You saw the movie and you probably read the book, so you would think that Major League Baseball would know the history by now of the Oakland Athletics and how they are run by a mad-scientist genius general manager. But instead, the league is once again being taught the value of Moneyball 101.
Billy Beane, the brilliant General Manager behind the Oakland A's and the subject of Michael Lewis' book, entered the 2012 season with the second lowest payroll in the league at just over $55 million.
In the offseason, Beane dealt away a pair of starting pitchers in Trevor Cahill to Arizona, Gio Gonzalez to Washington and two-time All-Star closer Andrew Bailey to Boston.
In return, Oakland set the foundation for their amazing 2012 run so far.
In exchange for Gonzalez, Oakland got pitchers Brad Peacock (currently in Triple-A Sacramento), Tommy Milone (nine wins and an ERA of 3.34) and catcher Derek Norris, whose first career home run was a walk-off shot against the San Francisco Giants back on June 24.
For Trevor Cahill, Oakland landed Jarrod Parker (seven wins and an ERA of 3.00) and future closer Ryan Cook (four wins, 10 saves and an ERA of 1.70).
For Bailey, Boston gave up Josh Reddick, the current starting right fielder for Oakland. Reddick also leads the team in just about every major statistical category, including at-bats, batting average (Yoenis Cespedes leads the team in BA but also has about 120 less at-bats), runs, hits, doubles and home runs. All of this while making $485,000 this season.
The 2012 Moneyball A's just finished a four-game sweep over the New York Yankees and their $200 million payroll, giving the Yankees their first four-game sweep in nearly nine years (Via Yahoo Sports)
Oakland's starting pitchers combined to go 27.2 innings with seven earned runs and 24 strikeouts. Tommy Milone struck out 10 on Friday night and Jarrod Parker allowed a single run through eight innings on Saturday.
With the sweep, Oakland moves into a tie for the Wild Card spot along with the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles. In the month of July, Oakland sports a 14-2 record, including sweeps over both Boston and the New York Yankees.
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