Looking for something to read? One of my goals with Puckett’s Pond this offseason was to read and review a large selection of Twins-related books and recommend them for fans to read (or not read, depending on quality). Sadly, I got a little behind in my reading and only managed to review three books so far. But today I have a real gem for you: Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook 2012. This is the first book to score a perfect 5 on the TC Bear Scale.

Sure, I could've used stars to rate books instead.... but I think outside the box.

AUTHOR(S): The book is an annual tradition written by Seth Stohs, one of Minnesota’s longest-tenured and most authoritative sports bloggers. Mr. Stohs had a lot of help with this one, though, most notably from fellow Twins bloggers Cody Christie and Josh Johnson.

OVERVIEW: This is the Bible for everything related to the Twins minor league system. The heart of the book is composed of more than 160 profiles of Twins prospects. Some prospects merit only a paragraph, while others have more than a page devoted to them. Dates of birth, draft positions, and 2011 stats are listed for every one. The book also contains several prospect-related articles, including one that profiles 2012 draft candidates and one that discusses the importance (or lack thereof) of Appalachian League stats. At the end of the book are Seth Stoh’s Top 30 Twins prospects and 19 other top 10 lists created by Twins writers, including the staff of Puckett’s Pond (for the record, we do not benefit financially from this book in any way – my glowingly positive review is not inspired by any financial gain).

HIGHLIGHTS: The most striking aspect of this book is that it fills a niche that no other book does (at least, no other book that I’m aware of). You can find plenty of information online and elsewhere about the Twins’ top prospects (Miguel Sano, Kyle Gibson, Aaron Hicks, etc.). But the Twins Prospect Handbook gets much further. Sure, they talk about Sano and Gibson, but where else will you find detailed info on guys like Tony Davis, Steven Gruver, and Josue Montanez? This book is an onslaught of interesting information. Thanks to the 2012 version, I’ve already learned about a handful of intriguing prospects who weren’t on my radar before, including Matt Summers, Michael Gonzales, and Matthew Hauser. I’ll be following their progress this season.

NEGATIVES: Even a five TC Bear book has a negative, but it is very minor. The header to each prospect profile lists the player’s name, position, date of birth, 2011 teams, 2011 stats, and acquisition status, but it does not say whether hitters are right-handed, left-handed, or switch-hitters. For several players I had to look this information up online. It wasn’t a big problem, but it would have been nice to have that information on the page.

CONCLUSION: The prospect handbook is an invaluable research tool for any Twins fan who considers himself/herself a student of the game, and it’s an entertaining piece of light reading for any casual fan who wants to know about the next generation of Twins. As an online writer, I purchased an electronic copy of the book that I keep on my laptop and refer to frequently in the course of my writing. But I also find it pleasant to keep a hard copy of the book next to the bed or on the coffee table to read a little at a time. The point is, whether you’re a hard-core or a casual Twins fan, this is the one book that you should definitely read. And since Spring Training is just starting, we’re going to be hearing a lot of these prospects’ names over the next month or two. You should definitely get this book so you can brush up on them right away.

There are two types of sports fans in the modern world: those who watch because they appreciate the beauty and athleticism of the game, and those who are more interested in analyzing numbers and data to try to explain things (for example, Sabermetricians). This book was definitely written with the second group in mind. I sympathize with both types, but like 90% of the people who write about baseball on the internet, I lean a bit more toward the second group. And that’s why I give Scorecasting a 4 out of 5 on the esteemed TC Bear Literary Scale.

AUTHORS: L. on Wertheim is a seasoned veteran writer for Sports Illustrated. He teamed with University of Chicago economist Tobias Moskowitz to write Scorecasting. The economist knows about the data and numbers, and the journalist helps make the whole thing readable for normal human beings. It’s a repeat of the formula that made Freakonomics a super-platinum bestseller (I don’t know if books can be considered “platinum,” but I’m just going to go with it), except that this book is devoted entirely to sports, while Freakonomics covered a whole range of unrelated topics.

OVERVIEW: The goal of this book is to explain why some the games are played the way they are. Moskowitz and Werthem delve into the hidden (and often subconscious) motivations that drive players, coaches, and officials. We take it for granted that home teams win more often than visiting teams, but we rarely ask ourselves why (hint: according to Moskowitz and Werthem, it has nothing to do with travel fatigue or rowdy fans’ effect on the players).

There is no unifying theme behind this book. Instead, it is composed of 18 separate chapters, each one analyzing a different phenomenon in the world of sports and offering an explanation for why it occurs and what the implications are on winning and losing.

HIGHLIGHTS: Scorecasting takes a look at all major sports – basketball, football, hockey, and soccer included – but there are are plenty of interesting insights about baseball as well. They talk about the psychological motivations behind PED usage, hidden factors that might influence umpires’ ball and strike calls, whether or not there is such a thing as a streak or a clutch performance, and whether or not the Chicago Cubs are cursed. Some of their arguments and theories are more persuasive than others, but they all make the reader think.

NEGATIVES: If you don’t want to start second guessing everything that happens on the field of play the next time you watch a ballgame, you probably shouldn’t buy this book. I first read Scorecasting last spring, and for the next two months, I couldn’t watch a baseball game without thinking that there was some sort of hidden agenda to the ways umpires made calls.

The other negative is that there are some sections of the book that get pretty dry. It is well-written overall, but certain passages dive pretty deep into facts and figures, and those sections are a little hard to read.

CONCLUSION: As I mentioned above, this book will definitely appeal more to the the type of people who are into stats like WAR and WHIP than it will to traditionalists. But if you are the type of person who likes to question and analyze the games you watch, you should definitely read this book. It’s not a life changing experience, but it certainly could change the way you view sports.

The next Puckett’s Pond book review selection is 162-0: The Greatest Wins in Twins History. As the name suggests, it’s a book full of recaps of Twins wins from 1961 through 2009, when it was published. The back of the book boasts that “162-0 is an irresistable, must-have addition to any Twins fan’s baseball library.” That turned out to be true in my case; once I heard about the very clever concept, I could not resist buying it.

162-0 earns a 3.5 on the esteemed TC Bear rating scale.

Hey, 3.5 on the TC Bear scale is pretty good! The Scarlet Letter only got 3.

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