Now Bill James is doing it again with The Bill James Gold Mine a groundbreaking collection of original essays, statistical profiles, and hidden nuggets of information worth their weight in gold. Always known for his piercing wit and cutting analysis, Bill James wrote 17 new essays for The Bill James Gold Mine, including: Clutching Hitter of the Year, Measuring Consistency, Closer Fatigue, Hall of Famers Among Us. Of course, it wouldn't be from Bill James if it didn't come with innovative and intriguing profiles and nuggets of statistical information on players from all 30 teams, including: Impacting by Position in Inning, Pitching Type Analysis, Pitcher's Record of Opposing Batters, Games Played by Opening Day Starters.

    Baseball Prospectus 2013 brings together an elite group of analysts to provide the definitive look at the upcoming season in critical essays and commentary on the thirty teams, their managers, and more than sixty players and prospects from each team.Contains critical essays on each of the thirty teams and player comments for some sixty players for each of those teamsProjects each player's stats for the coming season using the groundbreaking PECOTA projection system, which has been called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model" (Sports Illustrated)From Baseball Prospectus, America's leading provider of statistical analysis for baseballNow in its eighteenth edition, this New York Times bestselling insider's guide remains hands down the most authoritative and entertaining book of its kind.

    Play to win. Play like a champion.In Winning Fantasy Baseball, Larry Schechter discloses the secrets of his proven methods. Packed with commonsense, easy-to-use strategies for beginners through experienced players, Schechter supplies readers with a toolkit to achieve the most important thing in fantasy ball--winning! Some have called Schechter one of the best fantasy baseball players in the world. He is the only two-time winner of the CDM Sports national salary-cap challenge, having defeated 7,500 competitors in 2002 and 6,000 in 2005. He is also a five-time winner of the renowned Tout Wars experts league and a member of the USA Today-sponsored League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR).Readers will learn directly from the champ everything they need to know about:- how to project player stats;- how to convert those stats into a specific value;- strategy for snake drafts, and mono-league and mixed auctions;- selecting teams using a salary cap;- playing in keeper leagues;- and performing in-season management.Although the book is primarily about fantasy baseball, many of the concepts also apply to fantasy football and other fantasy sports.

    Illustrated with 16 pages of photographs.

    Granted unprecedented access to the team's top management and financial data, Pluto delivers an up-close account of how decisions were made to radically reshape the franchise. Indians fans grew accustomed to winning in the mid-1990s. They had an owner with deep pockets, a brand-new ballpark, and a team of high-priced all stars who delivered a division championship nearly every year. But that glorious ride ended with a jolt of reality after savvy owner Richard Jacobs sold the franchise at the top of the market in 2000. New owners Larry and Paul Dolan and new general manager Mark Shapiro faced a challenge: an aging team, a mounting payroll, and a shrinking budget. First they made mistakes. Then they made bold changes. Stars such as Manny Ramirez, Roberto Alomar, and Jim Thome were gone, replaced with roster of unproven youngsters and veteran rehab projects. Fans were alarmed and dismayed. Then, in 2002, Shapiro boldly predicted that the Indians would return to contend for the playoffs after just three years of rebuilding. Critics scoffed. Yet at the end of the 2005 season, the Indians were indeed back in contention, one tantalizing game away from a return to the playoffs. The core of an exciting young team was beginning to take shape, and Shapiro was voted American League Executive of the Year as his team won an impressive 93 games despite a payroll ranked in baseball's bottom five. How was it done? In his familiar clear writing style, Pluto carefully explains the manyrisky moves made by management and tells which ones have paid off, which ones haven?t, and why. This rare behind-the-scenes look at a modern front office will intrigue fantasy leaguers and fans fascinated by baseball dealmaking. It will be an eye-opener for Indians fans who may still be wondering, What happened to my team?

    Plus, the Philadelphia Phillies' 2011 rotation also happens to include Cole Hamels--the 2008 NLCS and World Series MVP--and an alternating fifth starter. This awe-inducing rotation has been the talk of baseball since coming together in December 2010. They were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2011 baseball- preview edition, interviewed on the MLB Network on opening day of spring training, covered in the New York Times Magazine, and mentioned in numerous newspapers and magazines nationwide.Authored by two of the most knowledgable and connected Phillies beat writers, The Rotation is a remarkably detailed day-in-the-life story of one complete season with a Major League Baseball starting-pitching staff. The authors offer deep daily access to the Phillies players, coaches, and front-office staff, as well as the players and staff of other major league teams and the national baseball media.With firsthand reporting and extensive interviews, plus two full-color photo inserts, this is a fascinating and detailed look into the day-to-day operation of what is arguably the greatest pitching rotation ever assembled. It is a must-read for Phillies fans and general baseball fans alike.

     Pilot Officer Harry Rose, fresh from training and eager to prove himself, is posted to Excalibur Squadron, a Hawker Hurricane fighter unit based in southern England. In the coming weeks and months of that fateful summer, as the outnumbered RAF battle grimly with the Luftwaffe in the skies above Britain, Rose will come to know what it is to love, and will experience both the glorious euphoria of success and the desperate bitterness of loss. As his friends dwindle in number, Rose knows that it can be only a matter of time before it is his turn...

    • Real stories tell the sad, gory, uplifting and the funny, • Stories from across the country by an actual travel nurse

    Peter Sykes lifts the lid on the good, the bad and the ugly in the NHS, based on real-life situations from his 40 years experience at the sharp end of medical practice.Some of these stories will make you laugh, a few will make you cry and others have a surprising twist in the tail.They feature patients, doctors and nurses, blood, sweat and toil, life and death, heartache and joy.

    This book contains interconnected short stories in which the doctors, nurses and other staff members attempt to keep separate these two spheres of their lives, for to allow them to overlap would make their lives even more difficult. Pain, tragedy, humor and compassion fill these pages as events unfold and the characters struggle to maintain equilibrium; the author is a retired ER nurse, and these stories are all based on real people and incidents.

    Here in this book Ron Ebner—author of The Winds of Hell, Nova, Plague World, and two short story collections—has collected a voluminous amount of information about current actors and former actors, including:Disney favorites Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, Tim Considine, Hayley Mills and Kevin Corcoran, as well as Mouseketeers Sharon Baird, Lonnie Burr, Cubby O’Brien and Karen Pendleton; Lauren Chapin and Elinor Donahue of “Father Knows Best”; Johnny Crawford of “The Rifleman”; Shelley Fabares of “The Donna Reed Show”; Little Rascal “Spanky” McFarland; Beverly Washburn; Cynthia Pepper; Native American actors Chief Dan George and Will Sampson; the frisky star of the original Nancy Drew movies, Bonita Granville; Al “Grandpa” Lewis; Fess Parker; John Amos…and many others.Read through these pages and find out what’s happening with about 100 of your favorite Hollywood celebrities.

    His life is rapidly changed. His family is destroyed. An unbelievable story about escape, intrigue, survival and the miraculous ability of one young man to outwit and outlive his gestapo torturers.

    

    A child would enjoy a Top 20 Most Dangerous Animals on the Planet Picture Book because most children are visually stimulated and fascinated by colorful photos of animals. This book would be helpful for children as well as they can learn what to avoid if they were to come across this animal in the wild in the future. Overall, children enjoy picture books and would especially enjoy a book which teaches them about animals and the dangers of the animals pictured in the illustrations.

    This book covers Sergeant Johnson’s career and assignments that included working in the jails, patrol, community policing, Special Investigations (Narcotics and Gangs), and the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force. Sergeant Johnson was promoted to sergeant in 2010 and was assigned to the Eastern portion of San Diego County where he worked in patrol and a specialty assignment for the remainder of his career. On September 25, 2012, Sergeant Johnson’s career and the careers of several other deputies would take a turn for the worst. Sergeant Johnson and his team of deputies were ambushed by a child molester armed with a high powered rifle as they attempted to arrest the suspect. One of Sergeant Johnson’s deputies was shot at extremely close range and was trapped in the apartment with the suspect. Sergeant Johnson was hit by gun fire on the landing of the suspect’s apartment and trapped on the second floor with nowhere to go. The ordeal lasted fifteen minutes before Sergeant Johnson and the wounded deputy were rescued and transported to a hospital. This book discusses the harrowing experience of being shot and barricaded without an escape. It discusses the incredible story of Christian faith during the moments when Sergeant Johnson and his team of deputies feared for their lives. The cover photo is a testament to Sergeant Johnson’s faith and the survival of Sergeant Johnson and his team of deputies who were there on that day. This book highlights Sergeant Johnson’s early career and accomplishments, deals with personal tragedies related to the shooting and other events in Sergeant Johnson’s life, and Sergeant Johnson’s struggle to overcome such a traumatic event. The hope of this book is to help others learn they will survive these critical situations, and the aftermath that affects many called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). With the help of therapy, family, and faith, Sergeant Johnson survived the ordeal that occurred on September 25, 2012. Sergeant Johnson considers himself a survivor and not a victim. By reading this book you will experience what it is like to be a peace officer in Southern California. You will have a better understanding of the peril that peace officers face on a daily basis. You will have a better understanding how these events can weigh on each officer over his or her long careers. This book discusses details about the shooting (which was approximately a 15 minute ordeal), the rescue of Sergeant Johnson and his deputies, and Sergeant Johnson’s recovery that took over a year for him to deal with. This book is a testament to all of the men and women who wear the badge and all they deal with on a daily basis. This book praises Sergeant Johnson’s Christian faith that was paramount for him to survive this traumatic event and heal.