Great article on Moneyball and small market teams

[MartyFunkhouser]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...3895308.column

Sad to see that the only good sports articles in the LA Times are coming from the business section not the sports section. Plaschke could learn a hell of a lot from this writer.

[Hot Lunch]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...3895308.column

Sad to see that the only good sports articles in the LA Times are coming from the business section not the sports section. Plaschke could learn a hell of a lot from this writer.

[Indy Coug]

I haven't read the article yet, but Moneyball is about finding undervalued talent and leveraging it for all its worth. Once that talent produces, they aren't undervalued any longer and go elsewhere. I don't believe Moneyball makes a case for retaining once-undervalued talent.

If Oakland had been able to keep all of the talent they acquired, they probably would have a couple of rings by now.

[MartyFunkhouser]

I haven't read the article yet, but Moneyball is about finding undervalued talent and leveraging it for all its worth. Once that talent produces, they aren't undervalued any longer and go elsewhere. I don't believe Moneyball makes a case for retaining once-undervalued talent.

I agree with your assessment of Moneyball. The article is pretty much that it is gotten harder to find the undervalued talent as organizations have become more sophisticated. The only way now to really win year in and year out is with payroll. What the A's did before is virtually impossible now.

[Indy Coug]

I agree with your assessment of Moneyball. The article is pretty much that it is gotten harder to find the undervalued talent as organizations have become more sophisticated. The only way now to really win year in and year out is with payroll. What the A's did before is virtually impossible now.

Markets are more or less efficient, even in baseball. Meaning, that once additional information is available, the market price will correct in response to that information. Once the cat was out of the bag on OBP, OPS, VORP, etc. etc. etc. the market adjusted their valuation of players and the A's weren't able to exploit it any more. Even without Moneyball, the market would have eventually wised up, but with Moneyball, the window of opportunity shrunk considerably, IMO.