What do you think of WAR? Topic

How much do you value the uberstat WAR?






Votes: 49
(Last vote received: 4/3/2013 3:49 PM)
1/15/2013 12:34 PM
Since WAR seems to find its way into any discussion on evaluating baseball players, I thought I'd see what our members thought. Here is the primer for Baseball-Reference's WAR, which I encourage people to read before judging WAR.
1/15/2013 12:38 PM
Fangraphs has its version of WAR. Note that each link has links within that send you to a detailed explanation of calculating WAR, so be sure to use those. No one should blindly support or reject any stat.
1/15/2013 12:41 PM
I would like people to hit me with their favorite stat, maybe a top five even, in evaluating pitchers or position players.
1/15/2013 12:48 PM
I like to use a combination of the triple slash BA/OBP/SLG, OPS+, and WAR. Fangraphs' fielding runs above average can be useful if we're talking about a post 2002 career. The pre-2002 total zone stuff is less reliable.


1/15/2013 12:55 PM
TO QUOTE DEAN WORMER, "ZERO POINT ZERO"
1/15/2013 1:11 PM
You missed the obvious answer "What is it good for"
1/15/2013 1:25 PM
Offensive WAR is a pretty well-refined stat at this point, if I had to pick a hitter for my RL team without knowing anything about him except age and a career history in 1 stat, it would be WAR.  By a mile.  Pitching and fielding WAR are much less meaningful, fielding WAR is downright worthless, frankly.
1/15/2013 2:14 PM
I'm with dahs, which currently makes WAR overall not so useful. I'm just not buying the defensive WAR yet.

And because WAR is harder to find and harder to calculate, I'm still sticking with OPS+ for offensive evaluation, and taking a quick look at HR and SB to see if either are off the charts.

I like the idea, though, so I went for "take it or leave it".

1/15/2013 2:24 PM
It's somewhat useful if you only have access to one stat.   Which you never do. 

I'd say "A high WAR might make you look deeper into the other stats to see what you're missing" except no one with a high WAR has a "sneaky" old school stat that doesn't jump right out at you.

I also voted "take/leave it" because I think anyone ignoring a stat, even the archaic RBI or Win, is being foolhardy.   Or stupid.   Whichever.
1/15/2013 2:31 PM
This post has a rating of , which is below the default threshold.
Stop it.
1/15/2013 3:01 PM
Offensive WAR is a stat I like a lot.  I'm still up in the air on the DWAR though.  I feel that there are too many moments where I'll see someone play an extended period of time, look at his DWAR and go "really?"
1/15/2013 3:04 PM
Posted by bad_luck on 1/15/2013 2:43:00 PM (view original):
Posted by MikeT23 on 1/15/2013 2:31:00 PM (view original):
It's somewhat useful if you only have access to one stat.   Which you never do. 

I'd say "A high WAR might make you look deeper into the other stats to see what you're missing" except no one with a high WAR has a "sneaky" old school stat that doesn't jump right out at you.

I also voted "take/leave it" because I think anyone ignoring a stat, even the archaic RBI or Win, is being foolhardy.   Or stupid.   Whichever.
So you don't think there are useless stats?
Why would anyone bother to keep a "useless" stat?  
1/15/2013 3:09 PM
I love me some WAR.  I prefer to look at multiple stats to see where/how each players value is derived instead of just having one number, though.  Count me in the group that thinks pitcher wins and RBI are next to useless.
1/15/2013 9:42 PM
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