The Bill James Handbook 2006 [Paperback]

Bill James (Author), Baseball Info Solutions (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bill James Handbook | Publication Date: November 2005

Simply put, The Bill James Handbook 2006 is the best and most complete annual baseball reference guide available today. New and key features in the 2006 edition include: Pitcher Projections, Baserunning Analysis, Hitter Projections, Career data for every 2005 major leaguer. It includes informative introductions to the different sections and an extensive glossary that includes explanations and even mathematical formulae for the multitude of statistics now used in baseball--many of them developed by Bill James himself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"James has become part of baseball legend." -- The New Yorker

About the Author

BILL JAMES has been writing about baseball and compiling reference about baseball since 1975. He is currently the Senior Baseball Operations Advisor for the Boston Red Sox.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: ACTA Sports (November 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879462965
• ISBN-13: 978-0879462963
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,065,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the stats, December 28, 2005

By 

Craig (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Bill James Handbook 2006 (Paperback)

If you're looking for Bill James' insightful and humorous player evaluations and comments, hold on to your money. However, if you're looking for the most comprehensive and nicely packaged stats for the upcoming season, then this is a good purchase at a low price.

The heart of this book is the same as it's been for the past couple of years. Lots of player stats presented in an easy-to-read format, managerial tendencies, projections for 2006, career and injury projections, and a glossary of statistical terms for the uninitiated. You won't find any discussion or essays, which I'm sure we'd all love to see more of from James. And if you're not used to dealing with statistics, I'd probably recommend reading some of his other titles to accompany this, as they tend to give better explanations of what the stats mean, and how/why they were developed.

Another reviewer mentioned that most of these stats are available for free, and that's true. But most of us, I think, would rather have a book we can just grab off the coffee table and flip open, instead of pulling out our laptops and heading to the BP or Baseball Reference sites.

As with past editions of this book, I'd recommend it to all baseball statheads or those who are looking for a handy reference for 2006. Along with the Baseball Prospectus annual, which will likely be out in February, I'd consider this an essential purcahse.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better with a little more effort, February 2, 2006

By 

J. R. Watts (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bill James Handbook 2006 (Paperback)

The bulk of the book is taken up by the career stats of most active players. That's nice and all, but in this day and age, when anyone with a computer has easy access to those stats and more, I would like to get a little more out of something I'm paying for. The book does have projections, win shares, and a bit more; these are the reasons I bought the book. Still, they make up a small fraction of the text, and some of the projections seem poorly (or lazily) thought out. The career projections in particular often don't pass the laugh test: he has numerous active players blowing past 600 career HR, Pujols with 830, and a crippled, de-steroided 41-year-old Barry Bonds reaching 900. It's like he just took their career production to date, projected it forward some number of games, and threw in some basic aging factor. The career projections do come with the caveat that they assume that the player will be healthy, but what kind of assumption is that? Isn't health a vital factor in any kind of projection, and isn't it predictable to some degree? In any event, what bothers me is not so much the methodology, as it is the fact that projections like that appear sloppy, lazy, and unedited. No one stopped to think, Do I really want to predict this many active players coming close to 700 HR? Will an injured 41-year-old really hit nearly 200 more HR in the remainder of his career?

The bottom line: the book isn't *bad*, but I expect more. I'm aware that James is something of a demigod in the stathead community, but I just don't think this is a very inspiring effort. You can do better for your money: Baseball Prospectus' annual contains stats you can't get elsewhere, more sensible projections, a LOT more analysis, and just plain more content -- all for about the same money you might spend on James' book.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth buying, December 25, 2005

By 

Baseball Fan (Portland OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bill James Handbook 2006 (Paperback)

Lets see how well this book holds up against it's publishers claims.

"Career data for every 2005 major leaguer (and a few bonus players) with more statistical categories than any other book." - Yes, but one can find this data online at countless sites. For free.

"Bill James' uniquely insightful statistics: Manager's Record, Win Shares, Team Efficiency Summary, and Career Assessments." - True, but notice this didn't claim "Bill James' uniquely insightful commentary," because there is hardly any sign of that throughout the book. What we do get is less than 1 or 2 pages per piece.

"New! Pitcher projections, plus hitter projections and career hitter projections." - James did not contribute - at all - to the pitcher projections, which were done by a bunch of people I never heard of. James did the hitter projections, introduced by a short, non-comprehensive piece comparing his projections for the 2005 Phillies and how they turned out. Most of that piece is just statistical comparison - little commentary. Beyond that, the projections are just projections with no essays, commentary or anything else you'd expect from James.

"New! Leaderboards; now with more leaderboards than ever before!" - So what! Get the vast majority of these online. For free.

"New! Baserunning Analysis" - Interesting to some, but not me, and I tend to be intrigued by stats.

This book, honestly, is a waste. There's little need for it - it's a book of stats, and the vast majority of these stats can be found online, for free. The amount of writing from James is extremely small, nothing beyond a few short introductory pieces to certian sections. By his standards, that's a disgrace.

There is an update to projections in this book later on this year - for 9.99 - almost the price of the book itself. My suggestion is, clearly, skip this. If you want an insightful baseball book with commentary for stats/projections... get Shandler's Baseball Forecaster, which offers projections updates for free. If you're just looking for strong baseball insight, check out the Hardball Times. But whatever you do, skip this.