Billy Beane Quotations

I love what I do. That's one of the reasons I've stayed. I love the community; I love driving to work.

We've got to use every piece of data and piece of information, and hopefully that will help us be accurate with our player evaluation. For us, that's our life blood.

The math works. Over the course of a season, there's some predictability to baseball. When you play 162 games, you eliminate a lot of random outcomes. There's so much data that you can predict: individual players' performances and also the odds that certain strategies will pay off.

I may not be as visible as I used to be, and by that I mean being in the clubhouse or on the field. But I'm just as invested as I've always been.

Smaller markets teams, when you hit bottom, you hit with a thud.

The bottom line is that any business should be a meritocracy. The best and brightest. Period.

We can't do the same things the Yankees do. Given the economics, we'll lose.

I don't want a lot of guys like me who played the game. Quite frankly, I want blank canvases; I want people to come in with new ideas. I don't want the biases of their own experiences to be a part of their decision-making process.

I hate this idea that I've somehow become detached. It's like I can't win. I'd been hearing all these years that I was too hands-on: that I was the guy writing out the lineup card. Now, I'm not present enough. How is it possible to be a detached micromanager?

I just talked to a young lady, a freshman at Santa Barbara. She's taking a course, and 'Moneyball''s one of the required readings. This young lady could dream of one day becoming a general manager.

I've always been intellectually restless, but it is the building part of it that most interests me. It is the constructing of the team that is my favorite part. Anyone who is familiar with the history of the A's franchise, even dating back to Philadelphia, knows that every five or 10 years, you have to tear it apart and rebuild it.

In baseball, you can do something poorly and still get credit. A pitcher could throw a bad ball, the batter hit a screaming line drive, and an outfielder make a fantastic diving catch. Yet, when you look at historical databases, 80% of the time when a ball is struck with that trajectory and velocity, it is a hit.

Quite frankly, I can't get enough of soccer. I tell my jingoistic friends in the United States there's a reason why it is the world's No. 1 sport. The rest of the planet can't be wrong.

The idea that you can create a template that will work forever doesn't happen in any business. There's some really, really bright people in this business. You can't do the same thing the same way and be successful for a long period of time.

Trying to build a team over the course of the winter to put on the field is really just half the job. Because if your best players go down, it's not so much him going down as who you replace him with, which ultimately might have the biggest impact on how you end up finishing. So you want to have both a belt and suspenders for support.

We try to create a situation where we're the casino. It's like how an actuary would set insurance rates. Predictability, predictability, predictability. What's the path to least risk? What's the greater chance of getting some return on this asset?

When I first came into baseball, people didn't want to hear that a team was a business. But it is. And the better the business is run, the healthier the team on the field is going to be.

Who wants to get really granular with sabermetrics when you're going to see a two-and-a-half-hour Brad Pitt movie? You don't go to the cinema for a maths lesson.

Why do people care about anything we do? We play in a crappy stadium, in a market that we share with another team, with one of the lowest payrolls in the game. Really, I'm not that interesting.

The perfect guy either might not be out there or beyond our (financial) means.

We're fine with Joe as the only lefty down there. He was a very good reliever for us before Rich got hurt, and I expect him to be a very good reliever for us again. He has all the tools for success.

We're looking for a really solid year out of Esteban. It doesn't have to be his best year as long as it's not his worst. Somewhere in the middle, we'll be happy.

When Frank is healthy, he is a huge right-handed presence. And that's been a big issue for us the last couple of years.

There are no hard feelings whatsoever. This is part of the business.

We've been inconsistent with our offense and pitching. But the effort is there. Guys are busting their tails. And certainly, relative to previous starts, we're on fire.

There are very few winters we're going to go, 'Hey, we're set' a day after the season. That being said, this is not going to be nearly as traumatic and exciting as it was last winter.

It’s hard not to be romantic about baseball

You have to face reality some time. But there's no sense in facing it until somebody forces you to.

Certainly, you're not going to able to go and pull a Mark Mulder out of your hat somewhere.

I hate losing more than I want to win.

No matter how successful you are, change is always good.

You know, I'd actually say Lionel Messi. He's so remarkable, watching him play he's probably still undervalued. When you're scoring five goals in one Champions League match, there's no value that's too high.

When your enemy's making mistakes, don't interrupt him.

I made one decision in my life based on money and I swore I would never do it again.

The idea that I [should] trust my eyes more than the stats, I don't buy that because I've seen magicians pull rabbits out of hats and I know that the rabbit's not in there.

How can you not be romantic about baseball?

(Macha) did a fine job. We obviously had significant player turnover and injuries. The end result was good. It was great to see the young guys make the progress they did.

Lenny was so perfectly designed, emotionally, to play the game of baseball. He was able to instantly forget any failure and draw strength from every success. He had no concept of failure. And he had no idea of where he was.

Obviously we're pleased, we're very excited about having someone with his talent. We look forward to seeing him in Oakland very soon.

But we've always been obsessed in Oakland with not being the cute small-market story that came and went.

Frank Thomas is a presence. Not only would he be our type of offensive player, he would be everybody's type of offensive player. ... If Frank is healthy, he's been good against everybody.

Frank felt great. Frank believes he'll be ready in spring training.

Frank believes he'll be ready in spring training. There was a real sense of determination in talking to him.

I don't view having too many good players as a problem.

For us, it was an opportunity to add a player without subtracting a player. Our history here, usually we're trading a player to acquire a player.

Having too many players that deserve to play is not a bad problem to have. We've certainly been on the other side of it. We've never been a club that's had a tremendous amount of depth. (Trading a player) is not something that's on our list to do.

He's happy to be here. And he's quick to smile.

He is one of the greatest offensive players of his generation. He is nirvana for us as far as what we look for in an offensive player.

Kenny called me a couple days ago in Phoenix, ... He gave me a call.It took a lot for him to pick up the phone.

Ken has options and we're respectful of that. I wouldn't expect a long process. We'll come to a resolution soon.

Ken did a great job for us. We've always said that. He was a good enough manager for us to want him back before, and he's still a good enough manager to come back.

It all started with that call. I think it took a lot for him to pick up that phone. It was probably not an easy call for him to make.

I think it took a lot for him to pick up the phone.

Paul has seen the ups and down of developing young players and trusting the three, four years they've had in the minor leagues and discounting their first few months in the majors. Developing young players can be a lot of fun, but you've got to have the discipline to live with their mistakes and understand their trend line isn't always going to go straight up.

I think it will have a major impact.

Who knows how the rest of baseball views you? ... I can go home and sleep and know that we used tremendous character to get through this season.

We were unable to reach an agreement with Ken regarding a contract extension that was satisfactory for both parties,

We were never going to bridge the gap.

When it comes to working, Matt can be a little nutty. We wanted to make sure he realized work is secondary. Obviously, he's here because he's a very good employee, but our interest in him is as a person, first. There are far more important things in life than your job.

We've made a proposal to Kenny. We talked to him for the last couple weeks. We've expressed a desire to have Kenny back. Given his status as an up-and-coming manager, he has options and we are respectful of that. We'll see how it goes. I wouldn't expect it would be a long process. It would be one that should come to some sort of resolution relatively quickly.

Yeah, six weeks I think is unrealistic to expect that he'll be in pitching shape.

We offered a three-year deal with a club option and they countered with a three-year deal without a club option. I don't think we were ever going to be able to bridge the gap. It was a significant gap.

We have four very good rookies, but at the risk of saying it before the season is over, it would be pretty tough to find an explanation for choosing somebody else.

This whole issue didn't sneak up on us. It's disappointing we couldn't come to a conclusion that was satisfactory.

We had a little bit of a logjam (on a one-year deal), and this was a creative way to bring it to a conclusion. We didn't want it to drag on.

What a special kid. No one deserves this more.

Both (Williams and Thomas) are highly competitive, highly successful people. It's temporary noise.

Assuming we're healthy, Kenny's not going to have his hands tied very often.

At this point, both sides have agreed to pursue other options. We were just too far apart. I don't think we were ever going to be able to bridge the gap. ... When you're so far apart, there's no sense going through the exercise.

Essentially this has been a business that's been around for over a hundred years and it really hasn't changed much so any time someone's doing something differently, its probably going to create some friction.

Even at this time his career, people stop to watch him come to the plate. I know I have.

It would be malpractice not to do research. Of course, it would also be malpractice to make a foolish trade.

It was an emotional time for the family, a life decision for them. The fact that we didn't agree right away wasn't unusual, given the magnitude of the decision.

After instructional league, he seemed so far away from being able to compete in a major league game. What a special kid. What a comeback he had last year. No one deserves this more.

Some teams can absorb another guy's contract to get a great player, and we can't do that. It's a huge advantage when you can do stuff like that. Every year I'm asked if we're buyers or sellers, and every year we're both. Just once, it would be nice to buy without selling.

Deals are always ongoing things. So now, in that respect, Brad is part of the deal. But I'm not the reflective sort when it comes to that kind of thing.

This is the first time since I've been here that we haven't spent the off-season replacing what we've lost. We felt like we were very competitive last year. . . . In particular, when we were healthy, it was a very, very good team. So the idea that we were adding to this group . . . it's a first for us since I've been here as the general manager.

This guy's skill level and ability is undeniable. Frank Thomas is a presence.

This guy probably represents nirvana for us from an offensive standpoint. We see him as an incredible acquisition.

This is ultimately what we were trying to do during the season and in the days after it. Unfortunately we weren't able to do that and we parted ways last week. This is the outcome we wanted.

It's surreal not having him here. I miss the person as much as the voice.

Do I wish everybody in baseball had the same amount to spend? Absolutely. At some point, the disadvantage of being a small-market team is that the inefficiencies will be weeded out. Having less than your competitor is never an advantage.

That'll be a real shot in the arm for us.

It's like having calculus first period. You are not real happy when the alarm goes off, but by second period it's already over and you are running off to wood shop.

It's something you have to consider, no question. And that's out of respect for the guys already here.

It's something we didn't know about, but he came forward with the information, so I commend him for that.

It's a necessity. We've got to get it done. It's not something that's going to solve itself.

It's best to part ways at this point, ... We were never going to be able to bridge the gap.

Is this the best way you can play this?

It took a lot for him to pick up the phone, unsolicited. That was probably not an easy phone call for Ken, by himself, without his agent. ... When he picked up the phone, that spoke volumes about his interest in coming back.

It was Ken, ... He called. I think it was probably not an easy phone call for him to make.

There was a real sense of determination in talking to him. You could get carried away with superlatives with Frank Thomas. Arguably, he is one of the greatest offensive players of his generation.

It's not always possible in our situation to get your perfect guy. As always we're going to make any improvements we can, whatever it is. If Sandy Koufax wanted to come to pitch for us, I don't think I'd say, 'No Sandy, we need a right-handed bat, you'll have to come back later.' It's just the nature of our situation.

Serendipity. Danny just does everything well. Over time, he's going to impress you.

I'm sure we'll have some sort of conversation. That's going to be a challenge, even if we start negotiations. He's a talented guy who is going to command a lot.

I know we didn't get to see the real Dan Meyer. He says he feels great now, and he could be a real shot in the arm for us.

I'm collecting them all. But obviously, Danny's smarter than I am because he decided to go to Stanford. He's a great player, but he's also a great kid. He's the kind of guy you'd like to have as your son, just a really impressive young man.

I had a nice little conversation with him. He seems happy to be here, quick to smile.

If you bring in a lefty to face Eric (a left-handed hitter), and then he has to face Frank Thomas right behind him. It's certainly going to lend itself to a lot of thinking in the other dugout.

I hope not. There will be very few winters we say, 'We're set.' There's always decisions to make. That said, it probably won't be as dramatic as last off-season.