The New 'Moneyball': I recently re-read Moneyball, the well-written account of Billy Beane and his revolutionary strategy of player selection and evaluation. Re-reading it reminded me why I like the book so much. For one, it is about baseball -- a subject sure to increase the enjoyment factor of a book by a factor of ten. But more importantly, the book is about re-examining history: not accepting a practice just because "that's how it's always been done." So often one encounters things in life that are explained with this faulty logic and it is refreshing to see it challenged whenever possible.



Now, though, people are beginning to 'moneyball' Beane. With the movement of OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) into the mainstream, bargains can no longer be had based on this statistic. So, as Peter Gammons reports, teams have found a new way to find baseball bargains: defense. A new generation of baseball statisticians have found a way to measure and quantify defensive excellence, allowing teams to find players that may not have the incredible hitting statistics, but win games in the field. Already the rankings have caused teams to make moves, including the Red Sox dealing All-Star Nomar Garciaparra to gain two Gold Glove infielders.



But what's next? Moneyball is about bucking trends and not questioning accepted methodologies. But what if the new trend is trying to find the next great thing? If teams are not careful, they could be so busy looking for the next 'Moneyball' stat that they overlook the stats that identify great players, including OPS. Eventually, the end of this trend will come, but when it does, this revolution of new statistics could result in a completely-changed game of baseball.

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