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Bill James Handbook 2021
The first-to-market, most comprehensive, insightful, and groundbreaking annual baseball book on the market. A must-have gift for every true fan, with lifetime statistics and leader boards for every player in the major leagues and projections for how they might do in the future. 2021 EDITION New! Batter Game Scores Exclusive! The Annual Fielding Bible Awards Enhanced! Defensive Runs Saved based on the new PART System Complete! Career Data for Every 2020 Major Leaguer Unique! RBI Percentages, Win Shares, Career Targets, Shifts First! Hitter & Pitcher Projections for 2021
640 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2020
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About the author
Bill James
156 books201 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 29, 2020
The first sign of Winter arriving is when the Bill James Handbook is released in mid-November. As nights close in, is there anything better than cranking up the central heating, getting yourself something hot to drink and spending a couple of hours looking at baseball statistics? On second thoughts, it might just be me…
The Handbook follows the tested formula of previous years, with an initial set of essays followed by a denser set of statistical information looking at everything from basic team records to player projections for the upcoming year. If you wanted to know where Aaron Nola ranked among starting pitchers at the end of the season, how many runs Mitch Garver saved on called strikes or even how to pronounce Meibrys Vitoria, you’ll find it here.
There’s not much in terms of statistics that the reader can’t get from elsewhere, either from the online Fangraphs site or Baseball Prospectus. With Wins Above Replacement (WAR) embedded in the mainstream, the Handbook’s reliance on the alternative Runs Created and Win Shares metrics leaves it looking slightly dated.
As in previous years, the value of the Handbook is more in the essays than the data. It may not be the most prestigious title, but James is the most readable of baseball statisticians, with a talent for simple explanation and using numbers to explain and entertain. This year his only substantial essay is a solid piece on the Hall of Fame representatives for certain teams. The Padres have considerably more Hall of Famers than their record suggests, with the Dodgers having considerably fewer.
The main gap is that the Handbook rather skirts around COVID-19. Spring training was curtailed, the season dramatically condensed, more sides were allowed into the playoffs and teams such as the Marlins and Cardinals affected by players catching the virus. There is a piece by Mark Simon on “Major League Weirdness” which covers some issues relating to the pandemic, but it would have been interesting to read more about the potential long-term impact on baseball.
Sooner or later the Handbook is likely to become a victim of the widespread availability of similar stats on the Internet, potentially when James decides to call it quits and his supporting team at Sports Info Solutions feel they can safely retire the volume. That’ll be a shame – logging onto a website as a way to herald the arrival of Winter somehow won’t feel the same.
The Handbook follows the tested formula of previous years, with an initial set of essays followed by a denser set of statistical information looking at everything from basic team records to player projections for the upcoming year. If you wanted to know where Aaron Nola ranked among starting pitchers at the end of the season, how many runs Mitch Garver saved on called strikes or even how to pronounce Meibrys Vitoria, you’ll find it here.
There’s not much in terms of statistics that the reader can’t get from elsewhere, either from the online Fangraphs site or Baseball Prospectus. With Wins Above Replacement (WAR) embedded in the mainstream, the Handbook’s reliance on the alternative Runs Created and Win Shares metrics leaves it looking slightly dated.
As in previous years, the value of the Handbook is more in the essays than the data. It may not be the most prestigious title, but James is the most readable of baseball statisticians, with a talent for simple explanation and using numbers to explain and entertain. This year his only substantial essay is a solid piece on the Hall of Fame representatives for certain teams. The Padres have considerably more Hall of Famers than their record suggests, with the Dodgers having considerably fewer.
The main gap is that the Handbook rather skirts around COVID-19. Spring training was curtailed, the season dramatically condensed, more sides were allowed into the playoffs and teams such as the Marlins and Cardinals affected by players catching the virus. There is a piece by Mark Simon on “Major League Weirdness” which covers some issues relating to the pandemic, but it would have been interesting to read more about the potential long-term impact on baseball.
Sooner or later the Handbook is likely to become a victim of the widespread availability of similar stats on the Internet, potentially when James decides to call it quits and his supporting team at Sports Info Solutions feel they can safely retire the volume. That’ll be a shame – logging onto a website as a way to herald the arrival of Winter somehow won’t feel the same.
February 24, 2021
I read this baseball annual every year. Bill James is the father of modern baseball analytics, but he is now more an inspiration for this book, as this is now compiled by the staff of Baseball Info Solutions, led by Rob Dougherty. Baseball Info Solutions was founded by and owned primarily by John Dewan.
Bill James still pens a few essays and they continue to be insightful and meaty.
You get all the normal baseball statistics for every active player in baseball, but you also get a lot of information that baseball front offices now use to evaluate player performance. Obscure statistics like hard hit balls, fielding statistics and clutch hitting.
An example of a surprising essay was one by Bill James on what he calls Single Game Box Scores. He showed that even the best hitters in baseball provide half of their value in 25-30 games out of a 162 game season. In the other 130 games or so, these top hitters are merely ordinary players based on their performance in those games. Furthermore, if you take away the top 50 games of a top hitter, about 1/3 of the season, he proves that these top hitters are near-useless in the other 2/3 of the games. I found this to be eye-opening and unique to the sport.
The handbook also includes projections, NOT PREDICTIONS, for every active player in the coming 2021 season. I pay a lot of attention to these every year. And Bill James always explains what went right and wrong with the prior year projections.
A must read every year!
Bill James still pens a few essays and they continue to be insightful and meaty.
You get all the normal baseball statistics for every active player in baseball, but you also get a lot of information that baseball front offices now use to evaluate player performance. Obscure statistics like hard hit balls, fielding statistics and clutch hitting.
An example of a surprising essay was one by Bill James on what he calls Single Game Box Scores. He showed that even the best hitters in baseball provide half of their value in 25-30 games out of a 162 game season. In the other 130 games or so, these top hitters are merely ordinary players based on their performance in those games. Furthermore, if you take away the top 50 games of a top hitter, about 1/3 of the season, he proves that these top hitters are near-useless in the other 2/3 of the games. I found this to be eye-opening and unique to the sport.
The handbook also includes projections, NOT PREDICTIONS, for every active player in the coming 2021 season. I pay a lot of attention to these every year. And Bill James always explains what went right and wrong with the prior year projections.
A must read every year!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews