Money Ball

1) What was the “Moneyball”approach that Billy Beane and Peter Brandt applied to the Oakland Athletics 2002 season? Was it an “art” or a “science”? What single statistic did they boil their value consideration down to?
Money ball is a value based approach that compares proformance based statistics compared to personal value. The science basically boiled it down to an OBP.

2) What is the equation used to calculate OBP? (In class research/discussion)
On Base Percentage = (Hits + Walks + Hit By Pitch)/(At Bats + Walks + Hit By Pitch + Sacrifice Flies)

3) What is design?
to make a detailed plan of the form or structure of something, emphasizing features such as its appearance, convenience, and efficient functioning

4) Describe 3 situations where movie characters (intentionally or not) applied a step from the PLTW 12 Step Design Process. Explain both the (a) situation as well as (b) how the step is relevant:
1 - At the begginging of the movie Billy Bean tells his scouts that they need to define a problem. This is the first step of any design process.

2 - When Billy traded Giambi in the middle of the movie he was eliminating a flaw in his team.


3 - By creating a personal relationship with the people that he drafted, Billy Bean encouraged his atheletes to play as well as they could.


5) What is “Leadership”? List the three aspects of leadership that we come up with in class. (In class research/discussion)

1 - Having a  clear vision in mind.
2 - Effectively leading your group of people to achieve your vision.
3 - Acieving your vision in a time efficient manner.


6) Describe 3 circumstances from the story where a character exercised effective leadership:
1 - When Billy Bean cut Giambi he succesfully eliminated his "who to play at first base dilema".

2 - By simply making the change to a moneyball approach, Billy demonstrates an understanding to change or die.
3 - When the owener of the Athletic's tells Billy that he can't have anymore money he is making a hard choice but he does it very effectively.



7) According to the movie, what was the A’s record at the start of their winning streak? 68:51
8) What does this ratio simplify to (roughly)? 76923 : 1

9) How long was the A’s record setting winning streak? 20 games won.

10) Given the A’s win/loss ratio at the start of the streak (listed two questions above), what are the odds of winning 20 games in a row? Run the numbers. (In class research/discussion)
There is a 76923 one
11) Based on your calculation, do you think the A’s got lucky or was there something to the Moneyball approach?
I think that the Moneyball approach had a serious effect on the team.

12) Did Billy Beane strictly apply the “science” of Moneyball to his management approach? Was there an “art” to his efforts as well? Describe a circumstance where he broke from the Moneyball approach to make a positive change for the team.
Billy Bean cut Giambi even though according to the moneyball approach he





Bonus Question (look into this if you’ve finished ahead of the class):
Money Ball was originally a book. What author wrote the book? What other books has this author written? Is there a theme to his writing?

Michael Lewis wrote the origional book. He also wrote The Blind Side.

It's "Oscar Season", will Moneyball win the Oscar for any of the categories it's up for? NO