Positive vs Normative

In the spring of 2002, the Oakland Athletics had the third lowest payroll in Major League Baseball and had just lost three of their best players to free agency. The New York Yankees, who would face them in the playoffs, were spending roughly three times more on salaries. Every traditional scout in baseball had the same view of the season ahead. Oakland was finished, general manager Billy Bean and his analytics deputy, Paul Dippardesta, refused to spend the off-season replacing star power. Instead, they spent it asking a different kind of question. The numbers kept pointing at on-base percentage. A walk produced runs. A patient batter who never stole a base and never ran fast was being undervalued by every other team in the league because he did not look like a baseball player.