What is Moneyball?
Monyeball is a data-driven management approach to a business which aims at getting the maximum value possible out of your investment. The term was coined by Billy Beane.
As general manager of the Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics, Beane’s pioneering use of sabermetrics - the empirical analysis of baseball statistics to drive recruitment decisions - brought historic success to the franchise, with the team winning 20 games in a row in the 2002 season having a limited budget compared to the sport's powerhouses
While Beane was not the first to use data like this in sport, he is unquestionably the most successful and famous for doing so.
Here is the man himself describing the concept in his own words, as told to the Liverpool Echo: "It [Moneyball] has a lot of different meanings. The assumption when that term is used is that you are always looking to spend as little as possible, which actually couldn’t be further from the truth.
"Some business decisions - or sporting decisions - cost a lot, but they are worth far more than you put into them. For example: Michael Jordan. Whatever he was paid by the Chicago Bulls, he was worth exponentially more.
"We are ultimately trying to find undervalued assets and hope that the player value would continue to increase. The challenge in Oakland is that there were a lot of good decisions that cost a lot of money that we were not allowed to make."
In terms of sports (and specifically, football), our user The Boss has summed up the idea in his comment: "Moneyball is basically using stats to find underrated players at bargain prices. The stats help determine if a certain player can be good within a certain role that nobody else has figured out."
How Liverpool have used Moneyball to our advantage
A few years ago, Liverpool set up the transfer committee headed by Michael Edwards that has helped us get so many good players over the past few seasons.
The team uses analytics and crunches a lot of numbers throughout the season to determine which player would be best suited for the club. The signing of Andy Robertson for cheap is a prime example of our scouting and data team working hand-in-hand to get the best footballers at Anfield.
The Boss explained this idea perfectly too: "Like Robbo for example, he was chosen for his sprints and take ons, along with his personality and other traits. People didn't see these as attributes for a fullback but out the analytical team did.
"Then we scoop him up for 8M! Looks to be a similar purchase with Mini and Kostas. We have taken Moneyball to a whole new level though, we use physicists along with mathematical geniuses."
Beane has also praised Liverpool's analytical team: "At Liverpool, a great example is Mohamed Salah. They spent about £40million on him from Italy, which is a lot of money. At the time, people thought that was too much but as it turned out, he was worth far more than they paid for him.
"To me, that’s a great example of exploiting a data advantage - spending a lot of money, but getting far more value out of it than what people expect."
The scouting team work on the basis of whether the player will be ‘transformational’. The club is more than happy to pay what might be deemed a high figure if the player is worth that amount, and can afford to do so in normal times by spending relatively little on other players like Robertson, or Academy graduates like Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Why Beane buying a minority stake in the club can be good news
According to the New York Post, Beane wants to purchase a minority stake in Liverpool. We all understand that Michael Edwards is a genius who brings the best players to the club. Now, imagine what he can do with the creator of Moneyball helping him!
It's unlikely that Beane will be a hands-on minority owner who will oversee the transfer department alongside Edwards, but there must be a reason why he is investing in Liverpool - after all, he is the master of getting the most out of his investments!
Beane has previously praised Liverpool's way of handling their business and clearly, the club attracts him. Therefore, his presence in the boardroom and certain important meetings could be very beneficial for the club in the long run - as we all know, we have to spend smartly to compete with the Yankees and the Dodgers of our own: clubs having rich Arab owners and little regard for FFP rules.
If Beane does buy a minority stake at the club, it can only be seen as a positive update in the long run!
