Bill James leaving the Red Sox
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
Here's the link to James' site talking about the departure. It does sound like there are no hard feelings:
I'm moving on
I'm moving on
Are the two mutually exclusive? Why not more scouting and more analytics - gain an edge wherever possible
It looks like he's retiring the same way that I want to retire. Not working for someone else for a paycheck and just plying his trade in his own little workshop.
Good for him. Revolutionary mind that provided data beyond what the eye could see.
Good for him. Revolutionary mind that provided data beyond what the eye could see.
Pure speculation, but I wonder if a network or streaming company optioned his book, Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence. There seems to be an appetite for the subject matter on TV nowadays.
I can't help but think of the Drew Forrester rant, "I'll We've done for four years is win!"
How many titles did they have in the 17 years before he came on board? Or even more to the point, how many teams other than the Red Sox won as many as four during that time period? As a matter of fact, only one team has been in the World Series as many times as the Red Sox during that time and they only won the title twice.
This tidbit from his message was interesting:
That sounds like the Sox had stopped using him. I wonder if that's reflective of the Sox having their own in-house team to handle analytics and not needing him as much or a shift away from analytics in general (which may change with DD gone).
I was wondering if James was thinking of retiring a couple of years ago, but Henry talked him into staying on board, with James being given the leeway to work as much or as little with the team as he wanted. Basically working as an advisor to the analytics team as opposed to being deeply involved with them. And maybe as a result James just naturally spent less and less time working with the Sox over the past couple of years.
Just judging from the occasional post I see from him on Twitter, it feels like he is not very in touch with the current game anymore and hasn't been for a while. Maybe he was a factor in 2004 and 2007 (I don't really know), but I doubt he was in 2013 and I would be really surprised if he was in 2018 (he said himself above that he wasn't).
It was certainly a very good run here.
And before everything could be looked up online, I used to carry the 2000+ page Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia around with me. The 1985 edition earned a place in my heart.
And before everything could be looked up online, I used to carry the 2000+ page Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia around with me. The 1985 edition earned a place in my heart.
Drew Forrester? Maybe I'm missing something but the only Drew Forrester I know who talks about sports is someone I think no more than 3 people at most on this site would know about.
I think in the down period after 2013 he was used less and less. Prior to 2017 (I think) Henry made a comment that they wanted to utilize him more. I know that during the 2018 WS James tweeted stuff about the flexibility of "us" having three catchers on the WS roster, things like that.
I suspect James wants to focus on his crime writing now, that may be where his new passion lies. The Man From The Train was an excellent book, as was his True Crime one.
I work for a company that manufactures a proprietary product. Several times over the years we have had a long standing employee, who was well informed on important details, decide it was time to retire. Each time the company decided to sign them as a "consultant" after retirement. They did this more to keep them from engaging with a competitor than for what they might offer the company going forward. I am not sure this is exactly what happened here but it has a similar feel. James was retained the last few years knowing he would have limited day-to-day involvement as a way to keep knowledge in house.