Moneyball Page #4

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Billy, even if you could afford him,

respectfully, we love him.

We're not about to let him go.

You got this Venezuelan kid

coming up.

We had him.

We moved him to Detroit.

Huh.

What else you thinking?

Outfielders.

To replace Damon?

Yeah.

In your price range? No disrespect.

Enough, Mark.

Uh... Hollins?

BILLY:

Uh-uh.

Garcia?

No.

Maybe Coste.

Uh-uh.

That's it.

All right, tell me about Garcia.

To replace Johnny Damon?

Mark, is he healthy?

Yeah, he's healthy-ish.

He had that back thing.

He'll be ready for spring ball.

BILLY:
I'll tell you what.

I can give you Guthrie

if you kick in some cash.

Mark Guthrie?

Yeah.

How much cash?

Two hundred K.

[WHISPERS INDISTINCTLY]

MARK:

Okay.

So Garcia's gonna be a no.

You're kidding me, right?

You're kidding me.

I'm not.

Okay. Straight up,

Garcia for Guthrie, no kicker.

No kicker?

BILLY:
Straight up.

I think it's gonna be

a hard no on Garcia,

but let's just keep going.

What else you thinking?

What are we doing? Is this business?

This is the way we do

business in Cleveland.

Hey.

Hello.

Who are you?

I'm Peter Brand.

What do you do?

I'm special assistant

to Mark Shapiro.

So, what do you do?

Mostly player analysis

right now.

Been on the job long?

First job in baseball?

It's my first job anywhere.

Wow, congrats.

Thank you.

First job.

Whose nephew are you?

Why does Mark listen to you?

I don't think, uh...

I don't think he does very often.

He just did.

Well, in that circumstance,

I think he was more listening

to Bruce than myself.

Mm-hm. Who are you?

I'm Peter Brand.

I don't give a rat's ass

what your name is.

What happened

in there?

What happened

in that room?

I'm not quite sure what

you're asking me, Mr. Beane.

What did you

tell Bruce?

I just told Bruce I like Garcia.

You like Garcia. Why?

Why?

I don't know. Ahem.

There is an epidemic failure

within the game

to understand

what is really happening.

And this leads people who run

Major League Baseball teams

to misjudge their players

and mismanage their teams.

I apologize.

Go on.

Okay. People who run ball clubs,

they think in terms of buying players.

Your goal shouldn't be

to buy players. Your goal

should be to buy wins.

And in order to buy wins,

you need to buy runs.

You're trying

to replace Johnny Damon.

The Red Sox see Johnny Damon

and they see a star

who's worth $7.5 million a year.

When I see Johnny Damon,

what I see is...

an imperfect understanding

of where runs come from.

The guy's got a great glove.

He's a decent leadoff hitter.

He can steal bases.

But is he worth

the $7.5 million a year

that the Boston Red Sox

are paying him?

No. No.

Baseball thinking is medieval.

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