Sab(e)rmetric Books

by Phrozen on Nov 19, 2011 7:13 PM EST

I want to get a book or two on Sabrmetrics for my Dad for Christmas, and I'm curious if anyone has read any good ones. He's a very astute (in the sense that he understand the balk rule, and who Gavvy Cravath was) fan, but his stats-base consists of RBIZ and WINZ and such, with nothing more explanatory than OPS. I've tried explaining concepts such as WAR, but I'm struggling to get through. I think he's open to the concepts, I just need help breaking through. I found Understand Sabermetrics on Amazon.com, which seems promising, but I'd like to get a first-hand review.

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I’ve not actually read it (mean to; follow the blog regularly), but possibly The Book:

http://insidethebook.com/

by yolacrary on Nov 19, 2011 7:58 PM EST reply actions

I’m currently making my way through The Book now. It’s great stuff, but I’m not sure how well it would work as an intro to Sabermetrics, as it can be a little bit math heavy.

The best book to pull somebody in, in my opinion, is probably Baseball Between the Numbers.

by esentman on Nov 19, 2011 8:19 PM EST up reply actions

good point…

there’s also Bill James’ New Historical Baseball Abstract (though I only have the original)

by yolacrary on Nov 19, 2011 8:28 PM EST up reply actions

That’s a great book. My only concern there is that it’s massive, and might seem intimidating. It’s not overly math-heavy though, from what I recall.

by Rujasu on Nov 21, 2011 12:14 PM EST up reply actions

I’ll look at that one too, then. Not to worried about a big book being intimidating—my Dad’s a writer himself.

by Phrozen on Nov 21, 2011 12:40 PM EST up reply actions

Baseball Between the Numbers. Ok, I’ll look at that. Thanks.

by Phrozen on Nov 19, 2011 9:43 PM EST up reply actions

Understanding Sabermetrics is a good book for a beginner. I read this book and took a class in college where the authors were the instructors. It doesn’t go too far in depth, especially compared with The Book, which uses much more advanced math. Baseball Between the Numbers is somewhere in between the two.
For more of a story based book with saber ties, Moneyball is great choice. I haven’t read The Extra 2%, but I’m assuming that is along the same lines.

by byosti on Nov 21, 2011 4:39 PM EST reply actions