Smart Baseball

Author: Keith Law
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062490257
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Book Description
Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport. For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players’ and teams’ potential and success. But in the past fifteen years, a revolutionary new standard of measurement—sabermetrics—has been embraced by front offices in Major League Baseball and among fantasy baseball enthusiasts. But while sabermetrics is recognized as being smarter and more accurate, traditionalists, including journalists, fans, and managers, stubbornly believe that the "old" way—a combination of outdated numbers and "gut" instinct—is still the best way. Baseball, they argue, should be run by people, not by numbers.? In this informative and provocative book, teh renowned ESPN analyst and senior baseball writer demolishes a century’s worth of accepted wisdom, making the definitive case against the long-established view. Armed with concrete examples from different eras of baseball history, logic, a little math, and lively commentary, he shows how the allegiance to these numbers—dating back to the beginning of the professional game—is firmly rooted not in accuracy or success, but in baseball’s irrational adherence to tradition. While Law gores sacred cows, from clutch performers to RBIs to the infamous save rule, he also demystifies sabermetrics, explaining what these "new" numbers really are and why they’re vital. He also considers the game’s future, examining how teams are using Data—from PhDs to sophisticated statistical databases—to build future rosters; changes that will transform baseball and all of professional sports.

Mind Game

Author: Steven Goldman
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 9780761140184
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
An account of the 2004 winning season of the Red Sox debunks popular myths and provides statistics and commentary on players and teams to explain how baseball games are won.

The Extra 2%

Author: Jonah Keri
Publisher: ESPN
ISBN: 0345517652
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens—the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history. In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail. Together with “boy genius” general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the “devil” from the team’s nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the game’s intangibles—that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing one—they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant. A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your life’s passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.

Baseball Skills and Drills

Author: Mark Johnson
Publisher: Human Kinetics
ISBN: 9780736037389
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description
Top college baseball coaches offer drills for players at all levels. Focuses on hitting, baserunning, fielding, pitching, and catching.

Smart Baseball

Author: Buddy Bell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466854952
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
A fascinating and informative look at what goes on in the psyche of professional baseball players as they play the game, Smart Baseball is a unique chance for baseball fans to see what it takes for ballplayers to succeed at the Major League level. What goes on in a baseball player's mind is critical to the outcome of the game. Since most major leaguers are in peak physical condition, the difference between success and failure on the field often depends on a player's mental approach. Looking at everything from a player's confidence to his leadership skills, instincts, and hunches, Smart Baseball uses entertaining anecdotes to get inside the mind of baseball's greats and show fans what goes through a player's head when he steps onto the field. Smart Baseball presents the knowledge and accumulated experience of one of the few three-generation baseball families--the Bells. In addition, this book is full of insights from more than one hundred of Major League Baseball's greatest players--from Willie Mays to Barry Bonds to Ferguson Jenkins.

The Game of Eating Smart

Author: Julie Loria
Publisher: Rodale Books
ISBN: 1635652707
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
An inside look at the food that fuels today’s top Major League Baseball stars In Major League Baseball, the transition to eating healthy food has become more than a movement; it’s a revolution. Jose Altuve, Chris Archer, Clayton Kershaw, Noah Syndergaard, Mike Trout, and the 16 other star ballplayers featured in The Game of Eating Smart are proof of the positive effect of proper nutrition on athletic performance and overall health. Eating smart isn’t about calorie-counting and fad diets. It simply means consuming more nourishing food—including leafy greens, lean protein, and fresh fruit—that eventually decreases the desire to make unhealthy choices. The Game of Eating Smart includes insights from today’s top players on their approach to healthy living and performance nutrition, plus more than 80 easy-to-prepare and nutrient-dense recipes inspired by their food philosophies and favorite meals. José Altuve José Bautista Chris Archer Nolan Arenado Jake Arrieta Kris Bryant Carlos Correa Freddie Freeman Paul Goldschmidt Didi Gregorius Bryce Harper Adam Jones Matt Kemp Clayton Kershaw Ian Kinsler Corey Kluber Hunter Pence David Price Giancarlo Stanton Noah Syndergaard Mike Trout

The Mental Game Of Baseball

Author: H. A. Dorfman
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
ISBN: 1888698543
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Book Description
In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peack performance at every level of the game.

The Inside Game

Author: Keith Law
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062942743
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Keith Law, baseball writer for The Athletic and author of the acclaimed Smart Baseball, offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball, explaining what motivated them, what can be learned from them, and how their legacy has shaped the game. For years, Daniel Kahneman’s iconic work of behavioral science Thinking Fast and Slow has been required reading in front offices across Major League Baseball. In this smart, incisive, and eye-opening book, Keith Law applies Kahneman’s ideas about decision making to the game itself. Baseball is a sport of decisions. Some are so small and routine they become the building blocks of the game itself—what pitch to throw or when to swing away. Others are so huge they dictate the future of franchises—when to make a strategic trade for a chance to win now, or when to offer a millions and a multi-year contract for a twenty-eight-year-old star. These decisions have long shaped the behavior of players, managers, and entire franchises. But as those choices have become more complex and data-driven, knowing what’s behind them has become key to understanding the sport. This fascinating, revelatory work explores as never before the essential question: What were they thinking? Combining behavioral science and interviews with executives, managers, and players, Keith Law analyzes baseball’s biggest decision making successes and failures, looking at how gambles and calculated risks of all sizes and scales have shaped the sport, and how the game’s ongoing data revolution is rewriting decades of accepted decision making. In the process, he explores questions that have long been debated, from whether throwing harder really increases a player’s risk of serious injury to whether teams actually “overvalue” trade prospects. Bringing his analytical and combative style to some of baseball’s longest running debates, Law deepens our knowledge of the sport in this entertaining work that is both fun and deeply informative.

The Brooklyn Nine

Author: Alan M. Gratz
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101014806
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
1845: Felix Schneider, an immigrant from Germany, cheers the New York Knickerbockers as they play Three-Out, All-Out. 1908: Walter Snider, batboy for the Brooklyn Superbas, arranges a team tryout for a black pitcher by pretending he is Cuban. 1945: Kat Snider of Brooklyn plays for the Grand Rapids Chicks in the All-American Girls Baseball League. 1981: Michael Flint fi nds himself pitching a perfect game during the Little League season at Prospect Park. And there are fi ve more Schneiders to meet. In nine innings, this novel tells the stories of nine successive Schneider kids and their connection to Brooklyn and baseball. As in all family histories and all baseball games, there is glory and heartache, triumph and sacrifi ce. And it ain?t over till it?s over.

The Shift

Author: Russell Carleton
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1641250135
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Book Description
With its three-hour-long contests, 162-game seasons, and countless measurable variables, baseball is a sport which lends itself to self-reflection and obsessive analysis. It's a thinking game. It's also a shifting game. Nowhere is this more evident than in the statistical revolution which has swept through the pastime in recent years, bringing metrics like WAR, OPS, and BABIP into front offices and living rooms alike. So what's on the horizon for a game that is constantly evolving? Positioned at the crossroads of sabermetrics and cognitive science, The Shift alters the trajectory of both traditional and analytics-based baseball thought. With a background in clinical psychology as well as experience in major league front offices, Baseball Prospectus' Russell Carleton illuminates advanced statistics and challenges cultural assumptions, demonstrating along the way that data and logic need not be at odds with the human elements of baseball—in fact, they're inextricably intertwined. Covering topics ranging from infield shifts to paradigm shifts, Carleton writes with verve, honesty, and an engaging style, inviting all those who love the game to examine it deeply and maybe a little differently. Data becomes digestible; intangibles are rendered not only accessible, but quantifiable. Casual fans and statheads alike will not want to miss this compelling meditation on what makes baseball tick.