Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 04, 2005
Bill James Handbook

In the mail today is The Bill James Handbook 2006. It's always a treat. Besides the player register, the book supplies complete fielding statistics, pitchers hitting, batters pitching, managers strategies and player projections. One of the more interesting things I saw in my initial skim was in the team efficiency section. It seems that Chicago was the most efficient team in the league in terms of converting runs scored and allowed into wins, while Cleveland was the least efficient. According to the calculations there, the Indians should have won the AL Central by 13 games!

One thing in hitter projections seemed wrong to me, however. They project Barry Bonds to hit 36 home runs next year, a very reasonable amount. However, when they project career home runs, they put Bonds at 900. I'm not sure what that is based on, but close to 200 home runs for a player Bonds' age seems very unlikely at this point.

I find the park indexes extremely useful during the season. Citizen's bank park in up there with Coors in helping home runs, although it's not that close in overall run scoring. PETCO is the most difficult park for homers and runs by a wide margin.

The Bill James Handbook is a great reference. I keep it on my desk the whole season.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:14 PM | Books | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Where can I buy the handbook? I've looked online but I couldn't find it.

Posted by: mike at November 4, 2005 04:32 PM

Mike: Amazon sells it. Most of the big chain bookstores will carry it soon enough, and you can get it by clicking the link in David's post. It'll take you to the Baseball Info Solutions site.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at November 4, 2005 04:42 PM

I just ordered my copy from Barnes and Noble for $16.

Posted by: Rob at November 5, 2005 03:20 AM
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