Richard Justice has a good column up about Billy Beane today. He notes Beane’s role as a transformative figure and how, despite the fact that every GM this side of Ruben Amaro has followed Beane’s approach — and despite the fact most of them have more money to work with than he does — Beane’s A’s still compete and even thrive.
Justice upped the ante a bit in a tweet promoting his column:
If the Hall of Fame is for baseball’s transformative figures, then Billy Beane should be in. Slam dunk. http://t.co/WedO8mq6fM
— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) December 18, 2013
I could get on board with that. I think Sandy Alderson should maybe get more credit, as he taught Beane what he knows about exploiting hidden value, looking to analytics such as OBP over traditional ones and all of that, but Beane certainly is the poster boy for the sabermetric revolution in baseball front offices.
But man, I can’t help but think that a Hall of Fame debate about Billy Beane is gonna be a bloodbath. Scores of Hall of Fame voters, be they veterans committee types or otherwise, have spent years decrying and, even more often, misrepresenting sabermetrics. If you think the august group of Hall of Fame voters is gonna credit Billy Beane the way Justice and I think he should be credited, well, I got a a bunch of bridges to sell you.
