Bill James Bio?

Tweet the other day: "If the Yankee fans somehow get Munson into the Hall of Fame, then we DEFINITELY should get Varitek in." (Followed later by "I'm signing off Twitter for the day. Those of you who wish to contribute to the barrage of personal insults following the Thurman Munson jokes will have to wait until tomorrow until I can block you.")

He has this weird hate-on for Munson. I looked at the two of them, Munson and Varitek--if he wasn't joking, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't, I don't see the comparison. They had almost the same number of career PA, and it's hard to find anywhere where Munson wasn't clearly superior, even with the shortened career. Admittedly, he was starting to decline the year of the plane crash, so his career rate stats almost certainly would have been less impressive had he played to 39 like Varitek, but what happened happened.

Wonder how he feels about Posey

I know he was running a Twitter poll the other day on Posey vs. Mauer, and he made some comment about them both being great players. There was a lot of commentary about the numerous Posey/Munson similarities when Posey retired, so, to my mind, there's some inconsistency there (i.e., of course agree with him about Posey, but don't see why he doesn't grant the same to Munson).

Thought this bump was going to be about this.

The only thing I will concede about Thurman Munson is that he was probably a better baseball player than he was a pilot.

Note that I said "probably".

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) May 23, 2023

Terrible, I agree. I defend him about lots, and he'll always be one of the key influences on me, but that's indefensible--I think he was really taken to task for it, and, as per his follow-up, got really defensive and snippy--and his inability to see how good a player Munson was is perplexing.

Damn:

https://www.billjamesonline.com/a_sunset_over_the_hill/

I complain lots about the way he conducts himself with readers--he recently shot down a Manoah-related question I sent in (not too pointedly, actually)--but knowing I could send in a question any time and count on most of them being answered, that was great. And I liked his right-hand guy, Dave Fleming, a lot.

If a couple of good books come out of this, that'll at least be something.

I found gyac's home/road thing with the Rays really interesting, so--possibly the last time I'll ever do this--I sent in a "Hey Bill."

Bill -- I will miss this...Someone on a message board today noticed the Rays' extreme home/road split, wondering if that was unusual. So I looked into it: it would seem so for teams this good. All post-war teams that have won 108 games or more, with their home/road winning percentages:

(same data as above)

I guess the question is, is this just a meaningless blip, or does it suggest some flukiness to the Rays that will catch up to them?
Asked by: Phil Dellio

Answered: 6/15/2023
There is not space left in the season that you would PREDICT it would catch up with them. Odds are it will flatten out a little bit.

Not 100% sure, but I take his answer to mean that he also thinks their home/road record will converge a bit as the season goes on.

Posnanski wrote about James pulling the plug the other day--paywall, so I put it on a Google Doc if you're interested.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GrfQNWNZm8OiGb3-iu-lwBL-0N7slYCSuTJyasxTsiM/edit?usp=sharing

You may argue for Lou Whitaker for the Hall of Fame, but you have to admit that Robinson Cano...
Asked by: JackKeefe

Answered: 6/30/2023
I think we're done here.

(... = I'm cutting the rest of what you say)

Will miss "Hey Bill" a lot. I won't miss that.

If Justin Verlander wins 300 games, how long will it be before someone says that no one else will ever do it?

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) July 3, 2023

Based on past history, that's funny. But 1) I'd give Verlander about a 1% chance of winning 300, and 2) they'd probably be right this time anyway (barring drastic and unforeseen changes in the game, which, in fairness, is implicit in James's tweet--he's always writing that it's a mistake to assume that what's true now will continue to be true down the road).

Quite likely my last "Hey Bill" (site shuts down next month):

Bill - Thanks for answering my many questions over the years (117 by my count--I went through and saved them). One more before you go.

What I am I missing with Rougned Odor--meaning, how does he keep a job? His batting averages the last five seasons (working backwards) have been .203, .207, .202, .167, .205. In fairness, the first of those seasons he hit 30 HR, and he was in double figures the next three seasons (but probably not this year). He doesn't appear to be an outstanding fielder, he strikes out a lot and doesn't walk much, and he doesn't steal bases anymore. Does he have a reputation as the greatest clubhouse guy in the world?

I may be a little biased here as a Jays fan who remembers his dust-up with Bautista.
Asked by: Phil Dellio

Answered: 8/21/2023
Juan Samuel syndrome. Juan Samuel was kind of a sensation when he first came up, very young, a second baseman, extremely fast. He was perceived as a potential superstar in the building.

He struck out a lot, couldn't actually play second base (or any other position) very well, and he didn't get better. His weaknesses kind of swallowed him up, but it took a long time for the league to come to grips with what had happened to him. He was still a "great athlete," still had star potential. It took a long time for EVERYBODY to accept that this is just what he is. No matter where you put him, there is some reason that it doesn't work.

Assume that was supposed to be "budding," not "building." Anyway, signing off on the Juan Samuel Rule. (Weirdly, I think James once wrote about Juan Samuel in one of the Abstracts in terms of what he called the Walter Matthau Rule--as in, "For everything he brings to a team, what exactly do you do with him?" That was early in Samuel's career, when he was still piling up some impressive bulk numbers.

Juan Samuel was definitely an exciting player, and it's hard to dismiss a young guy who puts up 30+ doubles, mid to high teens in terms of triples, and the same for HRs. Not to mention 40-70 SBs. His rookie year was truly eye-popping, even w/the lack of walks. It was good enough that he actually landed a single first place ROY vote in a year when the runaway winner with all the other top votes was Dwight Gooden. I also recall some favorable comps to NL MVP Ryne Sandberg; i think that mostly boiled down to the impressive fact they tied for the league lead with 19 triples.

After his 1987 season, it looked like he was going to break through into superstar level, but he never improved and only had a couple more full-time seasons. from '84-'87 i would say he was definitely valuable at the plate, but he was vv memorable as a disappointment thereafter.

Great answer from Bill. Jay Bruce also comes to mind. He was good for many years (but not the superstar that everyone thought he would be) but still got chances from several teams even though he declined rapidly in his 30's.

Early Juan Samuel: a potential superstar in the building
After six or seven seasons: Juan Samuel has left the building

I'd like to nominate Angel Hernandez to be the next Speaker of the House. Just anything to get him off the baseball field. . . .

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) October 4, 2023

Bill James, despite his faults, does pop out some all time tweets

Now that his site's closing down, I'll probably have to do something I've never done before, follow somebody on Twitter.

Noooo, it's a trap!

I was thinking that Angel Hernandez must be the most unifying force in baseball.

There’s several Jomboy videos about him, there’s one with Kyle Schwarber absolutely losing it at him and getting (deservedly) tossed, and then the Phillies manager is out there trying to put a diplomatic face on it. Incredible guy.

lol I'd take Ángel Hernández over Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise as Speaker any day

Win-win, as the saying goes.

The site is lingering longer than it was supposed to, but nothing new has been posted for a while. The starting pitcher rankings seem to have been updated, though, right through to the end of the World Series going by Merrill Kelly's placement. Last one ever, then:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/polls_ratings/starting_pitcher_rankings/

1. Gerrit Cole
2. Zack Wheeler
3. Blake Snell
4. Corbin Burnes
5. Merrill Kelly
6. Zac Gallen
7. Spencer Strider
8. Shohei Ohtani
9. Justin Verlander
10. Logan Webb

First I've heard about this:

About a week ago I suffered a stroke. I am more or less OK. I am not in ANY pain. I can walk normally and take care of myself, but my right hand is messed up and interferes with my ability to do things like tweet. Thank you all for your support.

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) January 26, 2024

Regarding Bauer, there is loud contingent shouting "There is only ONE acceptable opinion here, you HAVE to agree with us or you're a terrible person." Whenever one side of the argument sounds like that, I take a more careful look at the other side.

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) March 26, 2024

here’s our lovable brain damaged legend

Funny, cos I’m sure Bill is more empirical about things like “four separate accusers”, “once harassed a teenage girl by sending her dozens of tweets because she said she didn’t like him” and so on. Honestly beyond me that someone didn’t delete his account for his own good years ago.

Saw this come up again in light of his recent comments:

Was explaining to my wife and our friends about the time I got into a Twitter spat with Bill James that directly led to the MLBPA rebuking him and the Boston Red Sox distancing themselves from him, a real Twitter highlight for me https://t.co/z8H7mPcTEB

— Chris Towers is the Riley Greene Preservation Soc (@CTowersCBS) July 20, 2022

bill has been brain damaged for years now. sad but just is what it is

from his daughter on bluesky:

any time you think "wow i'd like to be a nepotism baby" i encourage you to think about what your dad might post were he in the position to give out said nepotism

lol, sympathy acquired

his latest tweet is praising Joe Lieberman as "the only Democrat who would stand up for Rush Limbaugh's right to speak" (???)

mods, please change the title of this thread to "Bill James RIP".

signed,

OP

Philosophical Q. Suppose your dog has been taught not to do something and usually doesn't, but has a breakdown and does it, and gives you that guilty look. Is that the same as knowing right from wrong, for a human & in a legal sense? Or is knowing right from Wr a broader concept?

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) March 28, 2024

i prefer not to speak.gif

Wait Bill's dogposting now? Refollowed

Is Bill working up to a confession here or

trevor bauer's sad plight continues to weigh on bill james, employment law expert

https://i.imgur.com/cQ9beBs.jpeg

A billion dollars!

he seems very concerned about MLB's finances, big of him

james's daughter wrote (and deleted) on bluesky today that (i am paraphrasing):

having been told he was wrong (about baseball analytics) for decades and ultimately being proved correct gave bill the conviction that a) he is right about everything, and b) he grows even *more* convinced when people tell him that he's wrong. even when those people are his own family

sounds like a bad scene

The biggest problem with James right now is how arrogant he’s become. He was ornery and stubborn when he wrote the Abstracts, but 1) that’s not as annoying when you’re a voice in the wilderness rather than (more or less) a well-paid, establishment guy, and 2) his arrogance has grown a hundred fold since then. And he always excuses this the same way: I was right about how important walks were, and I was right about how overrated stealing and bunting were, and I was right about Bobby Grich and Darrell Evans and the Pythagorean Theorem and just about everything else I proposed 40 years ago, so I’m also right about everything I say now. Very few people realized that then, and very few people realize that now--eventually, everybody will.

― clemenza, Thursday, November 8, 2018

(Just to clarify, I am not his daughter.)

I am unsadly blocked by Bill James on Twitter, which gives me joy knowing that he saw something I said to him and it annoyed him, and bro, WHAT

Listen to this clip, and think about what Dick Allen went through. And then, think about how Bill James wrote how much of a terrible person Allen was; helped keep him out of the HOF. If you think James is reflective today, he's talking about giving Trevor Bauer a 2nd chance. https://t.co/yoI28VPmkk

— Steamboat Philly (@YoshkeZoidberg) June 21, 2024

I found Bill James own scoring system for his Fantasy Baseball league and scored all players with 1000 games between 1960-1980
Guess who ranked 2nd (behind only Aaron) in points per game?https://t.co/KCbJaHAoa2

— Drew Davis (@drewdavis71) June 21, 2024

bill james deciding it was time to cape for trevor bauer on the day mlb was honoring willie mays and the negro leagues at rickwood was sure a choice

— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) June 21, 2024

I remain blocked but Craig Calcaterra wrote about this in his newsletter:

Bill James Online
@billjamesonline

Do you think Aaron Judge's season should be marked with an asterisk because he has hit .450 against the White Sox, who are not actually a major league team?

Calcaterra adds:

I swear to God it was in some Bill James book or article where I first read the then-eye-opening but now-obvious observation that good teams always beat up on the bad teams and good players get fat on bad pitchers, with all of their numbers looking far worse against the better competition. It makes total sense the moment you think about it, but you don’t always think about it that way.

Apparently James, who once thought about it that way, now believes it’s a problem or a scandal or something. Or else he’s just looking for engagement. Which I suppose is better than the way he usually looks for engagement these days, which is offering some pretty gross and often racist-adjacent dog whistles. Progress, man.

He told them about his struggles against Drysdale, Gibson, Koufax and Bob Rush then added: “I made up for it on all the other guys, the scrubs. I destroyed them.’’

He has more home runs against Cleveland and Toronto.

I took a look at this yesterday (don't follow him on Twitter), and two people in the comments were convinced he was joking. Considering how bizarre it would be for him to say this (especially in view of things he's written in the past), I think you have to at least allow for this possibility, that it's a joke evoking the Maris asterisk (which I think James used to mock).

News that will fill ILB with joy: checking a link this morning, I unexpectedly found out that, at some point, James' site was put back online.

https://www.billjamesonline.com/

The pieces that were originally behind the paywall still seem to be; the paywall, though, doesn't really exist anymore, since no one's paying. So I don't think former subscribers are able to log on and access everything, but I don't know, because I can't remember my username or password. Probably a lot of what's on the site is accessible, though.

https://i.postimg.cc/gkjZkbzB/jamskenes.jpg

I've started posting all my "Hey Bill"s from a decade ago (will take a few posts). If you're a long-time poster on this board, you'll notice a pattern in some of the early questions: it's basically me getting into an argument here, then running off and looking for James to say "You're right." It's like one kid running off to mom to get her to side with you against your sibling. If anyone calls me out that, I am aware--you're right.

https://phildellio.blogspot.com/2026/04/hey-bill-part-1.html