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The Book: Playing The Percentages In Baseball Paperback – April 28, 2014
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length397 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 28, 2014
- Dimensions6.14 x 0.82 x 9.21 inches
- ISBN-101494260174
- ISBN-13978-1494260170
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Product details
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 28, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 397 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1494260174
- ISBN-13 : 978-1494260170
- Item Weight : 1.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.14 x 0.82 x 9.21 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #96,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #154 in Baseball (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Tom M. Tango](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/01Kv-W2ysOL._SY600_.png)
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book very informative, quantitative, and inspiring. They also say it’s well-written and easy to understand. However, some readers feel the writing style is rambling and overwhelming.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book very informative, saying it discusses the most important metrics. They also say it's an awesome book on baseball and statistics, with results from research. Readers also say the charts are fantastic and easy to understand.
"...It is chock full of information, results from research and answers a lot of interesting baseball questions...." Read more
"...The conclusions (and data upon which they are based) are truly amazing. I have never read a book on baseball in this league...." Read more
"...A fun, fun book with a huge amount of insight into the game. Now I am second guessing my home team manager's line up...." Read more
"First off the author is very smart and the book is very in depth. I wouldn’t call it a head to toe book on Sabermetrics...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style of the book. Some find it very well written and easy to understand, with clear explanations. They also say it's inspiring, page-turning, and a terrific literary antidote to old hoary Joemorganisms. However, other customers say it’s not very well-written, rambling, and at times tedious. They find grammatical errors, typos, missing spaces, and the book is overwhelming.
"...The clear explanations are such that any person who can understand percentages will gain insight from the book...." Read more
"...There are some bizarre typographic errors (numbers jammed tight together) in the text in the first chapter which should have never gotten past the..." Read more
"...The material is broken down in such a way that it is very easy to follow the logic of the authors and examines each decision a manager would have to..." Read more
"...There are grammatical errors, typos, missing spaces, etc. I am not sure if I got a preliminary version or what but it is just awful...." Read more
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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For the layman, there may be too much math throughout the book. However, they do a fantastic job of summarizing each idea in plain English at the end of each section. For example, in chapter 2 on hot and cold streaks, after presenting data, explaining their process and interpreting results, they summarize the section with "Knowing that a hitter has been in or is in the midset of a hot or cold streak has little predictive value. Always assume that a player will hit at his projected norm (adjusted for the park, weather, and pitcher he is facing), regardless of how he has performed in the very recent past. A player's recent history may be used as a tiebreaker."
Managers, players, fans and the media often put too much emphasis on results from small samples sizes. The authors warn against making this mistake. "One of the pervasive themes of this book is the danger of inferring too much from too little by underestimating the influence of randomness". For example, they summarize a section on pitcher-batter matchups with: "Knowing a player will face a particular opponent, and given the choice between that player's 1,500 PA (plate appearances) over the past three years against the rest of the league or twenty-five PA against that particular opponent, look at the 1,500 PA. "
They aren't afraid to point out when general baseball wisdom is correct. On starting pitchers, they write, "pitchers perform best with five days of rest, and worst with three days of rest. To manage our entire starting rotation effectively, four days of rest seems to be the optimal point. The current MLB pattern of scheduling the starting rotation works."
This book is at the top of my recommendation list for thinking baseball fans. I'm a bit surprised that I'm the first reviewer of this book on Amazon, since it has been out for three months. The sales ranking (currently #47,000 as I write this review) is disappointing for such an incredible book. The Book deserves to be at the top of the baseball best seller's list.
My purpose in studying baseball is from a sports betting perspective. The conclusions (such as run equity and win percentages given different situations) make this book a mandatory purchase for anyone who bets on Baseball live, or conducts a very thorough analysis of moneyline prices.
There has never been a book on baseball so well written that targets all ranges of sabr-metric fans. This will teach you the subtleties in baseball that add small percentages to winning games and scoring runs. If you are a fantasy baseball player, a lot of this content is invaluable to you as well.
The authors use a detailed data base (including each at bat over a period of years) and then do a statistical analysis of results. And, they argue, the unwritten book is often wrong. The first chapter lays out the logic of this book's orientation. Many readers might find the chapter dense and too quantitative for their taste. My advice? Close the book and put it away, because the book features much statistical analysis.
To illustrate the work's approach. . . . Here are some issues addressed: How real are batting streaks (Answer: You can't predict how a player will do during a hot streak; there is no inherent "momentum")? Chapter three looks at pitcher-batter confrontations. Do certain pitchers "own" batters? Do certain hitters "own" pitchers? Data analysis suggests that we overrate these ideas. We all talk about clutch hitters and clutch pitchers. Chapter 4 takes this notion on (read the book to find out what actually happens).
Chapter 5 examines how to construct a batting order; Chapter 6 examines lefty-versus righty confrontations between hitters and pitchers; Chapter 9 looks at the value and efficacy of the sacrifice bunt; and so on.
If the reader is a figure filbert and likes sabermetrics, this book will be a delight. If you are old school, not so much! But, for me, a lot of fun. . . .
The writing style is a little odd (but I got used to it), but the charts are fantastic and easy to understand. The material is broken down in such a way that it is very easy to follow the logic of the authors and examines each decision a manager would have to make when managing a baseball game. Lineup, steals, bunts, and streaks are all covered.
A fun, fun book with a huge amount of insight into the game. Now I am second guessing my home team manager's line up. I could do it better, couldn't I????
Top reviews from other countries
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De plus, sur le site internet de l'auteur, il y a régulièrement des annotations ou des mises à jour de certaines parties du livre. Bref, l'auteur est très réactif pour toutes questions ou même suggestions.
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I feel like like I need to read it again for it to sink in, but the writers were kind enough to put the conclusions in ever-so-tempting boxes should you want to skim the preceding material.
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