Baseballs is full of nerds and the Rays have more than their fair share. Surely you’ve all seen Moneyball by now (some of you nerds probably even read it), and that’s all well and good. Those A’s nerds really pulled off something special over there. And our nerds came in and did it even better. Worst to First in one year! Or was it? That one year was actually the culmination of a few really smart years under the helm of Sternberg/Silverman/Friedman. And one highlight of what really smart businiees looks like in the MLB.
I just finished reading The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took A Major League Baseball Team From Worst to First, and man is it great! I don’t know if I would have chewed it up the way I did if it were about anyone other than the Rays (still haven’t readMoneyball, for instance), but since it was, I did. It was fascinating to learn about some of the things you think you know but probably don’t. The business of baseball was stood on it’s head by Friedman making the sorts of deals that had never been seen in an entire league more than four times his age! And, equally importantly, you see the consequences of a small mistake in judgement when dealing with a small-market payroll. While the Yanks or Sox could have cast off the Pat Burrel debacle as little more than an accounting error, that wasted (and I mean waaaaaaaasssssted) salary hamstringed the Rays in 2010, forcing them to pass on opportunities with the likes of Jim Thome and Cliff Lee (not that we needed starting pitching, but c’mon, it’s Cliff Lee), only to be knocked out of the playoffs byyyyyy: The Texas Rangers starring Cliff Lee! Ugh Pat Burrel.
Anyway, if you’re a Rays fan and looking for a good read, I highly enjoyed this one.