[triangle2]

Stretch...

Here's a little thread hijacking.

I was reading an article about the veteran's committee candidates for the HoF for this year. I've also been doing some thinking about Wins Over Replacement (WAR) since it seems like WAR has taken over the conversation for player evaluations and also HoF criteria.

I go back and forth about whether WAR is capturing an accurate sense of a player's worth - either within a season or over a career.

McCovey's lifetime WAR is 64.5 WAR using the Baseball Reference calculation. That was quite a bit lower than what I would have guessed. I think his career WAR suffers from 3-4 fairly bad seasons at the end of his career.

Check out the lifetime WAR for the vet committee candidates below:

Dwight Evans 67.1
Steve Garvey 38.1
Tommy John 61.5
Don Mattingly 42.4
Thurman Munson 46.1
Dale Murphy 46.5
Dave Parker 40.1
Ted Simmons 50.3
Lou Whitaker 75.1

Here's a random comparison group:

Buster Posey 42.1
Dale Murphy 46.5
Orlando Cepeda and Fred Lynn 50.2
Jack Clark 53.1
Evan Longoria 54.2
David Ortiz 55.3
Will Clark 56.5
Darrell Evans 58.8
Ichiro 59.4
Mark McGwire 62.2
Andruw Jones 62.8
Juan Marichal 62.9
Graig Nettles 68.0
Edgar Martinez 68.4
Carlos Beltran 69.6
Alan Trammell 70.7
Paul Molitor 75.7
Yaz 96.4
Albert Pujols 100.3
Ted Williams 123.1
Willie Mays 156.4
Barry Bonds 162.8
Babe Ruth 182.4

For what it's worth, the only candidate who I think merits serious consideration from the Vet Committee this year is Lou Whitaker. And, interestingly, his WAR does seem to suggest that he merits consideration.

[triangle2]

Stretch...

Here's a little thread hijacking.

I was reading an article about the veteran's committee candidates for the HoF for this year. I've also been doing some thinking about Wins Over Replacement (WAR) since it seems like WAR has taken over the conversation for player evaluations and also HoF criteria.

I go back and forth about whether WAR is capturing an accurate sense of a player's worth - either within a season or over a career.

McCovey's lifetime WAR is 64.5 WAR using the Baseball Reference calculation. That was quite a bit lower than what I would have guessed. I think his career WAR suffers from 3-4 fairly bad seasons at the end of his career.

Check out the lifetime WAR for the vet committee candidates below:

Dwight Evans 67.1
Steve Garvey 38.1
Tommy John 61.5
Don Mattingly 42.4
Thurman Munson 46.1
Dale Murphy 46.5
Dave Parker 40.1
Ted Simmons 50.3
Lou Whitaker 75.1

Here's a random comparison group:

Buster Posey 42.1
Dale Murphy 46.5
Orlando Cepeda and Fred Lynn 50.2
Jack Clark 53.1
Evan Longoria 54.2
David Ortiz 55.3
Will Clark 56.5
Darrell Evans 58.8
Ichiro 59.4
Mark McGwire 62.2
Andruw Jones 62.8
Juan Marichal 62.9
Graig Nettles 68.0
Edgar Martinez 68.4
Carlos Beltran 69.6
Alan Trammell 70.7
Paul Molitor 75.7
Yaz 96.4
Albert Pujols 100.3
Ted Williams 123.1
Willie Mays 156.4
Barry Bonds 162.8
Babe Ruth 182.4

For what it's worth, the only candidate who I think merits serious consideration from the Vet Committee this year is Lou Whitaker. And, interestingly, his WAR does seem to suggest that he merits consideration.