A handbook for fantasy football players and pro football fans includes detailed team and player ratings, along with predictions about the upcoming season and the odds on each team as a Super Bowl contender.

Presenting a new year of groundbreaking intelligence, this guide includes team and player ratings that correct for situation and opponent to reveal true contributions to success, a unique statistical toolbox featuring DPAR (Defense adjusted Points Above Replacement), and more.

The New York Timesbestselling guide to major league baseball returns for the 2008 season For over a decade, Baseball Prospectushas been the ultimate guide to the game for fantasy players, professionals, and casual fans alike. Baseball Prospectus 2008continues that tradition, bringing together the top young baseball writers and analysts in the business to provide a definitive look at the season to come. Featuring groundbreaking essays on the performance of each of the thirty teams and an in-depth look at every major league player and all the top prospects, Baseball Prospectus 2008offers the cutting-edge analysis that has inspired nearly every major league team to seek the advice of current or former Prospectuswriters. Also included are projections of player stats for next year, as determined by the groundbreaking PECOTA system, which Sports Illustratedhas called “perhaps the game’s most accurate projection model.” The most authoritative and entertaining book of its kind, Baseball Prospectus 2008is as essential to the baseball-watching experience as hot dogs and cold beer.

How math can be used to improve performance and predict outcomes in professional sports Mathletics is a remarkably entertaining book that shows readers how to use simple mathematics to analyze a range of statistical and probability-related questions in professional baseball, basketball, and football, and in sports gambling. How does professional baseball evaluate hitters? Is a singles hitter like Wade Boggs more valuable than a power hitter like David Ortiz? Should NFL teams pass or run more often on first downs? Could professional basketball have used statistics to expose the crooked referee Tim Donaghy? Does money buy performance in professional sports? In Mathletics, Wayne Winston describes the mathematical methods that top coaches and managers use to evaluate players and improve team performance, and gives math enthusiasts the practical tools they need to enhance their understanding and enjoyment of their favorite sports—and maybe even gain the outside edge to winning bets. Mathletics blends fun math problems with sports stories of actual games, teams, and players, along with personal anecdotes from Winston's work as a sports consultant. Winston uses easy-to-read tables and illustrations to illuminate the techniques and ideas he presents, and all the necessary math concepts—such as arithmetic, basic statistics and probability, and Monte Carlo simulations—are fully explained in the examples. After reading Mathletics, you will understand why baseball teams should almost never bunt, why football overtime systems are unfair, why points, rebounds, and assists aren't enough to determine who's the NBA's best player—and much, much more. In a new epilogue, Winston discusses the stats and numerical analysis behind some recent sporting events, such as how the Dallas Mavericks used analytics to become the 2011 NBA champions.

With extensive reporting and engrossing storytelling, Jim Baker and Bernard Corbett give us the scenes of one of the NFL's most successful and popular franchises. Interviews with Giants legends who participated in these historic moments put us behind closed doors in the commissioner's office during a fixed game in 1946, in the backfield wit Frank Gifford as the Giants advance to the championship in 1958, and in the huddle with Eli Manning as he diagrams the play that would result in the deciding touchdown in the 2008 Super Bowl. With an eye for memorable details and historical significance, Baker and Corbett let the players themselves tell the war stories that all Giants fans love to relive, and in so doing, construct an engrossing and exciting history of the team and the sport. The book will also feature revealing statistical sidebars and fresh analysis of the games that throw new light on the history of the team.

One of the most ambitious (and short-lived) endeavors in professional sports history, the United States Football League was founded in 1982. Premiering with a spring schedule and an abundance of talent that included top rookies and National Football League veterans, the USFL gained national attention with broadcast and cable television contracts, controversial player signings, ownership battles and an unsuccessful billion-dollar lawsuit against the NFL. The USFL folded after four years yet represented the last major challenge to America's big four sports leagues--the NFL, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. Based upon extensive research and interviews with owners, coaches, players and administrators, this book chronicles the league's formation, its three seasons of play and its long-term effects on pro sports.