Bill James

HandednessBats Switch · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 4 in · 195 lb

BornJanuary 20, 1887 · Detroit, MI, USA

MLB debutJune 12, 1911

Final gameSeptember 17, 1919

Seasons8 (1911–1919)

Cleveland Naps 1911–1912; St. Louis Browns 1914; Detroit Tigers 1915; St. Louis Browns 1915; Detroit Tigers 1916–1918; Boston Red Sox 1919; Chicago White Sox 1919; Detroit Tigers 1919

Percentile snapshot

1917 season — qualified pitchers

37.8

52.2

56.7

36.7

25.6

SHO

41.1

163

76.7

6.7

25.6

53.3

198.0

37.8

ERA

2.09

82.2

WHIP

1.308

21.1

K/9

2.82

FIP

3.28

6.7

FIP-

121.6

2.2

ERA+

129.1

82.2

sWAR

3.8

76.7

of 91 qualified 1917 pitchers (min 154 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

88.6

4.4

sWAR

5.3

80.1

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1911	8	19	17	1	1	1	0	1	1	7	0	0	.059	.111	.118	.229	-38.8	-36.6	.118	-0.5
1912	3	5	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	.000	.250	.000	.250	9.2	-27.3	.194	-0.1
1914	44	97	89	4	10	1	1	2	4	38	1	2	.112	.151	.146	.297	-22.3	-9.7	.151	1.7
1915	45	78	63	6	14	3	0	4	6	24	0	0	.222	.310	.270	.580	76.5	73.9	.297	1.6
1916	30	53	44	3	3	0	0	1	3	24	0	0	.068	.128	.068	.196	-56.8	-41.9	.111	-0.4
1917	34	69	57	7	12	0	0	2	10	20	0	0	.211	.328	.211	.539	73.1	63.4	.289	3.8
1918	19	47	46	0	5	1	0	0	1	12	0	0	.109	.128	.130	.258	-40.3	-21.2	.129	-0.9
1919	20	45	39	4	6	0	0	2	1	11	0	0	.154	.195	.154	.349	-7.5	0.2	.176	0.1

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1911	8	6	2	4	0	4	0	58	28	32	21	1	51.7	4.88	1.742	3.66	4.33	128.0	69.3	-0.5
1912	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	7	9	5	0	13.7	4.61	1.756	3.29	4.19	123.7	73.6	-0.1
1914	44	35	15	14	1	20	3	269	90	109	109	4	284.0	2.85	1.331	3.45	2.97	111.4	93.5	1.7
1915	45	32	14	13	1	11	1	212	86	125	82	3	237.3	3.26	1.420	3.11	3.52	121.4	89.0	1.6
1916	30	20	8	12	1	8	0	141	62	79	61	1	151.7	3.68	1.451	3.62	3.39	116.4	79.1	-0.4
1917	34	23	13	10	1	10	2	163	46	96	62	2	198.0	2.09	1.308	2.82	3.28	121.6	129.1	3.8
1918	19	18	6	11	0	8	1	127	51	68	42	3	122.0	3.76	1.598	3.10	3.59	133.0	71.7	-0.9
1919	20	13	7	7	0	7	2	125	50	60	26	2	121.3	3.71	1.525	1.93	3.92	127.2	83.4	0.1

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

203

413

358

RBI

138

.1425

OBP

.2088

SLG

.1648

OPS

.3736

Pitching

G (P)

203

147

SHO

1,180

SO (P)

408

BB allowed

578

ERA

3.204

257th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.4309

K/9

3.11

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	3B	RBI	BB	TB
1914-08-22	BAL @ ATH Gameday	3	1	1	1	1	0	3
1914-08-09	NYY @ BAL Gameday	3	0	2	0	0	0	2
1915-09-13	DET @ NYY Gameday	4	0	2	0	0	0	2
1917-06-30	DET @ BAL Gameday	2	1	2	0	0	0	2
1917-07-09	MIN @ DET Gameday	3	2	2	0	0	1	2

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1914-07-26	MIN @ BAL Gameday	9.0	4	1	1	4	9	0
1914-08-15	CWS @ BAL Gameday	9.0	9	4	4	4	8	0
1918-04-27	CLE @ DET Gameday	12.0	9	3	2	3	7	1
1914-08-09	NYY @ BAL Gameday	9.0	7	0	0	1	6	0
1915-09-13	DET @ NYY Gameday	9.0	2	0	0	4	6	0

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.