Comments on: Culling the Bill James Handbook http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2009/11/culling-the-bill-james-handbook/ News, views, and analysis on the Detroit Tigers and baseball Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:59:57 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Coach Jim http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2009/11/culling-the-bill-james-handbook/#comment-135245 Coach Jim Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:12:27 +0000 http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2009/11/culling-the-bill-james-handbook/#comment-135245 The first I heard of Bill James was in 1983 when an article was published in the Free Press. He talked about how Tony Armas, recently moving from Oakland to Boston, would "tattoo the Green Monster", and how Robin Yount was the most productive batter the previous season. He justified this with a formula to calculate runs created. I remember it assigned run values for each kind of batting event. Walks and HBP were 0.25 (it took 4 to create a run), singles were .35, stolen bases were .33, and so on. I saw a similar chart recently, but the values were different (I remember seeing walks as .25 and HBP as .28 - even though they have EXACTLY the same effect on scoring...hmmm). Anyway, I love this sort of thing. I use those numbers to calculate salaries in a card-and-dice baseball simulation game I've invented. By the way, last year I emailed Billfer asking if he knew where I could find information like how many times a runner took more bases than a batter (going from 1B to 3B on a single) to help create a nice formula for calculating base-running acumen. He pointed me to Retrosheet, but this exact item is used as an example. It's been many years since I bought a Bill James book. Looks like my holiday wish-list just got another item. The first I heard of Bill James was in 1983 when an article was published in the Free Press. He talked about how Tony Armas, recently moving from Oakland to Boston, would “tattoo the Green Monster”, and how Robin Yount was the most productive batter the previous season. He justified this with a formula to calculate runs created. I remember it assigned run values for each kind of batting event. Walks and HBP were 0.25 (it took 4 to create a run), singles were .35, stolen bases were .33, and so on. I saw a similar chart recently, but the values were different (I remember seeing walks as .25 and HBP as .28 – even though they have EXACTLY the same effect on scoring…hmmm). Anyway, I love this sort of thing. I use those numbers to calculate salaries in a card-and-dice baseball simulation game I’ve invented.

By the way, last year I emailed Billfer asking if he knew where I could find information like how many times a runner took more bases than a batter (going from 1B to 3B on a single) to help create a nice formula for calculating base-running acumen. He pointed me to Retrosheet, but this exact item is used as an example. It’s been many years since I bought a Bill James book. Looks like my holiday wish-list just got another item.

]]> By: ian (seattle) http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2009/11/culling-the-bill-james-handbook/#comment-135242 ian (seattle) Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:39:43 +0000 http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2009/11/culling-the-bill-james-handbook/#comment-135242 oh my, Bill...you werent kidding...those leaderboard stats are awesome! Im so excited Fu TeNi did so well...i was just talking to my friend in Taipei yesterday. They're extremely proud. oh my, Bill…you werent kidding…those leaderboard stats are awesome!

Im so excited Fu TeNi did so well…i was just talking to my friend in Taipei yesterday. They’re extremely proud.

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