Today, with a smile on my face, I opened Baseball Prospectus 2008.

yeah...got mine the other day. so sweet.

I have to get used to everyone assuming that the Cubs are KAWESOMEr than the Brewers; Fukudome with a .401 OBP really? That would be awesome, if true, but it seems a bit high.

Ya - that does seem a tad ott!

fuck, why doesn't the B&N down the street have it yet? I'll find it this weekend.

what's the funniest player comment so far?

don't know -- i have a job. i will start reading it tonite and report back.

"Once upon a time, Jack Cust finally got his chance to play. He hit a bunch of home runs, drew a truckload of walks, and stat-heads around the world squealed with glee at the success of their hero. Then they realized there was no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that a player with his strikeout rate could ever hit anything approaching .256 again. Then the Mitchell Report provided evidence that he was dumb enough to actually write checks when getting himself involved in alleged nefarious activities. And not everyone lived happily ever after. The end."

i also take continual glee of paul bako being held up as the model of useless backup catcher.

I've made my way through the first few teams here and the player descriptions are striking me as a) more reliant on snap judgments instead of context than ever before, and b) the least funny writeups ever. I think BP might have underestimated its audience's need for Park-Adjusted LOLz.

The 19th best-selling book on Amazon!

I am going to Union Square B&N in my quest...

Kevin Goldstein had to write that Cust comment, I am thinking. Funny.

I don't know about this year's model -- I think next year I switch to The Hardball Times book.

booooooooooo

This is nuts, none of the friggin NYC superstores have it.

I'm not even bothering with a book for draft prep this year -- I bought the Sporting News Fantasy '08 magazine.

god help me i'm in a league for the first time in about 5 years this year.

and it's not ours!? :`(

I kinda hope nobody else joins the ILBB league -- 12 teams seems just right.

we're at lucky 13 now, bruv!

I don't know about this year's model -- I think next year I switch to The Hardball Times book.

If you're looking for VOLOLs w/ THT, I'm thinking you're going to be sorely disappointed (if the website's any indication).

I am just trying to have fun. When will someone make a funny and insightful season preview?

and it's not ours!? :`(

-- The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:51 PM (Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:51 PM) Bookmark Link

i think ilbb was the last league i was in! so it must have been like 3 or 4 years ago.

Rapozer, where ya been? Are you coming to kiss Shea g'bye this year?

morbs, i'm plotting a trip to shea this summer!

good, maybe I'll be living in Queens by then. :p

I am just trying to have fun. When will someone make a funny and insightful season preview?

You know what they say: if no one's doing it, trick some fools into paying you to do it yrself!

Morbs: been around, doing "stuff." Might be hitting Shea once or twice this year (given I went to 0 games last year, which SUCKED) to give the old girl the finger.

how's May 10?

The team previews in the book sure are independent of the site projections. Whoever wrote the Met chapter (pre-Johan) says "They won't have a late-season lead to lose." Depth charts has NY winning east by 10.

Anybody going to any of the book tour appearances? I missed the one in NJ and probably have a conflict with Thursday's in NYC. :p The roundtable free-for-all is always fun.

Haha everyone look at Mota's PECOTA prediction for 2008 very carefully....

Guys that are complaining about a lack of serious disturb-the-neighbors roffles: please read the Russ Ortiz entry ASAP.

oh but russ ortiz is the proverbial fish in a barrel

But they done killed that fish!

Anyway, from what I've read, the book might be lacking in serious LOLs, but there's plenty of low-key drollery to be had. Tho one team preview (I think it was Arizona's) was melba-toast dry.

...like the air outside the BankDome

actually, i think the one for jon coutlangus is pretty comical.

hey, i think i'll stop by the borders in hyde park at lunch and see if they have a copy. it's about a 19-20 hour drive from chicago to austin and there's not a whole fuck of a lot of scenery between here and there.

Store Availability
Chicago - Hyde Park
Yes

woot woot!

The team writeups this year are really taking a wide view--slammed a couple of orgs hard for bad decision-making, a couple of others get the "your window of being good is closing" treatment. Highlight for me thus far has been the Micah Owings section of the D-Backs team report. Also digging the new baserunning stat a lot.

BillW (Brooklyn NY): This year's Mets chapter says they won't have a big lead to blow. Still not redacting that, post-Johan?

Steven Goldman: I am not redacting that post-Santana (and I is the accurate pronoun here). The Mets don't have the depth to survive a bad cough - the players that they dealt, while far from being future greats, were their first level of replacements for guys like Moises Alou and El Duque and all the other cats you know will miss a third or more of the season. Now they have no one, and they have to pray that they have a 1927 Yankees season - IE they get through the year without having to make a single roster move. We know that doesn't happen.

that 1927 Yankees factoid is sort of amazing.

interesting, if only tangentially related, article from progressive illinois.

I went to a NYC Prospectus "feed" last night at Foley's, the sports bar across from the Empire State Bldg. Didn't get to yak w/ Will Carroll or Sheehan, but did talk briefly to Goldman, Jaffe, Alex Belth (Bronx Banter), etc, and longer w/ a couple very smart BP intern dudes. (The upcoming BP book on '80s baseball will have JOHN STEARNS content.)

When I introduced myself to Jay Jaffe by saying we'd met at the SABR Seattle con 2 years ago, he said "oh yeah, the guy in the Yo La Tengo shirt," memory lolz.

The 80s book sounds good.

One of the interns was researching early '80s (Torre etc) Mets, so I got to vent my painful memories.

all the site articles are free this week, incl this one:

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7830

The AL Central seems primed for a sloppy neck-and-neck(-and-neck?) finish.

not necessarily.

Sky (The Roc, NY): Who will win the most games in each division over the second half of the season?

Nate Silver: That's a fun question. Let's say: Rays, Indians, Rangers, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers.

no, maybe, no, yes, yes, why not.

btw i picked up pro football prospectus 08 this week, having bought bp08 back in april (first time reading either one) - it's complete trash. the contrast in the quality of analysis, writing and scouting is unbelievable. i know there's certain built-in advantages wrt baseball stats-based analysis (and with the BP staff being much more well-connected in terms of relationships w/front office and scouting types) but the FO pps just do not compare at all to the BP dudes imo

Yeah, from my visits to FO, Tanier's the only guy that does it for me (& I think he's one of your bros, too, cank) -- other guys are OK, but only in an unspectacular boilerplate fashion. Of course, any conglomerate that gives MDS space to spin his wheels needs to restructure ASAP.

anyone else read of this?

http://deadspin.com/5083471/is-espn-looking-to-buy-baseball-prospectus

I didn't, but it was bound to happen.

Or rather it is bound to happen at some point.