JotCast | FanGraphs Book Club - The Only Rule Is It Has To Work

Paul Swydan

9:01

Hi everybody!

So excited to be back at FanGraphs talking baseball. I'm very eager to hear what you guys want to talk about tonight.

Abe

9:01

I guess this means that I have 3 hours to read the book!

Paul Swydan

9:02

Too late! No, just kidding. It's actually totally fine if you didn't read the book, or if you started it but didn't finish. This isn't a test or anything.

RyanW

9:02

This is one of a handful of books I've reread in the last 5yrs. This isn't a question, just wanted to comment on how lovely and well-written this book is

Paul Swydan

9:03

I have to agree. Going back through my review copy just now, I was looking at pages I had dog-eared, and was immediately getting sucked back in.

Mike Mort

9:03

I read the book a second time through, i picked up so much more

Paul Swydan

9:04

Mike, that's really interesting. What did you pick up the second time as opposed to the first?

9:05

One of the things that struck me just a few minutes ago as I was reading again was how great the dialogue was. I especially liked that they used text message chains, rather than just narrating text messages. It was helpful to break up the text with those illustrations.

Mark

9:06

Loved the book! I could 100% see this being a movie. It's not a super easy topic to keep interesting, with some pretty stat-heavy sections, but it flowed very well.

Paul Swydan

9:08

I would tend to agree. I would think the underdog mentality of the story would help a lot. I could see some playing Paul Hvozdovic and talking like they do in the book about going from 9 promotions away from the majors to 10. That stuff really resonates.

Mark Steubinger

9:08

I agree with that. Seeing the full text conversations or even emails sent back and forth between Ben and Sam and Theo/Feh/Yoshi worked really well.

Paul Swydan

9:08

Yeah, it helped keep the pace moving, which is always a plus in *any* non-fiction book.

Mike Mort

9:08

a lot more of the names and characters, i was able to focus more on the reasoning than results, it may have just been me but i found it was a lot easier to realize what they were trying because i was aware of the result

Paul Swydan

9:09

Right, you weren't anxiously zooming through to see what happened. That makes sense. There was definitely a sense of that for me the first time, especially with guys like Taylor Eads.

9:10

Do you think the book would make a good movie?

Yes! Better than Moneyball (26.1% | 6 votes)

I could see it (56.5% | 13 votes)

Maybe? (13% | 3 votes)

Doubtful (4.3% | 1 vote)

Definitely not (0% | 0 votes)

Total Votes: 23

9:12

Another thing that personally was a lot of fun for me skimming through tonight were the passages that mention John Choiniere. When I read the book initially, I didn't really know him. Now, I've met him, and he's moved full-time into baseball with the Mariners, which makes the parts with him seem richer in retrospect.

Jeff

9:12

Quite frankly, I haven’t had a chance to read through it a second time. I keep loaning it out to anyone I know with even a passing interest in baseball or analytics in general!

Paul Swydan

9:12

I didn't have a chance to read it a second time either, but going through it tonight, so many of the passages came back to me so clearly, which was a lot of fun.

9:13

One passage that really hit home for me was the part in the "Evidences" chapter about pop times. Sam explained it in such a way that it really didn't sound nerdy at all.

Michelle

9:14

I didn't have a chance to re-read, but I read it twice right after it came out. A really stellar book. I would say I'd love for it to be a movie, but I'm sure they couldn't do it justice.

Paul Swydan

9:15

It'd really depend on who they chose to focus on, right? You could choose to focus on the back and forth between Ben and Sam the way the book does, but you could also take it from the point of view of several of the players/team personnel as well.

9:16

The thing that I think would be tough is working in all the different characters. Even in a movie with an ensemble cast like "Major League," it still boils down to 5-6 main characters. I don't know that you could work THIS book like that. What do you guys think?

Mel Roberts

9:16

The analytics descriptions were on point the whole way through, I was really impressed. Made it a much more approachable read.

Paul Swydan

9:17

Agreed. I think the way they did those - relying on words rather than statistical names/jargon - will allow the book to age better.

Mark Steubinger

9:17

It would almost work better as a Netflix/HBO series where each episode could give a different perspective. Or they could bounce between characters, like GoT style.

Paul Swydan

9:17

Oh that's a really cool idea. Or maybe you could make it a two-season series, and one season is the Ben season and one is the Sam season.

Mike Mort

9:17

I found that i didn't dislike Fay as much the second time through too, didn't find him to be the villain i though of him as the first time through.... just a guy who didn't trust anything he really didn't feel comfortable with

Paul Swydan

9:18

Yeah I bet I'd feel the same way. It is interesting the way they thank him in the acknowledgments.

9:19

"Fehlandt Lentini and Takashi Miyoshi let us onto their turf and, on balance, both were open, supportive, and great to be around."

At some points in the book, that sentence would be hard to believe.

Jeff

9:19

It was also pretty nifty to listen to the post-book release Effectively Wild podcasts that related to the book. Here’s one with

...podcast with Theo, the GM

http://podbay.fm/show/545919715/e/1473418860?autostart=1

Paul Swydan

9:20

Yeah, sadly, I've never really been a regular EW listener. I bet the whole time from start to finish the pod was really cool to hear.

Mike Mort

9:20

Speaking on moneyball before the VIPs hop in, when do we vote for next book?

Paul Swydan

9:21

So, yeah, we should talk about that. Let me do a quick poll here.

9:22

What should the scope be for the next book we read?

Choose just from the top options from the last vote (42.9% | 6 votes)

Open the floor completely again (28.6% | 4 votes)

Not democratic - Paul just picks (28.6% | 4 votes)

Other? (say in comments) (0% | 0 votes)

Total Votes: 14

And here's one more poll!

Would the book make a better movie or HBO-style TV show?

Movie (33.3% | 5 votes)

TV show (66.7% | 10 votes)

I can't decide!!! (0% | 0 votes)

Neither (0% | 0 votes)

Total Votes: 15

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