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The Bill James Handbook 2007
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Product Description
Simply put, The Bill James Handbook 2007 is the best and most complete annual baseball reference guide available today. It includes informative introductions to the different sections and an extensive glossary that includes explanations and even mathematical formulae for the multitude of statistics now used in baseball--many of them developed by Bill James himself. This book contains a myriad of stats on every hit, pitch and catch in Major League Baseball's 2006 season.
New and key features include:
Fielding Bible Defensive Awards - NEW
Manufactured Runs Analysis - NEW
Manager's Record - IMPROVED & EXPANDED
Baserunning Analysis - IMPROVED
Career data for every 2006 major leaguer
Pitcher Projections
Hitter Projections
Team Efficiency Summary
Player Win Shares
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #546958 in Books
- Published on: 2006-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 467 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
James has become part of baseball legend. -- The New Yorker
The most essential annual published for the baseball fan. -- Rob Neyer
The prize of our winter hibernation. -- Peter Gammons
About the Author
Bill James is a well-respected baseball historian who has broken new ground in the area of baseball statistics.
Customer Reviews
Nirvana for Figure Filberts
If you know about Bill James, I don't have to explain. If not aware of him, I can only say that he has created a wide variety of statistics to assess players in a novel way.
What are the odds that Tom Glavine will win 300 games? 74% The odds that Kenny Rogers will? 8%. The odds of other luminaries making it to 300 wins: Randy Johnson, 70%; Mike Mussina, 18%; Curt Schilling, 9%; Derek Lowe, 1%.
The odds that Barry Bonds beats Hank Aaron's record? 97%. The odds that Ryan Howard will? 2%. Also note that A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) is projected to finish his career with 772 home runs. What about the projected homer figure for Albert Pujols? 867. Frank Thomas? 574. All thse projections, of course, assume that players remain healthy.
The odds of Craig Biggio getting 3,000 hits? 99%. The odds of Paul Konerko getting 3,000 hits? 9%. Others: Derek Jeter, 71%; A-Rod, 63%; Albert Pujols, 31%; Alfonso Soriano, 5%.
What about the range of third basemen (Number of successful chances--putouts plus assists--times nine, divided by the number of defensive innings played): The top 3 for 2006 are Brandon Inge, Freddy Sanchez, and Joe Crede. What about Alex Rodriguez? 4th from last. . . .
This volume provides projections for players in 2007; it assesses pitchers, baserunners, managers, baseball parks, etc.
For baseball fans who like statistical analyses, Bill James is a guru. This volume is a must read during Hot Stove League discussions.
In the final analysis, a worthy addition to the Bill James Library. . . .
Overblown
This thing didn't offer nearly as much writing and analysis as I expected. Sure the stats are nice, but I couldnt find a chart telling me what the hell all these things were. Some were found in the back of the book, others are defined at the beginning of each section. Would be nicer if they were all in one place.
Also, I think the preseason update being sold for $10 is stupid. Anyone who bought this book should get that free in pdf format. This book is released at the end of the season before any moves are made. How can I believe any of these predictions for next year?? This is mostly a book of stats. Look elsewhere for real analysis of the stats.
Bill James is the Best but...
The Handbook is great and comes out before the holidays which makes it available for gifting so also great. There is plenty of terrific stuff here: All the player's career records, excellent fielding evaluations thanks to Info Solutions which monitors every play. (-- that's right every play. These diligent and pale people sacrifice their lives so you don't have to.) There are also James' innovative Win Shares (although I wish they would include them with the career records) and his speculations on final career numbers--3000 hits, 500 homeruns etc. There is a ton of information on 2006 batting and pitching leaders , career data on the managers, evaluations of each ballpark and much more. There are hours of enjoyable perusing for those of us who find this stuff fascinating.
The but, and it is a considerable one, is that because the book comes out at such an early date that it does not include playoff or World Series records. Nor does it include these stats in the career records of the players. This is a pretty major omission for such an inclusive book. To have this information you must get The Sporting News version of the same book. I prefer the James book because of the James stuff but The Sporting News version also has trade and free agent histories as well as complete minor league records. For this reason I alternate season to season purchasing one of the books. This year I purchased the James and I'm loving it.
