WAR

The Winter Leagues were off yesterday. No Rattler Alumni Report for today.

To give some actual content to the blog today, here is a link to a post about WAR over at Big League Stew...WAR

Good god, what does it stand for?: Wins Above Replacement. Say it again! Simply put, Wins Above Replacement means: how many wins did that player contribute to his team's win total above and beyond what they would have gotten from a "replacement value" player, someone they could have picked up off the scrap heap for next to nothing?

How they calculate WAR: WAR is probably the most popular total value stat out there today, a single number that attempts to quantify a player's worth by looking at his offense, defense (or pitching), defensive position, and the context of the year and league. (Bill James' Win Shares is another total value stat, but it has been eclipsed in popularity by WAR.)

Need a little more?

WAR is basically one attempt at a Grand Unified Stat, a single number that usefully expresses a player's worth and can be compared to all other players. Dave Cameron just wrote a fascinating piece for ESPN which used WAR analysis to argue that Chase Utley is actually a more valuable player than Albert Pujols, because of the comparative value of their defensive positions and team contracts. Because WAR takes all of this into account, it's a great starting point for argument.

Cardinal fans immediately complained about this article.