The key to small-market success in Baseball

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2015)

The team has just lost. They lost their playoff round, they lost their spirits, and, most of all, they've lost their three best players: Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen. Thanks to the prevalence of big-budget teams, smaller organizations like the A's are losing all of their best players; one could even go as far as saying that these lesser franchises could be considered farm systems for the big boys in New York or Boston. As is his job, A's GM Billy Beane is faced with filling three roster spots that the lost players once occupied. When he goes in the scouting meeting, all he hears is the same old jargon. Scouts repeat things like "five-tool player" and "a great-looking swing", which reminds Beane of when he was a hot prospect coming out of high school. Having been the target of these scouts' attention previously, Beane doesn't trust the traditional player evaluation process, and that is where Peter Brand comes in. On a visit to the GM for the Cleveland Indians, Mark Shapiro, Billy fails to find a single trade, and he sees a man whispering advice to Shapiro's assistant. As he leaves through the offices, Billy sees this same man at a cubicle, and he confronts him. The man's name is Peter Brand, and after a few minutes, we learn that Peter is fresh out of Yale with a degree in Economics. This first meeting is where Brand reveals his unique player evaluation system. Just like Beane, Brand sees that the big budget teams are suffering from inflated contracts for some players, and they're severely undervaluing others. Basing his idea off of a groundbreaking book by Bill James, Peter Brand uses a statistical data system that, in theory, will give the A's a chance against the big budget organizations. After "buying" Peter from Cleveland, Beane gets set to revitalize Oakland, and immediately he knows that it will be a challenge.
My Thoughts In an era where the contracts for major athletic talent are skyrocketing in price, the Oakland A's were one of the first teams to go against the grain, and this film tells their story. The concept of using statistical analysis to judge talent rather than the traditional way was an unpopular idea back a decade or so ago, but nowadays it is a major familiarity. Thanks to the idea, many baseball teams have earned championship hardware, most notably the San Francisco Giants. As I have said before, I am a fully devoted Giants fan, and I can attest to the fact that the concept made famous across the Bay Bridge has found success on this side. GM Brian Sabean utilizes Moneyball's key principles, and in turn has brought a trio of trophies home. The acting performances are very well executed, especially by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Pitt's role as the layered Billy Beane is great for the actor, and he played it perfectly. Pitt captures the troubling past that Beane had as a player, the difficulty as a divorced man with a growing daughter, and the rapid emotions that flow throughout a real-life baseball season. In a rare dramatic role, Jonah Hill is fantastic as the quirky Peter Brand, nailing both the serious and comical scenes throughout the film with relative ease. This film based on our national pastime received quite a lot of recognition from the public, including the Academy. Though it did not win any, Moneyball was nominated for six Oscar categories, most notably Best Picture, Best Actor (Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Hill), and Adapted Screenplay. I personally believe that Hill's performance and the screenplay were definitely deserving of an award. From the moment that some of you saw the basic storyline of this movie, you might have written it off as a sports movie; however, it is about so much more than just baseball. In this film, the baseball is simply the background setting, and the people behind the scenes are the real focus of the plot. Although quite a bit of the humor is baseball-related, it is still applicable to almost everyone. My one major disclaimer is the infrequent language. It's a PG-13 rated film, and the language is deserving of it. A couple F-words and some smaller curses (sh**, a**, etc.) are uttered, but they're applicable to their situation.
This is a fantastic sports-related movie, and I recommend to everyone who even remotely likes either sports or the people behind it.