Questions:
1). Based on the “Billy Beane: Changing the Game” case, explain how and why the Oakland A’s economic situation after 1995 shaped its:
a) Compensation strategies:
Oakland A’s disobeyed the laws of baseball economics in the world of most important league baseball. There was an expense of only $34 million by the team and they won 102 games and loss 21 only, in 2001. Moreover, they were the first ones to finish in their division and made the matches. The chief baseball teams preferred to hire players from high school rather than players from college. As a result of which high school players were made costly. Oakland A’s had a strategy to do the hiring of college players I order to save on resources. They kept a viewpoint that college players possess substantial competition and exposure. Beane used to recruit new drafts and signed them off for not more than the going rate. Due to the budget limitations and restrictions, it became necessary for Oakland A’s to trade their top pitchers by interchanging them with the young and much cheaper pitchers, in order to stay in limits of the budget.
In addition to this, there was one thing more interesting thing about Oakland A’s is their hiring of Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg was a player of Boston Red Sox for six years. He was injured thus, was deprived of the power in throwing the ball will full efficiency and effectiveness. According to Boston Red Sox, he was a lame player and they refrained from signing him up again. Due to this, Hatteberg’s monetary value was reduced which is the reason why Oakland A’s hired him at a considerably low salary because there were no other people who would take him. However, Hatteberg possessed a strange ability for getting on-base.
b) Staffing (recruiting, selection, and retention strategies) strategies:
The staffing strategy that Oakland A’s used was based on sabermetrics. Sabermetrics is methodical, statistical method to evaluate players and teams. Based upon this scientific method it was realized that the base of performance judgment of the players must be on-base percentage. Oakland A’s hiring would prefer college players rather than the high school players. This was done because the college players have already been players in more games and against better competitions. Beane was swayed with the phrase that “a young player is not what he looks like, or what he might become, but what he has done”. This means that what the player has experienced in college is significant. Beane and DePodesta kept a belief that they would be able to estimate future performance of college players more efficiently and effectively as compared to the high schools one. One more staffing strategy that Oakland A’s was using is that the hiring of Hatteberg. He was the player of Boston Red Sox but was injured and kept out by the Boston Red Sox and was never hired again. Oakland A’s quickly signed him up without wasting any time, due to the fact that Hatteberg possessed a scoring record in on-base.
c) Training and development strategies:
There was a norm implemented by other various baseball teams that was the batting average. However, Oakland A’s’ training was concentrated on the players’ capability to achieve on-base scoring. The team trusted to a great degree on choosing players by their on-base percentages. Based on sabermetrics model, teams comprising of players who had accomplished high on-base percentage always won. Development and training strategies of Oakland A’s were comprised of and emphasized on on-base percentages as a value for the whole Oakland company. This system was of the main focus and was exceptional. Every minor league team included in the system of Oakland started to lead its league in walks as a result of which higher percentage was seen in on-base (Fichman & Fichman, n.d.).
2). Explain how the compensation, staffing, and training strategies were aligned or integrated with each other to create an overall HR strategy for the Oakland A’s organization. Are there potential problems with the HR strategies adopted by the Oakland A’s?
Reference
Fichman, M., & Fichman, M. From Darwin to the Diamond: How Baseball and Billy Beane Arrived at Moneyball. SSRN Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2112109
