The Moneyball Book

March 30, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. We’re the kind of guys that grew up playing slugfest.

The commentators used to say some wild shit in that game.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about how a book ruined the Oakland A’s franchise.

It’s been 12 years since first baseman Chris Pratt and skipper Brad Pitt won the hearts of movie critics and baseball fans everywhere.

And yes, of course, numbers guy Jonah Hill.

It has not been going well for the Oakland Athletics since then.

They are projected to be the worst team in baseball in 2023, and are slated to get kicked out of the Colosseum in 2024.

So, how did the A’s go from Moneyball to a complete dumpster fire?

Well, it had nothing to do with the movie.

The movie was actually based on a book by Michael Lewis with the same name - which was released in 2003.

The A’s had one trick up their sleeve, and it was the moneyball strategy.

Once the book dropped, anyone with a library card could read all about it.

For those of you who don’t know, here’s the long and short of it:

The A’s has virtually zero budget to spend on bringing in high-caliber players.
Most teams were looking at batting average as the key performance indicator for how good a player was.
High batting average = High player salary
Beane thought On Base Percentage was the most important metric and could manufacture the runs they needed to win games.
The A’s found realized they could leverage the players nobody else cared about and get huge value out of them for a lower cost.

This was a rinse and repeat cycle for them - bring in a few guys for cheap, and once they get good and realize their worth, you trade them.

Problem is, once teams caught wind of what they were up to, it made it very difficult for the A’s to compete.

The Athletics have had some spurts over the past few decades that lead to some success.

They made the playoffs in 2018 and had guys like Matt Olson, Sean Mannea, and Marcus Semien.

Guys who a few years prior were very undervalued.

Their system still works, but now it’s not really their system anymore.

It’s been a fun ride, but the future is looking dim for Oakland.

Opening Day Tomorrow

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If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Moonlight Graham was a doctor and a right fielder for the Giants who appeared in one game.

He only played the field and never got an AB, but his legacy lived on in the movie Field of Dreams.