Baseball Prospectus 2006: The BP Team of Experts on Baseball Talent (Paperback)

~ Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Described as "the fantasy baseball bible," this annual publication offers preseason analysis of 30 teams and more than 1,600 players plus essays on the top 50 prospects, the true costs of injuries, and more. Prediction for the 2005 World Series-winning Chicago White Sox: "They'll be right back in the thick of it." You have to love statistics to make it through these pages, but what serious baseball fan doesn't? Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Fearless heir... [to Bill James’s Baseball Abstract]. This book swings so hard for the fences that even its whiffs are interesting.”
— Esquire magazine, in naming Baseball Prospectus 2005 one of the six best books of the year (Esquire )

“Perhaps the game’s most accurate prediction model”
—Sports Illustrated (Sports Illustrated )

“The überforecast of every player’s performance”
—Alan Schwarz, the New York Times (The New York Times )

Fearless heir... [to Bill Jamess Baseball Abstract]. This book swings so hard for the fences that even its whiffs are interesting. Esquire magazine, in naming Baseball Prospectus 2005 one of the six best books of the year (Esquire )

Perhaps the games most accurate prediction model Sports Illustrated (Sports Illustrated )

The berforecast of every players performance Alan Schwarz, the New York Times (The New York Times )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 554 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (March 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761139958
• ISBN-13: 978-0761139959
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #462,750 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Frankly, I'm disappointed, March 10, 2006

By	J. Petrizzi - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a huge fan of BP, both online and the annual book. BP 2006 is the best available resource for baseball analysis, if only for the normalized stat lines and the fantastic PECOTA system. If you are interested in studying baseball, particularly the area of individual player evaluation, this is the book for you - it is literally unmatched in the marketplace. Fantasy baseball owners will appreciate the player stat trends and 2006 projections, but you won't find much advice beyond that for winning your roto league.

That said, the editing and production this year are frustratingly bad. It's not just typo problems. Many sentences are missing verbs or have vague meanings, and entire sections are really tough to read. Some parts are weighed down with so much data it distracts the reader from the analysis. For example, there's a section in the Philadelphia chapter that comments on the Phillies' inability to develop players through their farm system, along with data to prove the point. I swear to you now that after three readings I still don't understand what that data (table 2, page 346) is supposed to show. It's literally 143 numbers that appear to be randomly ordered in an 11x13 table. At first glance I couldn't detect a trend, and the prose failed to describe the table at all. The first sentence of the description reads: "Players shown by organization that developed them;organization is credited with developing a major league player if they originally drafted or signed him, unless they released him before he first played in Double-A or Triple-A;Regular season = 100 games for position players; "w/Club" totals reflect the Games/IP/Seasons played with the parent club that developed the player" Yes, there is no period at the end of that "sentence." Look, some number bending is par for the course with a book like this, but if you are expecting the type of production you see on the website, you'll likely be disappointed. I like the numbers, but in order to be useful they need to be organized properly and explained. I don't want to spend my free time sifting through a core dump. That's what's so boggling - the daily stuff from these guys/gals is so darn interesting, and the past annuals have been such a joy to read.

Even the player comments, which normally range from solid to sublime, are spotty this time around. I imagine that if I were writing player comments for a book like this, I'd start by studying the player, analyzing his statistical trends and similar players, and jotting down short notes as I went along. Well, that's how a lot of the player comments read to me - like they're bullet points masquerading as sentences. There are some good moments, but the quality is unusually inconsistent.

I'm giving this 3 stars, which is a tribute to the extremely valuable statistical data in this book. But next year I hope the authors start earlier or spend more time on formatting and comipiling the information in the book.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but very poorly edited, March 9, 2006

By	N. Bilmes "bookaholic" (Vernon, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The arrival of the new BP annual means one thing: baseball season is here once again! As usual, I tore through my new BP annual, eager to devour their essays and projections. The essays are top-notch, the stats are numerous and interesting, and overall the book was fantastic.

A few essays weren't up to snuff, however. The White Sox piece barely dealt at all with the team itself, and considering that they won the World Series I found that surprising.

The main problem with the book is the ridiculous number of typos and grammatical mistakes. The more I encountered, the more I wondered how rushed this was. And then I began to wonder if there was a correlation between the number of typos and the quality of the analysis. I am a big fan of BP, and subscribe to their website, and I don't recall ever being subjected to this number of mistakes in a month of articles.

This is from the opening paragraph of the Cardinals essay: "For all the talk about Oakland's lack of resources, the Cardinals haven't had a significantly better they've done a much better job..."

There must be at least 50 such mistakes in this book. While the overall impression of the book was positive, the carelessness in the editing is an issue.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes an Average Baseball Fan an Expert, April 11, 2006

By	J. Stanton (Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a terrific book for every baseball stat geek out there. Every player in both leagues, and a huge sampling of minor league players, is included. On top of just statistics, there is insight to each team, a paragraph on each player, and a few "by the numbers" chapters at the end.

The book's greatest strength is also a weakness though. As in past years, the writers offer several new statistics in which the goal is try and take the guess work out how a player will produce. While these statistics can be fascinating, they also can be confusing. The hard part about understanding new statisics is you have no base line to compare it to. What is good? What is bad? The book tries, but struggles to explain this.

As stated in other reviews, this isn't really a fantasy baseball book. The statistics aren't geared toward dollar amounts or what round to draft players in. In my opinion, this is great because it's what makes this book not just another fantasy book. If your looking for a book to carry with you to draft day then buy a magazine. This doesn't mean this book shouldn't be used as a supplement when you are studying for a fantasy draft. The authors spend a great amount of time, using countless peripheral statistics, to develop their player projections. Having owned the book for the past few years these projections are more accurate then what you might find in fantasy baseball magazines.

I keep my copy of Baseball Prospectus on my coffee table for the whole baseball season. It's nice to pick it up for quick reference while making an interesting read at the same time. After reading this book your knowledge of baseball and its players will impress even the most astute stat geeks.