in 2003, author michael lewis was interested in how oakland athletics general manager (gm) billy beane tried to find quality players to improve the team while struggling with one of the smallest payrolls in major league baseball. he first wanted to write an article on the subject, but the idea eventually blossomed into a book named "". lewis's interests included how beane hired depodesta as his assistant to incorporate sabermetrics, an approach that consists of more sophisticated analyses of baseball statistics, which is at least partially credited for their 2002 20-game winning streak which set an american league record.