Baseball Prospectus 2012 [Paperback]

Baseball Prospectus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2012 | Series: Baseball Prospectus

The bestselling annual baseball preview from the smartest analysts in the business

The essential guide to the 2012 baseball season is on deck now, and whether you're a fan or fantasy player—or both—you won't be properly informed without it. Baseball Prospectus 2012 brings together an elite group of analysts to provide the definitive look at the upcoming season in critical essays and commentary on the thirty teams, their managers, and more than sixty players and prospects from each team.

• Contains critical essays on each of the thirty teams and player comments for some sixty players for each of those teams
• Projects each player's stats for the coming season using the groundbreaking PECOTA projection system, which has been called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model" (Sports Illustrated)
• From Baseball Prospectus, America's leading provider of statistical analysis for baseball

Now in its seventeenth edition, this New York Times bestselling insider's guide remains hands down the most authoritative and entertaining book of its kind.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The 2012 Edition of the New York Times bestselling guide

"The Best Book Of Its Kind."
—Rob Neyer

Now in its seventeenth edition, the Baseball Prospectus annual shows once again how it became the industry leader: the 2012 edition includes key stat categories, more controversial player predictions, and the kind of wise, witty baseball commentary that makes this phone-book-thick tome worth reading cover to cover.

Baseball Prospectus 2012 provides fantasy players and insiders alike with uncannily prescient PECOTA projections, which Sports Illustrated has called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model." Still, stats are just numbers if you don't see the larger context, and Baseball Prospectus brings together an elite team of analysts to provide the definitive look at all thirty teams—their players, their prospects, and their managers—to explain away flukes, hot streaks, injury-tainted numbers, park effects, and overrated prospects who won't be able to fool people in the Show like they have down on the farm.

Nearly every Major League team has sought the advice of current or former Prospectus writers, and readers of Baseball Prospectus 2012 will understand what all those fans have been raving about.

"If you're a baseball fan and you don't know what BP is, you're working in a mine without one of those helmets with the lights on it."
—Keith Olbermann

"For me, every year baseball begins with the big, brilliant, beautiful book you are holding in your hands right now."
—Joe Posnanski

"Baseball Prospectus continues to raise the bar for innovative baseball analysis every year."
—Mark Shapiro, President, Cleveland Indians

"If a general manager hasn't read Baseball Prospectus, he should be fired for incompetence."
—Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball

Baseball Prospectus 2011 correctly predicted:

• The collapse of 2010 stars Vernon Wells, Trevor Cahill, and Austin Jackson, as well as serious regression for Josh Hamilton and Ubaldo Jimenez

• Strong comebacks for Pablo Sandoval and Carlos Beltran, as well as Dan Haren's strong finish with the Angels being a better indicator of 2011 performance than his pre-trade struggles with the D-Backs

• Breakout seasons from Michael Pineda, Desmond Jennings, Danny Espinosa, Craig Kimbrel, and Jeremy Hellickson

• That Albert Pujols plus the Cardinals' starting rotation would still be a recipe for success

• That the Diamondbacks had a much brighter immediate future than the typical last-place club

• That Dave Dombrowski's roster restructuring in Detroit would lead the Tigers back into contention

About the Author

Baseball Prospectus is America's leading provider of statistical analysis for baseball, combining entertaining commentary and accurate forecasting via books, blogs, articles, and a website.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Third Edition edition (February 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470622075
• ISBN-13: 978-0470622070
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 1.4 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Baseball Analysis on the Market! February 21, 2012

By Mike P.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a great read for any baseball fan but a MUST READ for the fantasy baseball player.

1. The players are ordered by teams with hitters first followed by pitchers in alphabetical order. There's a great index by name as well. The front matter talks in great detail about the statistics used in the text, explaining the analytic approach in excrutiating but fun detail.

2. Each team has a few pages of sumnmary discussion followed by player stats/descriptions. The player stats are presented for the prior 3 years and they include projections for the 2012 season.

3. The best part: the analysts provide a text summary of the player in plain English terms -- the comments can be sarcastic, funny, biting, and even hilarious. I often quote from the book at my baseball draft auction. The Manny Ramirez quote, for example, "Everyone's favorite idiot showed a new level of stupidity by violating baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy for the second time. Manny's bay area retreat lasted only slightly longer than the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba as Ramirez retired rather than sit out 100 games...." Great stuff.

Buy this book. Now.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible of Baseball February 17, 2012

By N. Bilmes VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Anyone who is a fan of the game, whether a fantasy fanatic or not, should find a lot to like in this edition of BP. Like the other annuals over the years, this edition is divided into team sections with analysis of last season's successes and failures, followed by a batter and pitcher section for each team that includes more data than you'll ever need, but with all the data you want to read included. The player comments are pithy and entertaining, and the prospect section at the end of the book is filled with nuggets of information that any fantasy-playing baseball follower will want to keep on hand on draft days and during the season.

This year's edition is very entertaining, and relatively free of the typo-mania that afflicted the 2010 edition.

With Baseball Prospectus back on the shelf, and spring training getting underway, the 2012 season can officially begin!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A spring classic for baseball fans February 24, 2012

By Craig VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Along with the BA Prospect Handbook, this is a title that I start waiting anxiously for sometime in early January. And as usual, the great baseball minds at BP have not disappointed, providing a guide for the upcoming season that should be within arm's reach all year for any baseball fan.

I think many of us have enjoyed the sharp humor of the player comments, and that remains on display in this latest edition. One thing I've noticed over the past few editions is that they've become a little more confident in these predictions, and you can see that confidence in the 2012 edition. The wit is still in evidence, too, and it's good to see that the writers still aren't taking themselves too seriously. The statistics are similar to previous editions, and there's some fun to be had in comparing the PECOTA leaders from 2011 to the projections made in last year's edition. For those who are new to some of the stats that BP holds near and dear, there's a nicely written introduction that helps explain what they mean and why they're important.

My only wish (I wouldn't call it a complaint) is that I'd like to see more essays and analysis, but that's likely to remain true no matter how much they include. And I should also mention that this year's edition does a far better job than past years in both layout and editing. Gone are some of the previous problems with formatting, and there are far few editing errors.

Five stars is a no-brainer for this one. Great for fantasy players, for hardcore baseball fans, and for those just trying to gain a greater understanding of the game.