Best and Worst Seasons for Blue Jay Position Players by WAR Values

by Tom Dakers on Oct 1, 2009 7:58 PM EDT in Fun

We've gone through all the positions listing the best and worse seasons for Jay players at each position, so I thought as an off day project I'd list the best and worst seasons for all the position players. I'd thought it would be a quick little fun thing to do, since I'd already listed them. But after double checking a few of the platers I found that some of the WAR values have been changed on Sean Smith's WAR Database. I guess there was a re-working of the formula. So I spent longer on this than I intended to. Such is life. I also noticed that Sean Smith's WAR values are different than the WAR values at Fangraphs.

Tables after the jump.

The Top 22. Why 22? Because I wanted to include all seasons of 5.0 or better:

1	1993	John Olerud	8.2	1B
2	1986	Jesse Barfield	7.3	RF
3	2006	Vernon Wells	6.7	CF
4	1989	Fred McGriff	6.6	1B
5	1985	Jesse Barfield	6.6	RF
6	2000	Carlos Delgado	6.5	1B
7	1992	Roberto Alomar	6.4	2B
8	2003	Carlos Delgado	6.3	1B
9	1984	Lloyd Moseby	6.2	CF
10	1993	Roberto Alomar	6.1	2B
11	1988	Fred McGriff	6.1	1B
12	1993	Devon White	6.0	CF
13	1999	Shawn Green	5.9	RF
14	1991	Devon White	5.8	CF
15	1983	Lloyd Moseby	5.7	CF
16	1993	Paul Molitor	5.7	DH
17	1992	Devon White	5.3	CF
18	1998	Carlos Delgado	5.2	1B
19	2007	Aaron Hill	5.2	2B
20	2002	Carlos Delgado	5.1	1B
21	1987	Tony Fernandez	5.0	SS
22	1987	George Bell	5.0	LF

And the bottom 11:

1	1997	Carlos Garcia	-2.3	2B
2	1984	Alfredo Griffin	-2.3	SS
3	1978	Luis Gomez	-1.9	SS
4	1981	Alfredo Griffin	-1.9	SS
5	1977	John Scott	-1.7	CF
6	2006	Russ Adams	-1.6	SS
7	2000	Homer Bush	-1.5	2B
8	1996	Joe Carter	-1.3	LF
9	1984	Garth Iorg	-1.2	3B
10	1997	Joe Carter	-1.2	DH
11	1984	Willie Aikens	-1.1	DH

Quick thoughts:

Most of the bottom ones are middle infielders.
Joe Carter hits the bottom list, mostly because of Cito's stubbornness, he kept using Carter when he had Shawn Green and Carlos Delgado sitting on his bench.
3 first basemen too 6 of the top spots.
As well, 3 CFers have 6 top spots.
The George Bell season that is number 22 on the list was our one MVP award.

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Comments

Weird

I’ve been a Jay fan pretty much since 1985 or so and I don’t remember Carlos Garcia at all.

RIP Bodhi - Not tragic to die doing what you love. You want the ultimate thrill, you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.

by craig in calgary on Oct 1, 2009 8:47 PM EDT reply actions

He was part of a big trade with the Pirates

he wasn’t a terrible player with the Pirates but we paid him 2.5 million to be awful for us. We got Orlando Merced in the same trade.

by Tom Dakers on Oct 1, 2009 9:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Suggestion

Don’t “google image search” Carlos Garcia unless you like the fellas

RIP Bodhi - Not tragic to die doing what you love. You want the ultimate thrill, you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.

by craig in calgary on Oct 1, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks...I'll take your word on that on.

by Tom Dakers on Oct 1, 2009 11:46 PM EDT up reply actions

lol. That’d be akward on my work computer.

I remember that trade and how much it was hyped up here. Too bad it never really worked out.

by masterkembo on Oct 2, 2009 8:48 AM EDT up reply actions

What do Hill and Lind

Look like this year? Are they anywhere close to top 22?

by Rhinos on Oct 1, 2009 9:25 PM EDT reply actions

it's difficult to tell

because UZR (fangraphs) reads pretty different from Total Zone (Sean Smith). For example, according to Fangraphs, Aaron Hill’s 2007 season was worth only 3.5 wins. 1.5 wins is obviously an huge difference

"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"

by jessef on Oct 1, 2009 9:27 PM EDT up reply actions

darn it

anyway, that said, Hill’s been worth 4.2 this season according to Fangraphs and Lind’s been worth 3.6. UZR hates Lind’s glove and considers Hill’s very slightly (0.8 runs) below average.

"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"

by jessef on Oct 1, 2009 9:30 PM EDT up reply actions

WAR isn't adjusted for position played is it?

By which I mean, let’s say you play one season in RF, then the next at 2B, putting up identical offensive and defensive (I know, but bear with me) stats each time, you’ll finish with the same WAR value. I think this is how it works anyway.

This would seem to be a weakness in the calculation that would favour corner infielders and outfielders at the expense of middle infielders. I seem to remember that particularly back when I first started watching baseball (mid 80s), almost all middle infielders were good-field-no-hit types. If you managed to find a guy who could bat .280 and steal a few bases you were well ahead of the pack, but it wasn’t at all unknown for teams to start guys who were hitting at JMac levels, especially if they could play defense like JMac.

Guys like that would most likely show up with a negative WAR, but would in fact be at or even slightly above replacement level realistically due to the extremely limited supply of talented hitters at their position. The opposite might apply to corner infielders and outfielders, who are expected to be good hitters.

Might be wrong here, but if my hypothesis is correct it would explain why you’re seeing so many SS/2B in the “worst” list and so many 1B/OF types in the “best.” It might be more appropriate to normalize the rankings by looking at all the available SS (for example) in a season and then adjusting the numbers so the median goes to where you want it (same for each position). Don’t know if anyone has ever done this but it seems like it would yield a more apples-to-apples comparison across positions.

by voodoomusic on Oct 1, 2009 9:44 PM EDT reply actions

There is a positional adjustment for WAR

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/explaining-win-values-part-three

Catcher: +12.5 runs (all are per 162 defensive games)
First Base: -12.5 runs
Second Base: +2.5 runs
Third Base: +2.5 runs
Shortstop: +7.5 runs
Left Field: -7.5 runs
Center Field: +2.5 runs
Right Field: -7.5 runs
Designated Hitter: -17.5 runs

What it doesn’t take into account is the value added from a player who can play multiple positions.

"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"

by jessef on Oct 1, 2009 9:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah it is adjusted for position...we've just had some terrible shortstops

by Tom Dakers on Oct 1, 2009 10:33 PM EDT up reply actions

All Time Best WAR Seasons?

Hi Im trying to search for the best WAR seasons of all time, but can’t seem to find it. So far Babe Ruth in 1923 seems to win it, but is there a list somewhere?

by Natescavich on Oct 2, 2009 1:33 AM EDT reply actions