Baseball's Secret Formula

Most of this television show - which should really interest serious baseball fans - is devoted to the theories of Bill James. He is the "math guru" who first made a name for himself about 30 years ago when he started to come up with new theories on what makes a baseball player effective. Since then he has published numerous books on the subject and has been employed by two teams: the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox. I believe he is still employed by the Bosox.

James turned baseball upside down with this ideas on how to get the best players on a Major League roster. He came up with his own equations, not just the normal statistics of batting average, runs batted in, errors, etc. His idea of how valuable a player is revolves more around how many runs each player can contribute in a season to his team.

Without going into all the intricate formulas (he was an economics major in college), James has some interesting revelations that contradict the way most managers looked at the game the past 100 years. He says the sacrifice bunt is a poor move, as is the stolen base and the intentional walk.

There are other conclusions he has drawn, too, all of which should really interest anyone who follows the game. Not everyone agrees with him, but, it's tough to argue against facts....and the fact the Red Sox have won two championships in the last four years.

At the end of the show, he gives his opinions of the best players at each position in the history of the game.

Baseball fans: if you see this listed, check this program out. I think I saw it on one of the Discover Channels, like the Discover-Science one.