Customer Reviews

The Book on The Book: A Landmark Inquiry into Which Strategies in the Modern Game Actually Work

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A disappointing purchase, this cannot be the last word on the subject. The book is a pretty dry read. Bill James has printed similar types of essays in various books in a much more lively and entertaining style. Also, some of the methods used and assumptions made are very questionable. (I am an MBA with over 20 years experience in compiling and using statistical data.) Felber's book can only be recommended to the really hardcore fan who is willing to wade through a lot of really boring prose.

I first looked at the reviews of this book after I'd already ordered it. I'm glad I didn't read the reviews first; their uniformly negative ratings might have put me off getting the book. I disagree strongly with these evaluations.

The book didn't seem that tedious to me; perhaps the reviewers were looking for something different from what the author was trying to do. The author is trying to present his conclusions on baseball strategy, not just as it needs to be used by players, but also by managers and by front-office people who might decide who should be signed and how much they should be paid. This latter part hasn't been addressed by anyone else that I know.

Some of his conclusions on on-the-field strategy may be identical to conclusions already reached by such baseball analysts as Pete Palmer. This doesn't make it less valuable that he enunciate them and give his reasoning. And some of his conclusions are new, or contrary to what other analysts have decided. That's why you want to read other books, not just this one, and come to your own conclusions.

One of the other reviewers seems to think everything Felber states is obvious. I think that some things are -- it is certainly more likely that you will strike out if you already have two strikes against you than if the count is 2-1. But what Felber is trying to do is quantify the chances, so that one can come up with a strategy for swinging/taking, and the very fact that his conclusions run counter than the usual strategies certainly means that managers don't think his conclusions are obvious.

My take on this book is that it is a valuable addition to my library, unlike the other reviews' ratings, though I certainly would not use this as my only book on the subject.

I was really hoping for a fresh, new take on an old topic. But instead, it seems that "The Book on the Book" merely regurgitated the work already done by Palmer and Thorn over 20 years ago.

The author does not appear to have a background in statistics or logical thinking, and unfortunately it shows. On subjects such as the sacrifice bunt, for example, he draws conclusions without analyzing game situations or the quality of the hitter at the plate. Folks at web sites like Baseball Prospectus, Hardball Times and Baseball Analysts have covered this topic in much more extensive detail, thus delivering more meaningful conclusions.

This book presents a lot of information in an uninteresting way and doesn't break any new ground.

One of the first chapters by Felber states that the best hitters hit early in the count as once hitters have worked themselves into 2-strike counts, their batting averages drop sharply.

Of course they do. That's because with 2 strikes, you can strike out on the next pitch. With 0 or 1 strike, a batter can do a lot of things with the next pitch, but one of them isn't striking out. And striking out is the end result of a lot of at bats.

The chapter on bullpen usage makes some sense, but the examples given are presented poorly.

While I was reading this book I brought it into work one day and a co-worker (an avid Mets fan) asked me what the book was about. I explained it breaks down baseball strategies and ideologies. He said it sounded kind of tedious. I replied it was at times, but at the time I was still working my way through it. In fact, this book is very tedious. Felber lost me when he said that Grady Little faced a very difficult decision in the 2003 ALCS when he went to the mound to talk with Pedro Martinez. He discusses how many times a tiring ace pitcher can be a better choice than a fresh reliever and gives some examples. He completely ignored the fact that Martinez's OPS against jumps over 300 points after 100 pitches.

"The Book on The Book", as previously mentioned in Brian A. Powell's review, is an extremely dry read. I also noticed two errors in the book: Misspelling Sidney Ponson's first name "Sydney" and referring to the umpire monitoring device Questec as "Questrec." All in all, not worth a read.