Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Changing the game

1) What was the “Moneyball”approach that Billy Beane and Peter Brandt applied to the Oakland Athletics 2002 season? Was it an “art” or a “science”? What single statistic did they boil their value consideration down to? (In class research/discussion)
The money ball aproach was scientific not artistic. Bought players based on statistics only. That way he found undrerated players he could by for cheap. The statistic they considerd the most was on base persetage.
2) What is the equation used to calculate OBP? (In class research/discussion)

OBP = \frac{H+BB+HBP}{AB+BB+HBP+SF}
3) What is design? (In class research/discussion)
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system
4) Describe 3 situations where movie characters (intentionally or not) applied a step from the PLTW 12 Step
 Design Process. Explain both the (a) situation as well as (b) how the step is relevant:
Billy defines the problem because the the scouts were just brain storming whit out knowing the problem.
they test the team to see if it works because if it doesnt they can modify it.
They correct the mistakes they madeso they have a beter teame.
5) What is “Leadership”? List the three aspects of leadership that we come up with in class. (In class research/discussion)
direction
alinement
comintment
6) Describe 3 circumstances from the story where a character exercised effective leadership:
he fired the head scout for insulting him
he traded players so the coach would play as intended
traded giombi because he was a bad influence
7) According to the movie, what was the A’s record at the start of their winning streak? __68_ : 51___
8) What does this ratio simplify to (roughly)? _1.5__ : 1

9) How long was the A’s record setting winning streak? __20_ games won.
10) Given the A’s win/loss ratio at the start of the streak (listed two questions above), what are the odds of winning 20 games in a row? Run the numbers. (In class research/discussion).000013

11) Based on your calculation, do you think the A’s got lucky or was there something to the Moneyball approach? I think it was a conbination of luck and the money ball aproach because even with that aproach and the OVP strategy you need some luck to win 20 in a row.
12) Did Billy Beane strictly apply the “science” of Moneyball to his management approach? Was there an “art” to his efforts as well? Describe a circumstance where he broke from the Moneyball approach to make a positive change for the team. He didnt strictly folowed it because he traded Gionbi even though he was a bad influence to the team. It had a positive effect on the team because with a small budget he created a play off team using mostly science and a little bit of art.
Money Ball was originally a book. What author wrote the book? What other books has this author written? Is there a theme to his writing?

he also wrote the blind side. the theme for his books is to achieve throgh dificulties.