Any discussion of Moneyball inevitably becomes a discussion of sabermetrics, though as we've seen the two are not necessarily interchangeable. Nonetheless, Beane, et al, are using many of the same principles.

Reading the book was a good education for Batgirl—she'd heard so much about Moneyball it was refreshing to see what it was actually all about. And it certainly seems that Beane, DePodesta, et al were able to turn some innovative work by baseball outsiders into some real results.

Batgirl does admit, though, she finds the mechanical nature of the stats fetish a bit wearying. There's a point in the book where DePodesta is able to predict with rather startling accuracy how many runs the A's would score during the season, how many they would allow, and how many games they would win just by running some numbers in the media guide. Now, honestly, this depresses the crap out of Batgirl. Why play the games, then? Should we just take the media guides, sit around with our calculators, and start the playoffs?

That said, the idea of these statistics taking on the power of language was fascinating and strangely beautiful. Batgirl just doesn't want it to become the only language of the game. She can see how alluring sabermetrics is for those who love numbers, but Batgirl loves baseball because it contains narrative, story, characters. And stats just don't explain everything. Stats don't explain why the Twins hit better with Shannon Stewart in the line-up, or why LaTroy Hawkins is a fierce set-up guy and a horrific closer. Batgirl has seen Baseball Prospectus use stats to argue that Matt LeCroy should have started as the catcher during the playoffs, and then this off-season they used stats to argue that Gardy should give dear LeRoy a chance in the outfield. The outfield! Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Well, the point is, baseball itself has the power of language. Baseball is such a profound game that it can encompass numbers and narrative, stats and sass, and maybe whatever else we want to throw at it.

Note: For a good rundown of the application of sabermetrics, see Twins Killings.