

Extreme Moneyball: The Houston Astros Go All In on Data Analysis - octonion
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-28/extreme-moneyball-houston-astros-jeff-luhnow-lets-data-reign

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aaron-lebo
The mentions of players feeling like they are part of a machine reminds me of
another Houston GM who is also big into stats and non-traditional managing:
Daryl Morey.

Morey had several years where he was basically just accumulating assets before
he hit home runs with the Harden trade and Howard signing. I wonder if the
'stros can pull it off, too.

I also wonder how much the article is exaggerating the uniqueness of this
approach. Yes, they are using advanced statistics, but so is everyone else in
baseball at this point. This isn't 2003. The main difference seems to be the
extremes this ownership group is willing to go (getting down to $13 million in
payroll for example). Perhaps this is a non-point, the article is named
"Extreme Moneyball" after all.

Hasn't Beane pretty much concluded that this works in the regular season, but
becomes worthless once you hit the playoffs because it comes down to luck due
to the small amount of games?

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omegaham
> Hasn't Beane pretty much concluded that this works in the regular season,
> but becomes worthless once you hit the playoffs because it comes down to
> luck due to the small amount of games?

The important thing is making the playoffs. If you're a consistent playoff
contender, then you'll win a championship when luck goes your way.

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aaronbrethorst
Interesting analogy used in the article:

    
    
        Luhnow has done to the Houston Astros what
        Mitt Romney used to do to steel companies
        while at Bain Capital: stripped them down
        with ruthless efficiency to build them
        back up again, stronger and better than before.
    

Given what actually happened to some of the steel mills that Bain acquired:
[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/08/us-campaign-
romney...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/08/us-campaign-romney-
bailout-idUSTRE8050LL20120108)

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npkarnik
Some of the more recent negative stories around the Astros are alluded to in
the article, but it's worth emphasizing that Houston is probably the most
dysfunctional organization in the majors.

The focus of the piece, GM Jeff Luhnow, has an ongoing and borderline public
feud with the manager Bo Porter.

They were the only team in recent memory (and possibly ever) to have 10 months
of internal trade talks leaked.

And most recently, they were the first team since 1983 to not agree to terms
with the 1st overall pick. Sure, they supposedly identified a red flag in
Aiken's elbow, but it seemed driven by their desire to sign specific
additional draft picks (none of which they did) and earned them the wrath of
the player's union.

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hawkice
I think there are quite a few people, very much in love with the game, who are
perhaps more surprised than they need to be about "World class management
consultant manages X, things improve". No matter what you may think about
those guys, they are not actually bad at their jobs, typically.

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wj
This really reminds me of one of the plots in the book "The Year I Owned the
Yankees" which is a novel written by a former Major League pitcher.

