''The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers'' () is a

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

reference book, written by

Rob Neyer Rob Neyer (born June 22, 1966) is an American baseball writer known for his use of statistical analysis or sabermetrics. He started his career working for Bill James and STATS and then joined ESPN.com as a columnist and blogger from 1996 to 2011. ...

and Bill James and published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

in June 2004. In the text on its dust jacket, it bills itself as a "comprehensive guide" to "

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

s, the pitches they throw, and how they throw them".

''The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers'' is divided into three main sections. The first section contains a series of 11 chapters dealing with eight different pitches, such as the

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thr ...

spitball A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to m ...

, curveball,

change Change or Changing may refer to: Alteration * Impermanence, a difference in a state of affairs at different points in time * Menopause, also referred to as "the change", the permanent cessation of the menstrual period * Metamorphosis, or change, ...

slider Slider or Sliders may refer to: Arts * K.K. Slider, a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise * '' The Slider'', a 1972 album by T. Rex * ''Sliders'' (TV series), an American science fiction and fantasy television series * ...

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This cha ...

forkball The forkball is a type of pitch in baseball. Related to the split-finger fastball, the forkball is held between the first two fingers and thrown hard, snapping the wrist. The forkball differs from the split-fingered fastball, however, in th ...

, and

screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...

. These chapters detail such matters as the origin of these pitches, the history of their nomenclature, a description of any sub-types, and citations of different pitchers who were noted for their skill in throwing particular pitches. All but two of these chapters are credited to Neyer. The second section is concerned with pitchers. It includes brief essays on a series of individual players:

Tommy Bond Thomas Ross Bond (September 16, 1926 – September 24, 2005) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He was best known for his work as a child actor for two nonconsecutive periods on ''Our Gang'' (''Little Rascals'') comedies (fir ...

Tony Mullane Anthony John Mullane (January 30, 1859 – April 25, 1944), nicknamed "Count" and "The Apollo of the Box", was an Irish Major League Baseball player who pitched for seven teams during his 13-season career. He is best known as an ambidextrous pi ...

Wilbur Cooper Arley Wilbur Cooper (February 24, 1892 – August 7, 1973) was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played most of his career for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A four-time winner of 20 games in the early 1920s, he was the first Na ...

Eddie Rommel Edwin Americus Rommel (September 13, 1897 – August 26, 1970) was an American right-handed pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire playing career ( 1920–1932) with the Philadelphia Athletics. He is considered to be ...

Mel Harder Melvin Leroy Harder (October 15, 1909 – October 20, 2002), nicknamed "Chief", was an American right-handed starting pitcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball, who played his entire career with the Cleveland Indians. He spent 36 season ...

Lon Warneke Lonnie Warneke (March 28, 1909 – June 23, 1976) (pronounced WARN-a-key), nicknamed "The Arkansas Hummingbird", was a Major League Baseball player, Major League umpire, county judge, and businessman from Montgomery County, Arkansas, whose caree ...

Tommy Bridges Thomas Jefferson Davis Bridges (December 28, 1906 – April 19, 1968) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the Detroit Tigers from 1930 to 1946. During the 1930s, he used an outstanding cu ...

, Bucky Walters,

Billy Pierce Walter William Pierce (April 2, 1927 – July 31, 2015) was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1945 and 1964 who played most of his career for the Chicago White Sox. He was the team's star pitcher in the decade from 19 ...

, and

Bob Friend Robert Bartmess Friend (November 24, 1930 – February 3, 2019) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher between and , most notably as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. A fou ...

. These essays are followed by a "Pitcher Census", which occupies approximately two-thirds of the book's length. This census is a list and brief description of most of the noteworthy pitchers in both

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

. Each pitcher's entry includes a header stating both the pitcher's physical data (height, weight, and handedness) and a listing of a few of his career statistics (won-lost record,

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

, and saves). Below this header, Neyer and James have compiled a list of pitches known to have been thrown by that pitcher, along with one or more citations from scouting guides or media sources of the period. Some pitchers' entries also include quotes from contemporary observers and/or descriptions of the pitcher's throwing motion or career. The second section concludes with two lists: one containing all pitchers known to have thrown a knuckleball, and another for all pitchers who used a sidearm or underhand delivery. Amusingly, the book also contains entries for such ''fictional'' pitchers as Sidd Finch, Damon Rutherford (from the novel ''

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. ''The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.'' is Robert Coover's second novel, published in 1968. Plot summary J. Henry Waugh is an accountant, albeit an unhappy one. However, each night after he comes home from work, Hen ...

'') and even

Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip '' Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American a ...

of ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ''Peanuts'' is among the most popular and infl ...

'' fame (who, the book dryly notes, "gave up an unusual number of line drives up the middle"). The third section contains five

sabermetric Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...

essays on pitching written by James. One of these essays deals with the "Pitcher Abuse Points" statistic developed by Baseball Prospectus, and this essay is followed by a response by Prospectus writers

Rany Jazayerli Rany Jazayerli (born June 14, 1975), a Chicago-area dermatologist, is a co-founder of and writer for Baseball Prospectus. He developed the statistical concept of Pitcher Abuse Points (PAP), which relates to high pitch counts in baseball. Jazayerli ...

and

Keith Woolner Keith Woolner (born c. 1968) is an author for Baseball Prospectus and is the creator of the statistic Value Over Replacement Player (VORP). VORP is acknowledged by the sabermetrics community as one of the key concepts in the analysis of a player's p ...

Awards and honors

*2004: "''The Sporting News''-SABR Baseball Research Award", presented by the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

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External links

An excerpt
from ''The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers'', posted at ESPN.com

related to the book, including additions and corrections, posted at RobNeyer.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Neyer James Guide to Pitchers, The 2004 non-fiction books Baseball books Sports reference works Books by Bill James Simon & Schuster books

Contents

Awards and honors

External links