{"product_id":"2940170488094","title":"The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team","description":"It's the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies-with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That's what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe tag along as Lindbergh and Miller apply their number-crunching insights to all aspects of assembling and running a team, following one cardinal rule for judging each innovation they try: \u003ci\u003eit has to work.\u003c\/i\u003e We meet colorful figures like general manager Theo Fightmaster and boundary-breakers like the first openly gay player in professional baseball. Even José Canseco makes a cameo appearance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill their knowledge of numbers help Lindbergh and Miller bring the Stompers a championship, or will they fall on their faces? Will the team have a competitive advantage or is the sport's folk wisdom true after all? Will the players attract the attention of big-league scouts, or are they on a fast track to oblivion?","brand":"Tantor Audio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47102433362160,"sku":"2940170488094","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940170488094_p0.jpg?v=1763710635","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940170488094","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}