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"Abstracts from the Abstracts" synopsis and review by Rich Lederer at baseballanalysts.com

1983 Bill James Baseball Abstract

Divided into five parts:

Part I: Methods

PartII: The Teams

Part III: Player Ratings

Part IV: The Game

Part V: Not of Any General Interest

Introduction, p 1

Part I : Methods

Old Business, p5

1) Tools that are Used to Analyze and Evaluate Hitters, p5

Runs Created, 5

Runs Created Per Game, 6

Offensive Wins and Losses, 6

Park Adjustments, 6

Home/Road and Left-Handed Pitching-Right-Handed Pitching Breakdowns, 6

Isolated Pwer, 7

Power/Speed Number, 7

2) Tools that are Used to Evaluate Pitchers, p7

Opposition Stolen Bases, 7

Double Play Support, 7

Pitcher Run Support, 7

3) Tools that are Used to Evaluate Defense, p7

Opposition Stolen Bases, 7

Range Factor, 7

Defensive Efficiency Record, 8

Defensive Won-Lost Percentage, 8

Defensive Spectrum, 8

Defensive Won-Lost Record, 8

4) Tools that are Used to Analyze and Evaluate Careers, p9

Career Records in Seasonal Notation, 9

Established Performance Levels, 9

The Favorite Toy, 9

Value Approximation Method, 9

Career Approximate Value, 10

5) Tools that are Used to Evaluate Teams as a Whole, p10

The Pythagorean Formula, 10

New Business

1) Account Form Box Scores, 11

2) Ballpark Influences, 11

3) Cooperstown's Trail, 11

4) Late-Inning Record, 12

5) The Law of Competitive Balance, 12

6) Log5 Method, 12

7) Percentage of Offensive Value, 13

8) Runs Created with Technical Adjustments, 13

Part II : The Teams, 15

For Divisions:

For all teams in the division: W-L before and after All-Star break, vs RHP & LHP, Day & Night, and total.

Number of come from behind victories, for each amount, 1-7 runs.

Blown leads of same magnitude.

Chart for all teams, listing opponent stolen bases and caught stealing(AL only), DP, outfield assists/sacrifice flies, fielding average, DER and opposition runs.

And a chart of opposition errors by position.

The record of each team when ahead, behind or tied after 7, and net change.

For each team:

Pitcher data in the box: W-L, Run support, DP support, Opponents stolen bases. Some for 6 years, Home/Road

Hitter data in the box: RC, Before and after All-Star game stats home/road splits, platoon splits. Career record in seasonal notation. Talent analysis, stadium characteristics.

National League East, page 17

St. Louis Cardinals, p18

How Whitey Herzog builds and runs a team, page 18

Analysis of 11 of 13 hot streak in September, page 23

Philadelphia Philles, page 24

Phillies leadoff men, page 24

Performance of players in September as a function of games played before September, page 25

Analysis of 3-8 cold streak in September, page 28

Montreal Expos, page 29

Comparison of Expos and Cardinals lineups using approximate value, page 29

Pittsburgh Pirates, page 33

Comparison of team performance and award recognition from 1969-1982, page 33

Chicago Cubs, page 37

Wrigley Field and home field advantage, page 37

New York Mets, page 40

George Bamberger's handling of pitching staff and performance of control and power pitchers in Shea Stadium, p 40

National League West, page 45

Atlanta Braves, page 46

Comments on the Braves' 13-0 start, pages 46, 50

Joe Torre as a manager, page 46

Los Angeles Dodgers, Page 51

Discussion of move to five man rotation and effectiveness of pitchers on different amounts of rest., p51

Chart of 8 game losing streak in September to lose the pennant, p.56

San Francisco Giants, p57

Walks and Isolated power as the "Earl Weaver virtues" and a comparison between Frank Robinson's Giants and Weaver's Orioles, p 57

San Diego Padres, p.63

Dick Williams' history of accumulating left-handed pitchers (and why left-handed pitching is important), p63

Houston Astros, p.66

How to win in the Astrodome compared to how to win in Fenway, p66

Cincinnati Reds, p70

Largest declines in team W-L pct from one season to the next, p.70

American League East, p.75

Milwaukee Brewers, p.76

Record of Brewers, Orioles, Reds after each inning, p76

Baltimore Orioles, p81

Number of times scoring X runs in an inning for all A.L. teams, p81

Weaver's record in double headers, p82

Month by month records over ten years of NL West and AL East, p82

Boston Red Sox, p86

Bob Stanley, the first long reliever who is actually good, p86

Career Home/Road splits for Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Fred Lynn, Johnny Pesky and Carl Yastrzemski, p87

Detroit Tigers, p92

Similarities (and differences) between Orioles and Tigers offense, p92

Defensive positioning, kinds of teams with best Defensive Efficiency, p92

New York Yankees, p96

Average finish of teams leading (and trailing) in various offensive categories, p96

Career home/road splits for Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Babe Ruth, p98

Cleveland Indians, p102

Toronto Blue Jays, p105

Examination of the claim that the DH rule made it easier to win 20 games and also injure pitchers, p105

America League West, p111

California Angels, p112

W-L records when various Angels homered, p112

Gene Mauch's managerial record, p112

Angels 8-2 record to clinch the division in September, p116

Kansas City Royals, p117

Denny Mathews, Royals announcer, p117

Analysis of 47 Royals games which were scored using "hit-location", p118

Royals 1-10 streak in September which lost the division, p122

Chicago White Sox, p.123

Charlie Lau's record as a hitting coach, p.123

Seattle Mariners, p.127

Oakland A's, p.130

Revisiting Billy Martin's record of pitchers breaking down, p.130

Texas Rangers, p.134

Craig Wright, sabermetrician in employ of Rangers, p.134

Minnesota Twins, p.138

Teams (historically) with most value from rookies, p.138

Won-Loss records of teams which scored in the first inning, p.139

Won-Loss records of teams which scored in the eighth inning, p.140

Part III : Player Ratings, 143

How the Players Are Rated This Time, p145

For each player:

Offensive Wins and losses (using park adjusted RC)

Defensive Wins and Losses

Forward to Catchers Comments, p147 (change in defensive rating system from previous year)

Records With Different Starting Catchers (W-L and ERA), pp 151-152

Opposition Stolen Bases, pp153-156

 

Players with comment of exceptional interest:

Eddie Murray, p156

Lifetime leaders in GW RBI

Keith Hernandez, p156

Records of hitters on their birthdays

Frank White, p162

Players with colors as names

Tom Herr, p162

Cost of steal attempt in 1982 playoffs

Tim Flannery, p164

Dick Williams' habit of changing second basemen when he gets a new team.

Larry Milbourne, p165

Jack Perconte's season

Mike Schmidt, p166

Phillies' 1980 25 most important games - clutch performance

Luis Salazar, p170

Using defensive spectrum to determine defensive ability of players in the past

Robin Yount, p171

MVP voting patterns

Ozzie Smith, p172

Runs saved by good shortstop

Rickey Henderson, p176

Predicting runs scored by leadoff man from his batting stats

Dwayne Murphy, p180

Cost of taking pitches to let Henderson run

Rudy Law, p183

Comparing arms of Ron LeFlore and Amos Otis

Addendum to comments on Center Fielders

Converting offensive lines to pseudo-pitching lines

Jack Clark, p186

Comparing Clark's GWRBI with Keith Hernandez'

Richie Zisk, p189

Estimating expected RBI from player's stats and team quality

Jeff Burroughs, p191

Pinch hitters who walk vs pinch hitters who don't

Lamar Johnson, p192

Comparison of batting line when DHing and when fielding

Complete charts of offensive/defensive W-L percentages by position, p 193

List of Value Approximations by team, p197

For each pitcher:

A rating, based on the number of runs the pitcher has saved the team compared to a replcement level pitcher (park adjusted, as well as adjusted for W-L and support). Also a letter grade for holding baserunners and a rating for double play support.

Steve Carlton, p199

Comparision of 1982 Cy Young cases of Carlton, Rogers and Andujar

Pete Vuckovich, p200

The AL Cy Young award for 1982

Joaquin Andujar, p202

Andecdotal comments about preparing arbitration cases

Gaylord Perry, p206

Two periods of baseball history with large numbers of over 35 year old starting pitchers

Frank Tanana, p211

Chart of sums of W-L records by age of ALL left handed pitchers born 1920-1939

Topand bottom five starters for each league in Offensive support, Opposition Stolen Base Rate, Double-play Support, Attendance and Game Time.

Part IV : The Game

Records in Progress, 217

Power/Speed Number, 219

The Law of Competitive Balance, 220

Leaders in Isolated Power, 223

What Does It Take: Discerning the DeFactor Standards of the Hall of Fame, 224

Team Age Analysis in Graph Form, 227

Account Form Box Scores, 230

Tinkering wiith the Runs Formula, 232

Not of Any General Interest, 235