Houston Astros are going 'BEYOND MONEYBALL'

It's like Moneyball, but beyond it.

Sports Illustrated cover story is on the Astros, who are taking, apparently, Oakland GM Billy Beane's now famous strategy of Moneyballing and stretching it even further, to presumably somewhere it's never gone.

For those not in the know, Moneyball is the baseball magic conjured by Beane that he used to squeeze runs out of bad players and win the AL West a bunch of times.

There are people who refuse to believe Beane's work is good, and they are stubborn. There are those who believe in it too hard, and they are zealots. Those in the middle believe it has a place in modern baseball without becoming the game's sole analytic voice.

Moneyball 2.0, however - all bets are off. Chances are Moneyball has become self-aware and already begun overtaking networks to give terrible players the most playing time.