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The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed
Freakonomics meets Moneyball in this provocative exposé of baseballs most fiercely debated controversies and some of its oldest, most dearly held mythsexplained through the language of numbers and cool cash.
Two hot topics team up in The Baseball Economist, and the result is a refreshing, clear- eyed survey of a playing field that has changed radically in recent years.
...moreHardcover, 288 pages
Published
March 15th 2007
by Dutton Adult
(first published 2007)
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The more I read this sort of book, the more I appreciate the uniqueness of Bill James. Math-minded folks seem to have a inveterate tendency toward belaboring the obvious and making huge, crucial assumptions on the way to trivial conclusions. For many of these folks quantification is a sort of religion--there *must* be a way of quantifying anything. If the quantification is inadequate to the phenomenon, well it's the best we've got, so we'll put the inadequacy aside and start drawing conclusions....more
I got to this book in a somewhat circuitous manner. When I saw Rick Porcello intentionally hit Kevin Youkilis with a pitch on August 11 it led me to make the commonplace observation that the designated hitter rule has led pitchers to be more likely to throw at batters in the American League because they don't have to worry about standing in the batter's box and facing retaliation.
This time I went beyond that to look for comparative statistics on hit batsmen in the American and Nation...more
This time I went beyond that to look for comparative statistics on hit batsmen in the American and Nation...more
I'm a baseball fan and statistics major, so this book was right up my alley.
business,economics,statistics
Parts of this were pretty interesting, but most of it really wasn't. I should have guessed that from his blog, which I've been reading for a while. Some of it was insightful and dealt with baseball-related issues that I find interesting, but the rest of if was just stuff he thought would be fun to research I think. It probably was, but it doesn't necessarily make it interesting to read.
Bradbury apparently couldn't decide whether he wanted to write a statistics book or a baseball book. Nonetheless, I found about half of it interesting and readable, particularly those chapters concerning players' real values.
It's econ which is naturally a little dry, but it brings up good questions. Some of the math can get a little nerdy as well, but the book was worth reading.
Come on, dude. If you're going to publish a book on this subject, at least take the time to make sure it doesn't read like stereo instructions.
Fresh new perspective on things like revenue sharing, left-handed catchers (or the lackthereof), and determining player value.
Awesome math/baseball nerdery. If you like the way Baseball Prospectus looks at the world of hardball, you'll like this book too.
Think a more economics-minded version of "moneyball" without the fluffy personal insights into the various characters.
It's nice to see some economics mixed in to the normal analysis of baseball stats.
An easy read and a great introduction to sabermetrics.
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