Power ball : anatomy of a modern baseball game

Power ball Anatomy of a modern baseball game

Rob Neyer

Book - 2018

"The former ESPN columnist and analytics pioneer dramatically recreates an action-packed 2017 game between the Oakland A's and eventual World Series Champion Houston Astros to reveal the myriad ways in which Major League Baseball has changed over the last few decades. On September 8, 2017, the Oakland A's faced off against the Houston Astros in a game that would signal the passing of the Moneyball mantle. Though this was only one regular season game, the match-up of these two teams demonstrated how Major League Baseball has changed since the early days of Athletics general manager Billy Beane and the publication of Michael Lewis' classic book. Over the past twenty years, power and analytics have taken over the game, driv...ing carefully calibrated teams like the Astros to victory. Seemingly every pitcher now throws mid-90s heat and studiously compares their mechanics against the ideal. Every batter in the lineup can crack homers and knows their launch angles. Teams are relying on unorthodox strategies, including using power-losing--purposely tanking a few seasons to get the best players in the draft. As he chronicles each inning and the unfolding drama as these two teams continually trade the lead--culminating in a 9-8 Oakland victory in the bottom of the ninth--Neyer considers the players and managers, the front office machinations, the role of sabermetrics, and the current thinking about what it takes to build a great team, to answer the most pressing questions fans have about the sport today"--

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Subjects
Oakland Athletics (Baseball team)
Houston Astros (Baseball team)
Baseball > United States.
Baseball teams > United States.
Baseball > Statistical methods.
Baseball > Mathematical models.
Published
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2018]
Language
English
Main Author
Rob Neyer (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
xii, 300 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062853615
  • Visitors first
  • Home first
  • Visitors second
  • Home second
  • Visitors third
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  • Visitors fourth
  • Home fourth
  • Visitors fifth
  • Home fifth
  • Visitors sixth
  • Home sixth
  • Visitors seventh
  • Home seventh
  • Visitors eighth
  • Home eighth
  • Visitors ninth
  • Home ninth
  • Epilogue : October ball
  • Extras : future ball.
Review by Booklist Review

Citing Arnold Hano's A Day in the Bleachers (2004) and Daniel Okrent's Nine Innings (1985) as inspirational precedents, baseball writer Neyer picks the September 8, 2017, game between the Oakland Athletics and the visiting Houston Astros to examine the current state of Major League Baseball. It's a good choice, since the Astros would win the 2017 World Series, and the Athletics, while finishing 26 games out for the season, would show how tightly competitive even last-place teams can be by spoiler alert winning that game and sweeping their four-game series. Neyer's batter-by-batter narrative framework is especially functional here since Neyer is almost distractingly digressive, opining on everything from pitcher injuries to pace of play, infield shifts, pitch counts, the vagaries of baseball's amateur draft, catchers' masks, the baseball orb itself (juiced or not?), even player heights and weights. Geek material, sure, but then so's the game itself.--Alan Moores Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

An afternoon at the ballpark prompts wider analysis in this genial treatise on the recent evolution of baseball. ESPN columnist Neyer (Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders) revisits the Sept. 8, 2017, game between the Oakland A's and the Houston Astros, which started as a blowout but ended as a nail-biter. Neyer's sharp play-by-play is a hook for extensive color commentary on changes in the sport, including the increases in home runs and strikeouts; the rise of infield shifts against pull hitters; the proliferation of specialist relief pitchers; uniform and hair-styling fashions; and the tsunami of stats, right down to the velocity and launch angle of every batted ball, that now dictates baseball management. Along the way he profiles the players, recapping their journeys through the minors, trades, injuries, and comebacks. Neyer's tome is the anti-Moneyball, with a well-informed but skeptical take on sabermetrics and the science of baseball performance: in his telling, well-planned trades and top draft picks fizzle, last season's bum becomes this season's star, and statistical certitudes always bow to lady luck. It's a ramble, but Neyer's deep knowledge and punchy prose-"The guy on the mound might be throwing aspirin pills, almost too fast to see"-make the book a treat for dedicated fans. (Oct.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

The title of this volume is a little misleading, as former ESPN columnist Neyer (Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends) delivers anything but an overly analytical study. What you will find, in the spirit of Arnold Hano's A Day in the Bleachers and Daniel Okrent's Nine Innings, is an organic and highly entertaining color commentary of a single game: the Oakland Athletics vs. the Houston Astros on September 8, 2017. This was a competitive and exemplary game, on the way to an Astros World Series championship. Neyer's recounting offers a play-by-play of each inning, including statistics such as on-base percentage and wins above replacement, arguments for statistical probability and the case to be made for luck, underthinking, overthinking, and everything in between-all in the course of a single game. These anecdotes and musings are a reflection of the dynamic state of modern baseball firing on all cylinders and in prime form. VERDICT Neyer, in a rare feat, captures the humor and humanity in the game, as well as what makes the revelry and rivalry of baseball so special.-Benjamin -Malczewski, -Toledo Lucas Cty. P.L. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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