The Bill James Gold Mine

by Bill James

Book Overview

Starting in the 1970s, a night watchman wfrom Kansas forever changed the way that many people view baseball analysis and ultimately the game itself. Now Bill James is doing it again with The Bill... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879463201
• ISBN13: 9780879463205
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: ACTA Publications
• Length: 317 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.4" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Great Baseball for Hardcore Fans

Bill James is in solid form with this Gold Mine of facts plus a variety of keen analytical essays. First, readers get a brief but ever-fascinating look at each of baseball's 30 teams and its prior-year performance. We see each key players' Win Shares, how certain pitchers changed their pitch selection, how certain batters hit more or fewer fly balls, etc. Don't forget the prior season's top clutch hitter (Ryan Howard), plus an inventory of young talent for each team. Interspersed with the per-team chapters are a host of analytical essays about many finer points of the game. In these essay we see trends toward increased player mobility and per-game strikeouts, the likelihood that Earl Webb's 1931 season record for Doubles (67) will soon be eclipsed, and which players historicallly performed near top expectations over their career (Hank Aaron, Tommy John, Al Kaline, etc.) versus those that fell short (Lou Gherig, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, etc.) often due to health reasons or military service. As a Chicagoan I enjoyed the comparisons of outfielders (Andre Dawson vs. Minnie Minoso), closers (Bruce Sutter vs. Lee Smith), and the analyisis of the 1959 White Sox, who won the AL pennant despite finishing last in homers and 6th (of eight teams) in runs scored. I admit to missing the old 1980's Abstracts for their strong analysis of each team for the prior and upcoming season, something the Gold Mine doesn't really do. Still, the book provides interesting data, thoughtful essays, and remains, as do most Bill James books, a must for hardcore baseball nuts.

More pure Bill

I've always found Bill's musings more provocative in terms of how I think about baseball than the innovative approach to crunching numbers that he revolutionized. I used to be a fan of Bill's annual publications (after the Abstract) in the early 90's primarily as it was so loose it felt like you were having a fireside chat (or "hot stove" conversation). The 2nd version of the Gold Mine is like that, with more organization and fascinating little tidbits (and yes, fresh takes on stats).

The book is one a kind

Reviewing the book for what it is and not what some people would prefer it to be (i.e., a revival of the Abstract): it's hand's-down a 5-star book. Like last year's model, this year the book contains data from the Bill James Online site and nuggets of analysis provided by Bill and astute readers. The book also has an end-chapter of dialogue lifted from the Ask Bill section of the website: - On why Bonds wasn't on a major league team: "He has one-dimensional skills and a poor reputation as a teammate." - On why Bonds wasn't on a major league team even though he had the best OPS+ the previous year: "Somebody asked me why he wasn't in the majors and I gave an honest answer. It's not my fault the man can't run, field, throw, or get along with people." - On giving baseball players a hard time for foot-in-mouth disease: "I am reluctant to place onto baseball players a burden that we do not place on ourselves. And yes, baseball players sometimes say stupid [stuff] because they don't realize the world didn't start the day they were born, but then, so do I, I suspect. I think everybody does." The meat of the book, though, for most readers, will be the essays. What's special about the essays, and what makes the book a must-have, is that they are truly essays that you wouldn't find anywhere else -- not just because they have Bill's voice and clarity, but because they have Bill's unique perspective. Simply put, things often occur to him that don't occur to other analysts, and he has a talent for taking a slightly idiosyncratic perspective and crafting it until it applies to a broader sabermetric and historical appreciation (and application). For instance: - His essay on stolen bases isn't just about when and if to steal, but how the stolen bases benefits each team, in light the team's make-up: do the teams that should steal most often actually do so? - His "What If" essay is a fantasy about constructing an entirely new major league, with direct fan participation, GM elections, roster keeper rules, etc., following the observation that "almost everything that exists is an accident of history." It's a thought experiment that blends Bill's analytical talents and unique authorial voice. It has no bearing whatsoever on fantasy baseball, which is why you would never read something like this elsewhere, but it's an unforgettable essay. - There is an essay called "Whoppers," that uses Tim Johnson's firing -- as a consequence of lying about military service -- as an opportunity to discuss human fallibility, rehabilitation, self-righteousness, and how rare genuine compassion is. In regards to Johnson and guys like Bonds, Rose, McGwire, Clemens: "I'm not saying it's right [...] I am saying it is self-righteous to pretend that I don't have the same human failings that these guys do, and further, if you are insisting that you don't have them, I don't believe you." The reaction to last year's Gold Mine seemed to focus on whether the book was what people had expe

The master at work

I have reading Bill James for over 20 years and he's still a great baseball writer. Very few baseball people understand the game the way he does. I liked the essays on each team, but my favorite part of this excellent book is the section on evaluating Hall of Fame chances for today's stars. I highly recommend this book to any baseball fan.

The Bill James Gold Mine 2008

If circumstances only allow you to purchase and/or read one baseball book this spring, you cannot make a better choice than "The Bill James Gold Mine 2008." In this book, James provides fun and informative statistical analysis on every big league team - in addition to 17 new essays that are a treat to read. Among my favorites were: "Three to Five Run Records" - which shows you the best and worst teams when they scored or allowed three to five runs in a game. "The Dave Kingman Award" - where James uses "HR/[RC+10]" to show us which batters over the last 30 years were the "best" at "hitting home runs without doing anything else positive as a hitter." "The Turk Farrell Award" - which identifies good pitchers who had terrible records because their team stunk. "The Nolan Ryan Award" - given to unreformed power pitchers via James' formula of "[W*L*SO*BB]/IP." "End Game" - which identifies "the moment at which it ain't over, but it's over" for a team with respect to their place in the standings. (This essay suggests that the three greatest collapses in baseball history belong to the 1951 Dodgers, 1964 Phillies, 2007 Mets, and 1978 Red Sox - in that order.) "Closer Fatigue" - where James shows how fatigue level of a closer impacts success for his team. "Strength Up the Middle" - that confirms good teams are strong "up the middle" - and it's more true that bad teams are weak in this area. "Bullpens and Crunches" - that establishes teams with good bullpens "tend to exceed expectations" in one-run and close games. But, it also shares that there's no definitive evidence that teams with strong bullpens do well in the post-season. "Herbie" - where James introduces a stat that identifies "a more reasonable candidate for the league's best pitcher than the actual ERA leader." Brass tacks, if you were a fan of The Bill James Baseball Abstracts, you will enjoy this book. And, if you've never read James' Abstracts, and always wondered what the fuss was about, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. "The Bill James Gold Mine 2008" is the type of baseball book that's so much fun, and enlightening, that you'll want to re-read it, again, the minute you finish reading it for the first time. And, there's a good chance that you'll want to read it a third time after that - as there's so much good stuff in it.