Bill JamesIf the name Bill James doesn’t mean anything to you, then you are probably not a baseball fan and have no need to read further. If, however, you are a baseball fan — ranging from fairly serious to obsessively statistical — then the name Bill James probably sets your brain and heart a-clattering. Here’s what his bio says:
Bill James has been writing about baseball since 1975. He is Senior Baseball Operations Advisor for the Boston Red Sox, and is the author of The Bill James Gold Mine 2008.
This would be the equivalent of a George Washington bio that said:
George Washington was a colonel and then a general during the U.S. Revolution, and then he became President.
Bill James hardly invented the statistical analysis of baseball, but over the past 30 years, he has done more than anyone to turn it into a science. His Wikipedia page gives a pretty good overview of his achievements; it is also worth visiting the Society for American Baseball Research (S.A.B.R.), which allowed sabermetrics to become a way of life.
With a new baseball season about to begin, and with his Red Sox pursuing their third World Series title in five years, Bill has agreed to take questions from readers of the Freakonomics blog. So fire away in the comments section and we’ll post his answers in a few days’ time. Thanks to Bill and all of you for participating.
Addendum: The answers to this Q&A can be found here.
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Using various statistics over a players lifetime, and comparing them to ‘league norms’ is it possible to determine which players may have used steroids?
Can you tell us about a time when you thought numbers were misleading and why?
Bill,
What do you think of games such as Strat-O-Matic baseball? How well do they simulate reality?
-Scott
Bill,I love your work and I am a longtime reader( I bought my first Abstract in 1984). I am also a Yankees fan and fear that your work with the Sox have tilted the RIVALARY in the Sawx favor. Could you please take Rob Neyer and go run the Royals?? and I read your piece on Young Talent and I think your work with the Sox may have skewed your view of the Yanks farm system. Please keep up the outstanding work and I hope Hank and Hal could entice you to leave the Sawx like Johnny Damon and come to work for the Evil Empire.
Why can’t the Chicago Cubs get into the World Series? Is it the small park? Low salaries? The curse of the billy goat? Does sabrmetrics provide any insights?
They are a bad team and have been unlucky as well.
Can you explain which stat you think is the most promising up-and-comer that the general public can understand but that holds more value than standard box score statistics?
Based on your statistical analysis, how do you feel about the Yankees’ young prospects, namely Chamberlain, Kennedy, and Hughes, making a huge (positive) difference for the Yankee pitching staff?
Are there any baseball simulation tools that are available to the general public? Which simulation tools do baseball front offices use?