Posted by MikeT23 on 10/3/2012 1:56:00 PM (view original):
tec, I'm glad you brought up Joe Morgan. Look at his '75 and '76 stats. Which looks "more valuable" to you? Which season has the higher WAR?
I'm not denying that WAR has value. But it's not the be all to end all.
Offensively, very similar. More hits and walks in '75 to give him a higher OBP than in '76, but 10 more home runs in '76 that drives his OPS up significantly. Offensively, 1976 gets a slight edge.
Defensively, he was weaker in the field in '76 with more errors in fewer touches of the ball, as evidenced by a noticably lower range factor. Hence the difference in dWAR of 2.0 in 1975 and 0.3 in 1976.
Arguably, he was a more complete player in 1975.