Which book on baseball would you recommend? 1)The Bill James Handbook 2008, 2)Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecast

Question

3)Baseball Prospectus 2008: The Essential Guide to the 2008 Baseball Season (Baseball Prospectus)

Answer 1

I think it depends what you're looking for.

If you just want the stats, go with Bill James. Unlike his abstracts or other books, the handbook is simply stats with almost no analysis.

The Shandler books are good for fantasy baseball, but I don't find them all that deep or insightful. My personal choice is BP, which provides the best combination of statistics and insight. Writeups for every player, as well as several interesting essays, are always included. The BP guys can be a little pretentious at times, but they all know their stuff incredibly well and some of what they write is pretty hilarious.

I'd also recommend the Hardball Times annual as another for you to consider. It's not really designed for fantasy players, but Studeman and the others at THT are true baseball experts and outstanding writers. I buy all of these every season, and I'd say that it's a tough call for me between BP and THT - I'd still give Prospectus the nod, I guess, just because of depth.

Answer 2

3)Baseball Prospectus 2008: The Essential Guide to the 2008 Baseball Season (Baseball Prospectus)

Answer 3

I'll just second Craig's comments.

Bill James for looking back (always fun), Baseball Prospectus for looking forward.

Shandler if you play fantasy ball, which I do not.

I have all but one of the BP annuals (one year I just plain missed it), including the original, 1996 edition, which IIRC was limited to 200 copies (that's all the orders they got), in a plain white cover, and they left out the chapter on the Cardinals (but posted it on-line to make good).

Answer 4

#3 seems like it will establish a lot of knowledge of future players and you could be the "young player guru"

That would be sweet