Billy Beane: Master of Payroll Efficiency

Oakland would benefit by adding just about anything to their offense. Power is expensive, so I doubt they will find that cheaply without running into more of the same problem. Critics of Moneyball critics say that it was never specifically about the stereotypical slow power hitters with high OBPs/walk rates/strikeout rates (“unsexy” players according to a fantasy analyst I can’t recall at the moment), but about what was undervalued. Speed had been cheap already at the time the book was published, and then it only got cheaper, so I’d thought that Beane was trying to drive the market price down and pick up speedy players for even less, but as of 2008 that still was not the case. Johnny Damon is the only real exception who comes to mind…maybe Rajai Davis if he proves to be an everyday hitter or platooner, but not as many as I’d hoped to see by now.

In all fairness, the Twins haven’t developed all of their bats. Gomez and Young were from other orgs. Mauer and Morneau and Span (whose tools suddenly translated to skills in the bigs) have produced at or beyond expectations going into their rookie years. I know what you mean from a fantasy perspective, but I chalk that up to their selection of different skill sets and/or tools than most other organizations.