What We Are Reading Today: Scouting and Scoring by Christopher J. Phillips

Updated 13 March 2019
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What We Are Reading Today: Scouting and Scoring by Christopher J. Phillips

  • Scouting seems to rely on experience and intuition, scoring on performance metrics and statistics

Scouting and scoring are considered fundamentally different ways of ascertaining value in baseball. Scouting seems to rely on experience and intuition, scoring on performance metrics and statistics. 

In Scouting and Scoring, Christopher Phillips rejects these simplistic divisions, according to a review on Princeton University Press website. He shows how both scouts and scorers rely on numbers, bureaucracy, trust, and human labor in order to make sound judgments about the value of baseball players.

Tracing baseball’s story from the 19th century to today, Phillips explains that the sport was one of the earliest and most consequential fields for the introduction of numerical analysis. New technologies and methods of data collection were supposed to enable teams to quantify the drafting and managing of players — replacing scouting with scoring. But that is not how things turned out. 

Over the decades, scouting and scoring started looking increasingly similar. Scouts expressed their judgments in highly formulaic ways, using numerical grades and scientific instruments to evaluate players. 

Scorers drew on moral judgments, depended on human labor to maintain and correct data, and designed bureaucratic systems to make statistics appear reliable. 

A unique consideration of the role of quantitative measurement and human judgment, Scouting and Scoring provides an entirely fresh understanding of baseball by showing what the sport reveals about reliable knowledge in the modern world.


Incoming: The biggest TV shows coming your way before summer 2026 

Updated 02 January 2026
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Incoming: The biggest TV shows coming your way before summer 2026 

  • From the return of an iconic comedy to the end of TV’s most twisted superhero saga, here are the series you need to see 

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ 

Starring: Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Finn Bennett 

HBO may be taking its George R.R. Martin tribute a little too far with the delayed release of their latest venture into the “Game of Thrones” universe, based on Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas.The show follows hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his young squire Aegon Targaryen (Egg) — who will grow up to become King Aegon V — on their adventures across Westeros. It’s finally set to drop Jan. 11. The reception for HBO’s other “GoT” spinoff, “House of the Dragon,” the third season of which is due this summer, has been lukewarm. Can “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” recapture the old magic? 

‘The Pitt’ 

Starring: Noah Wyle, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball 

The winner of 2025’s Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series returns (along with its Emmy-winning regular cast members — Wyle and Katherine LaNasa) Jan. 8 for another glimpse into the lives of the staff at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, led by attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch. The tense, claustrophobic first season covered a single 15-hour shift in real time. This second outing will do the same, set on Independence Day nearly 10 months after the events of season one, on the first day back at work after attending rehab for Robinavitch’s right-hand man, senior resident Dr. Langdon (Ball).  

‘The Night Manager’ 

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Alistair Petrie 

Nearly a decade on from its acclaimed first season, this spy thriller — inspired by the work of John Le Carré — sees Hiddleston returning as Jonathan Pine; although he’s now living as Alex Goodwin, a low-level MI6 officer, in London. But when that new identity is threatened by a face from the past, he’s plunged into a twisty plot involving arms deals, guerillas, and a new nemesis, Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva). Due out on Amazon Prime on Jan. 11. 

‘Industry’  

Starring: Myha’la Herrold, Marisa Abela, Kit Harrington 

The ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK may be cooling, but this HBO/BBC joint production, at least, is thriving. Season four of the high-stakes finance drama, which debuts Jan. 11, sees a new fintech executive, Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella, best known as Nick in “The Handmaid’s Tale”) shaking up London, while the employees of investment bank Pierpoint & Co continue to navigate their chaotic personal and professional lives. Charlie Heaton, fresh from “Stranger Things,” also joins the cast as financial journalist Jim Dycker. 

‘Scrubs’  

Starring: Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke 

February sees the return of Bill Lawrence’s much-loved medical sitcom, with many of the original cast members returning, at least for cameos, and the three main characters — Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian (Braff), surgeon Chris Turk (Faison), and Dr. Elliot Reid (Chalke) — taking center stage once again, 16 years after the season nine finale. This time around, they’ll be the ones teaching the interns how to do their jobs, attempting to emulate their mentor Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley), who’s still knocking around Sacred Heart hospital.