The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team

by Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller Narrated by Kirby Heyborne, John Pruden

Overview

It's the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies-with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That's what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics.



We tag along as Lindbergh and Miller apply their number-crunching insights to all aspects of assembling and running a team, following one cardinal rule for judging each innovation they try: it has to work. We meet colorful figures like general manager Theo Fightmaster and boundary-breakers like the first openly gay player in professional baseball. Even José Canseco makes a cameo appearance.



Will their knowledge of numbers help Lindbergh and Miller bring the Stompers a championship, or will they fall on their faces? Will the team have a competitive advantage or is the sport's folk wisdom true after all? Will the players attract the attention of big-league scouts, or are they on a fast track to oblivion?

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - John Swansburg

…a kind of gonzo Moneyball, with Lindbergh and Miller sharing the role of the Oakland Athletics' Billy Beane…The teachings of Baseball Prospectus are a touchstone throughout the season-long experiment. But in a way, the pleasures of this wildly entertaining book have more in common with another sacred baseball reference: Major League. For all the talk of WAR and wRC+, this is at heart a comic story about a team of lovable losers making one last run at pro ball.

From the Publisher

"[F]un, breezy, and moving read." ---Jonah Keri, author of Up, Up, and Away

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"[F]un, breezy, and moving read." —Jonah Keri, author of Up, Up, and Away

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170488094
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/17/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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