Interview with Michael Lewis

[Taylor]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ch...php?chatId=129

Oh I just love this one,

Joel (Washington, DC): I HAVE read the book and congratulate you on being provocative and adding a term to the baseball lexicon. At the same time, parts of it look pretty silly with the benefit of hindsight, especially the part on the A's 2002 draft. What is your own assessment now of your analysis?

Michael Lewis: Oh, you're so right, I am so silly, and you, with your hindsight, are the wise one! Seriously, did you grasp the main point of the draft chapters: that the odds of success in the draft done the old fashioned way were so poor that there was little risk in going about it a different way? That the A's were not certain they had found a better way of doing it--that they only hoped that they had? That the whole thing they viewed as an experiment? And, anyway, how are you so sure their experiment was a failure? (It looks pretty good to me, especially given how quixotic their methods were.) Three of the players are big league regulars already, and it's still very early. And you can't really evaluate it out of context. The question is: were they any better than other teams in finding the talent IN THAT YEAR. I don't know the answer--it isn't yet knowable-but they certainly didn't do badly.

"it's still very early" - Nevermind it didn't bother him to call Fuson's 2001 draft an "expensive disaster" after only one year.

And those three big three regulars, besides Blanton is there anyone from that draft that os considered regular players?

Even
Athletics Nation is trashing this guy.

Note - I'm not trashing the statheads here (Even though it's obvious I'm not one), rather I'm trashing Lewis. He's the one whinning about the media backlash since his book came out, hey Lewis - here's some advice: Next time you decide to be a pompous ass, think to yourself "Since it's obvious I can dish it, can I take it? If not then perhaps I shouldn't take a method I'm new to and slap it across the face of traditionalists and old timer scouts."

At first Lewis bragged that he was going to write a follow-up to Moneyball focusing on the 2003 draft, I say bring it on - Texas' 2002 draft (And 2001 and 2000) may have been horrible, but 2003 was Fuson's shining moment, dare him to call that draft an expensive disaster...

[Steak]

Funny to see Lewis being defensive these days.