for the past twenty-five years helped re-invent the way we look at baseball), Beane appreciates batters who don't make outs and who have the patience to take a walk. Beane penalizes his minor league managers when their players fall behind in the walks per at bat ratio. Home runs matter more than stolen bases and sacrifice bunts. In brief, not making an out, e.g., a failed stolen base attempt, `manufactures' (a favorite baseball verb) more runs than does speed on the base paths. Getting on base and getting extra bases matters more than a high batting average. Pitchers have little control over what happens once a ball is hit into play. Walks, strikeouts and home runs matter more than ERA. While skill matters, luck has an even larger impact on the success or failure of each game.

And there are colorful stories of real people who don't fit the traditional baseball mold yet who make big contributions, truly undervalued assets, including A's minor leaguers Nick Swisher and Jeremy Brown, catcher-now-A's-first-baseman Scott Hatteberg and the A's underhand reliever Chad Bradford

My one small disagreement lies with the continuing myth that baseball is a monopoly. Major league baseball teams do not compete with one another the way competing firms compete. Rather they work in effect as regional offices of the same firm. Competing firms would be glad to put their opponents out of business; major league baseball would die if that were to be the case. The fact that teams compete on the field disguises the fact that teams are economically cooperating with one another. The teams compete against other uses of the fans' entertainment dollar, not one another. Major league baseball is not a monopoly; it is one big company operating in the entertainment or sports business. Even 'free' agents cost two first-round draft choices, and Beane shows how to put these to good use.

Lewis shows, however, that baseball can be rational, a process to be studied, understood and, most important, managed. Good management is essential to success. The A's, contrary to what Bud Selig says, are not an "aberration". Instead, they benefit from good management. In 2002, their division standings were exactly the opposite of the team payrolls. Management matters more than money. Economic inefficiencies can be ferreted out and exploited. Reliance on conventional wisdom and not on researched, reasoned analysis will produce a lot of expensive losses. Just look at the Orioles, Mets, Red Sox, and Dodgers. And then look at Minnesota, Toronto and Oakland.

Highly reccomended to fans whose teams overspend and get little return on investment.....the book gives you ammunition to finally prove to others that most people running pro teams are running them fantasy league style, not effectively using deeper analysis and out-of-ordinary, breaking-the-mold knowledge...

I won't repeat what the other reviewers stated about the book. Yes, there is some moments where the author moves away from the main premise of the book, Billy Beane and how he GMs the Oakland Athletics.

However, from what I learned from reading this book was that Mr. Lewis wanted us to understand that by bucking the industry, Billy Beane was able to come out on top. Baseball and other sports are often run no differently than other corporations wherein management often takes the safe route so that when later questioned for a decision they can state they followed SOP to avoid responsibility. Mr. Beane on the otherhand despite being second guessed all the way by his scouts, opposing teams and even his players had the guts to draft and trade for players that would provide the best production at a minimal cost. Often these players would never be thought of as prospects by the other teams. He also cleverly picked up players that would be free agents at the end of season that his team could never afford to resign in order to obtain draft picks for young-cheaper talent from the teams that signed these players. Others teams often trade these players on the fear they will receive nothing in return when the player leaves. Mr. Beane on the other hand enjoyed using their talents toward a second half of the season pennant drive and when they say goodbye he has an annuity for future talent!

Despite the A's consistent results, at least at the time of the author's writing, only two other teams sought to mimic his approach of not just using a database of statistics with a Harvard type grad to run them but selecting the data that no one figured had any value in judging talent. In the end, Mr.Beane figured that his approach was not being recognized by baseball as having merit. In fact baseball assumed that only teams in large money making cities could succeed, ie the NY Yankees and that the Oakland team was simply an exception and not the rule.

After reading this book, I obtained a lesson in business and not sports that exceeds many of the better known business books that I have read. If you want to succeed, you can't accept what has been done before as a given, instead look for efficiency where no one may have tapped. Please Billy come to the Mets, we desperately need a new GM! 100 million in payroll and a last place team to show for it.

I was surprised at how great this book was. I had put this book near the top of my reading list. Soon after that, I read an excerpt that was from the middle of the book. Little did I know that it was probably one of slowest sections of the book, so I moved it down on my list. When talking with out attorney, he mentioned that the book was really good. The next day I started reading it -- and couldn't put it down. It was really good.

You get to know parts about baseball that are rarely covered. Even a non-baseball reader will come away being very informed and capable of passing it on to friends who might be sports freaks. Highly recommended.

I'm not much of a baseball fan, but this book is about much more than baseball. While I hate cliche's, frankly this book is about "thinking outside the box". It explores how the Oakland A's have been consistent winners while mainting a low salary. They have managed to do this by figuring out the characteristics of ideal players who can really help the team win. It is fascinating to read about how simple some of these stats are, and yet how elusive they were for the rest of the teams.

For the businessman the challenge is clear: figure out ways to win that the competition has overlooked, and success awaits you.

An altogether brilliantly written book, I've already given copies to several people in my company to read.

I really enjoyed this book. I agree with some of the previous reviewers who noted that various aspects of the narrative style are distracting and not particularly well executed. But the content of the story is compelling and carries the reader through the 300 pages in a breeze. Additionally, I enjoyed thinking about 'market inefficiencies' as they may pertain to other business and consumer aspects of life in America. Aren't there many domains in which the 'experts' have been doing things their way for eons and no one questions them? I can think of several possibilities. And Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta demonstrate for us how dogged questioning (in the face of stern opposition) and scientific inquiry can bring fresh and new perspectives to light. I recommend this book and expect that it will be enjoyed by baseball fans (not just A's fans) as well as those curious about how capitalism works in a relatively closed, old-boy network business environment.

As a huge baseball fan, I found this to be a very informative book. It gives great insight into how & why players are bought, sold and traded. A must read for the more than just `casual fan'.
For a change of pace (for laughs), I recommend Lenny Castellaneta's `No One's Even Bleeding'.

While Lewis may be at times guilty of, hmm, polishing Beane's buttocks, this book is superb. Those who have stared at collumns of statistics for hours on end will appreciate the approach taken by the A's front office in evaluating the efficiency of baseball offense. The problem, for fans like me, is that the approach taken diminishes--and actually eschews--some really exiting aspects of run production: stolen bases and aggressive baserunning. OH, and defense, too. Contemporary baseball is full of too many guys continually swinging for the fences, and if too many more GM's adopt the approach Beane has taken, all we'll see is walks and three-run homers.

But, all in all, the text is superb and Lewis really makes the subject matter interesting. Of course, I love baseball so perhaps I'm biased on that point.

However, the really interesting thing is that the book isn't really about baseball: it is about exploiting market inefficiencies to gain a comparative advantage at minimal risk/costs. Still, it makes for a great read for anyone confused as to why the A's can keep losing great talent and still keep putting a pretty competitive team out on the field.

Big market owners, beware!

Michael Lewis's story about the Oakland A's contrarian, statistics driven approach to building a baseball team is outstanding. The book provides interesting detail and lessons to be learned in an engaging style that kept me turning the pages until I was finished. The story is about how Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta went about exploiting baseball's player market value inefficiencies to turn one of the lowest payroll teams in the league into a contender. Interesting stuff while a surprisingly light and entertaining read.

I am not a big baseball fan. I bought the book after hearing Mr. Lewis interviewed on the radio where he focused on the observations this book was making about the flaws inherent in subjective "that's how we have always done it" decision making. I thought the book might support my own thoughts on the subject and I was right...focus on process and outcomes usually take care of themselves.

I never really followed the game of baseball very closely, but you can bet that I will follow the second half Oakland's season like a life-long A's nut!

Well written and very informative. If you love baseball and are one of those confused by how players are bought, sold and traded, here is a book for you. Insightful and clever, using today's technology (computers) and an instinct for the nature of the game and what makes some marginal players a better bet than some superstars - its all here. You might not agree, but you will definitely have plenty to think about, and that's what a good book should do.

Michael Lewis has written a wonderful, insightful, warm book about using guile and teamwork to beat the big bully. For the past ten years, David has been consistently thwacked by Goliath. The low payroll MLB teams have always fared poorly against the mega-payers, i.e., the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc.

Not any more, thanks to GM Billy Beane of the Oakland A's.

By carefully drafting and trading for players who were not wanted by other clubs and forcing those players to play a team game where, for example, on-base-percentage is Gospel and attempting to steal is heresy, he has managed to create a ballclub at bargain basement prices that has the A's knocking on the door to baseball's penthouses, a province heretofore occupied by teams with payrolls three and four times larger than that of the A's.

But what I found most interesting is the way Beane got these players to play his game, a "team" game, where working a pitcher to an eight pitch groundout is thought of as a team effort, an act that will draw dividends later in the game as the pitcher tires. Baseball, more so than football or basketball, is thought to be a game of individual achievement masquerading as a team effort. Beane's theories of playing the game changes all the rules in that what you do in your turn at bat and on the bases has a much greater impact on runs scored than previously thought and puts a premium on team play rather than individual glory. And wouldn't that be refreshing...thinking that players are really interested in the team and not just themselves.

If only one team has won more regular season games than yours for the past three years, and at a much higher payroll, (Atlanta's Braves) and if your team leads all other MLB teams in second-half,(post July 31st trading deadline) victories, it must be recognized that you are doing something extraordinarily right. The only logical conclusion is that you have recognized talent, acquired it, and are maximizing those skills to the utmost and in a fashion that is making the big spenders look foolish.

Kudos to Mr. Lewis. This is the baseball book I've been waiting for and my only disappointment is that, as with all great books,it seems to end all too soon.

This is a very interesting book that will probably come across as more impressive than it should to casual baseball fans. For those who have been reading, enjoying, and agreeing with Bill James for years, it will largely be old hat. Basically, the book is about baseball professionals finally taking seriously many of the ideas and concepts that Bill James has been articulating the past quarter century.

To Lewis's credit, he is quite up front about the central role that James plays in this book. Lewis even treats James as something of a genius, both as a baseball theoretician and a prose writer (James is an absolutely riveting writer; anyone doubting this should purchase immediately his THE NEW BILL JAMES HISTORICAL BASEBALL ABSTRACT). What I find a bit more curious is Michael Lewis's obsession with Billy Beane. No question, Billy Beane is a great general manager, and there is equally no question that the Oakland A's are a team driven by the front office. The problem is--and in fact Lewis's book hints at this fact, though he only hints--that the A's are a great organization. What makes the A's great is not Billy Beane, as good as he is, but the whole group of first rate personnel comprising the Oakland front office. Most of those people were not hired by Billy Beane. The overwhelming focus of this book on Billy Beane is more than a little surreal.

Although I think this is a great book, I also think that Michael Lewis chose the wrong subject. The really interesting story here is NOT how Billy Beane has managed to build a winning team on so little money, but rather the impact that a complete reconceptualization of what contributes to winning baseball games could have on the game of baseball. In that regard, Billy Beane is only a part of the story, and the issues surrounding the Oakland A's budget a bit irrelevant. If the Bill James's-inspired theories are correct, the size of a team's budget is fairly irrelevant. If the New York Yankees changed their playing philosophy, they could still use their money to buy the players with the highest on base percentage and the pitchers with the highest strike outs to walks ratios and who give up few home runs. Budget really is quite irrelevant to all the central points of the book. And to test out the theories about how to win a baseball game requires more test cases than merely the Oakland A's. Myself, I do believe the theories are sound. The 2003 Toronto team has built its team around many of the same ideas. All their hitters work pitchers deep into the count, take a lot of walks, have solid on base percentages, and have some power. The Boston Red Sox seem to be trying out some of these ideas. Personally, I think focusing on the Oakland A's is a misleading error.

The confusion at the heart of Lewis's book is confusing a strategic approach to baseball with the entirely separate issue of Oakland's tight budget. The latter merely masks the more important story. Moreover, budgetary concerns are highly contingent. If all the teams in baseball were to adopt a team policy of building their teams around players with some power who had high on base percentages, this will in turn effect the pricing of players. It is a mere coincidence right now that some of the players Beane's regards highly are not desired by others. Besides, even Beane acknowledges the greatness of players like Giambi and Bonds.

Nonetheless, for those unfamiliar with these alternative ways of valuing ballplayers, this is a great introduction. Just take all the Billy Beane obsessiveness with a container of salt. And remember that it is just an accident that money is a factor in this story at all. That will change as soon as the rest of baseball changes its thinking about the nature of the game.

I have been a baseball fan all my life. I have never read a better book on the business of baseball. If you have wondered why the Oakland A's seem to keep uncovering new talent to replace that which they lose to free agency - READ THIS BOOK! Michael Lewis does more than explain this phenomenon he tells a compelling story. The book is well investigated and extremely well written. This book makes so, so much sense. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANY SPORTS FAN.

This is one of the top baseball books I have other read. Its fun, moves along, and is an interesting look behind the scenes. AS a long time reader of Bill James, it was interesting to see the James work coming back to life in mainstream circles. It is also a story of people who did not merely accept their fate, but reinvted it into one that they could win...a lesson many of us could learn. Certainly, all baseball fans should read this book.

As an avid baseball fan, avid Seattle Mariner's fan, and avid Oakland Athletic's hater, I am in complete awe of this book. While I don't agree with every one of Billy Beane's philosophy's, so much of it makes sense. When you break it down, it's hard to dispute that it works for him. If every team used his thoughts would it work? Probably not, but that's the beauty of Billy and his team of computer nerds, they made a new way of thinking in baseball work.

Even if you're not a baseball fan, this book is a fabulous read. While he does go into great detail about many aspects of the game a casual observer wouldn't understand, he does it with such grace and elegance that it doesn't get the least bit heavy handed. Micheal Lewis is a master at turning in something that may seem dry to some, and making it a personal, touching story, with fabulous characters and incredible plot development. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It will be talked about for the next few decades for sure, if not beyond.

If you have ever read Bill James or Rob Neyer, this book is definately for you, for everyone else, this book will make you take a second look at the game.
As Michale Lewis takes a look at the Oakland A's organization, we are privy to many different inside the game conversations. The reader quickly learns how it is that the A's have been able to succeed while others say they can't, by looking at the game differently. This different look has grown in recent years and will continue to grow as the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Boston Red Sox now have GM's with a strong SABR based analysis of prospects.
I highly reccomend this book for all baseball lovers.

This is the most enlightening baseball book since Bill James' Baseball Abstract.

I'm a "baseball dad" with both a 15-year-old son who plays HS baseball and a 7-year-old grandson who plays little league. I keep the scorebook and the stats for all my son's games and have been doing so for the last 5 years. One of the other baseball dad's recommended this book to me and said I would like it. So based on his recommendation I bought the book yesterday.

This book is terrific. It's an easy read. But more importantly, it gives you an inside look at the MLB draft through the eye's of the Oakland A's. It's a tale of two schools of thought - the old way of selecting players based on scouting reports vs the new way of selecting players based on stats - but not just any stats. And the book provides some interesting background on the stats of yesteryear and today. For example, everyone thinks the batting average is one of the greatest indicators of success - but this book points out it is really OBP and SLG, not AVG that is the best indicator of runs.

If you like baseball, you are really going to savor and enjoy the inside look at the draft, scouts, and a lively discussion of old school vs new school with regard on how best to select players on a low budget.

Run, don't walk, to buy this book. 2 thumbs up!

I have found myself dissecting a baseball game in a much different way since reading 'Moneyball'. This book is truely insightfull and interesting. Not just a analysis of Billy Bean, the Oakland A's genious GM, but also a story of the personal triumphs of several "nobody" baseball players.

This book is for you if you are a baseball junkie, a statistical nerd, or if you always root for the underdog.

Any real baseball fan will love this book. I inhaled. Built around the the translation of statistics to identify talent that is not fully valued by other teams and game strategy, it tells the story of the Oakland 1992 under general manager Billy Beane and lhow he put it together. A great read.

This is an entertaining book that brings to life the world of baseball general management. I believe the book's value comes from the behind-the-scenes account it provides, not from its study of Billy Beane's strategy.

Beane's objective strategy is not all that revolutionary (it's not like he discovered on-base percentage); however, his devotion to it probably is. The reader is lead to believe this devotion explains why the A's have continued to play great baseball despite the annual loss of mega-stars such as Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, and Billy Koch. However, the book's weakness is the absence of any account of the Big 3 pitchers (Hudson, Mulder, and Zito), who are probably more responsible for the A's success than is Beane's philosophy.

I do like the book's optimistic conclusion: that it's possible to win by finding hidden gems on the cheap instead of paying proven players enormous sums of money. Beane believes the key is letting statistical analysis drive decisions as opposed to gut, emotional, commonplace intuition. By remaining objective, Beane hopes to keep himself from getting too wrapped up in a player and, thus, overpaying for him. This sounds an awful lot like investments, and with Michael Lewis' background, there's not doubt that's what he had in mind. For example, a stock's price/earnings ratio can be likened to a player's on-base percentage/annual salary.

The book is humorous and well-written. My favorite line was when Beane's scouts' questioned the body type of a player he was gung-ho about drafting and he responded "hey, we're not selling jeans here." Lines like that and a fast pace makes this a thoroughly enjoyable book.

I grew up in Tucson Arizona during the 60's and 70's watching baseball on TV. We didn't have a local team to support, or criticize daily like most of the country. I learned early on that big league ball was more than home runs, and no-hitters. Billy Beane see's what real baseball players on the field see from a General Manager's point of view. He see's the weakness, the strengths, and their hearts and souls. This book more than anything shows you what goes on in the mind of a man whose job is to win games, and do it with as little money as possible. Not worrying about hurt feelings, not worrying how fans will react, just give them the best chance to win everyday. Baseball has become a business in which we reward mediocrity, with a .300 batting average as the high mark, and pitchers with era's 4.25 getting bonuses. Many are paid more than anyone should before they step on the field. This is the only business that happens in. Until owners and fans agree that no one is a super star until they can consistently play at a top level for 5 years, we will always be waiting for the next one hit wonder. The baseball world needs more Billy Beanes in order to survive the next 25 years; the trick will be getting the owners to believe it. This book salutes the stars that never had a chance because of some stat that didn't matter anyway. It shows us how ruthless the business end of the game can really be. Sometimes "gut" feeling will tell you more than any stat. My gut says this book is for those who really want to see what's coming next.....

In the interests of full disclosure, I don't even particularly like baseball. However, I found this book absolutely fascinating! While nominally about baseball, Lewis' book is really about how marketplaces place a level of "value" upon goods/skills/individuals/etc. Understanding how to properly measure something is crucial not only to baseball, but to other areas, such as the social sciences or stockmarket. Lewis does a great job at making his message (and the world of baseball statistics) accessable to the average reader. Plus, it is a compelling story! I can't recommend this book enough!

Just finished reading the book over two days. Well done for what it is. As I watched the A's play on TV last night I really enjoyed knowing some of the background on some of the players I watched. I also enjoyed a new insight to the game of baseball that I'd not had before reading this book. The book made me laugh at times and had a "page turning" energy that I hadn't expected.

For any baseball fan, this is required reading. The novel follows the Oakland A's front office as they try to change the way baseball is played. Author Lewis' main point is that the way that the history of baseball has been recorded is flawed, that the stats every fan has read for their whole lives do not paint an accurate picture of the game. Lewis spends the first few chapters setting the stage, how A's General Manager Billy Beane was a prototypical can't miss prospect who failed miserably, how statistician Bill James' gospel reached the masses. The book really picks up steam when Lewis goes in depth of how Beane and his staff implement their vision, epecially in the chapeters on the 2002 draft and 2002 trade deadline.

My main flaw is that Lewis tends to take a very pro-Beane perspective, rarely accounting where his decisions did not pan out. For example, in the 2001 draft, Beane physically berated a scout for wanting to draft Jeremy Bonderman, a high school pitcher. In 2003, Bonderman is playing in the Major Leages. In the 2002 draft, Beane ridiculed the Mets for drafting hight school pitcher Scott Kazmir, who has torn through the Mets system and is rated as one of the top prospects in baseball.

For all his flaws, Beane has come up with a system that has allowed him to challenge the rules that allow rich teams to compete at the highest levels.

This book will really appeal to hardcore baseball fans who've embraced the conclusions of Bill James and his proteges. Lewis has a very readable style, and he doesn't shy away from some of the more complicated aspects of baseball analysis. He includes a nice history of cutting edge thinking on the subject of baseball analysis that reveals that Bill James wasn't (and isn't) the only voice crying out in the desert. Also, there are anecdotes involving contemporary players and coaches that demonstrate the gulf between how players and analysts view the game. As you may have heard, Billy Beane doesn't come off in the most flattering light, but it's a credit to Beane that he didn't seek to edit unfavorable content as well as to Lewis for keeping this content in the book. It's a fast read and interesting to boot.

I received Moneyball in the mail yesterday and read it today. It moves along faster than the game ... and the message is applicable all over the map: people (and things) are overvalued or undervalued for reasons that have more to do with tradition and unproven paradigms than with relevant qualities.

Anyone who manages or hires, anyone who thinks there's something wrong with the current "system" (for doing whatever) can gain tremendous insight from Lewis's book. "If professional baseball players could be over- or under-valued," writes Lewis, "who couldn't?"

Skip this book at your own peril. It's inspirational, in the best way: it doesn't ask you to believe in anything but the idea that we still can learn a better way.

Reading through this book, one gets the impression that arcane baseball stats that most major league GM's don't care about but should, coupled with the sly and shrewd businessman that Billy Beane appears to be has been a winning combination for the Oakland A's. A team that virtually everyone counted out after the 2001 season came back to win over and over in 2002. Although I'm not an Oakland A's fan, I found myself grinning at the moves that Beane makes again and again to not only keep his team winning, but spend as little as possible in the process. Lose your three best players? No problem. Just reload with cheaper replacements. Lose more players after the season? No problem..cheaper replacements are on the way. The A's and other small market teams like the Twins who also are winning poke a huge hole in Bud Selig's contention that these "small market teams" should have been contracted just a year or two ago.

Another thing I noticed about this book is how Beane dispenses with the conventional wisdom of running a baseball team in favor of his own method. So far it obviously has worked, and worked well. And yet only two other major league teams as of the book's publishing have embraced this method. The other teams seem insistent on running a team as inefficiently as possible. All the better for Beane to continue to work his magic.

Numerous folk have commented in reviews of this book that it will be harder now for Beane to continue to be successful because this book shows how he has managed to do this. I don't think so, in fact I think in some ways he wants the rest of the world to know how he has done all this. He secretly wants recognition for the way he has managed to beat "the system."

Not only a look at an unconventional way to run a baseball team, but this book is also a look at an unconventional way for anyone to successfully run any business. A fascinating read.

As an advid Oakland A's fan I couldn't wait to read this book. The last few years since Billy Beane became General Manager of the A's, I've been wondering how or why he made some of the trades/moves that he did?
This book explains exactly what I and many A's fans have been wondering about the trades and moves Billy has made over the last few seasons.
Michael Lewis explains what makes Billy Beane tick and sometimes explode! He gives us a behind the scenes look at Billy and his low budget A's! Michael Lewis also shows us why baseball is like no other sport where stats are more important in judging players, and how Billy Beane and Paul Depodesta(A's assistant G.M.) use on base percentage stats and other stats to make trades and draft baseball prospects! Michael also gives us a brief background on Bill James and Voros McCracken and their theories.
After reading this book you come to wonder why teams would pay so much money for players that don't produce like the Low budget A's, Now I can't wait to see what Billy's Next move(s) will be!

While this book does seem to put Billy Beane on a much loftier pedastal than his peers in the business, his track record so far as the general manager of one of the most financially constrained teams in baseball cannot be argued. I found it interesting to see what a minor role the manager and the players seem to play in the whole scheme of baseball. The author portrays Beane as a grand (and somewhat imbalanced) puppeteer, pulling all the strings according to his whim. So far he's managed to keep the strings from tangling, but whether this has been attributable more to luck or skill remains to be seen, and ten years from now we'll probably be able to more clearly evaluate his talent as a GM.

In any case, the author does paint a fascinting picture of daily life in the front office for his readers. Wefeel like we're in the same room with Beane and his compatriots, eavesdropping on their unique style of approaching the business. The stress and triumphs of the environment are brought to life, and we definitely feel like we're part of the action.

A totally engrossing read. Players are nothing but parts of a machine. Baseball is really played -- and championships won and lost -- in the front office.

I'm not much of a baseball fan and rarely pay attention to it until the playoffs. However, I'm a fan of Michael Lewis's ability to explore the nuances of business and the people who engage in it. I'll leave it to others to argue the contribution this book makes to the literature of the sport of baseball. There is no question, however, that it is one of the best business books I've read in recent memory. Like his previous books, Moneyball is a fascinating story filled with colorful, textured characters in which we are amazed to discover the paradox of business success: that winners are always flawed, their success not always as it appears at first. The book has given me a new appreciation of baseball, but more importantly a new appreciation of the need to always challenge the conventional wisdom of experts. Success comes not from having the right answers but by asking the right questions.

What a pleasure it was to see my favorite author, Michael Lewis, taking a hard look at my favorite subject, baseball. Lewis won me over w/ Liar's Poker a decade over, and I've been thrilled w/ his progress as a writer and his Crichton-like ability to master new subjects.

I found astonishing about this book was how Lewis could take a mathematical formula, OBP, and weave it w/ astonishing personal stories. Lewis and Beane seem to stick w/ hitters, who seem a little easier to pigeonhole numerically.

Enjoy as Lewis describes and unveils an adult statistician who still lives at home, the shock of an "undraftable" catcher going in the first two rounds, a hilarious encounter between a weary pitcher and a hitter waiting on "his pitch" and the story of a "can't miss" prospect -- Billy Beane -- who self-destructs and lives his life proving he won't do it again.

What a joy it was to follow Lewis down this road, and I'm eagerly awaiting his next journey.

Tom Sakell
Baltimore, MD

As an amateur Sabrmetrician and devotee of Baseball Prospectus, I was very excited to hear of Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball." I've always admired the A's of the contemporary small-market days and how they are comprehensively a better team (except in power) than my own Texas Rangers, who have almost bottomless pockets.

I was not aware of Beane's playing career and found that part of the book particularly interesting. Lewis seems to indicate that much of what has motivated Beane to utilize a sabrmetrically-based approach to baseball are his own demons from his playing career.

Whatever the reason for the A's (and now Jays) systems of operations, the results speak for themselves. Hopefully the rest of the league will be as flinty and resistant as they have so far so we can see the dinosaurs taken to the cleaners a few more years before they are rendered extinct.

The story is about how the Oakland A's became one of the best teams in baseball year after year despite spending much less than half as much as their competitors. However, the real story is the triumph of objective reality based on statistics and past performance over player appearance and traditions. This book has universal application in all fields. Lewis does a great job telling this amazing story.

Before reading Moneyball, I had two Bill James books in my bookcase, but they were strictly for show. Before reading Moneyball, I never once cared about the drafting and development of minor league baseball players. Before reading Moneyball, I never paid much attention to the reading of box scores. This book (which is extraordinarily well-written) has changed all that.

Michael Lewis presents a unique and different view of measuring the value of baseball players, and a new way to evaluate players' talent. It's impossible to come away from this book without an altered view of baseball in general. After finishing Moneyball, I sat down and watched the Cubs-Pirates game from start to finish, looking at the nuances at the game I had missed before. I haven't done that in years.

More importantly, this book got me thinking. I'm not sure that Billy Beane has revolutionized baseball. Much of Beane's ideas were also lifted from the Cleveland Indians' approach to scouting and player development from the early 90s. Led by Hank Peters and his assistant John Hart, the Tribe signed such luminaries as Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle and Jim Thome to long-term contracts, then developed their skills with an emphasis on long counts and walks. Lewis fails to mention this point, but his reports on theories of the game are fascinating.

Lewis' reporting is top-notch. The chapter where Beane and his staff work to conduct the 2002 amateur draft is completely riveting. Also, the account of Beane's "trawling" for players through trades is equally first-rate. And I don't think Billy Beane has been deified at all. He treats some people who are rather integral to his success rather shabbily (think Art Howe or Miguel Tejada).

However, it is impossible to deny Billy Beane's influence on the game. The Red Sox and Blue Jays have both hired Beane disciples to run their front office -- heck, the Red Sox even hired Bill James. Any book that can rekindle a fan's interest in baseball deserves five stars. I'm already deep into my first Bill James book, which had sat untouched for the last eight years.

Definitely worth the money.

Moneyball is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in quite some time. It very bluntly states why teams like the Kansas City Royals continue to wallow in their misery while teams with some semblance of intelligence in the front office can thrive, all in a very concise and easy to read manner. Key discoveries, like McCracken's theories on pitchers not being able to control balls in play, and other defining moments in the way baseball statistics are looked at are given ample space to develop without overwhelming the reader with regression analysis.

Looking past the brief sabermetric focused parts of the book, it is simply a great tale with many intriguing characters. Scott Hatteberg, the converted catcher who has to learn a new position. Jason Giambi, who is what most Oakland As will become after their six years of indentured servitude. Jeremy Giambi, his defensively challenged brother. Chad Bradford, a soft throwing pitcher with an unorthodox delivery. Jeremy Brown, a overweight catcher who has a propensity for finding his way on base. And of course, Billy Beane, a man who gets plenty of publicity today, some good, but a lot negative from people too narrow minded to think in new ways.

One question that some people believe remains after the novel is "what happens when all of baseball thinks the way the As, Blue Jays, and Red Sox now do?" The answer is contained in the book - its not likely to happen anytime soon, dispite the overwhelming evidence for many teams to have a complete brain overhaul. Commentators like Joe Morgan, (occassionally Peter Gammons), GMs like Allaird Baird, and managers like Larry Bowa will be in power for the next decade or two, and don't look like they'll change their ways short of a 162-0 season out of the As.

This is an excellent read if your a fan of baseball or not. Lewis takes you into the most successful small market franchise in the majors and shows you how it runs. That is ofcourse for the baseball fan, but Lewis also gives the average reader something to read this book for. A look into the phsyce of one of the most intense men in baseball. An excellent investment of both your money and your time.

Michael Lewis has done us a great service: he has unleashed upon an unsuspecting public the story of Billy Beane and the Oakland A's. It's a story that legitimizes performance analysis, debunks the myth that baseball is to be seen but not studied, and of course, entertains, by way of some rather unlikely characters (Scott Hatteberg, Chad Bradford). For those of us that have been waiting for the Oakland-led assault on baseball tradition to become a full-fledged revolution, this book is an important step: every baseball fan who reads it and comes away discouraged by their own team's relative lack of sophistication, and we're another small step closer to that revolution.

I can't help it. This is Lewis' best since Liar's Poker, even better than The New New Thing, and only behind Liar's Poker because you've read him before. You can look a long time for another book that teaches so much and makes it so much fun.

I see a lot of good reviews by baseball fans, and the book deserves them. But I'm in finance. This book will teach you more useful finance than most textbooks. All you have to do is imagine a board of directors instead of the tobacco-chewing scouts; or a bunch of fund managers, traders and analysts instead of first basemen and catchers and you'll see the same basic truths about statistics and human nature apply.

This book demonstrates that baseball is a game of strategy, off the field as well as on. It is a game where the little guy can still win out - if he has the smarts and can gain the competitive edge. The book restores one's faith in the basic integrity of the game, and it must strike fear into the hearts of the George Steinbrenners of the world. As Michael Lewis so satisfyingly illustrates, baseball really is America's game, the game where the underdog can come out on top. This book, and Bill Lee's revisionist baseball history, The Little Red (Sox) Book have restored my faith in the sanctity of baseball.

Required reading for anyone who appreciates the game of baseball. Michael Lewis gives all the facts on why the Oakland A's are so successful in baseball with ~$50M budget against teams spending 2-3 times as much. This book is not a glorification of the A's GM, Billy Beane but a complete dissection of the ways baseball teams must operate to compete successfully. If I was a baseball owner, I would require my General Manager to read the book and explain why our payroll is so high with poor results (NY Mets, Baltimore Orioles). Overall great book.
JTS

It's amazing that with all the complaints by Selig & Co. of how poorer baseball teams cannot comepete, Beane and the A's have built an organization primed for long term success.

As a baseball fan, this book is a great read. It crystalizes what specific factors weigh in to Oakland's player evaluation metrics, and how they leverage inefficiencies in the market to their advantage.

One of the greatest tragedies in baseball is the failure rate of young players. For so long, we've assumed that it's because hitting a round ball with a round bat "square" is so difficult. However, as Beane and the A's have proved, teams are looking for the wrong skills!

Beane has assembled a roster of players that other teams have passed on and cast off, and with it, taken the mighty Yankees to the brink twice in the past 3 years. What's most remarkable is that this isn't an "abberation," but a system of player development that should keep the A's in competition until the rest of the league catches up.

Lewis doesn't get into the actual "meat" of the statistical methods used, but this is a great start for any fan of the game. Especially if your team has been in a state of never-ending "rebuilding."

It's refreshing, and re-assuring, to know that money can't buy everything, even in baseball. This book offers hope for all small market teams and their fans. Bill "spaceman" Lee, in his new book, The Little Red (Sox) Book says much the same thing in a humorous, revisionist manner.

Believe it or not, I got a wrong impression about the book from the write-up on the dust-cover; I swore this was a NOVEL, a writer's fantasy about "what if" a baseball team were put together in a non-traditional way, by people who throw away the old assumptions and proceed on a state-of-the-art basis. But of course this is no fantasy; it's about the actual Oakland A's of recent years. I felt sheepish about my misunderstanding because I'm a long-time fan of sabermetrics; I just happened not to have known the exact story about this book. I wonder if any other readers suffered my misunderstanding when they first read the dust-cover blurb!

If you are already a keen student of the "new analysis" of baseball (a la Bill James, John Thorn, Pete Palmer etc.), you'll enjoy this confirmation of what you pride yourself on knowing; if not, you'll have the wonderful adventure of getting a steep learning curve on the science of baseball and how for years and years the "old boys network" has failed to see the forest for the trees. Also, you'll laugh an awful lot, and your lexicon will gain some new catch phrases; my personal favorite is, "Put a Milo on him."

Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" is a wonderful book that attempts to answer a strange paradox according to conventional baseball wisdom: How do the Oakland Athletics, one of the poorest teams in baseball, win so much and win so relentlessly? The answer is, of course, the system that General Manager Billy Beane built that challenged irrational baseball orthodoxy and made the most with the least in an inefficient system.

Beane himself was once touted by scouts who thought he had all the right attributes: speed, power, athleticism, and, yes, "the Good Face." When his major league career ended bitterly as an unambiguous failure, he turned his other talents to bringing rationality to an irrational baseball establishment. His new tools: statistical analysis, a willingness to discard conventional wisdom, an ability to think, and a demeanor designed to bait unsuspecting GMs into making foolish deals.

One of the best scenes from the book is Billy Beane in action during the 2002 trading deadline when he cobbled together a few good and undervalued players to add to the Oakland juggernaut. The funniest line in this section comes from Beane's dealings with the hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a team he fleeced before: "[W]hile Tampa Bay's management was willing to talk to Billy, they were too frightened to deal with him." A god among mere mortals indeed.

To me, the most engrossing part of "Moneyball" is the Oakland A's 2002 amateur draft which would lay the foundation of the team in the coming years. While other teams were quite content to gamble and to dream the very possible dream of mediocrity in selecting raw and untested high school players, the A's used their seven first round picks to draft a bunch of college no names the baseball establishment scorned. Why? They were either too short, too fat, too skinny, too slow, or even too ugly to become, in the minds of baseball scouts who supposedly knew better, future stars. Beane rightly dismissed this subjective and irrational hogwash by highlighting attributes the scouts should have paid attention to instead: on base percentage, slugging percentage, walks, strike out-to-walk ratios, and other quantifiable measures that correlate highly to future success.

A word on the recent controversy between White Sox GM Kenny Williams and Beane when the former accused the latter of talking too much to Lewis and making Williams look stupid in their lop-sided trades. In "Moneyball" there is not one section where Beane says anything directly disparaging about his fellow GMs, but the Oakland GM's record nonetheless speaks for itself: GMs like Williams are letting irrational and institutionalized baseball prejudices blind them and Beane took advantage accordingly.

In the end, baseball commissioner Bud Selig could continue to continue to chant his mantra that "small market teams can't compete" over and over until he secures taxpayers' dollars to build every stadium. Teams could continue to ignore the mounting evidence that college players are a good bet and instead blow their money and time chasing down high-risk high schoolers or over-valued mediocrity. In the meantime, the Oakland example will show (and continue to show) that how wrong--and yes, how needlessly stupid--they are.

Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading this more than any other book I've read in a while.
It's about Billy Beane and how the A's have been run in the last couple of years.
It has a lot about Bill James as well... and mentions Rob Neyer a few times. It's not even really about money, which is surprising, coming from Michael Lewis, and with the title.. It's about baseball. And it focuses on the A's, going all the way until January this year.
As an A's fan, I'm worried that it gives away too many of Beane's secrets!
ALthough, there is a passage that puts me to ease a little (page 241)

"IF one didn't already know better, one might think that Voros McCracken's article on baseballprospectus.com would be cause for celebration everywhere inside big league baseball. One knew better. Voros knew better. 'The problem with major league baseball', he said, 'is that it's a self-populating institution. Knowledge is institutionalized. The people involved with baseball who aren't players are ex-players. In their defense, their structure is not set up along corporate lines. They aren't equipped to evaluate their own systems. They don't have the mechanism to let in the good and get rid of the bad. They either keep everytyhing or get rid of everything, and they rarely do the latter.'
He sympathized with basball owners woh didnt' know what to think, or even if they should think. 'If you're an owner and you never played, do you believe Voros McCracken or Larry Bowa?' The unemployed former paralegal living with his parents, or the former All-Star shortstop and current manager who no doubt owned at least one home of his own?"
Voros McCracken's astonishing discovery about major league pitchers had no apparent effect on the management, or evaluation, of actual pitchers. No one on the inside calld Voros to discuss his findings; so far as he knew, no one on the inside had even read it. But Paul DePodesta(assistant GM of the A's) had read it. Paul's considered reaction: 'If you want to talk about a guy who might be the next Bill James, Voros McCracken could be it.' Paul's unconsidered reaction: 'The first thing I thought of was Chad Bradford."

The article that Voros wrote is on baseballprospectus, about how pitchers don't control the hit percentage of balls in play, so the most important thing about them is the nubmer of strikeouts, walks, and home runs. [...]
This is just one of the many great points about the way baseball is now analyzed.
Run, don't walk, to get this.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Not only is it the first look inside the most successful franchise - sure, there's the Yankees, but when historians look back, it will be Beane's A's that are remembered as the innovators. Even non-baseball fans will enjoy the crisp writing and phenomenal story-telling. Lewis' previous books are a high standard, but Moneyball may be even better. I'm still amazed that Beane allowed so much access - either Lewis is every bit as persuasive as Beane or Beane has something up his sleeve! The true star of the book may end up being Paul DePodesta, who will likely be the next great GM, following JP Ricciardi and Theo Epstein as "Beane Counters" and likely the men that saved baseball. I can't speak for the rest of Baseball Prospectus, but this has to be the best baseball book not written by us in the last decade.

Michael Lewis, whose previous books have taken us inside the worlds of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, takes us to the offices of the Oakland Coliseum for a behind-the-scenes look at Billy Beane, Paul DePodesta, and the Oakland A's.

This is unlike any baseball book you've ever read, as Lewis reports on conversations that Beane had with other GMs and pulls back the curtains on the inner workings of a major league baseball team.

If you're not a baseball fan, this book will appeal to you for its in-depth look at a management team at the top of its game; if you are a baseball fan, you will be amazed by the level of detail that Lewis brings to the subject.

This book deserves a spot among the best baseball books ever written, alongside such classics as 'Ball Four,' and 'Veeck as In Wreck.'

It just goes to show that statistics can help you do anything well and will give you a competitive advantage. A must read for anyone in the finance industry or students interested in the finance industry.

The book is great for what it is. The information is good. However, it could have used a proofreader. There are several instances of problems with subject/verb agreement. And, for a book that is included as a business book it has some pretty raw language.

However, it is written in a way that tells a great story. It pulls the reader in and keeps them there. The information provided by the book as far as game theory is concerned is missing. It provides a little information but not much.

I'm what you would consider a business focused person who loves sports. If this describes you, then you will really like this book.

The book is an easy and very interesting read. Michael Lewis is a great writer. Although he is writing about a topic I have little interest in (baseball) I was still drawn into the characters of the story and the business lessons the story offered.

Great book. It's a baseball classic. If you love the game then why wouldn't you love this one. It's a great story. Michael Lewis is a great storyteller. He was there. He knows. I trust him.

Great book for the truly inspired baseball person. If you anything about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's this is the book for you. You really have to want to know what happens behind the scenes and off the field.

All the recent reviews state that they are not baseball fans.
The book is well written and has a great mini-story on Bill James.
One problem: The philosophy of Billy Beane hasn't come to fruition.
In fact, in retrospect, it was excellent pitching that made the Oakland As contenders year after year.
During Billy Beane's years as GM, correct me if I'm wrong, but they've won 1 playoff series.

A well written book that shows how statistic is revolutionizing the age old game of baseball. I enjoyed reading it, as it suggests other broader changes happening as more and more data becomes easily available.

For baseball fans in particular, they will enjoy reading about this fascinating change in the way the game is strategically played. Less of a baseball fan than a geek about how statistics can be deceiving, I greatly enjoyed this book as well.

What was also very interesting was the manner in which statistics, very hard to argue, was not well received. The struggle for change was against the grain. The same is true of so many things that statistics is changing.

I would mention that if you are neither into statistics or baseball, you may not greatly enjoy this book.

I'm not a baseball fan, but Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers. So when I heard that he'd been hired to write a screenplay based on this book, I ordered it from my library, specifically, the unabridged Books On Tape version, a fine reading by Scott Brick.

This is a glorious story of the unconventional triumphing over the typical, and it's easy to see why Columbia wants to turn it into a picture. And why they hired Sorkin. Moneyball is totally a story he can "hit out of the park," his Sports Night was a show you didn't need to love sports to love, either.

Lewis tells his story so well that even a non baseball fan like me can get caught up in the love of the game--at least for the hours I was listening.

Less clear is why Brad Pitt, who is "attached to the project," should star in the film version--nothing against Pitt, but the story I heard doesn't seem to need a popular sex symbol.

In fact, one of the great ideas of the Oakland A's management covered by the book is that they should concentrate on guys who can play, no matter what they look like, not so much on studs who can "sell jeans."

This idea was not exactly loved in big league baseball, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a movie studio hasn't taken it on either...

I must be one of the last people to read Moneyball. When it first came out I was not mentally prepared to read a new approach in the game. Not that I'm a tradionalist but it was baseball. It's the long ball. It's turning the double play and hitting the cutoff man.

Now that I've opened my mind to many new things in life my timing was good. I actually felt like I was reading a couple of books in one. The life and times of Billy Beane and the Perfect Storm.

So many have the physical talent but the mind gets in the way. That certainly was the case with Billy Beane. Years ago he would have been given his walking papers if he walked in to the boss and said I don't want to play but I want a job in the office. But timing was perfect for him. Everything was coming together, new owners and Sandy Alderson. So they tried new things and it pissed off the world but had some success.

Now other teams are trying these methods and that shouldn't surprise anyone. Afterall were in a world of data, today's generation doesn't fight it they massage it and tinker with it and find little bits and pieces that just might give them an advantage. What's wrong with that. Baseball for so long was untouchable, it cloned it's managers, coaches, general managers and everybody was happy. Now a new creature appears and there is skepticism and words written in massive quantities about the perilous end to the game.

I don't buy in to everything they say is working, but that can be said about any business that starts to look at things in a new way. Give it time and it will reveal itself. In the meantime it was fun to read and once again as you deal with human nature there is no answer only more questions.

This book explores how statistical analysis of baseball games, called sabermetrics, are revolutionizing the way that professional baseball is played.

Moneyball follows the Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane during the 2002 season, focusing on how they select players to draft and acquire through trades not by traditional methods, but based instead upon an objective statistical analysis using non-traditional statistics, allowing them to remain competitive with teams capable of paying much more money for their players.

Being someone who enjoys math and is interested in how efficiency is achieved, and despite having very little knowledge of baseball (the bulk of my knowledge comes from this book and from asking my dad questions), I found Moneyball to be thoroughly enjoyable.

I breezed through this. It artfully explains the "new" approach used by the Oakland A's to build a playoff caliber team. Serves as a critique on the backwards way most baseball teams are run. Which can be seen as a metaphor for the many corporations who are failing because of their archaic methods.
This is well written, and the author is very good at getting inside the heads of the major characters.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a 2003 baseball book by Michael Lewis about the Oakland Athletics and general manager Billy Beane. Conventional baseball wisdom is flawed, Lewis says, and many coaches and scouts focus on the wrong statistics. The Oakland A's, because of severe budget restrictions, sought to find objective ways (like sabermetrics) to evaluate players. In doing so, the A's were able to find players who were undervalued in the market, which led to a very successful run with a relatively low payroll in the early 2000's.

Lewis also explores the life and career of Beane, who was a very talented baseball prospect who never panned out as a player because of confidence issues. Lewis also includes lengthy sections on Bill James, the founder of sabermetrics, catcher/first baseman Scott Hatteberg, and pitcher Chad Bradford. Lewis follows, loosely, the A's' 2002 season.

Objectively, on-base percentage is typically considered the most important single statistic. The A's strategy, though, goes beyond finding high-OBP players - they want any player with any quality that the market undervalues (this also explains why they haven't been very good in recent years and why they don't have many good OBP guys).

One of Lewis's themes is how resistant Major League Baseball has been to Beane's ideas - they took several years to catch on, and there are still many who oppose them. Several of Beane's underlings (and other Beane disciples) have become general managers recently, but there is still an appalling ignorance among commentators (which is hardly surprising), coaches, and scouts.

Lewis, as in his other works, tends to ramble from time to time (he also likes to throw in the big word seemingly for its own sake). Many sections are longer than they need to be, and become tedious; others are marginally interesting but have little to do with his topics. But Lewis also does a good job portraying the personalities of his characters, and as such Moneyball is immersive.

Moneyball is important to the history of baseball - it, more than anything else, brought objective statistical analysis of baseball players into the mainstream. Any fan of baseball should find this interesting.

The book begins with the question: "How did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?" At the opening of the 2002 season, the richest team, the N.Y. Yankees, had a payroll of $126 million, while the two poorest teams, the Oakland A's and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, had payrolls of about $40 million each. Yet, for the past several years the A's won more regular season games than any other, except the Atlanta Braves.

The impetus for change came from rapidly escalating player salaries after free-agency, and the increased availability of data and ease of using it.

Side Note: Steinbrenner paid only $10 million for the entire Yankee team in 1973 - far less than many individual players now receive in a single year.

Lewis makes it clear that it's hard to pinpoint when innovative statistical analysis began to change baseball - efforts began decades before the A's innovations, but never really caught on. This was partly due to limited data availability and engrained traditions. The key enabler was Sandy Alderson, an attorney with no baseball background, becoming 1990 general manager of the Athletics. Alderson recognized the lack of hard evidence for most coaching and recruiting ploys - probably via the numerous conflicting strategies. His early conclusions from others' data was that obtaining walks was an important, underused strategy. A second key step was recognizing that Billy Beane, A's scout, had grown tired of traditional recruiting, believing it highly imprecise and was looking for a new approach. (This may partly have been due to how he was aggressively recruited out of high school, but failed to do well.) Thus, he Billy Beane replaced Alderson when he left the A's, and in turn hired Paul DePodesta, a Harvard graduate with an economics major and a record of innovative baseball analyses.

Side Note 2: Lewis also explained the baseball recruiting and free-agency system. A team that drafts and signs a player holds the rights to his first 7 years in the minors and first 6 in the majors. Exception: The second 3 years of a big-league player could be subject to salary arbitration. The rules also granted first-round draft-picks for each top round player "poached" (outbid) by other teams, and another "compensation" pick at the end of the first round.

Beane's new scouting approach dumped almost all high school players from consideration - college players were much more likely to succeed. Also quickly dumped were those looking for sizable pay. Foot speed, fielding ability, and raw power were found to be dramatically overpriced; the ability to control the strike zone (draw walks, not swing at bad pitches) was found to the greatest indicator of future success.

Excellent insights!

This is an excellent introduction to the conception and process of applying sabermetrics, the objective cold-hard-facts method of valuing baseball players in terms of their probabilities of generating runs on offense and preventing runs on defense, to the cost efficient management of a baseball team.

This introduction is accomplished through an almost allegorical tale about Billy Beane, first as a baseball player and then as the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. As such, it tends to read a bit like a tribute or hero-worship novel as Billy Beane is touted for his trailblazing approach to using statistical analysis, not baseball "wisdom", to value players and assemble winning teams within a fixed budget. But there is purpose in the telling of "The Billy Beane Story" and it is to use it as a literary device to keep the reader engaged as a rather dry subject (statistical analysis and dispassionate player evaluation) is revealed.

If you think that Derek Jeter is a great fielding shortstop, you will learn about tools that demonstrate rather convincingly that, despite Jeter's Gold Glove awards, he is a rather pathetic fielder for a major league baseball player. You will learn about tools that allow a baseball general manager to recognize the value of rather unimpressive physical specimens (e.g., catcher turned first baseman Scott Hatteberg) as surprising productive players when they are important contributors to team success.

Sabermetrics is not widely respected among most who run the show on major league teams today. But there is a slow yet growing recognition of its value. Billy Beane and the Oakland A's may have bmost recently the first, but such methods are being adopted by more and more teams, including the and the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox. (Is it merely a coincidence that the Red Sox finally won the World Series after an 86 year drought only once its ownership and general management adopted a sabermetric approach to player evaluation?) This book will effectively and entertainingly expose you to subtle yet powerful new approach to team management that is growing within baseball. If you love baseball ... if you think you know how to evaluate baseball players ... this is a very worthwhile read.

I agree with the reviewer who said this is a good baseball book for the casual baseball fan. This book gives the best, least complicated explanation of sabermetrics that I've read. I take this book with me on plane rides, because I find the first two-thirds engaging and relaxing. (The last third fawns over Beane and his team of undervalued players -- the part about how Ken Williams is hesitant to take Billy Beane's phone calls, for fear of what sneaky trade the wily Billy Beane is going to trick Williams into taking -- a bit annoying, especially to a Sox fan, so I never read that part.)

How did Billy Beane consistently win 101 games a year with a payroll 1/2 that of the Red Sox and 1/3 that of the Yankees? It couldn't all be luck. According to Moneyball, it wasn't.

While it is a must-read for baseball fans, non-baseball fans will enjoy this well-written David over Goliath tale as well.

I just finished reading Moneyball for the first time. I was generally impressed, and a lot of the ideas about baseball seem to be fairly on target, but I think they need to stand the test of time before we can accept them as unquestionably valid. We're not there yet.

Anyway, I was curious about how a lot of the players mentioned in the book fared in Major League Baseball, and checked out the stats on many of them. Now there is one part of the book where Ray Durham (A's second baseman) is taking batting practice while coaches Ron Washington and Thad Bosley are chatting behind the cage, obviously with our author Michael Lewis nearby and listening in too. Now "Wash" and "Boz" mention that they each got lots of stolen bases in their careers. Wash claims to have gotten 50 or so one year (my memory's vague on this detail as I write this) and Bosley acknowledged when Wash said that Boz got 90 one season. Durham is shocked by this. While I read it, I took it as fact. If you take the time to look it up, you'll see that they're obviously having an inside joke at someone's expense, either Durham's, Lewis' or both.

Wash played 12 yrs, almost all as a utility infielder. He had as many as a total of 10 stolen bases in only one season, never made double digits in any other year. Ron Washington did not play on the speedy Royals in the 70s. His first season was '78 with the Dodgers, then he went down to the minors again until he was back up with the Twins in '81. Looks like he started in 82 and or 83, that's it.

Bosley's top steal total was 12 in '78 with the White Sox. He usually didn't even get 90 ab's in a year. Utility outfielder for every one of his seasons in the majors.

Now it didn't seem to me that Lewis was presenting this info as if he was in on the joke. I wonder what anyone else's impression was, if they seemed to sense any irony on his part. It would be a bit embarrassing if Lewis printed this without fact checking it, especially when he's as irreverent as he is toward his targets (scouts, baseball management/establishment) for basically not bothering to check real facts (statistics). It's at least as important for a non-fiction writer to be checking his facts as for a baseball general manager.

I also took some time to dig up stats on the A's 2002 draftees. Nick Swisher is doing very well, Joe Blanton is a #3 A's starter now, but no other draftee of theirs that year is spectacular -- most aren't even in the majors yet. One prospect they ridiculed and passed on, Prince Fielder, is looking like a new star for the Brewers. So while the A's got a huge number of the guys they wanted, those guys haven't by and large panned out to be all that great, no more than any other team's, that I can see. Their picks seem to about on par with other teams' picks.

So while the book's premise is intriguing, from what I can see, it hasn't proven itself to be true yet by a long shot. That may change over time, and we can see a handful of teams now mimicking the A's philosophy (Red Sox, Blue Jays, Padres for starters). Time will tell.

Knowing this, that the jury is still very much out, I have to say that to me it seems like the attack on Joe Morgan in the last part of the book is way over the top and out of line. Morgan has a right to his opinion, and he's paid money to give his opinion on TV. A career like his gives him the right to speak his mind, and actually he has more credibility than Beane or Lewis based on that alone. It would definitely be better for Morgan if he'd examine the evidence a bit closer, rather than refuse to read the book. Lewis meanwhile attacks Morgan for wrongly claiming Beane wrote the book (among other things). As far as I can tell, Morgan never said that. Morgan did say that Beane says in the book that he is "smarter than everyone else." (which isn't literally true, but it's the gist of Beane's attitude, honestly) Beane is quoted often in the book, saying lots of things, from cover to cover. That doesn't mean he wrote the book, and if Morgan says that Beane said something in the book, that's not the same as Morgan saying Beane wrote the book. My gut says Lewis is dishonestly twisting what Morgan said, of disingenuosuly throwing fuel on the fire. It is possible I missed some quote of Morgan where he clearly says that Beane wrote the book -- and I did look for it. I've looked at the quotes that Morgan's critics (incl. Lewis' in the book) cite as 'proof' -- and none of those quotes state what they say it states. But if anyone can find where Morgan actually says that Beane wrote Moneyball, I would like to see it.

I'm kind of neutral where Joe Morgan is concerned. I think he'd probably learn something by reading the book, and I think Lewis also goes too far in his claims and attacks. Moneyball has some interesting, intriguing ideas in it that may or may not be valid over the long run. But the experiments are underway, and in time we'll know. My gut says some will turn out to be true and some not.

Very insightful, journalistic account of how Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's, synthesized a lot of other peoples' ideas (Bill James in particular) to field a baseball team that could compete with and beat the NY Yankees for 1/3 the cost. The author, Michael Lewis, is primarily a financial writer and has previously penned gems like Liar's Poker. But he was interested in Billy Beane for the same reason people write about Steve Jobs; he's innovative, he takes risks, and is wildly successful most of the time. Even if you don't like baseball, this will be one of the most mesmerizing books you will have read in quite sometime, but as a baseball fan - I was entranced. - blogophobe -

Much has been made of the statistical aspects of player evaluation. This book gives those outside the walls of the baseball establishment an insight into the characters and creativity that one franchise has used to be competitive. It is hard to disagree with the success that the analysis has provided. The book sometimes wanders from the premise trying to give anecdotal stories about some of the colorful personalities within the game. Overall though the book does what it set out to do. It provides the reader with an alternative to the old school ways of player evaluation. In the end it has made me rethink the preconceived notions I had of what the best approach would be for those teams who don't have the luxury of an unlimited checkbook.

You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy Moneyball. Michael Lewis diligently lays out the framework of Billy Beane's career with the Oakland A's as both a student of the game and as a visionary. His smooth and fluent writing style blends to keep you interested and you'll want him to win it all in the end.

What excited me about reading this book is that it has applicability in other sports. His philosophies can be applied to basketball, soccer, football, anything. If nothing else, it will spark your interest and make you reevaluate your definitions of "successful" athletes at any level.

Buy it and read it. It will give you a new appreciation for baseball.

Have fun,

David Tobias
Redondo Beach, CA

One of the reasons baseball fans remain so steadfast in their devotion is a sense of tradition. During interminable rain delays and constant pitching changes, broadcasters often wax nostalgic about how little has changed over the years: there have always been nine men on the field; bases are still 90 feet apart; three strikes and you're out. It's this comfort level that makes change so difficult, why people are opposed to innovation such as Astroturf, the designated hitter and inter-league play. "This is the way things have been done and this is how we're going to keep on doing them," seems to be the general mindset of proponents of the old school.

Lewis, in his thought-provoking Moneyball, makes one wonder if school will soon be out.
Unable to spend as freely as their upscale brethren, small market teams like the Athletics must be content to scout the high school and college players other teams might find less desirable or to pick up the detritus of other clubs. In fact, while the A's own veteran scouts drooled over the "potential" (that damnable word) of talented schoolboy (i.e., high school) athletes, Beane preferred to go with the relatively more mature and established college prospects.
The difference between the A's and other fiscally-challenged clubs, however, is their stunning success. Beane and his associates have managed to build pennant contenders seemingly out of straw.
The new manner of assessing personnel could be considered almost a new age philosophy. Rather than looking for the hulking slugger who can bash balls out of sight, Beane and company seek a kinder, gentler athlete, one adept in the art of taking a pitch, making the opposition wear itself down. Why else would Beane aggressively pursue a nobody like Scott Hatteberg, a catcher left unsigned by his former team and whom no one else wanted, and convert him to a first baseman? Because Hatteberg is a master of how to "work the pitcher."
Lewis examines the influence of Bill James and his band of number-crunching "sabrematicians" on Beane's decision-making processes. Instead of batting average and runs batted in, James and his brethren advocated different statistical yardsticks such as on-base percentage and runs created. "The [traditional] statistics were not merely inadequate: they lied," writes Lewis, "And the lies they told led the people who ran major league baseball teams to misjudge their players, and mismanage their games."
The author offers several examples of the A's forward thinking. As a group of batters gather around a video monitor to study pitch-by-pitch sequences, the author notes how "[t]hey're no longer playing a game; they're playing game theory."
The in-depth coverage of the draft process, with its tactics, subterfuges and stomach-churning tension, is a wonderful insight into this annual event. With the help of his laptop-clutching assistant, Beane carefully analyzed players' tendencies rather than raw numbers. Lewis compares the GM and his crew of "computer geeks" to "card counters at a blackjack table" (some might say the draft is actually more of a crap shoot). To carry the non-baseball analogy further: when describing the machinations involved in making Nicholas Swisher their first pick in 2002, it seems as if the author is writing not so much about baseball as about chess.
Lewis tells this revolutionary tale with a mixture of keen insight, thoughtful prose and -- at times -- too much detail, which sometimes detracts from the overall picture. Many of his references are financial in nature, as when he speaks of "derivatives" -- those fragments of the game such as how the next pitch after a 1-1 count can make a huge difference in how a batter performs. Perhaps because of this, however, Lewis comes at the reader with a fresh set of eyes, remarking on issues the average fan fails to notice, both on the field and behind the scenes.

Most serious fans can roll off satistics about their favorite player but few realize that the numbers they cite have little to do with wins and losses. Baseball is a team sport that captures the American Spirit in ways that no other sport has been able to comprehend. Even a solid home run hitter may contribute less to putting his team in the win column than the player who can tease a base hit out of any pitcher and is able to steal his way home game after game. Likewise, a team that makes a lot of errors can still come out ahead in the win/loss talley. In Moneyball, Michael Lewis takes the reader beyond the strike zone to observe a side of baseball that few fans have noticed about this unique game. Like real life, this game is really won or lost by contributions that are not displayed on the scoreboard or written about on the Sports Page. Every member of the team contributes in ways that can only be seen by collection and analysis of statstistics. There is the so-so pitcher who can tease a base hit in every game, or the injured outfieldler who can play third base with an uncanny sense of where the ball is going to track. Lewis blends good story telling with evidence from the actual business case of the LA Angles to make this a book that avid baseball fans and hard-nosed business managers can profit from and enjoy.

Money Ball was a great book. It shows that you don't need money to win in baseball(take that Yankees ;-P) Michael Lewis reavels that the team with the 2nd lowest payroll, the Oakland Athletics, can have so much dominance and success in a game where the best baseball players usually end up with the richest team. Lewis also tells the story of Billy Beane the GM of the Athletics. Billy's bad attitude and foul temper prevented him from making in the MLB. He exerts his attitude as a force over the so-called "experts" when a desicion must be made. Billy constanly goes against what the scouts think a drafts players that nobody has heard of. He shows that there are many aspects of the game that we don't know. All in all, this was an excellant book. My only complaint was that there was a lot of swearing.--- Jesse Hartman

This book was my introduction to sabermetrics, and proved to be quite a thrilling introduction. The application of truly smart statistical work the game of baseball in Billy Beane and the Oakland A's had me hooked from page one. Great material.

It did seem to drag on a little, however. The first half of the book was thrilling. The end started to feel like more of the same old same old. But it's still worth finishing.

"Moneyball" is an inside look into the mind and habits of Billy Beane, the general manager of the small market Oakland A's. Faced with the daunting project of building a roster on peanuts, Beane turns to the statistical analysis of Bill James, an outsider to baseball, a fan, a former bean factory employee. James now works for the Boston Red Sox.

This is a book about baseball statistics. But it is not boring because Lewis profiles the players behind the numbers, like Chad Bradford, a terminally shy pitcher with a knuckle-scraping-ground underhand delivery, and Scott Hatteberg, the catcher with a bad arm who thought his playing days were over, only to be resurrected as a first baseman because Beane saw something valuable in Hatteberg's on-base percentage and ability to work the count (Hatteberg's lifetime batting average and power, stats most scouts consider essential, are nothing special).

Jeremy Brown, the pudgy, overweight catcher (5'10'', 210)profiled in "Moneyball," made his major league debut May 9, but has yet to appear in a game.

"Moneyball" is a fun, brisk read. It gives a human faces to the baseball cattle market even as it portends the rise of the Harvard grads with their laptops.

If you love stories about an unlikely hero, a guy who succeeds not by calling in favors or taking advantage of wealth, but by Out Thinking his rivals, then you should probably consider reading Moneyball. And if you're a baseball fan to boot, then what are you waiting for?

Moneyball is the well-written and fast-moving story of Billy Beane, a one-time hot baseball prospect who never panned out. But he hits the big time as general manager of the Oakland A's by thinking outside the box, transforming this small-market team with a limited budget into one of baseball's most successful franchises by re-evaluating the way players are measured. The result: he covets players no other team wants, and he wins with them.

Most baseball teams collect players the way an art collector accumulates paintings. Add one or two high-priced and high-visibility objects to an otherwise average group, the thinking goes, and you can start collecting accolades. According to author Michael Lewis, Beane goes about it differently. As a can't-miss prospect who missed, Beane recognizes the psychology of the super star who will not deliver what he promises. But more importantly, Beane also ignores conventional and flashy statistics like batting average and ERA for seemingly mundane alternatives like on-base percentage and ground balls allowed. After all, he'd ask, what does it matter if a player gets to first after driving the first pitch to the warning track or by drawing a walk after fouling pitches off and reaching a full count? The difference is that the second option -- though much less likely to become an ESPN Play of the Day -- is far better because in addition to getting a man on base, it tires out the opposing pitcher.

It's tempting to argue that Moneyball is less about baseball than it is about life. After all, the morals of the story are to disregard convention wisdom, to use your own smarts rather the opinions of others, and to pick a game plan and stick with it. Although these concepts are very valid away from the baseball diamond, that isn't too relevant here: Moneyball is a baseball book, and chances are that if you don't enjoy and understand the sport, then most of the book's lessons will be lost on you.

One thing I can't figure out is why Beane allowed this book to be written.

He obviously has a good thing going in Oakland, and I don't understand why he would reveal his secrets to Mr. Lewis. I guess it's not much of a risk that other teams will emulate this unusual statistics-based approach (At least three other teams say they do -- the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Toronto Blue Jays -- but they all have too much money to really need this philosophy. And it's not something you can do to a limited degree, like adding a drop of milk to your coffee. It's all or nothing). But Beane also gives insight into how he manipulates trades to his advantage, and how he knows (and names) certain other general managers who are pushovers. Why would he want this information to be known?

Another thing I'm confused by is why Beane is so unhappy. I suppose his work ethic is a key to his success, and I would also speculate that he holds some resentment toward himself for the way he wasted his baseball talent as a young man. But he doesn't seem to take any real joy from what he's accomplished, which is all the more amazing because he did it going directly against the current. Whether this is a shortcoming of Beane's or of Mr. Lewis's storytelling, I can't say (I suspect the former). But it is noticeable and unfortunate.

I think Mr. Lewis' great writing style makes this book more enjoyable than the subject matter really is.
First of all, statistically speaking, while the A's production during the regular season is impressive, equally as impressive has been their record of post-season futility.

The antagonist of this book, A's GM Billy Beane, comes across as a boorish, loud-mouthed, idiot. Of course, we all experience idiots in life everyday, but Mr. Beane wants everyone to know that he's a genius and all the rest of us are the uninformed (sounds like the Democratic Party...It takes a Village?).

Hardly. Mr. Beane and some others (Theo Esptein of the Red Sox) in baseball subscribe to a unique set of baseball stats to make the bulk of their baseball decisions. Most importantly, these include on-base and slugging percentage. Moreover, they view previously used stats as being completely irrelevant. Now, anyone that has taken a college-level stats course will tell you that most stats can be tailored to someone's own views or goals. This is the backbone of Moneyball.

Armed with this knowledge and arrogance, Beane and his crew of sycophants seek to change to rules of baseball by awarding lesser known players with stats to their liking while eschewing the higher priced talent that Beane views as being overpaid (spare me please the endless comparisons of teachers, police officers, etc. It's called a free market and if people are willing to shell out $5 for a bear and support poor management, don't blame the players) and underproductive. For several years, this has worked for the A's. However, year after year, the playoffs were not kind to the budget conscious A's.

I'll save deep analysis of the A's/stats geeks tenure to better baseball minds, but a cursory review shows a disturbing pattern in their thinking. Yes, of course, many A's players were seeking outsized contracts after seemingly being underpaid based on current market rates, but losing Jason Giambi and Alfonso Soriano (sp?) and replacing them with unknowns isn't always good for the team, fans, baseball and the player. Giambi, of course, had a rapid dropoff following his trip to the Yankees, but did come back to have a great year in 05. Soriano is desperate to leave the hell that is life with the trial-lawyer Peter Angelos' horrific, committed to losing Baltimore Orioles.

The question is, isn't there a happy medium? Of cousre, not all contracts pay off (A-Rod's Rangers deal), but Beane and the A's take an approach to loyal players that teeters on the verge of being negligent.

Beane comes across as a profoundly arrogant moron who belittles, yells, and pouts like a giant child. None of his crew seems to either mind or be willing to tell Beane to check himself. To his great credit (or ignorance), Mr. Lewis tells us that Mr. Beane did nothing to counter that image in his book. You can't read this book without thinking that you are glad you don't have to work with Beane.

I don't ask much of books, movie, and tv. Just entertain or inform me. I did learn quite a bit about the Beane-Epstein approach to baseball, but I also learned about the other side of the player disloyalty arguement. Fans always whine about players leaving for other teams, but they sometimes don't take into account the team's approach to negotiations (Ex. the Red Sox made it clear they were not going to give a big contract to Johnny Damon).

This book provides a unique look at these behind the scences decisions.

I read Moneyball at the suggestion of a respected colleague. My typical choice of books tend to be more technical, and often feels like work. Lewis' Moneyball though was like taking the afternoon off. But don't be mislead into thinking you won't get much out of it. Lewis expertly takes you inside the game, offering keen insight at the same time. I now look at business and government indicators in a new light, and I don't take any of them for granted as I often did prior to this book.

This book has as much to do with management and leadership fundamentals as baseball. It's of significance to those who care about the sport, but I'd recommend it to anyone needing an inspiration for making overdue changes in their business organization. I'll be keeping this one on my desk.

Moneyball is an excellent non-fiction book that weaves the story of SABERMETRICS, Billy Bean's Oakland A's, and the revolution in baseball statistics (driven in part by the internet and personal computer) into an interesting story. This book will appeal to baseball fans, amateur mathematicians, lay economists, and anyone fascinated by finding new ways to look at old things.

Mr. Lewis is a superb storyteller. This book reads extremely quickly and is written in such a way that non-baseball fans can understand and enjoy.

One of the important themes in this book is how do you know what to measure? Mr. Lewis would, perhaps, express it differently. He might ask how one actually calculates the value of something. Conversely, this reader couldn't help but wonder if Billy Bean still didn't get it wrong. Maybe the purpose of a professional baseball team is to make a profit, not to win games. If true, perhaps Mr. Bean is continuing to measure the wrong things.

Another theme in this book is how difficult it is for organizations to take advice from those that are perceived as outsiders. While the geeky people who invented SABERMETRICS, play fantasy baseball, and enjoy calculating volumes of obscure and obtuse statistics are hardly the public image of professional baseball, they are probably its strongest constituency. Despite this, the clubhouse mentality kept baseball isolated from these ideas for quite awhile.

Additionally, this is a story of reason and strategy triumphing over emotion and belief. While this reader hopes that there is still room in the world for the supernatural and non-rational, there is substantially less room in baseball for those things.

For all the reasons above non-baseball fans will enjoy this story. However, this is, and remains, a baseball story. Nor is the reader required to actually calculate any of the statistics. If you've ever wondered how some teams do well without all the high-priced talent, this book will tell you some of those answers.

My only complaint about this book is that it is so focused on baseball that it is difficult find two or three simple rules that could be applied to other forms of operational analysis.

Ultimately, this is a book about baseball that both tells a good story and opens questions about thinking about the larger world.

At its core, Moneyball tries to answer one big question: How in the world did the Oakland A's win 103 games in 2002, with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball?

The book answers this question by going deep into the management philosophy of Billy Beane - GM of the Oakland Athletics, and considered by many to be the best businessman in baseball.

Beane knows something that other teams don't - that you don't have to have a huge payroll to be competitive in baseball. He knows the most important stats to look at when juding offensive talent (and no, it's not batting average, hits, or home runs) and he knows how to get what he wants from other teams - so much so that other teams are often reluctant to deal with him.

High-payroll teams like the Yankees have recently come under criticism for having huge payrolls and buying out the biggest and most expensive free agents. So why aren't they winning more championships? This book explains the myth surrounding talent, as well as some general misconceptions about how best to play a baseball game.

The book also introduces the wonderful story of Bill James - a writer and baseball theorist (yes, there are such things) who went from working in a pork and beans factory to becoming one of the game's most respected analysts. His story is not only surprising, but flat-out inspirational.

James's statistical analysis has been one of the biggest influences on the A's management philosophy, and has led to a lot of unexpected success.

Michael Lewis has a solid, easy-to-read style, and the subject matter draws you in and keeps you turning the pages.

This is a great book for any fan of baseball, and anyone who is interested in baseball management, and the business of baseball.

Moneyball is more about the money and less about the ball, as the book is definitely intended for a mass-market, business-oriented audience. Lewis's general theme is that baseball, like business, is a numbers game, and the victor is usually the person or group who can maximize their efficiency.

True to the New Journalism style of Michael Lewis, you can't come away from this book without feeling emotionally involved and deeply partisan, like you're part of some enlightened David fighting an establishment Goliath.

Serious baseball afficianados will quickly recognize Lewis's oversimplifications and hyperbole, but most can move beyond that to see what is, more than anything, a finally crafted story with deep interest.

I just finished reading this book, and it is fantastic. It is well written, intriguing, well developed. But there's one fault. Everyone is quick to rate Billy Beane as a genius, and ask how does he do it? But keep in mind, as well as the A's have done, what has playing 'moneyball' done for the Oakland franchise? If I recall correctly they made the playoffs for four or five straight years under Beane, but failed to advance, or threaten seriously. Is on base percentage more important than average? Ground ball outs more important than ERA? Is Beane better than Steinbrenner? Their jewelery would say otherwise. Before we annoint Beane the crown prince of baseball we must remember that although his teams are built well to win in the regular season, he has yet to get a sniff of any success in the playoffs.

As a huge baseball fan and also a "stathead" (i.e. a baseball statistics geek), I read this book two years ago, when it first came out. In general, Michael Lewis is a tremendous writer with the ability to explain complicated ideas in a straightforward manner. In Moneyball, his writing shines with the underdog portrayal of the Oakland A's, the comeback story of Billy Beane (from failed prospect to successful GM) and the inspiring tales of Scott Hatteberg and Jeremy Brown.

Yes, hindsight is 20/20 and the A's are struggling this year with a miserable offense, but we have arrived at the point where we can take a critical look at what's become known as the "Moneyball draft," a keystone event in the book. For the 2002 draft, Beane decided to go with the numbers over the scouts and the A's had 7 first-round picks. Of these picks, two (Nick Swisher and Joe Blanton) are now playing with the major league club; a third (Mark Teahen) served as trade bait. The others are yet to make an impact; and remember that the A's emphasize college picks, so the players from that draft are in their mid-20s now.

Is it pure coincidence that Swisher and Blanton were the two A's picks that, according to the traditional scouts' consensus, were legitimate first-round picks? This gets at what's come to bug me about Moneyball. Instead of synthesizing the best of traditional scouting and statistical analysis, Lewis attempts to replace one dogma with another. As any good statistician knows, a blind faith to statistics can lead to serious problems. At times, the talented high-school shortstop may be the best pick available, or the bunt may be the most appropriate strategy.

Let me conclude with a baseball tale of my own. Twenty-three years ago, a young shortstop from the Dominican Republic came up to the majors. He had tremendous raw talent with good speed and a decent bat, but a terrible on-base percentage in the low .300s. Today's Oakland A's under Beane would never consider acquiring someone like him, based on their philosophy that plate discipline can't be learned. Yet, over time, this player's walk totals started to rise, from 32 to 56 to 66 to 82. His plate discipline improved so much that even as some of his skills declined in old age, his ability to get on base made him a valuable bat in the lineup. Twenty-three years later, he's still playing today- at age 45. His name is Julio Franco.

When I first looked at this book, I wasn't too interested in it. After reading some of the reviews, I decided to take a chance. The book had a few central themes. First and foremost, it is about how statistics, when used properly, can make an organization more efficent. Secondly, the book deals with how traditional baseball has resisted the use of statistics to make teams more efficent. Finally, the book is a quasi-biography of how Billy Beane attempted to implement all the above. While this may not sound too interesting, I can assure you, this book was quite entertaining and it hasn't been a bestseller for nothing. I would recommend this book to baseball fans and non-fans alike.

This is a great book for baseball fans, or for anyone who loves a good underdog story. If you're the latter, you'll find yourself rooting for the Oakland Athletics as they march towards the playoffs with a $40 million payroll, one of the lowest in the leagues and less than a quarter of what the Yankees spend on their roster. The fascinating thing about this sports book is that most of the action takes place in the GM's office, not on the field. But that doesn't make it any less exciting. Reading the play-by-play of how Billy Beane orchestrates a deal for an undervalued minor league prospect can be just as gripping as a bottom-of-the-ninth playoff situation.

What is really fascinating about this book is the notion that you can analyze the game without ever watching it, that the value of a player can be found in the box scores without ever seeing him play. And there is something truly satisfying, something so American, about the notion that spending lots of money doesn't necessarily guarantee success. In this book the little guy comes out ahead, or at least has a fighting chance.

Moneyball refers to the growing practice in the MLB, spearheaded by Billy Beane and the Oakland A's front office, to exploit market inefficiences which undervalue over-performing players by paying them less than what they're otherwise worth until the market catches up, at which point, those players will be traded and new undervalued players acquired. It is a fascinating subject, partly because it is unbelievable that no baseball insider before the late '90s blew the whistle on the ineffective and expensive manner in which baseball was (is) recruiting players.

Secondarily, the book focuses on the rise of Bill James and other amateur statisticians and the use of their work by Moneyball GMs like Beane. I thought the book was a page turner because these subjects were so interesting. However, the author rolled out his best attempts to make these subjects boring and dense with his overly verbose writing style. Is he writing for meatheads because he hits the reader over the head with a baseball bat (no pun intended) over-explaining every obvious concept. Likewise, even though the reader can predict where the plot is turning, he has to tell you before it turns, just in case you might miss it. Furthermore, the book is disorganized and several grammatical errors led me to believe his editor was out to lunch.

The writer's most notable offense, however, is his repeat babbling explanations of concepts that he had explained ad nauseum in prior pages. At points, I wanted to scream, I GET IT ALREADY! Simply put, it's been a long time since I've read a book where the author does his best to bore you.

One substantive flaw in the book occurs towards the end, when the author essentially concludes that it is the continued thick-headedness of non-moneyball General Managers which allow Moneyball GMs like Beane, Paul DePodesta and Theo Epstein to continue to exploit the market inefficiencies. But the logical corollary to this theory is that if the other GMs "smarten up" and operate in a moneyball fashion, will the lower-budget teams like the A's stop winning as bigger-budget teams more effectively compete for the (previously)undervalued players? It's clear that the author disagrees with Bud Selig's conclusions about the ability of low-budget teams to compete fairly with high-budget teams. But the writer doesn't explain whether Selig will "become" right if big budget teams begin playing moneyball and valuing players in the same fashion as Beane and his cohorts do.

In Moneyball, author Michael Lewis sets out to show how you can win as a major-league franchise when your roster looks more like the Bad News Bears than a professional outfit. Whether or not he convinces you the reader of his purpose is up to you (I don't necessarily agree with it), but it makes an interesting and illuminating read.

In many ways, it is an alternative history of baseball in the modern era: in a time when home-run sluggers are prized above all else (nevermind how they got those homers), the Oakland A's of Billy Beane take a different tact. Smallball is king in Beane's view, one that he formed while as a member of the Oakland management team. Beane's own brief career is documented by Lewis, as well as the rise of baseball stats guru Bill James and the cult of numbers he helped inspire (sabremetrics). Beane is one of the few baseball men who not only reads James's theories, but tries to apply them to his team.

The story almost speaks for itself: at the time of writing, the A's had managed to continuously appear in the playoffs. Doubters will scoff that Beane's methods fail in the long run: where are the World Series rings? The fact that a small-market team like the A's can manage a run like they have, with the limited resources they have, seems to be overshadowed by that glaring lack of wins when it counts.

And so, without denying the veracity of James's arguements as they are presented in the book, I personally didn't buy Beane's approach. Too often, it seemed, Beane and his cohorts were reducing the game on the field to a series of continuous data sheets, typing out the player's ability to get on base over their ability to hit home runs or run the bases. While it's good to try and overthrow some of the baseball "traditions" that have actually served to harm the modern game, Moneyball offers a solution that is almost "scorched earth" in its approach: throw out the old rules and concentrate on stats previously ignored.

On some level, Moneyball doesn't necessarily champion Beane's approach, but Lewis plays into the hands of the A's by (inadvertantly by his postscript account) making Beane out to be a wizard at figuring out the game. This is the same Beane who traded Johnny Damon to the Red Sox (readers in the post-Red Sox Series win last year could be forgiven for laughing a little at Beane's short-sightedness). This is the same Beane who traded two of his "big Three" pitchers in the past offseason. This is the same Beane who struggles to manage what little cash he has, and he is prone to mistakes. While Lewis doesn't shy from that side of the equation, he almost never addresses the failures of Beane's system as much as its successes. There is something unique about Beane's approach, that is for sure. But Lewis almost destroys his own arguement by leaving out those details that don't fit with his hypothesis.

Also, for a baseball book "Moneyball" is totally lacking in terms of giving the reader a "feel" for the team in question. Beane and his hired helpers are (rightly or wrongly) the focus of the tome, to the exclusion of players like Barry Zito or Tim Hudson. In a way, it's misleading to list it as a "sports book"; it would be a more accurate fit on the business list.

All in all, "Moneyball" is a flawed but necessary read for those wondering what modern sports culture is all about. You come away from it feeling some sympathy for the way Billy Beane has to run his business, but you don't get a feel for the players affected by that business. You never really see the success on the field; you just get Beane and Lewis telling you "it works". That part of the equation keeps me from endorsing this as accurate or solid. But it will challenge your view of our nation's pastime for the better, as you learn what smaller teams have to sacrifice in order to surivive.

How exactly does one of the poorest teams in Major League Baseball, the Oakland A's, manage to win so many games year in and year out? This is the question that Moneyball seeks to answer. The answer, it turns out, is that Billy Beane, the general manager of the ball club, is one smart man.

Beane, while maybe not as book-smart as other GMs in the game, has the uncanny ability to assemble a team of misfits and win ball games. The secret of his success? Statistics. But not traditional statistics like batting average and RBIs. He thinks outside the box when he looks at statistics.

His right-hand man, Paul DePodesta, encouraged Billy to look at other statistics that are not as highly regarded by other teams: on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Beane listened when nobody else would, and has been unafraid to fly right in the face of conventional baseball wisdom. Based on the team's record over the past few years, it seems to be working for him.

This book is, in a word, engaging. The author Michael Lewis does an excellent job of painting a portrait of Billy Beane as, at times - especially when things don't go his way - unable to control his emotional outbursts, but also as a man who is wiser than he wants to let on. If other teams latch on to Beane's personnel strategies, he's no longer of any value as GM. Luckily for him, the other GMs are too stubborn to buy into his philosophy.

Moneyball is a must-read for any sports fan, baseball or otherwise, but I also recommend it to anybody interested in thinking of new ways to accomplish old goals more efficiently, through patience and proper analysis of a wealth of information.

Michale Lewis talks about how Oakland A's trump the biggest and best in baseball with their 'profit on the cheap' business strategy. Year-in and year-out, they get into playoffs with a $40 million payroll and compete w/ the Yankess (payroll $170+).

The ability of Billy Beane and his team (esp Paul Podesta) to hand pick 'low-end' players on the cheap, and win enuff to make A's profitable is a truly memorable story.

It gets deep into baseball statistics and history, but from a bird's eye view, it's more about running a business with a smart strategy (instead of following the lead of the big kahunas).

Recommend it more as a business guide than as a baseball story. But, if you love baseball (or any sport), it's a bigger bonus :)

Have read his one other book - The New New Game. And, it was
fantastic.

This book deserves a thumbs up from me.

First off, I'll confess I detest the game of baseball. I can't watch it on TV, and if I make it to the seven-inning-stretch of a live game it is due to a combination of free tickets and a good conversationalist in the next seat.

That said, I've enjoyed Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker," "Next," and "The New New Thing." So I gave it a shot.

Michael Lewis manages to make the economics of baseball interesting entertaining by following Billy Bean's management of the Oakland A's, winning a tough division despite a cripplingly low budget for player's salaries. Economics itself is a difficult subject to make compelling prose of, but Lewis proved he could do that from his first book.

For someone who finds himself disgusted, not so much with the amount of money in professional sports, but the inscrutable way that money is distributed among owners and players, it is exciting to read about a guy doing what EVERYONE in pro sports says is impossible. It's not David and Goliath with some sort of divine intervention or freakish streak of luck: it's David beating Goliath by being willing to look at the problem a different way.

This is an excellent book for anyone who is fascinated with the debunking of conventional wisdom, or who loves seeing someone make the unjustly wealthy look flat-out stupid.

If you're a baseball fan, especially one who roots for an underdog or small-market team, I can only imagine that the book would be that much better.

Michael Lewis has certainly written a very engaging book which shows how the rules of the game have changed ever since Bill James' Baseball Abstracts became common currency in the front offices, but no one really took James' in-depth analyses to heart until Billy Beane came along, who used them to evaluate the talent pool in the minor leagues and colleges.

Lewis spends the first half of the book explaining this approach, which stresses on base and slugging percentages, and devalues traditional stats like HR's, RBI's and steals. This was a bitter pill for scouts who gauged players on their stature, rather the numbers. The result being that they went after buff high school ball players, rather than stallwart college players.

Beane had been one of those high school players who never panned out in the big leagues. The bread and butter players tend to come from the college ranks, and Lewis demonstrates how Beane was able to see past traditional stereotypes and field players on the A's who first and foremost got on base.

Lewis fills his story with a fun array of anecdotes and observations which gives the reader a vibrant image of the A's front office and the chagrin of scouts, managers, and players alike in having to play Beane Ball. This turned out to be a boon to the economic savvy new A's owners who were determined to keep costs down and efficiency up. Beane also knew how to play the trading deadline better than anyone, which allowed the A's to make amazing second half finishes.

All this discounted the prevailing notion that one had to have big bucks to field a great baseball team. The A's consistently won 90 games, defying the odds with a payroll a fraction of the cost of the Yankees, and nearly beat the Yankees in the playoffs. But, one is also disheartened at how baseball is reduced to numbers, with players being swapped around the big leagues like trading cards, so that baseball owners meet their bottom line.

Yet again Michael Lewis takes his readers on an amusing adventure in Moneyball, when he sets on the quest to discover why the Oakland Athletics, despite one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, are perennial contenders. The book is filled with interesting personality profiles and insights into the economics of baseball. Moneyball's main focus is Billy Beane, a former can't miss prospect coming out of high school who never lived up to expectations, but has been one of the most successful general managers in the major leagues during the past several years. The book presents an interesting story of how Beane, along with his assistants and scouts, have discarded taditional beliefs about evaluating talent and have turned to technology and unusual statistics to determine who is most likely to have a successful career. I don't know if Beane's methods are the future of baseball, or like Netscape in Lewis' The New New Thing is merely a fad, but it is innovative and worth learning about either way. This is a well written and insightful book and I would recommend it to fans of Lewis and even more to fans of baseball.

I have little interest in baseball, but I enjoyed this book as a description of business innovation and resistance thereto.
Lewis does a good job of reporting what the Oakland A's did better than most competitors. But I'm a bit disappointed by his half-hearted attempts to go beyond reporting the A's methods and analyze why other teams are slow to copy methods which improve scores.
One obvious question to ask is whether team owners provide the appropriate incentives for managers to maximize the number of games won. The book hints on page 123 that the answer is no, that the A's payrolls in 2002 were further behind the those of the Yankees than in 1999. But that hint could be misleading, as it only describes an increase in the dollar difference in payrolls, and leaves unclear what happened to the ratio of the payrolls.
One theory I came up with to explain resistance to copying the A's methods is the possibility that people view baseball as a means of measuring players skill for some broader purpose than winning games, and that winning by getting more walks seems like cheating because it doesn't reflect the abilities that baseball was designed to measure. Alas, the book provides few indications as to whether this theory explains much.
Another theory that I suspect is more powerful is that managers who worked their way up to that job through a career as scouts adopted attitudes that implied scouting is a valuable profession, are unable to reconcile those attitudes with the new methods described in Moneyball, and prefer the worldview that says their career has been productive over a worldview which is more accurate but which implies that they have (at least at times) been ripping off their employers. Mancur Olson reported in his book Power and Prosperity that similar problems cause many private companies to categorically refuse to hire people who worked for Soviet state-run firms in the same industry.

Michael Lewis deftly inserted himself into the A's front office to find out how a professional baseball team with a $40 million payroll can win 102 games and consistently 90 or more wins in subsequent years and compete with teams like the New York Yankees who have payrolls exceeding $130 million.

What he reveals is that by approaching baseball in a more rational, analytical way and doing away with all the traditional conventions, you can compete with anyone who doesn't do the same. Too many GMs and coaches are seduced by speed, home runs, and batters who swing at bad pitches when the simple truth of it is that in baseball the most precious thing you have are your three outs per inning. Anything that risks losing one or more of those outs is something you should avoid. As a long-time fan of the game, it's hard for me to swallow some of the anti-traditional things Lewis describes in this book. But the proof is in the pudding as they say and the A's success over the past several years is hard to argue with.

The focus of the book is A's GM Billy Beane, a former A's player himself who had a world of talent but could not transform that talent into a Hall of Fame career. He didn't have certain intangibles that are needed. Beane now recognizes those talents in the players he drafts, recruits and trades for. Beane's obsessive personality and unorthdox ways make for interesting reading. He's a man who seems horribly tortured by the game and yet thrives on his success in the game as well.

There are excellent mini-biographies in the book including one on A's first baseman, Scott Hatteberg, a Red Sox catcher who was thought all but done with baseball after he ruptured a nerve in his throwing arm. The A's reclamation project recognized a diamond in the rough and brought him aboard to train him as a first baseman, mostly so they could benefit from Hattie's shrewd batting.

Chad Bradford, the A's middle relief pitcher with the unorthodox pitching style and uncanny ability to get outs, is also profiled. A's minor league phenom Jeremy Brown, a former University of Alabama catcher who broke all sorts of NCAA records but wouldn't get a look from most pro teams, is also profiled. You get the sense from this book that there IS no traditional upbringing for a pro baseball player. The A's unusual collection of "misfits" all came from different backgrounds and most have taken a rather odd path to success.

This book is a great insiders look at a pro baseball team and how they approach the game from a very unique perspective. The most fascinating thing of it is, the A's didn't invent what they're doing at all. They're exploiting baseball wisdom that was anyone's for the taking for the past 30 years. You just need to know where to look.

If you're a baseball fan or just someone who can appreciate creativity and ingenuity in a world that promotes imitation, you'll enjoy this book.

Moneyball reminded me of 1980s-style education theory: throw out everything you know and try everything new. This was an unbalanced piece of journalism. That said, it was interesting. I'd rate the A's way of doing things about 50 percent right. There is a place in the game for "tools" analysis and a place for numbers. Being a Red Sox fan, I firmly believe that Pedro Martinez is a different pitcher before 105 pitches than he is after. I wish Grady Little had consulted that number in October. I do believe that many times a walk is as good as a hit. But Ted Williams walked too much and did not help Boston nearly as much as he would have if he had hit more. In the book, A's managers, coaches and scouts were treated as if they are idiots and there's only a couple of brains, Beane's and DePodesta's. And of all the deals Beane makes, we never hear of the bad ones and when Lewis lauds the deal for Chad Bradford, a reliever who will be out of the game in a couple years, we are not told the player he is traded for, Miguel Olivo, is actually a rising star. The White Sox just traded him for Freddie Garcia, a much better pitcher than Bradford will ever be. The book was good but unbalanced, a piece of hero worship.Too bad Lewis wasn't around last year, when the A's idiotic baserunning allowed the Sox to beat them and Beane whined that if he had $50 million more he's have beat Boston. $50 million more for what, baserunning lessons?

"Moneyball" takes the reader behind the scenes of a major league baseball team - how it operates, who runs the show, why they make the decisions they do, etc. The fact that the Oakland A's, the subject of "Moneyball," is the team in question only makes it that much more interesting.

Billy Beane, the General Manager of the A's, runs the team like none of his peers, and has experienced success beyond what his payroll should allow. "Moneyball" tries to explain why. Going back to the ground-breaking work of baseball writer Bill James, and continuing with Beane's predecessor Sandy Alderson, Beane implemented ideas that were in circulation but were never really tried before. The result was a winning percentage that was the envy of just about every team in baseball.

But Beane is not always correct in his thinking, and his attitude left a lot to be desired. Despite his obsession with certain numbers, like OBP, and his belief that they will translate into wins, pitching has remained the ultimate determinant factor in a baseball team's success. The A's have ranked 1st, 2nd or 3rd in ERA every year since 1999, while finishing as low as 10th in OBP. Beane - and author Michael Lewis - conveniently ignore this fact when explaining the reasons for the A's success.

Beane's disdain for the stolen base is also troubling, as it is well known that speed can disrupt a pitcher's rhythm and be a major factor in a closely-played game. The players at the top of the runs scored category are, more often than not, effective base stealers as well. Beane ignores this too.

Lastly, throughout the book Beane complains about his shortstop, Miguel Tejada, because Beane dislikes the fact that Tejada doesn't take enough pitches. He's not patient at the plate. What the book fails to mention is that Tejada finishes 7th in HR and 3rd in RBI and wins the MVP award in 2002! How foolish does this make Beane look? Very, if you ask me.

Still, this was a well written effort, and it was very interesting to follow the behind-the-scenes storyline of a baseball team for an entire season. However, before deifying Beane for his efforts, it would behoove the A's to win a playoff series during his regime. As of this writing, they remain winless, having lost to the Red Sox in 2003. Contrary to what Beane would have you believe, "just getting there" isn't good enough!

Four stars.

Especially when you remind them that the Oakland A's have a higher historical winning percentage and do it with much less salary. How would you know that? You'd read this book.

Michael Lewis gives an interesting peek inside how small market baseball teams can save themselves in the era of big money dominance. Using non-traditional statistical analysis of ball players and ruthless honesty about baseball's "conventional wisdom," A's GM Billy Beane turns baseball scouting on it's head.

The book is a bit melodramatic in places, but overall it is fun to read and very, very revealing. Stats geeks will be satisfied but the average reader is not overwhelmed by the material. I really enjoyed this book and it makes a great "guy's beach book."

This book has gotten a lot of hype and positive press. I enjoyed it but did not necessarily think it lived up to all the hype, particularly since most of the key points are made in the first half of the book and then the book seems to meander (though in an enjoyable way) and then just suddenly stops with no conclusion since everything relevant was said earlier. The book highlights how the analysis of baseball has become more detailed than in years past as creative, statistically oriented analysts such as Bill James and computers have enabled detailed number crunching of data from every aspect of the game -- which leads to conclusions about what makes pitchers and hitters effective that may not match "conventional wisdom".

The book makes a few key points about how the As have built an impressive team without a budget similar to that of teams like the Yankees and Red Sox. Don't draft high school kids and / or players with agents who will demand large signing bonuses. Focus on college players who have many years / games of statistics that you can analyze to predict as much as possible how they may fare in the major leagues. As for what statistics to focus on: on-base percentage. To build a successful team, a GM needs to find hitters who know the strike zone, are patient and willing to take pitches, will take the pitcher deep into the count (and therefore raise the pitch count for starters and get them out of the game sooner), and are as happy to get a walk as a hit. Then, as a manager, don't overthink -- no sacrifice bunts and no steals, just aim to get players on base and let the hitters hit. Those seemed to be the basic points of the book and the As approach to building a successful franchise (very impressive given that they often have lesser known players and regular turnover as they do not compete to keep their "stars" once they are free agents able to command lucrative long-term contracts).

Moneyball makes a great read for both the baseball enthusiast as well anyone looking to study a truly remarkable business model that transcends mere baseball. For example, when replacing All-Star 1B Jason Giambi, Oakland GM Billy Beane says, "The important thing is not to recreate the individual. The important thing is to recreate the aggregate."

In a highly unconventional, yet meticulously precise system of player development that drafts such players as C Jeremy Brown in the 1st round(he wasn't listed among the top 25 amateur Catchers by Baseball America), signs such castoffs as a C who can't throw from his throwing arm(Scott Hatteberg), lead-footed Jeremy Giambi, over-the-hill David Justice, Assistant GM Paul DePodesta says, "We don't get the guys who are perfect. There has to be something wrong with them for us to get them."

"When you rule out an entire class of people from doing a job simply by their appearance, you are less likely to find the best person for the job."
- Michael Lewis

I just finished "Moneyball" and found it a fascinating read. While I am neither a huge baseball fan nor an expert in statistics, I nevertheless found the blending of the two subjects quite captivating. I also found the style of the writing that author Michael Lewis uses to be very conversational and accessible to the reader.

I can see why this book, and the events it chronicles, caused such an uproar in the baseball world. The crux of the conflict seems to be theory vs. theater. The approach of Billy Beane and others has proved that using certain statistics to choose a team and project where they will go during the season is a valid, successful approach to the game.

However, there is a case to be made for their opposition's claim that such an approach takes the flair and theater out of baseball. I recall that someone once said, "We don't know how the game will turn out. If we did, it wouldn't be worth playing." It's that peppering of random chance that creates the theater of a baseball game. Sometimes the crowd wants to see flashy, dramatic and unexpected plays.

My sense is that ultimately some combination of the statistical and the traditional will come about. That team managers will be able to use both the flash and the stillness to achieve victory.

I definitely recommend this book, whether you're a baseball fan or not. Also, if you are interested in reading about the inside story of the bond markets during the mid and late 80s, Lewis's first book, "Liar's Poker," offers the reader the same accessible style.

Being a pretty solid baseball follower is what primarily drew me to the book, and in the end made me enjoy it thoroughly. Not to be discouraged though, all of you non-basesball fans. Even if you do not follow the sport, the story of Billy Beane (a former major league player who built up a losing team using second hand players) creates an interesting behind-the-scenes look at baseball as a business. Also, although it makes references to baseball, it is easy to draw comparisons to the everyday world.
The only parts that I drew away from, or made me lose my attention were those that focused a lot on budget, money, and statistics.
Besides these every-so-often sections, though, I definitely recommend this book to anyone, baseball fan or not.

Being a pretty solid baseball follower is what primarily drew me to the book, and in the end made me enjoy it thoroughly. Not to be discouraged though, all of you non-basesball fans. Even if you do not follow the sport, the story of Billy Beane (a former major league player who built up a losing team using second hand players) creates an interesting behind-the-scenes look at baseball as a business. Also, although it makes references to baseball, it is easy to draw comparisons to the everyday world.
The only parts that I drew away from, or made me lose my attention were those that focused a lot on budget, money, and statistics.
Besides these every-so-often sections, though, I definitely recommend this book to anyone, baseball fan or not.

Michael Lewis' book Moneyball is in my opinion one of the best economically sound baseball books written. I thoroughly enjoyed what goes into being a GM in the league from drafting big name college stars such as Nick Swisher, finding inexpensive talent and making them stars like Scott Hatteberg and finally work down in the front office. Michael Lewis portrays Billy Beane (GM of the A's) so well you'd think "how aren't other teams doing what Billy does?"
After reading this book I feel Billy Beane should be considered a mastermind of baseball. The book explains how lower income teams folded by July and looking for a plane ticket home in September. Whereas higher income teams looked forward to post-season play. Billy took the A's and one of the more lower income teams, defied all odds, and made them AL West champions.
This book amazes you with the understanding of statistics, how Billy managed his money, and best of all, his knack for "cheap" talent. A GREAT READ FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS.