Moneyball Essay

Moneyball

Becoming educated on the concepts one should use within a negotiation is very beneficial; and being able to observe as a third party was truly informative. A fantastic movie that expertly showcases several negotiations is, Moneyball. The entire film highlights several of the concepts we learned such as: separating the person from the problem, BATNA, objective criteria, and dirty tricks. As I watched, the concepts were simple to recognize. Moneyball is about Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the General Manager for the Oakland Athletics. The problem he faced was that his team could not afford to hire baseball superstars. Beane, frustrated with this issue, employs Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) to assist him in creating an affordable and successful baseball team using a computer program. In the movie, Billy negotiates the buying and selling of players with other managers of different teams and shows how the game of “deal making” is truly played. (Miller, "Moneyball") In one instance, Billy entered a deal to negotiate for a particular player. Just as he was about to close the deal, someone from another party, ruined it.

Billy had been asking Art to start a player for some time. Art felt that starting the player was the wrong choice and would choose an all-star player. Art did not see what Billy’s direction was and continued to think in the somewhat “dated” ways of baseball. Billy finally had enough and traded the all-star player without Art’s knowledge. He then went to Art and told him that he could not start the all-star player. The player that Billy wanted was to start instead. Art was still defiant, which Billy knew he would be. Billy ultimately tells Mr. Howe that the player had been traded; revealing that it was not a negotiation at all and that his only option was to play the player Billy wanted. (Miller,