“Moneyball” is more than a best selling book about the big time baseball success of the small time Oakland Athletics. It is a realistic view of the current baseball competitive balance issues and how the game is played as well as how the baseball betting fans can best start in his evaluation of a potential wager.
Before one completely gives up on small market teams in favor of the powerhouse New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox there are shining lights to point towards as potential good values on the baseball betting boards because these teams are run so well.
Oakland is the best place to start. Playing in an outdated stadium, with a marginal and fickle fan base, and across the bay from the popular San Francisco Giants and their spectacular ball park, general manager Billy Beane still finds a way to have the A’s in playoff contention each year. The Minnesota Twins have an even worse venue than the A’s to play in but have found a way to contend every year themselves. The Cleveland Indians have suffered at “Moneyball” in recent seasons but look to be launching a comeback into contender status after hanging in there until the final weekend of the 2005 season.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim may play in a big market but are prudent fiscally, winning as a top organization rather than a cash cow.
What are really laughable are the big spending teams that flop. The best example of this would be the Baltimore Orioles, who are perennially amongst the major league baseball leaders in payroll size while losing more than the win almost every year. The New York Mets have had similar problems in recent years with bloated ineffective payrolls. The big market Los Angeles Dodgers disgraced themselves last year.
A baseball betting fans would be well advised to study the recent history of all of the franchises in baseball and read as much as he can about each organization, the people who run them, their backgrounds and records. A savvy student can quickly find out which organizations are serious about winning, which ones are not only serious but effective, which ones are ineffective and which ones simply aren’t trying, (Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and now Florida would seem to fall into that category).