Baseball Prospectus 2020

by Baseball Prospectus

The 2020 edition of The New York Times Bestselling Guide.

PLAY BALL! The 25th edition of this industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important statistics, player predictions and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, along with significant improvements to several statistics that were created by, and are exclusive to, Baseball Prospectus , and an expanded focus on international players and teams.

Baseball Prospectus 2020 provides fantasy players and insiders alike with prescient PECOTA projections, which The New York Times called “the überforecast of every player’s performance.”

With more than 50 Baseball Prospectus alumni currently working for major-league baseball teams, nearly every organization has sought the advice of current or former BP analysts, and readers of Baseball Prospectus 2020 will understand why!

Genres: Baseball, Sports

600 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2020

About the author

Baseball Prospectus is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team performance projections on the site.

Since 1996 the BP staff has also published a Baseball Prospectus annual as well as several other books devoted to baseball analysis and history.

Reviews

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've pretty much given up on using my annual GR review to try to convince the writers for BP to focus their team essays on, um, like...baseball? The thing between the lines. Some of the essays are kind of interesting, some are just stretches (really--Romeo & Juliet gets all the ink? Do we need a Donald Barthelme parody?--and if you don't know what that means, that's my point), and a whole lot continue to sound like auditions for front office gigs in the advanced stats department. What saves this version, as usual, are a few really good essays--the D-Backs and Cardinals come to mind, as well as a good take on why my Rockies have so damn much trouble figuring out a Mile High formula--and, as always, the individual player comments.

And PLEASE can someone run spell check on the phrase "generational talent" and consider whether it has any meaning when it's used like 27 times....

I'm used to this being an annual minor frustration, but I'll be watching the season a whole lot smarter for having pushed through.

[Collin Mickle · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always, this book was overwritten, under-edited, weirdly unnecessarily political -- and essential. The fact that this book is a unique resource, 500 pages of (mostly) thoughtful analysis and (mostly) useful statistics, makes it a little easier to ignore a house style best characterized as "twerpy millennial" and more typos than a 2 a.m. text.

Could it be better? Oh good God yes. Could it be worse? I'm sure it will be next year. But if it didn't exist we'd have to invent it, and until someone else does I'll keep paying the fine folks at BP to give me their best shot at it.

[Andrew Langert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This annual publication has been around since 1996. I buy it every year because it is an essential reference guide to me, a very avid baseball fan and a participant in simulated baseball leagues and a fantasy baseball group.
In most years, I use it almost strictly as a reference guide. They cover all new prospects who are entering or near entering the major leagues. I love lists and they have a list of the game’s 101 top prospects.
I also pay close attention to the projections for every player- what their expected performances are for the coming season.
There also is an essay for every team and a paragraph or two on every player on every team. Usually I read a handful of the team essays. I read the paragraphs about players I want to learn more about, not all of them.
Because of being home bound by the coronavirus, I took the time this year to read it cover to cover. Skipped some of the player paragraphs still. The team essays vary in quality. Some were surprisingly bad. There were also a few articles, including one on why hit batsmen set an all-time record in 2019. I won’t spoil it by revealing the reason here.
How can you rate this annual anything other than 5 stars if you are a devoted baseball fan?

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously a bit dated now, but finally finished this up both in time for what would have been my fantasy league's draft date (this coming Sunday, the 22nd) and well in advance of what would have been the start of the regular season.

It was nice to kind of put a lot of this COVID-19 stuff out of my mind for a while, at least, even if I had to emerge from this cocoon back into a world where baseball remains indefinitely on hold.

[Kevin Connor]

This series was a staple for me in the early aughts, but they haven't kept up with the latest advances in the sport, the talent pool at BP is much shallower than it was, and there is just better, more up to date content online. Sadly, I think that this was the last of these that I'll buy.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

My year ritual. Bittersweet finishing this year, who knows when baseball will be back. Great as always.

[Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Book to see stats for your favorite teams and Baseball Players.

[Matt Suder · Rating 3 out of 5]

could be a curio if the season is null

[Ian Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first BP annual I’ve ever read front to back. Does that make me a smarter or more informed person? I don’t know, but I know way more about the Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen than I feel like I’ll ever need to.

[Brian Kolda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baseball is the best.

[Rodger Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to home quarantine, I completed this book even before the short 60 game baseball regular season ended. Most years, I'm still working on this phonebook-sized tome through the end of the calendar year. It's still excellent after all these season. I'm one of the small number of people who own every volume, including the first one they printed without a commercial publisher (and missing the chapter on the Cardinals). Disclosure, I coauthored the KC Royals comments for an online-only version of the Davenport Translations back in the early 1990s -- that effort was a direct precursor of this book.

[Nick Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid year for the Annual! After a bit of a downturn in the mid '10s, it looks as though this iteration has continued the upward performance trend from last year, stopping the free-fall that looked to have this Annual headed towards an unhappy DFA. Good essays allow the secondary write-ups to play up, even allowing for a couple of miscues (looking at you, Tigers essay). All-in-all, a solid year for my 20th consecutive cover-to-cover read. You'd be lucky to be this good in your 20th year of anything!