Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Review: Baseball Prospectus Annual is Back

I received the 2007 Baseball Prospectus Annual in the mail last week and so far I'm very pleased with it. The BP Annual has always been an essential resource for fans of sabermetrics but this year is one of their best efforts yet. I felt that they slumped a bit in their player profiles in 2005 and 2006 but this year they have made the adjustments and are back to hitting line shots all over the field. I find this years version to very insightful and appropriately witty. It's a book I recommend to all serious baseball fans, sabers and traditionalists alike.

Here are a few Tiger teasers from this year's book:
  • On Cameron Maybin: "Monster....both plays and looks a little bit like Eric Davis."
  • "Granderson actually profiles a bit like Flood, a player who was not a burner, but a natural in center field nevertheless.....In the worst case scenario, he'll be the Tigers' version of Mike Cameron."
  • "(Gorkys) Hernandez has not received the press clippings of the Mets' Fernando Martinez or the Yankees' Jose Tabata but, as barely legal outfielders go, he isn't far behind. "
  • "Bonderman is as good a bet as any pitcher in the American League to win a Cy Young award"
  • On Andrew Miller: "The upside here is along the lines of a left-handed Carlos Zambrano."
They have a paragraph on each player and all the usual BP statistics. There is also an interesting essay on each team and some general baseball articles at the end of the book. I'll be referencing this book all year.

2 comments:

  1. Oh great, a left-handed Zambrano. He'll be referring to himself in the third person I guess.

    Funny that he should choose Mike Cameron as a comparator for Granderson, because Mike Cameron is sometimes cited as a worst case for Maybin. I think of defense and occasional power when I think of Cameron, maybe better than Granderson on both counts, but I'm hoping for a better all-around game from Granderson, especially getting on base.

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  2. Charles, I had the same initial thought about the Granderson/Cameron comparison. Then I looked up Cameron's lifetime numbers and realized that they are very similar across the board to Granderson's stats in a year plus with the Tigers. So, he actually might be an appropriate worst case scenario.

    Like you, I'm hoping Granderson adds maybe 25 points to his BA and OBP. If he does that, he'll be a pretty solid player. I also think his power will get a little better.

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