In 2002, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane had little money to spend on players, and his free agents were fleeing to richer teams. So, to take on the league’s better-funded kingpins, he combined statistical analysis with a dose of creative thinking. The story was famously detailed by Michael Lewis in his 2003 book, Moneyball, and the movie (starring Brad Pitt) comes out in September. Beane turned the struggling A’s around with the help of a computer nerd (played by Jonah Hill) and sabermetrics techniques pioneered by statistician Bill James. Here are a few of Beane’s key hires and the actors who play them.