The Diamond Appraised

by Craig R. Wright, Tom House

Book by Wright, Craig R

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Matt Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really more of a 3.5 star review, but I'm rounding up.

An interesting dive into a number of baseball topics, though Wright does most of the writing and the occasional comment from Tom House doesn't exactly deliver on the cover's promise save for the Pete Rose chapter. What's most interesting from a sabermetric perspective isn't any sort of new metric or way at looking at players, but a constant emphasis on understanding the context around the statistics. There are a number of ideas here that would still be interesting to test out today, especially from the epic-length 3-chapter essay on pitching durability. That is what makes this book part of the triumvirate of important 1980s sabermetric tomes alongside The Hidden Game of Baseball and Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding! Although this was written in the late-1980s, its topics are still relevant 25 years later. It covers many significant aspects of baseball that remain overlooked or underestimated by baseball's decision-makers and coaches.

Wright strikes a great balance between his anecdotal and statistical evidence, only using statistics and charts/graphs when absolutely necessary. The charts that he uses are simple and effective.

I would love to see an update to this that examines the success of Wright's analyses over the last 25 years, using updated players.

[Tim Blackburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was one of the early entries into the field of baseball sabermetrics (analysis of baseball statistics). It was written in 1989 and had been on my to-read list for several years. I finally read it and am glad I did. Amazingly the material is still very relevant for today's game. The logic in explaining the advanced statistics was excellent. Granted, it helped that I was very familiar with baseball players from the 1980's but a lack of familiarity with players of this era is not a showstopper for younger baseball fans to enjoy this book. The book was very informative, still relevant, and fun to read.

[PBNightmare · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly still interesting for a book written in 1989. Its fun when Wright almost gets to certain stats that we now use today. He is far too analytical and seems to need ten pages to make one point though. House speaks from experience and while I disagree with him on some points I found myself agreeing with most of his.

I gave this 2/5, but that is for an average reader. If you are a baseball fan you will probably get a lot more out of this book. I recommend this for anyone who has an opinion on infield shifts.

[Garry · Rating 4 out of 5]

2/19/2018

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly dated, but still a lot of good insights within these pages. And very well written.

[Gary Geiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Applied sabermetrics co-written by a guy who worked for the texas Rangers years before the red Sox hired Bill James and leesser known folks like Voros McCracken and Eric Van. The other co-writer is Tom House; the ex-pitcher who caught Hank Aaron's record breaking home run back in 1974. He is an outside the box thinker. I don't mean that as a compliment. Wright, OTOH, had some interesting thoughts.

[Carleton Teel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Names and stats are obviously a tad dated but solutions proposed by authors are intriguing and present common sense solutions to baseball problems.