[lbo-talk] Review of Michael Lewis's Moneyball

[Grant Lee]

Financial Review: Playing it by the numbers"According to Lewis, Henry
Chadwick - a British-born cricket reporter who ended up revolutionising
baseball scoring - made a defining decision about the batting average. He
excluded the "walk" (when a batter receives four balls outside the strike
zone, he automatically walks to first base) from the batting average. So
despite the fact that a walk has exactly the same effect as hitting the ball
and getting to first base, it does not count to the batter's credit. After
all, there are no walks in cricket."

"Beane realised that the market would therefore undervalue players who
received lots of walks. And it wasn't only walks that the market didn't take
into account - it didn't properly price the value of players who could wear
out a pitcher by making him throw a lot of balls to get them out. Nor did it
value people who were good at hitting but were slow. Nor players who had
talent, but were fat or short or threw the ball in a strange way.
Conventional wisdom underestimated these sort of players. For Beane,
prejudice and market imperfection represent opportunities to buy players on
the cheap, and stay competitive with the expensive teams."

* * * *

*Moneyball. By Michael Lewis. 288pp. WW Norton. $56.

Edward Miliband is a visiting lecturer in government at Harvard University.
[ Ralph Miliband's son I believe.]

http://www.afr.com/articles/2003/09/18/1063625148461.html