Derek Bain

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family. Derek's first book, "Hardball Retrospective: Evaluating Scouting and Development Outcomes for the Modern-Era Franchises," was published in 2015 and received runner-up honors in the Shelf Unbound 2016 Best Indie Book contest. Derek and co-author John Racanelli were honored as one of three winners of the 2025 Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award for "Hardball Retro’s Compendium of Baseball Video Games and Electronic Handhelds."

In "Hardball Retrospective: Evaluating Scouting and Development Outcomes for the Modern-Era Franchises," Derek poses the question, “What if I placed every ballplayer in the modern era (from 1901-2013) on their “original” team (the first team to sign them to a professional contract?”

“Hardball Retroactive” assesses the front office acumen of top MLB executives, the art of base running on an individual and team basis, expansion teams’ path to success, and every franchise's minor league successes and failures in relation to their major league operations.

The two-volume set "Hardball Architects: Evaluating Roster Construction and Team Performance Based On Player Acquisition Methods" examines the trades, free agent acquisitions, draft picks and other transactions for the 30 Major League Baseball franchises.

"Hardball Retro’s Compendium of Baseball Video Games and Electronic Handhelds” celebrates 50 years of our pixelated National Pastime, including ratings, reviews, commentary, screenshots and interviews with famous designers and programmers.

Expanding on the research for his books, Derek contributed articles to Fangraphs, Seamheads and Hardball Retro. His latest series focuses on retro reviews of classic baseball computer games along with tutorials for creating/editing teams and conducting drafts with classic and modern baseball simulations.