5-Stars For The "Novice" Daily Fantasy Baseball Player Only
592990
Overall, I found "Get Rich With Daily Fantasy Baseball" to be an adequate, if not somewhat familiar introduction to daily fantasy (DFS) baseball rules and strategy. Specifically, the author does a nice job of explaining the different MLB DFS league types and the basic strategies necessary for consistent winnings. The book is also clear and well-written, making it easy for the reader to focus on the substance of the author's arguments and rationale without getting bogged down in arcane fantasy sports lingo.  Since this book is geared towards the introductory player, I found it refreshing that the author does not overwhelm the reader with fantasy sports acronyms and jargon unfamiliar to the new DFS player, as so many other fantasy sports books do without ever first defining the term or acronym. In fact, since this is an introductory book, in a later edition I would love to see the author include a list of the most common acronyms and jargon in daily fantasy sports, with a definition of each (perhaps in an Appendix), since these terms are also frequently used in the fantasy baseball forums that a novice or newbie player is likely visit.

Regarding a "star" rating, I am comfortable giving it five stars but only for the reader who is new to the daily fantasy baseball world. This is due to its comprehensive coverage of all the basic rules and strategies of the game and, as importantly, the fact that it doesn't oversell itself as the definitive "get-rich-quick" DFS baseball guide. In stating this, however, I would have to say that most of the material covered here is probably pretty basic, or even "common knowledge" to the advanced fantasy baseball participant. So, for the more advanced player this could be a useful reference book, but I'm not sure you'll find many new or innovative strategies here.
2929861
This book was written in the 1880s by an amazing early ballplayer.  It  essentially explains the fundamentals of the game, as they were in the 19th century.  What makes this book so interesting for the beginner and the hard core fan is two things.  1- it is amazing how little the game has actually changed, reading his theories on pitching fielding and base running can easily be applied to today's game.  The hitting explanations are definitely dated, but still interesting.  2- for the advanced fan of baseball, you will be interested in some of the names that Ward cites, I read this book going back and forth between baseball reference.com and I couldn't believe how many quality players I had never heard of.  Very easy read.
2083398
Batter stats included in this book are games played, at bats, runs scored, hits, doubles, triples, homeruns, rbi, stolen bases and batting average. Does not include strikeouts, walks or positions played. Pitching stats  include games, wins, losses, winning percentage, saves, innings pitched,  hits, strikeouts, walks and ERA. The entire roster of players on each team  is not included, only the players who qualified for the batting or pitching  championship (usually 4-7 per team). Season-by-season stats including team  and individual player stats. Also includes the leaders in 18 categories  (including the top five in batting average, home runs, rbis, era, wins and  strikeouts), MVPs, Sawamura Award winners, All-Star game results and Japan  Series results (as well as series award-winners). Also includes career  record holders, but does not contain comprehensive career player stats.  Given the dearth of Japanese baseball statistical books written in english,  this book is very informative and interesting and the best I have seen to  date. I would like to see a "Neft and Cohen" type book in the  future.
4204623
This is head and shoulders above any other baseball offering the Wii currently has to offer -- even after over three years on the market.  I haven't played the original on the Wii, so I can't comment too much on some of the alleged similarity to its predecessor, but after playing Mario Super Sluggers and some of the 2K installments (I was amazed to learn this game was actually made by the same company), I have no problem saying this game is in the same league as All-Star for the N64 and MVP Baseball 2005 for the Gamecube.

The visual style is, ostensibly, probably the biggest hurdle to overcome.  On the surface, it looks like another Backyard Baseball ripoff.  While it might seem childish and lazy at first glance, it is honestly a refreshing departure from the eerie pseudo-realism of the other next-gen offerings; since the Wii isn't exactly a powerhouse in terms of graphics, it actually ends up making more sense.

The rosters are well done, and I would argue that the lack of a deep minor league system allows the game to focus on other elements, unlike other baseball sims seem to do.  The stadiums are, in spite of the cartoonish style of the players, well-rendered and accurate.  A lot of other minutiae, like ball physics, defensive swings, and player fatigue, are surprisingly realistic.

The controls take getting used to.  I'll admit it, I was rather disappointed to find a lack of extensive motion-control compatibility, which is the only element of the game significantly lacking behind its contemporaries.  There is a WiiMote mode, in which motion controls factor into pitching and batting, but it's even shallower than the Wii Sports baseball game.  Therefore, if you want a baseball game with complete motion control -- even at the expense of depth and replayability -- then Super Sluggers is probably a better route to take.  However, once I got used to the controls (I use a GCN controller), I was able to overlook the WiiMote's limited involvement.

Bottom line, this is a surprisingly-deep baseball sim that both casual fans and fanatics alike should get many hours of enjoyment out of.  The arcade-like, caricatural appearance of the game disguises what is a rich, accurate MLB experience.  The lack of deep motion control compatibility, along with the overabundance of grind-it-out RPG elements of certain modes, are the only factors keeping the game from receiving a full 5-stars.  While I maintain that MVP Baseball 2005 is the greatest baseball sim to date, MLB Power Pros 2008 is the best option on the Wii and is a solid investment for anyone interested in baseball.

Oh, and yes, I think we can all agree that the announcer is God-awful.  I've had a foul-tip to the backstop called a "routine grounder."  While annoying as hell... that's what the mute button is for.
4681180
This is a good book if you are a fantasy football novice that wants to learn how to set up a non-computerized league.  All the basics are covered, but that's about it.  Experienced players won't find anything interesting  except perhaps the cartoons and old photographs of players that are  scattered through the book along with historical tidbits about the NFL.
989602
This is the closest you'll find to the Baseball Abstracts you may have grown up with. Great analysis of all the players, fun ranking of prospects, enjoyable for those who love sabermetrics as well as by those who don't. I look forward to this book every year!
734615
Baseball season officially starts with  me when this book arrives at my house.  It arrived yesterday.  First order of business? Turning to read about each of my potential fantasy baseball keepers to see if the BP folks have any insights into whether or not my guys are likely to be worth holding onto.
Nolan Arenado? Yes
Manny Machado? Yes
Jean Segura? Yes
Ian Desmond? No
Will Myers? I traded him away last year for Gary Sanchez...not a keeper, and glad of it

Next order of business? Reading about how bad my Reds are in the team section.  They stink.

This invaluable and entertaining resource of baseball insights is worth its weight. The player comments I read were concise, clever, and filled with informational factoids.  My Reds essay was depressing but put together well.  And as always, the list of 100 Prospects will be well-thumbed.
3061036
Lewis has written a fascinating study of the bean counter approach ,used by Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics to construct a team of moderately priced players chosen on the basis of ,primarily, on base percentage for everyday players and the number of groundball outs and strikeouts for selecting pitchers.
  This approach generated a number of divisional championships for Oakland in the weakest American League division,but no pennants and world championships. There are omitted variables and misspecification  problems in the sabermetrics(statistics) approach of Bill James used by Beane. First,James's system totally ignores the number of batter strikeouts. All outs are not equal. Hitting flyouts and groundball outs will many times advance the baserunner if any previous batters got on base. Hitting the ball also allows the baserunner to get on on an error. Strikeouts are thus the worst type of out. This omitted variables problem can be dealt with by simply deducting 1  to 1.25 points from the on base percentage for every strikeout over,say,100 for a regular,everyday player who gets 600 official at bats over the course of the season. The second problem is that the James system does not differentiate between walks due to the hitting skill of the batter and walks used by the pitcher to set up forceplays and double plays,especially if he is a pitcher who gets a lot of ground ball outs. Another category is needed-walks that are not followed by forceouts or double play groundouts and/or walks where the runner is able to steal second base. These walks are different from the walks given to a 40 homer player who strikes out 150+ times a year and hits .250 but has a .375 OBP.
  James's system needs to be adjusted to take into account these two factors.
4504094
I bought this book in an airport and read it over several days on airplanes.  It held my interest pretty well.  It compares well to some of the best baseball writers and is a mix of story-line and analysis.  Basically it covers a 3 game series between the Cubs and Cards in August 2003.  There are several excursions into timelines of various players and events, but mostly the book is an analysis of the players and the games in this series.

One strength of this book is how it portrays the character of the teams involved.  Teams and stadiums have very distinct characters.  For example, when I lived in Chicago the Cubs games at Wrigley field were fairly laid back.  They were almost always day games because the community restricts how often the lights can be on.  This meant you had to take a day off work to see them.  Tickets were easy to come by, and you parked on some guys lawn for 5 bucks.  On the other hand, I never came home from a game at Old Comiskey Park without being drenched with beer.  The gestalt of a game at Wrigley vs. a game at Comiskey was completely different.

But the funny thing about this book is that I keep remembering parts of it as I watch games and the insights in it are incredibly useful.  I live between a rookie league team (Ogden Raptors - Dodgers) and an AAA team (Salt Lake - Angels).  Over and over some insight in this book will come to mind as I watch some future major-leaguer.  Ex-manager Tommy Lasorda is at the Ogden games fairly frequently and after reading this book I can more often figure out just what it is in some minor-leaguers play that gets Lasorda swearing.  And as I see the bonus babies from Ben Sheets to Prince Fielder come through the rookie league I can better evaluate the players and see what their managers are looking for.  The net result: the game is more enjoyable.

I'm not into fantasy leagues.  I don't pay attention to the new esoteric stats.  I just love to spend summer evenings watching baseball with my sons with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to some awesome minor league stadiums.  In the book, the author uses a phrase - "Beautiful.  Just beautful baseball."  And after reading this book, I find myself muttering this to myself as I watch a well-executed bunt or a heads-up base-running play that brings in a run.

This book is not a statistical primer.  It does almost have a little too much hero worship of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.  But you don't have to be a fanatic to enjoy this book which has the pacing of a good ball game - sometimes up, sometimes down but just right in the end.
2173964
Johnathan Bales tackles 25 commonly asked questions by fantasy players, and offers his unique spin to each one.  He provides detailed explanations for his conclusions - supporting his arguments with numerous statistics and graphs.  I've played FF for many years, so I have a lot of biases and preconceived ideas about each of the topics that he covers here.  He is very logical & opened my eyes to new ways on how to approach common FF situations...viewing situations with a new, fresh outlook based on trends that many fantasy owners overlook (or choose to ignore altogether).  I recommend this book for owners looking to gain an edge over their predictable league-mates.
2304845
I checked this book out of the library after seeing Bob Costas on the YES Network's "Center Stage."  I've always admired Costas for both his intelligence and his love of baseball; he seems able to throw around facts and statistics from regular season games played thirty years ago.  I also like Costas's seemingly "romantic" view of the game, although he denies that he has that attitude.
As baseball is played now, the Braves and Yankees (and probably a few other clubs) have a decided advantage over most other clubs based solely on their wealth.  The rich teams buy the best players, win the World Series, make more money, and buy the best players, and win again, and make more money, etc. etc.  Teams like the Devil Rays and the Expos really don't have a chance in hell of ever winning a pennant unless things change (or unless they do what Florida did in 1997 - spend tons of cash on outstanding players, win the Series, and then have a firesale).
This book has some totally valid ideas on how to make the game better... specifically, how to level the playing field so that every team has a chance.  The ideas that Costas offers in this book are WORKABLE, and would appeal (for different reasons) to everybody involved in the game - from wealthy owners to poor owners, and wealthy baseball stars to rookies.  And these ideas would accomplish what Costas and the rest of baseball fans want... they would LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD.  After implementing these ideas, the World Series winner wouldn't be the one with the most money, rather the one with the best farm system, the one that made the best managerial choices, and the one whose players played the best.  That's how the game should be.
Some of Costas's other ideas seem to be a matter of his personal preference; ideas that he feels would make the game more exciting.  Such as no DH, no Wild Card (which he argues would make pennant races more exciting in September), leagues with only three divisions, etc.  I don't necessarily agree or disagree with his ideas on these matters, but he may be correct - it might make the game more exciting.
I'd love to see Costas's ideas implemented.  And I say this as a Yankee fan!  If anybody is benefitting from the current model of business in the game, it's my beloved team... but still, I'd like to see other teams get a fair shake.  Dominating the other teams year after year gets a little boring after awhile!
4223467
Good stuff for Fantasy baseballers and for just plain fans who follow individual players and stats.  I really enjoy Nate Silver's work here and on his political website fivethirtyeight.com  His numbers help temper your "can't miss" expectations with down-to-earth statistics.  My only quibble with this book so far is that the players are arranged in it by the team with which they ended last season.  This makes it hard to compare third-basemen, for instance, because you have to look at every team's pages and then dig to find some guys who are not listed where you are now expecting them to be. The intro tells you this and mentions an "index" of players that will help you find these players, but my copy of the book seems to be missing that index.
626364
MLB 14 The Show was a good PS4 game. It was the first on the new generation. It definitely looked nice, but overall changed very little. Road to the Show, Diamond Dynasty, Franchise- they were all good, but to say they were new would be a lie.

15 is a version of 14 that, while not changing the game completely, makes improvements that are definitely worth the $60 upgrade. Diamond Dynasty is the online portion that lets you customize everything from uniform to roster to name and logo. It's very deep, allows you to create exactly the team you want, and unlike 14 it actually works. 14's was a mess. Too complex with contracts and training and the points system, online games lagged to the point of unplayability. But 15 allows you to collect and keep cards forever. It also introduces a RTTS-like character for your team. The online portion is not laggy and works. Overall, this is the big game mode for this game.

RTTS is a fan favorite, of course, but it's getting repetitive. It's still fun, but the points reward system is still broken. It punishes you for at-bats that you don't take 3 or 4 pitches before you get a hit, and that is dumb. I shouldn't get 6 points for a base hit on the second or first pitch. Overall, it makes points harder to come by unless you go up to bat waiting and allowing pitches to go by.

I don't usually play Franchise, but from what I've seen it's also simplified and that should be a good thing.

But the gameplay is the big deal here. It has not changed tremendously, but compared to 14 it's no longer a generic baseball game. The camera watches the ball for a second or two after hitting it, watching it into the field from the perspective of the batter. Anyone who has played baseball knows the feeling of putting the ball in play and this new camera technique captures that experience perfectly. It's satisfying to say the least. They've also changed the pitch circle to direct your swings to change the camera ever so slightly to follow the ball into that spot and direct the hit, but you lose visibility of the strike zone if it goes out of that spot. I haven't seen much reason to use this, but it's better than the circle to follow the pitch. Baserunning is still pathetic, though, and this is painful. Running in RTTS is fine, but playing as a team and trying to get runners to advance sucks. Multiple times I've had runners continue to run after choosing the specific base, and it makes no sense. It's near impossible to run a player between first and second while sending a runner home. I'll have to change the settings to see other options, but this is the default and it's horrible.

Overall, it's better than 14, and since you can continue your player from 14 in RTTS mode it's a no-brainer to buy. However, I am disappointed that MLB 14 will be shut down soon online. They have done this every year and it's to be expected, but is the only game to have such a short life cycle online. For that and baserunning, this game is 4 stars, not 5.
3815071
"Moneyball" is extremely well-written.  It is a quick read and a good read.  However, there are some problems with the information presented here.  Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder are all unbelievable pitchers and have much to do with the success of the low-budget team in Oakland; however, they are barely even mentioned in the book.  Michael Lewis spends more time on finds like Scott Hatteberg.  However, most of the A's success is due to the Big 3.  And Billy Beane deserves a lot of credit for finding and drafting those guys.  It's just not spelled out in this book.
To read this book and have no knowledge of baseball, you would think that all other GM's were idiots.  Guys who just didn't get it.  After reading this book, I'm not sure how Billy would find guys like Vlad, Sammy, Pedro, Ichiro (well, basically foreigners who wouldn't fit his statistical model).  Sometimes, relying on scouts is a good thing.  And sometimes drafting high schoolers (Griffey, Kerry Wood, Josh Beckett) is also a good thing, even if it is a bigger roll of the dice.  But Beane does have an admirable plan.
All in all, this book is a worthwhile read, even if it does have the noteable ommission of Hudson, Zito, and Mulder.
172414
After skimming through BASEBALL FIELD GUIDE a few days ago, I did not rate this book very high. The design format is excellent, but there were errors and omissions of some fundamentals that are important, that no beginner could ever pick up on.

After spending a little more time with the book, I am upgrading the rating -- it is actually a pretty good little book.

I would encourage the authors to take their revisions more seriously -- get the AL and NL teams right. Absolutely no excuse in overlooking this by the authors -- comes across as sloppy.  I would also recommend they provide, at the very beginning and reiterated at the beginning of the scoring section,  a graphic showing the field, position players and their respective position numbers, and  provide more on how to use this organization in the scoring section.  Beginners should walk away from this knowing what an "E5" and a "643 Double Play" means.
2786946
I have purchased numerous different fantasy football packages from Jonathan Bales and the Roto Academy books is by far one of my favorites. Here are my top 3 reasons why every serious fantasy owner should purchase Fantasy Football for Smart People:

1) Bales avoids arbitrarily choosing random players that he has decided to like or dislike for the year *ESPN cough cough*. Instead he believes that by constantly discussing different little aspects of fantasy football (what type of WRs are most predictable for example), owners will have to actually think and question their own assumptions about fantasy football. Instead of blindly following the pack, you are given the philosophical tools to zig when everybody else is zaging.

2) Each chapter starts out with a premise (do small school RBs perform better than their SEC counterparts) and then eagerly dives into the data. What is the most refreshing about this approach is how the author will willingly admit that they expected one result but instead got another. This honesty indicates that all Bales is interested in is actually finding out the correct answer, even if it does not match up with conventional wisdom.

3) Lastly, Fantasy Football for Smart People is a great fun read. The book is written as if one of your buddies was chatting about fantasy football over a couple of beers. Yes, winning is important (and trust me you will see results) but no one wants to be bored out of their mind either.

Think about how much time you will spend agonizing over who to draft. For $15 (aka the cost of two sandwiches) you get 180 pages of extremely well researched fantasy principles. If you're as serious as I am about completely annihilating my friends in fantasy then look no further than this book.
4362312
Fantasy Sports For Dummies is an excellent resource for all fantasy sports gamers, but especially newcomers. Author Matthew Jablonski covers ground in clear, understandable terms. A great companion for any fantasy GM.

[]