Look around a major league baseball clubhouse. You'll find bats, balls, mitts and calculators. That's right, calculators. Old-time managers used to rely on hunches, guesswork and some statistics. But now, a new strategy is sweeping the major leagues. Many owners and managers believe that using mathematical formulas can help them decide which players have the right skills to help the team win. The idea is catching on like a blazing fastball!
He's a Baseball Wizard
Billy Beane, the general manager for the Oakland Athletics (A's),
gets much of the credit for the new approach to winning. Beane
has a novel way of combining math with America's favorite
pastime. By using a complex set of statistics and equations,
Beane claims he can figure out exactly how much a player will
help his team. For example, he rates a player who gets on base
much higher than one who wallops a lot of homers.
That's why the A's don't have a home-run king like Barry Bonds
and why first baseman Scott Hatteberg fits right in. Hatteberg is
not a power hitter, but he has a high on-base percentage.
What's Beane's formula? "I'm not going to tell you," he said in a recent speech. But his calculations aren't as secret as he would like them to be. A book about his methods--Moneyball, written by Michael Lewis--was published last year. Now other teams, including the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays, are borrowing his equations.
With Beane's help, the A's have become one of the best teams in the American League. In the past seven years, Beane has managed to put together a top team without blowing the team owners' budget. He doesn't recruit the fastest, flashiest or strongest players. The A's spend far less on their players' salaries than many other teams do. Yet they have the best record in baseball over the last four seasons.
So far, Beane's winning ways have not carried the A's to a World Series. But the season isn't over yet. Oakland fans hope that the new strategy will add up to victory in October.
A Whole New Ball Game
Using computer software, Billy Beane and his followers are
changing the way baseball is played. Here's how the new approach
differs from the old ball game.
Old: Bunting, or hitting a ball softly in the infield, sacrifices one player's chance to get a hit but helps another base runner score.
New: Letting players try for a hit will score runs more often.
Old: Stealing bases allows fast runners to improve a team's opportunity to score.
New: Statistics show that stealing bases is too risky for even the fastest runners.
Old: Teams should seek out power hitters--players who can win a game with one big swing.
New: Hitters who consistently get on base but rarely hit homers contribute more to a team's success.