← All Movies

Moneyball

The Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball have difficulty fielding competitive teams due to low revenue and owners who are reluctant to spend money. General manager Billy Beane drafts and develops cheap, young, and talented players, but the Athletics lose the 2001 American League Division Series (ALDS) to the New York Yankees, baseball's richest and most successful team. For the 2002 season, Beane is given a paltry $41 million budget. Through free agency, three richer teams poach three of Beane's best players: Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen. Adding insult to injury, Giambi joins the Yankees.

Beane is skeptical about traditional baseball scouting methods after the New York Mets drafted him in the first round of the 1980 draft —prompting Beane to decline a Stanford scholarship—only for Beane to have an unimpressive playing career. Beane tries to trade for the Cleveland Indians ' Karim García, but Cleveland refuses on the advice of team advisor Peter Brand, a Yale economics graduate who privately complains to Beane that Cleveland rarely takes his advice, and expresses a belief that baseball teams focus too much on individual players to have success. Intrigued, Beane asks whether Brand would have drafted him in 1980. After Brand reluctantly admits that he would not have drafted Beane until the ninth round, Beane hires Brand.

Beane and Brand study sabermetrics, an unconventional scouting philosophy. Unable to afford more talented, expensive players, Beane and Brand focus on maximizing the team's on-base percentage (OBP) and compromise on skills like base stealing, defense, and batting average. They acquire undervalued players like aging David Justice, injured catcher Scott Hatteberg, and submariner Chad Bradford. Beane fires head scout Grady Fuson, who refuses to abandon his traditional scouting methods.

A poor start to the season prompts the media and the team to question Beane's philosophy. Manager Art Howe, who is angling for a contract extension, disregards Brand's advice to put the players with the best OBP at the top of the batting order. Howe resists playing Hatteberg at first base, so Beane forces Hatteberg into the lineup by trading away Howe's favored first baseman Carlos Peña. Although Jeremy Giambi has good on-base skills, Beane decides that Giambi lacks the intangible qualities to succeed and trades him as well. Beane persuades team owner Stephen Schott to trust in the plan. With Cleveland performing poorly, Beane devises a trade for the Indians' star reliever Ricardo Rincón.

The Athletics' performance improves, placing them on the verge of an AL -record-breaking 20th consecutive win. Although Beane rarely attends games, his daughter Casey persuades him to attend the next game against the Kansas City Royals. Oakland leads 11–0 when Beane arrives, but the Royals mount a furious comeback and tie the game. Hatteberg hits a walk-off home run to the Oakland fans' delight. Despite the celebration, Beane tells Brand he will not be satisfied until they have changed baseball by winning the World Series.

The Athletics are the 2002 American League West champions but lose to the Minnesota Twins in the first round of division playoffs. A media analyst asserts that the Athletics lost because they lacked intangible qualities that cannot be measured with statistics. Later, Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry offers Beane the largest contract for a general manager in history to take over the Red Sox organization. Beane discloses Henry's offer to Brand and says that their strategy failed. Brand shows Beane a video of batter Jeremy Brown, who hits a home run, but does not realize it. Sensing the meaning of the video and what Brand is trying to say, Beane thanks Brand. Beane drives while listening to a burned CD of Casey singing " The Show ", prompting him to cry.

An epilogue reveals that Beane turned down the $12.5 million offer by the Red Sox, who used sabermetrics to win the 2004 World Series, while Beane has yet to win a World Series.