Game Changer

1) What was the “Moneyball”approach that Billy Beane and Peter Brandt applied to the Oakland Athletics 2002 season? Was it an “art” or a “science”? What single statistic did they boil their value consideration down to? (In class research/discussion)

• they used stats to find under-rated players that could play
• science
• on base percentage

2) What is the equation used to calculate OBP? (In class research/discussion)

• times getting on base(walk/hit)/ total at bats

3) What is design? (In class research/discussion)

• Design- to put creativity into words and on paper. 

4) Describe 3 situations where movie characters (intentionally or not) applied a step from the PLTW 12 Step Design Process. Explain both the (a) situation as well as (b) how the step is relevant:
1 -when Billy Beane and his old expert scouts BRAINSTORMED on who to draft

2 - when Billy Beane asked them to identify the problem

3 - make adjustments to fix problems(basically entire movie, the adjustment was the moneyball strategy)


5) What is “Leadership”? List the three aspects of leadership that we come up with in class. (In class research/discussion)

1 - stepping up
2 -doing whats best for the team
3 - asking for help


6) Describe 3 circumstances from the story where a character exercised effective leadership:
1 - Billy Beane asked for money from his manager

2 - when he traded Jeremy Giombe and the first baseman to help the team

3 -when he drafted the money ball draft picks to better help the team



7) According to the movie, what was the A’s record at the start of their winning streak? __77_ : __51_

8) What does this ratio simplify to (roughly)? __1.5_ : 1

9) How long was the A’s record setting winning streak? __20_ games won.

10) Given the A’s win/loss ratio at the start of the streak (listed two questions above), what are the odds of winning 20 games in a row? Run the numbers. (In class research/discussion)

• Something like .0003% 

11) Based on your calculation, do you think the A’s got lucky or was there something to the Moneyball approach?

• there was definitely other factors that aren't approached in the movie like which teams did they play and so on. there was definitely a degree of luck though.

12) Did Billy Beane strictly apply the “science” of Moneyball to his management approach? Was there an “art” to his efforts as well? Describe a circumstance where he broke from the Moneyball approach to make a positive change for the team.

• again its both because he used science to draft the players but art to manage them. for example drafting Jeremy. he was a moral killer in the locker room so he traded him even though he was a good pick stat wise.