Moneyball

Michael Lewis chronicles the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics, focusing on general manager Billy Beane's attempt to build a competitive team with a limited payroll. By leveraging sabermetrics—statistical analysis of player performance—Beane challenges traditional scouting wisdom, prioritizing on-base percentage and other undervalued metrics over conventional indicators like batting average or stolen bases. The narrative follows the team's journey through the season, highlighting the tension between old-school baseball intuition and new data-driven strategies.

Lewis writes with a sharp, accessible wit, blending sports journalism with broader themes of organizational behavior and economic efficiency. The book is less a technical manual on statistics and more a character-driven story about how a small organization can compete against giants by redefining success. It captures the friction between the front office and the field, the personalities of the players, and the cultural resistance to change within the sport.

Description adapted from Open Library ↗.