At the end of the first chapter of The MVP Machine, co-written by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik, lies one of the most memorable quotes about baseball in recent memory. It comes from an anonymous analyst in an MLB front office. It is profound in its simplicity:
I don’t think people realize that if you’re a Moneyball team right now, you’re getting your ass handed to you. When you hear the smart teams saying they use analytics now, they’re not saying they’re doing Moneyball. They’re saying they’re doing the thing that comes after.
Other than being perhaps the most famous book about baseball in existence, Moneyball is as much of an idea as it is a work of literature.