As definitive a guide to the baseball hall of fame as you’ll find, with in-depth profiles of every inductee as well as notable exceptions and up and comers.

Like everyone today this book is filled with the analytics side of the game. This has gotten very popular since a book by Bill James. The author also goes through the different areas and how and why some players are in when some are not. He also looks at the veterans committee and how they elected some of the players. When it is all said and done it is still not fair. There are some men who should be in and some who are in that should not be in for whatever reason. I do agree with the author that voting and the way it is handled needs to be updated. I also hope that any true baseball is able to visit the Hall of Fame for it is truly a site to see. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting it and am wanting to go back. This book is a great conversation piece.

A must-read for all baseball fans! Will start lots of discussions and debates. I thought I knew the history of most of these players and was so surprised by what I found it. This will help me get through the off-season.

Thank you Net-Galley for the copy of this book.

As a huge baseball fan when I saw this book I needed to read it. It wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be but it was a good read. I think most baseball fans would enjoy this book. I wanted a bit more from it.

One topic that is certain to ignite debates among baseball fans is the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pick any year, and the voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) will certainly draw praise and criticism. Similarly, there are arguments whether certain players who are already inducted truly belong there. These types of debates will be conducted as long as there is a Hall of Fame.

While this book by Jay Jaffee is not intended for casual fans, it is one that every serious baseball fan should pick up. There is statistical information on every player currently enshrined in the Hall and a brief career bio on each one that explains why Jaffee believes whether or not the player is a worthy inductee. He uses advanced statistical analysis to make these decisions with a formula he names JAWS (Jaffee War Score). The score is primarily derived from the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistic, using each player’s peak performance and allowing for factors such as different ballparks and eras where either offense or pitching may be more dominant than at other times. It isn’t perfect, but certainly a fair method to evaluate each player.

However, before ranking each player within his position (and, spoiler alert, there are some big surprises on the rankings of some of these players) Jaffee does his best work in the book in two areas. One is that he does a very nice job of breaking down some of the advanced statistical categories such as WAR, OPS+ and other statistics so that fans can better understand them. There is also a full chapter devoted to the argument the author makes on why players who have been suspected of using performance enhancement drugs, such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, should not be kept out of the Hall of Fame. The only part of this argument that seemed flawed to me was not about these players, but he does not allow the same type of leeway for the inclusion of players who have been banned from the game for gambling, specifically Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson. This isn’t a criticism of his opinion – just that the two specific situations seem to be approached differently when they may not be all that different.

One other aspect of the book’s structure that I appreciated was that each chapter on the players inducted at a specific position gave an example of a player that should be inducted but has not been voted in by either the BBWAA or a committee, of which there have been several throughout the history of the Hall. (Note: there is also an excellent chapter on the flaws of the voting over the years by both the committees and BBWAA.) Using JAWS, traditional statistics and some old-fashioned logic, Jaffee makes a good case for each of these players. That was a nice touch to add to each chapter as a lead-in to the breakdown of each player’s write-up at each position.

The Hall of Fame may be a source of debate among baseball fans as long as it exists, but there should be no debate about the worthiness of this book. Every serious baseball fan should read this for a better understanding of some of the advanced statistics that have been used to bolster the chances of some Hall of Fame players such as Bert Blyleven and Tim Raines as well as just gain some valuable information to use the next time an argument breaks out about the worthiness of some player who supposedly doesn’t belong there.

I wish to thank St. Martin’s Press and Thomas Dunne Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I received a free Kindle copy of The Cooperstown Casebook by Jay Jaffe courtesy of Net Galley and St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I am an avid baseball fan and the description of this book sounded interesting. It is the first book by Jay Jaffe that I have read.

This was an interesting book and a quick read. The premise of the book is accurately described in the subtitle: Who's in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Who Should Be In and Who Should Pack Their Plaques. The author's suppositions, while interesting, are based solely on numbers and ratios. While he presesnts strong arguements, he appears to want to totally take the human element out of the qualification process. There is not room for the intangibles - leadership in the clubhouse or clutch pitching, hitting or fielding as examples. He also in in favor of overlooking some of the seedier side of baseball. While I can go along with overlooking the steriod era as ballplayers since the establishment of the game have always looked for an edge, I do not agree with allowing those who gambled on the game to be allowed entrance into the hall. Joe Jackson admitted that they threw the second game of the Black Sox series and Pete Rose has denied betting on the Reds while he was manager, there is not proof of it or that he may have manipulated the lineup to lose games.

This is not a book for the casual or even more than casual baseball fan. It is intended for hard core fans, but does not really present anything new (other than additional numbers) to the arguements of those who are in and shouldn't be and those who are not and should be.

I was curious about this book as I'd occasionally read some of Jaffe's work via posts on Twitter and wanted to learn more. It definitely ended up to be a really interesting read and one I'd recommend to any baseball fan.

Some of the stats were a little too dense especially first thing in the morning, but I really like how he balanced the stats with anecdotes and qualitative research. I especially enjoyed the chapters where he looked at the cronyism allegations that have battered the Hall throughout its history and backed it up with research that contextualized some of the claims.

The parts that I found most interesting were the various iterations of the veterans committees and how they've endeavored to handle the backlog from before the Hall's formation and as it has grown over time. I also liked how he'd put two players head to head, such as Blyleven and Jack Morris to further explore their candidacies.

If you are even a casual baseball fan, you have surely had a debate about the worthiness of a player being enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This player might have been your idol growing up, or the best player on a hated rival. The player might have easily made it to Cooperstown, or might still be on the outside looking in, waiting for their moment. This book will help you win these arguments in the future, or give you a cold dose of reality so you stop stumping for an unworthy candidate.

The book opens with an overview of what the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum actually is, and then a crash course in sabermetrics and useful statistics so even a casual fan can follow along with the author's logic and lingo. Do not worry, this opening is not overwhelming to read, but rather immensely helpful in understanding the rationale about the worthiness of candidates.

The book then moves on to some of the voting oddities over time, such as the scarcity of third basemen in the Hall of Fame as well as why some players such as Bert Blyleven and Ron Santo, have such a hard time being elected into Hall of Fame despite superior numbers to several previously enshrined members. The book even addresses some ways to reform the process and weighs in on the author's stance on PED's and the Hall of Fame.

The second half of the book breaks down the Hall of Fame, position by position, making the case for deserving candidates, giving a quick bio and worthiness ranking for each of the current Hall of Fame members based advanced statistics and common sense, and giving a detailed narrative on a choice player or two from each position. I am sure that you are aware that there are some less than deserving players in the Hall of Fame, but once you see these names and stats as compared to the truly elite players, it will blow your mind on how unworthy these players truly are. This is also the part of the book that will come in handy in those barroom debates about Jim Rice, Dale Murphy, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris, Alan Trammel, Andruw Jones, and the myriad of others that we, as fans, feel so passionately about being elected to the Hall of Fame. I will admit that there are some players I originally thought deserved to be enshrined that I am now second guessing that assertion. Also, I now even more resolute for a few candidates, some which are already in the Hall of Fame, and some that probably will never be enshrined.

If you are a baseball fan, this is a must read book. You will gain some perspective on the Hall of Fame, the election process for its members, and why your some of your favorite players never were enshrined, yet that completely comparable player for another team was.