…a 2010 Cardinals Prospect Handbook? I’m considering doing a book. It would cover in-depth scouting reports of about 30-45 players, prospect rankings, essays, statistical analysis. Nothing massive, but thorough and hopefully very interesting. The goal would be to have it available to buy no later than early February. I’d probably have to take pre-orders. Just putting out some feelers.
Also, if you have any subjects that would interest you for the book, let me know.
I’m guessing it would run somewhere between $10-15 bucks.
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I’d buy it. But I’m wondering if these would be armchair scouting reports or if you’d take the plunge and actually visit everyone of our affiliates. Perhaps you could publish it in conjunction with Dustin and the other Scout guys.
I’ve seen several players already this year, although not as many as I’d like. I do have several contacts so it wouldn’t be just armchair.
erik – The problem with a handbook is that the information gets out-dated so quickly. Prospects are so different from year to year and level to level that the information is rendered nearly obsolete by the time the book is printed. If you do go ahead with this, I think the most value would be gained by gathering scouting reports from as many sources as possible. The wide range of viewpoints would help eliminate bias and might give a better overall picture of an individuals strengths and weaknesses.
I would actually be more interested in organizational review of the Cards draft/development history and prospect trades (maybe with a where are they now segment…so long as you don’t include a certain unnamed AZ pitcher).
I’d certainly buy it, as long as you are careful enough with the editing to avoid ugly locutions like “contemplating on.”
Teh grammer gestapo is teh suck!
Seriously, I’d have some editing help. Lord knows I need it.
I’m especially interested in lower level talents, who we don’t know much about. I just found out about a Jem Argenal for the first time right now.
Personally, I’d rather have less information on more players. Somewhere between 50-60 players would be great.
Aside from the stats I can get online, I want to know if a guy is a good defender, has a good arm, or could play other positions. A lot of those things are tough to find.
I see a guy like Curt Smith, for instance, and think, “Five-foot-10 looks awful short for a first baseman. Has he ever played anywhere else? Is he too slow? Is it worth worrying about at all?”
Again, I’m talking about the fourth- or fifth-best minor league first baseman for a franchise that hopefully will not need a replacement for about 10 years. Do your readers really care about that?
I do, but then again I’d rather learn something about the guys on the outer fringe than read the same rehashed information about the top prospects.
Agree with Nick. By the time such a thing is printed, it’s likely obsolete, let alone by the time it’s been read half a dozen times, as the diehard fan is likely to do.
The more information the better. It would be interesting to compare your write up on the Cards’ prospects against the Baseball America Prospect Book, the Scout/Fox Sports Magazine and Sickels book.
I would by it and keep it by my nightstand and I don’t even know what HPGF means! I’m not understanding the comments that it would be outdated by the time it was read. If it would be available by midway through the off season it would be current as of the start of the 2010 openers. After that everything starts changing daily but we still eat up all information with a spoon. Only a few predictions, such as mine that Nick Derba would make the majors by the end of next year, remain unblemished by subsequent evidence but that’s why we call them “prospects”. Sign me up for a copy.
I would also rather have less information on more players. We get a lot of information on bigger guys from KLAW and BA who also have a lot of scout contacts, but the information on the lower guys that intrigue us the most is the hardest to find.
I would also like a central place to find all of the stats of the players from our most recent draft so we know how they started out and which catchers will be moving to the mound. (but i’m sure the offseason will leave plenty of time to post something like that on the site).
I’m all for it since my trips to Springfield would be a lot better with some of the younger talent (QC mainly) coming up the ranks the next couple of seasons.
I agree with Wade. The big names are often already covered. But whatever you decide to do, I’d definitely buy it!
HPGF
High Pressure Gas Facility
Or
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Or
Hyperventilating Prospect Geek (the twitter address #HPGF
I’m in. Looking forward to reading some essays and forwards n’ such.
Count me in. Knowing erik, I’ll be smarter after I’ve read it–therefore it’ll be worthwhile.
@Mike G.: Locutions? Really?
Settle down. You’re embarassing even the English teachers who read this site.
He was waiting for days to work that word in to a sentence. :)
I’d buy it… if international shipping is available.
English teachers have a lot to be embarrassed about these days, considering the way some of their former students write, but the use of words like locutions isn’t one of them. It is possible to be literate and talk about baseball at the same time.
I would totally buy a copy, but am wondering if it would just be easier to do an Electronic release to save on publishing costs, and inflate profits to the site. I know a lot of people hate online books, but the cost saving is worth it IMO.
I think I would offer both options. Looking into things.
I’d buy it
The electronic version seems worthy of discussion. It could then be easily accessed when reading about a player (and wanting more info) on futuredbirds. It would also lend itself to possible updates throughout the year.
Yeah, I think Balkroth has a good point. Putting it out as an e-book would allow you to do whatever you wanted without worrying about the costs. It could be as comprehensive as you would like. I’d pay for it and just print it out for reference
Erik – I personally don’t read much “printed” material anymore. And as at least one commenter already stated the information gets outdated so fast by the time it was published there would be things that changed. I do love scouting reports and updated prospect stats though. I would be onboard for some online publication or maybe a running section on this site that gave a good indepth scouting report on 30-40 prospects and then added comments to them as the year went along. Things like Cards Pitcher of the Month or this guy hit .385 in May…things like that. So you have one area to go to get the overall report on a player as well as ongoing updates and stats. I would be all over that…even if it had a low annual cost associated to access that part of the site. Just my 2 cents.
My boss is self-publishing a book through one of those not-printed-until-ordered online sites. They also have an eBook version that is very inexpensive. Erik, I’ll send you the links when he gets back in town.
(My boss’s book is one of those side projects everyone here in my office it trying to avoid, but I’ll see what I can find out from our Web guy before the boss gets back from vacation. If I ask him myself, I’ll end up being the new “right-hand man” for the book. Yuck.) :)
I’d be very interested. It’s interesting comparing evaluations then eventually looking back to see which analysis proved most correct. I’d consider it a must-read for every rush of the Hyperventilating Prospect Geek Fraternity.
If you want to make a little money on this project, offer it in paper and sell it in St. Louis bookstores and newsstands. This would profile like a cookbook in terms of economics. There are several sports publishers that handle this type of thing, though it could be self-published as well. Yes, it would get outdated quickly, but this sort of thing is better for background information than it is for in-season development.
I disagree on the e-book business. If I’m going to have to look something up online, I may as well just go to Fangraphs. The browsability of a 100-page book or whatever is far greater than anything on a computer.
I agree with RedC about offering it locally. Rob Rains and a lot of others in the area have had pretty good success peddling St. Louis baseball books.
The online publisher my boss uses is http://www.iUniverse.com. The contact my secretary likes best is a guy named Ryan Allison, 812.349.0595, ryan.allison@iUniverse.com.
I would love to be able to purchase such a tome. I was a sports editor at a small town (~10,000 population) newspaper and I would be willing to help out with the project in any way possible.