Some baseball writers really must ask themselves that question before they sit down at their Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300s. I don't even understand the logic behind this slam of Moneyball/Billy Beane/Oakland fans, from Canadian Bill Plaschke
Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star. You can't really tell, but he's talking about the Blue Jays losing Vernon Wells:
And please don't compare this to the A's losing Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada and the big three starters, including, this year, Barry Zito. There was never any emotion in A's scenarios. That was pure Moneyball.
This is not Moneyball. There has never been a chapter dealing with "replacement value" for fan favourites, which is the difference between A's and Jays and why on most nights you can fire a cannon through the Oakland Coliseum and not hit anyone.Trading without emotion is Moneyball? I don't think that's true, but hey, sign me up anyway. And the difference between the A's and the Jays is this: a chapter dealing with replacement value for fan favorites. In Toronto, they follow a code, and that code consists of signing players according to their RVFFF.
Vernon Wells' RVFFF is 492.3 (adjusted for all-time). As we all know, the value of each RVFFF unit is 53,624 dollars per year, so Wells is a bargain at even $20 million per season. It's a good thing Oakland would never sign him, because if they did, they would automatically fill their stadium with that kind of RVFFF.
Labels: richard griffin