I’ll get to such things as Hisonori Takahashi in due course, but there are a few items that bear mentioning before I go any further.

First up is the fantastic move from ESPN to hire Dan Szymborski of Baseball Think Factory to produce content. Dan provides a tremendous, stat-based look at baseball, as anyone who reads his Transaction Oracle can verify. But what I have always liked about Dan is his offbeat writing style, one that brings humor to virtually every post. In other words, he’s a serious scholar who doesn’t take himself too seriously. A real pleasure to read, and a great job by ESPN to add him to their galaxy.

His first piece is worth reading, unsurprisingly, especially for Mets fans worried about David Wright.

There are also a pair of recent book releases I wanted to bring to your attention. The first is Chris Jaffe’s Evaluating Baseball’s Managers: A History of Analysis and Performance in the Major Leagues, 1876-2008. The book serves a dual purpose- it provides fascinating content and insight into MLB’s managers, but also serves as a definitive reference for them.

You can’t open this book without learning new information about a group that has, to an extent far beyond that of pitchers and hitters, been subject to mere speculation in the realm of evaluation. A must-read- it definitely helped me get through the winter of no-baseball discontent. Mike already did a terrific interview with him, but I needed to add my strong approval for this book.

The other book I must mention, Mike Lynch’s It Ain’t So, takes all the fun of imagining what might have been and views it through the fascinating prism: what if the 1919 Black Sox hadn’t been banned? What would have happened? Lynch is a gifted writer- as anyone who reads Seamheads can tell you- and this will allow you to reconsider the 1920s American League in a creative way. Highly recommended as well.

Howard Megdal is the Editor-in-Chief of The Perpetual Post. He covers baseball, basketball and soccer for Capital New York, MLBTradeRumors.com, New York Baseball Digest and has written for ESPN.com as well as numerous other publications. He is the Poet Laureate for SBNation New York. His book about Jewish baseball players, “The Baseball Talmud,” is available for purchase on Amazon.com and wherever books are sold. His next book, "Taking The Field", is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will publish in May 2011.

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Tags: Chris Jaffe, Dan Szymborski, ESPN, Mike Lynch