The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 compiles some of the best analytical and historical writing on baseball with unique and innovative statistics into a timeless annual guide. With guest writers like John Walsh, John Dewan, Richard Lederer and Tom Tango, and articles on some of the hottest topics in baseball, as well as historical analyses, The Hardball Times Baseball Annual is a resource readers will enjoy again and again.
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Nobody combines cutting edge statistics with insightful, provocative and accessible writing like the folks at The Hardball Times. --Jacob Luft, Sports Illustrated
Hardball Times has become a must-read site for me and for many other people in the baseball business. I'm drawn to destinations where you can find innovative thinking about our sports, and I'd place Hardball Times in the upper echelon of that list. --Jayson Stark, ESPN.com Senior Writer
Hardball Times has become a must-read site for me and for many other people in the baseball business. I'm drawn to destinations where you can find innovative thinking about our sports, and I'd place Hardball Times in the upper echelon of that list. --Jayson Stark, ESPN.com Senior Writer
About the Author
The writers of The Hardball Times create provocative, insightful and entertaining baseball analyses, as well as produce their own unique statistics, graphs and essays. They maintain a website, HardballTimes.com, which is updated daily throughout the year on all things baseball.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another great collection of history, analysis and statistics.,
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This review is from: The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 (Paperback)
As usual, an excellent collection of articles and statistics.I found the balance of articles in this year's edition to be particularly noteworthy. Whether you love the game for its overall history, individual teams, players or SABRmetric analysis, there's plenty here to entertain and provoke. You might not be interested in every facet of the book but you'll find plenty that makes it worthwhile. My only (minor) gripe is the form factor. While the large size helps with clearly displaying the many tables and graphs, it makes it more cumbersome to transport and awkward to read just anywhere.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best baseball writing anywhere,
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This review is from: The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 (Paperback)
I received my copy of The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 (THTBA) more than a month ago, but a variety of circumstances have conspired to postpone its review until now. One obvious reason for its delay is the depth and breadth of written coverage within the annual itself, which as you might imagine takes quite a bit longer to read than, say, scanning some tables of stats. While most other annuals rely on dense statistical offerings to sell their product, THTBA features literally dozens of original articles on baseball history, statistical analysis, and general baseball commentary. There are plenty of stats, too, but since most if not all of them are available gratis on the Hardball Times website, I'm going to focus on the original writing (if you dig their online stats offerings, though, you're bound to like them in book form).In past THTBA reviews I have more-or-less given a rundown of every article with little more than a single line of summation for each. I'm going to switch things up this time and pick out one of my favorite articles from this year's edition to focus on, and then point out a couple of others that I found of particular interest. "The Content Of Their Character" by Jack Marshall This timely and important piece by Jack Marshall of [...] takes a different approach to defining a player's candidacy for the baseball hall of fame. The locus of Marshall's argument draws its inspiration from the official voting rules placed before the BBWAA. Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played. Apparently, the overseers of the hall never intended its inductees to be granted entry based solely on their on-field legacies. I think we all understand and agree with this tacitly to some extent: given two players of equivalent accomplishment, the boy scout gets the nod over the dbag. Marshall takes this approach one step further by discarding the either-or comparison altogether, arguing that an indvidual's credentials for the hall should be bound, not insignificantly, to his character. His methodology is surprisingly well-developed, too. For starters, Marshall begins with a 'hierarchy' of character impact, stretching from low -- 'pre-career negative conduct' -- to high -- 'during major league career (during a game)' -- expressly stating that a player's behavior carries with it more gravitas the more closely it coincides with his playing career, the logical conclusion of which is behavior during a particular game (positive or negative). This is to suggest that a shoplifting conviction while a player-to-be was in high school is of less consequence to his hall candidacy than the same conviction occurring while he was an active ballplayer (or, unlikely but somehow worse, in the middle of a game!). How we are to weight incongruous offenses -- pre-career domestic violence versus mid-career tax evasion -- isn't so cut-and-dried. Marshall goes on to cite specific 'disqualifying conduct' events, such as first-degree murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery, that would instantly nullify any and all on-field accomplishments. Mixed within this list are terminal baseball transgressions like gambling on/throwing a game, which are only meaningfully wrong within the universe of baseball law and are certainly far less destructive to the societal fabric than, say, rape or treason. He also discusses several 'gray' events, like animal abuse, spousal abuse, or 'demonstrable bigotry or racism', which might be candidates for 'disqualifying conduct' but by most ethical measures aren't quite as pernicious as the aforementioned cardinal offenses. Bad behavior wouldn't be so 'bad' if it weren't juxtaposed against good behavior, so to that end Marshall provides a list of 'good conduct' that could be used to offset non-disqualifying conduct, e.g. community service, special acts of herosim, or even 'unusual hustle', the latter of which is deemed to be second only to 'team leadership' on the descending scale of positive non-baseball contributions. Does running to first base after drawing a walk counterbalance the funding of a dog fighting cartel? Also on the strange side, Marshall lists 'flagrant use of PEDs' to be significantly worse than 'tipping pitches to the opposition', among other things. While I might quibble with the order of the list, there is surely a hierarchy of some sort and Marshall gets credit for at least making an effort to enumerate it here. Though I'm not sure Marshall's article will incite many to drastically change their perspective on hall of fame evaluations, the fact that the HOF itself includes character traits on its list of entry requirements means we should at least be paying attention to those aspects of each player's candidacy. Non-baseball behavior -- good or bad -- is an important qualifier for consideration to be counted among the game's immortals, but unless we're talking about capital-level offenses I think most would agree that philanthropy (and, conversely, douchebaggery) are of considerably less import than actual baseball accomplishments. "The Year The Players Were Set Free" by Craig Brown This article by Craig Brown of [...] [...] is just a wonderful capsule of free agency's incipience in the early-to-mind seventies, beginning with Curt Flood, advanced by Catfish Hunter, and finally achieved by Andy Messersmith. Brown goes into considerable detail in describing the events that led to the dissolution of baseball's reserve clause and the sport's reluctant embrace of the free market, as well as the growing pains and short-term casualties of the new system. "Hit Tracker 2009" by Greg Rybarczyk Greg from [...] returns to the THTBA with a review of 2009's homeruns (this past season's longballs traveled two feet farther on average than 2008's). Greg also covers the league's new ballparks -- Citi Field and Yankee Stadium III -- and their effects on homeruns relative to the parks they replaced (Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium II, respectively). We looked at the mid-season Citi Field results back in June, but now we have the final season numbers. * The Mets hit 27 non-homerun flyballs in 2009 that would have been homeruns at Shea. Only three of those became flyouts. * Mets opponents hit 37 non-homerun flyballs in 2009 that would have been homeruns at Shea. Thirteen of them became flyouts. * Two homeruns were hit at Citi Field in 2009 that would have been non-homeruns at Shea Stadium. Both were hit by Chase Utley. -- If you have a little bit of Festivus cash lying around and aren't quite sure what to spend it on, there are far worse investments than The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010. I guarantee if you sit down with this book for a few hours you will emerge a smarter, more knowledgeable baseball fan.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must have for a dedicated baseball fan!,
This review is from: The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 (Paperback)
The THT Annual is a very good read; it is informative and entertaining. It is just as educational and fun as the website, but is all-new material. I love the historical articles, year-in-review stories, team and player analysis, the tons of statistics, and enjoy the trivia too. Each piece is well-written, detailed, and accurate. I skimmed the book and read a couple articles the day I got it and had it finished within a week, yet continue to review important aspects of the 2009 season and use it as a reference. I've had a great time with The Annual and it was a great early Christmas present!
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