Baseball has learned the folly of overpaying for ‘star talent’. Perhaps the construction sector should learn it tooIn Moneyball,the 2011 film of Michael Lewis’s book approximately using analytics to acquire players for the unfashionable Oakland Athletics baseball team, the side’s general manager, and Billy Beane,is educated on the sport by a (fictional) geek just out of Yale.The Boston Red Sox see Johnny Damon and they see a star who’s worth $7.5m a year,” Beane is told by his young teacher. “When I see Johnny Damon, or what I see is an imperfect understanding of where runs come from. The guy’s got a distinguished glove. He’s a decent leadoff hitter. He can steal bases. But is he worth the $7.5m a year that the Boston Red Sox are paying him? No. No. Baseball thinking is medieval. They are asking all the wrong questions”.
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Source: guardian.co.uk