Moneyball Revisited

With the Oakland A's riding an eight game winning streak and poised to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006 (coolstandings.com gives them an 85.9 percent chance of reaching the postseason), I felt like taking a look back at Oakland's 2002 squad that was the focus of the Michael Lewis book and Oscar nominated film.

Interestingly, there are several parallels between the two teams.  Both underwent major personnel changes during the previous offseason; the '02 squad lost Jason Isringhausen, Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon to free agency, while the current version traded away Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill, Guillermo Moscoso and Andrew Bailey.  Both teams started slow and appeared to be out of the race by Memorial Day, but went on furious summer rampages to leap back into contention by Labor Day.  Neither team was anything special offensively, and instead relied on top notch pitching to survive the grueling baseball season.

And while years of roster turnover have ensured that no players remain from that fabled '02 team, the man who constructed it--General Manager Billy Beane--is still there, trying to bring a World Series championship to Oakland for the first time since Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley raised the trophy in 1989.

Here are some interesting facts about the Moneyball team:

• The Athletics began the year with a payroll just shy of $40 million.  Only the cash-strapped Expos and Devil Rays spent less money.  On the bright side, Oakland's payroll spiked almost $6 million from Opening Day, 2001, representing an 18 percent boost.
• Oakland won 103 games after winning 102 the previous year, becoming the first Athletics team with consecutive 100 win seasons since the 1929-'31 dynasty days of Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, and Lefty Grove.
• Oakland outperformed their expected W-L record by seven games.
• Won one more game than the '01 squad despite scoring 84 fewer runs and giving up nine additional runs.
• Were six games under .500 (20-26) and in last place as late as May 23rd. From that point forward they went 83-33, winning at an almost inhuman .716 pace.  I'm guessing the AL record 20 game winning streak probably played a small part in that surge.
• The A's ranked eighth among the fourteen AL teams in attendance.  No surprise there; they haven't finishEd Higher than seventh in 20 years.  
• 54-27 record at home, 49-32 on the road.
• Dominated their National League foes by going 16-2 during interleague play and outscoring opponents 103-52.
• Oakland produced the AL MVP (Miguel Tejada) and AL Cy Young (Barry Zito), the first time an American League team had both award winners since the 1993 Chicago White Sox (Frank Thomas and Jack McDowell).  It has since been achieved by the 2006 Minnesota Twins (Justin Morneau and Johan Santana) and last year's Detroit Tigers (Justin Verlander won both).
• Tejada and Zito were the team's only All-Star representatives.  Both were first time All-Stars.
• Eric Chavez was the only member to receive a Gold Glove award (his second).  He was also the only one to win a Silver Slugger (his first and only).
• Zito led the team in bWAR, with 6.8.  He would go on to lead the team again with 4.1 in 2006, his contract year, before inking a seven year, $126 million deal with the San Francisco Giants.  In the six seasons since he has been worth a combined 3.7 bWAR.
• Tejada and Terrence Long played in all 162 games.  The tandem appeared in all 162 the year before, too.
• The A's featured an average offensive attack that failed to lead the American League in any hitting categories.  Their pitching staff, on the other hand, was dominant and paced the AL in wins, ERA, shutouts, and fewest home runs allowed.
• Although the Coliseum is a notorious pitcher's park, the A's posted an .813 OPS there compared to .731 everywhere else.
• Beane's elder free agent pickups Scott Hatteberg and David Justice walked more than they struck out, the only hitters with at least 15 plate appearances to do so.
• What a left side of the infield! Tejada and Chavez both slugged 34 home runs (tied for team lead), knocked in more than 100 and posted nearly identical OPS numbers, with Tejada's .861 barely edging out Chavy's .860 mark.  In recent years, perhaps the only better SS-3B combo has been Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.
• The Big Three of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito combined to go 57-21 with  3.05 ERA in 675 quality innings.
• Closer Billy Koch received MVP consideration after going 11-4 with a 3.27 ERA and 44 saves.  His 84 appearances led the American League and his 79 games finished were tops among all big league pitchers.
• Despite guiding the A's to back-to-back 100 win seasons and three consecutive playoff appearances, skipper Art Howe was replaced by Ken Macha in the offseason.
• Although he was met with initial resistance to his baseball philosophy, Beane and his ideas were ultimately embraced by the team on the field.  The A's finished third in walks and fifth in OBP.  They did not take chances on the basepaths (only 27 stolen base attempts) and did not give away outs, either, with just 20 sacrifice hits all year.
• Forgotten players from the team include Aaron Harang, Cory Lidle, Ted Lilly, Eric Byrnes, Ray Durham, Ramon Hernandez, Mark Ellis, and Carlos Pena

The A's won 103 regular season games but were eliminated by Minnesota in the ALDS