{"id":6521,"date":"2010-01-20T07:01:15","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T07:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6521"},"modified":"2010-03-07T09:20:34","modified_gmt":"2010-03-07T09:20:34","slug":"book-review-the-hardball-times-baseball-annual-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6521","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 produced by Dave Studenmund (Acta Sports, 2009), 368 pages<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lack of actual games can make the baseball offseason seem a depressing period, but in some ways it makes for a nice breather after a long season.\u00c2\u00a0 Away from the unrelenting schedule, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more time to sit back and think about the sport, to ponder how the season played out, delve into the sport\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history and be fascinated by new research.\u00c2\u00a0 What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, the folks at the Hardball Times website<\/a> conjure up an annual that allows you to do all of these things from the starting point of a single book.<\/p>\n

Most baseball annuals seem to be largely focused on the fantasy baseball crowd these days.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big market to aim at, of course, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make for books that you are likely to come back to in future years.\u00c2\u00a0 The Hardball Times deals with this by issuing two books: a season preview for the fantasy crowd and an annual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreview\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that has a longer-lasting appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 The annual follows a standard format every year: a review of every division, a commentary section based on the season just gone and other topics of interest, a history section, an analysis section full of research articles and a lengthy statistics section to round everything off.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The Hardball Times website recently removed its stats section and now refers you on to the ever-expanding offerings of Fangraphs.com<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 However, stats are still a very important part of HBT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual.\u00c2\u00a0 Just under half of the pages are dedicated to the Statistics section that looks back on the 2009 season (and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important point to note: although it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the 2010 annual, the stats relate to 2009).\u00c2\u00a0 The section starts with some cutting-edge fielding stats courtesy of John Dewan, whose Fielding Bible I and II books (the latter is on my \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcto review\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 list) have done much to advance the analysis of fielding.\u00c2\u00a0 There is then a selection of charts and tables that look at team performances in both leagues before we get to the bulk of the numbers: batting, pitching and fielding stats for every team.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The stats are put into context for every team section via an interesting chart that shows how their fortunes changed over the course of the season in a variety of ways (runs scored\/allowed etc) and a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcStats Facts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 box picks out some of the key bits of information contained in the tables that follow.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 All of the standard stats are included, which is always nice to have in a handy paperback reference, but the section\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s main appeal is the unique content of so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbatted ball stats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that reveal a whole new perspective on a batter or pitcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s profile.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like anything, they need some explanation for you to make real sense of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of these batted ball stats can now be found on the Fangraphs site (for example, Joe Mauer<\/a> and Tim Lincecum<\/a>), but the best place to appreciate them is in Dave Studeman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (HBT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Manager) weekly Batted Ball reports.\u00c2\u00a0 They were launched for the 2009 season as part of an excellent package<\/a> that included the HBT annual, although unfortunately this deal was only available to people in North America.\u00c2\u00a0 People who buy the annual are able to download all of the reports from the season (as well as other spreadsheets) and they are a very enjoyable complement to the book.<\/p>\n

The stats are great to flick through, but it is the articles that make the annual really stand out.\u00c2\u00a0 Written by a combination of HBT staff and guest contributions from some of the best baseball analysts around, they cover a range of subjects in a variety of styles, while always maintaining a high standard of quality.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The articles focusing on recent events concentrate on the less-obvious targets, such as the 2009 World Baseball Classic, the problems faced in signing Latin American prospects and the business side to the sport.\u00c2\u00a0 In the History section, among other articles, former White Sox and Orioles manager Paul Richards is the subject of the annual\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regular \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcManager in a box\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 feature, Craig Brown provides an excellent summary of the inception of free agency and Chris Jaffe looks back at the 1972 World Series between the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Reds, probing the possibility that it was the best series of all time while considering how we might define what \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 means in this context.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

These articles would appeal to any baseball fan; however HBT has made its name by going deeper into topics and offering something to the baseball fan that wants to read about, and possibly be inspired to contribute to, the advanced statistical analysis of the game.\u00c2\u00a0 So there are various in-depth articles explaining and exploring new concepts such as Bill James\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcStrong Seasons leading Index\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (essentially a system designed to uncover which players are likely to match or improve their performance next season), Sky Andrecheck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcChampionship Leverage Index\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (a way to quantify the relative meaning\/importance of each game in a season) and Jeff Sackmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new approach to producing \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMajor League Equivalents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153estimates of how a non-Major League player [in the Minors, Japan etc] would have performed in the Major Leagues in a given period of time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with all the other analysis articles (such as two about the use of PITCHf\/x data \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the info that can be found in MLB.com\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gameday application), they are clearly not aimed at a baseball newcomer.\u00c2\u00a0 It is challenging stuff at times, but challenging in a good way (stretching you, making you think etc) rather than a bad way (difficult to read and understand, although there are some technical passages that I freely admit to skipping over, such as Dave Allen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explanation of how he creates his PITCHf\/x graphs).\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0They hold your attention because the writers are not crunching numbers for the sake of it.\u00c2\u00a0 They are using statistical analysis and data to look at questions that will interest baseball fans of all categories.<\/p>\n

The decline of pitchers going deeper into games and the changing usage patterns of relief aces are topics that many baseball fans will argue about, so Tom Tango and Sean Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s articles on these subjects should appeal to all.\u00c2\u00a0 Or what about the playing conditions at the two new stadiums in New York?\u00c2\u00a0 They were a big talking point during the 2009 season, so why wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you want to move beyond generic observations (Citi Field killed the Mets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offense, New Yankee Stadium is a bandbox etc) and read what conclusions Greg Rybarczyk can draw from his Hit Tracker<\/a> data (and very interesting conclusions they are too)?\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s analysis of the best kind: focused on interesting topics, well-explained, thought-provoking without dogmatically stating that the findings are unquestionable facts.<\/p>\n

While they should appeal to all, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt that the analysis articles and the large stats section will be appreciated most by baseball fans who already take a keen interest in this side of the game.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwhat happened in 2009\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 type annual for baseball newcomers, but the Hardball Times Annual is an excellent concept for stat-minded fans and this 2010 edition matches the quality of previous efforts.<\/p>\n

Have you read \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Can you recommend any other similar books? If so, let us know.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s book review looks at the 2010 edition of a baseball annual designed to appeal to stat-minded fans of the sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[76,553,69],"class_list":["post-6521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-books","tag-book-reviews","tag-mlb-2","tag-stats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6521"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6528,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6521\/revisions\/6528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}