

Whether or not Lewis, Beane, and DePodesta persuade you, modern baseball fans must read this book.īefore we decide whether or not Lewis, Beane, and DePodesta are persuasive, let's attempt to summarize their philosophy. Five years later, there is no denying this book has altered the way game is played, run, analyzed, and discussed. Since its publication, this book has been quoted, misquoted, used, and misused by baseball fans, executives, and analysts alike. The way he tells the story, it's almost as though someone - Lewis, Beane, DePodesta - were spoiling for a fight, daring the baseball universe to call them heretics. Even before the release of the book, Lewis seems to be fitting himself and the A's brain trust of general manager Billy Beane and assistant general manager Paul DePodesta for the black hat. I suppose in some ways it's only fitting that I'm writing a review of this book some five years following its publication. He was given permission and access to the inner sanctum of the Oakland A's front office in order to investigate what the A's did and why they did it. He begins by noticing that a team like the Oakland Athletics spent so little (in relative, baseball economic terms) and won so much while other teams spent so much more to get those same number of wins, and in some cases spent so much and won so little. In Moneyball, author Michael Lewis examines the correlation between a baseball team's payroll and a team's won-loss record.
