Nick Davis's film about Ted Williams is good as far as it goes; it does not have any new information or analysis, though it is nice to hear talking heads such as Wade Boggs and the ubiquitous Bob Costa tell us what a great hitter he was and to hear from his daughter (and many others) what a temper he had. One of the talking heads is Ben Bradlee, Jr., whose 800-page biography of Williams I wrote about in my post of July 8, 2015 and about which I complained that there was little or nothing about Williams ability as an outfielder: if any sabermetrician has done an analysis of Williams's fielding I would like to hear about it.
Williams has the highest on-base percentage of any player in baseball history, .482, partly because he walked a great deal; he was an extremely patient hitter and averaged over 100 walks a year. He was the last player to hit over .400 (.406 in 1941) but he does not seem to be what today would be considered a "five-tool player," hitting for average and power but not having particularly good speed, arm strength and fielding. Williams only had 24 stolen bases in his career but he played in an era when stolen bases were not held in high esteem (after all, one could get thrown out).
The footage of Williams in Davis's film is spotty but it does demonstrate how beautiful his swing was, the kind of beauty not seen often these days. And, oh yes, Williams only struck out 709 times in his 19-year career; the most strike-outs in a year Williams ever had was 64 in his rookie year (last year Aaron Judge struck out 208 times).
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