Bill James Handbook 2020

by Bill James

The first-to-market-every-year annual baseball book, containing lifetime stats and analysis on every major league team, player, and manager through the 2019 season (plus a few minor league prospects). This year's edition has the following Premier! Defensive Runs Saved Analysis (Separates Range from Positioning); Exclusive! Annual Fielding Bible Awards; Transformative! Opener Usage Stats; New! Hitter RBI Percentages; Unique! Win Shares, Career Targets, Shifts, Instant Replay Analysis; First! Hitter & Pitcher Projections for 2020

600 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2019

About the author

George 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

Reviews

[Andrew Langert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an annual publication that I get every year. It has every kind of statistic imaginable in it and some few could imagine. Bill James and his colleagues who put together this book are always on the leading edge of using statistical data to evaluate all aspects of the game.
I always value the projections made for every player for the next season.
There are several great essays also. The best in this year's edition is Bill James' list of 50 ways to stop baseball from being swallowed up by home runs and strikeouts. He actually had 30 ideas, most of them sensible. A lot had to do with speeding up the game, something that must happen.
A great book on baseball put together by perhaps the game's best analytical mind.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essay on how to improve baseball's aesthetics was the best part. The statistics were good, as always. Thorough research for The baseball nerd!