Japan's baseball champs may rewrite 'Moneyball'- Nikkei Asian Review

About a month into Japan's professional baseball season, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the 2014 and 2015 national champions, are doing no worse. Many say the team's strong lineup is underpinned by the cash-rich SoftBank Group, a big telecom and technology group. The reality is quite the reverse. Unlike their rivals, the Hawks are a stand-alone club, though one with the financial leeway to allocate profits to areas where the front office sees fit, such as player development and information technology. With the help of its tech-savvy parent, the club may be about to rewrite "Moneyball," the 2003 bestseller about how a Major League Baseball team in the U.S. used statistical analysis to beat high-spending opponents.