The MVP Machine, Ben Lindbergh
The MVP Machine, Ben Lindbergh
3 Rating(s)
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

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.

About Ben Lindbergh

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Doug on June 23, 2019

If you want to understand what is going on in baseball today, this book is a primer. The authors who have previously written in this genre offer a very up to date insight on the changes revolutionizing baseball. Whether you like the new approach or not, it is here to stay. This book will give you th......more

Goodreads review by Michael on August 11, 2021

I'd love to be able to recommend 'The MVP Machine' to everyone, but unless you're a baseball fan who's embraced (or at least tolerated) the 'new stats' and technology that have been introduced into the game over the past few years it won't do much for you. However, if you are such a fan...... 'The MV......more

Goodreads review by Kellen on May 12, 2023

This book was not great. It has aged poorly in the last few years since it was published. The extensive writing on Trevor Bauer is gross. The chapter on the Astros is different after their cheating scandal. While there were interesting ideas explored in the book, I took issue with the presentation o......more

Goodreads review by Caitlin on October 08, 2019

Good read, but enough with the Trevor Bauer.......more

Goodreads review by Rich on February 11, 2020

Definitely too much Trevor Bauer but I got post–sign-stealing scandal Astros lols and learned a lot too......more

Quotes

"In The MVP Machine, Lindbergh and Sawchik make a convincing, and faith-restoring, case that genuine, unadulterated miracles can happen in baseball."—WashingtonPost

"Even MBAs who don't know what an ERA ... will grasp the book's essential message: next-generation technologies and analytics radically transform top-tier talent development and technique."—HarvardBusiness Review

"The MVP Machine is an eye-opening dispatch from the leading edge of the sport."—TheAtlantic

"The MVP Machine (Basic Books), out now, tells how a series of new tools, advanced statistics and technology are changing the game of baseball, led by innovators"—NewYork Post

"For too long, stat geeks like me ignored the 'development' side of 'scouting and development.' The MVP Machine is the book that's going to change that. Travis Sawchik and Ben Lindbergh persuasively and entertainingly demonstrate that a baseball player's success is less about God-given talent and more about innovation, hard work, and the willingness to take a more scientific approach to the game. Read it, and you won't think about baseball in quite the same way again."—Nate Silver, founder and editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight

"I wish this book spent more time on the Red Sox winning four times as many titles as the Yankees this century, but The MVP Machine is a great and informative deep dive on the challenges of unlocking talent and building winning teams in the age of analytics."—Bill Simmons, founder and CEO, The Ringer

"High-speed cameras and radar-tracking devices have revolutionized training and are now giving baseball pitchers accurate, detailed and actionable feedback during practice. This captivating book details step-by-step how merely good major league pitchers have recently been able to transform themselves into great ones and reach previously unattainable levels of mastery by purposeful and deliberate practice."—K. Anders Ericsson, Conradi Eminent Scholar of Psychology, Florida State University, and author of Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

"In today's game, players and teams are doing more than ever behind the scenes to change and improve. The work they do is absolutely critical to success but nearly invisible to the public -- until now. Any fan seeking a fresh look at how teams win in modern baseball should read this book."—Chaim Bloom, Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations, Tampa Bay Rays

"The MVP Machine isn't just the purest distillation yet of baseball's information era and how it came to be. It's a seminal road map for the game today and treasure map to find -- and understand -- the gems baseball soon will offer."—Jeff Passan, MLB insider, ESPN

"This is the book baseball needed, the definitive document on how the best players in the world are using new ideas to become even better. Until now, no one had delivered an authoritative, comprehensive look at the revolution that is transforming the sport and offering lessons that extend even beyond the field. If you want to understand the inner workings of the modern game, you must read The MVP Machine."—Ken Rosenthal, baseball reporter for The Athletic, Fox Sports, and MLB Network

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