With regard to Billy Beane and Moneyball, while looking beyond traditional scouting and the traditional statistics was very influential, there were some other factors in play as well. One thing that deserves to be mentioned is that the A's really had once-in-a-generation type of luck in assembling an amazing rotation of young starting pitchers with Hudson, Mulder and Zito. In baseball, the starting pitcher has such a profound influence on the game that strong starting pitching, especially young, contract-controlled, can lead a team to years of success almost singlehandedly. Beane's inability to develop a strong rotation in recent years has correlated with their decline. Also, the two big hitters in those A's teams (Giambi and Tejada) experienced dramatic improvement in their statistics with the A's and have subsequently been proven to have been PED users.