“You have $40 million to spend on twenty-five baseball players. Your opponent has already spent $126 million on its own twenty-five players, and holds perhaps another $100 million in reserve. What do you do with your forty million to avoid humiliating defeat?” pg. 119

This comes to show that the A’s were truly at a disadvantage.  Not only do they lack many all-star quality players.  they also have a  budget that is one-third of other teams.  Currently, the Oakland Athletics’ budget is $83 million, which is still about a third of what the Yankees’ budget.  In 2002, the A’s average salary was $1.5 million, which was $700,000 less than other teams.  Yet, they still found a way to succeed using Moneyball.

(1) http://deadspin.com/2014-payrolls-and-salaries-for-every-mlb-team-1551868969