The MVP Machine, Ben Lindbergh
The MVP Machine, Ben Lindbergh
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The MVP Machine
How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players

Author: Ben Lindbergh, Travis Sawchik

Narrator: Josh Hurley

Unabridged: 14 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 06/04/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Move over, Moneyball -- this New York Times bestseller examines major league baseball's next cutting-edge revolution: the high-tech quest to build better players.
As bestselling authors Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik reveal in The MVP Machine, the Moneyball era is over. Fifteen years after Michael Lewis brought the Oakland Athletics' groundbreaking team-building strategies to light, every front office takes a data-driven approach to evaluating players, and the league's smarter teams no longer have a huge advantage in valuing past performance.

Lindbergh and Sawchik's behind-the-scenes reporting reveals:How undersized afterthoughts José Altuve and Mookie Betts became big sluggers and MVPsHow polarizing pitcher Trevor Bauer made himself a Cy Young contenderHow new analytical tools have overturned traditional pitching and hitting techniquesHow a wave of young talent is making MLB both better than ever and arguably worse to watchInstead of out-drafting, out-signing, and out-trading their rivals, baseball's best minds have turned to out-developing opponents, gaining greater edges than ever by perfecting prospects and eking extra runs out of older athletes who were once written off. Lindbergh and Sawchik take us inside the transformation of former fringe hitters into home-run kings, show how washed-up pitchers have emerged as aces, and document how coaching and scouting are being turned upside down. The MVP Machine charts the future of a sport and offers a lesson that goes beyond baseball: Success stems not from focusing on finished products, but from making the most of untapped potential.

Author Bio

Ben Lindbergh is a staff writer for FiveThirtyEight and, with Sam Miller, cohost of Effectively Wild, the daily Baseball Prospectus podcast. He is a former staff writer for Grantland and a former editor in chief of Baseball Prospectus. He lives in New York City.

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