Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

“The first thing they always did was run you. When big league scouts road-tested a group of elite amateur prospects, foot speed was the first item they checked off their lists. The scouts actually carried around checklists. ‘Tools’ is what they called the talents they were checking for in a kid. There were five tools: the abilities to run, throw, field, hit, and hit with power. A guy who could run had ‘wheels’; a guy with a strong arm had ‘a hose.’ Scouts spoke the language of auto mechanics. You could be forgiven, if you listened to them, for thinking they were discussing sports cars and not young men.”

Lewis describes the tests Billy Beane was put through when he was scouted by baseball teams. He chooses to begin with a look at how the old baseball insiders did things. Note the five “tools” he lists that the scouts focused on. This foreshadows the later contrast he makes with more scientific approach of sabermetrics based on data. It is also an example of Lewis’s colorful writing style as he picks up on the insiders’ lingo and compares it to descriptions of cars.

“He encouraged strong feelings in the older men who were paid to imagine what kind of pro ballplayer a young man might become. The boy had a body you could dream on. Ramrod-straight and lean but not so lean you couldn’t imagine him filling out. And that face! Beneath an unruly mop of dark brown hair the boy had the sharp features the scouts loved. Some of the scouts still believed they could tell by the structure of a young man’s face not only his character but his future in pro ball. They had a phrase they used: ‘the Good Face.’ Billy had the Good Face.”

This describes Billy Beane as a high school player and the way the Major League Baseball scouts viewed him. The diction points to the subjectivity involved in the way scouts determined potential for future success. When compared to the statistical analysis described later in the book, it’s almost funny; some scouts believed that a handsome, rugged face made a good ball player. It’s not just subjective, it’s magical thinking.

“Taking a high school pitcher in the first round—and spending 1.2 million bucks to sign him—was exactly the sort of thing that happened when you let scouts have their way. It defied the odds; it defied reason. Reason, even science, was what Billy Beane was intent on bringing to baseball. He used many unreasonable means—anger, passion, even physical intimidation—to do it. ‘My deep-down belief about how to build a baseball team is at odds with my day-to-day personality,’ he said. ‘It’s a constant struggle for me.’”

This quotation presents the dilemma Billy Beane faces as he tries to implement a new approach to putting together a team. It starts by describing the old way of doing things as practiced by the insiders (scouts).