Book Review
The Hardball Times Baseball Annual
By Mike SanClemente - Managing Editor
02/14/2006
What makes baseball the greatest of all the American sports?
Football gets the best TV ratings: hockey is not only played here, but it’s also the most popular sport in cold-weather countries; and basketball pulls from perhaps the broadest demographics both for its players and fans.
So why, amid strong alternatives, and despite strikes, competitive imbalance, steroid allegations and other issues within its own game, does baseball retain its stranglehold as America’s pastime?
It’s the storytelling. Whether it’s fact or fiction being described, most of us will agree that the game lends itself easily to both prose and poetry, carving a niche not just in our pocketbook, but also our hearts.
And this is where The Hardball Times Baseball Annual comes in. Though baseball also lends itself nicely to statistics, I’d argue we’ve gotten a bit out of hand in that category. Amid a sea of numbers, The Hardball Times (“THT”) uses words – alongside its stats – to make its points.
From recapping key headlines from the past season, to covering each team and division, to letting Rob Neyer and Bill James roam free in the analytical world, this book is about letting many words and a few stats tell a story.
BABY STEPS
Aaron Gleeman’s intro and Dave Studenmund’s Ten Things I Learned This Year provide a great welcome to the book, launching you into twenty-four commentaries about the game, all of them using stats and unique analyses.
Divisional recaps take you through the pennant races from last year; a thorough 2005 review covers steroids, Paul DePodesta’s brief reign in LA, baseball business and law, and allows you to follow the footsteps of Walt Jocketty’s moves in St. Louis.
By this point, you’re a fully indoctrinated THTer. I’m new to this THT thing, and the acronym glossary was very helpful. Curiously (or creatively: I don’t know the answer to that yet) located in the middle of the book, it’s a bit hard to find, but nevertheless is a must-bookmark section for anyone unfamiliar with the book’s acronyms.
Further into the book, Bill James waxes on about Bert Blyleven’s won-loss record relative to his ERA and innings pitched; Studenmund breaks down the value of a batted ball; and further analysis looks at this year’s hip topic, baserunning.
Bert Blyleven
Like several other books, THT recaps ballparks and rates each one for hitting and pitching difficulty. But as befits this book’s emphasis on prose, THT clearly outdistances the other mostly-stats books on the market by offering – what a concept – words to briefly describe how the park plays.
Can I beat this drum any harder? I raised this point in some of my earlier book reviews. Every stats book out there stands to gain by offering quick, one- to two-sentence conclusions like THT does so frequently, especially in its ballparks section. We all love pages and pages of numbers, but it’s refreshing to grab hold of a verb every now and then.
From this point, each team is covered statistically, beginning first with a wonderful line graph tracing the team’s winning percentage and runs scored & allowed over the course of the season. Key points in the year are noted. “May 31: Juan Gonzalez injured in only at-bat; opens door for Sizemore” whereupon you see that the Indians’ runs per game skyrockets from its below average performance to that point, to above average.
Shown further on are players ranked by runs created or prevented, plus win shares, and fielding grids that show range factor, errors, & innings played, plus TE, FE, DPS and DPT.
Oh, right, the glossary. Back I go to the middle of the book to find these indicate throwing errors, fielding errors, double plays started and turned.
WITH THE GLOVE
There’s more fielding as well, where it’s interesting to contrast their rankings to Strat’s: for third basemen, for example, Gold Glover and “one” rated Mike Lowell was considered slightly below average, while Alex Rodriguez – a two-time “one” himself – was stunningly ranked last by quite some distance.
In the balls in play reference section at the end of the book, I enjoyed THT’s listings of each hitter and pitcher’s tendencies to hit or induce groundballs, flyballs, strikeouts, etc. Word to Cincinnati Reds management: in all of baseball last year, only two pitchers, Julio Mateo and Hideo Nomo, had a higher propensity to allow flyballs than your Eric Milton’s thirty-one percent.
Eric Milton
TO FINISH
Can a book whose main drive is to showcase its cutting-edge numbers really instead be about the words? Surely as I just wrote an article without using a single number, the folks at THT can do greater things with MS Word than MS Excel.
Better than almost any other publication, this year’s book in particular can give you a broader grasp of fielding tendencies, how a contact hitter might fare in the long run, and whether a pitcher is a good fit for his park. For me, I’ll use it for those items to gain an edge on my fellow Strat mates. Plus, I’ll enjoy it for one more thing: article upon article of the best baseball writing you’ll find anywhere.
To purchase the book, go to http://www.actasports.com/detail.html?&id=076.
Send comments to Mike at Mike@Stratogists.com