Angus Interviews Alderson
September 15, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Personalities
Jeff Angus at Management by Baseball has written a couple of informative articles on San Diego Padres CEO Sandy Alderson. The discussion centers around Alderson’s management techniques and includes interviews with the man himself.
I love this riff on Michael Lewis’ Moneyball
The revelations in Moneyball actually helped the A’s competitiveness. That’s because when other team owners read the book, many leaned on their own front offices to emulate the deeds (managing walks) but not the intent (finding an undervalued approach and optimizing against it temporarily) of what Oakland had done. And managing walks lost its special value because so many teams pursuing that kind of talent forced the price of it up.
People still get this wrong all the time, and I can’t figure out why…
Obviously someone hasn’t read it, or got the meaning completely wrong. In John Schuerholz’s book “Built To Win” – devotes an entire chapter to beating the wrong things into the ground. JS found a way to completely bash the book, and I don’t think he read it or maybe someone just gave him second hand book review.
Schuerholz isn’t alone in misunderstanding Moneyball. It’s obvious that many people who talk about the book haven’t read it and are basing their opinions on what others have told them about it. Makes ‘em look like idiots, but oh well…
Wow, that’s a great quote right there, Geoff. There were times when I though to myself … “why are the A’s giving away their secrets.” But, of course, teams thought the walks were the secret when in reality it was the whole philosophy. Brilliant. I wonder if Beane thought of that when writing, er, talking to Michael Lewis about the content of the book.