Joe Morgan: (5:00 PM ET ) Well, first of all, I don't read a lot of baseball books. I have no desire to read it. I guess to be blunt, I don't really care how teams build their teams. I broadcast games. I think it would be more interesting to read a book from John Scheurholz because of how much they have won. Moneyball is trying to reinvent the wheel. Make no mistake, Billy Beane has done a great job in Oakland, and I've said that, but I disagree when they say stolen bases, defense, manufacturing runs, is not important. I broadcast some of their playoff games and they always waited for the home run that never came. You can get away with that during the season, but when you get to the playoffs you are playing teams as good as you with good pitching. If Moneyball can cure that, then it works. But it hasn't been able to cure that. I'll try to make sure you understand .. during the regular season, you play mediocre teams so you can build up your stats. But you aren't given anything in the playoffs. You won't get 3 walks and then a base hit to drive in runs. You have to manufacture runs.
Joe Morgan: (5:01 PM ET ) I just don't understand why everyone wants me to read it! I think he has sold enough books already! So, what was the result of the survey? They all read it but what did they think? How many championships have those 12 GMs won?
>> Oh. My. God.
Let's take this one sentence at a time.
I guess to be blunt, I don't really care how teams build their teams.
>> You don't??? That's what 99% of the questions in this chat are about! You. Don't. Care. How. Baseball. Teams. Are. Built. Think about that, Joe Leonard Morgan. Think about what you just wrote.
Do you really mean that?
I think it would be more interesting to read a book from John Scheurholz because of how much they have won.
>> Please keep this sentence in mind. I'll get to it later.
Moneyball is trying to reinvent the wheel.
>> No. GM's who try to use their money as efficiently as possible are not reinventing anything. They are doing what they can to make their teams better. That's it. They're trying to allocate resources in such a way that the team on the field has the best chance of winning the most games. They're trying to avoid paying Derek Jeter $19 million a year. They're trying to avoid paying Cristian Guzman $4.2 million a year. Contracts like these hurt your team's chances of winning because every team -- every team -- has a limited amount of money.
Make no mistake, Billy Beane has done a great job in Oakland, and I've said that, but I disagree when they say stolen bases, defense, manufacturing runs, is not important.
>> I love that Joe thinks Billy Beane has done a great job. What philosophy do you think he's using to do that great job?
No one's saying that steals, defense, and manufacturing runs are not important. What people are trying to do is assess their relative importance. In fact, there's a lot of speculation that post-Moneyball, Beane has shifted his focus to defense -- hence the signing of Mark Kotsay, a dude who can barely hit.
I'll try to make sure you understand .. during the regular season, you play mediocre teams so you can build up your stats.
>> What? All teams perform better against mediocre teams. All hitters perform better against mediocre pitchers. What's your point?
But you aren't given anything in the playoffs. You won't get 3 walks and then a base hit to drive in runs. You have to manufacture runs.
>> Why not? Why won't you get three walks? Matt Clement will probably pitch in the playoffs this year. He walks a ton of guys.
And this will kill you, Joe. It'll really kill you. What's your favorite play from last year's ALCS? Oh, right, the Dave Roberts steal from Game 4. Of course. Well, how did little Davey Roberts get on base? Hint: he didn't. He was pinch-running for Kevin Millar. And how did Millar reach? On a walk. Issued by Mariano Rivera.
I just don't understand why everyone wants me to read it!
>> Because you go out of your way to criticize it and you pretend to be conversant with its ideas when you clearly are not. People listen to you whether I want them to or not. You are a baseball icon. This book is perhaps the most signifcant piece of baseball writing of the past decade. You should read it.
How many championships have those 12 GMs won?
>> The Red Sox adhere to many Moneyball principles and they won their first World Series in 86 years last year.
Labels: joe morgan, joechat, live blogging
