ANNUAL PUBLICATIONS
STATS, Inc. produces many of the best annual publications on baseball. Every
November 1st, STATS publishes the following:
STATS Major League Handbook, which features the career statistics
of every player who played in the major leagues the previous season as well
as projections for next season and other statistical information.
STATS Minor League Handbook, which features the career minor league
statistics of every player who played in AA or AAA but not in the majors
the previous season as well as the previous season's statistics for every
player who played the previous season in A ball or Rookie league ball.
STATS Player Profiles, which features a wide variety of statistical
splits (home/road, left/right, runners in scoring position, month-by-month)
covering both the previous season and the last 5 seasons of most major league
players and pitchers.
3 other worthwhile annuals published by STATS later on in the off-season
are:
STATS Baseball Scoreboard, a book which seeks to answer many questions
about baseball by using statistics and is the best source for unusual but
useful statistics measuring stuff like the effectiveness of an outfielders
arm and baserunning. Some less useful essays in the book are unfortunately
not well thought out, but usually there is a reasonable amount of interesting
information.
STATS Minor League Scouting Notebook, an excellent review of hundreds
of minor league prospects by John Sickels.
In season STATS makes available its extensive, daily updated database through
its web site for a small annual fee.
Baseball America, the only regular publication devoted to baseball's minor
leagues, also publishes several worthwhile annuals:
Baseball America's Directory is the best source available each year
for information such as schedules, club officials, stadium locations, phone
numbers, primary broadcast outlets, etc.
Baseball America's Almanac features a review of every major and minor
league's previous year along with statistics provided for every player on
every team.
The Super Register, which will be produced starting in 1998 by Baseball
America and Howe Sportsdata, will feature the career minor league records
of every current minor leaguer.
Baseball America is found on the Web at
http://www.baseballamerica.com.
The Sporting News Baseball Register features not-as-complete career
offensive statistics for all major league players as the STATS Major League
Handbook but does feature some data that the STATS book does not have,
including career fielding records, career postseason statistics, and a listing
of the transactions each player has been involved in.
The Sporting News Baseball Guide features a ton of information about
the previous and upcoming seasons, including the offensive and defensive
stats of every professional player, scores of every game, schedules, rosters,
etc.
The Sporting News can be found on the Web at
http://www.sportingnews.com.
John Benson Presents Future Stars, edited by Tony Blengino, and Lawr
Michaels, is, like the STATS Minor League Scouting League Notebook mentioned
above, an excellent guide to the best minor league prospects.
2 sabermetrically oriented annuals also deserve mention here. The Baseball
Prospectus, which has been published the last 2 years, is an incisive
look at baseball, its teams and its players. The Prospectus operates a web
site at
http://www.baseballprospectus.com.
Back to Baseball Book Survey,
Part 1
To Suite 101:Baseball
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