This is a real-life conversation between myself (David) and Scott the Statissassin. I was looking at WAR for first baseman back in August when I noticed a rather interesting anomaly. You'll get the gist pretty quickly.
(This question was specifically about defensive WAR.)
And here we are. For the record, here are the final stat lines for Freeman and Muncy:
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG SLG OBP
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG SLG OBP
As Scott pointed out, the reason for the anomaly is that Muncy's 141 games including 65 appearances at first base, 70 at second base, and 35 at third. Taking Muncy as strictly a second baseman (where he played the most games), he tied for seventh in the NL in WAR (just ahead of Ronald Acuna and Pete Alonso), and behind only Ketel Marte at second; he went on to finish No. 15 in MVP voting. Meanwhile, Freddie Freeman finished No. 18 in WAR, second among first basemen (behind Alonso) and eighth in MVP voting. Clearly, the WARs do not matched the perceived value among MVP voters; Freddie Freeman is indeed viewed as the better player.
But this is a huge part of the value Muncy provides -- a power bat (35 HR, 98 RBI, .515 SLG) at positions where such numbers are exceptional. There have been just 13 seasons of 30+ homeruns by second basemen since 2017. By contrast, ten first basemen hit 30+ homeruns during 2019 alone. Interestingly enough, 11 third basemen also topped that benchmark in 2019, but only 10 hit that mark in 2017 & 2018 combined. This means that since first basemen consistently hit more homeruns and drive in more runs, those statistics are less valuable there than at other positions. Wikipedia goes on to show this in their article explaining how WAR is calculated. (It's only about 9/10 on the "confusing" scale).
The positional adjustment is a value dependent on the player's position: +10.0 for a catcher, −10 for a first baseman, +3.0 for a second baseman, +2.0 for a third baseman, +7.5 for a shortstop, −7.5 for a left fielder, +2.5 for a center fielder, −7.5 for a right fielder, and −15.0 for a designated hitter.[13]
In summary -- the less important the position is on defense, the harder it is to achieve a high WAR. Since first base is the easiest defensive position on the field, first basemen have to put up other-worldly offensive stats to achieve the same WAR as a shortstop or third baseman whose stats would be average at first. The perfect example is Miguel Cabrera's 2012 MVP season, where despite winning the Triple Crown he finished a distant THIRD in WAR (6.9) behind outfielder Mike Trout (10.7) and second baseman Robinson Cano (8.2). The lesson is that while WAR is still an excellent indicator of overall performance (the NL leader in WAR has won the MVP or Cy Young in nine of the last 10 years), it's not as helpful for head-to-head comparisons against players at different positions.
Freddie Freeman...you are vindicated.
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