Jeremy "Money Ball " Brown Retires

Interesting story today by Murray Chass - Money Ball 8 years later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/sports/baseball/19chass.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

 

Ah, yes, the rejoice of the scouts. We all know they've never recommended drafting someone in the first round -- and paid him $1.5 million -- only to see him flop. Never happened. Not once.

 

Beane should have never written that book about himself [/Doug Krikorian]

 

Well, jag, if you bothered to read Murray's piece you would find it was a pretty fair examination of the A's picks that year and the other top picks... not a rip on the Moneyball theory.

 

This was the kid who led to the funniest line in the whole book:

Scout: The kid's got a bad body.

Beane: We aren't selling jeans.

Scout: That's good because if you put him in a pair of corduroys he'd start a fire.

 

I guess Beane was looking for the next Hatteberg.

 

I agree. Funniest part of a very compelling book.

 

FWIW, Brown's minor-league numbers were actually pretty good, especially last year. Had an .833 OPS at Triple-A in 2007.

But he badly broke his catching hand a few years back at Double-A and thus was no longer able to catch every day. He didn't quite hit enough to play any other position.

Also, Brown's official reason for retiring was "family issues." Not sure the exact nature, as even his hometown paper (Birmingham) hasn't gotten to the bottom of that yet, as far as I know.

 

His family mocked him for not having enough win shares.

 

That's the best news I've heard in awhile.

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is. That the A's Moneyball philosophy completely missed the boat with Jeremy Brown? How many minor leaguers never make it to the show? The only difference between them and Brown is that he was heavily praised in a national best seller.