Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 04, 2008
Talking with DePodesta

Beyond the Boxscore interviews Paul DePodesta. Paul doesn't give away much, but he does explain his definition of a Moneyball player.

My definition of a "Moneyball" player is much different than the common usage. I don't see it as having anything to do with walks or on-base percentage or really any statistic. To me that really misses the point. A "Moneyball" player is an undervalued player for any reason whatsoever. So, yes, we still look for undervalued players. However, there isn't a universal scale of value in baseball, as no player holds precisely the same value for all 30 clubs. Often times "undervalued" simply means finding players who may have more value for us than they would for the player's current team. It doesn't imply that the current team has somehow overlooked the value of the player. That other team has a different composition of personnel and under that composition the player doesn't have as much value as he would have in our composition. We're all trying to manage portfolios of players that need to be somewhat balanced across various attributes as well as between short-term and long-term goals.

Posted by David Pinto at 03:32 PM | Interviews • | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

It seems that he, at least, gets the point of the *book* "Moneyball"; it's about finding undervalued assets.

Strikeout relievers are a dime-a-dozen? Great - build a bullpen on the cheap. OBA is undervalued this offseason? OK, pick up some low-BA/high-OBA guys. Defense is undervalued this year? OK, go get Mark Kotsay and sign Eric Chavez long-term.

Only time will tell if the A's have managed to find undervalued assets for Swisher or Haren (more specifically, whether those two are better values than the prizes acquired for them). As a Bay Area baseball fan, I'll miss them, and will need a scorecard to figure out the team if I do go to a game ...

... but in recent years, the typical A's-fan-motto has become a reluctant "In Beane We Trust". He's not perfect, but he's smart and he's got a plan.

Posted by: Subrata Sircar at January 4, 2008 08:09 PM

From the interview outtakes:

Question: You have a very stressful and exhausting job--what do you do for entertainment?

DePodesta: I sit in my easy chair with a cold one and watch videos of Juan Pierre's at-bats with the Dodgers.

[turns in direction of LA]

Suck on that, Plaschke!

Posted by: M. Scott Eiland at January 6, 2008 01:41 AM
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