After a lot of thought, I have come to the conclusion that WAR is not the best way to measure performance. Case in point, Albert Pujols. I will admit I never got over him leaving St. Louis, but his WAR numbers for the Angels are just wrong. In 2017 he drove in over 100 runs and had a NEGATIVE WAR rating! Everyone needs to remember that the most important thing that happens on the field is runs scored and driven in. Not barrels, not launch angle, not DRS (Defensive Runs Saved – a total joke). Scoring runs and preventing runs are the most important stats. I understand why WAR was invented – to compare players from different eras, and to compare pitchers and non-pitchers. But the numbers used are so opinion-based (look at Lou Brock’s WAR numbers) that they have little or no meaning. Sports media folks are for the most part not very math-literate, so they jumped on the WAR bandwagon immediately because it gave them something to talk and write about.
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This is the definition of WAR on mlb.com:
“For position players: (The number of runs above average a player is worth in his batting, baserunning and fielding + adjustment for position + adjustment for league + the number of runs provided by a replacement-level player) / runs per win.
For pitchers: Different WAR computations use either RA9 or FIP. Those numbers are adjusted for league and ballpark. Then, using league averages, it is determined how many wins a pitcher was worth based on those numbers and his innings pitched total.”
RA9 means runs allowed per 9 innings. FIP stands for fielding independent pitching. These 2 definitions are full of opinion numbers and therefore mean nothing. Baseball stats “experts” used their spreadsheets to tweak the numbers until they got the results they wanted. I think WAR numbers are greatly skewed to penalize poor fielders.
If you want to see who is better than whom, go to baseball-reference.com and compare players to their peers. And please don’t get me started on the writers who love to tell us how superior the Negro League stars were to MLB players in the pre-integration era. That is comparing apples to oranges and proves nothing. I absolutely believe in the equality of all men, so please don’t label me racist.
Today’s classic rock song is “Patience” by GNR.