Billy Beane's shit better not work in the Premiership

by pdb on Apr 19, 2008 12:45 PM PDT

At least not as long as he's working with Sp*rs, that is. It's interesting to see this sort of effort being expended around the world of soccer - it's an incredibly hard sport to quantify, and I'm not sure what the value is in quantifying a lot of it, but Beane can definitely have an impact.

Not sure they can call it sabermetrics as it applies to football, though. Gotta come up with a snappy name for it.

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Oh crap

by Graham on Apr 19, 2008 1:01 PM PDT 0 recs

I have thought about applying Moneyball to football ever since 2004...

I have yet to find any way in which it would help. Football is just so fucking random and hard to quantify. And it’s shit compared to baseball, too. Fuck Man United.

And to think, I could have chosen to support the Yankees or Red Sox...

by EnglishMariner on Apr 19, 2008 1:02 PM PDT 0 recs

I agree on all counts

I’d say I want to smash Tevez’ teeth in, but it’d take too goddamn long. Fucking manc bastards.

But, back to the topic – that’s what I wonder, about analysis of football – I’m not sure how it would help, even if a quantification system can be developed. It’s such a fluid game.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Apr 19, 2008 1:35 PM PDT up 0 recs

They do apply Moneyball to football

How do you think the Seahawks got Lofa Tatupu, Leroy Hill, Kelly Jennings, Brandon Mebane, etc.

http://seattlesportsmaniac.blogspot.com

by LantermanC on Apr 19, 2008 1:35 PM PDT up 0 recs

Wrong football.

Yesterday's Pants
A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on Apr 19, 2008 1:41 PM PDT up 0 recs

I was trying to decide whether he was being ironic

but yeah, I’m talking about the football where they use, y’know, feet.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Apr 19, 2008 1:43 PM PDT up 0 recs

nope, i wasn't being ironic

I was being sarcastic

http://seattlesportsmaniac.blogspot.com

by LantermanC on Apr 19, 2008 3:39 PM PDT up 1 recs

Thank you.

by Liebkartoffel on Apr 19, 2008 4:13 PM PDT up 0 recs

I rec'd this post.

by sammy on Apr 20, 2008 3:05 AM PDT up 0 recs

What, American Football players don't use their feet?

Do they look get around looking like this?

by Jordan of Boise on Apr 20, 2008 7:26 PM PDT up 0 recs

Your football is even worse than our football.

Also, phb, not all Mancs are Red Scum – I am a Manc but from the blue side of the city! CMON YOU BLUES!!!

And to think, I could have chosen to support the Yankees or Red Sox...

by EnglishMariner on Apr 19, 2008 1:43 PM PDT up 0 recs

Completely understood.

one of my other best friends is from Macclesfield and he’s a blue as well. What the hell happened to City this year? I haven’t followed them that close, but they were so good earlier this season…

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Apr 19, 2008 1:44 PM PDT up 0 recs

I will say the same to you as I say to anyone else:

They have regressed to the mean.

You are probably the only person who I have said that to who will understand what it means! We punched way above our weight early on, and now we are where we deserve to be: mid table.

And to think, I could have chosen to support the Yankees or Red Sox...

by EnglishMariner on Apr 19, 2008 3:50 PM PDT up 0 recs

If you're not a Manc, you're a Wank

I love the soccer hooligans in EuroTrip.

by Fin on Apr 19, 2008 8:25 PM PDT up 0 recs

It's tough

because most of the skills world football involves aren’t quantifiable. Basketball has assists, points, shooting percentage, turnovers. Football has yards per carry, fumbles, and even the offensive linemen’s performances can be quantified in missed blocks, team rushing yards, sacks allowed. But in soccer, how do you quantify effective ball control, positioning, defense, passing and other elements of form relative to your peers? The closest I’ve seen is the old Championship Manager game’s arbitrary game scores.

by Gomez on Apr 19, 2008 1:56 PM PDT up 0 recs

% of balls lost

yards run
% tackles won
% of successful passes

by Matthew on Apr 19, 2008 1:59 PM PDT up 0 recs

Yards run are pretty much irrelevant

because there’s no advantage gained if, for example, a forward runs more than another forward. It’s probably best used as a measure of fitness than anything else.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Apr 19, 2008 2:50 PM PDT up 0 recs

how can you say fuck ManU

That Cr-7 is soooo dreamy…
And that Wayne Rooney does not hire prostitutes.

http://seattlesportsmaniac.blogspot.com

by LantermanC on Apr 19, 2008 3:39 PM PDT up 0 recs

Have you ever seen my GTE?

I reserve my real GTE for when City play United. Baseball doesn’t even compare when it comes to the frustration that I can get from watching United win/City do shit.

And to think, I could have chosen to support the Yankees or Red Sox...

by EnglishMariner on Apr 19, 2008 3:53 PM PDT up 0 recs

Call it economic utility

Since, after all, that’s what it is.

by Gomez on Apr 19, 2008 1:54 PM PDT 0 recs

Somebody declared Billy Beane Prime Minister of America?

by Liebkartoffel on Apr 19, 2008 2:20 PM PDT 0 recs

Had no idea Beane was a Spurs fan

As an M’s fan my feeling on Beane are conflicting but i guess we have something in common….

by Reek on Apr 19, 2008 3:00 PM PDT 0 recs

Fuck that bitch Ginobili

I fucking hate you Mariners

by kentroyals5 on Apr 19, 2008 3:12 PM PDT up 0 recs

uh, yeah, it's not about basketball either

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Apr 19, 2008 3:15 PM PDT up 0 recs

damn...sarcasm doesn't go well sometimes

over the internets

I fucking hate you Mariners

by kentroyals5 on Apr 19, 2008 4:24 PM PDT up 0 recs

Maybe you should...

...translate to British?

by GhettoBear04 on Apr 20, 2008 6:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

Wait, whoa

another LL-Spurs fan?

by marc w on Apr 21, 2008 3:05 PM PDT up 0 recs

I think

With salary cap sports like basketball, it’s much harder to find market inefficiencies because teams have to be much more efficient because of the scarcity you have with the amount of money you can spend.
With football it’s a little different so you don’t have fully guaranteed contracts, so the market for talent does have some inefficiencies in it due to incorrect notions of what is important for a winning football team, and you do have websites like footballoutsiders that tries to quantify how specific parts of a team contribute to it’s ability to win on the field.

by gumbostu on Apr 19, 2008 3:26 PM PDT 0 recs

but with the rest of the worlds footbal, I have no idea how you’d apply it as I don’t really know the game

by gumbostu on Apr 19, 2008 3:27 PM PDT up 0 recs

Billy Beane's value to the A's

was/is the commitment to using analytic/empirical methods. Very good value there, and I’m very grateful. It’s not clear how good he actually is at it, though, compared to the 4-6 similarly-minded teams. I don’t really know. What I do know is that if some soccer team has the idea of looking to Beane for ideas, they’ve already made the most important step, and he has basically nothing to add.

He meets with Tony Blair… Jurgen Klinsmann comes to the A’s spring training ostensibly to learn “Moneyball” methods… Beane is awesome, and I would go to his various silicon valley speaking engagements if I was there, but he is not going to do shit for any English soccer team beyond pr…

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Apr 19, 2008 7:14 PM PDT 0 recs

Woohoo!

This is great.
I don’t think Beane can tell them what to do, but just to have a cohesive, unified vision of roster construction would be a nice change at White Hart Lane.

Glad that he’s a Spurs fan.

I approve of this fanpost.

by marc w on Apr 21, 2008 3:04 PM PDT 0 recs