The Bill James Handbook arrived

It's always a good day for this stat nerd when this annual reference and analysis book comes in, although I have to admit it has lost a bit of its impact with the rise of the Internet and Baseball Reference.com.

Still, some of its content is original and fresh.

Checking a few Twins-related items:

• The Twins (and Angels) have traditionally dominated in "Manufactured Runs." Not this year. The Twins were fifth in the AL in manufactured runs, the Angels eighth. The top team: Texas.
• Ron Gardenhire used 55 pinch-runners in 2010, the most in baseball. (Hello, Mr. Thome.) He also led the majors in "quick hooks," a stat intended to count how often a manager pulls a starter earlier than his peers do.
• Jon Rauch inherited just 10 baserunners all season. (Three of them scored.) Matt Guerrier, in contrast, entered games with 45 men on base; he allowed 10 of them to score. Ron Mahay inherited 40 runners, Jose Mijares 28, which is essentially opposite of what I would have expected, but I suspect more of Mijares' were crucial runners.

I'll end here with some quotations from Mr. James's "essay," "38 Facts about Major League Baserunning in 2010":

32) The worst baserunner in the majors, not counting stolen base attempts, was Jason Kubel of Minnesota.

33) The worst baserunner if you do count stolen base attempts was still Jason Kubel. ...

37) The Twins, normally a very good baserunning team, had a bad year running the bases in 2010. It is fair to ask if this could be a park effect, but ... not really. The Twins had 17 runners doubled off base, one away from the major league-leading 18 by the Mets. A park doesn't do that to you.

There's a lot to dig into here.