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March 05, 2008

The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008

As promised, I had a chance to check out "The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008."

This is a fun book to get you primed for the season. The folks at The Hardball Times reached out to various internet baseball authors to cover each team in the majors. Those who frequent baseball sites will recognize many of these folks - such as Brian Borawski, Lisa Gray, Bradford Doolittle, Dave Studenmund, Larry Mahnken, Steve Treder and John Brattain - who have contributed to "The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008."

For each team in the majors you get the following:

+ A projection on their 2008 won-loss record.
+ A summary of their 2007 season.
+ General comments on the team's strengths, weaknesses, G.M., Manager, ballpark, minor league system, and a listing of "favorite team blogs."
+ Keys for 2008 in terms of players lost and acquired, reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic, who's due for a better and worse season, and what's left for the team to do.
+ Player statistical projections for 2008.

In addition to all this, you also get an essay from David Gassko on projecting career statistics and an essay from Chris Constancio on rookies to watch for 2008.

In terms of the Yankees, "The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008" sees them winning 93 games this season and finishing four games back of the Boston Red Sox in the A.L. East - with some interesting individual numbers such as A-Rod hitting "just" 41 homers, Matsui having 72 RBI, Phil Hughes going 7-7, and Ross Ohlendorf posting an ERA of 6.53 in 89 innings pitched.

As a fellow blogger, I do have one gripe with an element of this book. Where they listed "favorite team blogs" for each team, in some cases - such as when Larry Mahnken covered the Yankees, Jim McLennan covered the Diamondbacks, Bradford Doolittle covered the Royals, and Eric Johnson covered the Brewers - some authors listed their own blogs as being among the "favorite" for the team they were covering. That seems like a little "homerism" to me - but, then again, it could be sour grapes too since WasWatching.com was not listed among the "favorite" Yankees blogs. And, again, only some of the authors did this - not all of them.

This small nitpick aside, I recommend checking out "The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008." Whether you're a fantasy baseball participant looking for some handy draft/auction reference material or just a baseball fan looking to get some interesting insight on your favorite team as well as the rest of the teams in the big leagues, this book lends towards satisfying your needs.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at March 5, 2008 10:06 PM

Comments

Posted by: gphunt at March 6, 2008 08:04 AM

Posted by: WW Staff at March 6, 2008 11:24 AM