Thread: Moneyball
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Old 01-24-2012, 01:41 PM   #6
Joe
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John Henry was one of the original subscribers to the first Bill James Abstract. Which was a bound xerox book of cryptic statistics for the first issues.
James took every long-held baseball player evaluation belief and tested it against new statistics some of which were his own, and some of which were other people's, and just about everything the old scouts and baseball men prescribed to was found to be critically flawed when compared to data.
John Henry is a global currency trader. He is a "news" trader. He interprets global events and has algorithms that either support or deny what people predict will happen. He replaces prejudgements with findings that can be supported by data, and finds values (bargains) in the marketplace. He's made billions based upon this theory and is the 77th richest person in the country.
My favorite John Henry quote is, "To the extent that you can remove bias, and replace it with data, you gain an advantage."
Jamesian statistics for player evaluations no longer give a club an advantage, because every GM now uses them.

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