What I've been reading

This past weekend I spent a lot of time reading two excellent new books. First was the new Baseball Prospectus which showed up on my doorstep on Friday. For those of who don't know Baseball Prospectus is a well respected website that is teeming with original thoughts, ideas and for my money the best baseball writing on the internet. You can check it out here http://www.baseballprospectus.com/. Each year they publish a book which is packed with information. In the next couple of days I'll publish a review of this book and highlight some of the books hidden treasures. The other book is called Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe by Sam Walker a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal which documents his play in a fantasy baseball league. Here is the description that Amazon.com has for the book

"From Publishers Weekly when Walker, a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, enters his first fantasy baseball tournament, he aims high: Tout Wars, a competition for guys who make a career out of analyzing stats to find the best Major League hitters and pitchers. He figures that because he can get to the ballparks in his journalistic capacity and talk to the players and coaches, he'll be in a better position to judge the intangibles and pull one over the pure numbers crunchers. But even with the help of a young research assistant and a NASA scientist, things quickly head south. This hilarious diary of the 2004 season includes several encounters with the players Walker has picked; from Jacque Jones's struggle to refute predictions of mediocrity to David Ortiz's razzing Walker for trading him away. Along the way there are mini-profiles of the Tout Wars competition, as well as explorations of the origins of fantasy baseball (predating even the famed Rotisserie League) and the shaky relationship between dedicated statistical analysts and Major League executives. Readers might even pick up a few tips on how to draft their teams this spring, but the real fun is in watching Walker's well-laid plans unravel. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved"

It's a really fun look at fantasy baseball that'sguaranteedd to make the reader laugh and smile. Two good baseball books at the same time. The only thing I think of to make life perfect would be if there were a book by Bill James out. But wait! I forgot it gets even better. Not only is Bill James featured in John Dewan's "Fielding Bible" in which a new sophiscated fielding statistics offer to enlighten fans on baseball most misunderstood statistics. And what's better then a book written by Bill James? How about a book about Bill James. On March 14th The Mind of Bill James : How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball by Scott Gray is coming out. I can't wait. Can imagine the moviepossibilitiess? Russell Crowe is.....Bill James.

I also wanted to send out my best wishes to Kirby Puckett and his family. Puckett suffered from a stroke and is currently in critical condition. In case you don't remember Puckett carried the Twins in the 1991 World Series.