> Sports are filled with numbers and any teams/players who can afford it has such a leg up, its not even a joke

I remain unconvinced. There are a lot of numbers and anecdotes thrown out. But how much is confirmation bias? And does it withstand robust hypothesis testing?

The A's have been in Oakland since 1968. They've been to the World Series 6 times and won 4. None of those World Series appearances occurred during the tenure of Billy Beane as GM, 1997 to the present day.