Posted by masterdebate on 10/1/2012 4:11:00 PM (view original):
why does WAR rate Mike Trout's season as the 24th greatest season by a hitter of all time on www.baseball-reference.com ?
1. Trout has been an excellent hitter. He leads the AL in OPS+.
2. Batting runs in WAR does not include intentional walks. Trout has only four this year. All factors in, he has 51 batting runs.
3. He rates as an outstanding baserunner and fielder. The first should be no surprise. And while one can debate endlessly how well he has played defense, there is no doubt he is superb with the glove. Trout has produced 10 baserunning runs, and and 22 fielding runs according to WAR. He also has one run on avoiding grounding into double plays.
4. He plays a position that docks him only a single run in the position adjustment. A first baseman or left fielder would get hit much harder.
5. He plays in the AL, which has historically high values for replacement runs added, given the league quality factor. Trout gets 21 runs here.
51+10+1+22-1+21=104 runs. The runs to wins conversion, usually about 10 runs to a win, gives him 10.5 WAR. The numbers add up. If you disagree with them, that's fine.
(Made an edit here after seeing I misread the numbers.)
10/2/2012 12:57 AM (edited)