I finally received my copy of
The Bill James Handbook 2008. Yes, I had to order it online (
you won this round, Larry).
Just
like last year, I'll offer some notes, as well as my ringing endorsement. There aren't much better buys for $15-20.
Offense:- Juan Uribe's massive swing generated the fourth-lowest groundball-to-flyball ratio (0.81), behind only Frank Thomas, Kevin Millar and Mark Ellis.
- A.J. Pierzynski dropped from second to sixth on the "highest first swing percentage" list at 38 percent. Magglio Ordonez is right in front of him.
- I'd be happy with the book's projections of these three Sox rookies:
- Josh Fields: .272/.351/.504
- Jerry Owens: .274/.340/.340
- Danny Richar: .277/.338/.451
Pitching:- Jose Contreras threw the third-fewest pitchers per batter (3.50). Contreras went 10-17 with a 5.57 ERA; the other nine names in the top 10 averaged 16-9 with a 3.97 ERA. Carlos Silva was the only one with a losing record, and Jeremy Bonderman was the only other pitcher with an ERA over 5.00.
- Matt Thornton's average fastball dropped from 96.0 m.p.h. to 94.3 m.p.h.; Bobby Jenks went from 95.8 to 93.9.
- It seemed like more to me, but Mark Buehrle only gained 0.2 m.p.h. on his heater (85.9), the third-slowest fastball in the league. He also threw the third-lowest percentage of fastballs (43.3 percent), or second if you don't count Tim Wakefield.
- John Danks' projection: 116 IP, 133 H, 48 BB, 103 K, 23 HR, 5.74 ERA.
Defense:- Even though he missed a ton of playing time in 2007, Scott Podsednik leads all left fielders in John Dewan's plus/minus system (as posted on thefieldingbible.com.) from 2005 to 2007. Dewan makes note that even though Pods covered a ton of ground, Ozzie Guillen used Rob Mackowiak as a defensive replacement. The blurb doesn't necessarily rip Ozzie, but it raises the issue. This is one stat that I can't wrap my brain around -- either it's the numbers that are bad, or my eyes.
- Here's the complete list of 2007 plus/minus leaders.
Baserunning:- The White Sox ranked second-to-last in team baserunning, only ahead of the Houston Astros.-- and that's despite committing the second-fewest baserunning outs.
- Jerry Owens scored the best by far in both categories -- bases gained, and stolen bases gained.
- The worst baserunner? Juan Uribe, mainly due to the many, many times he was hung out to dry on busted hit-and-runs.
- Four of the five other White Sox besides Owens with positive baserunning values in 2007 are no longer with the team: Darin Erstad, Rob Mackowiak, Tadahito Iguchi and Luis Terrero. Richar is the fifth.
Miscellaneous:- More than half the times Ozzie Guillen called for an intentional walk, it didn't work (26 out of 50). Two or more runs scored afterwards 15 times.
- Guillen used 463 relievers in 2007, 51 more than his previous high in 2005.
- The White Sox were both the worst at manufacturing runs, and the worst at preventing manufacturing runs. Kinda like the Bears with running the screen pass.