Rating: 
Summary: Will End Some Arguments, Start Some Others
Review: Among baseball fans, it's always fun to "pick" the "all-time best players" at any position. And Neyer in this book has taken what he feels to be the all-time best lineups for every current major league team, as well as teams that started in one location and moved elsewhere (like the Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Brooklyn/LA Dodgers, NY/SF Giants, Wash Senators/Texas Rangers, etc.). While you may not always agree with his choices, Neyer in my opinion has done a wonderful job with these "lineups." He also has a lineup of 'best individual seasons,' a gold glove team and an "iron glove" team (for worst fielders), his "all-bust" teams, rookie teams, traded away teams, and his "used to be great" teams. Having followed baseball since the late 1960s, I vividly remember many of the names in this book, as well as knowing numerous others whose names appear here. Some of the associated vignettes with each team are also fascinating. Like the story of David Clyde, the 18-year-old pitcher for the 1973 Rangers, or "Generation K" of the 1995 Mets. Or how the Devil Rays' management philosophy in Neyer's opinion has contributed to them having some terrible teams. Or how the famous line about the late, lamented Washington Senators, "first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League" really isn't all that true.Neyer gives a lot of credit where credit is due. His "iron glove" teams are at times a hoot. Neyer mentions the infamous Johnie LeMaster of the Giants at shortstop on their "iron glove" team, Jose Offerman his counterpart for the Dodgers, Eddie Matthews at first base for the 1967 Astros, and so on. His all-rookie teams include notables like Mark McGwire for the '87 A's (well doh) and Stan Musial for the 1942 Cardinals. For some long-time teams, he lists 2 greatest lineups. At the end of the book is a section that features each team and its starting lineup from year to year, along with their manager. Any fan, whether they be casual followers or students of the game are going to love this book! It's a good one.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but controversial
Review: Anyone who has a knowledge of baseball can easily pick the best first baseman in New York Yankee history: Lou Gehrig. But how about the best centerfielder? Mantle, or DiMaggio? In my lifetime, I've been a fan of both, so either one might qualify... and yet, whichever you leave out, you're leaving out one of the Yankees' greatest players. By restricting your all-time best Yankee team to one at each position, you're forced to choose, and yet, at other positions (like left field or third base), the best one you can find is nowhere near the SECOND-best centerfielder. (I'm assuming, when I talk of left fielders, you consider Babe Ruth a RIGHT fielder, as Neyer does: he played left on the road and right in Yankee Stadium!) I'm sure there are similar problems with other teams; I know the Yankees best, so I gave Yankee examples. But this is the problem with any book of this type. Still, it's fun to look at the lists in this book. I'm not sorry I bought it. 4 stars, yes... but certainly not 5.
Rating:
Summary: Sit down & dip in
Review: At the risk of being slightly indelicate, this is the perfect "smallest-room-in-the-house" book for the inveterate baseball fan. Whether it's memories from your childhood, thought-provoking fodder for argument or hilarious nicknames (and their provenance) you're looking for, this book has it all and much more. An easier read (and a more manageable size) than some other weightier baseball tomes, it is both a pleasure and an education to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!!
Review: Excellent resource. Well researched. Things you didn't already know, but wanted to know about your favorite team(s) and players.
A must have for baseball fans.
Rating:
Summary: A book of lists with little else
Review: I bought the book because I really enjoy Neyer's columns on ESPN.com. He is the only columnist I read regularly. Being a book of lists it is a great book for "bathroom reading" because you can pick it up and read just a few pages at a time and enjoy it without losing any storyline or continuity. I enjoyed the appendix as much as any other part of the book. It showed the typical starting lineups for each team in every different year of their existence. It was interesting to see how stable the lineups were before free agency. It is truly a book of lists, with little esle. If you have been a baseball fan for decades, you will enjoy a wonderful trip down memory lane. If you are a casual fan who has an interest in one or two teams, it may not be worth it. I did not feel that the sidebars added that much to the book. They were too short to have the depth of information/analysis that I have come to enjoy in Rob's columns on ESPN.com. That being said, I enjoyed the book and will keep it and refer back to it for years to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I hoped
Review: I just bought Rob Neyer's new book called Big Book of Baseball Lineups. I haven't read it all, and I might never do so. I am disapointed with it. In fact I think the name is a misnomer. It should be called the Big Book of Baseball Rosters. Part of my beef with the book is that I feel misled somewhat. I thought the book was going to be a resource type book in which Neyer actually lists batting lineups and does analysis on them. I would have enjoyed that. For starters almost nothing is out there on batting lineups. In terms of historical facts and stats that is probably one of the last frontiers to conquered. Anyway back to the book. The book is actually a team by team ranking of players by position. Unfortunately though he doesn't show us his formulas or any hard stat type analysis as to why he made his choices. Personally I think Neyer is at his best when he is doing just that. Nor does he do an in-depth list, he only lists the top two players for each position. So you are left wondering many times where he ranks one of your favorite players. Nor does Neyer look at players from the 19th century. That one is not a huge deal but for some teams you are eliminating some great players and history. Neyer also has some other lists. Such as all-rookie, single season, best defensive, worst defensive, homegrown, traded away, flops, washed up, and nickname. Reading that you might think that he has a lot of informative pieces of info to share about a wide variety of players. Again, unfortunately he does not. His analysis for each selection is about one sentence without much detail. In otherwords a "blurb". Again no real analysis, no numbers or history to go with his selections. No real info on other players who did not rank at the top of the list. In the back of the book he has a huge list of all-time rosters year by year for each team based on primary position. Unfortunately (I'm saying that a lot for this book, which I guess goes to show you how disappointed I am with it) this is not new info nor hard to find. It is done in almost the exact same manner as the one widely available and tons more informative at Baseball-Reference.com. To make up for the somewhat dry content that is the heart of this book Neyer adds extremely short little essays (about 2 paragraphs worth) on each page and a larger essay and the end of each teams section. For the short essay's Neyer has informed the reader that he tried for baseball items that were not column knowledge. So for instance in the Yankee section there is no essay about Ruth. There is an essay about Dimaggio and Mantle but (and this is the problem with almost all of the short essay's) there is very little analysis and his findings are very general and bland. In the Dimaggio&Mantle essay he talks about how in the 50's Dimaggio was ranked as the 4th greatest OF (Mantle wasn't ranked because he had only played 2 seasons), then 25 years later Dimaggio is still ranked as one of the best OF and Mantle is again not mentioned. His analysis is that today we have a better understanding of these players and we know better now. To prove this point he shows there OPS and picks a few categories and tells you how many times the led their league in it. That's all well and good but the problem is he does all that in three sentences. Nor does he look deeper. Why? Because he can't, becuase these essays must fit the small section they are provided with. So for me I felt cheated a little bit by these essays because there were some that left me wanting him to expand more upon but he didn't. For instance in the Cubs section Neyer has an essay about Palmeiro and Grace. In the end he says that it became apparent that there wasn't going to be enough room for both of them (which is probably true) and that the Cubs traded the wrong one away (again it is probably true). But it is the last sentence that leaves me wanting more. Neyer states that because the Cubs felt they needed a "closer" they ended up trading the wrong guy. It is true that Raffy was traded for a closer. But if it was apparent that one of them was going to leave town wouldn't it be more interesting to find out why the Cubs let Raffy go instead of Grace? Again though Neyer cannot elaborate. The essays at the end of each team section is probably the best part of the book because it is basically having 30 or so brand new Neyer articles at your fingertips. Though again Neyer leaves to statistical work on the cutting room floor. In fact to me it seems that Neyer was making a concerted effort to make this book appeal to the most general of baseball fans. He avoided almost completely "stathead" type stats and formulas nor did he every really get down and dirty with the stats. I guess in terms of marketing trying to appeal at the most basic level is good. But I think people like Bill James have proven that statistical type baseball books can sell. Though it is possible and probably true that Neyer doesn't have the credentials yet to write books in the style of James and get them published. In the end if you haven't already guessed it I did not like this book. Which to me is a shame because I was looking forward to it and had liked his previous work, Baseball Dynasties. It seems to me that Neyer was trying provide a little something for everyone but in the end that only made a book that wasn't very interesting
Rating:
Summary: Will raise your baseball IQ 50 points!
Review: I've spent most of the 2003 baseball season chipping away at this book. Time well spent IMHO. I learned a lot about NL teams, which I don't follow as closely as teams in the American League. It's chock-full of historical nuggets, insightful analysis and (sometimes) outright speculation. You certainly won't agree with all of Neyer's choices as to which players belong on a team's "All-Time" or "No. 2" squads...and which players do not. As a Mariners fan, I've got to believe that Glenn Abbott, a long-time, original Opening Day Mariner deserves the spot on the "No. 2" team that Mr. Neyer has given to Brian Holman: talented, but fragile and productive for two seasons.
As noted by a previous reviewer, "Big Book of Baseball Lineups" is a fantastic "bathroom" book. Expect, however, to absorb only two or three pages per "sitting".
Rating:
Summary: Attention to all baseball fanatics: Buy this book!
Review: It seems that Rob Neyer is still looking for an argument. Last year he published BASEBALL DYNASTIES, in which he and co-author Eddie Epstein discussed the relative merits of some of the great teams in the long history of the game. Such "absolute" declarations fairly beg knowledgeable fans to take umbrage and offer counterpoint. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Meaningful discussion (i.e., anything that doesn't end with a beer bottle broken over your head) is an ancillary benefit of rooting for your favorites. The author picks up where he left off with his fun new offering, ROB NEYER'S BIG BOOK OF BASEBALL LINEUPS. A senior writer and baseball columnist for ESPN.com, Neyer takes a very calculated measure of each team in creating these various lists. These include the greatest players for every ballclub (along with an "all second" team); players who enjoyed one especially fantastic year; an all-rookie team; a line-up of players who came up through the organization's minor leagues and another consisting of those traded to other teams; a best-defensive lineup, along with those who sported "iron gloves"; a roster of the worst players and another of those who were great at one time --- for other teams; and finally, a collection of the greatest "nicknames" at each position. The lists consist of thumbnail sketches elucidating the author's choices and sidebars for those selections requiring a more extensive explanation. Neyer finishes off each chapter with a brief essay on a topic dear to his heart. The enjoyment (or frustration) begins as the reader thumbs through each section. "Hey, why was Joe Shlabotnick left off of the list of all-time greats?" one might ask. Conversely, the fan might want to know why someone was placed on the "all-bust" squad when it's obvious to anyone who has ever even heard of baseball that this paragon of athletic ability would have done so much better if it wasn't for that pesky ingrown toenail. Neyer pulls no punches and his style might strike some as bordering the realm of "I'm an expert and you're not," but he makes up for it with a sense of humor and a keen eye for detail. Thanks to a group of contributors close to each team (whom he credits, to his credit), he is able to produce this amusing volume. Long on opinion and short on the litany of statistics that many writers use to hammer home their points, ROB NEYER'S BIG BOOK OF BASEBALL LINEUPS might become one of the most useful collections of commentary to grace a fan's bookshelf. --- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
Rating:
Summary: Boring and repetitious
Review: It seems that this song has been heard before many times./ A lot of what appears here is haphazard and re-cycled.
Rating: 
Summary: Really cool when first picked up, but lost it's excitement.
Review: My wife got me this book for my birthday, and it seemed like a book right up my alley. I love baseball, and I love keeping track of players from the past, and where they travel during their careers. This book does a wonderful job of bringing together lists of players for all the current (and some historical) teams. Rob Neyer picks the best players on a team, a "B" team of greatest players, then other categories like "Best Single Season", "Gold Glove", "Iron Glove", "Past their prime", "Traded Away", and others. I, of course immediately looked at the two teams I'm most familiar with, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Texas Rangers. I read those, and it was a like "COOL!"; I loved seeing all these player names. I was excited about reading this book, so I started in from the front of the book. And that's where the problems started. For awhile, it was cool reading all the lineups and players. But after awhile, the amount of players I'd never heard of really sucked the enjoyment and rush I got when first picking up the book out of me. I had to force myself to finish it, and while I can put the book in the "I enjoyed it" group, it's not by much. I'm 38 as I write this in October 2003, and a lot of the players are people I'd never heard of, and as the pages wore on, it just became a big mishmash of players that I dint' care to be reading. I did enjoy the sections on players who joined the team past their prime (like Pete Rose in Montreal, Richie Ashburn for the NY Mets, things like that). But overall, as one other review I read about this book said, "...my eyes started to gloss over". If you're a stat hound, you'll probably dig this book. I don't want to sound like I'm totally dumping on it, it was enjoyable, but wasn't something I could read quickly, nor something that I can say I'd want to read again, although I will keep it around as a "reference" book of sorts. Kudos to Rob Neyer for the extreme research I'm sure in putting all this together.
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