Win a Free Copy of THT 2013!

In case you hadn’t heard, The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2013 has hit internet bookshelves. You can read all about it here in Dave Studeman’s post, or you can listen to Carson Cistulli and myself discuss it here on a FanGraphs Audio podcast.

Because we’re giving folk, and since it’s the beginning of the holiday season and all, we want to give you a chance to win yourself a free copy of the book. So each day this week, we’ll be running a trivia contest based on one of the articles in the book. You can find yesterday’s contest here, if you’re into that sort of thing. The first person to post the correct answer in the comments will win a free physical copy of the book (sorry, no free Kindle or Nook versions). It’s just that simple!

Today’s question comes from the article entitled “Examining Umpire Strike Zones.” Written by THT’s Chris Jaffe, it takes a historical look at umpires, through the lens of who has issued the most and fewest walks and strikeouts. In doing so, Jaffe utilizes a plus/minus stat to give the numbers some context. In this way, we can see which umps have issued the most or fewest walks or strikeouts on a rate basis as well, as some umps — like Hall of Famer Bill Klem, for instance — worked games for a really long time. So the trivia question before you today, dear reader, is this:

On a rate basis, which current umpire has issued walks most frequently?

Be quick with your answer, and you can win a free copy of THT 13. And if you’re not the lucky winner, don’t forget to check back in with us each day this week! Or, if you’d rather not wait, you can purchase it at the following destinations:

— Amazon (in either physical or Kindle form)
— Barnes & Noble (in Nook form)
— Createspace (also in physical form).

We hope to have it up on Apple’s iBooks soon as well.