I have wanted to see Moneyball since it came out at the cinemas. I finally took the time out and went and saw it last night. I was very impressed with the movie to say the least. It really drew me in and it didn’t feel slow at all even with it’s 2 hours 21 minutes running time.

Moneyball depicts the story of Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane’s (Brad Pitt) challenges to put together a championship team on a budget. He employs Peter Brand(Jonah Hill) who uses computer-generated analysis to pick players to draft. Moneyball will appeal to a diverse audience and even if you don’t know much about baseball I still recomend it.

Watch the Trailer for Moneyball

Moneyball left me Wanting More Baseball

After watching Moneyball I decided that I need to add watching a baesball game at Fenway Park to my bucket list. In Australia baseball is not really that big, I do remember seeing the Adelaide Giants play at the Norwood oval back in the early 90′s. I am an avid cricket fan but there is just something about baseball that I love. I am adding the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract to my books to read list.

From the reviews on Amazon this book looks like it will be an excellent read. I am quite interested in reading the methods for player evaluation and am interested to see what statistical methods are used.

I am interested in getting some feedback from my American readers on Bill Jame’s book and the original Moneyball book. Is it worth reading?

Sabermetrics

“the search for objective knowledge about baseball.”

-Bill James

Essentially Billy Beane based drafting decisions on two key questions:

1. Does the player get on base?
2. Can the player hit?

Final Word

Excellent cast, great storyline an inspiring movie. It just goes to show that statistical analysis can be applied to a diverse range of fields. I loved the quote at the start of the movie I will paraphrase it as I cant remember it exactly.”We have got to think differently, we are the last dog to the bowl. Everyone knows what happens to the runt of the litter”. Retail traders need to be aware that they are the last dog to the bowl.