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BaseballTwit: Blog posts and Twitter tweets about baseball stats and history by Adam Darowski (more)

There are 3 posts in this category.

Visualizing the Difference Between Offensive and Defensive Value for Catchers

One thing that WAR (Wins Above Replacement) does well is break a player’s value into specific components such a range, hitting, baserunning, arm, etc. I’ve done a lot of catcher research lately and kept thinking about how much of a premium the position carries, defensively. As I sifted through WAR components, I found myself calculating what percentage of a catcher’s career value came from defense. I found it incredbly interesting.

First of all, the comparison is made by using runs created above average and runs prevented above average. Both numbers are calculated from components in Sean Smith’s WAR database. (more…)

Beyond WAR: Using WAR per PA and Wins Above Excellence to Rank Catchers

Last time, I introduced a list of catchers with 30+ career WAR and promised future analysis. Today I want to talk about two methods to analyze them that goes beyond WAR—WAR per 600 plate appearances and my new toy, Wins Above Excellence. (more…)

Major League Catchers, Ranked by Wins Above Replacement

One of many observations I’ve made while perusing Sean Smith’s WAR data at BaseballProjection.com is that catchers don’t rank all that high. Below is the table of catchers with 30 or more career WAR, along with their WAR rank among all hitters in history, start/end years, and whether or not they’re in the Hall of Fame or Hall of Merit. (more…)