THT Annual number 2011

Ya miss me? I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been away from the THT keyboard and I’m just as sure that you’ve been losing sleep wondering, “What’s happened to Dave? Doesn’t he care about baseball anymore?”

Not to worry. I’ve been working on something that won’t be available until November, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to like it. It’s called the Hardball Times Annual 2011.

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This isn’t actually the 2,011th version of our book, though it seems like it. This will be the seventh THT Annual and I like to think that all the practice is paying off. Get a load of what’s going to be in this year’s book:

{exp:list_maker}Ben Jedlovec of Baseball Info Solutions and the folks at Sportvision are both going to talk about their latest data collection efforts. Ben will discuss the “hang time” of batted balls and the Sportvision folks will discuss the FIELDf/x system they implemented in San Francisco this year. Both articles will include some preliminary results and findings.
Along those lines, Dave Cameron will discuss the state of fielding analysis in the sabermetric community and Brian Cartwright will take a new and (I hope) improved look at some the dimensions behind fielding analysis.
Craig Wright, one of the very first sabermetricians to really study pitcher usage and pitch counts, has written a treatise on the subject that includes some history, his prior research and his current thinking.
Vince Gennaro, who wrote Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball and consults with several major league teams about player contracts and team economics, talks about some of the recent highlights and lowlifes in free agent contracts.
Sean Smith revisits the subject of whether catchers can impact pitcher ERA, while Nick Steiner is going to use PITCHf/x data and his own game observations to analyze the issue of catchers framing pitches.
Chris Jaffe has figured out the best and worst benches of all time, and he’s going to tell you who they were.
John Walsh will revisit, in more detail, the question of umpire bias at the plate by using PITCHf/x data in even more detail.
Jeremy Greenhouse also will use PITCHf/x data to delve even further into the question pitcher “stuff” and “command.”
Larry Granville of Wezen-ball will present the things he found out while watching every single home run hit this year on videotape. He also has a terrific piece on today’s fan experience.
Jeff Sackmann will use historical Marcel projections to uncover some of the best unexpected results and underlying trends in baseball history. {/exp:list_maker}

Craig Calcaterra will present his skewed version of this year’s happenings. Tom Tango has three things he’s always wanted to finish researching. I’m going to talk about this year’s batted balls and WPA results. John Dewan will discuss team defense. Greg Rybarczyk will have his own findings from this year’s Hit Tracker results. Brian Borawski will review the year’s baseball business. Rob Neyer will have something but I’m not really sure yet what it will be. (Love the suspense.)

Brandon Isleib will once again contribute his astounding feats of baseball trivia. Tuck will have several new toons spread throughout the book. We’ll cover each division race in detail. There will be graphs galore and detailed player statistics from every major league team, including the batted ball stats you can’t get anywhere else (if you’ve seen previous Annuals, you know what I’m talking about).

So I mean it when I say I think you’re going to like it. The THT Annual does something no other major baseball book does; it reviews the previous year’s results and stats in a truly unique way, and it also contains cutting-edge analysis, insightful commentary, historical surveys and just plan baseball fun.

The THT Annual is the primary way we make money here, so buying the Annual is a show of support to the guys and gals who bring you the best in baseball writing. But it’s also a great read, a book you will want to keep in your baseball library and reference many times in the future. So please support THT by using this link to purchase the Annual. It costs more than at Amazon, but the cost difference goes directly to us and not some nameless (or named) corporation. Plus, you will receive it a couple of weeks earlier than everyone else.

If you just can’t afford the price, please at least use this link to purchase it from Amazon. We’ll make a bit more when you use the link, and it won’t cost you anything more.

Either way, we do appreciate your support. Watch for the THT Annual in early November. I’ll see you then.


Dave Studeman was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Follow his sporadic tweets @dastudes.
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Josh Shepardson
13 years ago

I’m stoked.

EnglishMariner
13 years ago

I would love to buy directly from you guys, but your distributor does not ship across the pond. 🙁

Sean Smith
13 years ago

I’m looking forward to it, but the problem is when I get my copy, there will be no more baseball this year.  So I can be patient.