WAR Overview

What WAR Measures

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  • Considers all aspects of a players game and summarizes their total contributions in a single stat
    • Through a series of equations, overall effort is translated into wins (pitchers and pos. players use different methods / equations to arrive at a WAR number).
      • Specific calcluations for both ‘position players’ and ‘pitchers’ are found below.
  • WAR Allows us to figure out how much better someone is than a replacement level player (i.e. a guy you could acquire any time for the league minimum)
    • The League Minimum is $555,000 in 2019, up from $545,000 in 2018.

Generally Speaking:

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  • An accurate estimate of a players value to that point in the season
  • Top Brewer Career WARs:
    • R. Yount (77.3)
    • P.Molitor (60.0)
    • R. Braun (46.4)
    • C. Cooper (30.7)
    • D. Money (28.4)
  • Best Brewer Season WARs: 
    • R. Yount – 10.5 (1982)
    • C. Gomez – 7.8 (2013)
    • R. Braun – 7.7 (2011)
    • C. Yelich – 7.6 (2018)
    • T. Harper (1970)

WAR Is Relative…

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  • Two Adjustments are applied to WAR:

    1. Positional: The TABLE shows us the adjustment applied
      • NOTE: If all positions produce at the same level, the catcher will have the highest WAR
    2. League: a small correction that allows each league’s runs above average balance to zero
  • TAKEAWAY: WAR is relative to effort, league and position for that year (a true ‘comparison stat’)

Collective WAR = Actual Wins

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  • Adding all the WARs on a roster roughly adds up to equal the team’s actual win total.
  • A team made entirely of replacement level players will win 48 games per year (0.294 Winning Percentage)
  • A negative WAR means that when you consider everything a player does, he is worse than the league average
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EVEN THOUGH HE SELF-ADMITTEDLY WON’T BE ON THERE… CLICK UECKER FOR BREWERS ALL-TIME STAT LEADERS


THE CALCULATION

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* Table Links to Sortable Brewers WAR List *


WAR (Position Players)

BREW MATHsummary

Using the chart above, let’s list what contributes to calculating WAR:

  • Weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA)
    • This is calculated using Weighted On-BAse Average (wOBA)
  • Ultimate Base Running (UBR) + Weighted Stolen Bases (wSB)
  • GIDP Avoidance Rate (Rdp)
  • Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR)
  • Replacement Level Multiplier
  • Adjustments (Position + League)

*** WAR is truly attempting to find a player’s OVERALL VALUE ***

Career WAR Leader Board:

182.5  Babe Ruth

168.0  Cy Young

165.2  Walter Johnson

162.8  Barry Bonds

156.4  Willie Mays

151.1  Ty Cobb

143.0  Hank Aaron

139.6  Roger Clemens

134.1  Tris Speaker

130.8  Honus Wagner

FULL LIST AT BASEBALL REFERENCE

 

WAR (Pitchers)

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BREW MATHsummary

Pitcher WAR is calculated differently depending on who you ask:

  • Baseball-Reference
    • WAR = WAR_rep + WAA + WAA_adj
    • Driven by Runs Allowed and Innings Pitched
  • FanGraphs
    • WAR = [(League “FIP” – “FIP”) / Pitcher Specific Runs Per Win] + Replacement Level) * (IP/9)] * Leverage Multiplier for Relievers] + League Correction
      • Driven by FIP = (13*HR)+(3*(BB+HBP-IBB))-(2*K))/IP + lg_specific_constant
      • FIP Constant is usually around 3.20 and changes every year

WAR Comparison

Getting into every detail of these calculations is beyond our scope here. That said, there is endless information on the subject for the curious mind…

If you want to get really nerdy with WAR, click Braun before he hits the ball:
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Milwaukee ‘WAR Makers’ Through the Years

Recent Brewers fWAR Leaders – Click on the YEAR & see entire leaderboard for that season!

2020  Burnes  2.4

2019  Yelich  7.8

2018  Yelich  7.6

2017  Nelson  4.6

2016  Braun  3.3

2015  Braun  3.2

2014  Lucroy  8.2

2013  Lucroy  7.0

2012  Braun  6.8

2011  Braun  7.1

2010  Weeks Jr.  5.9

2009  Fielder  5.9

2008  Sabathia  5.0


MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING:

To Date, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is the Best Single Metric We Have to Analyze a Player’s Overall Value. The leaderboards are a who’s who of elite talent…

ACTIVE MLB WAR LEADERS