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The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1985
Bill James Baseball Abstract collectors, replace missing editions with this one. Has minor wear issues at top edge of pages and top edge of cover, but otherwise in very good condition.
308 pages, Paperback
Published March 12, 1985
13 people want to read
About the author
Bill James
156 books202 followersGeorge William “Bill” James (born October 5, 1949, in Holton, Kansas) is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he termed sabermetrics in reference to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose. His Baseball Abstract books in the 1980s are the modern predecessor to websites using sabermetrics such as Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Primer (now Baseball Think Factory).
In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. He is currently a Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. In 2010, Bill James was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James
In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. He is currently a Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. In 2010, Bill James was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 11, 2020
very enjoyable reread while waiting for my next library hold to come through. Can't wait for full reopening of public libraries to allow for browsing and replenishing supplies on my own sked.
Anyway, if you're familiar with the Abstracts, this was a typical one. Lots of great stuff. What particularly stood out to me on reread:
1. Obviously he was into the advanced stats already, but it's jarring to read so many allusions to batting average as evidence on one or another point (he hit X on turf but X - 20 on grass, etc. etc.) -- don't see that kind of data point much on Bill James Online these days.
2. Calif. Angels team comment includes kind of an extended discussion of how one might shed light on whether teams adopt different strategies if the standard is very high in their division [some dominant franchise is winning 95 games every year] or not [if we can just win 85 we'll be in the hunt] by conducting simulations with card games or what not. Not a bad idea, but I don't remember his doing much with that sort of thing in later years.
3. I'd completely forgotten that he gave Paul Johnson a few pages to explain Estimates Runs Produced, putatively superior to the author's own Runs Created formula for estimating individual contributions to offense. Gave himself the last word in disagreeing a bit that ERP was superior, but at least acknowledged the possibility, and overall a nice touch to lend some of his visibility.
I see from a quick Google that this exchange did provoke some changes/improvements in the runs created formula, and multiple commentators have noted an irony that James in the same piece trashes Pete Palmer's "Linear Weights" method without noticing that Johnson's method IS a linear weights method, just with slightly different weights than Palmer's. Oh well, I guess that happens when you teach yourself stats for the most part. At least he was discussing the methods transparently, which we're just getting around to in some other areas of research.
Anyway, if you're familiar with the Abstracts, this was a typical one. Lots of great stuff. What particularly stood out to me on reread:
1. Obviously he was into the advanced stats already, but it's jarring to read so many allusions to batting average as evidence on one or another point (he hit X on turf but X - 20 on grass, etc. etc.) -- don't see that kind of data point much on Bill James Online these days.
2. Calif. Angels team comment includes kind of an extended discussion of how one might shed light on whether teams adopt different strategies if the standard is very high in their division [some dominant franchise is winning 95 games every year] or not [if we can just win 85 we'll be in the hunt] by conducting simulations with card games or what not. Not a bad idea, but I don't remember his doing much with that sort of thing in later years.
3. I'd completely forgotten that he gave Paul Johnson a few pages to explain Estimates Runs Produced, putatively superior to the author's own Runs Created formula for estimating individual contributions to offense. Gave himself the last word in disagreeing a bit that ERP was superior, but at least acknowledged the possibility, and overall a nice touch to lend some of his visibility.
I see from a quick Google that this exchange did provoke some changes/improvements in the runs created formula, and multiple commentators have noted an irony that James in the same piece trashes Pete Palmer's "Linear Weights" method without noticing that Johnson's method IS a linear weights method, just with slightly different weights than Palmer's. Oh well, I guess that happens when you teach yourself stats for the most part. At least he was discussing the methods transparently, which we're just getting around to in some other areas of research.
Displaying 1 of 1 review