The 2016 All-WAR Team
The regular season is over. The playoffs are upon us. Award season will soon be rearing its head. Let’s take a very simple look at each position’s resident WAR leaders. All WAR data taken from FanGraphs.
| 1st Team | |||
| National League | American League | ||
| C: Buster Posey 1B: Freddie Freeman 2B: Daniel Murphy 3B: Kris Bryant SS: Corey Seager LF: Christian Yelich CF: Dexter Fowler RF: Bryce Harper |
4.0 6.1 5.5 8.4 7.5 4.2 4.8 3.4 |
C: Jonathan Lucroy 1B: Miguel Cabrera 2B: Jose Altuve 3B: Josh Donaldson SS: Fransico Lindor LF: Jose Ramirez CF: Mike Trout RF: Mookie Betts |
4.6 4.9 6.6 7.6 6.3 4.6 9.4 7.7 |
| TOTAL: 43.9 AVG: 5.5 |
TOTAL: 51.7 AVG: 6.5 |
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| 2nd Team | |||
| National League | American League | ||
| C: Wilson Ramos 1B: Anthony Rizzo 2B: Jean Segura 3B: Justin Turner SS: Brandon Crawford LF: Starling Marte CF: Charlie Blackmon RF: Stephen Piscotty |
3.5 5.1 5.0 5.6 5.6 4.0 4.1 2.7 |
C: Salvador Perez 1B: Edwin Encarnacion 2B: Robinson Cano 3B: Manny Machado SS: Carlos Correa LF: Khris Davis CF: Jackie Bradley Jr. RF: Adam Eaton |
2.2 3.8 6.0 6.4 4.9 2.6 4.9 6.0 |
| TOTAL: 35.6 AVG: 4.5 |
TOTAL: 36.8 AVG: 4.6 |
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I have excluded the DH as to keep both leagues’ data as similar as possible for comparison.
Interesting notes:
- The AL has a much higher WAR overall and per player.
- The top NL outfielders had a rough year with WAR. Not only do they total 12 WAR (2/player) less than the AL; outside of the C position, they are the lowest in the NL.
- The NL players account for 79.5/285.5 WAR or 28% of the NL WAR total. While the AL accounts for 88.5/284, or around 31% of their total.
I find it particularly interesting that you only have to go two deep before finding players who didn’t manage a 3 WAR seeing as a 3 WAR is generally considered a solid MLB starter.
| Players WAR 2016 (971) | |||||
| WAR | 7.0+ | 6.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| # Players | 5 | 13 | 23 | 47 | 62 |
| % of League | .5% | 1.3% | 2.4% | 4.8% | 6.4% |
It’s not hard to see how truly exceptional the top players in the league are when compared to their peers across a 162-game season.
What sticks out most to you?
What I find interesting is, Gary Sanchez (and also 5 more catchers) accumulated more WAR playing for an AL team than Jonathan Lucroy did (3.1 vs 1.7). I do see Lucroy has the most combined WAR (4.6) at the C position between both leagues (2.9 NL + 1.7 AL) and needs to be recognized for this. Based on WAR he was the best C in the MLB. Just not in the NL or AL. I found the semantics(?) interesting.
* The WAR totals include when they played other positions as well. Lucroy had 5.1 WAR while catching only. He lost .5 WAR combined when playing 1B, DH, and PH. Sanchez had 2.7 WAR while catching only. He gained .4 WAR when at DH. Posey is another example from playing at 1st. I wish the list reflected WAR when playing at the specific position only.
Sanchez, Gattis, and Leon each accumulated more WAR than Perez.
This is based off of all qualified players at the position. None of the three you mention played enough to qualify.
To qualify for the most WAR? It’s a counting stat. And why count WAR when they are playing at other positions? That one is not as big of a deal as the qualify thing but would it be more accurate to only count WAR accumulated at that said position?
WAR is not really a counting stat. More games played does generally mean a larger WAR, but not always. If it was, then it would be impossible to end up negative. Without a large enough body of work the results are skewed terribly. Both to a players benefit and detriment.
You can’t compare a player with 53 games vs. one with 142 games effectively. Thus the need for a qualifying minimum.
That is true. I can’t just assume a player at the very worst would play like a replacement player for the duration of difference in games played. Well depending on the player huh? Take Kershaw and his NL led SP WAR. He doesn’t qualify for the ERA title.
What’s the qualification of being a LF? I ask because Jose Ramirez has started 47 games in left for a total of 375.1 innings.
Catchers and “qualified” don’t really mix.