NEW SUCCESS FOR MONEYBALL.

NEW SUCCESS FOR MONEYBALL. MONEYBALL—the Michael Lewis book and the Brad Pitt movie—recounted how Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics had applied statistical principles from sabermetrics to achieve baseball success even though Oakland had a much smaller payroll than most other teams. It was thought that the book and the movie meant that Beane’s ideas had been made available to other teams and that they would compete away the Oakland advantage by imitating Beane. Oakland’s payroll was 27th out of 30 teams at the start of the 2013 season. Oakland had the second best record in the American League this year and tied for third best in the majors. Oakland had the 29th largest payroll in 2012. They had the second best record in the American League in 2012 and tied for fourth best in the majors. I don’t what Bean’s secrets are, but this may still be one of them. MONEYBALL stressed the importance of drawing walks and Oakland was fourth in the majors in drawing walks last year.