Why don't the A's win any more?

The impact of improved pitching and removal of PEDs (mostly) from the game have really negatively affected the "patient hitter/OBP" concept. One of Beane's key metrics just isn't as valid anymore.
Also, hitters cost money, and the A's are cheap.
I gave up on the A's after the third game of their 2003 playoff series with the Red Sox. They lost the game (and subsequently the series) because their players were fundamentally atrocious. Avoidance of mistakes is a concept that's hard to quantify, so the A's roster reflected that problem.
The game's what, 150 plus years old or so? Nobody's going to invent a new way of winning it. Ever.

 

Charlie Finley sold the team 30 years ago, and before he did, he had driven off virtually the entire roster who all fled as free agents as soon as they legally could.

Some of all of the above, but mostly (3).

Everybody in every farm system knows what OBP and OPS are. They may not harp on it as much as the sabers do, but they pay attention to it.

 

I always hated the A's. I was always about the Giants and Royals as a kid.

Since I don't follow baseball much anymore, someone will have to fill me in about all of the World Series titles the A's have won with this "Moneyball" system. It sounds brilliant.

 

It's a common misconception, but "Moneyball" wasn't about exploiting OBP. It's about trying to find whatever area is undervalued at that moment and take advantage of it. Two of the main areas at the moment that are being studied a bunch are fielding and relief pitching.

And Michael, there are certainly better ways for teams with low payrolls to go about trying to win. Finding those areas that are undervalued is important.

 

If Moneyball was only about finding undervalued assets, then why were the A's at that time training all of their minor league hitters not to swing until deep in the count and mandating that they have ratios of one walk for every 10 at-bats or they would not make it to the major leagues? And why was Billy so gaga over Chavez but couldn't care less about Tejada, the American League MVP?

 

Because at that time, OBP was undervalued and Beane was trying to capitalize on that.

 

Well, finding "undervalued assets" has been the goal of baseball team operators for decades. Bill Veeck talked about it, of course not in those terms, in both of his books, which came out in the early-mid 60s, and also made reference to Branch Rickey doing some of the same things.

Of course, in his later stint as White Sox owner, Veeck operated on the rent-a-player system, which is about as far from "finding undervalued assets" as you can possibly get.

 

But his own minor league players are a locked-in cost when they arrive in the major leagues -- there is no cost difference so the "value" is in how they play the game. Billy obviously believed then, and seems to still believe now, that the way to play winning baseball was taking walks, playing station-to-station ball, playing crap defense and rolling out whatever bullpen arm happens to be available.

 

Moneyball is about doing the best you can do on the cheap. It's not about actual winning baseball.

 

I'm sure OBP played a role, but I think defense played a role. Chavez was a perennially awesome third baseman. Tejada was pretty inconsistent (some very good plays, some really awful plays). Chavez also had better power numbers, and was possibly not juicing. Tejada did have that MVP, but as much as it pains me to say it, he might not have deserved it. Looking at the ballot there were a lot of hitters with great cases.

 

Hitting used to be a dime a dozen in baseball and pitching was prized. Now, pitching seems to be a dime a dozen and few people still hit home runs. Funny what a little drug testing will do for the game.

 

This:

(1) The Mulder-Zito-Hudson factor was severely underplayed in "Moneyball."

Moneyball was flawed in that the success of the A's at that time was attributed to Beane drafting theories, when in fact the core of team was built through conventional scouting.

We are now seeing the results of Beane drafting theories. A lot of the old time scouts are enjoying a good laugh at Beane expense.