Moneyball Blog 2 - Quarter 3 Blog 3

Currently on Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Billy is looking to capitalize on the Trade Deadline to try and find some missing components to the team. In the Trade Deadline, its the "buyer's sale for dresses after the Oscar's" as Michael Lewis puts it. Every player who's contract is expired or close to expiring is most likely to get traded, possibly sent down to the Minors, or released in order for that team to make a run for a specific player. Billy is anxious to get his hands on the left handed specialist Ricardo Rincon from the Cleveland Indians. Billy soon picks the pockets of the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants to pursue the left handed reliever, Rincon. After the Rincon chase, Billy and Paul soon try to get Kevin Youkilis who is the "Greek God of walks". The Boston Red Sox picked him up a in the draft and was a nobody until Paul's computer spit him out and predicted Youkilis to be a big hit in the Big Leagues. That is where I left off for now.

Billy Beane is an ambitious person who has a unique type of rage. Based on his scouts in the A's office and his players whom he hired, he gets very angry based off him being so competitive and everything not going his way. Billy is ambitious and is great at chasing players but most of the time he fails to actually grab them. As everybody in the GM role of baseball is and should be selfish and ambitious, Billy has a flashy and unique kind of personality. Also, based off the last chapter, Michael Lewis talks about an ex-catcher named Scott Hatteberg. Hatty was supposed to be one of three players to replace the slugging Jason Giambi who the A's lost last season. Billy and Paul specifically chose Scott because he got on base and because he was cheap. He couldn't throw so his catching days were over but he could play 1st Base which he had never done before. The unique thing about Hatty was that he never believed in himself as his wife put it. She said, "It isn't that I want baseball fans to know my husband. I want my husband to know that the fans know who he is," which inspired her to go out in the bitter December weather and hit grounders to train for the upcoming season.