What a let down of an opening day. Blown save, bad defense, Albert Pujols hitting into 3 double plays. But, it was game one. No reason to over-analyze a small sample size -- let's wait to see if a trend develops. That being said, take your mind off the lackluster performance and read my thought's on Jonah Keri's new book....
I finished Jonah Keri's new book The Extra 2 Percent: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First. I was excited about reading the book after hearing an interview with the author promoting the book, and based on my enjoyment of fangraphs.com. The book was okay -- I would even reccomend it, especially since it is a fast read -- but I had higher expectations for it.
What drew me in and made it a must read for me was the subtitle, about Wallstreet strategies being applied to a major league baseball team. I envisioned the book being as mostly about business strategies being adopted from Wallstreet and applied in the unconventional world of baseball operations. This seemed like a valid expectation given that the author is in fact a periodical contributor to The Wallstreet Times and Bloomberg Sports. But, it was not a book about business which happened to be viewed through the lens of baseball; it was a book about a baseball team (the Rays) which happened to have been bought by a guy who made his fortunes on Wallstreet -- much less interesting.
There were segments of the book which touched on business strategy, even a chapter entitled "Arbitrage." But, did I really need to read a two hundred page book to learn the value of buying undervalued assets and selling overvalued ones? Other aspects were interesting, but not necessarily Wallstreet strategies. For instance, the middle of the book gave much attention to the "question everything" mindset which set the Tampa front office (and manager Joe Maddon) apart from the majority of baseball teams at the time. That thought process led to innovative strategies which gave the team an advantage over the rest of baseball. One of those strategies involved using an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze pitch f/x data to predict a pitchers injury before it happened (based on release points).
But, the writing itself left something to be desired. The book had a clear progression. First, it described the orignal owner and how he ran the team into the ground with short sighted plans and cost cutting blunders. Next, the book introduced us to the trio who rode in on a white horse from Wallstreet and saved the franchise. And last, the book examined the current state of baseball and essentially gives a sob story about how it isn't fair for the 3 teams who are forced to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox year after year. But beyond that progression, each chapter was anecdotal, as if each were intended to be able to stand alone. That doesn't seem bad initally, but it led to a lot of issues getting repeated without the betterement of the overall story.
One final pet peeve throughout the book, everytime the author cited a publication to which he contributed, he made a point of emphasizing his contribution. Not necessary, considering there was an about the author page which provided his list of contributions. Pick one or the other, don't sell us on your awesomeness after the book has been bought.
I guess what I was expecting was more of a book about the business of baseball. My hopes were for strategies, numbers, charts, graphs...anything tangible showing the advantage gained from using Wallstreet methods. Instead I got a mostly fluff piece about the history of the Tampa Bay Rays -- maybe that would have been a better title.
I don't mean to rip on the book so much. I actually enjoyed it. I am just disappointed based on my expectations.
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