Mets To Contact Theo Epstein; Plan To Ask Permission About Billy Beane, David Stearns

Billy is right, Moneyball doesn’t work in the postseason where fundamentals like solid defense and smart baserunning help win ballgames.

And Moneyball works better when you have three of the best starting pitchers in the game and juiced up sluggers.

Cosmo the answer is simple. In the postseason the margin for error is much smaller, because the competition is much better. You can’t recover from defensive and baserunning errors as easily in the postseason, they are magnified and quite often directly lead to losses.

In 2013 the two COATS helped the Red Sox in the postseason big time, Ortiz and Lester.

But Billy says there’s no such thing as clutch. If he thought differently, he probably wouldn’t have the longest drought in the league right now.

Getting back to fundamentals such as fielding and baserunning, from the same Atlantic article:

Let’s review. From 2000-2003, the A’s lost in the first round of the playoffs, the American League Division Series, each year. Their collective record for those four series was 8-12. Even more stunning, given their success during the regular season, the A’s were an eye-popping 0-9 in potential clinchers—games that would have won the series and sent them on to the next round of playoffs.

Some of their errors and miscues are among the most famous in 21st century major league baseball. In 2000, the A’s won 91 games over the season to the Yankees’ 87 but lost in the final game of the ALDS when Terrence Long, not known for his defensive skills, misplayed a long fly ball in the first inning, allowing the Yankees to clear the bases and blow the game open.

The next season, the A’s once again outplayed the far richer eastern devils, winning 102 games to the Yanks’ 95. One of the key plays in the series came in game three when Derek Jeter streaked all the way across the field to snag a weak throw down the first base line and flip it to Jorge Posada, who tagged an unbelievably lazy Jeremy Giambi, who had forgotten to slide. In game five, the A’s led 2-0 in the bottom of the second when three Oakland errors led to two unearned runs that were the difference in the 5-3 win; one of the errors was by Jason Giambi at first base. Giambi was probably one of the worst fielding first basemen in baseball; the only reason he was playing the position that day was because he couldn’t play DH because his brother, the even worse fielding Jeremy, was in that slot.

In 2002, the A’s faced the equally small market Minnesota Twins in the ALDS. Oakland was easily the better team, winning 103 games to the Twins’ 94. But in game four, the A’s fielding unraveled with two errors leading to five unearned runs in an ugly defeat. One error was committed by the normally sure-handed Miguel Tejada, but the other was by the usually unsurehanded Scott Hattesberg who was in the lineup because Beane loved his ability to get on base, not for his fielding skills. (As Lewis puts it, infield coach Ron Washington “was the one coach in baseball who could be certain that his general manager wouldn’t be wasting any money on fielding ability.”)

The next season the A’s won three more games (96-93) than the big market Boston Red Sox. But in game three, perhaps the worst in Beane’s career, they committed four errors, capped off by Tejada and Eric Byrnes taking the team out of scoring opportunities with bone-headed base running. (Base running is low on Beane’s list of priorities.)