The Athletics under former GM Billy Beane, then the Oakland Athletics, were… dynastic, for lack of a better word. Though not embodied by any one player, and despite the Athletics never winning a pennant since Beane took charge in 1997, the team remained an almost perennial contender until he stepped aside in 2012, including a run of four consecutive ALDS appearances in the early 2000s. Under current GM David Forst, the Athletics seem to be rising to power again. With the Moneyball philosophy widely used throughout the MLB, Forst and Beane, who is serving as a special advisor to the team, have assembled an offensive core that looks to be on the verge of returning the A’s to contender status.
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The core quartet consists of Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, and Jacob Wilson. Each of them excels in different areas. However, none of them quite fit the true Moneyball mold. Butler may be closest to and yet furthest from Beane’s Moneyball model. His OBP is 70 points higher than his AVG, which is one indicator of success from the Moneyball A’s. However, the disdain for stolen bases has been lost. Butler averages a successful stolen base every 2.4 games.
Rooker is the only one of the four with experience for a team besides the Athletics. As the de facto veteran at 30 years old, he has found a home with the Athletics. This is his fourth MLB organization. While akin to Butler with a .070 OBP-AVG differential, Rooker’s .498 SLG seems to clash with his 33% career K%. Nothing spectacular, but perhaps the closest fit to the Moneyball ideology, Soderstrom’s continued development makes him a player to watch now and in the future. With already good and still improving power, the young outfielder shows his discipline through a 75-point AVG-OBP mark. He is proving to be everything that the Moneyball ideology represents. In the end, he could become the poster boy of modern analytics. This transformation might happen within a few years.
A rookie completes the A’s quartet. He rarely strikes out and walks even less. Yet, he is sure to play in the All-Star Game this summer and possibly even start at shortstop. A career OBP only .040 points higher than his BA. Wilson simply makes contact with anything over the plate. Therefore, he still reaches base at an obscene rate. Not really the true Moneyball model, but an All-Star caliber shortstop will always hold value. Although the Moneyball is now widely used on some level, and even the Athletics don’t follow it like a law, a modern view of Moneyball is certainly coming into vogue. The Athletics are using such analytics to build a competitive core that will soon become a serious contender. This strategy aims to return the A’s to their former glory.
