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Bill James

William Lawrence James (Seattle Bill)

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 3", Weight: 196 lb.

Born: March 12, 1892 in Iowa Hill, CA
High School: Union HS (Oroville, CA)
School: St. Mary's College of California (Moraga, CA) (All Transactions)
Debut: April 17, 1913 (Age 21)
Team: Braves 1913-1919

Final Game: June 4, 1919 (Age 27)
Died: March 10, 1971 in Oroville, CA
Buried: Memorial Park Cemetery, Oroville, CA
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Standard Pitching

More Stats

Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB Awards
1913 21 BSN NL 6 10 .375 2.79 24 14 7 10 1 0 135.2 134 75 42 4 57 73 7 1 8 590 117 1.408 8.9 0.3 3.8 4.8 1.28
1914 22 BSN NL 26 7 .788 1.90 46 37 9 30 4 3 332.1 261 91 70 7 118 156 13 1 6 1316 149 1.140 7.1 0.2 3.2 4.2 1.32 MVP-3
1915 23 BSN NL 5 4 .556 3.03 13 9 3 4 0 0 68.1 68 28 23 3 22 23 2 0 3 287 90 1.317 9.0 0.4 2.9 3.0 1.05
1919 27 BSN NL 0 0 3.38 1 0 1 0 0 0 5.1 6 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 24 91 1.500 10.1 0.0 3.4 1.7 0.50
4 Yrs 37 21 .638 2.28 84 60 20 44 5 3 541.2 469 196 137 14 199 253 22 2 17 2217 128 1.233 7.8 0.2 3.3 4.2 1.27
162 Game Avg. 17 10 .638 2.28 40 28 9 21 2 1 256 221 93 65 7 94 119 10 1 8 1047 128 1.233 7.8 0.2 3.3 4.2 1.27

Player Value--Pitchers

WAR Explained (v2.2): 8+ MVP, 5+ A-S, 2+ Starter, 0-2 Sub, < 0 Repl
Year Age Tm Lg IP G GS R RA9 RA9opp RA9def RA9role PPFp RA9avg RAA WAA gmLI WAAadj WAR RAR waaWL% 162WL% Salary Awards
1913 21 BSN NL 135.2 24 14 75 4.98 4.14 -0.12 0.00 102.0 4.35 -10 -1.0 1.0 -0.1 0.0 1 .457 .494 $2,400
1914 22 BSN NL 332.1 46 37 91 2.46 3.79 0.26 0.00 102.0 3.60 44 5.6 1.0 -0.2 8.2 66 .621 .534 $4,000 MVP-3
1915 23 BSN NL 68.1 13 9 28 3.69 3.61 0.07 0.00 97.0 3.43 -1 -0.2 1.0 -0.0 0.4 3 .488 .499 $6,000
1919 27 BSN NL 5.1 1 0 2 3.38 3.58 -0.09 0.00 96.0 3.53 0 0.0 1.0 -0.0 0.1 0 .513 .500
4 Seasons 541.2 84 60 196 3.26 3.86 0.14 0.00 101.3 3.77 33 4.4 1.0 -0.3 8.6 70 .552 .507 $12,400

Postseason Pitching

Postseason Gamelog
Year Age Tm Lg Series Rslt Opp W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
1914 22 BSN NL WS W PHA 2 0 1.000 0.00 2 1 1 1 1 0 11.0 2 0 0 0 6 1 9 0 0 0 37 0.727 1.6 0.0 4.9 7.4 1.50
1 WS 2 0 1.000 0.00 2 1 1 1 1 0 11.0 2 0 0 0 6 1 9 0 0 0 37 0.727 1.6 0.0 4.9 7.4 1.50

Standard Batting

More Stats

Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1913 21 BSN NL 24 50 47 5 12 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 12 .255 .271 .298 .569 62 14 0 2 1
1914 22 BSN NL 49 135 129 9 33 3 0 0 9 0 0 20 .256 .262 .279 .541 59 36 1 5 1 MVP-3
1915 23 BSN NL 14 23 21 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 .048 .091 .048 .139 -57 1 0 1 1
1919 27 BSN NL 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 -100 0 0 0 /1
4 Yrs 88 210 199 18 46 5 0 0 9 2 0 2 44 .231 .243 .256 .499 46 51 1 8
162 Game Avg. 162 387 366 33 85 9 0 0 17 4 4 81 .231 .243 .256 .499 46 94 2 15

Player Value--Batters

WAR Explained (v2.2): 8+ MVP, 5+ A-S, 2+ Starter, 0-2 Sub, < 0 Repl
Year Age Tm Lg G PA Rbat Rbaser Rdp Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR waaWL% 162WL% oWAR dWAR oRAR Salary Pos Awards
1913 21 BSN NL 24 50 -3 1 0 0 4 2 0.2 2 4 0.2 .510 .501 0.2 0.0 4 $2,400 1
1914 22 BSN NL 49 135 -7 0 0 0 12 5 0.5 4 9 0.5 .511 .503 0.6 -0.0 9 $4,000 1 MVP-3
1915 23 BSN NL 14 23 -4 0 0 0 2 -2 -0.3 1 -2 -0.3 .481 .498 -0.3 -0.0 -1 $6,000 1
1919 27 BSN NL 1 2 -0 0 0 0 0 -0 -0.0 0 -0 -0.0 .464 .500 -0.0 0.0 -0 /1
4 Seasons 88 210 -14 1 0 0 18 5 0.5 6 11 0.5 .506 .501 0.5 -0.0 11 $12,400

Postseason Batting

Postseason Gamelog
Year Age Tm Lg Series Opp Rslt G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1914 22 BSN NL WS PHA W 2 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 WS 2 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0

Standard Fielding

More Stats

Year Tm Lg Age Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG Awards
1913 BSN NL 21 P 24 135.2 49 7 35 7 2 .857 2.79 1.75 .955 2.61 2.60
1914 BSN NL 22 P 46 332.1 99 4 85 10 7 .899 2.41 1.93 .943 2.68 2.66 MVP-3
1915 BSN NL 23 P 13 68.1 27 2 25 0 0 1.000 3.56 2.08 .952 2.71 2.71
1919 BSN NL 27 P 1 0 0 5.1 3 0 3 0 0 1.000 5.06 3.00 .960 2.87 2.90
4 Seasons P 84 0 0 541.2 178 13 148 17 9 .904 2.68 1.92 .948 2.67 2.65
4 Seasons TOT 84 0 0 541.2 178 13 148 17 9 .904 2.68 1.92 .948 2.67 2.65
Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.
View Complete Notes on Fielding Data
Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.
  • Pre-1945 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
  • From 1945 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1945 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
  • CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1916 on.
  • Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1945 to 1973 and complete from then on.
  • Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1916) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
  • Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
  • For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1945 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
  • For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

MVP (yr lg (rk, shr))
1914 NL (3, 52%)
0.52 Career Shares (437th)

Wins Above Replacement† s c a p y
1914 NL  8.7 (2nd)

WAR for Pitchers† s c a p y
1914 NL  8.2 (2nd)

Earned Run Average s c a p y
1914 NL  1.90 (2nd)

Wins s c a p y
1914 NL  26 (2nd)

Win-Loss % s c a p y
1914 NL  .788 (1st)

Walks & Hits per IP s c a p y
1914 NL  1.140 (8th)

Hits per 9 IP s c a p y
1914 NL  7.068 (5th)

Strikeouts per 9 IP s c a p y
1914 NL  4.225 (10th)

Games Played s c a p y
1914 NL  46 (4th)

Saves s c a p y
1914 NL  3 (6th)

Innings Pitched s c a p y
1914 NL  332.3 (3rd)

Strikeouts s c a p y
1914 NL  156 (5th)

Games Started s c a p y
1914 NL  37 (5th)

Complete Games s c a p y
1914 NL  30 (3rd)

Shutouts s c a p y
1914 NL  4 (8th)

Bases on Balls s c a p y
1914 NL  118 (3rd)

Hits s c a p y
1914 NL  261 (7th)

Wild Pitches s c a p y
1913 NL  8 (5th)

Hit By Pitch s c a p y
1914 NL  13 (3rd)

Batters Faced s c a p y
1914 NL  1,316 (3rd)

Adjusted ERA+ s c a p y
1914 NL  149 (2nd)

Adj. Pitching Runs s c a p y
1914 NL  36 (1st)

Adj. Pitching Wins s c a p y
1914 NL  4.1 (1st)

Def. Games as P s c a p y
1914 NL  46 (4th)

Errors Committed as P s c a p y
1913 NL  7 (3rd)
1914 NL  10 (2nd)

                           

Hall Of Fame Statistics

Player rank in (·)

Black InkPitching - 3 (572), Average HOFer ≈ 40
Gray InkPitching - 28 (849), Average HOFer ≈ 185
Hall of Fame MonitorPitching - 24 (546), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame StandardsPitching - 27 (175), Average HOFer ≈ 50
JAWS Starting Pitcher (915th), 9.0 career WAR/9.0 7yr-peak WAR/9.0 JAWS
Average HOF P (out of 57) = 72.6 career WAR/50.0 7yr-peak WAR/61.3 JAWS

Similarity Scores

Explanation of Similarity Scores
Similar Pitchers 
 View Similar Player Links in Pop-up
 Compare Stats to Similars
  1. Nick Maddox (973)
  2. Glenn Liebhardt (971)
  3. Harry Krause (961)
  4. Charlie Chech (957)
  5. Heinie Berger (954)
  6. George Kaiserling (951)
  7. Buck O'Brien (945)
  8. Norwood Gibson (942)
  9. Frank Arellanes (941)
  10. Ernie White (939)
Most Similar by Ages 
 View Similar Player Links in Pop-up
 Hold mouse over #'s to see names
  1. George Cunningham (991)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  2. Nick Maddox (965)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  3. Nick Maddox (973)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  4. Rube Foster (977)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
* - Signifies Hall of Famer

Transactions

  • June 24, 1912: Purchased by the Boston Braves from Seattle (Northwestern).
  • July 2, 1919: Purchased by Oakland (PCL) from the Boston Braves.
The transaction information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. We attempt to update transactions throughout the season.

Salaries

 Salaries may not be complete (especially pre-1985) and may not include some earned bonuses
Year Age Team Salary Sources Notes/Other Sources
191321Boston Braves$2,400Celler committee, p. 52
191422Boston Braves$4,0002/18/15 TSN1942 TSN Guide 163: $3,000
191523Boston Braves$6,000Celler committee, p. 522/18/15 TSN: 3 years at $4,000 per, 1914-16
Career to date (may be incomplete)$12,400
Primary salary Data (about) courtesy Doug Pappas, and the Society for American Baseball Research.
Additional 1915-1969 salaries researched via Baseball Hall of Fame contract archives by Dr. Michael Haupert of UW-LaCrosse.
Salaries for mid-season call-ups or traded players may not be shown.
Salaries converted to alternate years using Consumer Price Index (CPI) data courtesty of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Board.

Other Resources & Links

Error?     Compare     Search SABR's Baseball Index     Other Links@google.com     Baseball Library     Baseball-Almanac.com     DeadBallEra Obituary     Retrosheet     SABR BioProject     The Baseball Cube     WahooSam.com     WhatIfSports: Bill James    

Viewed 11,868 times through May 15, 2013.
Name and misspellings: William Seattle Bill Will Lawrence William billy jimmie jim James jimmy

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