How To Master Baseball

Baseball Hacks isn't your typical baseball book--it's a book about how to watch, research, and understand baseball. It's an instruction manual for the free baseball databases. It's a cookbook for baseball research. Every part of this book is designed to teach baseball fans how to do something. In short, it's a how-to book--one that will increase your enjoyment and knowledge of the game. So much of the way baseball is played today hinges upon interpreting statistical data. Players are acquired based on their performance in statistical categories that ownership deems most important. Managers make in-game decisions based not on instincts, but on probability - how a particular batter might fare against left-handedpitching, for instance. The goal of this unique book is to show fans all the baseball-related stuff that they can do for free (or close to free). Just as open source projects have made great software freely available, collaborative projects such as Retrosheet and Baseball DataBank have made great data freely available. You can use these data sources to research your favorite players, win your fantasy league, or appreciate the game of baseball even more than you do now. Baseball Hacks shows how easy it is to get data, process it, and use it to truly understand baseball. The book lists a number of sources for current and historical baseball data, and explains how to load it into a database for analysis. It then introduces several powerful statistical tools for understanding data and forecasting results. For the uninitiated baseball fan, author Joseph Adler walks readers through the core statistical categories for hitters (batting average, on-base percentage, etc.), pitchers (earned run average, strikeout-to-walk ratio, etc.), and fielders (putouts, errors, etc.). He then extrapolates upon these numbers to examine more advanced data groups like career averages, team stats, season-by-season comparisons, and more. Whether you're a mathematician, scientist, or season-ticket holder to your favorite team, Baseball Hacks is sure to have something for you. Advance praise for Baseball Hacks: "Baseball Hacks is the best book ever written for understanding and practicing baseball analytics. A must-read for baseball professionals and enthusiasts alike." -- Ari Kaplan, database consultant to the Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Baltimore Orioles "The game was born in the 19th century, but the passion for its analysis continues to grow into the 21st. In Baseball Hacks, Joe Adler not only demonstrates thatthe latest data-mining technologies have useful application to the study of baseball statistics, he also teaches the reader how to do the analysis himself, arming the dedicated baseball fan with tools to take his understanding of the game to a higher level." -- Mark E. Johnson, Ph.D., Founder, SportMetrika, Inc. and Baseball Analyst for the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals

In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peack performance at every level of the game.

What Does it Take to Have a Great Baseball Career? You daydream about one day seeing your face on a baseball card. You live for pressure and the green grass beneath your cleats. But as your career progresses, the game gets harder. You slump and struggle. You get injured and overlooked. Your confidence plummets. Can you keep improving? Are your big dreams still within reach? A Handbook for the Dedicated Player Clean Your Cleats is filled with stories and advice learned the hard way, over a long career on the diamond. Develop better routines and improve your consistency. Handle the ups and downs with confidence and resolve. Strengthen relationships with teammates, parents and coaches. Learn mindset strategies to become the best version of you. Dan Blewett, in this practical guide, helps players understand all the little things in baseball that make a huge difference over a long career. Why clean your cleats? Because every detail matters.

Major League Baseball has compiled the definitive instruction manual on learning to play the game. Fully illustrated with action photos of MLB stars illustrating key points and drills for each defensive position, this book also includes special tips from MLB players on batting, base running, the rules of the game, and coaching. Easy-to-follow instructions and diagrams of all the skills beginning players need to master the game--how to throw, hit, and field all the positions--while also promoting good sportsmanship. Each skill and position is presented separately, with photographs and drawings of a player executing the specific skill, advice on how to perform it, and when to use it, and the most common mistakes. Written and compiled by the best baseball instructors, coaches, and players in the world, this comprehensive how-to is informative enough to help even the brightest young stars shine brighter. With keen insights from instruction and developmental coaches, the need to create a positive environment in practice and encourage creativity as well as technical correctness is stressed. Most importantly, the coaches understand that kids are not just small adults--and they back up their understanding with advice on how to help kids fall in love with "America's pastime." Model training sections construct excellent practice sessions--from warm-up through cool-down exercises and hundreds of drills and games to reinforce--this is an essential tool for all coaches as a guide to improving performance and enjoyment of practice and playing the game. This must-have resource covers it all: Batting, Pitching, Base running and sliding, Specific drills for playing all defensive positions, Coaching and rules, Offensive and defensive strategy. Partial list of Big League tips on How to Play the Game: Tony Gwynn (hitting), Sammy Sosa (judging fly balls), Bernie Williams (playing the outfield), Mark Grace (approach to hitting), Alex Rodriguez (fielding ground balls), Jeff Bagwell (hitting), Roberto Alomar (fielding ground balls), Jaret Wright (pitching mechanics), Edgar Renteria (how to play SS), John Lackey (improving your pitching), Carlos Delgado (mastering 1B), Rocco Baldelli (basic approach at plate), Cristian Guzman (fielding ground balls), Danny Kolb (good approach on the mound), Dontrelle Willis (pitching strategies), Torii Hunter (playing the outfield), Jason Marquis (pitching with control), Chone Figgins (sliding), Orlando Cabrera (improving your game), Gary Bennett (becoming a better catcher), Ervin Santana (pitching under pressure), Mark Teixeira (playing 1B), Ryan Howard (hitting), Joey Gathright (playing the OF), Troy Tulowitzki (succeeding at the plate), Joel Zumaya (pitching with poise), Josh Johnson (pitching with confidence)

Major League All-Star Green shares how his baseball career has taught him to live life being fully present in every moment.

Anyone attempting to learn one of the most difficult skills in sports - or charged with teaching it - will delight in DISCIPLE OF A MASTER, an A to Z guide that carefully outlines correct baseball batting technique in a lively & photo-filled text. By breaking the skill down into its component parts, author, hitter & expert teacher Steve Ferroli (Phys. Ed., Bridgewater State College, 1982) provides young athletes & coaches with precise instructions for building hitting ability, all the while creating an enthusiastic learning environment with every paragraph. "This book is remarkable & works on several levels." (Baseball Hobby News). His physical education & coaching background furnishing the biomechanical & kinesiological rationale, Ferroli covers the basics of stance, cocking actions, stride, hip rotation & arm execution. This book teaches kids how to hit, leaving nothing uncovered, from bat selection to knowing what pitches deserve a batter's swing. Ferroli then packs this information into every page with insight, clarity & occasional humor. His strident belief is that batting potential is more a function of technique than raw talent, a belief for which he provides historical support, & one which opens up the enjoyment of the skill to a large segment of the student-athlete population. DISCIPLE OF A MASTER is endorsed & foreworded by Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams, who views it as an extension & defense" of his own time-honored techniques. "Steve Ferroli teaches hitting exactly the way it should be taught." (Ted Williams). Lavishly illustrated & equally applicable to softball, it is full of drills & practice suggestions designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of coaches, instructors & athletes, from physical eduction classes & intermurals to interscholastic competition. Send $9.95 to Line Drive Publishing, Box 2070, Hanover, MA 02339; 617- 878-5035.

There are two basic ways to win the pitcher versus hitter war:• Overpower the hitter (like Justin Verlander)• Fool the hitter (like Barry Zito).The first requires dominating stuff, generally velocity. (Verlander's average fastball in 2012 was 94.3 mph. He also showcased a superb curveball.) And, it requires a fair amount of control to go with the overpowering velocity. Not many pitchers have that kind of ability, even in the major leagues. At lower levels, very few pitchers have the kind of overpowering stuff to rely just on that to get hitters out throughout a game. Those who do have electric stuff can dominate hitters. They are the fortunate ones, but not everyone has this advantage. For them, and for the overpowering pitchers at higher levels, something more than great stuff is required. So, in general, we need a more strategic, mental approach to get hitters out consistently.Pitching is a complex endeavor—both physical and mental. While there are many views on how to succeed as a pitcher, there are several principles that lead to success on the mound. Among these are the following: There is a limited number of things you can do with a ball: give it speed, give it direction, impart spin, and select an orientation of the seams. You can also combine pitches in different sequences and combinations. Otherwise, there is nothing you can to the ball. Every other factor that you can control is mental, and therefore absolutely essential to success. You cannot succeed consistently on the hill without having a plan in mind beforehand. So, if you prepare well, with solid mechanics, you can win each battle with hitters.The objective on the mound is getting outs. There is a strategy to doing this and it relies upon a thoughtful approach that considers your abilities and the situation. If you combine great physical preparation with a sound mental approach, you greatly increase your chances to get those outs, succeed on the hill, and give your team the best opportunity to win games.There are many books on baseball, a few of them about pitching. But, there are very few good books on the art and strategy: the tactics of pitching—specifically, books dealing with how to throw specific pitches, why they do what they do, when to throw them, to what locations, and how to set up hitters. There are few books that help pitchers “pitch” a good game—the subtleties of how to throw pitches and how to formulate game plans for pitching. The Tactics of Pitching is a practical manual for learning and teaching the science, mechanics, and strategy of pitching, suitable for amateur players and coaches through the college level.The book focuses on the following topics:• Pitching Philosophy• How Air Resistance Affects the Flight of a Ball• The Strikezone• Pitches• Situational Pitching• Mechanics Checklist• Correcting Problems• Mental Aspects of Pitching.