Book Review

2008 Bill James Handbook Review

By Thomas Fischer - Contributing Writer
06/07/2008

I feel really guilty for not publishing this review sooner since this was again a terrific product put together by Bill James and Baseball Info Solutions. It never ceases to amaze me when I think of all the games played and all of the stats kept to record those games. Sometimes those of us who are nuts about baseball statistics take for granted all the hard work that goes into collecting the stats we love and compiling them into such a great presentation of those stats. Seeing the stats laid out in the book as they are starting with the team statistics and other great information like the Team Efficiency Summary by Bill James and the Fielding Bible Awards by John Dewan, it just makes me appreciate all the hard work the team at BIS puts into creating this great book.

New in The 2008 Handbook is a Young Talent Inventory. This section is great and really makes me respect the brilliance of Bill James. He talks about not thinking too much about all of the young talent in the game in recent years until someone put the idea to him in the form of a question. "Why do you think that there are so many great young players around right now?" (p. 421). After studying the issue, James' conclusions are incontrovertable. There has been a definite explosion of talent in Major League Baseball in recent years. The article goes on to talk about who the best young players are today and Bill summarizes, in Jamesian fashion of course, each players talents and attributes that makes that player so good.

This year's handbook also has improved a couple of sections we have come to appreciate in the past. The first in Manufactured Runs which James points out was a term that came into use during the 1970s, but has more recently been improved upon and quantified by Bill James himself. In last years version of the book he describes manufactured runs by each team but has this year introduced two new categories or aspects to the manufactured run as it relates to individual players and to each team's opponent. It is very interesting to consider how much work is put into actually producing a run the old fashioned way instead of trying to get men on base and waiting for the long ball.

Another section that has been improved upon is the Manager's Record. In the past Bill James and Baseball Info Solutions have calculated "Long Outings" as 130 pitches or more by the starting pitcher. Since this is rarely accomplished any more, as starting pitchers generally throw only around 100 pitches, the standard has been changed from 130 pitches to 120 pitches. And even that may be a number that is reduced in years to come as the standard for a long outing. Another change to the Manager's Record is an attempt to quantify intentional base on balls as good, bad or "bomb". It is not a question of whether or not the manager himself is good or bad but a quantification of how many times intentionally walking a batter has worked out or whether putting a player on base has blown up in the skipper's face. I thought this was an especially nice addition to a section I pay particular attention to.

Baserunning analysis also has a new facet added in this year's handbook. The new category in this article is credit for stolen bases or Stolen Base Gain. It is fully described by James in the article and adds to the analysis to determine even better who is a good baserunner and who is average or worse. Since I am not a big proponent of stealing bases this is not a section I pay a tremendous amount of attention to, but I may soon start doing just that as I try to improve my own strategy and win more strat games.

All of these things contribute to making this the best Bill James Handbook ever. In addition to the normal statistical categories we have come to appreciate in the handbook, like the career data for each major leaguer that played in the previous year, we get unique stats that no other publication has like win shares and career assessments. A special thank you to Mike San Clemente and ACTA Sports for allowing me the opportunity to review this great book.

Visit http://www.actapublications.com/, then click on Sports.