Where Are They Now? Moneyball

After learning that intrepid commenter Sportsgal hadn’t read Moneyball until now, it gave me a great idea. I had always wondered what happened to the main characters of the book, especially the players that the Athletics drafted in the 2002 First Year Player Draft, and now I had a reason to figure it out.

If you haven’t read Moneyball yet, please do so. Go here, and buy the book, or just go to your local library and pick it up. I’m currently reading it for probably the 20th time, and it’s still as good as it was the first time. So without further ado…

We’ll start right at the top. Billy Beane is still chugging along as the General Manager of the Oakland A’s, and it looks like he has started yet another masterful job in Oakland. At the end of the 2007 season he traded away Dan Haren and Nick Swisher to bring back a bevy of prospects, including DBacks top prospect Carlos Gonzalez and White Sox top prospect Fautino de los Santos. This was supposed to signal a rebuilding effort, but the A’s are just 4.5 games back of the Angels as of June 23rd.

His AGM at the time, Paul DePodesta took over as GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but in 2005 he was let go after the Dodgers suffered through their worst season since 1992. DePodesta was subsequently hired by the San Diego Padres as the Special Assistant for Baseball Operations. He has also started a blog, titled “It Might Be Dangerous…You Go First.” David Forst, who joined DePodesta in the video room, is now the AGM of the A’s, and is being strongly considered for the Seattle Mariners GM position.

Scott Hatteberg, who had a nice chapter written about him in the book, and became perhaps my favorite player in baseball, posted OBPs of .342, .367, .334, .389, .394, and in 2008 was designated for assignment by the Cincinnati Reds to make room for Jay Bruce. The Mariners and Mets have shown interest, but he has not caught on. He is doing a nice job for my sim league team, for what it’s worth.

Ok, onto the draft picks, which, for me, is the main event….

Nick Swisher (picked 16th overall), as noted above, is now a member of the Chicago White Sox. Swisher has definitely panned out, posting relatively low batting averages, but high OBP’s, as well as walking nearly as much as he strikes out.

Joe Blanton (24th overall), Beane called him the best pitcher in the draft. He hasn’t quite lived up to that, but he did post a 123 ERA+ in his rookie year. Blanton has been the subject of trade rumors ever since last winter, and when he goes, the Moneyball era basically goes with him.

John McCurdy (26th overall), McCurdy was a shortstop at Maryland, but Beane wanted to convert him to second base, thinking “he could be the next Jeff Kent.” Jeff Kent he was not. McCurdy never made it past AA ball, and his career high OPS was just .739, which he posted as a 25 year old in the California League. McCurdy retired in 2006 with just 33 career minor league homers.

Benjamin Fritz (30th overall), Beane judged Fritz to have a brighter future than Jason Isringhausen, whom he was essentially replacing. Fritz has been decidedly unspectacular, now as a 27 year old with AA Erie in Detroit’s system. Fritz no doubt had problems dealing with the offensive environment in the California League, but he doesn’t even have a 2:1 career K:BB ratio.

Jeremy Brown (35th overall), Brown was the most controversial of all the prospects. It was Brown who inspired the line “We’re not selling jeans here.” A catcher who “owned the Alabama record books” Brown was seen as a later round guy for most scouts, but the A’s pushed him all the way up into the sandwich round. Brown got 10 major league at bats, and posted solid minor league numbers. He also inspired many articles, including this one (notice some of the awful comments, too bad I didn’t comment back then.) and this one. That last one was satirical (I think) but it’s not far off from the rejoicing that some “Old time” baseball people did when Brown couldn’t hack it, although that was mainly because of health and defense. Still, Jeremy Brown deserved a lot better treatment than he got.

Mark Teahen (39th overall), It was said about Teahen that “If you want to talk about the next Jason Giambi, this could be it.” Teahen hasn’t supplied the power – his career high is 18 homers – but his OBPs, until this year, have been very good. If Teahen was a third baseman his numbers would look much better, but he has been bumped around, playing both corner OFs and a little first base, and he’s on my sim team just like Hatteberg, maybe there’s a pattern.

Steve Stanley (67th overall), Judged by the naked eye to be better in CF than then-incumbent Terrence Long, Stanley didn’t get to prove it. In his last full season, 2005, Stanley had a line of .290/.364/.391 in AA.

Mark Kiger (158th overall), When Kiger was offered a contract, an Oakland scout said he said “Thank you, thank you,” then remarking “I think he just wanted to play ball.” Kiger has a career OBP of .372 but the power hasn’t been there, as he only has one season of double digit homers. Kiger also famously made his way onto the A’s 2006 ALCS roster.

Brant Colamarino (218th overall), Paul DePodesta remarked that Colamarino might “be the best hitter in the country.” Beane was also informed that Colamarino had “titties,” which is one of the better quotes in the book. Needless to say he hasn’t quite panned out, but as a 23 year old he did have a .373 OBP and 19 homers combined between high A and AA ball.

Others of note: The A’s that year also drafted Shane Komine, who made some big league starts for them, and they drafted, but did not sign: Trevor Crowe, who for a time was Cleveland’s top ranked prospect, JR Towles, who is Houston’s top prospect, and 1208th overall they selected Jonathan Papelbon.

Normally at the end I would say I hoped you liked reading this as much as I liked writing it, but to be honest if no one reads this post it will still be my favorite thing I’ve ever written, and it was very fun to find out how the fortunes of these young men have changed over the course of 6 years.