The New Moneyball

Those that read Moneyball remember it well. You had the case of Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg moved from behind the dish to first base because he could no longer throw effectively. He could however draw walks and hit with moderate power. There were the collective drafts of Nick Swisher and Jeremy Brown. Swisher you have heard of. Brown you probably haven’t heard of. The most important points people seemed to draw from the book was that OBP was the most important offensive statistic in baseball and baseball players aren’t supposed to look good in jeans. Okay, maybe they can look good in jeans, but it isn’t important for them to look good in jeans. So far, we may be describing a good baseball organization or a modeling agency with a new outlook on life. The release of the Moneyball movie will undoubtedly further these ideas and it is only a matter of time before the book is studied in English classes with the accompanying Spark Notes and Cliff Notes. One of the ideas that seemed to be ...