I’d kind of thought I’d taken a look at all the 2009 season preview titles when the folks at ACTA Sports sent me The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009.

Let me first say that I really enjoy the work that The Hardball TImes puts out. I subscribe to their RSS feed, I like their blog layout, etc. If I knew them personally I’d probably socialize with them at least once a month.

So I was naturally excited to get this in the mail. And then I read it.

Let me say that whenever I get anything from the Hardball Times, or ACTA Sports for that matter, my expectations are extremely high. I really expect to be challenged, engaged in thought, and most times confused at some level by a new metric by which to judge a player.

Instead, what I got was pretty much what the cover says: “A Sneak Peek at Every Major League Player and Team for the Upcoming Season.”

Except I really didn’t feel like I was sneaking a peek at anything.

Written by a team of over 30 contributors, each team gets the same treatment: projected 2009 results, including runs scored and allowed, a recap of what happened in 2008, players who have come and gone, a brief synopsis of the management and minor league systems, reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic, a “still left to do” section, and a “most likely outcome” summary. This is followed by projections for members of that team for the upcoming season along with a brief summary of where they stand in the eyes of the author(s).

Now once again let it be said that I am not a fantasy baseball player, which is whom this book is geared towards. However, as I have said before, I think that the methods used to value players in the fantasy baseball system can be very valuable to every fan, as they provide tools to understand what makes a player valuable. I think I’ve learned a good amount from books of this nature, including how to value one book from another.

There are two things that really rubbed me the wrong way when it comes to The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009: the first is that while the articles generally are accurate when it comes to which players have come and gone, the individual player previews haven’t been updated. So if you’re a Phillies fan, don’t expect to find Raul Ibanez in your chapter – rather you have to go to the section on the Mariners. Likewise for Randy Johnson, Mark Teixeira, and others. Now I’ve been around books long enough to know that things can and do change after you go to print – but to have something accurate just a page or two before it’s inaccurate, or at least out of place just a few pages later is unacceptable to me. Good thing there is a player index in the back for you to reference where to find a player.

Second – there is no methodology explained in the book. While readers of THT may have a better understanding of how their writers assign value in their projections, I still found it odd that it would be left out of the book. This is where I give credit to John Burnson and Ron Shandler and their books – they make an attempt to give the reader an understanding as to what makes their system tick.

Now I would be remiss if I failed to mention a few articles at the back of the book – as I mentioned in my review of The Hardball Times Annual 2009, there were lots (and lots!) or articles. I sort of expected the same thing in this book, but there just weren’t. However – I did enjoy Victor Wang’s article An Intro to Risk Management. Regardless of your involvement in fantasy baseball, this is an interesting piece to consider as you look at the health of players.

So given all these things, if you’re not a fantasy baseball player, I’d say you’d be OK if you didn’t read this one. I don’t think there’s enough meat on the bones to make the leap onto the radar – or bookshelf – of the average fan. If you are a fantasy player, you certainly should be able to use this going into your drafts – but it seems more like a cheat sheet than an attempt to make you a smarter player. Advice is one thing – knowledge about who to draft and for what reason is another. I’d say to check it out if you see it, or just order it online – but make sure the store you get it from has a good return policy.