I just finished reading Astrosball: The New Way to Win It All by Ben Reiter. What a fantastic and fun read. It's especially exciting for those that lived and breathed the Astros from 2011-2017.
There are so many good insights and stories and quotes like, "But Jeff Luhnow's not paid to win popularity contests. He's paid to fucking deliver. and he's doing that." It's hard to figure out where to start. I guess we could start with the book is an insider view of the Astros from 2011 to the spring of 2018. They talk about the process of building a championship team. They own up to the mistakes made and how they need to go about improvements.
It talks about making statistically sound decisions that don't work; and statistically unsound decisions that do work. Every major news catching event from 2011 on is covered. The drafting of Carlos Correa over five others. Drafting but not signing Brady Aiken. The Ground Control breach. Trading for Justin Verlander. All covered with insider information. I'm quite pleased with how behind the scenes we get to go on this book.
Ben Reiter is an amazing writer and kept me engaged through out the book. At one point I was planning to read for 30 minutes. Three hours later I forced myself to go to bed right before the Justin Verlander trade really heated up. The detail, research, and effort put into this book is clearly on the page. If you loved Moneyball, you will love this book. Go pick this book up! You will not be disappointed.
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We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
