It’s The Hardball Times Annual 2014

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The 10th Hardball Times Annual is now available at your local online bookstore. I know it’s hard to believe, but we’ve done this thing 10 times now. I’m proud to say that I think this one is the equal of any of the others.

Like most of the other Annuals, this one includes a recap of the division races as well as our special “Championships Added” coverage of the postseason. In addition, we’ve got our usual array of commentary, history and analysis. There are over 30 articles and 300 pages of great content from a tremendous lineup of writers, including Bill James, Joe Posnanski, Rob Neyer and many others. Plus, there are a couple of extra features we think you’ll enjoy.

Here’s a quick table of contents:

Recapping the 2013 Season
Reviews of each division, plus Brad Johnson’s coverage of the postseason.

Baseball Commentary
The Year in Frivolity by Craig Calcaterra
Six Years to Glory: The Pirates Return to October by John Perrotto
The Science of the Art of Receiving a Pitch by Jeff Sullivan
Expunging Frank: The Dodgers’ Remarkable Turnaround by Mike Petriello
Everything But the Game: The 2013 Astros by Larry Granillo
Case Studies: Breaking Out and Breaking Bad by Blake Murphy, Mike Podhorzer and Carson Cistulli
Rebuilding: How Six Teams are Doing it (or not) by Jeff Moore
On the Difference Between Hitting and Pitching Prospects by Bill James
Five Fateful Offseason Decisions by Rob Neyer
Blowing Up the Spot: why Third Basemen Stand How They Do by Eno Sarris
GM in a Box: Brian Sabean by Steve Treder
White Bred: Major League Baseball’s Intern Issue by Dave Cameron
Finding the Translation: Quantifying Asian Players by Bradley Woodrum

History
The Summer of ’86 by Joe Posnanski
Roger Clemens’ Place in History by Craig Wright
The Most Storied Postseasons by Dave Studenmund
Birthday Bonanzas by Chris Jaffe

Analysis
Shifty Business, or the War Against Hitters by Jeff Zimmerman
Voting Patterns for the MVP and Cy Young Awards by Shane Tourtellotte
The Strike Zone during the PITCHf/x Era by Jon Roegele
Loss in Movement as the Game Progresses by Noah Woodward
Uncovering the Mysteries of the Knuckleball by Alan Nathan
Game Theory Modeling the Batter-Pitcher Confrontation by Dave Allen and Kevin Tenenbaum
Revisiting The Book’s “Mano a Mano” Chapter by Steve Staude

In addition to these tremendous articles, Shane Tourtellotte has created a baseball crossword puzzle for you, in honor of the 100th birthday of that particular pastime. Also, Carson Cistulli provides his unique leaderboards—intriguing and interesting baseball stats that you’re not likely to find on your own. By the way, our case studies focus on the years of Chris Davis, Josh Hamilton, Jose Fernandez and Shelby Miller.

It’s a whole lot of book, and we have made it available in print or in electronic form. You can buy it now for $15.99 from our CreateSpace page and it will soon be available at Amazon too. I’ll post the link in the comments once it’s available there.

In addition, we will have electronic versions available—Kindle and Nook—as soon as the publishers clear them. I’ll add a notice here when those are available.

The THT Annual is a proud tradition of ours; there’s something for every baseball fan in those pages. Enjoy!


Dave Studeman was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Follow his sporadic tweets @dastudes.
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Kyle Boddy
10 years ago

Congratulations, everyone! Hope to contribute next year smile

Jack Weiland
10 years ago

Hey everyone, just an FYI, I will be signing copies of my AL West division review at the Amazon.com brick and mortar store in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on November 28th.

Come on down and feel the earnestness!!

Dr. Doom
10 years ago

So excited for the Annual!  I’ll be getting a copy for Christmas, I believe.

fran larkin
10 years ago

Hi- Looking forward to the softcopy of the book. Amazon says it is sold out already??? It looks like a Kindle version is available but I would like the actual book. Will it be available to order soon? Thanks. Regards, FRAN

studes
10 years ago

Sorry, we are having a slight problem with our publishing process, but it should be fixed in a day.  I’ll let you know when the softcopy is available on Kindle.

studes
10 years ago

Okay, it’s already back up on Amazon in the U.S.  Look for it in Europe and on the Kindle soon.

Here’s the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Hardball-Times-Annual-2014-Volume/dp/1493711873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384391312&sr=8-1&keywords=hardball+times+2014

studes
10 years ago

Hey MGL, thanks a lot for the review.  I’ll leave a reaction on your blog.

That’s discouraging about the tables in the Kindle.  That didn’t happen when we tested the file, so I don’t know what’s up. Coordinating between publishing platforms is a royal pain.

MGL
10 years ago

Just got my Kindle version and I am looking forward to reading it. I am also going to do a series of reviews on some of the chapters in the Analysis section. I have the first one up:

http://mglbaseball.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/the-hardball-times-annual-2014-mgls-review-part-i/

By the way, in the Kindle version, the charts seem to be cut off on the right unless you make the font as small as possible. IOW, they don’t re-scale the charts for the larger fonts.

Jamie Selko
9 years ago

Re.Mike Petriello’s article in the 2014 Baseball Annual, in which he supposes (not without merit) that Julio Urias that sixteen year old Julio Urias might be the youngest player in Midwestern League history. Well, one could not be faulted for thinking so, but in 1961 Mike Jones, signed by the Cardinals, played in the MWL at fifteen (he was born on 31 July, 1945). He was still only fifteen the next year when he played in the old GA-FLA League. In 1963, he played in the Northern League at sixteen.