BP 2005 in hands

DMZ · February 25, 2005 at 4:04 pm · Filed Under General baseball 

People are starting to get their copies of Baseball Prospectus (since, as noted earlier in this space, it did ship). And in the table of contents, yes, my name is wrong on the first bylined piece I’ve ever written for the book.

So who wrote the team chapters, you ask? As in the past they’ve run without bylines, which I totally think is dumb. As in the past, you’re free to ask who wrote specific chapters, and I’m happy to answer them.

Revealed so far:

American League
Seattle Mariners: DMZ

National League
Milwaukee Brewers: essay by ?, player comments by Dave
Montreal Expos: DMZ

So shoot.

Comments

46 Responses to “BP 2005 in hands”

  1. dan on February 25th, 2005 4:19 pm

    Did Sheehan do the Mets?
    Did Huckabay do the A’s?

    Looking forward to reading your contributions.

    Thanks.

  2. Conor Glassey on February 25th, 2005 4:21 pm

    Derek – did you order through Amazon? Because I ordered 2 copies on Dec. 4th and my books haven’t even been shipped yet!

  3. Evan on February 25th, 2005 4:29 pm

    As an experiment, I’m waiting to see when the book appears on shelves in Canada. Amazon.ca claims not to have any, yet.

  4. chris w on February 25th, 2005 4:45 pm

    Yeah, Amazon says they were supposed to ship by yesterday, but they haven’t shipped as of 4:45 today. Damnazon.

  5. Bobby on February 25th, 2005 4:52 pm

    Every year, waiting for Baseball Prospectus is more exciting to me than Christmas morning. Excuse me while I go check my mail again today.

  6. JMB on February 25th, 2005 4:58 pm

    I’m in the same Amazon boat — they haven’t shipped yet, though they claim my copy will arrive today or tomorrow. Huh.

    jason

  7. Phil on February 25th, 2005 5:20 pm

    OOOh I’m very excited. I’ll probably head over the Barnes & Nobles this weekend and pick up a copy.

  8. dw on February 25th, 2005 5:57 pm

    I just checked the U Bookstore and the U Village B&N. No copies.

    Damnit, I should have ordered it when I last had money.

  9. Conor Glassey on February 25th, 2005 6:46 pm

    Jason – The odd thing about my Amazon order is that is says my ‘delivery estimate’ is Feb. 4-5.

  10. Bobby on February 25th, 2005 8:10 pm

    A friend just called and said it’s on sale at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park (north of Seattle). He’s bringing me over a copy right now. Woo hoo!

  11. Ty on February 25th, 2005 8:54 pm

    So you’re not only a Mariners fan, but an Expos fan too, or do you just know a lot about them?

  12. Anthony on February 25th, 2005 9:11 pm

    I always wondered…what is BP’s readership size?

  13. Jonah Keri on February 25th, 2005 9:36 pm

    Amazon’s estimates are always misinformed, guys, so unless they’re alerting you that your copy has shipped and is on its way, don’t sweat it. The book has indeed started shipping though–takes a couple extra days to reach the East Coast, but should be Real Soon Now. Bpth Derek and Dave did great work btw.

    Oh and there’s going to be a BP book signing in late March in the Seattle area, but I’ll stop there unless Derek/the USSM gang gives me permission to say more.

  14. Jonah Keri on February 25th, 2005 9:37 pm

    Takes a little longer to reach the WEST Coast, whoops…

  15. Jim on February 25th, 2005 10:30 pm

    I’m on the east coast and have no book from amazon yet :(.

    Who wrote the Toronto chapter?

  16. Dave on February 25th, 2005 10:50 pm

    Ryan Wilkins wrote the Brewers essay, if anyone cares.

    And Jonah, you have carte blanche to say whatever you want on this blog. You could write a love poem to Youppi and we wouldn’t stop you.

  17. Conor Glassey on February 25th, 2005 11:36 pm

    I wrote Amazon asking about my order and they told me that BP is currently backordered.
    However, the customer service representative that I contacted took away my shipping charges -and- upgraded my shipping to one-day! Woo hoo!
    Beats what happened to me last year from Barnes and “Noble” who cancelled my order w/o telling me when BP 2004 became backordered.

  18. Paul Covert on February 25th, 2005 11:38 pm

    Re. #10– I stopped by Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park this evening, and discovered that they had one copy of Baseball Prospectus on the shelf.

    Specifically, it was a copy of Baseball Prospectus 2004.

    Caveat emptor….

  19. Bobby on February 26th, 2005 12:15 am

    Paul, I have Baseball Prospectus 2005 in my hands, purchased from Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park this evening. It’s definitely 2005. Did you ask anyone behind the counter? Perhaps they haven’t put BP2005 on the shelf yet?

  20. Paul Covert on February 26th, 2005 11:28 am

    No, I didn’t ask behind the counter (although I did at Lynnwood Barnes & Noble later in the evening, and they didn’t have it yet). My mistake, then, apparently (in which case I suppose the “caveat emptor” comes right back at me…).

  21. Paul Covert on February 26th, 2005 12:37 pm

    Okay, I just called Third Place (in LFP), and they confirmed that they have BP 2005 in stock (“forty copies,” the rep said)– and also that they’ve got Jonah scheduled for an author appearance on March 26. (Hope that’s not spoiling anyone’s secrets; but if the bookstore reps are telling it to customers over the phone, I assume it’s public information by now.)

  22. Conor Glassey on February 26th, 2005 1:04 pm

    “(Hope that’s not spoiling anyone’s secrets; but if the bookstore reps are telling it to customers over the phone, I assume it’s public information by now.)”
    Don’t worry – it’s also on the BP web site:
    http://baseballprospectus.com/events/

  23. Jonah Keri on February 26th, 2005 4:33 pm

    Great, that saves me from having to advertise it. 🙂 But here’s the complete info, just in case:

    Lake Forest Park (WA), Sat Mar 26

    Saturday, March 26 @ 6:00pm
    Third Place Books
    1717 Bothwell Way NE
    Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
    206-366-3333
    Author: Jonah Keri

    Trying to convince DZ to head over too, in an unofficial but still Derek-tastic fashion. They’re really cool folks at Third Place Books, and there’ll be pizza and as much Mariner/baseball talk as you can handle, so come on over!

    Oh Youppi!
    How your orange fur
    glows in the moonlight…

  24. Jon Wells on February 26th, 2005 4:39 pm

    thanks bobby for the tip on Third Place Books. I just went there and picked up BP2005 so I can have it for the drive down to spring training.
    Cool store too, they had some good deals on used books, I bought a bunch…I hope to make it on the 26th too…

  25. Andy Metz on February 26th, 2005 6:36 pm

    Good coverage on the Mariners. Out of curiousity, who compared Bloomquist to syphilis? Funny stuff.

  26. MT on February 26th, 2005 6:42 pm

    DMZ, Who wrote the Red Sox chapter?

  27. DMZ on February 26th, 2005 7:21 pm

    There’s no direct comparison of Bloomquist to syphilis.

    And yeah, as I wrote the M’s chapter, that’s me.

  28. zzyzx on February 27th, 2005 11:44 am

    I had never been to 3PB before so I appreciate this thread as that’s a really cool store and it’s right near my house

  29. Joshua Buergel on February 27th, 2005 3:31 pm

    Third Place Books is indeed excellent, helpful staff and a very nice experience. I try and buy my books there whenever possible. This is made easier by the fact that we wind up paying sales tax from Amazon as WA residents, so it’s not like online has that over buying locally. Get on their mailing list if you like signings, because they tend to get quite a few pretty cool folks in there. I’ve only made it to a Carl Hiaasen signing, but there have been several others I’ve wanted to go to and failed.

  30. DMZ on February 27th, 2005 9:04 pm

    — Did Sheehan do the Mets?

    I believe so.

    — Did Huckabay do the A’s?

    Nope.

    — Who wrote the Toronto chapter?

    Sheehan, again

    — DMZ, Who wrote the Red Sox chapter?

    Jonah Keri and James Click

  31. Brad Dowdy on February 28th, 2005 10:15 am

    Who wrote the Braves section? Thanks DMZ!

  32. Tangotiger on February 28th, 2005 10:57 am

    Derek, what did Woolner and Clay write?

    Anthony, entering 2004, my best guess was that BP sells 40,000 copies, and had 10,000 subscribers. I couldn’t guess if those numbers are higher or lower this year.

  33. dan on February 28th, 2005 11:06 am

    At a pizza feed a couple of years back, Huckabay said they expected to sell over 70,000 copies of the book that year. I don’t know where they actually ended up.

  34. Tangotiger on February 28th, 2005 12:01 pm

    What’s interesting with BP is that they used to promote their “translated stats” in bold type, and now they promote their “untranslated stats” in bold type. I think they probably cater to the fantasy market much much more than they did 5 years ago, and with the low Amazon price, are probably very sought after by the fantasy market.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  35. Tangotiger on February 28th, 2005 12:19 pm

    In an interview a little over a year ago, Huckabay reported sales of the 2003 BP being 30,000. I’m not sure how “a couple of years back” he could have said 70,000.

  36. dan on February 28th, 2005 1:55 pm

    Tango,

    I’m just relaying what he said. Maybe he’s an optimist.

  37. Robert on March 1st, 2005 2:27 pm

    I second the question of who wrote the Braves section. While the book overall is outstanding (what I’ve read), the Braves section is just awful. It looks like whoever wrote it does not follow the Braves at all, and got the assignment about a week before the deadline.

    Not trying to be overly critical as this book is clearly the best on the market and will continue to get my money every year. Just curious.

  38. Brad Dowdy on March 2nd, 2005 4:54 am

    Robert – I found out it was Dayn Perry.

  39. MarinerDan on March 2nd, 2005 3:13 pm

    Thanks for the information and I am eagerly awaiting my copy of BP 2005.

    DMZ, a question for you: I believe you indicated awhile back that you were taking leave of Baseball Prospectus, but you didn’t give a reason. I was just curious if you would be willing to divulge why you left? Thanks.

  40. MarinerDan on March 2nd, 2005 3:18 pm

    Whoops, just saw your answer to a similar question in a different thread.

    I understand if you aren’t interested in divulging any additional information. On the other hand, we are all busy-bodies and would love to know the reason for the departure!

  41. cherbo on May 11th, 2005 1:49 pm

    [deleted, personal attack]

  42. cherbo on May 11th, 2005 2:06 pm

    Why did you write such nasty stuff about Gillick?

  43. km on May 12th, 2005 10:17 am

    What nasty stuff? Gillick was a coward. No doubt about it.

    This is ironic: If Bpro enforced the same policy that USSM has regarding deleting personal attacks, then Zummer’s piece would not have been printed. His animosity ruined the article because he strayed from analysis of how management affects team construction. But it was animosity, not nasty.

  44. DMZ on May 12th, 2005 1:13 pm

    That’s not irony, for starters.

    And I guess it’s personal opinion on whether that’s animosity or relevant to the article. Gillick did a bad his last couple years here, and the reverence paid to him far outweighs his contributions — and that’s created problems for the team, which I tried to convey.

    I said Gillick acted cowardly in the “stepping down” which he did. I didn’t say Gillick’s an awful person, or that he kills puppies for fun. I wrote that Bavasi, frustrated with undoing his messes and purging, might harbor some resentment towards Gillick when it was all over — which I think is true.

  45. supermariner on May 13th, 2005 1:51 pm

    It’s hypocrisy, not irony.

    Derek, your speculation on Bavasi’s feeling is not analysis. You overstepped the bounds of journalism, I feel. It will be difficult to take you seriously from now on if you choose to write about the M’s organization – management and ownership.

    Of course, your player performance analysis is superb so keep that going.

  46. DMZ on May 13th, 2005 2:46 pm

    You’re welcome to your opinion, but I would submit that the book is meant to be a good read and entertainment as well as dry analysis. It’s a line BP has always walked, with success and failure. If you think this is a failure, your point’s well-taken: in retrospect, I’m surprised it wasn’t edited out, as other jokes were.

    Further still, even from that view, I don’t see how cracking that one and overstepping in trying to convey the difficulty and frustration of the situation Bavasi’s in taints the more basic facts and analysis I’ve done on the organization.