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Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong By The Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts ( Basic Books )
Release Date: 2007-03-01
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $15.00
Price: $11.05
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Product Description
For baseball fans young, old, and in between, the ultimate guide to the new statistical thinking that's revolutionizing the game. The revolution in baseball statistics that began in the 1970s is a controversial subject that professionals and fans alike argue over without end. Despite this fundamental change in the way we watch and understand the sport, until now no one had written the book that reveals, across every area of strategy and management, how the best practitioners of statistical analysis in baseball think about numbers and the game. Baseball Between the Numbers is that book. In separate chapters covering every aspect of the game, the experts at the Baseball Prospectus examine the subtle, hidden aspects of baseball, bring them out into the open, and show us how our favorite teams could win more games. This is a book that every fan, every follower of sports radio, every fantasy player, every coach, and every player at every level can enjoy and learn from.
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Solid for thinking Fans
This important effort examines key questions about baseball strategy, player value, and finances. The authors are from Baseball Prospectus, and they devote a chapter each to 27 important questions. The authors examine whether teams should use a four-man or five-man rotation (they favor four, limiting pitch counts), why closers should be more effectively used in key middle innings (quite persuasive), and why RBI's are over-rated - which explains why Juan Gonzalez was twice named MVP over a far superior Alex Rodriguez. The authors also examine and largely debunk owner-promoted myths about ticket price increases being tied to player salaries, and publicly-financed ballparks improving city economies - what they improve is owner profits. All together, these 27 chapters are well-researched and thought-provoking, although not entirely flawless. The writing gets a bit stiff in places, the charts need full headings rather than abbreviations, and the comparison of Barry Bonds to Babe Ruth forgets that Bonds wasn't close until he began cheating with steroids. Still, this is solid reading for students of baseball and other thinking fans.
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 Whew--Complicated!
Excellent stuff to really make you think about baseball and commonly held misconceptions.
I'm not a math/stat guy and this made my hair hurt it was so complicated.
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Great book
great read. It shines some light into generally accepted baseball numbers. If you loved Moneyball, you'll love this book.
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Nerdy and dense but worth the effort ( jose_a_guerra )
Not the casual read that I expected for intermittent reading over the summer, but a balanced, thoughtful group of essays.
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loved it ( dak1999 )
I do not subscribe to the Prospectus, so I found this book to be incredibly fascinating. So much so I have passed it around to several friends who have also found it fascinating.
Although one can say a great many things with stats, (you know, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics) this book presents some surprisingly sound arguments against many commonly held beliefs, such as the biggest 'jump' in performance isn't during the steroid era, it was the amphetamine era. Or how stolen bases and their attempts can actually cost a team runs over the long haul. (and had a couple I don't necessarily agree with but that doesn't make the book wrong) I do admit that a couple of the chapters I didn't care about and therefore glossed over, but still I give the book a excellent review overall.
Thanks to this book, I, and several of my friends, now call Derek Jeter "Past-a-diving". You'll just have to read that chapter.
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