Book Report 4

Book Report 4

            The next section of Moneyball examines how circumstances can force someone into changing their way of life. Michael Lewis chooses to discuss Scott Hatterberg, a talented catcher from the Boston Red Sox. Hatterberg’s throwing shoulder was injured, making him unable to properly throw down to second base in stealing situations. This made him useless as a catcher, but Billy still saw some vale in him. Billy was able to acquire Hatterberg after he was traded from Boston to Colorado and immediately released. Billy knew he wasn’t viable at the catcher’s spot, so he came up with the idea to transition him to first base. Hatterberg and fielding coach Ron Washington weren’t thrilled by this idea, but Billy thought Hatterberg was too good of a hitter to let is injury end his career. Billy chose first base because of the limited throwing, which allowed Hatterberg to stay on the field, and in turn stay in the lineup.

            The transition wasn’t easy, and Hatterberg was slow to learn too field at first base. Hatterberg persisted though, and after each game became more comfortable out at first base. His hitting is what got him his job, and he performed as expected. What no one expected, however, was for Hatterberg to become a solid fielding first baseman. Hatterberg turned out to be a great pick up for Bill, getting on base often and turning into a reliable fielder day in and day out.

The ninth chapter of Moneyball focuses on how Billy Beane was so successful at creating a new team throughout the season through ingenious trading tactics. Billy knew that as the season went on and teams fell out of contention, they had one desire, to cut costs for the rest of the season. Billy used this knowledge to manipulate trades for players he would be unable to acquire at the beginning of the season. Michael Lewis points out that because of Billy’s great trading prowess, the Oakland Athletics have the best record of any team over a four year period after the midseason all-star break.  

Lewis then goes into detail about Billy’s handling of attempting to acquire Ricardo Rincon, a relief pitcher. Billy knows he doesn’t have the highest offer for him, so he tried instead to unload a cheap player to his competition, the San Francisco Giants. By giving them a lesser pitcher, Billy is creating more money to spend, and lessening the Giants’ need for another pitcher.  Billy also unloads an unneeded prospect to the New York Mets for an unimportant prospect, but also the cash needed to finish the Rincon deal.  After all of his calls and marketing, Billy closed the deal and picked up the player he wanted, without any actual cash being spent by the Oakland front office.

            The rest of the chapter further plays out the genius of Billy Beane, making quick trades through multiple teams to pick up players he couldn’t normally afford and unload prospects that didn’t immediately impact his team. This strategy led to a new Oakland team after every all-star break. Although the lack of money in Oakland resulted in them only getting these new players for often a single year, Billy would simply repeated his process the next year to fill any holes on the field. By knowing the needs of other teams, and being a brash negotiator, Billy was able to manipulate his way into picking up talented players for little to no cost.

            This section of the book truly shows the innovative side and genius of Billy Beane. He knew he had limited resources, but he also knew how to counter this and make the most of what he had. He had to be cunning and sneaky in order to work deals players he shouldn’t have been able to afford. Billy was great at this aspect of managing, and this helped to create a winning team year after year for far less a cost than the rich team sin New York or Boston. Through Billy’s genius, the Oakland Athletics were yearly contenders, something most teams with his budget couldn’t dream of becoming.

(Section 4, Chapters Eight and Nine, Pages 162 - 216)