The team improves over the season and they go on a 20-win streak before ending the season with more wins (103) than the previous season with those star players. Beane retaliates by trading Pena away forcing Howe to put Hatteberg into the lineup.

Howe is putting Carlos Pena in over Hatteberg. The season gets off to a rocky start starting off at 20-26, Beane starts getting upset with the way Howe is using his team. They trade for David Justice (Stephen Bishop) for his high on-base percentage and the fact that the New York Yankees will pay half his salary just to get rid of him. They sign a player who can no longer be a catcher named Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt) to be their new first baseman. This sends shockwaves to the scouts and to the manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman). They base their decision almost solely on on-base percentage. He conceives compiling a team of misfit players on a budget by buying runs. Brand convinces Beane that players are judged on superficial means and some are undervalued. On a trip to Cleveland trying to find a replacement for Damon in a trade, he comes across Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a man whose opinion is so valued by the Indians organization that Beane buys his contract. His parents seemed skeptical and want him to take his Stanford scholarship. These scouts say this is a once in a time opportunity and he has to go all out if he wants a shot in Major League Baseball. In a flashback, he was scouted by the New York Mets and touted as a five-tool player. The scouts are all quite older than Beane, they are trying to replace those players using the same techniques that have failed before when valuing a player. General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) can't get an increase in his payroll to sign big players. The Oakland Athletics lost three great players in Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen to free agency. How do you replace those players? And with what money? 'Moneyball' highlights the events after the Oakland Athletics lost the 2001 American League Division Series to the New York Yankees leading up to their loss to the Minnesota Twins in the 2002 Division Series. Then other teams play in smaller markets and have to watch their best players sign elsewhere for more money than they can offer. Baseball is an unfair game, some teams play in larger markets and have more money to spend on players, such as the New York Yankees.

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