November 7, 2009
Order Now The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT. 
Rich Barbieri
John Barten Brian Borawski Craig Brown Evan Brunell David Gassko Jonathan Hale Brandon Isleib Chris Jaffe Max Marchi Bruce Markusen Harry Pavlidis Jeff Sackmann Dave Studeman Steve Treder Bryan Tsao Tuck! Dan Turkenkopf Colin Wyers Geoff Young John Brattain And here's the full roster.
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It’s the Hardball Times 2010 Annualby Dave StudemanNovember 03, 2009  If you do, then we've got something you're going to like. It's the Hardball Times Annual 2010, created by the writing and editorial team at your favorite baseball site and published by ACTA Sports. There are 32 articles in this year's Annual, over 200 pages. You can lose yourself in these articles, revisiting the 2009 season with THT's "staff" writers or going back in history with Craig Wright, Steve Treder, Chris Jaffe and other ace contributors. You can hone your understanding of some key baseball issues—and develop strategy for your fantasy baseball team—by diving into Corey Dawkins' analysis of baseball injuries or Bill James' opinions regarding which batters are most likely to do better next year. And you can also lose yourself in baseball stats. The THT Annual kicks off with fielding numbers that won't be available in print anywhere else, such as John Dewan's team plus/minus fielding figures, Defensive Runs Saved and Revised Zone Rating. There will be a lot of detail for every player on every team, including Base Runs, Pitching Runs Created and our patented "Batted Balls" stats. Plus, three major "win-based" stats (Wins Above Replacement, Win Shares Above Bench and Win Probability Added) will be laid out for every single player. As usual, I am getting ahead of myself. Here's a little more detail on this year's articles:
Those articles comprise the first two sections. There are two more: History and Analysis.
We don't expect every article to hit your hot button, but if you're a baseball fan I'm sure there are plenty that will. There's also a statistical section in the THT Annual, same as in previous Annuals. We know you can get lots of baseball stats online, so we do a couple of things to make our stats unique. First, we present the stats in a way that helps you understand each team's season, its strengths and weaknesses. We've put a lot of care into the way our stats are presented. Each league section compares teams across many different important categories, and each team section has a graph of the team's year (we've included Sky Andrecheck's day-by-day Championship Leverage Index as a way of tracking a team's season), month-by-month team breakouts and batter, pitcher and fielder comparisons that let you easily see how each player contributed to the team. Secondly, we have a lot of traditional stats but we also include a number of unique ones. Most notably, we've included the "Batted Ball" stats of just about every player on a team. These stats are a unique blend of stats and "scouting" type of information—you can read about them in my introduction to this year's Batted Ball Reports. As I mentioned, we also have some cutting-edge sabermetric stats, such as Base Runs and Pitching Runs Created, and we've got win-based stats for every player, too. The stats are printed in the book, but those who purchase the THT Annual will also be able to download spreadsheets of Batted Ball and Win-Based stats for every single player in the majors. That way, you can sort and recalculate the stats any way you'd like. Two other downloads will also be available for those who purchase the book. During the season, I sold subscriptions to my weekly Batted Ball Reports as a way of enticing people to purchase the Annual ahead of time. If you purchase the THT Annual now, you'll be able to download a PDF of all my weekly Batted Ball Reports. Admittedly, these will be a little late, but they serve as a good chronicle of the season. That's like getting another 125-page book along with the Annual. Because we rushed to get the Annual to the printer (where it sits right now) so you could get the Annual more quickly, we finished before the postseason ended. Yeah, we wanted to finish before the weather forced us to move to a sunnier climate. So there will be one more download available to you: Sky Andrecheck's review of postseason play, once again making use of his Championship Leverage Index and WPA. One last bonus: There are two special additions to the Annual I haven't mentioned. Tuck has contributed seven new "toons" to the book and Brandon Isleib has three outstanding sets of trivia puzzlers that will truly challenge the hardcore fan but will entertain the casual fan. Isn't that what trivia is supposed to do? And that, my friends, is this year's Hardball Times Annual. Fantastic articles, chock full of stats, extra downloads and bonus features. What's not to like? The Annual is available to $21.95 at ACTA Sports. I know you can get it for less elsewhere, and I can't blame you for doing so. But know that it costs money to run THT and advertising on the Internet, like everything else, has dried up. Sales of the THT Annual are now our major source of revenue and we don't really make much money on sales from Amazon and other discount publishers. We make the most money when you purchase the THT Annual through this link. Please support THT and its writers, and future publications of the THT Annual and other THT publications, by buying directly through this link. If you do, you'll receive the book several weeks earlier than anyone else, because it will be sent directly to you instead of passing through various distribution centers and that sort of thing. However you decide to purchase it, thank you for supporting the Hardball Times. Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail. CommentsDo you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer. |
