“There was a real sort of reliance on the visual and athleticism … baseball is somewhat unique in that it’s not just an athletic sport, but it’s very much a skilled sport, and in some cases the skill maybe wasn’t evaluated properly.”
Billy Beane, former general manager of the Oakland Athletics that led the Moneyball era, student conducted interview
Old-School
Photo Courtesy of FanGraphs
Photo courtesy of The Medium
Before sabermetrics, scouts’ evaluations were based on pure instinct, analyzing players based on intangible criteria such as athleticism.
Photo courtesy of theScore
While they integrated evaluation methods such as the 20-80 scouting scale, which is still used in modern day, their ignorance of data analysis led to subjective decisions.