The Bill James Handbook, published each year by the good folks at Baseball Information Systems (BIS), is filled with endless stats and information. As James states toward the back of the book, it is designed to be a book of facts, a record of the season. The validity of some of the information may be questionable to some, including myself, but the breadth of the information presented is difficult to find anywhere else, and as such it makes the book an incredibly useful, and fun tool.
Below are 30 fun morsels of information I parceled out while reading/skimming the 2010 edition the past week and a half. For most, if not all of these, I looked at the data in-depth. In other words, I tried not to just regurgitate the information presented in the book. I kept it to 30, but there is so much more info in the book that I didn't even examine in-depth, such as the park indices, career register, the instant replay analysis and the manager's record. One could really keep themselves occupied with this book for a long, long time.
1. Eight teams had a winning road record. Six made the playoffs.
2. The NL West was the only division that did not play any games on turf.
3. Six teams beat an opponent 14 or more times: Tampa beat Baltimore 14 times, Detroit beat Cleveland 14 times, Seattle beat Oakland 14 times, the Dodgers beat Colorado 14 times, Philadelphia beat Washington 15 times and Boston beat Baltimore 16 times.
4. Two teams won 21 games in a month - Colorado did it in June and the Yankees did it in August.
5. 10 teams hit more home runs on the road than at home.
6. Seven teams had a team stolen base success rate of 75% or higher.
7. Only three teams grounded into less than 100 double plays - Arizona, Philadelphia and Texas.
8. Seven of the eight playoff teams were in the top 15 in "baserunning net runs gained," a stat that totals the number of runs gained while running the bases during play with the number of runs gained from stolen base attempts.
9. Michael Bourn, Rajai Davis, Ian Kinsler and Chase Utley were the only players that were +15 or greater in both baserunning and stolen base gain.
10. In addition to those four, Jason Bartlett, Brett Gardner, Torii Hunter, Matthew Kemp, Nick Punto, Willy Taveras, Jayson Werth and Randy Winn were all +10 or greater in both categories.
11. The Wests were the best baserunning divisions, the Centrals the worst and the Easts in between. Averaging the net gain on the bases of the teams by division, I find that the AL West had an average net gain of 56.75 runs, with the NL West second at 46.2. Then came the NL East at 28.6 and the AL East at 26.8, and then the AL Central at -2.0, and the NL Central dead last at -3.66.
12. Only eight pitchers had a "leverage index" of greater than or equal to 2.0 - David Aardsma, Heath Bell, Brian Fuentes, Brad Lidge, Jonathan Papelbon, Scot Shields, Joakim Soria and Brian Wilson (minimum two games pitched).
13. Only eight pitchers recorded three or more "tough saves," as defined by BIS - Bell, Ryan Franklin, Mike MacDougal, Papelbon, Chad Qualls, Mariano Rivera, Soria and Wilson.
14. 43 relief pitchers inherited 40 or more runners last season. Of that group, Jason Bergmann was the stingiest, as he allowed just 14% of his inherited runners to score.
15. 16 players had 10 or more pinch hits in 2009.
16. Five players hit three or more pinch hit home runs in 2009.
17. BIS has an unique way of tracking "manufactured runs." According to their totals, the Angels led baseball in this category, as they manufactured 50 more runs than their opponents. The Royals were at the opposite end of the spectrum. They manufactured 63 less runs than their opponents.
18. Nick Markakis had the most at-bats versus left-handed pitching, with 264.
19. Ryan Braun had the most at-bats versus right-handed pitching, with 516.
20. Prince Fielder, Raul Ibanez and Hideki Matsui led MLB with 13 home runs as left-handed batters against left-handed pitching.
21. Mark Reynolds led MLB with 36 homers as a right-handed batter versus right-handed pitching.
22. 23 hitters hit 10 or more home runs versus both left-handed and right-handed pitching. 12 of them were right-handed hitters (Jason Bay, Michael Cuddyer, Mark DeRosa, Aaron Hill, Ian Kinsler, Paul Konerko, Albert Pujols, Juan Rivera, Cody Ross, Troy Tulowitzki, Justin Upton and Werth), 10 were left-handed (Russell Branyan, Robinson Cano, Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez, Ibanez, Matsui, Justin Morneau, Carlos Pena, Luke Scott and Utley) and one was a switch hitter (Victor Martinez).
23. Only Joe Mauer and Kevin Youkilis were top 10 in the AL in on-base percentage versus both left-handed and right-handed pitching. In the NL, only Nick Johnson and Pujols were in the same group.
24. Outlier alert! BIS has a stat called BPS, which is batting average + slugging percentage. On pitches outside of the strike zone, Ben Zobrist had the best BPS score in the AL, with a score of .833. The second highest mark in the ALwas .671, and the highest NL mark was .663.
25. Looking at Bill James' Runs Created stat, we can see that Bay and Youkilis were the only players to rank in the top 10 in the AL in terms of "Runs Created per 27 Outs" against both left-handed and right-handed pitching. In the NL, there were also two who were in this group - Fielder and Pujols.
26. The two worst AL catchers in terms of percentage of runners caught stealing were Red Sox by the end of the season - Jason Varitek and Martinez. Only Yorvit Torrealba saved them from being the two worst in baseball.
27. Among the top seven active leaders in wins, only Pedro Martinez is not also top seven among players in losses.
28. Derek Holland was the one pitcher that had one of the ten best AL Game Scores as well as one of the 10 worst AL Game Scores.
29. During the decade, 17 players had a Win Share mark of 15 or better in five consecutive seasons. 11 players did it in six consecutive seasons, six did it in seven consecutive seasons, five did it in eight consecutive seasons, seven did it in nine consecutive seasons and five did it in every season of the decade. Those five players were Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones and Alex Rodriguez.
30. The single-best Win Shares season of the decade, and the only season over 40, was Pujols' mark of 41 in 2003. There were 16 other seasons of 35 or better. Pujols and Rodriguez had four seasons each, with Jason Giambi the only other player to do it more than once. None of the 17 seasons were turned in by pitchers, and 10 were turned in by first basemen.
Below are 30 fun morsels of information I parceled out while reading/skimming the 2010 edition the past week and a half. For most, if not all of these, I looked at the data in-depth. In other words, I tried not to just regurgitate the information presented in the book. I kept it to 30, but there is so much more info in the book that I didn't even examine in-depth, such as the park indices, career register, the instant replay analysis and the manager's record. One could really keep themselves occupied with this book for a long, long time.
1. Eight teams had a winning road record. Six made the playoffs.
2. The NL West was the only division that did not play any games on turf.
3. Six teams beat an opponent 14 or more times: Tampa beat Baltimore 14 times, Detroit beat Cleveland 14 times, Seattle beat Oakland 14 times, the Dodgers beat Colorado 14 times, Philadelphia beat Washington 15 times and Boston beat Baltimore 16 times.
4. Two teams won 21 games in a month - Colorado did it in June and the Yankees did it in August.
5. 10 teams hit more home runs on the road than at home.
6. Seven teams had a team stolen base success rate of 75% or higher.
7. Only three teams grounded into less than 100 double plays - Arizona, Philadelphia and Texas.
8. Seven of the eight playoff teams were in the top 15 in "baserunning net runs gained," a stat that totals the number of runs gained while running the bases during play with the number of runs gained from stolen base attempts.
9. Michael Bourn, Rajai Davis, Ian Kinsler and Chase Utley were the only players that were +15 or greater in both baserunning and stolen base gain.
10. In addition to those four, Jason Bartlett, Brett Gardner, Torii Hunter, Matthew Kemp, Nick Punto, Willy Taveras, Jayson Werth and Randy Winn were all +10 or greater in both categories.
11. The Wests were the best baserunning divisions, the Centrals the worst and the Easts in between. Averaging the net gain on the bases of the teams by division, I find that the AL West had an average net gain of 56.75 runs, with the NL West second at 46.2. Then came the NL East at 28.6 and the AL East at 26.8, and then the AL Central at -2.0, and the NL Central dead last at -3.66.
12. Only eight pitchers had a "leverage index" of greater than or equal to 2.0 - David Aardsma, Heath Bell, Brian Fuentes, Brad Lidge, Jonathan Papelbon, Scot Shields, Joakim Soria and Brian Wilson (minimum two games pitched).
13. Only eight pitchers recorded three or more "tough saves," as defined by BIS - Bell, Ryan Franklin, Mike MacDougal, Papelbon, Chad Qualls, Mariano Rivera, Soria and Wilson.
14. 43 relief pitchers inherited 40 or more runners last season. Of that group, Jason Bergmann was the stingiest, as he allowed just 14% of his inherited runners to score.
15. 16 players had 10 or more pinch hits in 2009.
16. Five players hit three or more pinch hit home runs in 2009.
17. BIS has an unique way of tracking "manufactured runs." According to their totals, the Angels led baseball in this category, as they manufactured 50 more runs than their opponents. The Royals were at the opposite end of the spectrum. They manufactured 63 less runs than their opponents.
18. Nick Markakis had the most at-bats versus left-handed pitching, with 264.
19. Ryan Braun had the most at-bats versus right-handed pitching, with 516.
20. Prince Fielder, Raul Ibanez and Hideki Matsui led MLB with 13 home runs as left-handed batters against left-handed pitching.
21. Mark Reynolds led MLB with 36 homers as a right-handed batter versus right-handed pitching.
22. 23 hitters hit 10 or more home runs versus both left-handed and right-handed pitching. 12 of them were right-handed hitters (Jason Bay, Michael Cuddyer, Mark DeRosa, Aaron Hill, Ian Kinsler, Paul Konerko, Albert Pujols, Juan Rivera, Cody Ross, Troy Tulowitzki, Justin Upton and Werth), 10 were left-handed (Russell Branyan, Robinson Cano, Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez, Ibanez, Matsui, Justin Morneau, Carlos Pena, Luke Scott and Utley) and one was a switch hitter (Victor Martinez).
23. Only Joe Mauer and Kevin Youkilis were top 10 in the AL in on-base percentage versus both left-handed and right-handed pitching. In the NL, only Nick Johnson and Pujols were in the same group.
24. Outlier alert! BIS has a stat called BPS, which is batting average + slugging percentage. On pitches outside of the strike zone, Ben Zobrist had the best BPS score in the AL, with a score of .833. The second highest mark in the ALwas .671, and the highest NL mark was .663.
25. Looking at Bill James' Runs Created stat, we can see that Bay and Youkilis were the only players to rank in the top 10 in the AL in terms of "Runs Created per 27 Outs" against both left-handed and right-handed pitching. In the NL, there were also two who were in this group - Fielder and Pujols.
26. The two worst AL catchers in terms of percentage of runners caught stealing were Red Sox by the end of the season - Jason Varitek and Martinez. Only Yorvit Torrealba saved them from being the two worst in baseball.
27. Among the top seven active leaders in wins, only Pedro Martinez is not also top seven among players in losses.
28. Derek Holland was the one pitcher that had one of the ten best AL Game Scores as well as one of the 10 worst AL Game Scores.
29. During the decade, 17 players had a Win Share mark of 15 or better in five consecutive seasons. 11 players did it in six consecutive seasons, six did it in seven consecutive seasons, five did it in eight consecutive seasons, seven did it in nine consecutive seasons and five did it in every season of the decade. Those five players were Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones and Alex Rodriguez.
30. The single-best Win Shares season of the decade, and the only season over 40, was Pujols' mark of 41 in 2003. There were 16 other seasons of 35 or better. Pujols and Rodriguez had four seasons each, with Jason Giambi the only other player to do it more than once. None of the 17 seasons were turned in by pitchers, and 10 were turned in by first basemen.
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