WAR.
It’s a good metric. A fine metric.
And with 2/3 of the ’16 season already in the books, it’s a fair indicator of how players are playing. Here are the top 5 MLB WAR leaders according to ESPN:
- Mike Trout (6.77)
- Jose Altuve (6.26)
- Josh Donaldson (5.75)
- Mookie Betts (5.52)
- Kris Bryant (5.14)
In total, there are 133 MLB players that currently have a WAR of 2.0 or more in 2016. And if you scroll to the very bottom of the ESPN list, the lowest WAR on their leaderboard comes from Yasmani Grandal @ 1.54. He ranks #200.
The highest Cardinals WAR? We had to hop over to FanGraphs to get that data. It’s Adam Wainwright @ 1.4. The highest position player? Yadier Molina @ 1.0.
Only 3 Cardinals are currently above 1.0 WAR (Carlos Martinez being the 3rd). And both Molina and Martinez are a few bad games away from being sub 1.0. Just because I know you’re wondering, Aledmys Diaz is currently at 0.6.
Why is this relevant?
The Cardinals are 56-49 on the season. And if you take the collective performance by the team on an individual basis, there is a case to be made that this team isn’t underachieving, but is actually achieving correctly.
They are the sum of their parts.
True, they might have more guys who are in that 0.4-0.8 range than some other teams. Still… I think the perception is that the Cardinals aren’t doing as well as they should be.
The numbers tell a different story.
Photo: WikiHow
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