Bill James Bio?

Blaming Republicans for Trump is like blaming Poland for Adolph. He invaded the party and took over. What were they supposed to do about it?

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) August 5, 2017

missed this bit of keen political insight

hahaha

wow

i'm gonna guess he still doesn't think trump and sessions are racists

I can read some of his political stuff; sometimes I just stop and head elsewhere. The worst thing is, when people write in to question him on something, he's at his most abrasive. (Aka, rudest.) I think he said he voted for Hillary, reluctantly.

was there any other way?

He's got a new book coming out next week. Not about Trump, so it should be safe. (Evidently co-written with his daughter.)

If the Orioles traded Manny Machado, I don't know if they would stay in competition this summer.

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) May 1, 2018

Sometimes I feel like a fatherless child.

okay, this was funny

Did you know that Mike Trout has never in his career been credited with a Sacrifice Bunt? Complete player, my ass. . .

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) May 23, 2018

Giving money to political candidates is NOT helpful. What is helpful is NOT giving money to political candidates. If you have a Dumpster Fire on your left and a Dumpster Fire on your right, you don't put firewood in either dumpster. https://t.co/z8Gtbp9U0a

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) June 15, 2018

Is he a libertarian?

Not a Pandora's Box worth opening...

you should never put firewood in any dumpster, regardless of whether it's on fire or not

His Twitter feed is on the front page of his site now. He's got a poll question up there this morning: "If you could have Bryce Harper or Andrew Benintendi for the rest of his career, who would you want?"

Answer aside, I believe that's what's called sticking-it-to-you on Seinfeld.

There's a card of him this year you can also get as a poster.

https://www.topps.com/2018-topps-allen-and-ginter-bill-james-base-poster-d-to-99.html

This is not behind the paywall:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/privacy_and_the_past/

Anyone who's decided he's a useless crank now will have every worst fear confirmed here. Like any crank, he doesn't care.

(One thing that really bugs me is when he complains about people being rude to him. He can be exceptionally rude to some of the "Hey Bill" questioners.)

I can think of one example specific to my own life where I agree with him 100% (and that I've been complaining about to anyone who'll listen for the past few years): the OSR, or Ontario Student Record. Every kid has a folder that follows him or her around from school to school. They've been around at least since I went to school in the '60s and '70s. Everything goes into the OSR: reports, standardized testing, transfers, anything involving discipline, etc. An average student, the OSR doesn't have a great deal in it; a kid on an IEP, the OSRs are sometimes the size of carry-on luggage.

Every September we have to sign these things in, and in June we sign them out and organize them by next year's classes. A tremendous amount of energy goes into moving them from school to school. The province hangs on to them for a couple of decades once the student is "retired" from the system. They're completely useless--other filing away reports, I might go back and check something about a particular student once or twice a year.

At the very least, they should spend some money to digitize everything. But what they really ought to do is get rid of them altogether.

"other than"

The bigger problem with trying to debate ideas on twitter is that anyone can join in, so discussions run all over the map. A productive discussion pushes toward understanding of an issue. A twitter discussion jumps from one issue to a related issue to a related issue to another, the fourth idea having no relevance at all to the first. Different people pull the discussion in different directions, so no progress is made in any one direction, and the heart of the discussion is almost instantly torn to shreds by the competing efforts to move it in different directions. All discussions on Twitter are drawn and quartered, and then the quarters are drawn and quartered, and then the smithereens are drawn and quartered.

the same diagnosis could apply to discussions on ILX, which i still enjoy and frequently learn a lot from reading, even when the original point is sometimes lost

I definitely wouldn't categorize detours as inherently bad or good; sometimes I enjoy them, sometimes I'm impatient. In my own writing, I veer off into personal anecdote and barely related matters all the time. I mean, that was one of my first attractions to James, as a writer who could do that masterfully--he'd be talking about Steve Sax, then he'd segue into something that happened to him in the army 20 years ago, and eventually he'd make his point and bring everything back to Steve Sax.

I don't read (follow, whatever) Twitter at all, so I can't speak to that.

haha, yeah well he went on to say that the same problem applies to his website (and to conversations between human beings in general, anywhere, i'd add). i'm interested in trying to get through the rest because it looks like it gets really dark (sample line i skimmed across: "This is not "history"; this is political warfare. Peter Strzok and the semi-attractive woman that he was Strzoking...") but i'm not sure i'm ready to read new yorker length bill james tonight!

the law is basically nothing but old documents ffs. documents from which we are apparently supposed to glean how 18th-century people would feel about machine guns and the internet; documents that establish precedents such that we needn't argue every single incident from first principles.

is he really arguing that brett kavanaugh should be judged on his interview rather than the things he's actually written? i don't care what dumbass ideas bill had in his youth -- if someone is up for a lifetime position that will shape the entire country for decades to come, i'd rather have one of the other 330 million people who *didn't* write dunb shit

i'm not gonna defend twitter or its discourse -- i can totally understand why he or anyone would want to use a different medium -- but nevertheless he remains an utter clown about anything but baseball

This Kavanaugh story today should be a good example of why James is wrong--it should disqualify him under the present circumstances.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brett-kavanaugh-watergate-decision-might-be-wrong/

Of course, it won't matter.

Sounds like someone is having problems with the IRS.

"Most people--99% of Americans, I would say--feel that we need to find some way to 'come together' as Americans. I don't see it happening, really, and I believe that we are better off admitting that we are no longer one country and dividing peacefully into three or four separate nations; you guys take care of your problems, and we'll take care of ours. But we're not at the point yet of admitting that our marriage has failed and it is time to move on to divorce."

And then you guys can have four presidents, and we can have four simultaneous political threads on ILX.

dividing peacefully into three or four separate nations

i'm sure he has a totally common-sense plan for doing this

He's a writer; writers do take artistic license. I'm guessing he didn't feel the need to devise a carefully worked-out plan before posting that.

You really do hate him (non-baseball-wise), don't you?

haha not really. i suspect (for no good reason, i guess) that he means well? he just seems to have little sense for politics or history that doesn't involve him projecting his own rather idiosyncratic ideas on everyone else

anyway, fess up -- you absolutely post this stuff to goad me

No, not at all, unless there's something subconscious going on there (have you been polite to me over the years? if you have, make that an unqualified "no"). I tend to post things where his idiosyncrasy leads him to some core idea that I agree with, or at least find interesting. Here, it's that that chasm is unbridgeable; I do believe that. Obviously the country's not splitting up any time soon, and I'm sure he's aware of that.

The biggest problem I've had with James lately--I've mentioned it before, and a reader called him out on it the other day--is this blatant disconnect between how aggressively rude he can be to the occasional "Ask Bill" questioner, and how quick he is to complain when he perceives rudeness towards him. But if you were to point this out to him, and try to explain yourself, he'd edit your comments down to a sentence and call you a jackass.

A recent example of the above--my single biggest issue with James:

Bill, earlier in the year you seemed to have doubt that Shohei Ohtani could be successful both pitching and hitting in the majors. Now that he has almost 300 plate appearances and over 50 innings pitched has your opinion changed on him? Do you think it would be better for him to get Tommy John surgery and both pitch and hit in 2020 or should he just hit in 2019?
Asked by: Steve9753

Answered: 9/9/2018
I thought events had clearly validated my doubts. Are you not following the news?

I'm assuming James means one of two things (because clearly Ohtani has been successful as both a pitcher and a hitter): that instead of having a very good full-time hitter or full-time pitcher, the Angels have settled for half of both; or, more likely, the injury never happens if he's a position player only.

So all he has to do is say that, instead of responding in a way that suggests the questioner is stupid. And, as I said above, he's forever complaining about perceived rudeness towards him.

Bill James getting owned by his daughter is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on this site pic.twitter.com/rSv1Q7u4UO

— 🎃 Spooky Betts 🎃 (@michaelarria) October 13, 2018

Fess up -- you absolutely post this stuff to goad me.

haha, maybe. i don't think you're too invested in his non-baseball opinions, though (or at least i hope)

his current baseball opinions are kinda shit as well

this guy

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/11/07/red-sox-senior-advisor-bill-james-thinks-all-baseball-players-are-replaceable

The #RedSox Statement Regarding Bill James’ Recent Remarks: pic.twitter.com/JffB08Hqad

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) November 8, 2018

Billy Beane: "no comment"

Bill musta loved that spring training lockout with the replacements

(maybe he was just garbling his admiration for the Stinson brothers)

BJ needs to stfu before his rep sinks to Goose Gossage level

this guy

I think the idea that vote fraud is negligible is stupid, and the party hurts themselves when they say that. 10-20% of people cheat like crazy in fantasy leagues. It's not credible to suggest that a comparable percentage would not cheat in something that people care so much about

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) November 7, 2018

there's at least one important difference between cheating in fantasy leagues and committing voter fraud, gee, what could it be

james is slowly morphing into scott adams

lol, follow the rest of this thread

Cheating at fantasy football is not a felony and the sad part is many Americans care more about fantasy football than politics.

— Scott Harris (@rockthechalk) November 7, 2018

stfu bill james

important poll

Is there any such thing as a major league baseball player who is underpaid?

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) November 8, 2018

brian kenny out here being all 'bill james is a genius who is thinking on a level you don't understand' about a guy who casually interpolates cheating at fantasy football into voter fraud with no evidence

he's about 5 or 6 public fartstorms away from getting fired for being a dumbass, at which point he'll portray himself as a victim of the dum-dums and complete his transformation pro blowhard

I think I've removed bookmark from this thread at least a dozen times... why do I keep coming back?

ILB’s favourite baseball writer has had a busy day. (Check that--my favorite, ILB’s least favourite.)

I have to read up on the fantasy league/election part of this. I expect the worst.

The idea that all MLB players are replaceable is obviously crazy. Max Scherzer and Jose Altuve and all the way down to the bottom 10 or whatever % of players are not replaceable. Back in the Abstract days, he used to say that MLB treated talent like it was a precious, finite resource, and that some of the time they had players at the Triple-A level who were just as good or better than the Joe Biaginis of the league; I think that was basically the beginning of the replacement-level concept, and that seems defensible. If he’s saying all players are replaceable, then again, crazy.

You can look at the question of players being overpaid in three ways. One, in relation to how much revenue a player generates--the idea of putting a value on every WAR and comparing that to what those wins mean in terms of attendance, merchandising, etc. In that sense, there are overpaid players and underpaid players and players who get just about the right amount.

Or you can start with how hard it is to make it to the majors, the idea that you’re one of the best 1200-1500 baseball players in the country. There are exponentially more doctors and lawyers than baseball players; if you win the lottery, you ought to cash in.

In a general sense, though--how a workaday person views professional athletes--sure, they’re all overpaid, with the exception of journeyman who shuttle back and forth to the minors. I don’t see that as an especially provocative statement. Troy Tulowitzki makes more money in one month than I’ll make in my lifetime. So I don’t have a big problem with that idea.

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. On top of that, the team that employs him has won four World Series since he signed on--I don’t think that puts much of a rein on this tendency.

I’m actually a little surprised the Red Sox kept him on past his first flirtations with Trump (which mostly amounts with him treating Trump as a legitimate office holder--he insists he didn’t vote for him, and regularly calls him ridiculous; when he says more than that, and readers question him, he gets his back up and sometimes starts digging himself a deeper hole).

He's tweeting a lot today; people get in trouble, they tweet. There's a trace of humility too. I don't want him to start censoring himself (and I don't think he will), but if he reins in some of the rudeness he's sometimes prone to on "Hey Bill," I won't mind at all.

(When Scott Woods started the "Ask Greil" section of his Marcus website, I thought Marcus would be a cinch to be ten times ruder and more impatient than James. Much to my surprise, he's been the complete opposite--even with the occasional rude questioner, he's been gracious.)

would you say that bill james could be easily replaced?

major league baseball players are obviously overpaid on a societal scale . . . but it's a $10B/year business. paying the players less means the owners keep more, and for doing what, exactly? now there's a group that's replaceable.

this whole thing arose (i think) from scott boras' comments yesterday about teams tanking/not spending. boras is biased, of course, but i don't think he's wrong.

i don't have the evidence to back this up, but it seems that a team's profit is ever more divorced from its on-field success. there's tv money, profit sharing, parking, free ballparks, whatever. half the teams in any given year aren't even really trying to compete but rather hoping the rewards of shittiness can propel them into an astros situation.

analytics is making this worse! before long, fangraphs is going to tell us that the yankees and red sox are gonna win 95+ games next year, and that the blue jays will win 80 even *with* vlad jr. and everyone will be all like well, might as well keep him in the minors for an extra season of control!

that is a financial incentive to *not* put your best, most entertaining team on the field. imo that, more than infield shifts or long games or pitching changes, is Bad for Baseball. there is no outside force with the authority to make the (anti-trust immune!) teams adhere to a common good; before long we'll have 20 marlins each season and they'll have to expand the playoff field even more just to keep people interested.

anyway, bill james is weird and maybe twitter is . . . an even poorer medium for him than it is for everyone else

Not at all. Not in the good sense (all the brilliant things he wrote in the Abstracts that shape the way I think), and not in the bad sense, either (his more recent misadventures...he is different).

Another thing I've said before: just my opinion, but I think some of his current orneriness stems from never coming to terms with the acceptance of WAR over Win Shares as the common starting point of sabermetrics today. The old thing about the student parting ways with the teacher.

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