Steve Lombardi reviews The Bill James Handbook 2007 at Netshrine. I just received my copy of The Bill James Handbook 2007 yesterday. The first thing that caught my eye was the voting for best defensive players. Bill gathered a panel of experts from both the news media and the sabermetric world, gave them ballots and had them vote in a Borda count. What’s interesting is there is a lot of agreement with the AL and NL voting. Even on something like shortstop, Everett wins but Vizquel comes in second (Jeter, however, doesn’t make the top ten). Maddux and Rogers finish one-two among pitchers in their poll, and the objective stats back that up. That makes me think teams don’t teach their pitchers to field any more if two 40 year olds are the best at turning balls into outs.
The biggest differences are in the outfield, where the gold glove awards vote for the best outfielders, giving centerfielders an advantage, while this poll was at each position. It’s a voting system that’s easily implemented and would likely improve the results of the voting, but not as much as I would have thought.
Also, in the managers section, take a look at Ozzie Guillen’s entry. It’s a good lesson in how the makeup of the team effects strategy. In 2005, with a weaker offense team, Guillen stole more, sacrificed more and put runners in motion more often than with his 2006 power team. That’s just what a manager should do, as the investment in outs is more costly if it’s easier to score a man from first with a long hit.