On a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Paul DePodesta talked about what brought him to New York, what he likes about draft day, and what Moneyball really means.
"The book itself was a bit of a caricature, not just to me, but to many of the people involved. Moneyball has taken on a lot of connotations that weren’t intended. Moneyball doesn’t have anything to do with on-base percentage or statistics. It’s a constant investigation of stagnant systems, to see if you can find value where it isn’t readily apparent. It can be anything. At the time, it happened to be using statistics to make us better decisions. That’s not always the case. There are new frontiers we need to conquer."
Distilled to its essence, we have this:
Moneyball ≠ stats.
Now let's move on.