Rating: 
Summary: OK but....
Review: Reading this book one see's the tremendous shadow cast by Bill James. Neyer is clearly a disciple and, if you have read James, Neyer's attempt to imitate the wonderfull funny prose is almost embarrasing. He comes a little closer in his attempt to think like James but only a little. For those who love baseball, great writing and truly original insight I suggest starting with James. Otherwise this is a pretty fun concept book.
Rating: 
Summary: Again an "almost" book
Review: Rob Neyer can write, as witnessed by his ESPN.com columns, and the best part of the book are his little anecdotes and essays. So why is the major part of the book all these boring lineup lists? Do we really need a first and second team for some teams? Does every danged team need an All-Rookie or All-Bust team? My eyes began to glaze over. This book needed serious editing of the slash and burn type. Not that it's a bad read but it's so repetitious, it sucks all the enjoyment out of it. I mean, who cares beyond Rockies' fans about their all-time lineup let alone their All-Traded Away team or whatever team. They've only been around, what, less than 10 seasons. It's overkill. Considering all the research he probably spent to come up with these definitive lists, the book can be read in less than a day. That is NOT good value!
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond the Usual Suspects
Review: Rob Neyer chose the publishing of "Big Book of Baseball Lineups" to offer the world a new photo of himself. ESPN.com site-goers had been treated to the same photo of Neyer in a flannel shirt since his column debuted. Only John Kuenster of "Baseball Digest" used the same photo for longer. Now Neyer's got a blue T-shirt and an eerily wide grin. Why is this man smiling? "Lineups" is a "comeback" book, after the self-published "Feeding the Green Monster" failed to make a splash. "Lineups" opens, really, with its appendix, a tremendously useful spreadsheet listing every team's top regular at every position from 1901 through 2002. This may be the first baseball book in years to print the name of Al Moran, the shortstop for your 1963 New York Mets (and what a shortstop!). Working backwards from that chart comes a series of dream (and nightmare) teams from MLB's current 30 franchises. The downside of this is that you're only reading about the Los Angeles Dogers, or the Atlanta Braves. The now-defunct teams (Brooklyn, Boston/Milwaukee) don't get their own exclusive treatment, although the end of the book features joint chapters on the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers et al, which is not how I'd have done it. This is a book best read in brief bursts, one team at a time. With the shifted franchises treated separately, Neyer is weighted toward discussing the last 40 years. However, there are some interesting "finds" here, especially for those less familiar with earlier baseball: The Yankees' best-ever left fielder is Charlie Keller, and the Cardinals' first-team rotation is rounded out by Lon Warneke. The rest of the book is sidebars (mostly related to that page's lineup), and one feature article per team. Neyer debates managers a lot: for Kansas City, Dick Howser v. Whitey Herzog; for the Yanks, Joe McCarthy v. Casey Stengel. He also introduces current perspective into the spectacular flameout of the Mets' "Generation K", and the woeful roster moves made by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Obviously, there's lots to argue with here. Which is kind of the point. When Neyer chides a "Sports Illustrated" writer for bashing the playoff performance of the Atlanta Braves bullpen, he presents only line stats in their defense. He mentions the famous homers allowed by Charlie Liebrandt and Mark Wohlers, but neglects to mention the 1999 playoffs, when the Braves' pen blew late leads in 5 of 6 straight games against the Mets and Yankees. Later on, he states that the Brewers are the only expansion team to generate 2 Hall-of-Famers in their first 10 years: which is only true if you ignore the Mets, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan. The book's most innovative aspect is its "Traded Away" teams, which allow you to wince in pain with every passing name. Least interesting (to me, anyway) were the "Iron Glove" teams. Overall, though, like "Baseball Dynasties", this is a just plain nifty book to dip into. If I were a broadcaster, this is the book I'd want with me, when the score's 10-3 in the 7th inning and it's time to start talking baseball history again.
Rating: 
Summary: He knows his stuff -- and you will too after you read this!
Review: Rob Neyer has been entertaining and enlightening me for years on ESPN.com. This book delivers the goods and I believe it will continue to deliver for a long time time. Whenever I find myself in need of a few minutes reading (and who doesn't find themselves in that position at least two times a day) I can count on this book to occupy my time. As I believe has been said by another reviewer, this is the ultimate argument ender and argument starter. You will like this book.
Rating:
Summary: A good addition to your baseball shelf
Review: Rob Neyer's "Book of Baseball Lineups" is a solid addition to any well-stocked baseball shelf. It goes right next to Bill James' glorious Historical abstract. Lineups basically goes through the major leagues team by team. We're given an all-time lineup for each team as well as best homegrown players, gold gloves, iron gloves, all-bust, all-name and used-to-be-great -- which catalogues what great players eeked out their declining years on a certain club. This is accompanied by little essays in the margins detailing certain selections and a short essay for each team addressing some topic. The essays are actually pretty good, sort of like little columns that you might have missed on his espn gig. Neyer has put together a rather unique look at the game. Most books of this type look at the best players of all time from all of baseball, but Neyer's book focuses on *teams* and gives you a sense of the ebb and flow of each team's history. You'll see how all thre greatest players in Royals history bunched up in the late 70's and early 80's, how Atlanta's best players all came in the 90's. The traded away section will detail eras of stupid management for each team. And in the back, you get year to year lineups. I can't think of any other book that does this. Most books focus on the history of one team (usually the Yankees) or one great year (Yankees again, '27 or '98). But this book will give you your first real sense of the history of other organizations like the Expoes and Brewers and so forth -- teams I didn't know HAD a history before I read this. It's not as big, bad and beautiful as the Historical abstracts but this is a book you'll find yourself leafing through frequently. Definitely worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Choosing Up Sides
Review: Rob Neyer's newest book should appeal to all baseball fans, young and old. Neyer selects a series of all-time lineups for each baseball team, ranging from the best to worst. His personal selections will amuse many and anger some. Some players, like Paul Molitor, pop up several times within the same team chapter at different positions, as well as for different teams, while some Hall of Famers barely make the Number 2 all-time best team for their respective teams. Each player listed is accompanied by a short sentence explaining the selection. A minor criticism of the book is that the selections appear more heavily weighted towards players of recent vintage, especially the all-time bust teams. Neyer does more properly accomodate the old-timers for teams such as the Athletics and Braves who played in several cities throughout their existence by having an abridged section following the current team line-ups. The best part of the book may not be the actual player selections, but each chapter's several short essays focusing on an individual selected player or group of players. Without resorting to somewhat uncomprehensible Sabremetric-like statistics commonly found in many new baseball books, Neyer provides the reader with information about the ballplayers that is new and/or amusing. He even disagrees with his former employer Bill James, the eminent baseball Sabremetrician, on a few selections and issues, with factual proof in support of his position. Overall a very good baseball book for the casual or fanatic fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Bill James Lite; loses luster quickly
Review: Rob's one of the three or four people in the world making a living straddling the baseball writer/serious analyst fence. As an analyst, he lacks the raw mathematical skills to do a truly in-depth job, so he ends up as a consumer of information, rather than a producer. His shortcomings are apparent in this book, where he tries to make up for his lack of numerical abilities by trying to be sardonic, a la his mentor, Bill James. The humor pretty much falls flat, and the real interesting parts of the book, the collections of players, aren't compelling beyond the first five minutes after you see them. Neyer's analysis here isn't good, and the writing's not enough to make up for it. Just as Bill James kind of lost interest and put out ten years of mediocre to bad material, it appears Rob has lost interest in the game as well. This book lacks quality analytics, compelling prose, and passion. People still struggling to find a substitute for James' original Baseball Abstracts won't find it here.
Rating:
Summary: Big Book of Baseball Lineups
Review: This book is a blast! I'm in my mid 40's, and this book brings back lots of childhood memories of listening to baseball games on the radio and collecting those oh-so-precious baseball cards. Lots of fun and interesting facts about players that I remember, and many that I had forgotten about.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent arguement starter (and ender).
Review: This book is extremely fun to read and is full of funny, strange, and ironic stories. I only wish he'd written a little bit about Rabbit Maranville. For persons unfamiliar with Win Shares, they might want to peruse Bill James' historical Baseball abstract before reading this book, but it isn't necessary. If you just understand that more win shares is better, and any season with 20 or more is really impressive, then you'll get it easily. You will learn something new on every page, including about your own favorite team. Check out his 'Feeding the Green Monster' for a nice diary of the 2000 season in Fenway too.
Rating:
Summary: Big Book of Baseball Line-Ups by Neyer
Review: This book would make an excellent gift for a baseball enthusiast.
It contains every imaginable statistic on the superstar
players, as well as the average and below-average performers in
the game. There is an extensive appendix with the management
data delineated in great detail. There are extensive statistics
segmented by team. This book is for enthusiasts who enjoy
quoting comparative statistics on players and teams. It is
certainly up-to-date and organized for facility in identifying key players and teams.
| 
