Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

The action moves back to draft day 2002, picking up where Chapter 2 left off. We learn that Beane has been the Oakland A’s general manager since 1997, and this is the first year that he has decided to fully implement his new approach to choosing draft picks based on Bill James’s ideas. Lewis relates the action as it is happening, from an hour before the draft begins through its end.

Beane first checks with the scouts in charge of the players he wants. Most important is the catcher Jeremy Brown, whom a scout named Billy Owens was in charge of recruiting. Owens reports that Brown should be all set: the A’s will take him in the first round for $350,000 a year and with the condition that he lose weight. That was considerably less money than other teams were paying for a first-round pick, but no one else wanted Brown. It was kind of a trade-off on Brown’s ego; be drafted early but accept a bargain package.

Soon Beane starts talking to other general managers on the phone, feeling out where they stand on certain players. He thinks he knows everyone’s pick until the A’s first at number 16.