Backstage
Menu
Statting Lineup
Blog Posts
For those that enjoy reading, seeing visuals, and having immediate access to data sources that are used. The frequency of posts varies greatly and merely depends on when I have an idea come to mind and when I have the time to address it. Feel free to contact me with any blog ideas or desires.
The 2022 MLB regular season has concluded, allowing for another implementation of my Player Value metric onto a season. If you need to get caught up on what Player Value is, you can read about it in detail here, as well as its important addendum here. I've already done a short write-up on using Batting Value to determine which players should win a Silver Slugger and the Hank Aaron Awards in 2022, which you find here. I've also done a short write-up on using Fielding Value to determine which players should win a Gold Glove and the Platinum Gloves in 2022, which you can find here. If you'd like to view another comprehensive example of applying Player Value to an MLB season, check out my rollout post on the 2010 season here. Those Player Value explanation posts can be a bit of a doozy, so here's a quick summary. A player's offensive and defensive events, such as hitting a HR and recording an out, are measured in terms of their run-value, which are derived based on the event's impact on the probability of a run scoring. These events are measured on a per opportunity basis, such as per plate appearance or per inning, to prevent players that just play more from dominating. By using a rate basis, we can see players that are able to excel, even if for a shorter period of time. Since there is still value in being able to play at a high level for a longer time, however, these per opportunity values are multiplied by the number of opportunities. This is how we balance quality and quantity. Lastly, these amounts are compared to a player's positional first-quartile. By comparing a player to his peers, we avoid the impacts of era, run scoring environment, and positional adjustments. We compare a player to his position's first-quartile because being worse than that amount means the player was one of the bottom 25% of players at his position. This is like how WAR compares to replacement level, but with this we have actual relative values based on data rather than the sort of backed-into solution that WAR's replacement level is. Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant pitching events: non-Home Run Hit: -.37 runs Home Run: -1.29 runs Unintentional Walk: -.22 runs Intentional Walk: -.17 runs Hit By Pitch: -.24 runs Sacrifice Bunt: .22 runs Sacrifice Fly: .10 runs Strikeout: .34 runs Groundball Double Play: .75 runs Other Out: .33 runs Wild Pitch: -.26 runs Balk: -.25 runs Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant defensive events: Putout by a non catcher or first baseman: .33 runs Unassisted Putout by a first baseman: .33 runs Non-strikeout Putout by a catcher: .33 runs Assisted Putout by a first baseman: .2*.33 = .066 runs Strikeout Putout by a catcher: .33*.33 = .1089 runs Assist: .8*.33 = .264 runs Error: -.68 runs Double Play: .10 runs Passed Ball: -.26 runs Stolen Base allowed by catcher: -.15 runs Caught Stealing by catcher: .39 runs Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant offensive events: Single: .30 runs Double: .58 runs Triple: .91 runs Home Run: 1.29 runs Unintentional Walk: .22 runs Intentional Walk: .17 runs Hit By Pitch: .24 runs Sacrifice Bunt: -.22 runs Sacrifice Fly: -.10 runs Strikeout: -.34 runs Groundball Double Play: -.75 runs Other Out: -.33 runs Player Value is divided into 4 components: Batting Value, Fielding Value, Baserunning Value, and Pitching Value. What each is measuring should hopefully be obvious. Before we dive into dissecting each award, let's take a look at some helpful plots of Player Value for the 2022 season. First, here's Player Value amongst all positions in MLB in 2022: Higher players are more valuable offensively, as measured by their Batting Value and Baserunning Value. Further right players are more valuable defensively, as measured by their Fielding Value and Pitching Value. It is the sum of these that is total Player Value. The black diagonal line represents the breakeven point, so any player above the black line is providing positive Player Value. The further a player is above the black line, the better he is, and the further a player is below the black line, the worse he is. The green diagonal line represents the top 5% of players according to Player Value. There were 1,495 players in MLB in 2022, so this marks about the top 75 players. You can think of this line as representing an All-Star quality player. The dark green diagonal line represents the top 1% of players according to Player Value. That marks about the top 15 players, so you can think of this line as representing the quality of player that would receive some MVP votes. The red diagonal line represents the bottom 5% of players, while the dark red diagonal line represents the bottom 1% of players. Players this far down need some serious adjustments or need to get axed. To get this far down, you need to not only play poorly, but also play consistently poorly for many games. As the plot kind of shows, it's difficult for a pitcher to have the most Player Value. Pitchers don't bat anymore, taking away a significant way in which to add value to their team, as well as through baserunning. They appear in the field in far fewer innings than position players, also hindering their ability to add value with their glove. They do add value with their pitching, but they divide that pitching role with many other pitchers. It's certainly possible for a pitcher to have the most Player Value, but that would take the combination of an exceptional pitching season (or stellar batting and fielding to go with it) as well as an overall poor season by the league's position players. In 2022, Alcantara had the highest Player Value amongst pitchers, but was 28th overall. In 2010, Felix Hernandez had the highest Player Value amongst pitchers, but was 9th overall. It just depends on the season. Let's take a closer look at some of these plots by position and league. First, here's Player Value among position players in the AL: Let's do a quick position count. I see a CF/RF in Judge, DHs in Ohtani and Alvarez, more CFs in Trout and Rodriguez, two SS in Bogaerts and Seager, three 2B in Altuve, Semien, and Gimenez, a 3B in Ramirez, and two C in Kirk and Rutschman. That's some solid positional diversity! All we didn't mention was first base, and guess who that pink dot to left of Seager is... Nathaniel Lowe, first baseman for the Texas Rangers. Here's Player Value among position players in the NL: And where first base was lacking in the AL, we easily identify Goldschmidt and Freeman in the NL. Catchers in Realmuto, Smith, and d'Arnaud, 2B in McNeil and Rodgers, 3B in Machado, Arenado, and Riley, a SS/2B mix in Edman, an outfielder in Betts, etc. The point being: Player Value is not giving any particular position the short end of the stick. Here's Player Value among pitchers in the AL: This allows us to see how a pitcher's value is divided between his pitching and fielding, a view not possible in the plot of all positions above since pitching and fielding get lumped together. We see here that Justin Verlander's value is almost entirely due to his pitching, and that Zack Greinke is gaining considerable value from his fielding, albeit not enough to make up for his poor pitching. Dylan Cease, on the other hand, is losing value due to his fielding. We see a decent mix of starters and relievers, so neither of those is getting a considerable advantage. And here's Player Value among pitchers in the NL: We see that Alcantara had a slightly lower Pitching Value than Verlander, but his superior Fielding Value is what places him ahead of Verlander in the Player Value plot for all positions. Patrick Corbin had decent fielding ability, but boy, did that pitching struggle. Again, we see a good mix of starters and relievers. Alright, let's get into these awards, starting with the most controversial one first! MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS AL MVP: Aaron Judge, CF/RF/DH, New York Yankees, 83.72 Player Value Runner-up: Shohei Ohtani, DH/SP, Los Angeles Angels, 68.61 Player Value Judge photo courtesy of Yanks Go Yard. Ohtani photo courtesy of Fox Sports. Personally, I'd be fine with a 1979-style co-MVP here, but according to Player Value somebody's gotta win, and that somebody is Judge. Judge had an absurd offensive season. His Player Value is dominated by his 79.26 Batting Value. However, he was still able to uphold the defensive standards of CF and RF, recording a Fielding Value of 4.03. His Baserunning Value was okay at 0.43, stealing 16 bases and being caught 3 times. I'm sure we are all well aware of Judge's accomplishments this season. Nearly won a Triple Crown, leading the AL with 131 RBI. New AL single-season HR record of 62. A .311 batting average, .424 on-base percentage, 1.111 OPS, and a .458 wOBA. Led MLB with a wRAA of 82.1, an Rbat of 80, an expected wOBA of .463, an fWAR of 11.4 and a bWAR of 10.6. In terms of what matters for Player Value, Judge notably got you about 47 more homers, 2 more doubles, 5 less singles, 5 more stolen bases, 49 more unintentional walks, 19 more intentional walks, 44 more strikeouts, 73 less other outs, 6 more putouts, 2 more assists, and 2 less errors. He simply had an incredible season, well deserving of the AL MVP. Two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani also had an amazing season. As a DH, Ohtani had the 2nd highest Batting Value in MLB (behind Judge) at 59.82 and the 3rd most Player Value, 2nd in the AL (behind Judge), at 57.01. He lost some due to his poor Baserunning Value of -2.81, the worst in all of MLB. Ohtani had 11 steals but was caught 9 times, and in case you haven't heard, caught stealings are much more detrimental than stolen bases are valuable. Ohtani had an Rbat of 31 and a wRAA of 31.7, which rank 14th and 12th in MLB, respectively. His position-player fWAR was 3.8 and his position-player bWAR was 3.4. In terms of what matters for Player Value, Ohtani got you about 20 more homers, 10 more doubles, 6 more triples, 16 more singles, 5 more steals, 9 more caught stealings, 13 more unintentional walks, 75 less strikeouts, 13 more intentional walks, 6 less groundball double plays, and 53 more other outs. Note that Ohtani's fielding gets lumped in with his pitching, not his DHing, so we'll discuss that later. You may be wondering how Ohtani scores better than fellow DH Yordan Alvarez, despite Alvarez's better offensive numbers and their similar positions. For one, Alvarez was only 58% a DH, also being 42% a LF, so Alvarez himself isn't a perfect DH comparison. For another, Ohtani was 15% a pitcher, who have 0 Batting Value. Essentially the DH positional first-quartile for Ohtani is getting scaled down by .85. For me, the jury is up on this decision. Maybe we should only consider Ohtani's time as a DH when considering his batting; but also, should we really expect a 15% P and 85% DH to provide the same offensive output as a 100% DH? As a pitcher, Ohtani had the 16th highest Pitching Value in MLB at 12.73 and the 6th most in the AL. He had a somewhat poor Fielding Value of -1.13, making his Player Value of 11.60 the 24th most in MLB among pitchers. Ohtani logged 166 innings with 219 strikeouts, an ERA of 2.33, a WHIP of 1.012, and a a FIP of 2.40. He had the 6th lowest ERA and 3rd lowest FIP in MLB among qualified pitchers, and led the AL in strikeouts per 9 innings with 11.87. His bWAR as a pitcher was 6.1 and his fWAR as a pitcher was 5.6. In terms of what matters for Player Value, Ohtani allowed about 3 less nonHR hits, 7 more unintentional walks, 78 more strikeouts, 12 more wild pitches, 2 less hit by pitches, and 35 less other outs than the first-quartile starting pitcher. Defensively, he got you 1 more putout and 5 less assists. Ohtani was truly one of the best hitters and pitchers in baseball, but these are just 2 components of Player Value. Truthfully, even combining the very best primarily DH and the very best primarily pitcher still wouldn't catch Judge. Alvarez's 47.38 Batting Value and Verlander's 24.78 Pitching Value combine to 72.16, still about 11 short of Judge. We see that Ohtani is just about 4 less than this combined player, and he's just one guy. Furthermore, Ohtani is losing some value on the bases and with his glove. If instead of having about -3 Baserunning Value he were say, Myles Straw of the Cleveland Guardians who went 21/1 with his SB/CS for a 1.81 Baserunning Value, then Ohtani would be up to 70.42. If instead of having about -1 Fielding Value he were say, Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals who had a 7.53 Fielding Value, then Ohtani would be up to 79.08. If instead of having about 13 Pitching Value he were Verlander, then Ohtani would be up to 91.13. So if we take the 2nd best AL batter and combine it with the best AL pitcher, baserunner, and fielding pitcher, we can finally top Judge. As great as Ohtani was, he wasn't that. But if he could have been a better base stealer, fielder, and not thrown so many wild pitches, things could have been real close. A quick note about the value of being two-way: for one, Ohtani isn't entirely the starting pitcher that we think he is. The Angels use a 6-man rotation, not the standard 5-man. Ohtani needs the extra guy in there to be able to rest up properly. Tom Tango and WAR have dismissed the value of the extra roster spot as a rounding error, just about 0.1 or 0.2 of WAR. I agree that the roster spot is inconsequential for this race, as the roster spot is probably worth just about 2 Player Value. NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt, 1B/DH, St. Louis Cardinals, 75.07 Player Value Runner-up: J.T. Realmuto, C, Philadelphia Phillies, 56.48 Player Value Goldschmidt photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated. This race has been less contentious, and rightly so. Goldschmidt seemed to be more of a favorite throughout the season as he also competed for a Triple Crown, with his .317 batting average finishing 3rd in the NL among qualified batters, his 35 HR finishing 5th in the NL, and his 115 RBI finishing 2nd in the NL. He had a decent Player Value split, with 45.59 Batting Value and 28.49 Fielding Value, leading his position in both. He's got an fWAR of 7.1 and a bWAR of 7.8, the 3rd most in the NL in both. The main Player Value challenger was Realmuto, but the main WAR challengers are third basemen Nolan Arenado and Manny Machado, as well as pitcher Sandy Alcantara. Alcantara's Player Value was 27.30, which was the most in the NL for pitchers, but well behind Goldschmidt. Machado is at 22.87 and Arenado is at 35.89, both solid, but also well behind Goldschmidt. Why the big differences? For Player Value, everything is relative to your position. If I lost Alcantara and had to swap him with a "meh" starting pitcher, how worse would I be? How worse would I be if I had to swap Machado or Arenado with a bottom 25% third baseman? How about if I had to swap Goldschmidt or Realmuto? Here are these guys' OPS and wOBA comparisons relative to their positional first-quartile: Goldschmidt: .981 vs .711, .419 vs .311 Realmuto: .820 vs .604, .354 vs .270 Machado: .898 vs .695, .382 vs .304 Arenado: .891 vs .694, .381 vs .304 Here are these guys' FP% and RF9 comparisons relative to their positional first-quartile: Goldschmidt: .999 vs .992, 9.48 vs 8.07 Realmuto: .993 vs .992, 9.54 vs 8.59 (also .4412 vs .2023 CS%) Machado: .966 vs .961, 2.44 vs 2.65 Arenado: .968 vs .961, 2.95 vs 2.65 So I don't care that Machado and Arenado are better hitters than Realmuto in an absolute sense, because they play different positions. Realmuto's Player Value was also very well split, with 30.55 Batting Value, 23.19 Fielding Value, and even 2.73 Baserunning Value (21 for 22 on SB as a catcher, holy cow!). Arenado was decently split too, with 23.98 Batting Value and 12.76 Fielding Value. Machado, however, is offensively focused with 26.86 Batting Value and -4.42 Fielding Value. Machado has 7.4 fWAR and 6.8 bWAR. Arenado has 7.3 fWAR and 7.9 bWAR. Realmuto has 6.5 fWAR and bWAR. Some offensive highlight comparisons are that Goldschmidt would get you +17 HR, +16 2B, +23 1B, +32 uBB, and -23 other outs than his first-quartile. Realmuto would get you +13 HR, +23 1B, +21 SB, and +9 HBP. Arenado would get you +15 HR, +17 2B, +12 1B, and -44 SO. Machado would get you +17 HR, +11 2B, +21 1B, and +9 IBB. Some defensive highlight comparisons are that Machado would get you -2 PO, -5 A, +4 E, and +5 DP than his first-quartile. Arenado would get you -9 PO, +65 A, +5 E, and +21 DP. Realmuto would get you +8 non-strikeout PO, +10 A, +5 E, +5 DP, -1 PB, -8 SB, +16 CS, and +112 strikeout PO. Lastly, Goldschmidt would get you +16 unassisted PO, +31 A, -3 E, -36 DP, and +141 assisted PO. CY YOUNGS NL Cy Young: Sandy Alcantara, SP, Miami Marlins, 19.20 Pitching Value Runner-up: Zac Gallen, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks, 18.28 Pitching Value Alcantara photo courtesy of NBC Miami. This hopefully shouldn't come as too big of a shocker to anyone. Alcantara was 14-9 in about 228 innings pitched with a 2.29 ERA and 2.99 FIP while striking out 207 guys. The first-quartile starter had a 2.89 ERA and a 3.09 FIP. Gallen went 12-4 in 184 innings with a 192 strikeouts, a 2.54 ERA, and a 3.05 FIP. Alcantara has an fWAR of 5.7 and a bWAR of 8.1, while Gallen has an fWAR of 4.3 and a bWAR of 5.1. The main WAR challenger is Aaron Nola of the Phillies, with a 6.3 fWAR and a 6.0 bWAR. Nola finished with a Pitching Value of 14.25, the 7th most in the NL. Also ahead of him were Tony Gonsolin, Spencer Strider, Carlos Rodon, and Max Fried. Nola went 11-13 in 205 innings, striking out 235 with an ERA of 3.25 and a FIP of 2.58. Alcantara got you +14 SO, -2 uBB, +4 HBP, +7 GIDP, +15 other outs, +2 nonHR hits, and -4 HR. Gallen got you +36 SO, +6 uBB, +8 HBP, +1 GIDP, +1 other outs, -20 nonHR hits, -1 HR, and +3 WP. Nola got you +61 SO, -18 uBB, +4 HBP, -3 GIDP, -8 other outs, +9 nonHR hits, and +1 HR. AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander, SP, Houston Astros, 24.78 Pitching Value Runner-up: Emmanuel Clase, CP, Cleveland Guardians, 18.05 Pitching Value Verlander photo courtesy of Bleacher Report. This also probably doesn't come as too big of a surprise. Verlander went 18-4 in 175 innings with 185 strikeouts, a 1.75 ERA, and a 2.49 FIP. Clase was the best reliever in MLB, and also the best reliever that Player Value has examined thus far (that is to say, better than all of the 2010 relievers in Pitching Value, as well). He went 3-4 with 42 saves in 72 innings with 77 strikeouts, a 1.37 ERA, and a 1.98 FIP. Recall that while the first-quartile starter ERA was 2.89 and FIP was 3.09, the first-quartile reliever ERA was 2.78 and FIP was 3.03. Verlander has an fWAR of 6.1 and a bWAR of 5.9, while Clase has an fWAR of 2.4. and a bWAR of 2.8. Clase has the 2nd highest fWAR among relievers, and the most in the AL, but doesn't even reach the top 30 of starters. The fact that he came in 2nd here is what I believe to be a testament to Player Value's ability to not be biased towards certain positions. fWAR loves Kevin Gausman as the runner-up at 5.7, whom Pitcher Value disagrees strongly with at -4.73 (bWAR has him at 3.0). bWAR loves Dylan Cease as the favorite at 6.1, whom Pitcher Value has at 10.26 (fWAR has him at 4.4). Cease went 14-8 in 184 innings with 227 strikeouts, an ERA of 2.20, and a FIP of 3.10. Gausman went 12-10 in 174 innings with 205 strikeouts, an ERA of 3.36, and a FIP of 2.38. Verlander got you +37 SO, -10 uBB, -2 GIDP, +7 other outs, -15 nonHR hits, and -3 HR. Clase got you +13 SO, -11 uBB, +6 GIDP, +11 other outs, -6 nonHR hits, -1 HR, and +3 WP. Cease got you +71 SO, +35 uBB, -6 GIDP, -20 other outs, -16 nonHR hits, +0 HR, and +5 WP. Gausman got you +57 SO, -11 uBB, -1 GIDP, -20 other outs, +54 nonHR hits, +0 HR. Gausman grades poorly because he got raked within the park, even if he did strike out a lot of guys, didn't allow many homers, and didn't allow a lot of walks, as shown by his low FIP. While we may be quick to jump the gun and blame this on defense because of the ERA and FIP difference, a better approach is to rely on Baseball Savant's OAA behind-the-pitcher measures, which you can view here. RELIEVERS OF THE YEAR Mariano Rivera AL Reliever of the Year: Emmanuel Clase, CP, Cleveland Guardians, 18.05 Pitching Value Runner-up: Jason Adam, RP, Tampa Bay Rays, 11.19 Pitching Value Clase photo courtesy of Cleveland.com Clase led all MLB relievers and finished 2nd in the AL among pitchers in general with his Pitching Value. Again, he went 3-4 with 42 saves in 72 innings with 77 strikeouts, a 1.37 ERA, and a 1.98 FIP. Recall that the first-quartile reliever ERA was 2.78 and FIP was 3.03. Clase has an fWAR of 2.4, the 2nd highest fWAR among relievers, and a bWAR of 2.8. Adam went 2-3 in 63 innings and recorded 8 saves. Baseball Reference technically lists him as the Rays' closer, but the Rays don't really follow the 'closer' philosophy. They had another guy with 7 saves and someone else with 6 saves. Adam struck out 75 with a 1.57 ERA and a 2.86 FIP. His bWAR was 2.6 and his fWAR was 2.2. Clase got you +13 SO, -11 uBB, +6 GIDP, +11 other outs, -6 nonHR hits, -1 HR, and +3 WP. Adam got you +19 SO, -2 uBB, +5 GIDP, -6 other outs, -15 nonHR hits, +1 HR, and +5 HBP Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year: Ryan Helsley, CP, St. Louis Cardinals, 12.84 Pitching Value Runner-up: Evan Phillips, RP, Los Angeles Dodgers, 12.73 Pitching Value Helsley photo courtesy of The Athletic. Helsley had the 2nd highest Pitching Value in MLB, while Phillips finished 3rd. Helsley went a stellar 9-1 with 94 strikeouts and 19 saves in 64 innings, to go with a 1.26 ERA and a 2.33 FIP. Recall that the first-quartile reliever ERA was 2.78 and FIP was 3.03. His bWAR was 2.7 and his fWAR was 2.0. Phillips went a solid 7-3 with 77 strikeouts and 2 saves in 63 innings, while having a 1.14 ERA and a 1.94 FIP. His bWAR was 2.8 and his fWAR was 2.2. Helsley got you +37 SO, +2 uBB, -19 nonHR hits, +2 HR, -1 HBP, -0 GIDP, and -11 other outs Phillips got you +21 SO, -3 uBB, -9 nonHR hits, -2 HR, +2 HBP, +1 GIDP, and -4 other outs ROOKIES OF THE YEAR AL RoY: Julio Rodriguez, CF, Seattle Mariners, 40.83 Player Value Runner-up: Adley Rutschmann, C/DH, Baltimore Orioles, 23.32 Player Value Photo courtesy of Lookout Landing. Rodriguez has had a tremendous first season, finishing 2nd in MLB and the AL in Player Value among CF. He was also the 4th best OF in MLB, and the 14th best player in MLB overall. Julio was well-rounded, with 25.26 Batting Value and 15.93 Fielding Value, good enough to what should win him the AL Gold Glove for CF. Julio had a bWAR of 6.0 and an fWAR of 5.3. Rutschman also had a solid rookie campaign, finishing 8th in MLB and 3rd in the AL in Player Value among C. He was more one-dimensional, with a -2.50 Fielding Value but a 25.27 Batting Value, good enough to what should win him the AL Silver Slugger for C. Adley had a bWAR of 5.2 and an fWAR of 5.3. Julio had an OPS of .853 compared to a first-quartile of .621, and a wOBA of .366 vs a first-quartile of .280. Adley had an OPS of .806 vs a first-quartile of .609, and a wOBA of .354 vs a first-quartile of .273. As their Batting Values show, they were very comparable offensively. Defensively, Adley's fielding percentage comparisons are .989 vs .992, while Julio's are .984 vs .990. Adley's RF9 comparisons are 8.33 vs 8.60, while Julio's are 2.88 vs 2.41. Julio made more outs than Rutschman, relative to his position. NL RoY: Nolan Gorman, 2B/DH, St. Louis Cardinals, 26.95 Player Value Runner-up: Brendan Donovan, 2B/3B/RF/LF/1B/DH/SS, St. Louis Cardinals, 26.22 Player Value Photo courtesy of Redbird Rants. A pair of Cardinals rookies lead the NL according to Player Value, while most people and WAR probably expect a pair of Braves rookies to be leading the way. Braves SP Spencer Strider led all rookie pitchers in MLB and the NL with a Player Value of 18.20, finishing 6th in MLB and 4th in the NL among rookies. Braves CF Michael Harris II finished 9th in MLB and 6th in the NL among rookies with a Player Value of 12.36. Finishing ahead of the Braves duo but behind the Cardinals duo was Pirates rookie SS Oneil Cruz, with a Player Value of 20.30. FanGraphs WAR has Harris and Strider at 4.9, Donovan at 2.7, Cruz at 1.2, and Gorman at 0.5. Baseball Reference WAR has Harris at 5.3, Donovan at 4.1, Strider at 3.7, Cruz at 2.3, and Gorman at 0.7. So, why the disparity with Player Value? Let's quickly dig into the details. First, how does Player Value think these players are good? Here are the Batting Value and Fielding Values for the NL rookies in question, with the Pitching Value and Fielding Value for Strider: Gorman: 2.63 Batting Value, 24.24 Fielding Value Donovan: 8.93 Batting Value, 18.38 Fielding Value Cruz: 3.96 Batting Value, 16.97 Fielding Value Strider: 17.50 Pitching Value, 0.70 Fielding Value Harris: 17.88 Batting Value, -6.79 Fielding Value Just like it is difficult for a pitcher to win the MVP under Player Value, it is difficult for a rookie pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year under Player Value. While Strider can add value pitching to make up for the fact that he doesn't bat, he spends considerably less time in the field, preventing him from accumulating as much Fielding Value as his fellow rookies. So Gorman and Cruz are defense heavy, Donovan is pretty split, and Harris is offense heavy. Statcast disagrees on Gorman and Cruz, measuring them at -12 and -9 OAA. Donovan is measured at -3 OAA, while Harris is at 7 OAA. Rfield has Gorman at -6, Donovan at 9, Cruz at 1, and Harris at 8. fWAR has Gorman's Fielding Runs at -8, Donovan at -3.7, Cruz at -5.2, and Harris at 7. When discussing Player Value, it is imperative that we understand the impact that a player's position has. On an absolute scale, Gorman clearly wasn't the best rookie batter. Harris had an OPS of .853 and a wOBA of .368, and the first-quartile CF had an OPS of .621 and a wOBA of .280. Gorman had both a lower OPS and wOBA at .721 and .316, compared to 2B first-quartiles of .681 vs .302. So Harris was the better batter both absolutely and relative to his position, hence his higher Batting Value. But what about fielding? Gorman had a .9750 fielding percentage vs his position's first-quartile of .9761, but his RF9 comparison was 5.05 vs 3.67. Harris had a fielding percentage comparison of .9920 vs .9903, but an RF9 comparison of 2.25 vs 2.41. So Harris did better at making the balls surely hit his way, but Gorman did a better job of making additional plays. Now I will dive into 1st-team and 2nd-team selections for both the AL and NL, as well as MLB overall. Each starting position gets one spot, besides pitchers. Starting pitchers get 5 spots, as is the usual rotation size. Relief pitchers get two spots, and closers get one spot. I've also added a miscellaneous spot for safety, which will be used by diverse outfielders that didn't play at least 50% of their games at one outfield position, utility players that didn't play at least 50% of their games at any one position, outfielders that finish in the top 6 among all outfielders but not among the top 2 in a specific outfield position, or relievers/closers that finish in the top 6 among relievers/closers but not among the top 4 relievers or top 2 closers. The flexibility is intended so that every year there's hopefully at least somebody that qualifies, and this prevents worthy guys from being left out. This safety spot will only be used for the NL and AL teams. For the MLB, I'll put the safety player where I think makes the most sense, if he qualifies. FIRST-TEAM AL C: Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays, 32.11 Player Value 1B: Nathaniel Lowe, Texas Rangers, 28.47 Player Value 2B: Andres Gimenez, Cleveland Guardians, 54.81 Player Value 3B: Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox, 30.45 Player Value SS: Xander Bogaerts, Boston Red Sox, 43.28 Player Value LF: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians, 15.82 Player Value CF: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, 44.96 Player Value RF: Taylor Ward, Los Angeles Angels, 27.02 Player Value DH: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels, 57.01 Player Value SP1: Justin Verlander, Houston Astros, 24.91 Player Value SP2: Framber Valdez, Houston Astros, 14.65 Player Value SP3: Nestor Cortes, New York Yankees, 14.45 Player Value SP4: Alek Manoah, Toronto Blue Jays, 14.02 Player Value SP5: Shane Bieber, Cleveland Guardians, 14.01 Player Value RP1: Jimmy Herget, Los Angeles Angeles, 10.91 Player Value RP2: Jason Adam, Tampa Bay Rays, 10.83 Player Value CP: Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians, 20.64 Player Value Misc: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees, 83.72 Player Value Judge was 44% a CF, 41% a RF, and 14% a DH. He was the best player in all of MLB, but gets the miscellaneous spot since he didn't play at least 50% of his games at one specific position. SECOND-TEAM AL C: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners, 27.77 Player Value 1B: Anthony Rizzo, New York Yankees, 17.79 Player Value 2B: Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers, 46.63 Player Value 3B: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians, 29.20 Player Value SS: Corey Seager, Texas Rangers, 31.86 Player Value LF: Andrew Benintendi, Kansas City Royals & New York Yankees, 10.14 Player Value CF: Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners, 40.83 Player Value RF: Kyle Tucker, Houston Astros, 18.15 Player Value DH: Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros, 45.79 Player Value SP1: Shane McClanahan, Tampa Bay Rays, 12.35 Player Value SP2: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels, 11.60 Player Value SP3: Ross Stripling, Toronto Blue Jays, 9.27 Player Value SP4: Cristian Javier, Houston Astros, 9.06 Player Value SP5: Jeffrey Springs, Tampa Bay Rays, 8.41 Player Value RP1: John Schreiber, Boston Red Sox, 10.37 Player Value RP2: Wandy Peralta, New York Yankees, 10.36 Player Value CP: Clay Holmes, New York Yankees, 10.80 Player Value Misc: Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins, 24.06 Player Value Buxton was the 5th best outfielder in the AL, but the 3rd best CF in the AL. He gets the miscellaneous spot since he was better than Benintendi, but didn't play any LF. Also note Shohei's impressive feat of being on both the first and second team for the AL. FIRST-TEAM NL C: J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies, 56.48 Player Value 1B: Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals, 75.07 Player Value 2B: Jeff McNeil, New York Mets, 41.12 Player Value 3B: Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals, 35.89 Player Value SS: Francisco Lindor, New York Mets, 28.74 Player Value LF: Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs, 17.12 Player Value CF: Bryan Reynolds, Pittsburgh Pirates, 17.04 Player Value RF: Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers, 46.44 Player Value DH: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals, 21.53 Player Value SP1: Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins, 27.30 Player Value SP2: Max Fried, Atlanta Braves, 21.36 Player Value SP3: Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks, 20.51 Player Value SP4: Corbin Burnes, Milwaukee Brewers, 19.94 Player Value SP5: Tony Gonsolin, Los Angeles Dodgers, 19.68 Player Value RP1: Evan Phillips, Los Angeles Dodgers, 14.61 Player Value RP2: Brusdar Graterol, Los Angeles Dodgers, 11.20 Player Value CP: Ryan Helsley, St. Louis Cardinals, 14.54 Player Value Misc: Tommy Edman, St. Louis Cardinals, 52.08 Player Value Edman's position distribution was 49% 2B, 4% 3B, 44% SS, 1% CF, 1% RF, and 2% DH. He was one of the best players in MLB and the NL, but since he didn't play at least 50% of the time at one specific position, he gets the miscellaneous spot. SECOND-TEAM NL C: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers, 38.39 Player Value 1B: Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers, 41.70 Player Value 2B: Brendan Rodgers, Colorado Rockies, 40.40 Player Value 3B: Manny Machado, San Diego Padres, 22.87 Player Value SS: Oneil Cruz, Pittsburgh Pirates, 20.30 Player Value LF: Joc Pederson, San Francisco Giants, 11.62 Player Value CF: Michael Harris II, Atlanta Braves, 12.36 Player Value RF: Juan Soto, Washington Nationals & San Diego Padres, 37.03 Player Value DH: Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies, 18.24 Player Value SP1: Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants, 18.60 Player Value SP2: Tyler Anderson, Los Angeles Dodgers, 18.57 Player Value SP3: Spencer Strider, Atlanta Braves, 18.20 Player Value SP4: Carlos Rodon, San Francisco Giants, 14.88 Player Value SP5: Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies, 14.09 Player Value RP1: Devin Williams, Milwaukee Brewers, 9.62 Player Value RP2: Collin McHugh, Atlanta Braves, 7.85 Player Value CP: Edwin Diaz, New York Mets, 10.36 Player Value Misc: Brendan Donovan, St. Louis Cardinals, 26.22 Player Value Donovan's position distribution was 11% 1B, 26% 2B, 21% 3B, 5% SS, 13% LF, 14% RF, and 11% DH. Since he didn't play at least 50% of the time at one specific position, he gets the miscellaneous spot. Edwin Diaz's brother, Alexis Diaz of the Cincinnati Reds, was the 6th best relief pitcher in the NL with an 8.37 Player Value, but he was technically the Reds' closer, despite recording just 10 saves. Williams did takeover closer duties for the Brewers after they traded Josh Hader to the Padres, but Hader was their main closer for the season. FIRST-TEAM MLB C: J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies, 56.48 Player Value 1B: Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals, 75.07 Player Value 2B: Andres Gimenez, Cleveland Guardians, 54.81 Player Value 3B: Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals, 35.89 Player Value SS: Tommy Edman, St. Louis Cardinals, 52.08 Player Value LF: Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros, 45.79 Player Value CF: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees, 83.72 Player Value RF: Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers, 46.44 Player Value DH: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels, 57.01 Player Value SP1: Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins, 27.30 Player Value SP2: Justin Verlander, Houston Astros, 24.91 Player Value SP3: Max Fried, Atlanta Braves, 21.36 Player Value SP4: Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks, 20.51 Player Value SP5: Corbin Burnes, Milwaukee Brewers, 19.94 Player Value RP1: Evan Phillips, Los Angeles Dodgers, 14.61 Player Value RP2: Brusdar Graterol, Los Angeles Dodgers, 11.20 Player Value CP: Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians, 20.64 Player Value Since Judge was mainly a CF and RF, and Betts had a higher Player Value than Trout, Judge gets the CF spot and Trout gets demoted to the 2nd team. The best primarily LF, Ian Happ, has a substantially lower Player Value than his other outfield leaders. Alvarez spent 42% of his time in LF, and has the 9th highest Player Value overall, so getting him on the 1st-team made sense. Since Edman played mainly 2B and SS and has a higher Played Value than Gimenez and Bogaerts, and since Gimenez had a higher Player Value than Bogaerts, I put Edman in the SS spot. SECOND-TEAM MLB C: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers, 38.39 Player Value 1B: Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers, 41.70 Player Value 2B: Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers, 46.63 Player Value 3B: Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox, 30.45 Player Value SS: Xander Bogaerts, Boston Red Sox, 43.28 Player Value LF: Jeff McNeil, New York Mets, 41.12 Player Value CF: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, 44.96 Player Value RF: Juan Soto, Washington Nationals & San Diego Padres, 37.03 Player Value DH: Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays, 32.11 Player Value SP1: Tony Gonsolin, Los Angeles Dodgers, 19.68 Player Value SP2: Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants, 18.60 Player Value SP3: Tyler Anderson, Los Angeles Dodgers, 18.57 Player Value SP4: Spencer Strider, Atlanta Braves, 18.20 Player Value SP5: Carlos Rodon, San Francisco Giants, 14.88 Player Value RP1: Jimmy Herget, Los Angeles Angeles, 10.91 Player Value RP2: Jason Adam, Tampa Bay Rays, 10.83 Player Value CP: Ryan Helsley, St. Louis Cardinals, 14.54 Player Value As mentioned above, due to the utility reasons for Judge and Edman, Trout and Bogaerts get sent to the 2nd-team despite being the best primarily CF and SS (respectively) in both the AL and the NL. The 2nd best primarily DH, Alvarez, was promoted to the 1st-team as the LF. Kirk was the best primarily C in the AL, and 5th best primarily C in MLB overall, but spent 40% of his time at DH, so he gets the 2nd-team DH spot. McNeil was the the 3rd best primarily 2B, but spent 22% of his time at LF, so he gets the 2nd-team LF spot. Happ gets demoted despite being the best primarily LF in both leagues, as McNeil was easily the superior player. Guys like Julio Rodriguez and Taylor Ward were clearly better players than Happ overall, but unfortunately didn't play enough LF to justify putting them in that spot, and were both worse than McNeil overall. TOP 25 MLB PLAYERS
PLAYER VALUE BY POSITION And now we will finally wrap everything up, showing that total Player Value is not particularly biased towards any certain position. Here are the boxplots of Player Value by position: Shohei naturally gets his own spot for his unique two-way talents, but technically so too does... Pablo Reyes? He played in just 5 games for the Brewers in 2022, 3 as a SS, 2 as a 3B, and 1 as a RP. That's why we see him here; at least 50% of his games at SS, and at least 15% of his games as a pitcher. Leftfielders were particularly down this year, but this is not the case for Player Value in general, as Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford, and Matt Holliday all ranked very high in the 2010 example. PLAYER VALUE BY TEAM Since a team's Player Value correlates well with its run differential per game, then we'd expect that the teams that have players with the most Player Value will be the ones that have the highest run differentials. Recall from my original Player Value post that Batting Value Average and Baserunning Value Average can describe 92.37% of a team's runs scored per game, while Fielding Value Average and Pitching Value Average can describe 86.1% of a team's runs allowed per game. These should also be the teams that win the most, since run differential per game correlates well with winning percentage (wins per game). Run differential per game can describe 89.31% of a team's winning percentage. Here are the boxplots and summary statistics of Player Value by team in 2022: Feel free to compare these side by side with the 2022 MLB standings here. I spot the Braves, Guardians, Astros, Dodgers, and Yankees as having higher box plots, denoting a higher average Player Value. Weren't these teams good? I also spot the Reds, Royals, Marlins, Athletics, Pirates, and Rangers as having lower box plots, denoting a lower average Player Value. Weren't these teams bad? Player Value seems to uphold its ability to correlate with a team's ability to win. The Nationals' box plot doesn't seem as low as it should be given their record, but look at those outliers on the low end! Sure enough, we see they have the lowest mean Player Value. The Cardinals' box plot doesn't seem as high as it should be given their record, but look at those outliers on the high end! Sure enough, we see they have a high mean Player Value. Looks like the Giants were the team with the highest mean Player Value but the worst record, at 81-81. Here is the run differential per game by team in 2010: Not surprising, we see that the Braves, Astros, Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Cardinals had high run differentials, and were good in 2022. I didn't explicitly mention the Mets above, but if you look at their box plot you'll see that it was higher. Similarly, we see that the Reds, Rockies, Tigers, Royals, Athletics, Pirates, and Nationals had low run differentials, and were bad in 2022. I didn't explicitly mention the Rockies above, but if you look at their box plot you'll see that it was lower. The Tigers' box plot actually appears somewhat middle-of-the-pack, but they are also the only team without an outlier on the upper end, and have several outliers on the lower end. Here is the win differential by team in 2010: Again, we see that the Braves, Astros, Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees were the winningest teams. The Mets won more than their run differential would suggest, and the Cardinals won less than their run differential would suggest. We also see that the Reds, Rockies, Tigers, Royals, Athletics, Pirates, and Nationals were the least winningest teams. The Rangers lost more than their run differential would suggest, as did the Athletics. The Rockies lost less than their run differential would suggest. The fact that the Giants had a positive run differential but a .500 record explains why Player Value was slightly off for them. The setup is Player Value --> Run Differential --> Winning Percentage, so if we see a disconnect between Player Value & Winning Percentage, it could be because of unique Run Differential to Winning Percentage disconnects, rather than Player Value being necessarily wrong. I hope I have been able to show the value of Player Value as a metric! Player Value is measured in runs. Teams with a higher average Player Value are generally the same teams with higher run differentials and higher winning percentages. Teams with a lower average Player Value are generally the same teams with lower run differentials and lower winning percentages. If you want to be good, grab those guys with higher Player Values, and dump those guys with lower Player Values! FILES The below files show the players that were used for the first-quartile calculation for each position:
The files below show the first-quartile values for position players and pitchers, respectively:
The files below is the "master file" for position players. It shows the stats and Player Value components for all position players, and also divides players into their respective positions on different tabs. First-team guys are highlighted green, and second-team guys are highlighted light green. Silver Slugger and Hank Aaron Award winners are highlighted in silver, while Gold Glove and Platinum Glove winners are highlighted in gold.
This file is the equivalent "master file" for pitchers. It shows the stats and Player Value components for all pitchers, and all divides pitchers into starters and relievers on different tabs. First-team guys are highlighted green, and second-team guys are highlighted light green. Gold Glove winners are highlighted in gold, while Cy Young and Reliever of the Year winners are also highlighted in green.
This file combines the Player Value components of the position players and the pitchers. This is how you'll see who your top 25 players overall are. Most Valuable Player winners are highlighted in green. Platinum Glove winners are highlighted in gold, while Hank Aaron Award winners are highlighted in silver. Rookies are placed on a separate tab, with the Rookie of the Year winners highlighted in green.
These are the files used to obtain the stats for each player, courtesy of Baseball Reference. You can also find this data online on Baseball Reference. Player batting data here. Player fielding data here. Pitcher data here. Catcher fielding here. Pitcher batting against data here. Player game appearances data here. Team standings here. For all of these, I scrolled down to the player table (such as Player Standard Batting), hit Hide Partial Rows, hit Share & Export, hit Get table as CSV (for Excel), copied the data into Excel, used Excel's Text to Columns feature, and then saved the resulting file.
The first two R files below for position players and pitchers were used to do all of the calculations for Player Value for 2022, while the third R file below combined the Player Values of position players and pitchers:
The Yearly wOBA Weights workbook is read in by the R files, so it is needed as well. It is essentially just a download from the FanGraphs Guts! page, which you can find here.
One last thing - think that the 25% baseline is too low or high? Well, the R files above are equipped to easily change the baseline level to your liking. Just change the baselineLevel variable at the beginning to your liking. For example, here is how the position players and pitchers look if a baseline level of 10% is used instead:
The results are very similar. Judge should still be the AL MVP, and Goldschmidt should still be the NL MVP. Verlander and Alcantara should still win the AL and NL Cy Youngs. The Platinum Glove and Hank Aaron Award winners are the same, too. Julio and Gorman should still be the AL and NL Rookies of the Year. Anyone that is in the negatives here is in the bottom 10% of their position. Thank you all for reading. Previously I've been using the Lahman Dataset for the player data. It probably won't be updated for 2022 until next Spring, so I had to pull the data from Baseball Reference to get this season done quickly. Baseball Reference has more data than Lahman, but my Player Value files aren't updated to work with the additional data. I plan to incorporate this extra data - such as more specific baserunning, batting against for pitchers, and better measurements of opportunity for fielders - into Player Value soon. If these updates lead to any substantial changes in Player Value, I'll update this post accordingly or make another one. As always, feel free to comment any thought you have. Statting Lineup Newsletter Signup Form:
If you'd like to receive email updates for each new post that I make, sign up for the Statting Lineup newsletter using the link below: https://weebly.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ab653f474b2ced9091eb248b1&id=3a60f3b85f
0 Comments
In my last post, I applied the Batting Value portion of my Player Value metric on the 2010 season to determine which players should have won the Silver Slugger and Hank Aaron awards, which you can read about here. In the post before that, I applied the Fielding Value portion of my Player Value metric on the 2010 season to determine which players should have won the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards, which you can read about here. You can read about my Player Value metric in general here, as well as its important addendum here. In this post, I will complete the example rollout of my Player Value metric on the 2010 season. I will begin by looking at Pitching Value to determine which players should have won the Cy Young and Reliever of the Year awards in both leagues. I will then look at overall Player Value to determine which players should have won the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in both leagues. In lieu of All-Star appearances, which require midseason data, I will also determine First-Team and Second-Team honors at each position in both leagues and the MLB according to Player Value. Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant pitching events: non-Home Run Hit: -.37 runs Home Run: -1.29 runs Unintentional Walk: -.22 runs Intentional Walk: -.17 runs Hit By Pitch: -.24 runs Sacrifice Bunt: .22 runs Sacrifice Fly: .10 runs Strikeout: .34 runs Groundball Double Play: .75 runs Other Out: .33 runs Wild Pitch: -.26 runs Balk: -.25 runs Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant defensive events: Putout by a non catcher or first baseman: .33 runs Unassisted Putout by a first baseman: .33 runs Non-strikeout Putout by a catcher: .33 runs Assisted Putout by a first baseman: .2*.33 = .066 runs Strikeout Putout by a catcher: .33*.33 = .1089 runs Assist: .8*.33 = .264 runs Error: -.68 runs Double Play: .10 runs Passed Ball: -.26 runs Stolen Base allowed by catcher: -.15 runs Caught Stealing by catcher: .39 runs Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant offensive events: Single: .30 runs Double: .58 runs Triple: .91 runs Home Run: 1.29 runs Unintentional Walk: .22 runs Intentional Walk: .17 runs Hit By Pitch: .24 runs Sacrifice Bunt: -.22 runs Sacrifice Fly: -.10 runs Strikeout: -.34 runs Groundball Double Play: -.75 runs Other Out: -.33 runs CY YOUNGS View the AL and NL Cy Young voting results in 2010 here. The Cy Young award is intended to be given to the best pitcher (normally a starter, but not exclusive to them) in both leagues. You can read about it here and view past winners. It has been awarded since 1967 and is frankly named after the wrong guy; Walter Johnson would have been a superior choice, in my opinion. The winners are voted on by 30 representatives from the BBWAA, one from each team. Voters pick their top 5 pitchers and the winner; first place votes are worth 7 points, second place 4 points, third place 3 points, fourth place 2 points, and fifth place 1 point. Since relievers nowadays have their own distinct award, I find it unnecessary to include them for the Cy Young, so my Cy Young Player Value winners will be the best starting pitchers each season. Additionally, note that the winners will be determined via a pitcher's Pitching Value, not a pitcher's total Player Value. The overall Player Value of a pitcher will only be used for MVP, RoY, and 1st/2nd team honors. The Cy Young goes to the best pitcher at pitching, not the best overall player that is a pitcher. NL Actual Winner: Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies NL Player Value Winner: Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals Wainwright led the NL with a Pitching Value of 31.38. Roy Halladay wasn't the best Roy at pitching on his team, let alone the best pitching Roy in the NL or the best pitcher in the NL overall. Roy Oswalt boasted an impressive Pitching Value of 23.32 in his Astros/Phillies split season, while Roy Halladay had a Pitching Value of 22.66, the 5th best in the NL. The first-quartile NL starter had a Pitching Value Average of .0908, while Wainwright's was .1457 and Halladay's was .1340. Here are their pitching rate comparisons to their first-quartiles, in the order of ERA, WHIP, AVG against, OBP against, BABIP, and FIP: Wainwright: 2.42 vs 3.12, 1.051 vs 1.178, .224 vs .239, .274 vs .299, .274 vs .299, 2.86 vs 3.39 Halladay: 2.44 vs 3.12, 1.041 vs 1.178, .245 vs .239, .271 vs .299, .271 vs .299, 3.01 vs 3.39 Your friendly reminder that WHIP is walks and hits per inning pitched, BABIP is batting average on balls in play, and FIP is fielding independent pitching. Here are some of their traditional pitching stats: Wainwright: 20-11, 230.33 IP, 186 H, 15 HR, 56 BB, 213 SO, 2 IBB, 4 HBP, 25 GIDP, 407 other outs, 910 batters Halladay: 21-10, 250.67 IP, 231 H, 24 HR, 30 BB, 219 SO, 1 IBB, 5 HBP, 25 GIDP, 468 other outs, 993 batters And here are some totals relative to their positional first-quartiles: Wainwright: -12.7 nonHR hits, -3.11 HR, -4.42 uBB, +57.62 SO, -1.51 IBB, -.38 WP, -.51 HBP, +0 BK, +4.79 SH, +1.92 SF, +10.73 GIDP, -22.44 other outs Halladay: +7.08 nonHR hits, +4.3 HR, -34.58 uBB, +49.9 SO, -2.82 IBB, +2.41 WP, +1.09 HBP, +1 BK, +.06 SH, +.56 SF, +9.47 GIDP, +.65 other outs Baseball Reference WAR has Wainwright at 6.2 and Halladay at 8.5, while FanGraphs WAR has them at 5.1 and 6.2, respectively. Halladay had the highest fWAR among NL pitchers. The worst starting pitcher at pitching in the NL was Zach Duke of the Pittsburgh Pirates, with a Pitching Value of -24.89, a bWAR of -1.1, and an fWAR of 0.3. The NL pitcher with the lowest fWAR was Todd Wellemeyer of the San Francisco Giants at -0.9, who had a Pitching Value of -10.54. AL Actual Winner: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners AL Player Value Winner: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners King Felix led all of MLB and the AL with a Pitching Value of 37.13. The next closest in the AL was Cliff Lee of the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers with a Pitching Value of 29.99. The first-quartile AL starting pitcher had a Pitching Value Average of .0899, while Felix's was .1433 and Lee's was .1426. Here are their pitching rate comparisons to their first-quartiles, in the order of ERA, WHIP, AVG against, OBP against, BABIP, and FIP: Felix: 2.27 vs 3.63, 1.057 vs 1.206, .212 vs .241, .273 vs .301, .273 vs .301, 3.04 vs 3.62 Lee: 3.18 vs 3.63, 1.003 vs 1.206, .240 vs .241, .255 vs .301, .255 vs .301, 2.58 vs 3.62 Here are some of their traditional pitching stats: Felix: 13-12, 249.67 IP, 194 H, 17 HR, 70 BB, 232 SO, 1 IBB, 8 HBP, 25 GIDP, 463 other outs, 1,001 batters Lee: 12-9, 212.33 IP, 195 H, 16 HR, 18 BB, 185 SO, 2 IBB, 1 HBP, 11 GIDP, 423 other outs, 843 batters Only 18 walks in 212 innings! That's 0.8 walks per 9 innings, the 9th lowest among pitchers that qualified for the ERA title since 1900! And here are some totals relative to their positional first-quartiles: Felix: -20.01 nonHR hits, -2.61 HR, +7.28 uBB, +82.07 SO, -.19 IBB, +9.43 WP, +1.74 HBP, +1 BK, +2.82 SH, -1.93 SF, +9.59 GIDP, -13.44 other outs Lee: +11.45 nonHR hits, -.68 HR, -36.49 uBB, +57.49 SO, +.99 IBB, -.88 WP, -4.32 HBP, +1 BK, +1.29 SH, +1.81 SF, -2.11 GIDP, +17.8 other outs Baseball Reference WAR has Felix at 7.2 and Lee at 5.1, while FanGraphs WAR has Felix at 7.3 and Felix at 6.7. The Mariners had the 1st and 2nd best pitchers in the AL according to Player Value and 1st and 3rd best in the AL according to fWAR, and still were terrible in 2010. The Phillies had traded Lee to the Mariners in late 2009 to make room for the 'superior' Roy Halladay. Despite Halladay's winning of the NL Cy Young, Player Value and fWAR agree that Lee was the better pitcher in 2010, and both fWAR and bWAR think that Lee was the better pitcher for the rest of their careers. Good thing the Phillies got Lee back shortly afterwards in late 2010! The worst starting pitcher at pitching in the AL was Ryan Rowland-Smith of the... Seattle Mariners! He had a Pitching Value of -27.16, a bWAR of -2.6, and an fWAR of -1.5, the worst in MLB. Keeping it simple, he had a 1-10 record and a 6.75 ERA... yeesh. RELIEVERS OF THE YEAR This award has been around in different forms over the years. The initial version was the Rolaids Relief Man Award, which began in 1976. You can read about it and view past winners here. It was designed to be given to the best closer in each league. The award was decided using a point system, where a "tough" save (tying run on base) was worth 4 points, a save was worth 3 points, a win worth 2 points, a loss worth -2 points, and a blown save worth -2 points. The award stopped being given out after the 2012 season when the Rolaids brand was acquired by another company that didn't care for sponsoring the award. This award was effectively replaced by MLB's Reliever of the Year Award, which has been around since 2014. The AL winner technically wins the Mariano Rivera AL Reliever of the Year award, and the NL winner wins the Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year award. These awards are decided by a panel of voters, who pick their top 3 guys, with 1st place votes worth 5 points, 2nd place votes worth 3 points, and 3rd place votes worth 1 point. The panel consists of notable retired relief pitchers. You can read about this newer award and view past winners here. My Reliever of the Year awards will go to the relief pitchers with the highest Pitching Value in each league. Note that this is relief pitchers, not just closers. Pitching Value does not make any type of leverage adjustment for the 'difficulty' of particular pitching situations. NL Actual Winner: Heath Bell, San Diego Padres NL Player Value Winner: Hung-Chih Kuo, Los Angeles Dodgers In his penultimate season, Kuo led all NL relievers with a Pitching Value of 15.90. Bell had a Pitching Value of 8.50, placing him 15th in the NL among relievers. The first-quartile NL reliever had a Pitching Value Average of .0854, while Kuo's was .1907 and Bell's was .1407. Here are their pitching rate comparisons to their first-quartiles, in the order of ERA, WHIP, AVG against, OBP against, BABIP, and FIP: Kuo: 1.20 vs 2.65, .783 vs 1.176, .139 vs .219, .211 vs .289, .211 vs .289, 1.81 vs 3.02 Bell: 1.93 vs 2.65, 1.200 vs 1.176, .221 vs .219, .300 vs .289, .300 vs .289, 2.05 vs 3.02 Here are some of their traditional pitching stats: Kuo: 12 SV, 60 IP, 29 H, 1 HR, 18 BB, 0 IBB, 1 HBP, 73 SO, 1 GIDP, 105 other outs, 229 batters Bell: 47 SV, 70 IP, 56 H, 1 HR, 28 BB, 3 IBB, 1 HBP, 86 SO, 4 GIDP, 107 other outs, 287 batters And here are some totals relative to their positional first-quartiles: Kuo: -14.95 nonHR hits, -2.33 HR, +3.10 uBB, +28.73 SO, -1.75 IBB, +2.04 WP, +.06 HBP, +1 BK, -.05 SH, +.20 SF, -2.33 GIDP, +2.44 other outs Bell: +4.89 nonHR hits, -2.89 HR, +7.61 uBB, +34.35 SO, +.96 IBB, -.12 WP, -.10 HBP, +0 BK, +2.78 SH, +.07 SF, +.11 GIDP, -12.65 other outs Baseball Reference WAR has Kuo at 3.3 and Bell at 1.9, while FanGraphs WAR has Kuo at 2.3 and Bell at 2.3. Kuo and Bell finished 3rd and 4th among relievers in MLB and in the NL. The NL relief pitcher with the most fWAR was Carlos Marmol of the Chicago Cubs, who had a Pitching Value of 13.21, the 4th best in the NL. The worst pitching reliever in the NL was Manny Parra of the Milwaukee Brewers, with a Pitching Value of -18.91, who had an fWAR of 0. The NL reliever with the lowest fWAR was Juan/J.C. Guatirrez of the Arizona Diamondbacks at -1.1, who had a Pitching Value of -7.87. He was technically the Dbacks closer, but split the role with Chad Qualls who was even worse with a Pitching Value of -9.78 and an fWAR of 0. AL Actual Winner: Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay Rays AL Player Value Winner: Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay Rays Soriano led the AL among relief pitchers with a Pitching Value of 13.73. The next closest was the legendary Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, with a Pitching Value of 12.15. The first-quartile AL reliever had a Pitching Value Average of .0859, while Soriano's was .1804 and Rivera's was .1735. Here are their pitching rate comparisons to their first-quartiles, in the order of ERA, WHIP, AVG against, OBP against, BABIP, and FIP: Soriano: 1.73 vs 2.97, .80 vs 1.12, .163 vs .215, .215 vs .288, .215 vs .288, 2.81 vs 3.23 Rivera: 1.80 vs 2.97, .83 vs 1.12, .183 vs .215, .239 vs .288, .239 vs .288, 2.81 vs 3.23 Here are some of their traditional pitching stats: Soriano: 45 SV, 62.33 IP, 36 H, 4 HR, 14 BB, 2 IBB, 1 HBP, 57 SO, 3 GIDP, 125 other outs, 237 batters Rivera: 33 SV, 60 IP, 39 H, 2 HR, 11 BB, 3 IBB, 5 HBP, 45 SO, 4 GIDP, 125 other outs, 230 batters And here are some totals relative to their positional first-quartiles: Soriano: -11.38 nonHR hits, +.18 HR, -4.75 uBB, +12.81 SO, +.93 IBB, -1.42 WP, -.04 HBP, +0 BK, -1.08 SH, +.01 SF, -.55 GIDP, +14.01 other outs Rivera: -4.76 nonHR hits, -1.67 HR, -8.12 uBB, +2.47 SO, +1.97 IBB, -1.36 WP, +4 HBP, +0 BK, -1.04 SH, +.05 SF, +.58 GIDP, +18.16 other outs Baseball Reference WAR has Soriano at 2.1 and Rivera at 2.4, while FanGraphs WAR has Soriano at 1.9 and Rivera at 1.8. The AL reliever with the most fWAR was Matt Thornton of the Chicago White Sox at 2.2, who had a Pitching Value of 9.97 for the 6th best in the AL. The worst pitching reliever in the AL was Chad Gaudin of the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees with a Pitching Value of -16.62. He had an fWAR of -1, the 2nd worst in the AL. Just below him was Brian Tallet of the Toronto Blue Jays at -1.2, who had a Pitching Value of -16.22. In terms of just closers, the worst was Alfredo Simon of the Baltimore Orioles, with a Pitching Value of -8.57, and an fWAR of -0.8. ROOKIES OF THE YEAR This one is well known, given to the best player in each league that is in his first qualified season. There's no specific awards for different positions, so all rookie players are on the table. You can view the winners in 2010 here. The award works the same way as the other BBWAA voting based awards such as the Cy Young and the MVP. NL Actual Winner: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants, Catcher NL Player Value Winner: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants, Catcher Posey led all MLB rookies and finished 1st in the NL with a Player Value of 22.87. This was good for the 4th most in MLB and in the NL among catchers. He received 20 first place votes and finished with 129 vote points. The next closest was Jason Heyward, rightfielder for the Atlanta Braves, who received 9 first place votes and 107 vote points. Player Value did not like Heyward, rating him at -3.93. The rookie with the 2nd most Player Value in the NL was Neil Walker, second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates, at 16.31. He finished 5th in the actual voting with 0 first place votes and 3 vote points. The NL rookie pitcher with the highest Player Value was Jaime Garcia of the St. Louis Cardinals at 14.57, who finished 3rd in the actual voting with 1 first place vote and 24 vote points. Baseball Reference WAR has Posey at 3.9, Heyward at 6.4, and Garcia at 2.9. FanGraphs WAR has Posey at 4.0, Heyward at 4.6, and Garcia at 2.4. Posey was solid both offensively and defensively, with a Batting Value of 11.09 and a Fielding Value of 12.56. Those place him 6th and 11th in MLB among catchers, respectively. Contrary to what most of us think of Heyward nowadays, he scored fine offensively with a Batting Value of 6.87 but poor defensively with a Fielding Value of -10.41. Walker was pretty good at both, with a 12.48/4.73 split. Garcia had a 14.03 pitching value and was able to add some value defensively with a Fielding Value of 1.07, but essentially took that value away offensively with a Batting Value of -0.79. Compared to the first-quartile catcher, Posey got you 18.89 more singles, 6.38 more doubles, 2 more triples, 10.36 more homers, 70.27 more putouts, 12.22 more assists, 1.53 fewer passed balls, and 12.88 more caught stealings. He had a caught stealing percentage of .3710 vs the first-quartile of .1633, a fielding percentage of .9920 vs the first-quartile of .9914, and range factor per game and per 9 innings comparisons of 8.20 vs 7.20 and 8.59 vs 7.85. He had an OPS of .862 vs the first-quartile of .692, and a wOBA of .371 vs the first-quartile of .309. AL Actual Winner: Neftali Feliz, Texas Rangers, Closer AL Player Value Winner: Austin Jackson, Detroit Tigers, Centerfielder Jackson finished 2nd among all MLB rookies and 1st in the AL with a Player Value of 18.14. Feliz had a Player Value of 9.72, the 4th best among MLB rookie pitchers and best in the AL. Jackson was fueled by his strong defensive abilities, finishing with a Fielding Value of 10.96, while still having a respectable Batting Value for a centerfielder of 6.42. He was the 11th best defensive CF in MLB. His Baserunning Value when it came to just stealing was pretty minimal, but some research I've been doing shows that his non-stealing baserunning may have been the best in the league in 2010; however, that isn't incorporated into Player Value yet. In the actual AL Rookie of the Year voting, Jackson received 8 first place votes to Feliz's 20, and finished with 98 vote points to Feliz's 122. Baseball Reference WAR has Jackson at 5.1 and Feliz at 2.5, while FanGraphs WAR has Jackson at 4.1 and Feliz at 2.0. It's difficult for a pitcher to outweigh the value of a position player, unless most position players have down years and the pitcher truly goes above and beyond. They see less action on the field, so have smaller Fielding Values, and also see less action at the plate, so have smaller Batting Values and Baserunning Values. This is especially true for AL pitchers who bat even less, and for relievers who would generally be pinch-hit for if their spot was to come up in the lineup. Feliz was a great player, but out of the nature of his position he generally isn't involved in the game enough to have a larger impact than a position player would. He had a Pitching Value of 10.72, but hurt himself defensively with a Fielding Value of -0.55. He added no value with his bat or on the bases, as he had 0 plate appearances the entire year. He was the 9th best relief pitcher in the AL, and the 4th best closer. Across all of MLB, he was the 21st best relief pitcher and the 6th best closer. Compared to the first-quartile centerfielder, Jackson got you 41.05 more singles, 11.31 more doubles, 6.22 more triples, 6.38 more stolen bases, 35.93 more putouts, 6.2 more assists, and 2 more double plays. He had an OPS of .745 vs the first-quartile of .679, and a wOBA of .329 vs the first-quartile of .307. In terms of Batting Value Average, the comparison is -.0948 vs -.1152. His fielding percentage of .985 doesn't stand out from the first-quartile of .986, but his range factor per game of 2.63 and range factor per 9 innings of 2.81 do compared to the first-quartiles of 2.38 and 2.54. Compared to the first-quartile closer, Feliz allowed 10.26 fewer non-HR hits, 1.63 fewer unintentional walks, 21.85 more strikeouts, 1.05 more groundball double plays, and 2.54 more other outs. He had an ERA of 2.73 vs the first-quartile of 2.93, a FIP of 2.96 vs the first-quartile of 3.23, and a BABIP of .246 vs the first-quartile of .288. In terms of Pitching Value Average, the comparison is .159 vs .0859. MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS The award that really needs no introduction. Given to the best players in both leagues. You can view the winners in 2010 here. NL Actual Winner: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds, First Base NL Player Value Winner: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals, First Base I chose 2010 as my example Player Value season because I hoped to show that Votto deserved to win the MVP that year. I came up short, but am not disappointed with the results. Pujols led all of MLB and the NL with a total Player Value of 76.45. Albert has won 3 MVPs in his career, so this would supposedly be #4, although I haven't checked if any of his other 3 are justified or not. Votto finished 5th in MLB and 3rd in the NL with a total Player Value of 48.79. I have stripped Votto of his one MVP, but spoiler: Player Value has him deserving to have won it in 2017. Votto received 31 first place votes to Pujols' 1, and Votto had 443 vote points to Pujols' 279. Here's how Pujols and Votto compare by their Player Value components: Votto: 41.30 Batting Value, 0.45 Baserunning Value, 7.05 Fielding Value Pujols: 36.42 Batting Value, 0.54 Baserunning Value, 39.50 Fielding Value Votto had the highest Batting Value in the NL, so it's likely that MVP voters are biased towards offensive performance. Pujols was just a slightly worse hitter but a notably superior defender. Note that both players played 100% of their games at first base, so they have the same first-quartiles. Here's how they compare by their Player Value components, in rate form: Votto: -.0092 Batting Value Average, .0214 Baserunning Value Average, .3293 Fielding Value Average Pujols:-.0209 Batting Value Average, .0300 Baserunning Value Average, .3946 Fielding Value Average 1B First-Quartile: -.0906 BatVA, -.1065 BaseVA, .3393 FieldVA Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Votto: .324 vs .250, .424 vs .332, .600 vs .406, 1.024 vs .749, .438 vs .332 Pujols: .312 vs .250, .414 vs .332, .596 vs .406, 1.011 vs .749, .419 vs .332 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Votto: 648 PA, 102 1B, 36 2B, 2 3B, 37 HR, 113 RBI, 83 uBB, 8 IBB, 7 HBP, 0 SH, 3 SF, 125 SO, 11 GIDP Pujols: 700 PA, 101 1B, 39 2B, 1 3B, 42 HR, 118 RBI, 65 uBB, 38 IBB, 4 HBP, 0 SH, 6 SF, 76 SO, 23 GIDP Here are their batting comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Votto: +17.84 1B, +10.42 2B, +2 3B, +18.07 HR, +25.67 uBB, +24.7 SO, +3.73 IBB, +4.76 HBP, +0 SH, -.73 SF, +.78 GIDP, -18.97 other Outs Pujols: +10.08 1B, +11.36 2B, +1 3B, +21.55 HR, +3.07 uBB, -32.35 SO, +33.38 IBB, +1.58 HBP, +0 SH, +1.97 SF, +11.96 GIDP, +31.73 other Outs Here are their fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9 comparisons to first quartiles: Votto: .9960 vs .9923, 8.51 vs 8.56, 8.84 vs 9.11 Pujols: .9980 vs .9923, 10.29 vs 8.56, 10.53 vs 9.11 Here are their traditional counting fielding stats: Votto: 1,283 Inn, 1,265 Ch, 1,132 PO, 128 A, 5 E, 101 DP Pujols: 1,380.67 Inn, 1,619 Ch, 1,458 PO, 157 A, 4 E, 146 DP Here are their fielding comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Votto: -44.18 assisted PO, -4.91 unassisted PO, +48.56 A, +1.03 E, -5.39 DP Pujols: +168.3 assisted PO, +18.7 unassisted PO, +71.52 A, -.27 E, +31.51 DP And lastly here are their baserunning comparisons: Votto: 16 SB, 5 CS, 76.19% Pujols: 14 SB, 4 CS, 77.78% Baseball Reference WAR had Votto at 7.0 and Pujols at 7.5. FanGraphs WAR had Votto at 6.9 and Pujols at 6.8, 1st and 2nd in the NL respectively. The worst overall player in the NL was Jorge Cantu, first and third baseman for the Florida Marlins & Texas Rangers, with a total Player Value of -48.29. Cantu played 97 games in the NL with the Marlins and 30 games in the AL with the Rangers. The worst player that solely played in the NL was Pedro Feliz, first and third baseman for the Houston Astros & St. Louis Cardinals, with a total Player Value of -44.19. Cantu had a bWAR of -1 and an fWAR of -.5, while Feliz had a bWAR of -0.4 and an fWAR of -2.3, the worst in the NL. AL Actual Winner: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers, Left Field AL Player Value Winner: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees, Second Base Cano finished 3rd in MLB and 1st in the AL with a total Player Value of 64.45. Cano has no actual MVPs in his career, so this would be his first. Hamilton finished 4th in MLB and 2nd in the AL with a total Player Value of 59.55. You may recall that Hamilton was a Red and nearly the NL Rookie of the Year in 2007 before being traded for Edison Volquez. So the Reds could have had both of the MVPs on their team in 2010. At least Player Value makes it so that it would only be both of the almost MVPs on their team. Here's how Hamilton and Cano compare by their Player Value components: Hamilton: 48.48 Batting Value, 0.57 Baserunning Value, 10.50 Fielding Value Cano: 35.99 Batting Value, -0.34 Baserunning Value, 28.81 Fielding Value Hamilton also had the highest Batting Value in the AL, which further shows how MVP voters are biased towards offensive performance. Cano was just a slightly worse hitter but a superior defender, relative to his position. Here how they compare by their Player Value components, in rate form: Hamilton: -.0085 Batting Value Average, .0900 Baserun Value Average, .0814 Fielding Value Average Cano: -.0489 Batting Value Average, -.0660 Baserun Value Average, .1898 Fielding Value Average Hamilton's First-Quartile: -.1016 BatVA, -.0531 BaseVA, .0723 FieldVA Cano's First-Quartile: -.1107 BatVA, -.0671 BaseVA, .1700 FieldVA Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Hamilton: .359 vs .259, .411 vs .331, .633 vs .384, 1.044 vs .724, .445 vs .322 Cano: .319 vs .267, .381 vs .329, .534 vs .375, .914 vs .700, .391 vs .311 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Hamilton: 571 PA, 111 1B, 40 2B, 3 3B, 32 HR, 100 RBI, 38 uBB, 5 IBB, 5 HBP, 1 SH, 4 SF, 95 SO, 11 GIDP Cano: 696 PA, 127 1B, 41 2B, 3 3B, 29 HR, 109 RBI, 43 uBB, 14 IBB, 8 HBP, 0 SH, 5 SF, 77 SO, 19 GIDP Here are their batting comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Hamilton: +30.55 1B, +17.17 2B, +1.08 3B, +24.29 HR, +.24 uBB, +12.63 SO, +3.93 IBB, +2.57 HBP, +.76 SH, +1.66 SF, +4.97 GIDP, -12.3 other Outs Cano: +19.45 1B, +13.14 2B, +1.65 3B, +21.7 HR, -2.39 uBB, -3.08 SO, +13.71 IBB, +3.67 HBP, -1.54 SH, +1.93 SF, +9.76 GIDP, +10.68 other Outs Here are their fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9 comparisons to first quartiles: Hamilton: .9850 vs .9835, 1.99 vs 1.84, 2.29 vs 2.00 Cano: .9960 vs .9803, 4.89 vs 4.29, 4.99 vs 4.66 Here are their traditional counting fielding stats: Hamilton: 1,034.67 Inn, 267 Ch, 254 PO, 9 A, 4 E, 2 DP Cano: 1,393.33 Inn, 776 Ch, 341 PO, 432 A, 3 E, 114 DP Here are their fielding comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Hamilton: +31.94 PO, +5.82 A, +2.61 E, +2 DP Cano: +50.18 PO, +27.81 A, -3.8 E, +23.19 DP And lastly here are their baserunning comparisons: Hamilton: 8 SB, 1 CS, 88.89% Cano: 3 SB, 2 CS, 60% Baseball Reference WAR has Hamilton at 8.7 and Cano at 8.1, while FanGraphs WAR has Hamilton at 8.4 and Cano at 6.4. Hamilton led all of MLB and the AL in fWAR. The worst overall player in the AL was Brandon Wood, third baseman and shortstop for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, with a total Player Value of -34.18. He had a bWAR of -1.5 and an fWAR of -1.7. Adam Moore of the Seattle Mariners had the worst fWAR at -2.4, and he had a total Player Value of -23.31. Now I will dive into 1st-team and 2nd-team selections for both the AL and NL, as well as MLB overall. Each starting position gets one spot, besides pitchers. Starting pitchers get 5 spots, as is the usual rotation size. Relief pitchers get two spots, and closers get one spot. I've also added a miscellaneous spot for safety, which will be used by diverse outfielders that didn't play at least 50% of their games at one outfield position, utility players that didn't play at least 50% of their games at any one position, outfielders that finish in the top 6 among all outfielders but not among the top 2 in a specific outfield position, or relievers/closers that finish in the top 6 among relievers/closers but not among the top 4 relievers or top 2 closers. The flexibility is intended so that every year there's hopefully at least somebody that qualifies, and this prevents worthy guys from being left out. This safety spot will only be used for the NL and AL teams. For the MLB, I'll put the safety player where I think makes the most sense, if he qualifies. Here are your teams, with each player's total Player Value and WAR (as calculated by Baseball Reference), for reference. FIRST-TEAM NL C: Geovany Soto, Chicago Cubs, 33.75 Player Value, 3.3 WAR 1B: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals, 76.45 Player Value, 7.5 WAR 2B: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies, 42.39 Player Value, 5.8 WAR 3B: Scott Rolen, Cincinnati Reds, 28.96 Player Value, 4.1 WAR SS: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies, 76.10 Player Value, 6.7 WAR LF: Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals, 35.70 Player Value, 5.9 WAR CF: Chris Young, Arizona Diamondbacks, 32.07 Player Value, 5.4 WAR RF: Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds, 29.04 Player Value, 4.7 WAR SP1: Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals, 38.42 Player Value, 6.4 WAR SP2: Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves, 28.96 Player Value, 6.0 WAR SP3: Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies, 22.91 Player Value, 8.3 WAR SP4: Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros & Philladelphia Phillies, 22.82 Player Value, 5.7 WAR SP5: Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies, 21.89 Player Value, 7.3 WAR RP1: Evan Meek, Pittsburgh Pirates, 19.80 Player Value, 2.5 WAR RP2: Luke Gregorson, San Diego Padres, 18.26 Player Value, 0.4 WAR CP: Billy Wagner, Atlanta Braves, 13.77 Player Value, 2.5 WAR Misc: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies, 35.80 Player Value, 5.9 WAR Carlos Gonzalez finished 3rd in MLB and 1st in the NL among outfielders, but he did not play more than 50% of his games at any specific outfield position. SECOND-TEAM NL C: Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves, 32.40 Player Value, 3.6 WAR 1B: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds, 48.79 Player Value, 7.0 WAR 2B: Kelly Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks, 38.01 Player Value, 4.3 WAR 3B: David Wright, New York Mets, 26.93 Player Value, 2.8 WAR SS: Stephen Drew, Arizona Diamondbacks, 33.67 Player Value, 4.0 WAR LF: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers, 30.36 Player Value, 5.7 WAR CF: Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates, 28.42 Player Value, 3.8 WAR RF: Jayson Werth, Philadelphia Phillies, 20.26 Player Value, 4.5 WAR SP1: R.A. Dickey, New York Mets, 21.86 Player Value, 4.2 WAR SP2: Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals, 19.55 Player Value, 2.7 WAR SP3: Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins, 18.92 Player Value, 6.6 WAR SP4: Yovanni Gallardo, Milwaukee Brewers, 18.41 Player Value, 3.1 WAR SP5: Mat Latos, San Diego Padres, 16.92 Player Value, 3.1 WAR RP1: Hung-Chih Kuo, Los Angeles Dodgers, 14.93 Player Value, 3.3 WAR RP2: Brandon Lyon, Houston Astros, 13.13 Player Value, 1.7 WAR CP: Carlos Marmol, Chicago Cubs, 12.50 Player Value, 2.7 WAR Misc: Omar Infante, Atlanta Braves, 16.16 Player Value, 3.1 WAR Omar Infante finished 1st in MLB and in the NL among utility players that didn't play at least 50% of their games at any specific position. FIRST-TEAM AL C: Victor Martinez, Boston Red Sox, 17.57 Player Value, 3.6 WAR 1B: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers, 43.71 Player Value, 6.5 WAR 2B: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees, 64.45 Player Value, 8.1 WAR 3B: Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox, 35.88 Player Value, 7.8 WAR SS: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox, 37.82 Player Value, 5.6 WAR LF: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers, 59.55 Player Value, 8.7 WAR CF: Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles, 23.47 Player Value, 2.5 WAR RF: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays, 35.23 Player Value, 7.0 WAR DH: Jim Thome, Minnesota Twins, 20.06 Player Value, 3.6 WAR SP1: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners, 41.50 Player Value, 7.1 WAR SP2: Trevor Cahill, Oakland Athletics, 28.63 Player Value, 3.9 WAR SP3: Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox, 27.38 Player Value, 5.7 WAR SP4: Cliff Lee, Seattle Mariners & Texas Rangers, 26.44 Player Value, 3.5 WAR SP5: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers, 24.68 Player Value, 4.3 WAR RP1: Scott Downs, Toronto Blue Jays, 12.00 Player Value, 1.8 WAR RP2: Brian Duensing, Minnesota Twins, 11.41 Player Value, 3.6 WAR CP: Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees, 14.91 Player Value, 2.4 WAR SECOND-TEAM AL C: Jose Molina, Toronto Blue Jays, 11.27 1B: Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox, 40.38 Player Value, 4.7 WAR 2B: Orlando Hudson, Minnesota Twins, 22.41 Player Value, 2.9 WAR 3B: Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays, 34.46 Player Value, 8.2 WAR SS: Cliff Pennington, Oakland Athletics, 28.62 Player Value, 4.5 WAR LF: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays, 45.92 Player Value, 7.0 WAR CF: Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays, 19.72 Player Value, 4.0 WAR RF: Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers, 33.51 Player Value, 4.1 WAR DH: Luke Scott, Baltimore Orioles, 14.96 Player Value, 3.8 WAR SP1: John Danks, Chicago White Sox, 23.83 Player Value, 5.1 WAR SP2: Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox, 23.49 Player Value, 5.2 WAR SP3: David Price, Tampa Bay Rays, 22.81 Player Value, 4.7 WAR SP4: C.J. Wilson, Texas Rangers, 22.31 Player Value, 4.9 WAR SP5: Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 21.66 Player Value, 5.3 WAR RP1: Joaquin Benoit, Tampa Bay Rays, 10.96 Player Value, 2.2 WAR RP2: Daniel Bard, Boston Red Sox, 9.81 Player Value, 3.1 WAR CP: Rafael Soriano, Tampa Bay Rays, 12.18 Player Value, 2.1 WAR Misc: Brett Gardner, New York Yankees, 23.43 Player Value, 7.4 WAR Misc: Joakim Soria, Kanas City Royals, 11.10 Player Value, 3.7 WAR Brett Gardner finished 6th in the AL among outfielders. This is applicable if we were to measure the 1st and 2nd teams by the top 3/6 outfielders in general, rather than the best LF, CF, and RF. Joakim Soria finished 5th in the AL among relievers/closers, but 3rd in the AL among closers. FIRST-TEAM MLB C: Geovany Soto, Chicago Cubs, 33.75 Player Value, 3.3 WAR 1B: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals, 76.45 Player Value, 7.5 WAR 2B: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees, 64.45 Player Value, 8.1 WAR 3B: Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox, 35.88 Player Value, 7.8 WAR SS: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies, 76.10 Player Value, 6.7 WAR LF: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers, 59.55 Player Value, 8.7 WAR CF: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies, 35.80 Player Value, 5.9 WAR RF: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays, 35.23 Player Value, 7.0 WAR DH: Jim Thome, Minnesota Twins, 20.06 Player Value, 3.6 WAR SP1: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners, 41.50 Player Value, 7.1 WAR SP2: Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals, 38.42 Player Value, 6.4 WAR SP3: Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves, 28.96 Player Value, 6.0 WAR SP4: Trevor Cahill, Oakland Athletics, 28.63 Player Value, 3.9 WAR SP5: Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox, 27.38 Player Value, 5.7 WAR RP1: Evan Meek, Pittsburgh Pirates, 19.80 Player Value, 2.5 WAR RP2: Luke Gregorson, San Diego Padres, 18.26 Player Value, 0.4 WAR CP: Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees, 14.91 Player Value, 2.4 WAR Carlos Gonzalez had a LF/CF/RF split of 39%/36%/25%, so he was very nearly perfectly split between all outfield positions. Given his frequent CF playing time and the fact that Chris Young had the lowest Player Value among the specific outfield position leaders, I decided to make Cargo the 1st-team CF and move Young to the 2nd-team. This squad has a total Player Value of 655.14, a mean Player Value of 38.54, and a median Player Value of 35.23. WAR doesn't like Gregorson or Cahill as much, but agrees for the most part. SECOND-TEAM MLB C: Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves, 32.40 Player Value, 3.6 WAR 1B: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds, 48.79 Player Value, 7.0 WAR 2B: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies, 42.39 Player Value, 5.8 WAR 3B: Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays, 34.46 Player Value, 8.2 WAR SS: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox, 37.82 Player Value, 5.6 WAR LF: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays, 45.92 Player Value, 7.0 WAR CF: Chris Young, Arizona Diamondbacks, 32.07 Player Value, 5.4 WAR RF: Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers, 33.51 Player Value, 4.1 WAR SP1: Cliff Lee, Seattle Mariners & Texas Rangers, 26.44 Player Value, 3.5 WAR SP2: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers, 24.68 Player Value, 4.3 WAR SP3: John Danks, Chicago White Sox, 23.83 Player Value, 5.1 WAR SP4: Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox, 23.49 Player Value, 5.2 WAR SP5: Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies, 22.91 Player Value, 8.3 WAR RP1: Hung-Chih Kuo, Los Angeles Dodgers, 14.93 Player Value, 3.3 WAR RP2: Brandon Lyon, Houston Astros, 13.13 Player Value, 1.7 WAR CP: Billy Wagner, Atlanta Braves, 13.77 Player Value, 2.5 WAR As mentioned above, due to Carlos Gonzalez being the better overall player and his positional diversity, Chris Young gets demoted to 2nd-team MLB despite being the best majority CF in both leagues. Andrew McCutchen, the 2nd best majority CF in both leagues, gets excluded from 2nd-team MLB for this reason as well. Since the NL didn't have a DH in 2010, I didn't make a 2nd-team MLB spot for the DH, so Luke Scott misses out there. This squad has a total Player Value of 485.49, a mean Player Value of 28.56, and a median Player Value of 26.44. WAR doesn't like Lee as much, and likes Halladay much more. To get a better idea for how Player Value looks across the board for all positions, let's also create a team of the worst guys at each position, as well as a team for the guys that are closest to the first-quartile-quality player at each position: WORST-TEAM MLB C: Jason Kendall, Kansas City Royals, -25.12 Player Value, 0.5 WAR 1B: Casey Kotchman, Seattle Mariners, -19.36 Player Value, -0.8 WAR 2B: Chone Figgins, Seattle Mariners, -30.35 Player Value, 1.2 WAR 3B: Jorge Cantu, Florida Marlins & Texas Rangers, -48.29 Player Value, -1.5 WAR SS: Everth Cabrera, San Diego Padres, -16.95 Player Value, 0.1 WAR LF: Carlos Lee, Houston Astros, -36.07 Player Value, -2.2 WAR CF: Tony Gwynn Jr., San Diego Padres, -18.95 Player Value, 2.2 WAR RF: Jeff Francoeur, New York Mets & Texas Rangers, -18.46 Player Value, 1.1 WAR DH: Adam Lind, Toronto Blue Jays, -23.51 Player Value, -1.0 WAR SP1: Rodrigo Lopez, Arizona Diamondbacks, -29.84 Player Value, -1.2 WAR SP2: Ryan Rowland-Smith, Seattle Mariners, -29.78 Player Value, -2.7 WAR SP3: Zach Duke, Pittsburgh Pirates, -25.49 Player Value, -1.3 WAR SP4: Charlie Morton, Pittsburgh Pirates, -23.59 Player Value, -2.6 WAR SP5: Manny Parra, Milwaukee Brewers, -23.32 Player Value, -0.4 WAR RP1: Blake Hawksworth, St. Louis Cardinals, -19.50 Player Value, -1.2 WAR RP2: Chad Gaudin, Oakland Athletics & New York Yankees, -17.00 Player Value, -1.0 WAR CP: Alfredo Simon, Baltimore Orioles, -7.27 Player Value, -0.4 WAR This squad has a total Player Value of -412.85, a mean Player Value of -24.29, and a median Player Value of -23.51. This was Simon's lone season in a closer role, but given his years as a Red I'm not surprised to see him as one of the worst pitchers here. Lee was at the end of his career; he hit 24 homers, but batted just .246 and wasn't a walk-machine either, in addition to being a poor fielder. Kendall was also winding down his career, while Morton was just getting started. WAR likes Gwynn Jr., Figgins, and Francoeur more. FIRST (QUARTILE)-TEAM MLB C: Henry Blanco, New York Mets, 0.23 Player Value, 0.0 WAR 1B: Ross Gload, Philadelphia Phillies, 0.54 Player Value, 0.3 WAR 2B: Luis Valbuena, Cleveland Indians, -0.29 Player Value, 0.0 WAR 3B: David Freese, St. Louis Cardinals, -0.29 Player Value, 0.7 WAR SS: Jerry Hairston Jr., San Diego Padres, 0.37 Player Value, 1.2 WAR LF: Juan Pierre, Chicago White Sox, 0.16 Player Value, 0.3 WAR CF: Mike Cameron, Boston Red Sox, 0.87 Player Value, 0.1 WAR RF: Andruw Jones, Chicago White Sox, -0.06 Player Value, 1.9 WAR DH: Travis Hafner, Cleveland Indians, 1.55 Player Value, 2.4 WAR SP1: Alex Sanabia, Florida Marlins, 0.20 Player Value, 0.1 WAR SP2: Brandon Morrow, Toronto Blue Jays, -0.23 Player Value, 1.8 WAR SP3: Bruce Chen, Kansas City Royals, -0.25 Player Value, 3.0 WAR SP4: Josh Tomlin, Cleveland Indians, 0.26 Player Value, 0.4 WAR SP5: James McDonald, Los Angeles Dodgers & Pittsburgh Pirates, 0.32 Player Value, -0.3 WAR RP1: Shawn Camp, Toronto Blue Jays, -0.01 Player Value, 1.7 WAR RP2: Jason Berken, Baltimore Orioles, 0.02 Player Value, 1.3 WAR CP: Francisco Cordero, Cincinnati Reds, 0.23 Player Value, 0.3 WAR I tried to set some basic playing time requirements so that we'd get a team of full-time first-quartile quality players, rather than just a bunch of players that hardly played. This squad has a total Player Value of 3.61, a mean Player Value of 0.21, and a median Player Value of 0.20. Mainly forgetful players, but Pierre, Cameron, and Jones were all towards the end of their careers. Cordero had 40 saves, but a 3.84 ERA as a closer. Hairston Jr. spent some time as a Red and he is the "meh" type of player that I think is really indicative of first-quartile quality. WAR likes Hairston Jr., Camp, Berken, Morrow, Chen, Hafner, and Jones much more than Player Value does. These guys are the borderline acceptable players; anyone consistently playing worse needs some concentrated training, a position change, or to be removed from the team. Just want a list of the top 25 players in MLB in 2010, regardless of position? If so, then here ya go: TOP 25 PLAYERS IN MLB 1. Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals, 76.45 Player Value 2. Troy Tulowitzki, SS, Colorado Rockies, 76.10 Player Value 3. Robinson Cano, 2B, New York Yankees, 64.45 Player Value 4. Josh Hamilton, LF/CF, Texas Rangers, 59.55 Player Value 5. Joey Votto, 1B, Cincinnati Reds, 48.79 Player Value 6. Carl Crawford, LF, Tampa Bay Rays, 45.92 Player Value 7. Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit Tigers, 43.71 Player Value 8. Chase Utley, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies, 42.39 Player Value 9. Felix Hernandez, SP, Seattle Mariners, 41.50 Player Value 10. Paul Konerko, 1B/DH, Chicago White Sox, 40.38 Player Value 11. Aubrey Huff, 1B/LF/RF, San Francisco Giants, 38.75 Player Value 12. Adam Wainwright, SP, St. Louis Cardinals, 38.42 Player Value 13. Kelly Johnson, 2B, Arizona Diamondbacks, 38.01 Player Value 14. Alexei Ramirez, SS, Chicago White Sox, 37.82 Player Value 15. Rickie Weeks, SS, Milwaukee Brewers, 35.91 Player Value 16. Adrian Beltre, 3B, Boston Red Sox, 35.88 Player Value 17. Carlos Gonzalez, LF/CF/RF, Colorado Rockies, 35.80 Player Value 18. Matt Holliday, LF, St. Louis Cardinals, 35.70 Player Value 19. Dan Uggla, 2B, Florida Marlins, 35.24 Player Value 20. Jose Bautista, RF/3B, Toronto Blue Jays, 35.23 Player Value 21. Evan Longoria, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays, 34.46 Player Value 22. Justin Morneau, 1B, Minnesota Twins, 34.14 Player Value 23. Geovany Soto, C, Chicago Cubs, 33.75 Player Value 24. Stephen Drew, SS, Arizona Diamondbacks, 33.67 Player Value 25. Nelson Cruz, RF/LF, Texas Rangers, 33.51 Player Value BASERUNNING VALUE Up until now I've neglected sharing any baserunning results because it makes up an insignificant portion of a player's total Player Value, for most players. Currently only stealing is incorporated into Baserunning Value. Players get +.15 for each stolen base and -.39 for each caught stealing. Like usual, players are compared to their positional first-quartile. The best baserunner in 2010 was Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, with a Baserunning Value of 3.69. He stole 42 bases and was caught 9 times, which is an 82.35% clip, well above his positional first-quartile of 51.29%. Baseball Reference has Ichiro with an Rbaser of 3, which is their baserunning component of bWAR. FanGraphs had Ichiro with an UBR of -1.3, a wGDP of 1.8, and a wSB of 4.1, for a total of 4.6 baserunning runs. wSB is the closest thing to what Baserunning Value is currently measuring, since I lack additional baserunning data at the moment. Ichiro ranked 8th in wSB in 2010. The player with the highest wSB was Juan Pierre of the Chicago White Sox at 5.7, who stole 68 bases and was caught 18 times. That's a clip of 79.07%, compared to his first-quartile of 60.80%. Pierre had a Baserunning Value of 0.86. The 2nd most Baserunning Value was Coco Crisp of the Oakland Athletics at 2.64, who stolen 32 bases and was caught 3 times, a clip of 91.43% compared to his first-quartile of 61.65%. FanGraphs has him at a wSB of 4.9, the 5th most overall. Crisp's Rbaser was 7 according to Baseball Reference. The worst baserunner in 2010 was Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a Baserunning Value of -3.98. He stole 19 bases but was caught a whopping 15 times, giving him a clip of just 55.88% comapred to the center field first-quartile of 62.50%. He has the 2nd lowest wSB according to FanGraphs at -2.7. Beating him out was Torii Hunter of the Los Angeles Angeles with a wSB of -3.5, who had a Baserunning Value of -3.60, the 2nd worst. Hunter stole 9 bases and was caught 12 times, a clip of 42.86% vs his positional first-quartile of 55.65%. So at best, a player's Baserunning Value can add 3-4 runs and at worst it can take away 3-4 runs. Once I get more baserunning data and improve this portion of the metric the magnitudes will be a little higher, but nobody's gonna win the MVP or become a quality player solely based on their baserunning. PITCHING VALUE BY POSITION Like I did for Fielding Value and Batting Value, I'll now show that Pitching Value isn't particularly biased towards certain pitching roles. Here are the boxplots of Pitching Value by role in 2010: Since relievers are compared to relievers and starters are compared to starters, the best relievers are still able to have a quality Pitching Value. WAR needs to really on Leverage Index for the best relievers to be better than even average starters. Here we see that the best relievers compare favorably to the better starters. The best starters will still generally have a higher Pitching Value, since starters log so much more innings. Also, relief pitchers are able to have good Pitching Value and compare favorably to closers. Note that when comparing to first-quartiles, the AL and NL are separated for pitchers unlike any of the other positions, since in 2010 (and all seasons from 1973-2021) NL pitchers batted but AL pitchers typically didn't. It would be unfair to compare an NL pitcher that bats to an AL pitcher that doesn't, since the NL pitcher could add to his total Player Value via Batting Value, but the AL pitcher couldn't. For 2022 and on (when both leagues have a DH), as well as for 1972 and earlier (when there is no DH in either league), pitchers will be compared at a MLB level, rather than by league. This split also makes sense because NL pitchers had the benefit of pitching to other pitchers, while AL pitchers had to pitch to designated hitters that were much better at batting. Here are the summary statistics of Pitching Value by role: On average starters and relievers are about the same, and the best relievers can easily be among the top 25% of starters. PITCHING VALUE BY TEAM Since Pitching Value correlates well with runs allowed per game, then we'd expect teams that have players with the most Pitching Value to be the ones that allowed the least runs. Recall from my original Player Value post that Pitching Value Average can describe 84.62% of a team's runs allowed per game. Here are the boxplots of Pitching Value by team in 2010: Looks like the Pirates had terrible pitching, and they went 57-105 in 2010. The Padres and Braves appear to have had quality pitching, and they went 90-72 and 91-71, respectively. And here are the summary statistics of Pitching Value by team in 2010: Sure enough, the Padres and Braves had the best pitchers on average. Also up there were the Cardinals who went 86-76, and the Giants who went 92-70 and went on to win the World Series. The Pirates were indeed the worst, and also down there were the 65-97 Dbacks, and the 67-95 Royals. But the Rangers also grade poorly and went 90-72 and appeared in the World Series. The A's graded pretty well but went just 81-81. Let's cap it off by viewing the runs allowed by team in 2010: Sure enough, the Pirates, Dbacks, and Royals were among the leaders in runs allowed. The teams with the fewest runs allowed were the Padres, Cardinals, Athletics, Giants, and Braves. A team's average Pitching Value appears very indicative of its runs allowed. PLAYER VALUE BY POSITION And now we will finally wrap everything up, showing that total Player Value is not particularly biased towards any certain position. Here are the boxplots of Player Value by position: All positions have similar medians. Some positions have larger spreads and outliers, but this could likely just be a construct of 2010 in particular. The smaller spreads of RPs and DHs is probably due to those positions not being as valuable in general, due to not pitching as many innings and not playing defense. And here are the summary statistics of Player Value by position: These values can serve as a baseline for what makes a good/bad Player Value at each position. Across all positions, players with a total Player Value of about 3.04 or more were among the top 25% of players. A total Player Value of 12.51 or more is the top 10%, 19.85 is the top 5%, and 37.88 is the top 1%. Conversely, players with a total Player Value of about -5.08 or less were among the bottom 25%, -10.51 is the bottom 10%, -14.94 is the bottom 5%, and -23.54 is the bottom 1%. In general, a Player Value of 20 serves as a rough baseline across all positions for an All-Star quality player. A Player Value of 40 serves as a rough baseline across all positions for an MVP-vote-receiving quality player. PLAYER VALUE BY TEAM Since a team's Player Value correlates well with its run differential per game, then we'd expect that the teams that have players with the most Player Value will be the ones that have the highest run differentials. Recall from my original Player Value post that Batting Value Average and Baserunning Value Average can describe 92.37% of a team's runs scored per game, while Fielding Value Average and Pitching Value Average can describe 86.1% of a team's runs allowed per game. These should also be the teams that win the most, since run differential per game correlates well with winning percentage (wins per game). Run differential per game can describe 89.31% of a team's winning percentage. Here are the boxplots of Player Value by team in 2010: A little hard to pick some of the teams out, but I can see that the 57-105 Pirates are towards the bottom, as are the 66-97 Orioles and the 61-101 Mariners. On the higher end looks to be the 91-71 Braves, the 91-71 Reds, the 94-68 Twins, and the 90-72 Padres. Here are the summary statistics of Player Value by team in 2010: Feel free to compare these side by side with the 2010 MLB standings here. We see the aforementioned Braves, Reds, and Twins with higher means. Also up there are the 86-76 Cardinals, the 97-65 Phillies, the 95-67 Yankees, the 89-73 Red Sox, and the 96-66 Rays. The Rockies had a pretty high average Player Value but went just 83-79. The Padres and Giants were pretty middle of the road but went 90-72 and 92-70. Recall that Pitching Value graded them appropriately, so it could be the case that Fielding Value is dominating the runs allowed explanation more than it should. We also see the aforementioned Orioles, Pirates, and Mariners with lower means. Also down there are the 67-95 Royals, the 69-93 Indians, the 69-93 Nationals, and the 65-97 Diamondbacks. The Angels and Astros had pretty low average Player Values but were able to go 80-82 and 76-86. Here is the run differential by team in 2010: Not surprising at this point, we see the Pirates, Orioles, Dbacks, Royals, and Mariners in the deep negatives. Astros are down there too, despite a near .500 record. Braves, Reds, Twins, Yankees, Phillies, Padres, Giants, Cardinals, Rays, Rangers in the higher positives. Here is the winning percentage by team in 2010, as well as the win differential by team in 2010: It comes to no surprise that we see the same teams towards the bottom and top. If we compare the run differential graph to the win differential graph, we see that the Rockies, Astros, Athletics, and Cardinals are some of the anomalies. For these teams it appears that it's not that Player Value is wrong at explaining a team's run differential, but rather that these teams just had a disconnect between their run differential and their winning percentage. They likely had some games where they got blown out or blew another team out; this has a larger impact on their run differential, but the same effect as any other win or loss on their win differential. I hope I have been able to show the value of Player Value as a metric! Player Value is measured in runs. Teams with a higher average Player Value are generally the same teams with higher run differentials and higher winning percentages. Teams with a lower average Player Value are generally the same teams with lower run differentials and lower winning percentages. If you want to be good, grab those guys with higher Player Values, and dump those guys with lower Player Values! FILES Time for the file dump! First, a note on the calculation of the first-quartile for each position. I do NOT include every single player at each position in the first-quartile. Rather, I create a subset of players based on playing time requirements. The idea is to get the starting players at each position for each team. I used the requirements of winning a Gold Glove as a baseline, which you can read about here. For the Gold Glove, position players must play in 698 innings by their team's 138th game. 138 games is equal to 1,242 total innings, so the requirement is about 56.2% of innings through the 138th game. I don't get or agree with the 138th game cutoff, so instead I extend this out to 162 games, which is 1,458 total innings. That makes the requirement 698/1458 = 47.9% of innings. For catchers, the requirement is 69 games by their team's 138th game, which is 50% of games. Extending this to 162 games, we get 69/162 = 42.6% of games or innings. With those requirements as a baseline, I set the first-quartile playing time requirement for position players to 45% of total season innings. Additionally, I required that a player played at least 70% of their innings at the position in question. Guys like Jose Bautista that had a 69%/29% split between RF/3B could greatly mess with their position's first-quartile since the fielding dynamics of different positions can be very different. Bautista had 112 assists (mainly due to his time at 3B), much more than most rightfielders, so his inclusion in the RF first-quartile calculation would greatly skew the results. Since Bautista gets his own first-quartile calculation based on his positional proportion split, we avoid having skewed results when comparing him to other rightfielders. Since DHs don't play in the field, the requirement is based on 45% of season games, rather than innings. The Gold Glove requirement for pitchers is 138 innings by their team's 138th game. Extending to 162 games or 1,458 innings, that's 138/1458 = 9.5% of total innings. That seemed like a round enough amount, so I set the first-quartile playing time requirement for starting pitchers to 9.50% of total season innings. We need a distinct first-quartile for relievers though, and you'll be hard pressed to find a relief pitcher that reaches 138 innings. I looked at the percent of total starters that reach 138 innings and used that to find an equivalent threshold for relievers. This came out to me setting the first-quartile playing time requirement for relief pitchers to 2.375% of total season innings. A typical good starter will log you about 200 innings, while a typical good reliever will log you about 50 innings. Since relievers pitch about 1/4 of the innings, I set their threshold at 1/4 of 9.5%, which is 2.375%. 9.5% of all innings is 138 innings, and 2.375% of all innings is 34.5 innings. The median number of innings for starters in 2010 was 137.8, and for relievers was 30. Using the thresholds described above, 49.5% of starters qualified and 46.3% of relievers qualified. The below files show the players that were used for the first-quartile calculation for each position:
The files below show the first-quartile values for the different positions. I used these to show the offensive expectations by position for my Batting Value post and the defensive expectations by position for my Fielding Value post.
The files below are the sort of "master files" for the 2010 Player Value example. They have the data for basically all of the things I've shared. The "2010PlayerValues" file will be of particular interest. It has the batting, baserunning, fielding, and appearance data for every position player in 2010. It also has their per opportunity values, how they compare to the first-quartile, and all of the components of Player Value. I've highlighted the Gold Glove winners, Silver Slugger winners, and the members of the 1st team, 2nd team, Worst team, and 1st-Quartile team. The "2010PitcherValues" file is basically the equivalent for pitchers, but the "2010pitchersComb" file has the different teams. That file combines the pitcher seasons of the AL and the NL, which is necessary for any pitcher that played part of their season in the AL and part in the NL. The main pitcher changes of 2010 of Oswalt and Lee remained in the same league, so this isn't that big of a deal. One example would be Jake Westbrook, who played for the Indians and the Cardinals. The "2010allplayerTotalPlayerValue" file combines the position players and the pitchers for a definitive list of the best players in 2010, according to Player Value.
Lastly, the R files below show how I processed all of this data and calculated Player Value for each player. Shout out to the Lahman package/dataset for providing the baseline player data. You'll need R/RStudio to be able to run the code and replicate the data. The first one is for the position players, the second one is for the pitchers, and the third one combines them to create some of the plots from above and the "2010allplayerTotalPlayerValue" file above. The "Yearly_wOBA_weights" workbook is read in by the R files, so it is needed as well. That file is essentially just a download from the FanGraphs Guts! page, which you can find here. The last file I posted in my initial Player Value post, but it shows the work behind the assumption that 90% of first base putouts are assisted, and that 93% of catcher putouts are via strikeout.
The file below is a summary list of the different award winners for 2010, according to Player Value.
Well, another lengthy post down, but that wraps up the rollout of the 2010 example season for Player Value. I will certainly go into less detail when sharing the results of the other seasons! The goal here was to display how Player Value is a quality measure of, well, the value of players. It tracks similarly but still distinctly to WAR, explains a team's ability to win well, and is a much simpler and more transparent metric.
I imagine my next post will be applying Player Value to the 2022 season to see how the Judge vs Ohtani discussion plays out. The 2022 season won't be in the Lahman dataset yet, so I'll have to grab all the data in a more manual way. After that, as I mentioned under my blurb about Austin Jackson above, I'm working on getting more data to use for Baserunning Value to improve it. I also look forward to updating and fine tuning my Hall of Fame predictive model. Thank you everyone for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Statting Lineup Newsletter Signup Form: If you'd like to receive email updates for each new post that I make, sign up for the Statting Lineup newsletter using the link below: https://weebly.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ab653f474b2ced9091eb248b1&id=3a60f3b85f An Application of My New Player Value Metric on the 2010 Season: Batting Value and Silver Sluggers9/18/2022 In my last post, I used the Fielding Value portion of my new Player Value metric to determine which players should have won a Gold Glove in 2010, as well as which two players were deserving of the Platinum Glove, had the award existed then. You can read about my Player Value metric here and an important addendum to the metric here. As a quick summary of the metric, each player gets credited and docked for the run-value of each event they achieve, from hitting a home run to striking out. These values are applied on a 'per opportunity' basis, such as per plate appearance or per inning. These are then compared to a player's positional first quartile value. If you hit fewer HR per PA than your position's first quartile, that means you are in the bottom 25% of home run hitters at your position, for example. We multiply the differences by a player's total # of opportunities to credit players that are able to stay healthy and play more. In this post, I will use the Batting Value portion of my Player Value metric to determine which players should have won a Silver Slugger, as well as which two players should have won the Hank Aaron Award in each league. Then I'll look at how Batting Value varies by position to show that it is not biased towards or against any particular position. Any player that is an elite hitter at their position has the chance to add the same amount of value. This is because of the inherent offensive expectations of each position. I don't reward guys that play positions that are more prone to product offensively like first base, right field, or DH because it is expected that guys that play those positions are good at offense. Each additional event that a player makes is basically worth the same, regardless of your position. Here's a look at the offensive expectations (first quartile values) by position in 2010: First basemen, third basemen, corner outfielders, and designated hitters clearly tend to do more offensively. To compare a player to a league-wide average or first quartile would obviously benefit him if he played one of these positions, and hurt him if he played a different position like shortstop. Because of this, we compare players to their positional first quartile, and we weight each player's first quartile values depending on their proportion of games played at each position. So a 100% second baseman gets different first quartile values than a 60% second baseman that also plays 40% of his games at first. Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant offensive events: Single: .30 runs Double: .58 runs Triple: .91 runs Home Run: 1.29 runs Unintentional Walk: .22 runs Intentional Walk: .17 runs Hit By Pitch: .24 runs Sacrifice Bunt: -.22 runs Sacrifice Fly: -.10 runs Strikeout: -.34 runs Groundball Double Play: -.75 runs Other Out: -.33 runs Note that I don't claim ultimate precision for my run value weights, so these have been rounded to 2 decimal places from the values shown in the Player Value explanation posts. Also recall that stolen bases and caught stealings are placed into Baserunning Value, a separate portion of total Player Value. SILVER SLUGGERS View the 2010 NL Silver Slugger winners here. View the 2010 AL Silver Slugger winners here. Read about the award and how it is decided here. The idea of the award is for it to go to the best hitting player at each position in each league. However, they only look at batting average, home runs, RBI, and total bases when deciding which players are the "best hitters". It's been around since 1980 and is voted on by MLB managers and coaches. Catchers NL Catcher Actual Winner: Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves NL Catcher Player Value Winner: Geovany Soto, Chicago Cubs A pretty close call here. Soto led MLB and the NL with a Batting Value of 20.35, while McCann finished 3rd in MLB and 2nd in the NL with a Batting Value of 17.34. Both players spent about 99% of their time at catcher, and about 1% as the DH. Soto had a Batting Value Average of -.0444, while McCann had a Batting Value Average of -.0662. I know the negative values for Batting Value Average is a little tricky to interpret, but it makes sense in the context of a game where being successful roughly only 1/3 of the time is considered doing a good job. A player with a positive Batting Value Average is truly defying the laws of baseball and contributing more as a batter than they are causing harm. For the most part, a player should just seek to have a less negative Batting Value Average, meaning contributing more relative to their peers. A player with a positive Batting Value Average has done alarmingly well. Here are their batting rate values compared to their first quartiles, in the order of batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, and wOBA: Soto: .280 vs .248, .393 vs .309, .497 vs .344, .890 vs .671, .387 vs .300 McCann: .269 vs .249, .375 vs .309, .453 vs .345, .828 vs .672, .362 vs .300 So Soto generally had higher rate values than McCann, while also having lower first quartile values than McCann since he spent slightly more time at catcher than at DH. Not surprisingly, DH's generally are better hitters than catchers. Here are some of their traditional batting counting stats: Soto: 387 PA, 54 1B, 19 2B, 0 3B, 17 HR, 53 RBI, 58 uBB, 4 IBB, 0 HBP, 83 SO, 0 SH, 3 SF, 5 GIDP McCann: 566 PA, 83 1B, 25 2B, 0 3B, 21 HR, 77 RBI, 64 uBB, 10 IBB, 9 HBP, 98 SO, 0 SH, 4 SF, 12 GIDP McCann has more of most events types given his more plate appearances, but some things like doubles, homers, and unintentional walks are pretty close considering the nearly 200 additional plate appearances that McCann had. In considering how a first quartile catcher would have fared had they played as often, here is how above and below they were in the different offensive events: Soto: 1.77 less singles, 4.75 more doubles, .01 less triples, 12.09 more homers, 35.68 more unintentional walks, 42.31 more strikeouts, 2.69 more intentional walks, 1.93 less hit by pitches, 0 more sac bunts, .90 more sac flies, 2.78 less groundball double plays, and 21.46 less other outs McCann: 1.48 more singles, 4.14 more doubles, .01 less triples, 13.77 more homers, 31.27 more unintentional walks, 38.28 more strikeouts, 8.09 more intentional walks, 6.19 more hit by pitches, 0 more sac bunts, .93 more sac flies, .64 more groundball double plays, 1.81 more other outs Baseball Reference has Soto with an Rbat of 19 in 2010, and McCann with an Rbat of 18. FanGraphs has Soto at a wRAA of 20.5, the 2nd most in MLB and highest in the NL. They have McCann with a wRAA of 18.4, the 4th most in MLB and 2nd highest in the NL. My metric thus agrees with Rbat and wRAA that Soto was a better offensive player than McCann. The worst offensive catcher in the NL was Ivan Rodriguez of the Washington Nationals, with a Batting Value of -22.32. It was a tough penultimate season for the Hall of Famer, as Pudge's Rbat was -13 and his wRAA was -13.1, the 9th worst in MLB and 2nd worst in the NL. Koyie Hill of the Cubs had the worst wRAA in the NL at -14.8, and I had his Batting Value at -15.26. AL Catcher Actual Winner: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins AL Catcher Player Value Winner: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins This award was handed out correctly, as Mauer led the AL and was 2nd in MLB among catchers with a Batting Value of 17.40. The next highest in the AL was Victor Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, who had a Batting Value of 11.34. Mauer spent about 83% of his time at catcher and the remaining 13% at DH, while Martinez played catcher 86% of the time, first base 11% of the time, and DH 3% of the time. Mauer had a Batting Value Average of -.0622 compared to a first quartile of -.1169, while Martinez had a Batting Value Average of -.0726 vs a first quartile of 0.1206. Here are how Mauer and Martinez compared against their first quartiles in terms of AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA: Mauer: .327 vs .252, .402 vs .317, .469 vs .359, .871 vs .695, .377 vs .309 Martinez: .302 vs .248, .400 vs .309, .447 vs .343, .847 vs .670, .368 vs .299 Here are how Mauer and Martinez compare in terms of some traditional counting batting stats: Mauer: 584 PA,114 1B, 43 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 75 RBI, 51 uBB, 14 IBB, 3 HBP, 0 SH, 6 SF, 53 SO, 19 GIDP Martinez: 538 PA, 96 1B, 32 2B, 1 3B, 20 HR, 79 RBI, 35 uBB, 5 IBB, 0 HBP, 0 SH, 5 SF, 52 SO, 17 GIDP Here are how Mauer and Martinez compare relative to their first quartiles overall: Mauer: +31.59 1B, +20.75 2B, +.85 3B, -.11 HR, +14.37 uBB, -15.21 SO, +11.89 IBB, +.25 HBP, +0 SH, +2.79 SF, +7.83 GIDP, +27.28 other Outs Martinez: +19.53 1B, +11.93 2B, +.97 3B, +11.98 HR, +1.78 uBB, -8.38 SO, +2.98 IBB, -2.57 HBP, +0 SH, +2.06 SF, +6.52 GIDP, +47.95 other Outs Mauer's Rbat was 26, while Martinez's Rbat was 15. Mauer had a wRAA of 26.1, the highest in MLB and the AL. Martinez had a wRAA of 18.6, the 3rd most in MLB and 2nd most in the AL. The worst offensive catcher in the AL was Jason Kendall of the Kansas City Royals, with a Batting Value of -18.59. It was a tough final season for Kendall, who had an Rbat of -19 and a wRAA of -16, the 3rd worst in MLB and the AL. Jeff Mathis of the Angels had the worst wRAA at -17.7, and I had his Batting Value at -17.32 for the 4th worst in MLB and 3rd worst in the AL. First Basemen NL First Base Actual Winner: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals NL First Base Player Value Winner: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds Votto led MLB and the NL with a Batting Value of 41.30. Across all positions, Votto had the 2nd largest Batting Value in MLB and the largest in the NL. Pujols had a Batting Value of 36.42, good for 3rd in MLB and 2nd in the NL at first base. Both players were 100% first basemen, and the position's first quartile Batting Value Average was -.0906. Votto had a Batting Value Average of -.0092, and Pujols had a Batting Value Average of -.0209. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Votto: .324 vs .250, .424 vs .332, .600 vs .406, 1.024 vs .749, .438 vs .332 Pujols: .312 vs .250, .414 vs .332, .596 vs .406, 1.011 vs .749, .419 vs .332 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Votto: 648 PA, 102 1B, 36 2B, 2 3B, 37 HR, 113 RBI, 83 uBB, 8 IBB, 7 HBP, 0 SH, 3 SF, 125 SO, 11 GIDP Pujols: 700 PA, 101 1B, 39 2B, 1 3B, 42 HR, 118 RBI, 65 uBB, 38 IBB, 4 HBP, 0 SH, 6 SF, 76 SO, 23 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their firrst quartiles: Votto: +17.84 1B, +10.42 2B, +2 3B, +18.07 HR, +25.67 uBB, +24.7 SO, +3.73 IBB, +4.76 HBP, +0 SH, -.73 SF, +.78 GIDP, -18.97 other Outs Pujols: +10.08 1B, +11.36 2B, +1 3B, +21.55 HR, +3.07 uBB, -32.35 SO, +33.38 IBB, +1.58 HBP, +0 SH, +1.97 SF, +11.96 GIDP, +31.73 other Outs Votto had an Rbat of 56, and Pujols had an Rbat of 54. Votto had a wRAA of 60.6, the most in MLB and in the NL. Pujols had a wRAA of 54.6, the 3rd most in MLB and 2nd most in the NL. The worst offensive first baseman in the NL was Garrett Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates, with a Batting Value of -23.15. He had an Rbat of -4 and a wRAA of -3.1. The lowest wRAA in the NL was Jeff Clement of the Pirates at -8, who I had at a Batting Value of -10.45. AL First Base Actual Winner: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers AL First Base Player Value Winner: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers Another Silver Slugger awarded correctly, as Miggy led the AL and finished 2nd in MLB with a Batting Value of 40.38. This was good for 3rd most in MLB and 2nd most in the AL across all positions. His closest competitor at first base was Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox, who had a Batting Value of 31.04. Cabrera had a 99%/1% split between time at first base and DH, while Konerko had an about 85%/15% split. Cabrera had a Batting Value Average of -.0105 compared to a first quartile of -.0904, while Konerko had a Batting Value Average of -.0226 vs a first quartile of -.0877. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Cabrera: .328 vs .250, .420 vs .332, .622 vs .406, 1.042 vs .749, .431 vs .332 Konerko: .312 vs .253, .393 vs .336, .584 vs .411, .977 vs .760, .417 vs .336 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Cabrera: 648 PA, 96 1B, 45 2B, 1 3B, 38 HR, 126 RBI, 57 uBB, 32 IBB, 3 HBP, 0 SH, 8 SF, 95 SO, 17 GIDP Konerko: 631 PA, 101 1B, 30 2B, 1 3B, 39 HR, 111 RBI, 65 uBB, 7 IBB, 5 HBP, 0 SH, 6 SF, 110 SO, 9 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Cabrera: +11.87 1B, +19.37 2B, +.99 3B, +19.06 HR, -.33 uBB, -5.49 SO, +27.74 IBB, +.76 HBP, +0 SH, +4.27 SF, +6.79 GIDP, +3.25 other Out Konerko: +19.46 1B, +4.57 2B, +.85 3B, +20.43 HR, +9.15 uBB, +10.16 SO, +3 IBB, +2.84 HBP, +0 SH, +2.36 SF, -.79 GIDP, +14.19 other Out Cabrera had an Rbat of 55, and Konerko had an Rbat of 48. Cabrera had a wRAA of 57.1, the 2nd most in MLB and most in the AL. Konerko had a wRAA of 4784, the 4th most in MLB and 2nd most in the AL. The worst offensive first baseman in the AL was Casey Kotchman of the Seattle Mariners with a Batting Value of -30.82. Kotchman also had the worst wRAA in MLB and the AL at -18.5. He had the 3rd worst Batting Value in MLB across all positions. Second Basemen NL Second Base Actual Winner: Dan Uggla, Florida Marlins NL Second Base Player Value Winner: Dan Uggla, Florida Marlins This one was also rewarded correctly, as Uggla led the NL and was 2nd in MLB with a Batting Value of 33.34. Rickie Weeks of the Milwaukee Brewers was the next closest, finishing 3rd in MLB and 2nd in the NL with a Batting Value of 30.16. Uggla was 100% a second baseman, while Weeks spent 99% of his time at second and was a DH 1% of the time. Uggla had a Batting Value Average of -.0516 vs a first quartile of -.1112, while Weeks had a Batting Value Average of -.0609 vs a first quartile of -.1109. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Uggla: .287 vs .267, .369 vs .329, .508 vs .374, .877 vs .699, .382 vs .311 Weeks: .269 vs .267, .366 vs .329, .464 vs .375, .830 vs .699, .368 vs .311 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Uggla: 674 PA, 105 1B, 31 2B, 0 3B, 33 HR, 105 RBI, 76 uBB, 2 IBB, 2 HBP, 0 SH, 5 SF, 149 SO, 9 GIDP Weeks: 754 PA, 110 1B, 32 2B, 4 3B, 29 HR, 83 RBI, 76 uBB, 0 IBB, 25 HBP, 0 SH, 2 SF, 184 SO, 5 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Uggla: +.6 1B, +4.06 2B, -1.31 3B, +26.1 HR, +32.25 uBB, +71.98 SO, +1.75 IBB, -2.21 HBP, -1.51 SH, +2.04 SF, +.06 GIDP, -48.03 other Outs Weeks: -6.66 1B, +1.84 2B, +2.54 3B, +21.19 HR, +26.94 uBB, +97.53 SO, -.3 IBB, +20.3 HBP, -1.68 SH, -1.32 SF, -5.01 GIDP, -59.41 other Outs Uggla had an Rbat of 27, while Weeks had an Rbat of 22. Uggla had a wRAA of 32.7, the 2nd most in MLB and most in the NL. Weeks had a wRAA of 28.1, the 4th most in MLB and 3rd most in the NL. In between them was Kelly Johnson of the Dbacks with a wRAA of 30.8, who I had with a Batting Value of 28.34 (4th most in MLB, 3rd most in the NL). The worst offensive second baseman in the NL was Ryan Theriot of the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers, with a Batting Value of -18.04. He played 96 games with the Cubs and 54 with the Dodgers. He had an Rbat of -11 and a wRAA of -17.7, the 2nd most in MLB and most in the NL. AL Second Base Actual Winner: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees AL Second Base Player Value Winner: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees This one was right on the money, as Cano led all of MLB and the AL with a Batting Value of 35.99. His closest competitor was Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox, with a Batting Value of 14.53. Cano was about a 99% second baseman and 1% DH, while Pedroia was 100% a second baseman. Cano had a Batting Value Average of -.0489 vs a first quartile of -.1107, and Pedroia had a Batting Value Average of -.0597 vs a first quartile of -.1112. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Cano: .319 vs .267, .381 vs .329, .534 vs .375, .914 vs .700, .391 vs .311 Pedroia: .288 vs .267, .367 vs .329, .493 vs .374, .860 vs .699, .373 vs .311 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Cano: 696 PA, 127 1B, 41 2B, 3 3B, 29 HR, 109 RBI, 43 uBB, 14 IBB, 8 HBP, 0 SH, 5 SF, 77 SO, 19 GIDP Pedroia: 351 PA, 50 1B, 24 2B, 1 3B, 12 HR, 41 RBI, 36 uBB, 1 IBB, 3 HBP, 2 SH, 4 SF, 83 SO, 4 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Cano: +19.45 1B, +13.14 2B, +1.65 3B, +21.7 HR, -2.39 uBB, -3.08 SO, +13.71 IBB, +3.67 HBP, -1.54 SH, +1.93 SF, +9.76 GIDP, +10.68 other Outs Pedroia: -4.37 1B, +9.97 2B, +.32 3B, +8.41 HR, +13.22, -2.11 SO, +.87 IBB, +1.81 HBP, +1.21 SH, +4.46 SF, +2.34 GIDP, +8.55 other Outs Cano had an Rbat of 33, while Pedroia had an Rbat of 10. Cano had a wRAA of 39, the most in MLB and in the AL. Pedroia had a wRAA of 14.7, the 2nd most in the AL. The worst offensive second baseman in the AL was Luis Valbuena of the Cleveland Indians, with a Batting Value of -17.9. He had an Rbat of -18 and a wRAA of -18.7, the worst in MLB and in the AL. Third Basemen NL Third Base Actual Winner: Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals NL Third Base Player Value Winner: Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals This one was also awarded correctly, as Zimmerman led MLB and the NL with a Batting Value of 22.07. The next most in the NL was David Wright of the New York Mets, who had a Batting Value of 17.23. Both guys were about 99% third basemen and 1% DHs. Zimmerman had a Batting Value Average of -.0505 vs a first quartile of -.1068, while Wright had a Batting Value Average of -.0614 vs a first quartile of -.1069. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Zimmerman: .307 vs .247, .388 vs .320, .510 vs .397, .899 vs .721, .390 vs .316 Wright: .283 vs .247, .354 vs .320, .503 vs .397, .856 vs .721, .366 vs .316 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Zimmerman: 603 PA, 104 1B, 32 2B, 0 3B, 25 HR, 85 RBI, 63 uBB, 6 IBB, 4 HBP, 0 SH, 5 SF, 98 SO, 16 GIDP Wright: 670 PA, 98 1B, 36 2B, 3 3B, 29 HR, 103 RBI, 60 uBB, 9 IBB, 2 HBP, 0 SH, 12 SF, 161 SO, 12 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Zimmerman: +19.78 1B, +5.52 2B, -1.09 3B, +12.14 HR, +30.99 uBB, +20.11 SO, +4.41 IBB, +2.49 HBP, +0 SH, +0 SF, +4.02 GIDP, +.15 other Outs Wright: +4.42 1B, +6.58 2B, +1.79 3B, +14.71 HR, +24.45 uBB, +74.49 SO, +7.23 IBB, +.33 HBP, +0 SH, +6.44 SF, -1.31 GIDP, -29.64 other Outs Zimmerman had an Rbat of 31, and Wright had an Rbat of 22. Zimmerman had a wRAA of 33.1, the 2nd most in MLB and most in the NL. Wright had a wRAA of 24.1, good for 4th most in MLB and 2nd most in the NL. The worse offensive third baseman in the NL was Pedro Feliz of the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals, with a Batting Value of -36.14. In his final season, Feliz played 97 games with the Astros and 40 games with the Cardinals. He had an Rbat of -10 and a wRAA of -29.5, the worst in MLB and in the NL. His Batting Value was the 2nd worst in MLB across all positions. AL Third Base Actual Winner: Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox AL Third Base Player Value Winner: Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox And yet another award given out correctly! Silver Sluggers are turning out pretty well. Beltre came 2nd in MLB and led the AL with a Batting Value of 20.78. Finishing just behind him was Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays with a Batting Value of 20.35. Both players were 100% third basemen, where the positional first quartile Batting Value Average was -.1071. Beltre had a Batting Value Average of -.0549 and Longoria had a Batting Value Average of -.0565. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Beltre: .321 vs .247, .365 vs .320, .553 vs .396, .919 vs .720, .391 vs .316 Longoria: .294 vs .247, .372 vs .320, .507 vs .396, .879 vs .720, .375 vs .316 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Beltre: 641 PA, 110 1B, 49 2B, 2 3B, 28 HR, 102 RBI, 30 uBB, 10 IBB, 5 HBP, 0 SH, 7 SF, 82 SO, 25 GIDP Longoria: 661 PA, 96 1B, 46 2B, 5 3B, 22 HR, 104 RBI, 60 uBB, 12 IBB, 5 HBP, 0 SH, 10 SF, 124 SO, 15 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Beltre: +20.41 1B, +20.85 2B, +.84 3B, +14.37 HR, -3.86 uBB, -.57 SO, +8.32 IBB, +3.4 HBP, +0 SH, +1.67 SF, +12.24 GIDP, +27.17 other Outs Longoria: +3.61 1B, +16.98 2B, +3.81 3B, +7.95 HR, +25.08 uBB, +38.85 SO, +10.27 IBB, +3.35 HBP, +0 SH, +4.5 SF, +1.84 GIDP, -8.12 other Outs Beltre had an Rbat of 29, and Longoria had an Rbat of 30. Beltre had a wRAA of 35.8, the most in MLB and in the AL. Longoria had a wRAA of 28.8, the 3rd most in MLB and 2nd most in the AL. The worst offensive third baseman in the AL was Jose Lopez of Seattle Mariners, with a Batting Value of -38.26. In fact, Lopez had the worst Batting Value in MLB across all positions. You may recall from my last post that Lopez had the highest Fielding Value among AL third basemen, but his terrible batting was more than enough to make him a poor third baseman overall. Lopez had an Rbat of -22, and a wRAA of -25.6, the 3rd worst in MLB and 2nd worst in the AL. Brandon Wood of the Angels had the worst wRAA in the AL at -28.7, and I had his Batting Value at -28.37 for 3rd worst in MLB and 2nd worst in the AL. Shortstops NL Shortstop Actual Winner: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies NL Shortstop Player Value Winner: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies This Silver Slugger was also given out correctly, as Tulo led MLB and the NL with a Batting Value of 39.75. Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins finished 2nd in MLB and the NL with a Batting Value of 32.78. Both players were 100% shortstops, where the first quartile Batting Value Average was -.1261. Tulowtizki had a Batting Value Average of -.0405 and Ramirez had a Batting Value Average of -.0627. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Tulowitzki: .315 vs .250, .381 vs .294, .568 vs .326, .949 vs .652, .406 vs .294 Ramirez: .300 vs .250, .378 vs .294, .475 vs .326, .853 vs .652, .369 vs .294 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Tulowitzki: 529 PA, 86 1B, 32 2B, 3 3B, 27 HR, 95 RBI, 44 uBB, 4 IBB, 5 HBP, 1 SH, 5 SF, 78 SO, 17 GIDP Ramirez: 619 PA, 112 1B, 28 2B, 2 3B, 21 HR, 76 RBI, 52 uBB, 12 IBB, 7 HBP, 0 SH, 5 SF, 93 SO, 14 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Tulowitzki: +.37 1B, +13.25 2B, +1.37 3B, +23.27 HR, +20.48 uBB, +14.62 SO, +3.14 IBB, +2.84 HBP, -1.48 SH, +2.86 SF, +10.49 GIDP, -23.57 other Outs Ramirez: +11.8 1B, +6.06 2B, +.1 3B, +16.63 HR, +24.47 uBB, +18.84 SO, +10.99 IBB, +4.47 HBP, -2.9 SH, +2.5 SF, +6.39 GIDP, -20.2 other Outs Tulowitzki had an Rbat of 24, and Hanley Ramirez had an Rbat of 20. Tulo had a wRAA of 36.1, the most in MLB and in the NL. Ramirez had a wRAA of 23.9, the 2nd most in MLB and in the NL. The worst offensive shortstop in the NL was Brendan Ryan of the St. Louis Cardinals, with a Batting Value of -15.71. Like Jose Lopez, Ryan was also an elite defender and terrible hitter, but fortunately unlike Lopez, Ryan's fielding at least outweighs his batting. Ryan had an Rbat of -26 and a wRAA of -25.6, the 3rd worst in MLB and worst in the NL. AL Shortstop Actual Winner: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox AL Shortstop Player Value Winner: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox This makes for 7 awards in a row handed out correctly! Alexei Ramirez led the AL with a Batting Value of 8.87, but finished 6th in MLB overall. Among the other NL shortstops that were superior batters are Stephen Drew of the Dbacks, Rafael Furcal of the Dodgers, and Jose Reyes of the Mets. The next highest in the AL was technically Alex Gonzalez, but he had a near 50/50 split between the Blue Jays and the Braves in 2010. The next highest solely AL player was Marco Scutaro of the Boston Red Sox, with a Batting Value of 6.84. If you'll recall from my last post, interestingly enough Ramirez was also the best fielding shortstop in the AL, while Scutaro was the worst. Ramirez was 100% a shortstop, while Scutaro was 89% a shortstop and 11% a second baseman. Ramirez had a Batting Value Average of -.1015 vs a first quartile of -.1261, and Scutaro had a Batting Value Average of -.1042 vs a first quartile of -.1245. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA first quartile comparisons: Ramirez: .282 vs .250, .313 vs .294, .431 vs .326, .744 vs .652, .324 vs .294 Scutaro: .275 vs .252, .333 vs .298, .388 vs .331, .721 vs .657, .321 vs .296 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Ramirez: 626 PA, 116 1B, 29 2B, 2 3B, 18 HR, 70 RBI, 25 uBB, 2 IBB, 2 HBP, 7 SH, 5 SF, 82 SO, 12 GIDP Scutaro: 695 PA, 125 1B, 38 2B, 0 3B, 11 HR, 56 RBI, 52 uBB, 1 IBB, 3 HBP, 4 SH, 3 SF, 71 SO, 14 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Ramirez: +14.67 1B, +6.82 2B, +.07 3B, +13.58 HR, -2.84 uBB, +7 SO, +.98 IBB, -.56 HBP, +4.07 SH, +2.47 SF, +4.3 GIDP, +29.48 other Outs Scutaro: +13.02 1B, +13.03 2B, -2.05 3B, +5.86 HR, +19.56 uBB, -11.85 SO, -.04 IBB, +0 HBP, +.93 SH, +.17 SF, +4.38 GIDP, +45.83 other Outs Ramirez had an Rbat of 0 and Scutaro had an Rbat of -5. Ramirez had a wRAA of 1.7, which is highest in the AL among mainly shortstops but just 10th most in MLB. Jed Lowrie of the A's comes out higher at 11.8, but he didn't spend at least 50% of his time at any one position so I have him down as a utility guy. Scutaro had a wRAA of 0.1. The worst offensive shortstop in the AL was Cesar Izturis of the Baltimore Orioles, with a Batting Value of -22.86. He had an Rbat of -30 and a wRAA of -29.7, the worst in MLB and in the AL. Outfielders NL Outfield Actual Winner #1: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies NL Outfield Actual Winner #2: Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals NL Outfield Actual Winner #3: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers NL Outfield Player Value Winner #1: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies NL Outfield Player Value Winner #2: Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals (Best LF) NL Outfield Player Value Winner #3: Colby Rasmus, St. Louis Cardinals (Best CF) NL Rightfield Player Value Winner: Jayson Werth, Philadelphia Phillies Got 2 out of the 3 outfield Silver Sluggers correct. Cargo led the NL and finished 3rd in MLB among outfielders with a Batting Value of 40.02. Cardinals teammates Holliday and Rasmus finished 2nd and 3rd in the NL and 4th and 5th in MLB with Batting Values of 33.73 and 24.74, respectively. Braun had a Batting Value of 20.47, which was 4th in MLB and 2nd in the NL among left fielders. Werth had a Batting Value of 22.2, the 2nd most in MLB and most in the NL among right fielders. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and Batting Value Average first quartile comparisons: Gonzalez: .336 vs .257, .376 vs .329, .598 vs .390, .974 vs .726, .413 vs .323, -.0281 vs -.1016 Holliday: .312 vs .262, .390 vs .332, .532 vs .386, .922 vs .730, .397 vs .324, -.0423 vs -.0996 Rasmus: .276 vs .249, .361 vs .319, .498 vs .364, .859 vs .680, .369 vs .307, -.0577 vs -.1149 Braun: .304 vs .262, .365 vs .332, .501 vs .386, .866 vs .730, .378 vs .324, -.0624 vs -.0996 Werth: .296 vs .259, .388 vs .338, .532 vs .427, .921 vs .775, .396 vs .339, -.0402 vs -.0888 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Gonzalez: 636 PA, 120 1B, 34 2B, 9 3B, 34 HR, 117 RBI, 32 uBB, 8 IBB, 2 HBP, 0 SH, 7 SF, 135 SO, 9 GIDP Holliday: 675 PA, 112 1B, 45 2B, 1 3B, 28 HR, 103 RBI, 59 uBB, 10 IBB, 8 HBP, 0 SH, 2 SF, 93 SO, 13 GIDP Rasmus: 534 PA, 74 1B, 28 2B, 3 3B, 23 HR, 66 RBI, 54 uBB, 9 IBB, 1 HBP, 2 SH, 4 SF, 148 SO, 5 GIDP Braun: 684 PA, 117 1B, 45 2B, 1 3B, 25 HR, 103 RBI, 55 uBB, 1 IBB, 6 HBP, 0 SH, 3 SF, 105 SO, 17 GIDP Werth: 652 PA, 89 1B, 46 2B, 2 3B, 27 HR, 85 RBI, 76 uBB, 6 IBB, 7 HBP, 0 SH, 9 SF, 147 SO, 11 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Gonzalez: +30.79 1B, +8.67 2B, +6.48 3B, +24.07 HR, -9.63 uBB, +41.77 SO, +6.73 IBB, -.41 HBP, -.35 SH, +4.63 SF, +1.49 GIDP, -16.92 other Outs Holliday: +14.16 1B, +16.59 2B, -.78 3B, +19.07 HR, +15.71 uBB, -.46 SO, +8.92 IBB, +4.91 HBP, +0 SH, -.94 SF, +5.81 GIDP, +18.4 other Outs Rasmus: +1.3 1B, +10.01 2B, +.02 3B, +18.19 HR, +19.88 uBB, +69.12 SO, +8.14 IBB, -1.02 HBP, +1.2 SH, +2.41 SF, +.04 GIDP, -41.16 other Outs Braun: +17.86 1B, +16.21 2B, -.81 3B, +15.95 HR, +11.13 uBB, +10.29 SO, -.09 IBB, +2.87 HBP, +0 SH, +.02 SF, +9.71 GIDP, +19.6 other Outs Werth: -1.18 1B, +17.48 2B, -.55 3B, +9.67 HR, +30.7 uBB, +44.6 SO, +4.04 IBB, +5.24 HBP, -.13 SH, +6.55 SF, +.4 GIDP, -23.72 other Outs Gonzalez had an Rbat of 36 and a wRAA of 46.8, the 3rd most in MLB and most in the NL among outfielders. Holliday had an Rbat of 39 and a wRAA of 41.2, the 4th most in MLB and 2nd most in the NL. Rasmus had an Rbat of 20 and a wRAA of 20.4. Braun had an Rbat of 30 and a wRAA of 31.3, the 4th most in the NL. Werth had an Rbat of 34 and a wRAA of 39, the 3rd most in the NL. So the other advanced metrics treat outfielders more uniformly since they get compared to league averages across all positions. My Batting Value metric rewards Rasmus more by acknowledging that his level of offensive production was rare and unique among centerfielders. However, do recall that Rasmus had the 2nd worst Fielding Value in the NL among outfielders. The worst offensive outfielders in the NL were Jeff Francoeur of the New York Mets with a Batting Value of -21.89, Garrett Anderson of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a Batting Value of -17.25, and Carlos Lee of the Houston Astros with a Batting Value of -16.21. Francouer spent some time with the Rangers (15 games), but spent the vast majority of the year in the NL with the Mets (124 games). He had an Rbat of -13 and a wRAA of -10.6, the 5th worst in the NL. Anderson had an Rbat of -14 in his final season and a wRAA of -15, the 2nd worst in MLB and in the NL. Lee has the unique distinction of being among the 3 worst outfielders in the NL in terms of both Fielding Value and Batting Value. He had an Rbat of -9 and a wRAA of -5.9. Nyjer Morgan of the Washington Nationals had the worst wRAA in MLB and in the NL at -15.3, and I had his Batting Value at -11.66. AL Outfield Actual Winner #1: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers AL Outfield Actual Winner #2: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays AL Outfield Actual Winner #3: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays AL Outfield Player Value Winner #1: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers (Best LF) AL Outfield Player Value Winner #2: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays (Best RF) AL Outfield Player Value Winner #3: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays AL Centerfield Player Value Winner: Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays Hamilton led MLB and the AL outfielders with a Batting Value of 48.48. He also led MLB across all positions. Bautista finished 2nd in MLB and the AL among outfielders with a Batting Value of 40.29, good for 4th in MLB and 2nd in the AL across all positions. Crawford finished 3rd best in the AL among outfielders with a Batting Value of 21.10, so we have quite a disparity between the top 2 and the rest. Wells led all AL centerfielders with a Batting Value of 21.08, but was barely surpassed by Crawford among all outfield positions. That means we got all 3 of the AL outfielders right! Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and Batting Value Average first quartile comparisons: Hamilton: .359 vs .259, .411 vs .331, .633 vs .384, 1.044 vs .724, .445 vs .322, -.0085 vs -.1016 Bautista: .260 vs .257, .378 vs .334, .617 vs .425, .995 vs .768, .422 vs .336, -.0160 vs -.0913 Crawford: .307 vs .262, .356 vs .333, .495 vs .387, .851 vs .731, .369 vs .324, -.0598 vs -.0993 Wells: .273 vs .250, .331 vs .320, .515 vs .365, .847 vs .683, .363 vs .308, -.0707 vs -.1141 Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Hamilton: 571 PA, 111 1B, 40 2B, 3 3B, 32 HR, 100 RBI, 38 uBB, 5 IBB, 5 HBP, 1 SH, 4 SF, 95 SO, 11 GIDP Bautista: 683 PA, 56 1B, 35 2B, 3 3B, 54 HR, 124 RBI, 98 uBB, 2 IBB, 10 HBP, 0 SH, 4 SF, 116 SO, 10 GIDP Crawford: 657 PA, 122 1B, 30 2B, 13 3B, 19 HR, 90 RBI, 43 uBB, 3 IBB, 3 HBP, 3 SH, 5 SF, 104 SO, 2 GIDP Wells: 646 PA, 83 1B, 44 2B, 3 3B, 31 HR, 88 RBI, 45 uBB, 5 IBB, 3 HBP, 0 SH, 3 SF, 84 SO, 18 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Hamilton: +30.55 1B, +17.17 2B, +1.08 3B, +24.29 HR, +.24 uBB, +12.63 SO, +3.93 IBB, +2.57 HBP, +.76 SH, +1.66 SF, +4.97 GIDP, -12.3 other Outs Bautista: -38.65, +4.47 2B, +.94 3B, +35.62 HR, +52.94 uBB, +13.48 SO, -.15 IBB, +8.25 HBP, -.01 SH, +.44 SF, -2.27 GIDP, +24.86 other Outs Crawford: +26.94 1B, +2.32 2B, +11.27 3B, +10.15 HR, +.64 uBB, +12.69 SO, +1.92 IBB, +.01 HBP, +3 SH, +2.12 SF, -5.03 GIDP, +32.54 other Outs Wells: -4.83 1B, +22.1 2B, -.55 3B, +24.92 HR, +3.43 uBB, -11.77 SO, +3.92 IBB, +.56 HBP, -.95 SH, +1.05 SF, +11.94 GIDP, +56.49 other Outs Hamilton had an Rbat of 51 and a wRAA of 56.8, the most in MLB and the AL. Bautista also had an Rbat of 51 and a wRAA of 55.1, the 2nd most in MLB and the AL. Crawford had an Rbat of 28 and a wRAA of 25.2. Wells had an Rbat of 19 and a wRAA of 21.9. Shin-Soo Choo and Nick Swisher rated better than Crawford and Wells in terms of wRAA at 33.6 and 29.5, respectively. I had Choo still faring pretty well with a Batting Value of 13.43, but Swisher not as much at 6.46. The worst offensive outfielders in the AL were Juan Pierre of the Chicago White Sox with a Batting Value of -19.95, Trevor Crowe of the Cleveland Indians with a Batting Value of -18.50, and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners with a Batting Value of -15.38. Ichiro! What! But he batted .315! Sure, but his slugging, OPS, wOBA, and Batting Value Average are all worse than the first quartile. Ichiro gets a lot of hits, but the vast majority of them are singles, and he doesn't walk very often. His teammate Franklin Gutierrez had the worst wRAA in the AL at -15.43, and had a Batting Value of -10.17. Pierre had the 2nd worst wRAA in the AL at -11.1. Pitchers and Designated Hitters NL Pitcher Actual Winner: Yovani Gollardo, Milwaukee Brewers NL Pitcher Player Value Winner: Yovani Gollardo, Milwaukee Brewers Nowadays the hitting ability of a pitcher no longer really matters, but in 2010 pitchers in the NL still hit and could provide value in that manner. Gallardo led all NL pitchers with a Batting Value of 9.07, and was properly identified as the best hitting pitcher in the league. The next best was Dan Haren of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had a Batting Value of 7.90. Starters get more plate appearances so they have more opportunities to increase their Batting Value. The best hitting relief pitcher was Gustavo Chacin of the Houston Astros with a Batting Value of 1.29. Pitchers in the AL can still provide Batting Value when on the road against NL teams, but the amounts generally aren't consequential so I won't dive into those. No Silver Slugger award is given to AL pitchers. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and Batting Value Average first quartile comparisons: Gallardo: .254 vs .104, .329 vs .127, .508 vs .113, .837 vs .246, .631 vs .650, -.940 vs -1.162 Haren: .364 vs .104, .375 vs .127, .527 vs .113, .902 vs .246, .996 vs .650, -.993 vs -1.162 An .837 OPS for a pitcher is certainly something to marvel at, but granted that he did this in only 72 plate appearances. Shohei Ohtani had a .965 OPS in 2021 with 639 plate appearances. According to Stathead, Gallardo's season ranks as the 65th best pitcher season in terms of OPS among pitchers with at least 70 plate appearances. Haren's OPS was even better, but he had even fewer plate appearances with just 57. Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Gallardo: 72 PA, 8 1B, 4 2B, 0 3B, 4 HR, 10 RBI, 5 uBB, 0 IBB, 2 HBP, 2 SH, 0 SF, 17 SO, 0 GIDP Haren: 57 PA, 13 1B, 6 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 1 uBB, 0 IBB, 0 HBP, 1 SH, 0 SF, 9 SO, 0 GIDP Gallardo had the most homers by a pitcher in MLB in 2010, and nobody else even had more than 1. Haren had the most doubles, but Gallardo was tied for 3rd. Given the smallness of their counting stats, I won't dive into how they compare above/below their first quartiles for the different stats. Both Gallardo and Haren had an Rbat of 3. Haren actually led with a wRAA of 3.3, with Gallardo in 2nd at 2.5. The worst offensive pitcher in the NL was Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, with a Batting Value of -7.32. Kershaw was the 6th best NL pitcher at pitching in 2010, but his poor batting actually puts him behind Gallardo in terms of overall value. Even in small quantities, every additional hit/walk/etc that a team can get is valuable. Kershaw had an Rbat of -13 and a wRAA of -15.4, also the worst in the NL. AL Designated Hitter Actual Winner: Vladimir Guerrero, Texas Rangers AL Designated Hitter Player Value Winner: Jim Thome, Minnesota Twins This one hurt to see. Vladimir Guerrero is my favorite player and the reason my favorite number is 27. And on the surface he had a great penultimate season in his lone year with the Rangers, hitting 29 homers and batting .300. He won his 9th Silver Slugger and appeared in his 8th All-Star game, and finished 11th in MVP voting. But his Batting Value was just -3.40. Thome had a notably superior Batting Value of 20.04. As was the case for all seasons prior to 2022, there was no DH in the NL in 2010. Here are their AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and Batting Value Average first quartile comparisons: Vlad: .300 vs .270, .345 vs .353, .496 vs .438, .841 vs .816, .363 vs .356, -.0719 vs -.0736 Thome: .283 vs .271, .412 va .355, .627 vs .438, 1.039 vs .820, .439 vs .358, -.0070 vs -.0719 We can see that where Vlad gains over Thome in batting average, he quickly gets outgained in terms of on-base percentage. My man liked to hit and would swing at anything thrown his way. Walking wasn't his forte, and neither was mine. Here are their traditional counting batting stats: Vlad: 643 PA, 121 1B, 27 2B, 1 3B, 29 HR, 115 RBI, 30 uBB, 5 IBB, 9 HBP, 0 SH, 6 SF, 60 SO, 19 GIDP Thome: 340 PA, 35 1B, 16 2B, 2 3B, 25 HR, 59 RBI, 56 uBB, 4 IBB, 2 HBP, 0 SH, 2 SF, 82 SO, 8 GIDP Here are their comparisons relative to their first quartiles: Vlad: +39.18 1B, -1.78 2B, -.16 3B, +9.5 HR, -25.59 uBB, -52.21 SO, +1.99 IBB, +6.93 HBP, +0 SH, +2.37 SF, +9.7 GIDP, +99.53 other Outs Thome: -7.71 1B, +.8 2B, +1.47 3B, +14.6 HR, +25.83 uBB, +21.86 SO, +2.34 IBB, +.88 HBP, +0 SH, +0 SF, +3.2 GIDP, -15.99 other Outs Like was the problem with Ichiro, Vlad didn't walk enough. He did have some power, but he also grounded into too many double plays. He also had a decent knack for getting plunked, something I can relate to in my high school playing days as well. Thome had an Rbat of 32 and a wRAA of 32, the highest among DHs. Vlad had an Rbat of 14 and a wRAA of 21.9, the 4th best among DHs. So the assertion that Thome was better than Vlad and was the best hitting DH isn't unique. The worst offensive designated hitter in the AL was Adam Lind of the Toronto Blue Jays, with a Batting Value of -23.64. He had an Rbat of -12 and a wRAA of -5.6, the 6th worst among DHs. Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners had the worst wRAA among DHs at -9.2, and I had his Batting Value at -12.86, the 5th worst. SILVER SLUGGER SUMMARY Now that we've gone through each position and each league, here's a quick summary of the players that should have won the Silver Slugger at each position, based on Batting Value: AL C - Joe Mauer (actual winner), Twins 1B - Miguel Cabrera (actual winner), Tigers 2B - Robinson Cano (actual winner), Yankees 3B - Adrian Beltre (actual winner), Red Sox SS - Alexei Ramirez (actual winner), White Sox OF - Josh Hamilton (actual winner), Rangers OF - Carl Crawford (actual winner), Rays OF - Jose Bautista (actual winner), Blue Jays DH - Jim Thome, Twins NL C - Geovany Soto, Cubs 1B - Joey Votto, Reds 2B - Dan Uggla (actual winner), Marlins 3B - Ryan Zimmerman (actual winner), Nationals SS - Troy Tulowitzki (actual winner), Rockies OF - Carlos Gonzalez (actual winner), Rockies OF - Matt Holliday (actual winner), Cardinals OF - Colby Rasmus, Cardinals P - Yovanni Gallardo (actual winner), Brewers The AL got 8 of their 9 right, and the NL got 6 of their 9 right. We were much better at giving the Silver Sluggers out correctly than we were the Gold Gloves! HANK AARON AWARD The Hank Aaron award is given to the best overall offensive player in the AL and the NL. It is decided between a mix of a fan vote and a panel of Hall of Famers, and was first created in 1999. You can view past winners here. Below are the winners in 2010 compared to which players should have won based on their Batting Value: NL Actual Winner: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds, First Base NL Player Value Winner: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds, First Base Somehow we correctly identified Votto as the best offensive player in the entire National League but failed to realize that he was the best offensive first baseman in the NL. Granted that the Silver Slugger and Hank Aaron Award don't have the same built-in layering that the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove do, but this result was still odd. AL Actual Winner: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays, Right Field AL Player Value Winner: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers, Left Field Hamilton would be voted the MVP in 2010, and it certainly wasn't for his fielding prowess, so it's odd that Bautista was declared the superior hitter. Sharing of the spoils, I suppose. BATTING VALUE BY POSITION Like I did for the Fielding Value post, I'll now show that Batting Value isn't particularly biased or skewed towards certain positions. Any guy at any position that leads his position in batting can be among the league leaders. A shortstop that gives you +10 home runs over the positional first quartile is just as valuable as a first baseman that does the same thing, even if the first baseman hit 40 homers and the shortstop only hit 20. Here are the boxplots of Batting Value by position: Most positions have pretty similar spreads, with perhaps the exception of catchers. This is likely because they tend to get fewer plate appearances, as the first quartile values by position from earlier showed. Okay, those are the visuals. But what are the actual values? Here are some summary statistics of Batting Value by position: Note that the pitcher values are the values of all pitchers, starters and relievers, in both leagues. In reality, I divide pitchers into 4 groups: AL SP, AL RP, NL SP, and NL RP. The values above are also among all players, not just starters. Thought would have it that since a team's Batting Value correlates well with its runs scored per game, then the teams that have players with the most Batting Value should be the ones that scored the most runs. These also may be the teams that win the most, since run differential per game correlates well with winning percentage (wins per game). Here are the boxplots of Batting Value by team in 2010: Looks like the Reds had a higher median than most teams, and we know they were good in 2010. The Mariners appear to have a lower median than most teams, and they were bad in 2010. And here are summary statistics of Batting Value by team in 2010: Sure enough, the Reds had the highest median Batting Value and went 91-71 and won their division, while the Mariners had the lowest median Batting Value and went 61-101 and came last in their division. Pirates, Orioles, Nationals, and Diamondbacks all had lower median Batting Values and all came last in their divisions. But this isn't perfect, as the Padres had a low median too and won their division. Yankees, Phillies, Braves, and Giants join the Reds as teams with higher medians and good records. The Rockies, however, had a higher median but were barely above .500. Let's cap it off by viewing the runs scored by team in 2010: You'll notice a strong correlation between a team's median Batting Value and its runs scored. Reds, Phillies, Yankees, Rays all towards the top, and Mariners, Pirates, Orioles, Astros, and Nationals all towards the bottom.
So, in conclusion, why use Batting Value and thus Player Value?
Thank you all for reading and let me know your thoughts on the comments below. Also be sure to sign up for my newsletter using the link below to get updates for each post. We've done Fielding Value and Batting Value for 2010, so the last step in the 2010 example rollout of Player Value is Pitching Value and total Player Value. In the next post I plan to go over which players should have won the MVP, Cy Young, Reliever of the Year, and Rookie of the Year in each league. I'll also list out some 1st team and 2nd team honors. Statting Lineup Newsletter Signup Form: If you'd like to receive email updates for each new post that I make, sign up for the Statting Lineup newsletter using the link below: https://weebly.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ab653f474b2ced9091eb248b1&id=3a60f3b85f An Application of My New Player Value Metric on the 2010 MLB Season: Fielding Value and Gold Gloves9/5/2022 I have recently unveiled my new metric for assessing player value, which you can read about here. I also made some quick changes to the metric, which you can read about in the addendum here. The goal of this metric is to act like WAR, but be more understandable and transparent. For the time being I'm resorting to just calling it 'Player Value', but am open to name change recommendations. As a quick summary of the metric, each player gets credited and docked for the run-value of each event they achieve, from hitting a home run to striking out. These values are applied on a 'per opportunity' basis, such as per plate appearance or per inning. These are then compared to a player's positional first quartile value. If you hit fewer HR per PA than your position's first quartile, that means you are in the bottom 25% of home run hitters at your position, for example. We multiply the differences by a player's total # of opportunities to credit players that are able to stay healthy and play more. In this post I will apply the Fielding Value portion of my Player Value metric to players in the 2010 season to determine who should have won the Gold Glove at each position in each league. I'll also decide who should have won the Platinum Glove based on Fielding Value, if the award had existed back then. Then I'll look at how Fielding Value varies by position to show that it is not biased towards or against any particular position. Any player that is an elite defender at their position has the chance to add the same amount of value. This is because of the inherent defensive expectations of each position. I don't reward 'more difficult' positions to play like catcher, shortstop, or center field because it is expected that guys that play those positions are good at defense. Each additional out a player makes is basically worth the same, regardless of your position. Your shortstop is likely a better defender than your third baseman, yes. But if you have the best defensive third baseman, that's tremendously valuable; you're getting extra outs from that position that other teams aren't. If your shortstop is pretty average compared to ones on other teams, that's not as valuable. We could move the shortstop to third and he would fare better defensively, but likely will fare worse offensively. A player can either uphold the standards of his position or not. I will end by looking at each team's aggregate Fielding Value to show that it does a good job of explaining the runs that a team allows. Here's a look at the defensive expectations (first quartile values) by position in 2010: Catchers and first basemen clearly have higher fielding percentages, make more putouts, and have higher ranges (make more outs per game). Third basemen and shortstops make more assists and more errors. Outfielders get far less defensive chances. It is because of these positional differences that we must compare on a position basis. Even applying the run value of the events leaves things skewed, as we can see in the 'FieldVA' column above that different positions have very different Field Value Average expectations. I chose this season because as a kid from Cincinnati, 2010 was the first good season in my Reds fandom. We made the playoffs for the first time in my life (first berth since 1995) and Joey Votto won the MVP. I thought it would be cool to see if Votto's MVP was merited and if my Player Value metric can explain the success of the Reds (and other teams) that season. Three Reds players won Gold Gloves in 2010 as well. I am eventually going to step through the different awards and look at who actually won them in 2010 compared to who should have won them, according to Player Value. Again in this post I'll just examine the Gold Gloves and Platinum Gloves, but in later posts I'll look at Silver Sluggers, Rookies of the Year, MVPs, Hank Aarons, Relievers of the Year, and Cy Youngs. I can't do hypothetical All-Stars since I don't have the data for specifically the first half of the season only, but I will also determine some First Team and Second Team honors in later posts. Here's a quick reminder of the run value weights for the relevant defensive events: Putout by a non catcher or first baseman: .33 runs Unassisted Putout by a first baseman: .33 runs Non-strikeout Putout by a catcher: .33 runs Assisted Putout by a first baseman: .2*.33 = .066 runs Strikeout Putout by a catcher: .33*.33 = .1089 runs Assist: .8*.33 = .264 runs Error: -.68 runs Double Play: .10 runs Passed Ball: -.26 runs Stolen Base allowed by catcher: -.15 runs Caught Stealing by catcher: .39 runs Note that I don't claim ultimate precision for my run value weights, so these have been rounded to 2 decimal places from the values shown in the Player Value explanation posts. GOLD GLOVES View the 2010 AL Gold Glove winners here. View the 2010 NL Gold Glove winners here. Read how the Gold Gloves are decided and the requirements here. The awards are given out based on a combo of MLB coaches voting and the SABR Defensive Index, which itself is a mix of several different defensive measures. Catchers NL Catcher Actual Winner: Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals NL Catcher Player Value Winner: Miguel Olivo, Colorado Rockies Olivo led all catchers in MLB in 2010 with a Fielding Value of 20.06. Molina finished 4th overall in MLB, and was the 3rd highest in the NL, with a Fielding Value of 16.02. Olivo had a Fielding Value Average of .3817, while Molina had a Fielding Value Average of .3913. The first quartile value for catchers is .2600. The disparity here is because the rate version of Fielding Value does not take the catcher and first base adjustments into consideration, nor does it account for comparing to a player's positional first quartile. Olivo played all 111 of his games at catcher, so he was 100% a catcher. Molina played 135 games at catcher and 7 at first base, so he was only a 95.07% catcher. Thus their positional first quartile values were slightly different, since I weight each player's quartiles based on their proportion of time played at each position. Olivo played 935 innings and Yadier played 1,145 innings. In the eyes of fielding percentage, it makes sense why Molina won. Yadi had a .9950 fielding percentage, above his positional first quartile of .9911. Olivo had a .9900 fielding percentage, actually below his positional first quartile of .9910. It is in terms of range factor that Olivo comes out on top. His range factor per game (RFG) of 7.95 and range factor per 9 innings (RF9) of 8.50 are both well above the catcher first quartile of 6.66 (sorry, folks) and 7.35. Molina's values are 6.91 vs 6.75 and 7.71 vs 7.43. So on a rate basis Molina made fewer errors than Olivo, but Olivo was making more outs than Molina. As for throwing runners out, the catcher first quartile was a 22.77% caught stealing rate. Olivo was well above this at 42.31%, but Molina was even better at 48.53%. However, Olivo was confronted with having to throw runners out more frequently; runners tried to steal on him 78 times, but on Yadi just 68 times. The rate basis matters, but so too does how often you threw guys out at that rate. Throwing out 90% of 1,000 runners is better than throwing out 95% of 100 runners. Those are the more traditional catcher fielding metrics; how about the metrics that Fielding Value actually considers? Olivo made .878 putouts per inning, .066 assists per inning, .01 errors per inning, .01 double plays per inning, allowed .011 passed balls per inning, and had .083 runners attempt to steal on him per inning. Molina's values are .788 PO/Inn, .069 A/Inn, .004 E/Inn, .007 DP/Inn, .011 PB/Inn, and .059 CSopps/Inn. So sure, Molina on a rate basis was throwing more guys out and making fewer errors. But on a per opportunity basis, Olivo was making more outs and having to try to throw more guys out, which he still did at a high rate. Recall that we adjust catchers putouts that are via strikeouts. We assume this is the case for 93% of their putouts, and we give them credit for .33 of the value for these strikeout putouts. The non-strikeout putouts (the other 7%) get the full regular value of a putout. The final values come out that Olivo threw out 15.24 more runners than his positional first quartile, allowed 6.43 fewer runners to steal on him, allowed 6.36 more passed balls, made 5.01 more double plays, recorded 4.59 more errors, had 19.25 more assists, had 92.31 more strikeout putouts, and had 6.95 more non-strikeout putouts. Molina threw out 18.28 more runners, allowed 7.63 less steals, allowed 2.77 more passed balls, made 2.67 more double plays, recorded .31 fewer errors, had 25.73 more assists, had 8.63 more strikeout putouts, .65 more non-strikeout putouts, and .43 more assisted putouts and .05 more unassisted putouts for his time at first base. As an example calculation for Olivo, that would be: 15.24*.39 - 6.43*-.15 + 6.36*-.26 + 5.01*.10 + 4.59*-.68 + 19.25*.8*.33 + 92.31*.33*.33 + 6.95*.33 = 20.07. This is slightly off due to rounding. Nick Hundley had the most putouts above the catcher first quartile in the NL, but Olivo was still near the top while Yadi was near the middle. Yadi did have the most assists, but Olivo was also towards the top. Yadi also had the most caught stealings, but Olivo was 2nd. Olivo was towards the top for double plays, Yadi wasn't. Yadi was on the lower end of errors, while Olivo was on the higher end. In considering all of these with their run value weights, it's Miguel Olivo that comes out on top. Baseball Reference WAR had Molina at an Rfield of 20 in 2010, with Olivo at 11. FanGraphs had Molina with 26 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and 26.4 framing runs. Molina had the highest DRS among NL catchers in 2010. They had Olivo at 10 DRS and -3.4 framing runs. So those metrics tend to prefer Molina as the Gold Glove system did. I'll again highlight that Molina was not graded poorly by Fielding Value; he was the 3rd best defensive catcher in the NL. Shoutout to Jonathan Lucroy of the Milwaukee Brewers, who finished 2nd in the NL with a Fielding Value of 18.24. The advanced metrics liked him more; just 4 Rfield, but 22 DRS and 28.3 framing (highest in NL in 2010). The worst defensive catcher in the NL was Ryan Doumit of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had a Fielding Value of -18.25. The advanced metrics give him an Rfield of -11, -15 DRS (worst in NL), and -20.6 framing (worst in NL). Overall compared to the other advanced defensive metrics, I believe my Fielding Value has tracked well. AL Catcher Actual Winner: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins AL Catcher Player Value Winner: Jose Molina, Toronto Blue Jays So Yadi doesn't get his Gold Glove, but his brother Jose does. Jose Molina led all AL catchers and was 3rd in MLB overall with a Fielding Value of 16.24, just above his brother Yadier. Their brother Bengie also fared pretty well, with a Fielding Value of 9.56. The Molinas could field! Joe Mauer, on the other hand, had a Fielding Value of just -6.30, one of the worst in the AL and MLB overall. Molina's Fielding Value Average was .4199, and Mauer's was just .2427. The first quartile value for catchers is .2600. I'll note that Jose Molina technically wouldn't qualify for the Gold Glove under its minimum playing requirements, as he only played in 56 games. However, the Fielding Value metric does take innings played into consideration; Molina was so defensively great during those 56 games that he was more than able to make up for the 100+ games that he didn't appear in. If we want to be super technical and live and die by the Gold Glove's requirements, then the highest qualifying AL catcher would be Gerald Laird of the Detroit Tigers, who had a Fielding Value of 7.65. Qualifications aside, Bengie Molina would be the 2nd highest AL catcher; he split that season with the Giants and the Rangers, so his 57 games in the AL also wouldn't have been enough. Jose appeared in 56 games at catcher and 1 game as the DH, so he was 98% a catcher. Mauer played in 112 games at catcher and 23 games at DH, so he was 83% a catcher. Note that since DHs don't field, they won't alter the fielding side of our positional first quartiles. Solely defensively speaking, both Jose and Joe were 100% catchers. Jose played about 445 innings, and Mauer played about 952 innings. Both Joe Mauer and Jose Molina had a .996 fielding percentage compared to the positional first quartile of .991. Jose had an RFG of 8.11 and an RF9 of 9.19. Joe's values were 6.52 and 6.90, both below the first quartile values of 6.66 (sorry again, folks) and 7.35. Joe threw out 26.39% of runners, compared to the first quartile mark of 22.77%, but Jose was much better at 44.12%. Given the disparity in innings played, we'll focus on their per inning values. Molina had .938 PO/Inn, .083 A/Inn, .004 E/Inn, .007 DP/Inn, .011 PB/Inn, and .076 CSopps/Inn. Mauer had .731 PO/Inn, .036 A/Inn, .003 E/Inn, .003 DP/Inn, .004 PB/Inn, and also .076 CSopps/Inn. So Mauer is making fewer errors and allowing less passed balls, which certainly are good things, but these don't make up for the superior ability of Molina to make outs overall. Overall compared to the level of a first quartile catcher, Molina gave you 16.67 more assists, .1 less errors, 1.1 more double plays, 3.27 more passed balls, 3.42 fewer stolen bases, 7.26 more caught stealings, 68.59 more strikeout putouts, and 5.16 more non-strikeout putouts. Mauer gave you 6.51 fewer assists, 1.49 less errors, 1.06 less double plays, .3 more passed balls, 5.52 more stolen bases, 2.6 more caught stealings, 35.91 less strikeout putouts, and 2.7 less non-strikeout putouts. Jose Molina had an Rfield of 4, a DRS of 11, and 22.8 framing, the highest in the AL in 2010. Joe Mauer had an Rfield of 3, a DRS of 3, and 5.5 framing. These advanced metrics agree with me that Molina was the better fielder than Mauer. The AL catcher with the highest DRS was Matt Wieters of the Orioles, with 15. My metric didn't like Wieters as much, giving him -1.46 Fielding Value. The worst defensive catcher in the AL was Jorge Posada of the New York Yankees, with a Fielding Value of -7.63. Posada had an Rfield of -14. His DRS of -30 and framing of -23.3 were worst in the AL and MLB overall. First Basemen NL First Base Actual Winner: Albert Pujols, St.Louis Cardinals NL First Base Player Value Winner: Albert Pujols, St.Louis Cardinals Not much to debate here, we got this one right! Albert had a Fielding Value of 39.50, the highest among first basemen in the NL and MLB, and the highest of any player at any position in 2010. This sounds uncharacteristic of Pujols, but he truly was a great fielder this season. He had a Fielding Value Average of .3946, compared the first basemen quartile of .3393. Pujols' closest competitor was Aubrey Huff of the San Francisco Giants, who had a Fielding Value of 19.92, the 3rd highest among MLB first basemen. But since the actual award winner aligns with who Fielding Value prefers, I won't drag this out and compare Pujols to Huff at length. I will note that Huff only played first 56% of the time, spending 26% of his time in left field and 19% of his time in right field. Albert played about 1,381 innings in 157 games all at first base, making him 100% a first basemen. His .998 fielding percentage was above the first quartile of .9923. His RFG of 10.29 and RF9 of 10.53 were above the first quartiles of 8.56 and 9.11. His efforts led to 168.3 more assisted putouts, 18.7 more unassisted putouts, 71.52 more assists, .27 less errors, and 31.51 more double plays than the first quartile first basemen. Pujols had an Rfield of 8, a DRS of 6, and an Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) of 1.8. Those last two values ranked 8th and 16th in MLB. Ike Davis of the New York Mets had the highest DRS in the NL at 13, and the highest UZR in the NL at 10.4. His Fielding Value is 13.49, good for 3rd best in the NL. The worst defensive first baseman in the NL was Gaby Sanchez of the Florida Marlins, with a Fielding Value of -11.12. Sanchez had an Rfield of -10, a DRS of -10, and an UZR of 0.7. His DRS was 6th worst in the NL and MLB. Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers had the worst DRS in the NL and MLB, with -17. He was the 2nd worst in the NL and 3rd worst in MLB with a Fielding Value of -4.64. Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies had the worst UZR in the NL at -12.4, with a mediocre Fielding Value of 2.50. AL First Base Actual Winner: Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees AL First Base Player Value Winner: Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota Twins Cuddyer was 2nd best among MLB first basemen overall and the highest in the AL with a Fielding Value of 21.89. Teixeira was somewhat middle of the pack with a Fielding Value of 7.18, about 8th best in the AL. Cuddyer had a Fielding Value Average of .2287 (compared to his quartile of .2083) and Teixeira had a Fielding Value Average of .3429, compared to the first base quartile of .3393. It can be argued that Cuddyer shouldn't be crowned because he only played 50.3% of his 167 game appearances at first base, or even that his values are somewhat skewed by his fielding diversity, as he played in right field about 40% of the time and at third base another 8% of the time. If that's your stance, then feel free to consider Lyle Overbay of the Toronto Blue Jays as your true 'should have' first base winner. He had a Fielding Value of 16.53 for the 4th most in MLB and was 100% a first basemen. Teixeira was a first baseman 94% of the time and a DH the other 6%, so that won't effect his fielding results any. Cuddyer had a .994 fielding percentage compared to his quartile of .9853. Teixeira had a .998 fielding percentage compared to his quartile of .9923. Cuddyer's RFG is 5.70 vs 5.28 and his RF9 is 6.18 vs 5.65, while Teixeira's RFG is 8.77 vs 8.56 and his RF9 is 9.11 vs 9.11. Cuddyer played 4,160 innings in the field, while Teixeira 3,875. Since both players have pretty different first quartile comparisons, I won't dive into their per inning values. In aggregate compared to their first quartiles, Cuddyer got you 54.47 more putouts while he wasn't a first baseman, 49.62 more assisted putouts as a first baseman, 5.51 more unassisted putouts as a first baseman, 3.68 less assists, 1.76 more errors, and 9.95 more double plays. Teixeira got you 34.14 more assisted putouts, 3.79 more unassisted putouts, .03 more assists, 1 less error, and 29.89 more double plays. Teixeira had an Rfield of 6, a DRS of 6 (4th highest in AL), and an UZR of -1.6. Cuddyer had an Rfield of -20, a DRS of -8, and an UZR of -6.7. So these metrics disagree pretty strongly with Fielding Value on Cuddyer; in fact, his DRS and UZR were worst in the AL among first basemen. Daric Barton of the Oakland Athletics had the highest DRS in the AL at 19, and the highest UZR in the AL at 11.8. Fielding Value liked Barton pretty well, scoring him at 12.13 for the 4th highest in the AL. The worst defensive first baseman in the AL was Mike Napoli of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, with a Fielding Value of -6.96. His Rfield was -6, his DRS was 0, and his UZR was 0.7. Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox had the worst DRS in the AL at -12, and the worst UZR in the AL and MLB at -14. I actually had Konerko faring pretty well with a Fielding Value of 9.72. Second Basemen NL Second Base Actual Winner: Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati Reds NL Second Base Player Value Winner: Clint Barmes, Colorado Rockies As a Reds fan it hurt to see BP not come out on top, but he still did pretty well. Barmes led the NL and was 3rd in MLB with a Fielding Value of 20.67. Phillips was 4th in the NL with a Fielding Value of 15.91. Clint had a Fielding Value Average of .1854 against his quartile of .1616, while BP had a Fielding Value Average of .1819 against the second base quartile of .1700. Clint spent about 65% of his time at second and about 35% of his time at shortstop. BP was 100% a second basemen. Clint played about 995 innings, and BP played 1,311 innings. Clint's fielding percentage comparisons are .982 vs .9751, while BP's are .996 vs .9803. Clint's RFG and RF9 comparison are 4.06 vs 4.13 and 4.99 vs 4.47, whereas Brandon's are 4.61 vs 4.29 and 4.81 vs 4.66. The traditional stats clearly favor Brandon, so it's no shocker that he won. After comparing their per inning values to their quartile's per inning values and then multiplying by their innings played, we see that Barmes would have gotten you 23.76 more putouts, 45.59 more assists, 3.10 more errors, and 28.96 more double plays. Phillips would have gotten you 7.36 more putouts, 38.69 more assists, 3.4 less errors, and 9.56 more double plays. Phillips gets you less errors, but Barmes gets you more outs. Barmes basically only appeared worse on a rate basis because of the time he spent playing shortstop. Barmes had an Rfield of 13, but FanGraphs calculates their metrics differently for guys at each position. As a second baseman, he had a DRS of 3 and an UZR of -.9, which are pretty unimpressive. But as a shortstop, he had a DRS of 8 and an UZR of 4.5. Phillips had an Rfield of 10, a DRS of 11, and an UZR of 8.2. So Fielding Value and Rfield at least agree on these players. Chase Utley had the highest DRS in the NL at 17 and the highest UZR in the NL and MLB at 10.4. Utley's Fielding Value was 18.27, good for 3rd best in the NL. The worst defensive second baseman in the NL was Adam Kennedy of the Washington Nationals, with a Fielding Value of -14.01. His Rfield was 0, his DRS was -1 and his UZR was 2. Skip Schumaker had the worst DRS in the NL at -16 and the UZR in the NL at -14.4. Fielding Value disagrees very strongly, scoring him at 20.36 for the 2nd best in the NL and 3rd best in MLB. Schumaker's fielding percentage is below the first quartile, but his range factors are well above the first quartiles. AL Second Base Actual Winner: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees AL Second Base Player Value Winner: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees Hey, our second case of complete agreement! Cano led the AL and all of MLB second basemen with a Fielding Value of 28.81. This was good for the 5th highest across all positions in both leagues. His Fielding Value Average was .1898, compared to the second base first quartile of .1700. Cano appeared in 158 games at second and in 2 games as a DH, making him about 99% a second baseman and just 1% a DH. He played in about 1,393 innings. He boasted a .996 fielding percentage compared to the first quartile of .9803, with a 4.89 vs 4.29 RFG comparison and a 4.99 vs 4.66 RF9 comparison. In total Cano got you 50.18 more putouts, 27.81 more assists, 3.8 less errors, and 23.19 more double plays. It is no surprise that he won the Gold Glove. Cano had an Rfield of 16, a DRS of 18 (highest in the AL and MLB), and a UZR of -.5. The highest UZR in the AL was Orlando Hudson of the Minnesota Twins at 8.7. Hudson's Fielding Value was 26.63, the 2nd highest in the AL and MLB. The worse defensive second baseman in the AL was Chone Figgins of the Seattle Mariners, with a Fielding Value of -12.85. He had an Rfield of -10, a DRS of -7, and an UZR of -11.1 (worst in the AL). The worst DRS in the AL was Mike Aviles of the Kansas City Royals at -8, who actually had a decent Fielding Value of 10.2 Third Basemen NL Third Base Actual Winner: Scott Rolen, Cincinnati Reds NL Third Base Player Value Winner: Placido Polanco, Philladelphi Phillies Alas it appears that I've done another Reds player dirty. Polanco led the NL and MLB with a Fielding Value of 22.02. Rolen still fared well and finished 2nd in the NL with a Fielding Value of 16.67. Polanco's Fielding Value Average was .1139 vs a first quartile of .0916 and Rolen's was .1026 vs .0839. Rolen was 100% a third baseman, while Polanco played third about 91% of the time and second the other 9% of the time. Polanco played 1,157 innings and Rolen played 1,074 innings. Polanco had a fielding percentage of .988 compared to his first quartile of .9545, a RFG of 2.95 vs 2.50, and an RF9 of 3.1 vs 2.68. Rolen had comparisons of .977 vs .952 for fielding percentage, 2.63 vs 2.33 for RFG, and 2.87 vs 2.48 for RF9. Compared to their first quartiles, Polanco would have gotten you 12.52 more putouts, 50.27 more assists, 4.98 less errors, and 12.28 more double plays. Rolen would have gotten you 12.72 more putouts, 40.13 more assists, 1.65 less errors, and 7.61 more double plays. Polanco had an Rfield of 11, a DRS of 7, and an UZR of 11.4 (third highest in NL). Rolen had an Rfield of 10, a DRS of 10, and an UZR of 10 (fourth highest in NL). Chase Headley had the highest DRS in the NL at 16, and the highest UZR in the NL at 16.5. Fielding Value doesn't think much of him, rating him at -2.53. The worst defensive third baseman in the NL was Jorge Cantu of the Florida Marlins (primarily, for 97 games) and the Texas Rangers (for 30 games), with a Fielding Value of -29.49. Cantu also was actually the worst fielder across all positions and both leagues in 2010. He had an Rfield of -13 with the Marlins and -2 with the Rangers. He had a DRS of -13 and an UZR of -9.2, both third worst in the NL. Aramis Ramirez of the Chicago Cubs had the worst DRS in the NL at -15, and had the third worst Fielding Value in the NL at -12.76. David Wright of the New York Mets had the worst UZR in the NL at -11, but was favorably seen by Fielding Value with a rating of 13.11, the third best in the NL. If we want to be strict and only focus on players that played entirely in the NL in 2010, then Chris Johnson of the Houston Astros was the worst with a Fielding Value of -17.67. AL Third Base Actual Winner: Evan Longoria, Tamba Bay Rays AL Third Base Player Value Winner: Jose Lopez, Seattle Mariners Lopez led the AL and was 2nd in MLB with a Fielding Value of 21.81. Longoria was still viewed favorably, finishing 5th in the AL with a Fielding Value of 15.13. Lopez had a Fielding Value Average of .1056 and Longoria had a Fielding Value Average of .0962. Both guys were 100% third basemen, where the first quartile Fielding Value Average was .0839. Lopez played about 1,253 innings and Longoria played about 1,331 innings. Lopez's fielding percentage was .960 and Longoria's was .966, both compared to the third base first quartile of .952. Lopez's RFG and RF9 were 3.02 and 3.08 while Longoria's were 2.67 and 2.73, with the first quartile values being 2.33 and 2.48. Lopez would have gotten you 25.03 more putouts, 66.72 more assists, 6.75 more errors, and 5.22 more double plays. Longoria would have gotten you 39.92 more putouts, 4.83 more assists, 2.05 more erros, and 20.74 more double plays. Lopez had an Rfield of 10, a DRS of 11 (4th best in AL) and an UZR of 8.7 (also 4th best in AL). Longoria had an Rfield of 20, a DRS of 17 (2nd best in the AL and MLB), and an UZR of 12.1 (2nd best in the AL and 4th best in MLB). The highest DRS in the AL was Adrian Beltre of the Boston Red Sox with 20, who had a Fielding Value of 15.38 (4th best in AL). The highest UZR in the AL was Kevin Kouzmanoff of the Oakland Athletics with 15.3, who had a Fielding Value of 10.16. The worst defensive third baseman in the AL was Wilson Betemit of the Kansas City Royals, with a Fielding Value of -11.95. I'll note again that Jorge Cantu was worse and spent part of the season in the AL with the Rangers, but most of the year he was in the NL with the Marlins. Betemit had an Rfield of -15, a DRS of -13 (worst in the AL, 5th worst in MLB), and an UZR of -10.1 (worst in the AL, 2nd worst in MLB). Shortstops NL Shortstop Actual Winner: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies NL Shortstop Player Value Winner: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies Another point of total agreement! Tulo led the NL and all of MLB at SS with a Fielding Value of 35.48. This was good for the 2nd most across all positions and both leagues, behind only Pujols. His Fielding Value Average was .1889 compared to the positional first quartile of .1475. Tulowitzki played in 1,065 innings and was 100% a shortstop in his 122 games. He had a .984 fielding percentage vs the shortstop first quartile of .9658, a RFG of 4.91 vs 3.86, and an RF9 of 5.06 vs 4.16. Tulo would have given you 42.83 more putouts, 62.70 more assists, 1.43 less errors, and 38.23 more double plays. Tulowitzki had an Rfield of 19, a DRS of 16 (2nd/3rd highest in NL), and an UZR of 6.6 (4th highest in NL). The highest DRS in MLB was Alex Gonzalez, who split time that season between the Toronto Blue Jays (AL, 85 games) and the Atlanta Braves (NL, 72 games). Gonzalez had a DRS of 26, and Fielding Value rates him at 11.31. The highest DRS by a solely NL player was Brendan Ryan of the St. Louis Cardinals at 24, who had a Fielding Value of 28.89 (2nd highest in the NL, 3rd highest in MLB). Ryan also had the highest UZR in the NL and MLB at 13.3. The worst defensive shortstop in the NL was Edgar Renteria of the San Francisco Giants, with a Fielding Value of -7.02. This was 5th worst in MLB at short overall. His Rfield was -2, his DRS was -2, and his UZR was 1.8. Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins had the worst DRS in the NL at -17 and the worst UZR in the NL at -9.5. His Fielding Value was -6.86, 2nd worst in the NL. AL Shortstop Actual Winner: Derek Jeter, New York Yankees AL Shortstop Player Value Winner: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox Ah, the classic 'Jeter was an overrated fielder' discussion' Maybe at least one of his 5 career Gold Gloves will be deserving, but that's not the case for this year. Ramirez led the AL and was 2nd in MLB at SS with a Fielding Value of 30.13. Jeter had a Fielding Value of -9.73, 3rd worst in the AL and MLB! Both these guys were 100% shortstops, where the first quartile Fielding Value Average was .1475. Ramirez had a Fielding Value Average of .1773, and Jeter's was .1425. Ramirez had the 3rd highest Fielding Value across all positions and leagues, behind Pujols and Tulowitzki. Jeter played about 1,304 innings and Ramirez played about 1,377. The shortstop first quartile fielding percentage was .9658, Jeter's was .989, and Ramirez's was .974. But in terms of RFG and RF9, the first quartile values were 3.86 and 4.16, Ramirez had values of 4.79 and 4.89, and Jeter had values of 3.62 and 3.78. Ramirez would have gotten you 31.61 more putouts, 78.51 more assists, 5.22 more errors, and 25.28 more double plays. Jeter would have gotten you 23.86 less putouts, 33.2 less assists, 7.99 less errors, and 14.72 more double plays. Jeter was great at making the routine plays (avoiding errors) but not so much at making plays (having good range). Ramirez had an Rfield of 20, a DRS of 20 (highest in the AL, 3rd most in MLB), and an UZR of 10.5 (highest in AL, 2nd most in MLB). Jeter had an Rfield of -9, a DRS of -5, and an UZR of -4.4. The aforementioned Alex Gonzalez would have been the closest in terms of DRS and UZR. Cliff Pennington of the Oakland Athletics had the next highest Fielding Value in the AL at 24.28. The worst defensive shortstop in the AL was Marco Scutaro of the Boston Red Sox, with a Fielding Value of -21.54. His Rfield was 0, his DRS was -2, and his UZR was -4. Yuniesky Betancourt had the worst DRS and UZR in the AL and in MLB at -23 and -11.5, respectively. Fielding Value disagrees very strongly, rating him at 15.84, the 3rd or 4th most in the AL depending on how you view Gonzalez. Just looking at his baseline stats of fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9, and comparing them to the first quartile, Betancourt is well above the quartile in each, so I'm inclined to believe Fielding Value has him right. Outfielders NL Outfield Actual Winner #1: Michael Bourn, Houston Astros NL Outfield Actual Winner #2: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies NL Outfield Actual Winner #3: Shane Victorino, Philadelphia Phillies NL Outfield Player Value Winner #1: Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds (Best RF) NL Outfield Player Value Winner #2: Angel Pagan, New York Mets (Best CF) NL Outfield Player Value Winner #3: Andres Torres, San Francisco Giants NL Leftfield Player Value Winner: Gerardo Parra, Arizona Diamondbacks The outfield Gold Gloves are a little weird in that they aren't position specific. They don't go to the best defensive LF/CF/RF, but rather to the 3 best outfielders overall, which normally results in all centerfielders. I find this to be unfair to the quality corner outfielders. Each position has its own offensive and defensive expectations; a right fielder that can exceed those expectations by a greater amount than a center fielder should be rewarded. Sure, the center fielder is probably the better defender, but he's also more easily replaced by any other center fielder; the right fielder would have unique fielding talent. Thus, I don't compare all outfielders to some overall outfielder first quartile, because then we'd just get a bunch of centerfielders being the best fielders and a bunch of corner outfielders being the best hitters. Rather, I compare each outfield position to its own positional first quartile, and then aggregate the comparisons across all outfield positions. So I don't reward the 3 Gold Gloves to the best LF, best CF, and best RF. That's because the 2nd best CF may still have a greater difference above the first quartile than say the best LF, for example. That all said, Jay Bruce led all right fielders and outfielders in the NL and MLB with a Fielding Value of 27.58. Hey, I've given the Reds a Gold Glove after taking 2 away! Angel Pagan led all center fielders in the NL with a Fielding Value of 18.48. Andres Torres was 2nd among NL center fielders with a Fielding Value of 16.33. Gerardo Parra was the best defensive left fielder in the NL with a Fielding Value of 16.03, but he doesn't get a Gold Glove. Michael Bourn had a Fielding Value of 10.89, Carlos Gonzalez had a Fielding Value of -4.42, and Shane Victorino had a Fielding Value of 6. So the NL was 0 for 3 on getting the Gold Gloves right, according to Fielding Value. 'Cargo' was a pretty diverse outfielder, spending about 39% of his time in LF, 36% in CF, and 25% in RF. Victorino and Bourn were 100% center fielders, and Bruce was 100% a right fielder. Pagan was diverse too, with a 18%/61%/21% split between LF/CF/RF, and so too was Torres, with a 23%/51%/26% split. Gerardo Parra had a 64%/6%/30% split. Now let's fire out some fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9 comparisons to first quartiles, for each player, in that order: Bruce .992 vs .9835, 2.40 vs 1.85, and 2.63 vs 2.02 Pagan .987 vs .9848, 2.45 vs 2.13, and 2.71 vs 2.29 Torres .997 vs .9845, 1.96 vs 2.06, and 2.58 vs 2.23 Bourn .992 vs .986, 2.66 vs 2.38, and 2.78 vs 2.54 Victorino .995 vs .986, 2.59 vs 2.38, and 2.38 vs 2.65 Gonzalez .996 vs .9838, 1.66 vs 1.94, and 1.96 vs 2.11 And now let's fire out some putouts, assists, errors, and double plays above/below the first quartiles, for each player, in that order: Bruce +83.95 PO, +1.82 A, +0.89 E, +0 DP Pagan +56.65 PO, +6.37 A, +3.04 E, +1.78 DP Torres +44.56 PO, +3.58 A, -0.74 E, +1.76 DP Bourn +30.44 PO, +5.35 A, +1.12 E, +2 DP Victorino +10.44 PO, +8.18 A, +0 E, +4 DP Gonzalez -18.56 PO, +4.05 A, -0.83 E, +0.75 DP And lastly, let's fire out some Rfield, DRS, and UZR values for each player, in that order: Bruce 17 Rfield, 16 DRS, 19.6 UZR Pagan 21 Rfield, 19 DRS, 16.1 UZR Torres 17 Rfield, 14 DRS, 21.7 UZR (highest in the NL) Bourn 30 Rfield, 28 DRS (highest in the NL), 19.8 UZR Victorino 1 Rfield, 1 DRS, 1.3 UZR Gonzalez 2 Rfield, 1 DRS, -1.5 UZR The worst defensive outfielders in the NL were Carlos Lee of the Houston Astros with a Fielding Value of -19, Colby Rasmus of the St. Louis Cardinals with a Fielding Value of -17.57, and Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a Fielding Value of -15.56. Here are their Rfield, DRS, and UZR values: Lee -17 Rfield, -16 DRS, -17.7 UZR (2nd worst in the NL) Rasmus -6 Rfield, -5 DRS, -6 UZR Kemp -37 Rfield, -33 DRS (worst in the NL and MLB), -25.8 UZR (worst in the NL and MLB) AL Outfield Actual Winner #1: Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners AL Outfield Actual Winner #2: Franklin Gutierrez, Seattle Mariners AL Outfield Actual Winner #3: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays AL Outfield Player Value Winner #1: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays (Best LF) AL Outfield Player Value Winner #2: Franklin Gutierrez, Seattle Mariners (Best CF) AL Outfield Player Value Winner #3: Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles AL Rightfield Player Value Winner: Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers The AL fared better, getting 2 out of the 3 Gold Gloves correct according to Fielding Value. Crawford led all left fielders in the AL and MLB and led all outfielders in the AL with a Fielding Value of 23.28. Gutierrez led all center fielders in the AL and MLB with a Fielding Value of 20.99. Adam Jones was 2nd among AL center fielders with a Fielding Value of 20.54. Nelson Cruz doesn't get a Gold Glove, but he did lead the AL among right fielders with a Fielding Value 17.75. Ichiro gets his 10th and last career Gold Glove stripped, falling behind Cruz to finish 2nd in the AL among right fielders with a Fielding Value of 15.37. Crawford was a 98% LF and 2% DH. Gutierrez was a 97% CF and 3% DH. Jones was 100% a CF. Cruz was a 13% LF, 85% RF, and 3% DH. Ichiro was a 99% RF and a 1% DH. Here are their fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9 comparisons: Crawford .994 vs .9823, 2.13 vs 1.61, 2.24 vs 1.76 Gutierrez 1.000 vs .986, 2.84 vs 2.38, 2.92 vs 2.54 Jones .984 vs .986, 2.91 vs 2.38, 3.01 vs 2.54 Ichiro .989 vs .9835, 2.26 vs 1.85, 2.30 vs 2.02 Cruz .981 vs .9832, 2.34 vs 1.81, 2.56 vs 1.99 I went ahead and included Cruz since having a now-prominent DH rating higher than the legendary Ichiro is interesting, and since the AL got 2 players right already we have less other players to compare to. Here are their above/below first quartile putouts, assists, errors, and double plays comparisons: Crawford +69.33 PO, +2.66 A, +0.44 E, +0 DP Gutierrez +60.13 PO, -0.85 A, -2.02 E, +0 DP Jones +63.32 PO, +9.11 A, +4.95 E, +6 DP Ichiro +49.02 PO, +0.90 A, +1.51 E, -0.18 DP Cruz +61.46 PO, -0.73 A, +3.50 E, +0.36 DP Here are their values for Rfield, DRS, and UZR: Crawford 8 Rfield, 8 DRS, 17.9 UZR Gutierrez 0 Rfield, -2 DRS, 5.9 UZR Jones -8 Rfield, -6 DRS, -3.8 UZR Ichiro -1 Rfield, -1 DRS, 14.1 UZR Crus 3 Rfield, 1 DRS, 10.1 UZR Not much agreement with Fielding Value here, it seems. Brett Gardner had the highest DRS in the AL and MLB at 33, and the highest UZR in the AL and MLB at 24.8. Fielding Value rates him at 13.13. The worst defensive outfielders in the AL were Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox with a Fielding Value of -7.85, Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians with a Fielding Value of -4.01, and Michael Brantley of the Cleveland Indians with a Fielding Value of -3.22. I'll note that Willie Bloomquist rated at -5.14 and played 72 games in the AL that season with the Royals, and 11 games in the NL with the Reds. There were a good number of inferior NL outfielders that weren't mentioned previously that fared worse than these worst AL outfielders. Here are our 3 worst AL outfielders Rfield, DRS, and UZR values: Quentin -24 Rfield, -23 DRS (worst in the AL), -25.2 UZR (worst in the AL) Sizemore -3 Rfield, -3 DRS, -1 UZR Brantley -15 Rfield, -13 DRS, -9 UZR Pitchers NL Pitcher Actual Winner: Bronson Arroyo, Cincinnati Reds NL Pitcher Player Value Winner: R.A. Dickey, New York Mets Golly, I've done it again! Yet another Red stripped of a Gold Glove. Dickey led all pitchers in the NL and MLB with a Fielding Value of 10.89. Arroyo still fared pretty well with a Fielding Value of 5.83. If we wanted to reward the best defensive NL reliever, that would go to Evan Meek of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a Fielding Value of 7.89. Dickey was a 96% SP and 4% RP, while Arroyo was 100% a SP. Dickey was in the field for about 174 innings, and Arroyo was in the field for about 216 innings. Dickey had a Fielding Value Average of .1174 compared to a first quartile of .0499, while Arroyo's was .0773 vs .0503. Here are their fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9 first quartile comparisons: Dickey 1.000 vs .9384, 2.26 vs 1.01, 3.15 vs 1.53 Arroyo 1.000 vs .9388, 1.48 vs 1.05, 2.04 vs 1.54 Here are their putouts, assists, errors, and double plays above/below their first quartiles: Dickey +10.06 PO, +24.49 A, -0.73 E, +3.16 DP Arroyo +9.31 PO, +6.58 A, -0.93 E, +3.92 DP Pitcher's don't have UZR incorporated into their FanGraphs WAR, and their Baseball Reference Rfields are always set to 0. Both Dickey and Arroyo had DRS values of 8. Evan Meek had a DRS of 2. Jake Westbrook had a DRS of 12 and played 12 games with the Cardinals, but spent most of the season (21 games) with the Indians in the AL. Jon Garland of the San Diego Padres led the NL with a DRS of 9. Westbrook's Fielding Value while in the NL was 6.95, and Garland's was 8 (4th highest). The worst defensive pitcher in the NL was Travis Wood of the Cincinnati Reds with a Fielding Value of -3.35. He had a DRS of 1. The worst defensive reliever in the NL was Ryota Igarashi of the New York Mets with a Fielding Value of -1.4, who also had a DRS of 1. Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants had the worst DRS in the NL at -6, and had a Fielding Value of -2.85 (3rd worst in NL). AL Pitcher Actual Winner: Mark Buehrle, Chicago White Sox AL Pitcher Player Value Winner: Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez, Cleveland Indians The Pitcher Formerly Known As Fausto Carmona, and since revealed to be named Roberto Hernandez, led the AL with a Fielding Value of 9.60. Buehrle fared pretty well too with a Fielding Value of 6.66 (thrice in one post, yeesh). Both these guys were 100% starters. They also both pitched about 210 innings. Hernandez had a Fielding Value Average of .0921, and Buehrle's was .0803. The first quartile for AL starters was .0434. The best defensive AL reliever was Jamey Wright of the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners, who had a Fielding Value of 4.34. Here are the fielding percentage, RFG, and RF9 comparisons: Buehrle 1.0000 vs .9383, 1.52 vs 0.87, 2.14 vs 1.29 Hernandez .9680 vs .9383, 1.85 vs 0.87, 2.61 vs 1.29 Here are the putouts, assists, errors, and double plays above/below comparisons: Buehrle -4.38 PO, 29.02 A, -0.22 E, 2.99 DP Hernandez 13.62 PO, 22.02 A, 1.78 E, 4.99 DP Buehrle led the AL and MLB with a DRS of 12, tied with the aforementioned Jake Westbrook. Westbrook's Fielding Value while in the AL was only 2.26, however. Hernandez had a DRS of 2. Jamey Wright had a DRS of 0. The worst defensive pitcher in the AL was Colby Lewis of the Texas Rangers, with a Fielding Value of -4.47. He had a DRS of -5. Jeremy Bonderman of the Detroit Tigers had the worst DRS in the AL and MLB at -8, but his Fielding Value wasn't nearly as bad at -0.87. GOLD GLOVE SUMMARY Now that we've gone through each position and each league, here's a quick summary of the players that should have won the Gold Glove at each position, based on Fielding Value: AL C - Jose Molina, Blue Jays 1B - Michael Cuddyer, Twins 2B - Robinson Cano (actual winner), Yankees 3B - Jose Lopez, Mariners SS - Alexei Ramirez, White Sox OF - Franklin Gutierrez (actual winner), Mariners OF - Carl Crawford (actual winner), Rays OF - Adam Jones, Orioles P - Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez, Indians NL C - Miguel Olivo, Rockies 1B - Albert Pujols (actual winner), Cardinals 2B - Clint Barmes, Rockies 3B - Placido Polanco, Phillies SS - Troy Tulowitzki (actual winner), Rockies OF - Jay Bruce, Reds OF - Angel Pagan, Mets OF - Andres Torres, Giants P - R.A. Dickey, Mets The AL got 3 of their 9 right, and the NL got 2 of their 9 right. The Mariners led the AL with 2 winners and the Rockies led the NL with 3 winners. PLATINUM GLOVES The Platinum Glove is supposed to be awarded to the best defensive player in each league. You can view past winners here. Only players that also won a Gold Glove are eligible, and the winner is determined via a fan vote. Since the award began in 2011, we don't have an actual player to compare to for the 2010 season. NL Player Value Winner: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals, First Base AL Player Value Winner: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox, Shortstop As previously mentioned, Pujols led all positions in the MLB with a Fielding Value of 39.50. Alexei Ramirez led all positions in the AL with a Fielding Value of 30.13. Michael Bourn had the highest DRS in the NL among all positions at 28 and the highest UZR in the NL among all positions at 19.8, and as previously mentioned had a Fielding Value of 10.89. Brett Gardner had the highest DRS in the AL among all positions at 25 and the highest UZR in the AL among all positions at 25.8, and as previously mentioned had a Fielding Value of 13.13. I find my metric to be more positionally diverse, as a first baseman and a shortstop won. The advanced metrics seem to be more biased (at least on the sample size of the 2010 season), with the top 2 players both being outfielders. FIELDING VALUE BY POSITION Maybe you've seen the results and think that the metric is flawed since Albert Pujols rated the highest. Surely a first baseman can't be the best defender in the MLB! Well, think again. As explained at the beginning, it's how you compare to everyone else at your position that makes you valuable. To be valuable is to be uniquely good, not good in comparisons that don't matter. If a player has grown up playing baseball and has been groomed into being a shortstop it does not matter AT ALL if he is a better defender than his team's first baseman. It does not matter AT ALL that shortstop is generally a more difficult position to defend. All that matters is that the player is a shortstop and that therefore there are expectations of his defensive ability. There is a pool of available MLB shortstops across the league, and all we care about is how our shortstop is doing compared to everyone else. If I have the worst defensive shortstop in the league and he can't make up for it with his bat, he's got to go. If I have the best defensive first baseman in the league and he can adequately hit, I'll keep him around. The shortstop to first base comparison is of no consequence to my decision; if I swapped the players, my first baseman would probably be the greatest hitting shortstop the world has known and the worst defensive shortstop in history, while my shortstop would be a very poor hitting first baseman and likely not a great defensive one either given the uniqueness of the position. I hope I got my point across and I really can't emphasize this enough; relative to position is all that matters. Let's check out some boxplots of Fielding Value, by position: If anything, center fielders and shortstops have more spread and thus more potential to set themselves apart. But for the most part, players at each position have a similar opportunity to be among the best defenders or among the worst defenders at their position. Let's view some summary statistics of Fielding Value, by position: Note that these values are among all players, not just starters. Guys that don't play much or that are truly about first quartile quality are going to be closer to 0. Guys that play often and are among the bottom 25% are going to have larger negative values. Guys that play often and are not among the bottom 25% are likely to have positive values. So there isn't a universal bad/decent/good scale that we can use for Fielding Value, but players with Fielding Values less than their position's FirstQuart value above are poor defenders, players with Fielding Values around their position's Median value above are average/typical defenders, and players with Fielding Values greater than their position's ThirdQuart value above are good defenders. If your Fielding Value is close to your position's Max value above, you're in elite, Gold Glove territory. If your Fielding Value is close to your position's Min value above... hopefully you can hit or are considering a position or career change. FIELDING VALUE BY TEAM How did Fielding Value do in explaining which teams were the best defensively in 2010? Let's take a look at boxplots of Fielding Value by team: Looks like the Tiger were pretty good at fielding, despite having no Gold Glove winners. The Mariners look pretty good, as do the Reds, the Orioles, and the Twins. Some teams have a few outstanding players but maybe not as good as medians, while other teams have higher medians but no superstars. Let's take a look at the summary statistics of Fielding Value by team in 2010: A lot to take in, but we get some useful pieces of info, and some not. The Reds have a high average and total, and were good in 2010, going 91-71 and winning their division. The Twins have a high average and total, and were also good in 2010, going 94-68 and winning their division. But the Tigers have a high average and total and finished .500 and 3rd in their division. The Rangers and Giants don't look too impressive, but they both went to the World Series. The Nationals and Pirates have low totals and both finished last in their divisions. The Mariners have a low average and finished last in their division. So we can make some conclusions, but nothing too definitive. Of course, fielding is only one piece of the equation. Maybe once we add in batting, pitching, and baserunning, we'll get a clearer picture. I'll also note that the totals above are only for players that played their entire seasons with 1 team. Guys that switched teams got thrown out. Here's a plot of runs allowed by team in 2010: Of course, some of runs allowed are due to pitching, not fielding, but we get a little context here as well. Reds had a high total Fielding Value and are on the lower end of runs allowed. Pirates had a low total Fielding Value and are on the higher end of runs allowed. But Braves and Padres had low total Fielding Values and also low runs allowed, meaning they likely had stellar pitching.
Thank you for reading and I hope you've found this first application of Fielding Value interesting. I plan to do a similar thing (but in much less detail) for the other years. First, however, I will continue the application of Player Value on the 2010 season. Next up will be using Batting Value to determine the 2010 Silver Sluggers, and then I'll use Total Player Value to determine our MVPs, RoYs, and 1st team/2nd team honors, as well as Pitching Value to determine our Cy Youngs and Relievers of the Year. As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Now I normally like to share my Excel files and R code, but if I did that then you'd get a sneak peak into our leaders in other areas. For now you'll have to wait, but I'll share everything once I've completed the run through of the 2010 season. Statting Lineup Newsletter Signup Form: If you'd like to receive email updates for each new post that I make, sign up for the Statting Lineup newsletter using the link below: https://weebly.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ab653f474b2ced9091eb248b1&id=3a60f3b85f My brother recently Tweeted that it would be a “crime” if Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom didn’t win the National League Cy Young award. But is that the case? We’ll take a look. In my opinion, the three main candidates for the NL Cy Young this year are deGrom, Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals, and Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies. Honorable mentions go to Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Miles Mikolas of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Patrick Corbin of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Take a look at the chart below to see how each of these 6 players compare in baseball’s main pitching metrics: To start with determining my Cy Young winner, I will rank each pitcher by adding up his total ranking for each statistic compared to the other 5 pitchers. To give credit for finishing in the top 10 of a category, the number of top 10s is subtracted from the ranking totals. That way players that finish 6th among the top 6 pitchers and 6th in the league overall finish better than players who finish 6th among the top 6 pitchers but 30th in the league overall. See the table below for the carrying out of this process: This way finds that Scherzer, not deGrom, should be this year’s NL Cy Young winner. However, it only uses 6 pitching statistics and assumes that they are all valued equally. Taking more stats into consideration, we find that Scherzer also comes first in Walks & Hits per IP, Strikeouts per 9 IP, Situational Wins, Shutouts (tied), and Strikeouts / Base on Balls. On the flip side, deGrom also leads the NL in ERA+, Adjusted Pitching Wins, Base-Out Runs Saved, Base-Out Wins Saved, Adjusted Pitching Runs, Fielding Independent Pitching, and Win Probability Added (WPA). You, and me as well, don’t know what most of these stats even measure or mean, but the main idea is that deGrom leads the NL in many complex metrics that I didn’t take into consideration. In the most traditional sense, Scherzer is the leader of wins and strikeouts, while deGrom is the leader of ERA. However, deGrom leads the league in ERA by far. His 1.70 is the lowest ERA in the NL since Zack Greinke’s 1.66 in 2015. Though Greinke didn’t win the Cy Young that year, it is important to note that the winner that year – Jake Arrieta – was very close behind at 1.77. The next time 1.70 or better was done was Greg Maddux’s 1.63 in 1995. He did win the Cy Young that year, largely because the next lowest ERA was 2.54 by Hideo Nomo. To sum it all up, if your ERA is absurdly lower than the rest of the competition (we’ll define “absurdly” as around .50 or more), then you deserve, and often times do end up receiving, the Cy Young award. Let’s look at how this phenomenon has worked over time: As the table above shows, of the 21 times that a league’s ERA leader was at least .47 lower than the rest of the pitchers, that pitcher won the Cy Young 14 times. However, since the Cy Young wasn’t given to both leagues until 1967, we can ignore the instance in 1962 since an NL pitcher won the award. We can assume Whitey Ford would have won the AL Cy Young award that year had there been such a thing. Therefore, 14 out of 20 times, or 70% of the time, a pitcher with an ERA .47 or lower than the rest of the league wins the Cy Young. In years where this is not true, the winning pitcher generally had significantly more wins and strikeouts than his low ERA adversary. The 1990 and 2003 awards are exceptions to this – I believe the voters got the award wrong for those years. Since deGrom’s ERA of 1.70 is .67 than the rest of the league, we can say that there’s roughly a 70% chance he takes home the Cy Young this year. Since his difference is higher than most and his ERA is lower than most as well, we can expect this percentage to be higher as well. Scherzer’s 300 strikeouts on the season are certainly impressive – but just last year Chris Sale also reached that mark and came up short to the ERA leader Corey Kluber. To put it all to rest, I’ll state it here: Jacob deGrom deserves and should be this year’s NL Cy Young winner. However, a victory for Scherzer is not totally out of the question as the win – strikeout combo has been favored before despite the fact that a pitcher has had such a lower ERA than everyone else. Thank you for reading as always, Aaron Springer Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_annual_ERA_leaders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Young_Award#National_League_(1967%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_annual_strikeout_leaders https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/degroja01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/scherma01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/nolaaa01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2018-pitching-leaders.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kershcl01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/corbipa01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mikolmi01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clemero02.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/brownke01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ryanno01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martipe02.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aguirha01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fordwh01.shtml
|
Statting Lineup Newsletter Signup Form:
|