Baseball Crank and the Cardinals

The Baseball Crank is not happy with the Cardinals victory in the World Series. He sees it as a "defeat for rationality".

I see it as an affirmation of what Billy Beane has been saying in Oakland for years. Beane assembles his teams with the goal of making the playoffs. He uses stats and rationality to help find undervalued assets that could help a small market team like the A's (witness his signing Frank Thomas to a bargain contract this year). However, once in the playoffs - according to Beane - all bets are off. Rationality takes a back seat to chance and luck. That's why you get champions like this year's Cardinals.

The Crank is a fan of Moneyball - I'm surprised he didn't draw the same conclusion.