Product Description

Celebrating its fifth year in production, The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009 compiles some of the best analytical and historical writing on baseball with unique and innovative statistics into a timeless annual guide. This comprehensive book covers the entire 2008 season from the first pitch to the last out, and it is also the first book of its kind to include a review of the postseason and World Series.


With guest writers like Rob Neyer, John Dewan, Richard Lederer and Tom Tango, and articles on hot topics like "GM in a Box: Pat Gillick," predicting rookie performance, and a look at the "Pete Rose" class of free agents, The Hardball Times Baseball Annual is a resource you will pick up again and again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #419703 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
Nobody provides cutting-edge statistics with insightful, provocative and accessible writing like the folks at The Hardball Times. -- Jacob Luft, Sports Illustrated

Nobody provides cutting-edge statistics with insightful, provocative and accessible writing like the folks at The Hardball Times. --Jacob Luft, Sports Illustrated

Some of the most informed baseball analysis can be found on renegade websites like The Hardball Times. -- Alan Schwarz, New York Times

Some of the most informed baseball analysis can be found on renegade websites like The Hardball Times. --Alan Schwarz, New York Times

About the Author
The Hardball Times is a think tank of baseball writers who create provocative, insightful and entertaining baseball analyses, as well as produce their unique statistics, graphs and essays. Their website Hardballtimes.com, is updated daily throughout the year on all things baseball.

Customer Reviews

good reading about baseball
Many baseball books come out in December, Janaury and February to capture the attention of baseball fans during their 5 month drought. THT Baseball annual is a relatively new addition to the company of Ron Shandler and Bill James, who have been publishing such books for decades.

THT takes some time to read and get used to. Unlike the Shandler and James books, THT Baseball is mostly long articles on various subjects of the sport, such as Pete Rose's free agency drama in 1978 (which I rememebr well) and whether ballplayers hit more home runs after the guy in front is intentionally walked. Also, other articles measure the value of new prospects and mid season trades and the effect of player height (!)

THT does not lend itself to quick browsing as does the Shandler and James book. Most articles cover several large pages. This is not the book to consult when trying to figure out how many RBI's A-Rod will hit or how many innings CC will pitch. The articles have a lot of statistics in them and are intended for those those who enjoy tinkering with baseball stats. There are plenty of things for non stat heads to read as well. Some of the stats can be a bit confusing if you are new to them, but the book includes a nice glossary covering that.

The last part (about 40%) of the book is statistics on hitting and fielding for each team. This part is nice but I would like a link to these online; most of this can be gotten from several baseball websites as well.

In the glossary of statistics, you can find many of the underlying formulas, which you can use to create your own projections.

I suggest reading this, along with "Baseball by the Numbers" by Baseball Prospectus, early in the pre-season and then moving on to one of the forecasting books such as that published by Bill James or Ron Shandler.

Worthy successor to the annual Bill James annuals
I got the THT Annual for Christmas this year and I really enjoyed it. Definitely a worthy successor to the work of Bill James. The coverage is definitely focused on the just-ended 2008 season, and there is tons of stats and analysis there. Though I will say, it would have been better for them to wait a bit longer to publish, so they could have known things like who would win the MVP Award. But I can understand the need to get the book out long before the Baseball Prospectus comes out.

There is enough stuff in here that ISN'T focused just on 2008 to make the book worth buying even if you don't need the 2008 stuff (the Pete Rose class of Free Agents article was very good, and there were others as well) but it's definitely a compilation of the 2008 season more than anything else.

I still like the Prospectus better but this is a good book to keep the hot stove fires burning until it comes out.

Disappointing
The Baseball Annual is more a collection of baseball related articles...some germaine, many extraneous ...I thought it would be more analytical in the Bill James mode...it wasn't.