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    Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats that are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running it, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball
    Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats that are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running it, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball
    Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats that are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running it, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball
    Audiobook9 hours

    Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats that are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running it, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball

    Written by Keith Law

    Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport.

    For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players’ and teams’ potential and success. But in the past fifteen years, a revolutionary new standard of measurement—sabermetrics—has been embraced by front offices in Major League Baseball and among fantasy baseball enthusiasts. But while sabermetrics is recognized as being smarter and more accurate, traditionalists, including journalists, fans, and managers, stubbornly believe that the ""old"" way—a combination of outdated numbers and ""gut"" instinct—is still the best way. Baseball, they argue, should be run by people, not by numbers.

    In this informative and provocative book, the renowned ESPN analyst and senior baseball writer demolishes a century’s worth of accepted wisdom, making the definitive case against the long-established view. Armed with concrete examples from different eras of baseball history, logic, a little math, and lively commentary, he shows how the allegiance to these numbers—dating back to the beginning of the professional game—is firmly rooted not in accuracy or success, but in baseball’s irrational adherence to tradition.

    While Law gores sacred cows, from clutch performers to RBIs to the infamous save rule, he also demystifies sabermetrics, explaining what these ""new"" numbers really are and why they’re vital. He also considers the game’s future, examining how teams are using Data—from PhDs to sophisticated statistical databases—to build future rosters; changes that will transform baseball and all of professional sports.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 25, 2017
    ISBN9780062660947
    Author

    Keith Law

    Keith Law is a senior baseball writer at The Athletic, and before joining The Athletic, he was a senior baseball writer for ESPN Insider.  Previously he was also special assistant to the general manager for the Toronto Blue Jays, handling all statistical analysis, and he wrote for Baseball Prospectus. He lives in Delaware. 

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    Reviews for Smart Baseball

    4/5

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    • 1/5
      I was eager to listen to this audiobook, but stopped after 45 minutes. Though I don't disagree with most of his assertions, his condescension and name calling of anyone who still embraces traditional stats are very off putting. He has quite an "I'm smarter than you" attitude.
    • 5/5
      This isn't just a useful book for baseball or sports analytics. Law's approach to making sense of data in the applied field of baseball points out the many flaws and pitfalls of any analytical pursuit. Cases of "managing to the stat" or simply relying on counting stats to the exclusion of useful context are profoundly atavistic, but Law keeps pointing out how these lay approaches persevere and thrive despite more coherent methods.

      I generally don't get much out of sports analytics books--they tend to be introductory primers to many of the concepts analytics nerds are already deeply familiar with. Where Smart Baseball excels is that Law does more just than show the advantage of a contextual number over a mere counting stat. Instead, he spends a great deal of a time exploring how the fallacies that went into creating myths like the relevancy of a Save or Pitcher Win were inculcated into fan and even subject matter expert's understanding of the game. It's this constant refrain about the emergence of error in commonsense stats that makes the book an extremely useful polemic against the use of shallow approaches to big data and broader analytics.
    • 5/5
      'Smart Baseball', by ESPN's Keith Law, is off the charts great if you're a baseball fan and interested in the 'new' stats that are changing, and helping us understand, the game. Law is an ex-scout/front-office guy who is articulate, knowledgeable, and opinionated, and you don't need much more than that. I consider myself highly educated in all things baseball, but I learned a ton from this book. Highly, highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This an excellent book for those who either haven't followed the last twenty years of baseball analysis or are still holding on to RBI as their favorite stat. Really does a nice job explaining advances in player evaluation and projection without making you slog through a lot of spreadsheets and tables. Although there are some tables. Nothing new in here for me personally, but I like Keith so I wanted to read it!
    • 4/5
      I am curious about the perceived audience for this book - Law is merciless in his dead-horse beating of batting average and fielding percentage that ordinary fans will be put off, and the converted can only wince. He hits his stride in the last chapters, describing the current state of the game and what might be coming our way in the near future. Worth the read.
    • 4/5
      I remember as a kid opening up a pack of baseball cards and spending hours pouring over the statistics on the backs of them. Then arguing with my friends over which players were better. In this book Keith Law first shows us how the statistics we grew up do not do as good of a job as we thought in showing how the players actually performed on the field. Then he introduces us to some new statistics that go beyond the traditional ones and where sabermetrics might be going next. So grab yourself some peanuts and Crack Jack and learn some new ways to debate with your friends over who are the better players and teams!