Video [5:24 min]: Moneyball

Synopsis: Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane is upset by his team's loss to the New York Yankees in the 2001 American League Division Series. With the impending departure of star players Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen to free agency, Beane needs to assemble a competitive team for 2002 with Oakland's limited budget and hires Peter Brand. Rather than relying on scouts' experience and intuition, Brand uses sabermetrics, selecting players based on their on-base percentage (OBP). Brand and Beane hire undervalued players.

During a visit to the Cleveland Indians, Beane meets Peter Brand, a young Yale economics graduate with radical ideas about how to assess player value. Beane tests Brand's theory by asking whether he would have drafted Beane out of high school; though scouts considered Beane hugely promising, his career in the major leagues was disappointing. Brand admits that, based on his method of assessing player value, he would not have drafted him until the ninth round. Impressed, Beane hires Brand as his assistant manager. Rather than relying on scouts' experience and intuition, Brand uses sabermetrics, selecting players based on their on-base percentage (OBP). Brand and Beane hire undervalued players such as unorthodox submarine pitcher Chad Bradford, aging outfielder David Justice, and an injured catcher, Scott Hatteberg.

Oakland scouts are hostile toward the strategy, and Beane fires one, Grady Fuson, after he accuses him of destroying the team. Beane also faces opposition from Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the Athletics' manager. With tensions already high between them due to a contract dispute, Howe disregards Beane's and Brand's strategy and plays a lineup he prefers. Early in the season, the Athletics fare poorly, leading critics to dismiss the new method as a failure. Brand argues their sample size is too small to conclude the method does not work, and Beane convinces the owner to stay the course.

The Athletics eventually clinch the 2002 American League West title but lose to the Minnesota Twins in the 2002 American League Division Series. Beane is contacted by the owner of the Boston Red Sox, who realizes that sabermetrics is the future of baseball. Beane declines an offer to become the Red Sox general manager, despite the $12.5 million salary, which would have made him the highest-paid general manager in history. He returns to Oakland. Two years later, the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series using the model the Athletics pioneered.

View the video which used real-life examples of the benefits of some new technological advances in baseball analytics. Would you be comfortable with using analytics exclusively instead of traditional scouting methods? What might be the pros and cons of this approach? Would you be happier if you had a more robust budget to acquire star players than having to rely on analytics to uncover bargain priced players?