Philadelphia Phillies 2020

The team edition based on The New York Times Bestselling Guide. This more portable team edition of the full 25th edition of the industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important statistics, player projections and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, but focused on your favorite organization. It also features detailed reports on the top prospects, including fantasy values and commentary. Take it out to the ball game or wherever you follow your team!

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

The team edition based on The New York Times Bestselling Guide. This more portable team edition of the full 26th edition of the industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important statistics, player projections, and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, but focused on your favorite organization. It also features detailed reports on the top prospects, data visualization, and deeper statistical profiles. Take it out to the ball game or wherever you follow your team!

The first book of its kind to fully integrate sabermetrics and scouting, the 2020 Minor League Baseball Analyst provides a distinctive brand of analysis for more than 1,000 minor league baseball players. Features include scouting reports for all players, batter skills ratings, pitch repertoires, performance trends, major league equivalents, and expected major league debuts. A complete sabermetric glossary is also included. This one-of-a-kind reference is ideally suited for baseball analysts and those who play in fantasy leagues with farm systems.

In The 50 Greatest Players in Philadelphia Phillies History, sports historian Robert W. Cohen ranks the top 50 players ever to perform for one of Major League Baseball's most iconic and historic franchises. This work includes quotes from the subjects themselves and former teammates, photos, recaps of memorable performances, as well as a statistical summary of each player's career with the Phillies. The team's best are profiled here in what is sure to be a much discussed book among the Phillies' broad fan base. An added bonus is the "honorable mentions," the next 25 players who have contributed to the Phillies' astounding run as one of America's great sports teams.

Lefty and Tim is the dual biography of Hall of Fame pitcher Steve "Lefty" Carlton and catcher Tim McCarver, detailing their relationship from 1965, when they played with the St. Louis Cardinals, through 1980, when they played for the Philadelphia Phillies. Along the way McCarver became Carlton's personal catcher, and together they became the best battery in baseball in the mid-to-late 1970s. At first glance Carlton and McCarver appear like an odd couple: McCarver was old school, Carlton new age. At the beginning of his career, McCarver believed that the catcher called the pitches, encouraged the pitcher when necessary, and schooled the pitcher when he deviated from the game plan. But Lefty, who pioneered the use of meditation and martial arts in baseball, was stubborn too. He wanted to control pitch selection. Over time, Carlton and McCarver developed a strong bond off the diamond that allowed them to understand and trust each other. In the process, Steve Carlton became one of the greatest left-handers in the history of Major League Baseball, an achievement that would not have been possible without Tim McCarver as his catcher. Not only did McCarver mentor Carlton as a young hurler with the Cardinals, but he helped resurrect Carlton's career when they were reunited in Philadelphia midseason in 1975. Carlton won his second Cy Young Award with McCarver behind the plate in 1977. Told in the historical context of the time they played the game, Lefty and Tim recounts the pair's time in the tumultuous sixties, with the racial integration of the St. Louis Cardinals and the dominance of pitching, and in the turbulent seventies, characterized by MLB's labor tensions, the arrival of free agency, and the return of the lively ball that followed the lowering of the pitcher's mound in 1969.

Superstition has been a part of baseball from the beginning. From good luck charms to human mascots to ritual statues of Babe Ruth to the curse of Colonel Sanders, there may be almost as many superstitions as players (or fans). Drawing on social science, religious studies and SABRmetrics, this book explores the rich history of supernatural belief in the game and documents a wide variety of rituals, fetishes, taboos and jinxes. Some of these have changed over time but coping with uncertainty on the field through magical thinking remains a constant.

An in-depth and multiperspectival look at the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal and its roots in the culture of baseball fandom. In 2017 the Houston Astros won their first World Series title, a particularly uplifting victory for the city following Hurricane Harvey. But two years later, the feel-good energy was gone after The Athletic revealed that the Astros had stolen signs from opposing catchers during their championship season, perhaps even during the playoffs and World Series. Their methods were at once high-tech and crude: staff took video of opponents’ pitching signals and transmitted the footage in real time to the Astros’ dugout, where players banged on trash cans to signal to their teammates at bat which pitches were coming their way. Wry observers labeled them the Asterisks, pointing to the title that no longer seemed so earned. Astros and Asterisks examines the scandal from historical, journalistic, legal, ethical, and cultural perspectives. Authors delve into the Astros’ winning-above-all attitude, cultivated by a former McKinsey consultant; the significance of hiring a pitcher recently suspended for domestic abuse; the career-ending effects of the Astros’ transgression on opposing players; and the ethically fraught choices necessary to participate in sign-stealing. Ultimately, it links the Astros’ choices to the sporting world’s obsession with analytics. What emerges is a sobering tale about the impact of new technology on a game whose romanticized image feels increasingly incongruous with its reality in the era of big data and video.