'Beane' counters

The people who think baseball is a money game and that the teams that spend the most win the most have some explaining to do. What about the Oakland A's?\nAuthor Michael Lewis wonders just that in his new book "Moneyball," and it's the most compelling baseball book since Andrew Zimbalist's "Baseball and Billions" in 1992 and maybe even longer.\nIn a lot of ways, though, it's about more than the Oakland A's and their success. Rather, it's a book that decries the dangers of groupthink and promotes creative hypothesizing. It's a book for outsiders.\nIn many ways, "Moneyball" begins with the story of another book. Bill James' "Baseball Abstracts," annuals released between 1977-1988, blew the roof off traditional baseball thinking. James noted that stolen bases, sacrifice bunts and the hit-and-run were unimportant bits of strategy. He also highlighted the importance of on-base and slugging percentages while remarking that batting average is way overrated. \nBilly Beane, meanwhile, was a stud prospect who failed. Picked by the New York Mets in the first round in 1980, many thought Beane would be a better player than one of the Mets' other first round picks, Darryl Strawberry. He was a natural. He just looked like a ballplayer -- his huge decline in his statistics his senior year in high school be damned. \nHe made it to the majors, playing with the Mets, Twins, Tigers and A's. He posted a brutal .246 career on-base percentage, retiring in the 1990 season so he could be an advance scout. Beane's GM at the time was Sandy Alderson, now the vice president of operations for Major League Baseball. Alderson, already applying James' theories to a certain extent, turned Beane on to James' books. When Beane eventually became GM in 1998, he had two sets of knowledge to follow: his own experiences from his playing days (to know what he didn't want) and the research of outsiders like James and his acolytes (to know what he did).\nThe A's have won 74, 87, 91, 102 and 103 games year by year since 1998. This year, they are bidding for their fourth straight playoff appearance. Last year, the A's won the American League West despite having the division's lowest payroll and despite having lost former league MVP Jason Giambi to the New York Yankees. \nThe loss of stars like Giambi forced Beane to find diamonds in the rough, and the book profiles two such players: first baseman Scott Hatteberg and relief pitcher Chad Bradford. Even though Hatteberg had played catcher his entire career with the Boston Red Sox, Beane and the A's had the foresight to see him as a first baseman. \nBradford was an awkward-throwing underhander who Beane acquired from the Chicago White Sox after they had soured on him because of his lack of velocity and peculiar delivery. Beane had done some statistical analysis and noted right away that Bradford gave up few walks and few homers, just the pitcher whom he wanted. Lewis documents the trade talks between Beane and White Sox GM Kenny Williams, and they make Williams look clueless, as if he had no idea what he had. \nThose reading how Beane and trusty Oakland A's assistant GM Paul DePodesta evaluate players under a strict budget will realize more than ever that baseball is a GM's game, not a manager's. Beane tells manager Art Howe how he wants him to stand on the top step of the dugout, not to order sacrifice bunts or stolen bases (not that Beane acquired many guys who were good at either) and to use Chad Bradford all the time in close games prior to the ninth inning. Howe wasn't so much a manager as a guy who was following Beane's plan.\n"Moneyball" is neither much of a human interest story nor a play-by-play account. Instead, it's objective and unromantic. Beane can't even watch the games because watching brings out nervous, subjective feelings. Those looking for profiles of Barry Zito or Miguel Tejada will be disappointed.\nSmart future GMs will use Lewis' book as a template for success. The Cubs fan in me realizes -- well, I already did -- that the Cubs' lack of success over the years has had little to do with spending enough money and everything to do with not thinking outside the box. And the IU fan in me realizes that the A's 11th-round selection of Hoosier third baseman Vasili Spanos, the guy who led the Big Ten in on-base and slugging percentages, was the best thing that could've happened to him.\nSomebody should get him a copy of "Moneyball"