Engaging read for anyone interested in the evolution of MLB and modern baseball. It's clear that Pedro did a truly impressive amount of interviewing for this book, and those firsthand perspective coupled with his own insights make How to Beat a Broken Game a great read for thoughful baseball fans.

In HOW TO BEAT A BROKEN GAME, by Pedro Moura, the recent success of the Dodgers is analyzed. From roster building to the style of play, the book looks deep into the unique approach the Dodgers had in creating the team that eventually won the World Series for the first time in thirty years. After all of that analysis is done, the book considers that by the Dodgers using an unconventional approach to create success, the rest of baseball will take note and adjust accordingly and forever change the game in ways that aren't necessarily good.
Moura looks at the major players, coaches, and front office personnel to provide a well-rounded argument as to why the Dodgers reached the pinnacle of success. The reader really gets to know a lot of these interesting characters well by how intimately Moura explains who they are and how they ended up with the Dodgers. After he introduces all of the integral parties, Moura begins to tie everything together and takes the reader through the Dodgers playoff run that feels like a rollercoaster of emotions every step of the way. Moura does at times make an assumption of understanding of baseball terms that not every reader will have and at times it could leave someone confused. Fortunately, Moura doesn't stray for too long from his captivating storytelling and I think even an average fan will either understand the references or be able to gloss over them and move on with minimal loss of comprehension.
HOW TO BEAT A BROKEN GAME brings to light how alterative and fresh takes on ways to build franchises can created champions, but that often the price of that approach can forever alter the professional game because every team will want to utilize the novel techniques that produce winners. A well-researched and illuminating read.

I hesitated before picking up this book-- from the description I was afraid it was going to be a hatchet job on the Dodgers... and I have loved the Dodgers all my life. "The inside story of how the Dodgers won their first championship in more than 30 years--but helped cripple the sport of baseball in the process." Baseball, once America's pastime, is broken. That is the first assertion. Moneyball, statistical analysis, and translating statistics into paychecks have all turned baseball into a smooth, efficient bore. We are reminded that its inefficiencies made baseball entertaining.

I love baseball. I love the slow heartbeat of strategy. I loved getting early to the ballpark, getting my Dodger Dog and beer, writing down the lineup in the program. Had my transistor radio on so I could listen to Vin Scully or Jerry Doggett spread the ambiance a little thicker. The orange Union 76 ball at the top of the scoreboard was the only advertisement visible on Dodger Stadium's dazzling glow of green and blue with that brilliant clay infield. Walter O'Malley and then his son Peter resisted raising prices and tried to shy from free agency... but mega-corporate money demolished family ownership. First the monsters of Fox Corp bought the team and then the crooked Frank McCourt brought the franchise to its knees.

Today's Dodgers have the deepest deep pockets. Not only did the Guggenheim Baseball Group come in with endless cash reserves, but Time Warner Cable / Spectrum drenched their wallets with obscene amounts of cash, albeit at the expense of millions of fans who were robbed of viewing televised games for years. We are shown how President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman then executed nearly everything perfectly, exploiting every opportunity offered by the new business model. Of course, it never hurts to have the funds to smother any mistake or cover any unforeseen injury. Dodger fans will also be happy to find chapters devoted to the development of key players such as Kershaw, Betts, Muncy, and Justin Turner, as well as Manager Dave Roberts.

Author Pedro Moura does take the Dodgers to task in areas they may fall short in as far as integrity goes. We can start with the whole Trevor Bauer fiasco, the team taking a gamble on a known problem player in order to capitalize on a "distressed asset". This turned out to be a public relations nightmare, the Dodgers having to pay the league's highest player salary to an alleged sex offender who received full pay while under suspension. Other shady areas include the manipulation of service time, "gaming arbitration", and having players fake injuries to maximize roster flexibility.

Baseball has a lot to fix if it does not want to escalate its downward spiral. The current lockout / strike threatens to piggyback on these issues and cause irreparable harm. There are certain to be many changes when the players and owners hammer out the new collective bargaining agreement. The title being "How to Beat a Broken Game"-- the Dodgers certainly did not break the game,,, but this book seems to show that Andrew Friedman and the brain trust of the Los Angeles Dodgers are more than capable of adapting to whatever curveballs may be served up.

"How to Beat a Broken Game" brings us up to date on the real guts of today's game... and how it is won. It is the most realistic portrayal of how the game is won and lost. Thank you to PublicAffairs/Bold Type Books and NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Dodgers certainly have created an advantageous situation for success. They have seemingly unlimited funds, exceptionally intelligent individuals running operations, and a mix of old school and new school techniques. I enjoyed having some greater detail of the behind the scenes operations of the Dodgers. The book did take the team to task for the Bauer signing, and mentioned the limitless payroll the team enjoys, however, it felt like the incredible advantage the Dodgers enjoy in payroll was minimized. The Dodgers can absorb a mistake better than any team in MLB. I wish there would have been a bit more about how strongly the team flexes their financial muscles and how more teams in MLB should do the same. As the present labor dispute emphasizes, this is the biggest fracture in the game.

There is also a statement in the book about teamwork not being a requirement of the game. That statement floors me. Baseball is certainly driven by individual performance, but the complete dismissal of team cohesion is baffling.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

How to Beat a Broken Game belongs somewhere in the listing of post-Moneyball Baseball Books, but not at the top of the list. Moura follows the standard structure you are familiar with from reading other behind-the-scenes of a franchise type tales. Start at the end featuring a major character, tell that character's backstory, proceed to tell other major characters' backstories, and finish at the end where we started.

Along the way you will learn about Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner, Gavin Lux, Dave Roberts, Andrew Friedman, and a many others. Moura also takes deep dives into the analytics and high tech coaching that goes on under the radar, sometimes to a very technical degree of explanation.

The stories Moura tells are well researched and sourced. But, this book loses a bit in terms of broad appeal because it is really intended for someone who is either a diehard Dodger fan, a diehard baseball fan in general, or both. If you fall into one of these categories, give it a shot.

Something has gone wrong in baseball in the past few years.

The symptoms are quite obvious. Games take too long to play, and there's less ball-in-play action than there has ever been. Too often baseball becomes tied up in home runs, strikeouts and walks - the so-called "Three True Outcomes" that don't require fielders.

Millions of people are still watching major league games in one form or another, and that means millions of dollars can ride on a single pitch in the proper circumstance. But the warning signs of trouble are there, and baseball is looking at some ideas to put the game itself back in balance.

In the meantime, teams are devoting a large percentage of resources into trying to play the current game "better" in order to win. Exhibit A might be the Los Angeles Dodgers, who really leave no proverbial stone unturned in their quest for success.

Pedro Moura, a national writer for Fox Sports and former Dodgers' beat writer for The Athletic, decided to take a long look at what's going on with baseball through the eyes of the Dodgers. The result is "How to Beat a Broken Game."

After a brief introduction outlining the situation, Moura gets to work with a series of chapters that would work if they were self-contained. So we get to meet such players as Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Walker Buehler, and Clayton Kershaw - success stories all in a variety of ways. Andrew Friedman comes up a lot too. He's the head of baseball operations of the Dodgers. Friedman managed to put together a winning team on a shoestring in Tampa Bay, and his reward was to go to work armed with the Dodgers' deep pockets. Dave Roberts gets a chapter, and you'd expect the manager to be picked. The reader learns about some obscure people too - at least by a fan's standards.

There's plenty of information in here that is relatively fresh and interesting. Kershaw, for example, had to figure out how to change his pitching mechanics in midstream, in part because his slider no longer looked like a fastball when thrown and batters had learned to capitalize. Max Muncy went from journeyman to feared power hitter almost overnight, completing a difficult transformation that probably left everyone surprised if pleased. Roberts talks about how his communication skills - something he places great importance on - failed at a key time during a pitching change in the World Series. Then there's the story about how the Dodgers value versatility in their roster. Not only does that mean they usually aren't short-handed if injuries come, but it also depresses statistical totals of the players a bit because they aren't in the lineup every day. That in turn saves them millions at contract time, and probably keeps the entire roster happier if a little on edge.

On the other hand, the world of baseball today is a complicated place, and sometimes it just isn't that interesting. There are some stories about players who use outside coaching when necessary, and who study the latest analytics to make improvements. You've probably seen the numbers on spin rates from pitchers and launch angles from hitters during television broadcasts. The figures are helpful, I guess, in helping players survive and thrive because of the way the game is played, but reading about some of it is rather tough sledding.

The Dodgers clearly are putting a lot of time, effort and money to explore every possible avenue toward success. They have won at least 90 games in every season but one since 2013. The exception was 2020, when Los Angeles was 43-17 in the Covid-shortened 60-game season. That was the year the Dodgers won the World Series. But LA also had won eight straight division titles before that streak was snapped in 2021. Still, the Dodgers are always in the hunt for a championship, and that's all you can ask of a franchise and its staff.

There's an audience for "How to Beat a Broken Game." Those who consume knowledge about baseball no doubt will soak a lot of it up. But I'm a big fan, and my eyes started to skip over some of the technical parts along the way. I'm sure I won't be alone in that, so consider that a warning while thinking about a purchase.

Baseball has undergone a fundamental change in its approach to strategy and the development of players through the use of data as well as traditional statistics and scouting. One team has succeeded quite well in mixing the two together, the Los Angeles Dodgers. How they accomplished this, climaxed by their World Series championship in 2020, and the people behind this are the subject of this excellent book by Pedro Moura.
The title is the only quibble I have with this book as in the thorough description of the Dodgers organization there really is no description that makes the game "broken." There are plenty of issues, from low television ratings to the calls that today's "three true outcomes" game is too boring to the wide gap between teams for revenue and therefore spending – and all of them are discussed. However, I didn't see any of that being used to call the game "broken." Instead, I saw these as some of the obstacles or aides that the Dodgers faced in order to win it all in the abbreviated 2020 season.
This isn't a game-by-game description of the season. Instead, it is a deep dive into the minds and actions of several key personnel behind the team's success. This starts with team President Andrew Friedman, whose success previously with the Tampa Bay Rays led the sport to its current use of analytical data to gain a financial edge. The hiring of Gabe Kapler to run their minor league system also accelerated the use of data for player development. Ironically, Kapler is now the manager of the San Francisco Giants, the biggest rival for the Dodgers. There are great write ups about some of the players who have benefitted greatly from this data such as third baseman Justin Turner, outfielder Mookie Betts and pitcher Walker Buehler. Other excellent chapters in the book include one on pitcher Clayton Kershaw and scout Tom Kunis.
On the last profile and other scouts, it is noteworthy that throughout the book it is emphasized that traditional scouting methods and information is not dismissed out of hand but instead integrated with the data compiled by the "nerds" of the organization (it was interesting to learn that their workspace was the old visiting clubhouse at Dodger stadium). This is in contrast to the message that was sent about the last seismic shift in information gathering and use, during the "Moneyball" era where readers of that book or viewers of that movie would have the impression that traditional scouting was going to be gone.
More than fixing a broken game, the big takeaway from this book for me was that other teams should look to the Dodgers on the proper use of both traditional and modern methods of player development and training. It has proven beneficial to both players and the team and the results in 2020 were evident. It's an excellent book for readers who want to know more about today's game, whether or not they believe it is "boring."
I wish to thank Public Affairs Publishing for providing a copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.