| Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong |  | Author: The Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts
Creator: Jonah Keri
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 781,921
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357021
Publication Date: March 1, 2007
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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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Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
 The Numbers of the Game June 28, 2006
mrliteral
28 out of 31 found this review helpful
Probably more than any other sport, baseball makes use of statistics. We see this with every baseball game on TV: not just the basic stats like batting average and home runs, but more detailed information like how well a particular batter does against a particular pitcher. The statistics on TV or in the newspaper, however, only scratch the surface. Baseball Between the Numbers provides a much more in depth look at the numbers behind the game and how to analyze them.
This process involves two parts. First, there is a look at the popular statistics to see how well they really track a player performance and contribution to the team. Batting average, for example, is not a really good indicator of performance; slugging percentage and on-base percentage provide a better reading. There is also a look at certain beliefs in baseball - such as the existence of clutch hitters - and whether they are based in reality or more of a myth.
The second part of this statistical analysis is coming up with new stats to provide more information. There are a lot of these, but the one that seems emphasized the most is VORP, Value over Replacement Player. In simple terms, VORP gives the value of a player compared to a replacement player of minimal major league skills (like a 0.200 batting average). If a player gets 200 hits in a year, he does not really contribute 200 hits to his team; instead, he contributes only the difference between his hit total and that of the replacement player; if this value is 110, then the player contributes 90 hits.
The purpose of all this analysis is two-fold. For one thing, it helps evaluate the potentials of players, so it is useful from a scouting perspective. It is also good for comparing players who played in different time periods. The introduction of the book gives a good example as it tries to show who the better player is, Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds. Superficially, some stats favor Ruth (such as batting average) while others favor Bonds (such as steals). But for any comparison to be legitimate, many other things need to be taken into account, particularly with the environment that the two played in; for example, Ruth played in a "whites-only" era that excluded many great players of other races. The more elaborate statistics take these differences into account; this particular analysis favors Ruth slightly, primarily because of his contributions as a pitcher.
To some extent, this book covers some of the same ground as a book I read a couple years back called Curve Ball, but it also offers a lot of new stuff too. The principal flaw with the book seems to be inadequate editing, leading to a lot of redundancies between chapters (which are written by different people); hence, we get the same explanation for what a statistic means over and over again. In addition, considering its importance to the game, pitching is underrepresented in the book; although covered, the primary emphasis is on batting. Other topics covered include fielding, base stealing and managing.
There is a danger with a book like this to get TOO into the statistics of the game and lose appreciation for the game itself. Statistics are great for looking at trends, but in any one given event, you can never be certain what's going to happen. That's why when it's the bottom of the ninth, two out and the tying run's at third, it doesn't really matter what the numbers say, and that's when baseball is at its most exciting. This book will make you look at the numbers of baseball more critically, but it won't diminish the pleasure of watching the game. Despite the flaws, I am giving this book five stars; for a baseball fan, this is a compelling read.
Classic for Baseball Stat Fans February 1, 2010
Sports & SciFi Fan (Northeast US)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just read another book that I thoroughly enjoyed ("Who Will Win the Big Game?") and it made me think of Baseball Between the Numbers. I received J. Keri's book as a gift and loved reading many of the essays on baseball. It's a classic for baseball fans, and especially fans who love baseball statistics.
The book is by the Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts and edited by Keri -- and the title page includes the tagline, "Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong." Includes great chapters/essays on interesting topics like:
* Can you have too much pitching?
* Is A-Rod overpaid?
* What do stats tell us about Steroids.
* Did Jeter deserve a Gold Glove?
Highly recommended.
This Changed My Outlook On The Real Game of Baseball May 1, 2010
Geoff Howard (Halifax, NS CANADA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was read after I had read Moneyball by Michael Lewis. In fact Moneyball inspired my reading of this work as that book had awakened a desire to look deeper in to the game of Baseball. This Book, Baseball Between the Numbers, explained to me what the real game of Baseball is all about. Like it's disclaimer states, "Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong", well it delivers on that.
Sections of the book I particularly enjoyed were determining whether or not Barry Bonds better than Babe Ruth and the methods they used to figure out the answer to this question. Looking at whether or not playing in high altitudes makes a difference or not and what factors come in to play when playing at that level. As stated all the articles were of some relevance to gathering an understanding to the game. I was particularly impressed with the last couple of chapters:
- Why Doesn't Billy Beane's s*** Work in the Playoffs?
- Extra Innings
They kind of address Moneyball in an interesting way that I will not go in to here, I suggest you read the book and discover all of the mysteries of this book yourself.
I definitely recommend this book to someone who, like myself, wants to know more about how the game works and everything involved, then someone who just enjoys watching a game. If you are new to this type of interest in Baseball or considering looking in to what lies beneath the game I would suggest reading MoneyBall by Michael Lewis first to get in to it then read this book for a broader more indepth look at the game. From here I think you could go on to reading more of Bill James' works and the Baseball Prospectus itself, which is likely where I am heading. Definitely a 5 star read!
Numbers compiled correctly don't lie January 17, 2009
Ben Woods (Baltimore, MD, USA)
How can some teams spend a ton of money for a cellar-dwelling result? How do other teams build a thrifty team and manage to thrive?
Some of these answers appear in Baseball Between the Numbers, which contains a compilation of studies regarding different game facets. There are chapters devoted to relief pitchers ("Are Teams Letting Their Closers Go to Waste?"), managers ("Is Joe Torre a Hall of Fame Manager?"), situational hitting ("When Is One Run Worth More Than Two?"), high school draft picks ("What Happened to Todd Van Poppel?") and many more.
As a lifelong baseball enthusiast, I thought the book was a great look at some of the more intriguing items that happen inside and outside a game. The novel is chocked with stats, so if you are into that sort of thing, you'll get the maximum out of it. However, you don't need to be a math genius to enjoy the book ... you need to be only a baseball fan.
So Many Numbers Your Head Will Spin...But In A Good Way July 26, 2010
Zachary Koenig (Fergus Falls, MN)
There are so many questions inherent in every professional baseball game: Which pitcher should start (and when)? Should the sacrifice bunt be laid down? Is the closer best saved for the ninth inning? What more important: on-base or slugging percentage? The list could go on and on. This book takes a purely statistical approach towards answering those questions, using averages and complicated (to the layman) formulas to parse the facts.
For the baseball junkie, almost every chapter in this book raises a new and interesting question. Though a game based on averages can never quite be predicted accurately (the worst hitter in the league always has a chance against the best pitcher), this book takes the stats-bases approach to finding answers, parsing through decades of raw numbers to do so. This is intriguing because most baseball fans only see the sport through small sample sizes like games, weeks, or even months. This crew from Baseball Prospectus, however, uses substantially larger sample sizes to more accurately interpret the information. The result is some very interesting findings that will likely challenge some of your long-held notions about the game.
The only drawback of this book is that the statistical formulas used will go over the head of those not familiar with high-level number manipulation. You basically have two options: Spend hours trying to understand all the graphs/data points, or just trust that the stat-heads are feeding you good information. I took the latter approach, and was still able to enjoy the experience.
Overall, then, Baseball Between The Numbers is an interesting little read for the hard-core hardball fan (others will be scared away by the intense subject matter). Think of it like Moneyball, but without the specific focus on Billy Beane and his Oakland A's.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
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