Baseball Prospectus 2000 (Paperback)

~ Chris Kahrl (Author), Keith Law (Author), Jeff Bower (Author), Jeff Hildebrand (Author), Rany Jazayerli (Author), Dave Pease (Author), Steven Rubio (Author), Joseph S. Sheehan (Author), Greg Spira (Author), Michael Wolverton (Author), Keith Woolner (Author), Clay Davenport (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While fantasy baseball players will surely go gaga over the information presented in it, Baseball Prospectus 2000 has plenty to offer general baseball fans as well. Unlike most annuals of its kind, the book provides textual analyses as well as stats for nearly 1,700 players. There are summaries of all the major-league teams, recapping the 1999 season and giving likely scenarios for 2000. Baseball Prospectus also features Clay Davenport's exclusive "Davenport Translations," which compare performances across leagues and ballparks (as well as evaluations of players' secondary and primary defensive positions); Davenport's "Wilton" forecasting system of hitting performance; and other analyses. In addition, there's an alphabetical listing of all full-season minor-league players and picks for the top 40 minor-league prospects. --Andy Boynton

From Library Journal

This volume profiles 2000 players, with each entry offering a pithy career narrative, a statistical look at performance over the last five years, and projections for the 2000 season. Ranging from the lowest rung of the minor leagues to the majors, the players are categorized by team, each of which is introduced by a double-columned two-page narrative. The authors are not sports journalists but fun-loving fans who write with a lot of irreverence and humor, and their volume will be enjoyed primarily by statistic-crazed fans and addicts who play a season-long game called fantasy baseball. However, librarians should note that books like this sprout like mushrooms each spring (see, e.g., The Scouting Notebook, Stats, 2000, a popular competitor). The problem is that one month into the season, as players get injured and traded, these books become obsolete, and a year later there is hardly anything more useless on library shelves. Thus, such books are not generally recommended for libraries unless they are weeded annually.DPaul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bush league fans need not bother, March 2, 2000

By	Jason Scott (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

All of the reviews of Baseball Prospectus above are spot-on -- it's easily one of the most insightful and ENTERTAINING baseball publications (are you listening, John Benson?) and a must-read for those who take the game seriously.

But be warned -- if you think that baseball analysts "look at stats too much" or still believe that batting average is a pretty good way of assessing a hitter's performance, then you will be way out of your league. Even after 2+ years of studying the Prospectus' methodology, I'm still occasionally befuddled by the statistical measurements used.

Let's just put it this way: there are NO REAL STATS in Baseball Prospectus -- all stats are adjusted (based on park factors, team factors, etc.) or projections for the upcoming year. It's the ultimate in "fantasy" baseball -- yet it tells you more about the "real" game than any non-STATS book out there. And -- to repeat -- it's extremely well-written, provocative and hilarious.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball for adults, June 9, 2000

By	Luke Jasenosky (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews

If every general manager in baseball (Ed Lynch, are you reading this! ) was forced to study this book, entire paradigms of baseball lore would suddenly be pushed aside in favor or fresh, rational, and rigorous principles of management. All of the statistics provided in the prospectus are, of course, second to none, but Michael Wolverton's relief ratings (ARP, ARA, etc.) are truly something special. I have always been amazed at how even the most "knowledgable" baseball minds accept simplistic statistics like ERA and saves as valuable appraisals of a relief pitcher's talents. It's as if the baseball gurus have failed to adjust to post-1950 baseball with its growing reliance on bullpens and decreasing reliance on starting pitchers, and the completely different conditions in which relief pitchers work in comparison to their starting compatriots. Yet these same "experts" have accepted without question the notion that a team must have a real "closer" in order to be a contender. Wolverton blasts these assumptions to smithereens with his analyses, and his elaborate calculations, yet pristine conclusions should revolutionize how the later innings of games are viewed. Throw in the authors' passionate defense of wise treatment of young pitchers, their funny yet consistently incisive comments about hundreds of players, their willingness to challenge age-old fallacies like "veteran leadership" and the genuinely historical perspective they bring to the table of baseball debate, and you have one of the most informative and entertaining baseball books I've ever read.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's true--everything else is fluff., February 14, 2000

By A Customer

If you watch a lot of baseball and the so-called analysis offered by the journalists who cover it, you'll have come to believe in a lot of bunk by the time you reach adulthood. You'll probably believe in all kinds of myths like "clutch hitters," "protection in the lineup," that Dante Bichette is a star-caliber player, and the importance of relief pitchers having defined roles.

This book is for those who like baseball, of course, but particularly for those who are committed to understanding the empirical truth about the game. This book will help you to see what makes players and teams good or bad, regardless of their reputation in the press.

This book is the successor to Bill James' Baseball Abstracts of the 1980s. This gang has taken the methodology to the next level. It will take a while to understand what the stats mean if they're new to you, but understanding an EqA will tell you much more than a batting average, or even an on-base percentage or slugging percentage, can ever tell you about what a hitter actually contributes to his team's offense.

There is no other publication on the market that compares.