It’s late August and MVP discussions are heating up. Is Mike Trout, the reigning MVP, going to win it again, or is Blue Jay Josh Donaldson going to usurp him?
Sadly, the fate of those players is likely tied into the outcome for their team; if their team charges into the playoffs then they’ll likely win the award.
Most valuable player is a hard one to rate, but a stat that’s quickly emerging as a similar comp is Wins Above Replacement or WAR. You may have heard of it. What does it mean and why is it important?
WAR is a statistical summary of how many runs a player creates AND how many runs they save as compared to a minor-league call-up or replacement level player.
It used to be that we judged a player’s abilities by their year-end totals for RBIs, home runs, average, and a basic memory of their defences highlights. Today baseball website like fangraphs and baseball reference assign personnel to rate every play, every catch, every throw. The resulting measurements give a more holistic view of a player.
For instance, when we compare Trout to Donaldson we see this:
Sadly, the fate of those players is likely tied into the outcome for their team; if their team charges into the playoffs then they’ll likely win the award.
Most valuable player is a hard one to rate, but a stat that’s quickly emerging as a similar comp is Wins Above Replacement or WAR. You may have heard of it. What does it mean and why is it important?
WAR is a statistical summary of how many runs a player creates AND how many runs they save as compared to a minor-league call-up or replacement level player.
It used to be that we judged a player’s abilities by their year-end totals for RBIs, home runs, average, and a basic memory of their defences highlights. Today baseball website like fangraphs and baseball reference assign personnel to rate every play, every catch, every throw. The resulting measurements give a more holistic view of a player.
For instance, when we compare Trout to Donaldson we see this:
Right now Josh has been more valuable to his team because of his defence (superb) and slightly better baserunning (BsR means base-running runs). Overall for offence it’s close, but Mike Trout has performed better mostly because of his ability to get walks (I say get walks instead of take walks because I think it’d be silly to walk JD with so many great hitters in the lineup whereas the Angels have a piss poor lineup).
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