After a failure of a career. Brown was made famous by Moneyball, which cited him as an example of a gem that other GMs failed to notice. He was touted as an on base machine in college, and Beane was convinced he'd become one in MLB too. The A's drafted him in the first round in 2002 despite a complete lack of athleticism. The reasoning was to get a player who'd sign cheaply (and also to give an FU to the rest of baseball). He announced his retirement in February. Art Garfamudis of ESPN.com Page 2 wrote an article about it.
His career minor league OPS was 809, and he it's been repeadetly mentioned that the reason he retired was a personal (non-baseball) issue, and also that if he wants to come back Oakland will gladly take him. His career wasn't a "failure". The article was satirical, making fun of all the anti-stat sentiment around the media, although I didn't think it was that funny.
I'd say it was. He was drafted in the first round. Obviously a lot of first round baseball players don't pan out, but I'd consider it a failure to be drafted in the first round and do basically nothing in MLB. He had 10 career at bats.
Just checking. I had someone throw that article in my face earlier today regarding my stance on statistical analysis (I'm a big fan).
He never did anything in the MLB, but not because he couldn't play baseball well. Most catchers take a long time to develop, and he had a very nice 2007 season at AAA and was looking to be in the mix this year. His career never fully developed, but not because of his lack of skill.
someone else posted that satirical article here? Oops, missed that. edit: ok, you mean a different board you talk baseball on.
Considering that every team now does what Oakland was going in the Moneyball era as a matter of course (I've had conversations with some of those people at statistics conferences), any notion that statistical analysis is not crucial in the evaluation of prospects is too foolish to even consider. What I remember about Moneyball more than this guy was how Beane was in love with Youkilis ("the Greek God of Walks"). Looks like he wasn't wrong about that one.
he was, but the main thing Beane did to go against conventional wisdom was to take Brown. Other teams liked Youkilis. No team that I know of liked Brown enough to take him in the earlier rounds. If the A's hadn't taken Brown, who knows if he would've been drafted? If he had, it would've been very late. Of course statistical analysis is important.
Theo Epstein liked Youkilis, and he's the only reason Beane didn't wind up stealing him out of Boston's system.
