Future Value

Overview

How to watch baseball and see the future  

An unprecedented look inside the world of baseball scouting and evaluation from Fangraphs' lead prospect analysts For the modern major league team, player evaluation is a complex, multi-pronged, high-tech pursuit. But far from becoming obsolete in this environment?—as Michael Lewis' Moneyball once forecast?—the role of the scout in today's game has evolved and even expanded. Rather than being the antithesis of a data-driven approach, scouting now represents an essential analytical component in a team's arsenal. Future Value is a thorough dive into the world of the contemporary scout—a world with its own language, methods, metrics, and madness. From rural high schools to elite amateur showcases, from the back fields of spring training to major league draft rooms, FanGraphs' Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel break down the key systems and techniques used to assess talent. It's a process that has moved beyond the quintessential stopwatches and radar guns to include statistical models, countless measurable indicators, and a broader international reach. Practical and probing, discussing wide-ranging topics from tool grades to front office politics, this is an illuminating exploration of how to watch baseball and see the future.

Reviews

"In Future Value, Eric and Kiley give you the grand tour of scouting without asking you to leave your couch. They'll walk you through the draft, the most important three days in the entire year for amateur scouting; the Wild West of international free agency (where players can sign at age 16, and often strike verbal deals with teams before they're teenagers); and professional scouting, where scouts evaluate players already in the minor leagues…. You couldn't ask for a better pair of tour guides." —Keith Law, senior baseball writer, The Athletic (from his foreword)

"True insight into how modern baseball operates is rare, which is what makes Future Value such an invaluable resource. It pulls back the curtain and answers every question needed to understand the game today. This is nothing less than the definitive guide for baseball fans who want to be smarter about the game they love." —Jeff Passan, writer, ESPN

"From scouting the basic tools to the integration of data to paint a more complete picture of a player, Eric and Kiley explore the wide array of strategies and methodologies used by Major League Baseball teams in their quest to identify the next impact player." —Angels General Manager Billy Eppler

"Eric and Kiley make a compelling case for player evaluation via a modern marriage of analytics and the sometimes-harder-to-quantify insights of scouts." —Reds General Manager Nick Krall

"Kiley and Eric are the top public resource for prospect evaluation." —New York Mets Assistant General Manager Adam Guttridge

Author Biography

Eric Longenhagen is the lead prospects analyst for FanGraphs. Kiley McDaniel covers prospects for FanGraphs. He has worked as a scout and in the front office for major league organizations. Keith Law is a Senior Baseball Writer for the Athletic. He's covered baseball since 2006. Before that he was a Special Assistant to the General Manager for the Toronto Blue Jays. He is the author of Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball and The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves.

Press Releases

Future Value

The Battle for Baseball’s Soul and How Teams Will Find the Next Superstar

By Eric Longenhagen & Kiley McDaniel / Foreword by Keith Law

 

Nine players take the field. The pitcher throws the ball. The batter tries to hit it. For more than a century, the art of playing baseball hasn’t changed much. But the art of scouting in baseball? That’s a whole different ballgame.

 

In Future Value: The Battle for Baseball’s Soul and How Teams Will Find the Next Superstar (Triumph Books, April 14^th, 2020), FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel explore how talent evaluation has evolved in the age of analytics. By combining their experience as industry-leading prospect analysts and work with MLB teams, Longenhagen and McDaniel present a thorough overview of how modern scouting has transitioned from stop watches to statistics. Loaded with engaging anecdotes and insights from front office personnel, this engaging and accessible new title will deepen fans’ comprehension of the sport they love. Highlights include:

 

• Scouting 101: A clear and concise guide to understanding the modern scouting landscape
• How Major League teams tackle the draft, with stories from the “war room”
• Finding value at every level of the organization, from superstar sluggers to back-up catchers
• Developing more accurate metrics for judging talent, and the importance of balancing data driven analytics with the human elements of the sport
• Behind the scenes at amateur showcases, on the road with Minor Leaguers and assessing talent in international markets

 

Future Value will change the way fans think and feel about the national pastime, providing them with the tools and knowledge to evaluate players and franchises with the keen eye of a modern scout. No baseball fan’s library is complete without this essential new addition to the smart baseball canon.

 

About the Authors:

Eric Longenhagen is the FanGraphs Lead Prospect Analyst. His career in baseball began in 2008, the youngest of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs' inaugural crop of interns. He'd go on to work at Baseball Info Solutions and begin writing for various publications, like Crashburn Alley and Sports on Earth, before contributing to ESPN's prospect coverage starting in 2015. He has been at FanGraphs since 2016.  

 

Kiley McDaniel has worked for the Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, along with ESPN, FanGraphs, Fox Sports/Scout.com, and Baseball Prospectus. He began as an intern for the Yankees in baseball operations and his most recent club experience was as the Assistant Director of Baseball Operations and West Coast Crosschecker for the Braves. He resides in Atlanta with his puppy Scout.

 

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