Buzz Bissinger argues that Michael Lewis’ famous book “Moneyball,” which scrutinizes MLB’s Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s unique way of finding and exploiting market inefficiencies, and buying this value at a discount, is wrong.
Bissinger points out that the four teams in this year’s AL and NL championship series’ had a combined payroll of $528,620,438.
While it may be true that this year the principles of “Moneyball” did not apply, one only needs to go back to last year when the Philadelphia Phillies (who will be making a repeat visit to the World Series this year) won the World Series and were ranked 13th in payroll, to find a counterexample.
And who was the Phillies’ opponent in the World Series last year? The Tampa Bay Rays, who were ranked second to last in payroll.
On the other hand, it seems plausible to argue that market inefficiencies would seize to exist, or at least be much harder to find and exploit, once a book is written about them.
Anyway, you can read the article, here.
And you can find the Wikipedia description of “Moneyball,” here. (I thought the book was great.)
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