Smart Baseball
The old stats are ruining the game and the new ones are running it. This is the case for how to think about baseball, and why most of what you were taught about it is wrong.
I write about baseball for The Athletic. Everything else goes here.
Books, board games, records, and what I cooked. Twenty years of it, and I still haven't run out of things to be wrong about.
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3,340Posts
2Books
47,182Em dashesAll of them mine.
- ReadingGod's CountryPercival Everett
- ListeningA Different KindRakim
- PlayingMythologies2 to 4 players
- CookingSpatchcocked, dry‑brinedSalt only
Books
The Inside Game
Bad calls, strange moves, and what they say about the rest of us. Behavioural science pointed at baseball's worst decisions, and at why smart people keep making them.
Jacket
from publisher
from publisher
The next one
I'm excited to announce my third book coming in 2027. Even the title is TBD, but it's going to be a fun one.
Lately
- 2026.08.11Board GamingMythologiesB
- 2026.08.10BookThe Killing Moon, by N. K. Jemisin
- 2026.08.08Stick to baseballStick to baseball, 8/8/26
- 2026.08.05Board GamingGen Con 2026: the ten best new games
- 2026.07.29MusicMusic update, July 2026
About
I'm the Senior Baseball Writer at The Athletic, which I joined in January 2020 after thirteen and a half years at ESPN. Before that I spent four years with the Toronto Blue Jays, most of it as Special Assistant to the GM, and before that I wrote for Baseball Prospectus.
This site is for the rest of it. I've been posting here since 2006, which is either dedication or a failure to quit.
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